film

Thank you to life

~ Kate Wilson ~ 2 Comments

This felt like a week crammed full of different and lovely things

I woke up on Monday morning still in beautiful Sant Nicolau – the sun was streaming into the bedroom and the wind had dropped – but it was time for us to leave

Helen has lost two of her dogs and it felt hard going knowing they are still out there but we don’t know where. She has been incredible – there are posters of them at every corner in an area stretching from Bascara to Figueres and all around. I went out with her every day exploring new corners of the region, to speak with people and pin up posters and scan the fields

But apart from one possible sighting there has been a resounding silence

I drove back to Granollers and almost immediately caught the train down to Barcelona to go to my Swing class in Gracia.  I even stayed on afterwards to eat in a Syrian restaurant with two other beginners.

After the class we wanted to try out the late Jam session at Swing Maniacs as we need to practise as well as learn new steps. But there was time to eat inbetween and what a pleasure to have falafel and hummus and pitta bread – the sort of food that feels like a real treat here.

And then a quick dance before catching the last train home.

I met Tiffany for coffee one morning – but it wasn’t coffee – it was the Catalan chocolate drink that is rich and thick and warm like a pudding and comes with whipped cream and little sponge fingers for dunking. If you want to order it is called a Xocolata Desfeta and if you want the cream it is a Suìs
Don’t go to that link if you are on a diet!

On the way home the man with the accordion was out again beside the newspaper stand. He recognises me now (as one of the few people who throw money into his bag and stop to listen!)
So when he had to start another song he looked at me and said ‘Danny Boy?’  Of course I sat down on the bench to listen – and cried a little for the strangeness of it

What else?  We have just been to the CineClub which shows films in original version. Tonight this was a Catalan film called Fenix. A really amazing and good film about a young boy who, under the influence of Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix, wrote emails to supermarkets telling them to put their labels in Catalan and not just Spanish. I really must be careful what I write here because this is a true story and what happened to him was horrific. Armed police rushed his home and he was charged with crimes under the terrorism laws. Worth seeing this if it comes to your alternative film club!

And lastly we took our seed potatoes over to the farm where a new friend has offered us a space to plant them. I brought over Pentland Javelin and Charlotte and am looking forward to real potatoes this summer!

Bonnie loved being in the countryside again and I have promised  both her and me –  ‘Soon!’

 

Catalan – the film

~ Kate Wilson ~ 2 Comments

Ok so here we go again!
It was Catalan week and I managed to do the video on Sunday.
Just in time.
And now it is HERE  on YouTube where you can see me on the beach fumbling around in Catalan while Bonnie cavorts behind me – amongst other things!
She is the star of the film and it is worth watching just for the beautiful light by the sea.

If anything this attempt is worse than the first one but I have to let you see it as I promised I would!
I am not being falsely modest – it really is much worse than I am capable of but I get terribly nervous in front of the camera.
I am writing this on Monday/Tuesday which means I am now back in Castellano. All this changing about is making me feel like this

Crazier and crazier. So please be patient. Soon I hope this blog – and life – will soon return to normal.
Whatever that means.

My Language Challenge

~ Kate Wilson ~ 3 Comments

This week I was concentrating on Spanish – Castellano.
I can’t say I have succeeded in doing a total immersion as I have been speaking in English to friends and family and also was unable to resist the temptation to continue reading Pride and Prejudice on my phone.  But as the week went by I was able to speak a bit more confidently and also learnt some new words.   I spoke to loads of people on the street and even went into an estate agent and managed to explain our complicated housing situation.   Reading the newspaper was easier than before and I also watched a film in Castellano with no subtitles – El Viaje de Carol.

