JessicaRulestheUniverse.com

Victor Erice, whose first feature was The Spirit of the Beehive, only made one more feature after that: El Sur, based on the novella by Adelaida Garcia Morales, to whom he was married at the time. The movie was planned as a complete adaptation of the novella, but Erice’s producer decided that the movie would stop two-thirds into the script, as the protagonist Estrella was packing for her trip to the south. As it stands, the “incomplete” film is beautiful, but what might the complete film have been like?

We are joined by film critic Richard Bolisay, and filmmakers Baby Ruth Villarama and Sally Gutierrez.

This weekend, Clasicos Contigo gives you La buena estrella starring Maribel Verdu. Directed by Ricardo Franco, it swept the Spanish film industry’s Goya Awards in 1997. To access the film, go to https://vimeo.com/437642948 and enter this password: clasicoscontigojulio24. The movie is available until Monday, July 27 at 2am.

Then join me and my guests, filmmakers Monster Jimenez and Annicka Dolonius, and Philippine Ambassador to Lisbon Celia Feria for the fourth episode of Cineclub Pelikula, live on Zoom.

Heard about the Giordano Bruno series from S.J. Parris’s guest shot on the Art Detective podcast. Now reading the Elizabethan-era mystery thrillers. Knew very little about Giordano Bruno apart from the manner of his death (burned at the stake at Campo dei Fiori, as stated in the wonderful poem by Czeslaw Milosz). I did some reading, and learned that one of the Vatican inquisitors who condemned Bruno to his horrific death was St. Robert Bellarmine, the same Jesuit theologian for whom the Ateneo de Manila building which houses my publisher is named. Bellarmine was also involved in the trial of Galileo.
(more…)

The Holy Innocents is about a family of serfs living on a hacienda in Zafra, Extremadura in Spain (same region seen in Las Hurdes by Buñuel). The film is based on a novel by Miguel Delibes, and the setting is the 1960s but it could just as well be the 1860s.

Thanks to filmmakers Mike Alcazaren and Elvert Bañares, and scholar Marina Diaz for joining our discussion.

It’s been four months since the virus upended our lives. As apocalypses go, it’s been quiet. Sometimes I don’t speak to another person for days. I force myself to walk 4,000 steps a day indoors. Most days I don’t venture past the parking area of my building. I go downstairs to feed the three garage cats and collect packages from motorcycle delivery men (Shopee is my retail therapy: cat food, envelopes, broom, coffee filters, bond paper, etc). Twice I went to the supermarket, and once to the print shop (and then my friend lent me a laser printer so I don’t have to go back). I’ve walked to the drugstore and the convenience store down the street six or seven times.

I would not survive this quarantine without my friends who, knowing my total lack of cooking skills (I gave my stove to my cleaning lady since I never used it anyway), include my grocery list when they shop, send wine and pastry, and let me judge their cooking experiments. I had one fabulous al fresco lunch on a friend’s birthday. The next one will have to wait—covid numbers have risen since the city reopened (and some testing became available), and hospital ICUs are at full capacity.
(more…)

This is last Sunday’s Cinemaclub Pelikula discussion of The Spirit of the Beehive by Victor Erice.

To watch The Holy Innocents by Mario Camus today and tomorrow, go to the Instituto Cervantes Vimeo page.
Password: clasicoscontigojulio10

To join the Cineclub Pelikula discussion tomorrow at 5pm, go to
https://zoom.us/j/96949757066

It’s called Utopia Avenue and it’s set in the late 60s music scene.

Dr Marinus shows up again. Is he the Nick Fury of the Mitchellverse? And the guitarist’s name is Jasper de Zoet. While waiting for Utopia Avenue to arrive in local bookstores, review Mitchell’s earlier novels.
(more…)