A BOOK: The Beautiful Years of Punishment , by Fleur Jaeggy
"From the day we entered the Bausler Institut we did nothing but think about the day we would leave." And what is the Bausler? The Swiss boarding school - “an Arcadia of the disease” - in which The beautiful years of punishment takes place , by Fleur Jaeggy, one of those authors for whom the disturbing word was invented. In the Bausler - it is the 1950s - a martial order reigns in open warfare against rampant hidden lust, a teenage "promiscuous caste". As in all schools, each student has built her own image - a way of speaking and moving - and has invented a different life than the one she leads with their families. There is, of course, no shortage of favorites, stalkers, and rare ones. Among these is the narrator, a 14-year-old girl who loves German expressionists and, she says herself, of crimes she doesn't even know about.
Everything changes the day Frédérique arrives, "the new", with her idol bearing and her superior gesture. "I could have written a love novel with a dry heart, like an old woman I remembered," says the narrator, who instantly sets a goal: conquer it. Born in Zurich 79 years ago, Fleur Jaeggy, who writes in Italian, published this novel in 1989 that starts from a premise: "Innocence is a modern invention." She, like her creatures, prefers to be primitive. He is interested in the process of human domestication, the way in which captivity upsets a wild animal, with its drives and its contradictions: “When you are in there, you imagine great things about the world, and when you leave, sometimes you wish hear the sound of the bell again. " Lucidísimas, his novels give off the same heat as the iceberg that sank the Titanic. "A certain iciness also reveals feelings," he says. It is understandable that he writes short books: nobody can endure much without breathing fresh air. Javier Rodríguez Marcos
The beautiful years of punishment . Fleur Jaeggy. Translation by Juana Bignozzi. Tusquets. It is available in All your books, Fnac or Amazon.
A COMIC: What I like most are the monsters , by Emil Ferris
One has already been reading comics for many years, perhaps too many, who knows, that the proverb is wise and well says that what little likes and how much tires. In my case, I admit, it hasn't tired me, the other way around: I still want to read anything with bullets; but I have to accept that, over time, one loses the capacity for surprise, which leads you to look for the most risky, the most disruptive, the different. I have found suggestive works in this exploration, which forced me to question what I understood as a comic, but the feeling of amazement seemed something of the past, of that young reader who was still beginning. Until Emil Ferris arrived. An American author who had never made comics, who came from industrial design and advertising illustration and who suffered a terrible illness in bed.
What must have been a sad story found an iron will in recovery, which found its ally in the comic: to move again, he considered making a comic. A comic that brought him back to life and my capacity for surprise: What I like the most are the monsters . A story that tells several lives, that of a girl who thinks she is a wolf-girl, that of a holocaust survivor, with the backdrop of Chicago in the 1960s and popular culture soaking it all up. Monsters everywhere, that shape fictions and realities, that fight for their supremacy; Hyper-realistic or naive, drawn with pens and colored pencils with the shadow of Robert Crumb always present, but with an overflowing personality of its own that breaks any previous narrative convention and collapses all prejudice with a magnetic story that cuts across genres and styles to leave you speechless. Without a doubt, one of the great masterpieces of the culture of the 21st century. And a whole metaphor of these days. Álvaro Pons
What I like the most are the monsters . Emil Ferris. Reservoir Books. The book is available at All your books, Fnac and Amazon.
ONE DISC: Beyond the Missouri Sky (Short Stories) by Charlie Haden & Pat Metheny
Bassist Charlie Haden was born in Shenandoah, Iowa, a mere 250 kilometers from Lee's Summit, Missouri, the hometown of guitarist Pat Metheny. Sporadic friends and collaborators since the early 1980s, both musicians flaunt their legendary status without much discussion. For their particular tribute to this kind of North American geographic center and with no accompaniment other than double bass and guitar –Metheny sometimes bends himself to create atmospheres, ethereal backdrops–, both combine a repertoire of their own classics with a wide range of American songbooks. . Thus, the dialogue is of a deep and southern lyricism in the originals of Haden Waltz for Ruth (dedicated to his wife) or First Song , is tinged with Spanish air in Our Spanish Love Song (Haden), navigates between jazz and country in Message to a Friend (Metheny) and transforms into a virtuoso exercise in guitar style in the creative re-creation of Henry Mancini's Two for the Road .
Metheny is also leading the dreamlike version of The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (by Jimmy Webb, with Haden offering a masterclass on accompaniment) and both musicians delve into the acoustic and dynamic reading of Precious Jewel (by Roy Acuff, high point of the trip ). There is still room for the poetic reinterpretation of the traditional He's Gone Away, the thoughtful conversation of The Moon Song (Johnny Mandel) or the psychedelic narrative of Tears of Rain (Metheny). Morricone and his Cinema Paradiso (popular in Love Theme , desert in the main theme) put the icing on the cake that closes the epic and original halftime of Spiritual (Haden). If you have enjoyed this trip, be sure to visit other Haden duo works together with saxophonists Stan Getz or Ornette Coleman, pianists Keith Jarrett, Hank Jones, Kenny Barron or Brad Mehldau, among others, and guitarist Christian Escoudé. Álex Sánchez
Beyond the Missouri Sky (Short Stories) . Charlie Haden & Pat Metheny. Verve Records, 1996. The album is available on Spotify and Apple Music.
