By comparing this film to Call Me By Your Name in its description, Amazon does it a disservice. Sure, it may be set in a beautiful villa in rural Europe and feature yearning and sweeping vistas, but that’s pretty much where the comparison ends. With its clever cinematography and complex character relationships, all developed over […]
The title of So My Grandma’s A Lesbian! already tells us what we need to know. We meet the anxious and uptight Eva, and her grandma is indeed a lesbian. Finally coming out in their 70s, Sofía and her friend-for-life-turned-lover Celia want to get married. But when the wedding threatens to scandalise more than just their small town, the couple struggle with their decision to declare their love so publicly. Chaos ensues in the form of Catholic outrage, paparazzi storms and even phone calls from the Pope. […]
Coming into this, I think I was promised something like But I’m a Cheerleader: The Musical, in Spanish. What I got was, if you can believe this, so much more and so much wilder than that. My thoughts throughout were, to quote lovely fifth alternate Alyssa Edwards, ‘what the fuck is going on in here on this day?’ Avoiding any major spoilers, I will try to explain ー though I’m not sure to what extent that will be possible.
I find that there are some themes I really enjoy exploring: I love creating portraits of people’s inner selves, I like to really observe people ーwhat do people do when they’re all alone? In the privacy of their bedroom or their own home? How do we live when we’re in solitude? And courage is very important: I like people who, even when everything is against them, follow the ideas they have in their head. Perhaps those are all the things my films have in common. […]
There are different kinds of silence in film. There is the uncomfortable, dominating silence that makes your muscles tense in morbid anticipation. Then there is the intimate silence, where a glance, a touch, a brush of skin tells everything; where words aren’t necessary to reassure both character and spectator and bring them in closer. This film gifts us both kinds of silence, and shows us the difference. Elisa y Marcela (2019) is a Spanish romantic drama film by the auteur filmmaker Isabel Coixet. […]