The Five Goals
Alongside the challenges that I feel are nipping at my heels at the moment (the dog fights, the ongoing search for a good vet,  my still painful fingers, feelings of uselessness because I am not working, driving the van by myself) I also set myself some goals for the week and here are the results

1. I gave acupuncture sessions speaking only Castellano
2. I had a lesson in Photoshop for almost two hours only using Castellano. We made the new header for the blog!
3. I took the van to be cleaned
4. I failed to do the intercambio – I have someone who will do it with me but somehow we didn’t find a day to meet. I also didn’t find a teacher for private lessons although I went and asked about it in one of the language schools in Granollers.
And the biggest challenge
5. Finally today I made the video of myself speaking Castellano and put it on YouTube.
HERE is the link if you would like to see it.  I know there are lots of mistakes and I sound very clipped and Scottish but the process of preparation and filming was very useful and I think I will make another in Catalan next week.   I absolutely hate myself on film so this last challenge was definitely the hardest and took me furthest out of my comfort zone.
Hopefully it will get easier as I do it more often.
Thanks to Pep for helping with the language, encouraging me to relax and for doing the filming.

Pina

~ Kate Wilson ~ 4 Comments

‘dance dance, otherwise we are lost’   Pina Bausch

Last night we went to see the Wim Wenders film about Pina Bausch.
It was shown by the Granollers cine club and we were lucky to get there as I had written it in my diary for Friday!
It was one of the best films I have ever seen in my life.
If you get the chance to see it – go!  If not then hire, borrow or buy the DVD.

I can hardly find words to describe the effect it had on me.
The performances were raw, beautiful, profound, moving, inspiring.  Sometimes funny.
You are watching people’s movements and gestures and expressions. Phrases are repeated again and again and again, each time slightly different. At the beginning I felt I had been cracked open wide and somewhere in the middle of the film I started crying almost uncontrollably.
It was as if someone was digging around in my guts.  Painful, erotic, intimate.
Sometimes I wanted it to end as I couldn’t bear such naked humanness any more, and then I would long for it go on for ever.

Reminded me of Tango when it’s good.
And of reading Proust.

Click HERE for more information. There is a trailer for the film too.

Cinema V.O.

~ Kate Wilson ~ 8 Comments

I don’t know what I’d do without the Cineclub in Granollers.
At the top of the new programme you can see it says Cinema V.O.

 That is the magic code for Original Version (the other way round in Catalan) and means the film will not be dubbed.
Dubbing is something I’ve had to come to terms with here. It can be quite cleverly done with the lips seeming ….almost…. to move at the same time as you hear the words spoken. It can also be completely askew and you have to enter a special part of your brain which can ignore weird behaviour such as someone mouthing silent words, or continuing to speak with their mouthes shut, while taking seriously the content of the actual speech.
Also there seem to be no more than a couple of women who perform the dubbed parts in Catalan and one of them in particular has a very strange dramatic slightly creepy way of talking.
Watching a film that is clearly set in Scotland, or Australia, or, as a few nights ago in St Trinians school for Girls, with people speaking Catalan while their mouths move independently is interesting but not always relaxing.

On the television is one thing and in the cinema is another. There are cinemas that specialise in V.O. like the Alexandra in Ramble de Catalunya in Barcelona.  Or the Verdi in Cardedeu which is a small cinema in a lovely town about 10 minutes drive from here. But Granollers although it is the capital city of the Valles Oriental with a large and prosperous (take a look at the shopping street) population has only a cinema complex with films either dubbed or in Castellano. I think there is one day every month or so when they show a film in V.O. but have never been able to find out when it is.

So, big thanks to the people who run the cine club, which shows films every Friday and Sunday.
Obviously sometimes I am watching a film with Spanish subtitles, or a Catalan film with no subtitles at all but still I prefer this to dubbed versions. It’s usually pretty busy and when the film ends sometimes I come back to consciousness and think I am in the film club in Penzance.  There is a similar feeling of like-minded people streaming out onto the street and discussing the film.

Of course as English is my first language I have been sheltered from the dubbing experience. So many films are in English that historically there was no need to provide another language. Those of us who want to see films from different parts of the world were happy to both read and listen although I am sure there are still many people in the UK and USA who wouldn’t watch a film with subtitles.
But here it was a different story. The dominance of English speaking films has created an industry of dubbing to allow the majority of people to watch British and American films and TV programmes.
And then there is the question of Catalan language films, with or without dubbing into Castellano. And should films in castellano have subtitles in Catalan?


All very interesting and I will write more another day.