A MOVIE: Mad Max: Road Fury by George Miller
There was the crazy movie buff making movies with digital effects, playing to see who developed the most complex virtual virguería, when a 70-year-old man returned to action cinema in 2015 and stamped them all with a huge slap: George Miller premiered that year Mad Max : fury on the road and gave a lesson on what to tell and how to tell it. Oh, and with physical effects. He only used the famous CGI to erase the arm of Charlize Theron, a true protagonist with her Imperator Furiosa. Mad Max: fury on the road left the public and critics open-mouthed - he won the Fipresci Prize of international criticism for the best film of his year - with his spiritual persecutions and his allegories about power and his representation. Miller says: “Allegory is the foundation of cinema. The metaphor, the symbols, must be present on the screen. The surface of Mad Max is action, but in its depths it connects with what it means to be a human being, our past. If you look, the fortresses and palaces of antiquity, and I mean Indian, Chinese or German cultures, are very similar and the architects never met. And they were reflecting power with similar towers and proportions. "
From the original trilogy, Miller was left wanting to tell the story of a warrior, and here comes the catch: this movie is not about Mad Rockatansky (Tom Hardy inherits it from Mel Gibson), but about Imperator Furiosa, the great survivor of this film: “At the center of the story were the dictator's five wives, and it didn't fit well that it was a man who was guiding them. Charlize has a powerful physique, she is great and at the same time she is a great dancer: she fit in the character ”, the filmmaker said. There are also, of course, delusional cars and trucks, drug rushes, vandalism, shocking images and characters, thirst and pain, as in the entire saga. But this Mad Max: fury on the road goes even further, and is one of the classics of this 21st century. Gregorio Belinchón
Mad Max: fury on the road . George Miller. 2015. The film is available on Movistar +, iTunes, Rakuten.tv and Google Play.
ONE SERIES: The Office
In 2005, screenwriter Greg Daniels undertook one of the decade's greatest television daring: he took a critically acclaimed British cult comedy , The Office , and set out to adapt it for NBC. There were a million reasons why it would go terribly wrong. And yet, time has recognized that version as one of the best comedies on television. 15 years after its premiere (the anniversary was on Tuesday), the American version of The Office is still the most watched series in streaming , even ahead of Friends . There must be a reason. There are many differences with the original series, which had that humor so Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant. But it also has similarities, such as the false documentary style or some features of its characters. Michael Scott - a brilliant Steve Carell - is a candid soul who just wants to be loved at any cost and be friends with his employees. The accumulation of negative characteristics that adorn it, and that it is unable to recognize, is counteracted with good will.
The branch of the Dunder Mifflin wastebasket that Michael runs from the deepest chaos in a remote American town is full of complicated personalities, with unmotivated workers and with so many oddities that we would never finish listing. Only Jim and Pam, the couple whose love story is seen evolving throughout the nine seasons, bring sanity, good sense and tenderness to that crazy office. The Office has better chapters than others. And seasons better than others (note the wear and tear of its protagonist back in the seventh season). But she also has such cheeky moments and it's so easy to become fond of her characters that coming back to her will never be a waste of time. Seeing her now is comforting like never before. Natalia Marcos
The Office. Greg Daniels, Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant. NBC, 2005. All nine seasons of the series are available on Amazon Prime Video.
A VIDEO GAME: Shadow of the Colossus
When it came out in 2005 for PS2, Shadow of the Colossus felt like a jolt. The game, created by Fumito Ueda, the elusive father of jewels such as Ico (2001) or The Last Guardian (2016), put us in the shoes of a young man who penetrated with his horse into a sacred, majestic and empty land, with the mission to defeat 16 colossi in order to revive his beloved. That the giants made of stone and shadows, although imposing and threatening, were innocent, was something that the player was discovering as he was destroying them and entering the heart of darkness.
The masterful soundtrack, composed by Kō Ōtani, and the superb visual aspect, with echoes of the paintings by Giorgio de Chirico or Salvador Dalí, conquered all the players. In 2018 it was the subject of an update for PS4 that not only fine-tuned the game while preserving its essence, but also brought to the table the relevance of remakes, reviled in other media such as cinema, but sometimes so necessary in the world of videogame. Jorge Morla
Shadow of the Colossus . Fumito Ueda. 2005. The game is available for PS2, PS3 and PS4.
