I know I have seen a post from a while ago about Spanish film but I just saw Pedro Almodovar's 'Todo Sobre Mi Madre' and I absolutely loved it! Anyone that has seen any of his other films I would highly recommend it. I think it is my favorite one yet. Its such a great great mix of so many things; humor, irony, sadness....Be sure to see it if you haven't aready. I bought my copy at Blockbuster Video for only $7.
Have a Happy New Year! Jaime

I never liked him at all (specially after his "show" in the Oscars) but I have to admit that I liked "todo sobre mi madre".
Nuria

I have to say, I really enjoy his movies. I love the slight touch of Magical Realism and the oddness of the characters. I think I have seen all but one or two.

I just rented "All About My Mother" again a few days ago. I find it deeply moving. I always feel so sad for a while after it is over. I like the way he dealt with her grief in that movie.

I also just rented "Live Flesh," which I really enjoyed. Although, I was a bit annoyed by his portrayal of one of the character's drug use - as if it were a phase that passed.

By the way, Penelope Cruz plays the woman giving birth at the beginning of the movie. I was very curious what accent she was using, what part of Spain/Madrid that was supposed to be? Anyone know?

Hola Nuria, I didn't see the Oscars. What "show" are you talking about? Just curious. Jaime

Speaking of accents, how about for each character in "Todo sobre mi madre"? I just saw the video a couple of weeks ago and already have forgotten the names, but the boy in the beginning who wanted the autograph had a NICE accent. I don't know if this particular topic interests anyone else but I've always been into stuff like pronunciation and accents. La Agrado (?) had an Andaluz accent it seems........

ilovemadrid, I am with you on that. Frankly, it is my favorite part of learning foreign ;anguages, all the sounds, accents and what that means about a person..

Me too Nicole and ilovemadrid....I don't know if this is strange or not, but depending on who I'm speaking with and what country they are from I change my Spanish accent. I guess this is more natural for a gringa like me because I'm not a native speaker but there are certain aspects of every dialect I like and I enjoy learning the differences.

Ay. I do that ALL the TIME. My accent is so jacked up, with all of the influences - Spain, Chile, Colombia.. I can't help but start to mimick it. I was actually sad when I lost my Castillian accent in Chile- but I COULDN'T HELP IT.

I thought that I was the only one who actually thought about things like that, ha, ha, ha, I too love to learn about regional accents and slang and different ways of saying things. I have learned mostly the Spanish from Spain though, so when I heard "computadora" and "lonche" for the first time, I thought that they were made up. It also makes me laugh to talk to some of my co workers,sometimes, for example one of them asked me which section of Spanish I was going to teach this semester and I said "thientodos" and he (he is from the Dominican Republic) said, "Ah, thientodos, muy bien", ha, ha,. I have noticed that it does rub off on people, even native speakers.

Jaime, he spent the whole time thanking to all the saints that we have in Spain and they had to take him out of the stage because he didn't stop talking. Plus penelope Cruz was "histerica". I felt so ashamed

I agree, the best part of learning a language is the accents, a I totally love the Castellian accent, I picked it up again, but know i will be losing it again as soon as I get back to work...As for my husband (madrileño), I can always tell who he is talking to, a Mexican friend or a Spanish friend because his vocabulary and accent vary accordingly...His family noticed on this visit home that he sounded different too...didn't take long to get it back though, thank goodness...

Hey ILM, "lonche" and "computadora" ARE made up. I have the toughest time in my occupation, which entails a lot of translation work, making a translation that is universal but understandable by the audience for which it's destined.

When I'm translating official documents, I want to be professional...I don't think it serves anyone to translate something that represents a company into "campesino" or "castellanqui". That's a struggle I have all the time.

Calibasco,

lonche is made up, but not computadora.

As you can see from the Diccionario de la Real Academia Española , both ordenador and computador, -ra have latin roots. For some reason, ordenador became more common here in Spain (at the beginning we used computador, -ra). I guess the reason has to do with the French word ordinateur.

Amazingly, the dictionary says we use computación and in America they use informática. However, it is the other way round. By the way, again the word informática has to do with the French word informatique.

As for lonche, it's the first time I heard of it. I found it at Diccionarios.com and it seems to be a horrible Spanglish word for lunch . Please, don't support Spanglish. It's a terrible thing for both English and Spanish.

Regards,

Antonio

[This message has been edited by Antonio (edited 01-17-2001).]

I suppose that computador(a) is a bit like "carro", to me a carro is what you take grocery shopping but my friend from the Dominican Republic says that he is going to "parquear el carro". He also said once, "Tuve que dropear mi segundo nombre", now "dropear" does NOT exist, right??? Please say it doesn't!!!
My friend from Panamá insists that "lonche" is a real, genuine word, sounds a bit suspicious to me.....

Is this todo sobre mi mamá? No, but I'll continue with this nevertheless-
As we had discussed some months back, from a linguistic perspective, if a word serves its purpose to communicate, then it is in fact a genuine word. All words are "made up" at some point; all language evolves. According to many of my students, they carry their "lonche" in their "lonchera" so they can "lonchear".
They also say pagar "la renta" o "rentar" una película. It may not be Castellano puro, but it is accepted speech for many millions of people. It is important, however, as far as I'm concerned, to be familiar with as many forms as possible.
Hasta la bye bye- (That's for you, Antonio )
-Jen
btw, this may be of interest to some of you- www.el-castellano.com
There are some articles on Spanglish

[This message has been edited by Jen (edited 01-18-2001).]

(baritone voice of announcer) The preceding 10 days of discussions have been brought to you by our sponsor, Off-On-A-Tangent-Linguistics. And now, we return you to your originally posted topic, "Todo Sobre Mi Madre". (end baritone voice of announcer)

A post by CaliBasco made me resurrect this thread. Well, that and the fact that I am just now catching up on things like reading AND watching videos like "Todo sobre mi madre" that I missed during my illiteracy period (the academic year!!)

My son says I am a plebe and that my taste in movies tends to be lowbrow. Keep that in mind when you answer (in court, as I understand it, once you bring up something like this it can't be brought up again and used against you!) Does Almodovar make movies about, how do I put this, "normal" situations? His plots are so far out there! Is his work considered mainstream or is he regarded as more of the artsy type (Kubrick, Fellini)? Do any of you have any tips for watching Almodovar for the uninitiated...sort of a "Almodovar for Dummies?"

La maestra (who gets gifts like "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" instead of "Clockwork Orange!")

[ 08-10-2001: Message edited by: la maestra ]

Hola Maetra! The first thing you have to keep in mind about Pedro and his movies is that he started making them smack in the middle of the "transicion" with all that entails (death of "Paquito"=freedom of speech ). I guess they all (well, most of them) tend to have a somewhat underground sensibility. Gay issues, sex, drugs, etc. Even when he tries to make a "serious" movie (Matador, Todo Sobre Mu Madre), a drag queen or a junky is always around. I know there's lots more to it but I guess that's always been his "scene" (or used to be). I love Pedro! I actually met him at a 92nd Street Y lecture a few years ago. Que tio mas guay! Next Friday at this time, I will be in the Extremadura wilderness. I cannot wait.

Hola Maestra,
I was suprised to see this thread again but enjoyed rereading it! I would also have to say that none of the Almodovar movies I have seen have been anywhere close to mainstream. Probably the tamest or least out there movie of his is "Jamon Jamon". There is still alot to this movie...and we discussed it and its symbolism in deatil in my Spanish film class in college but it really is a few levels closer to the ground than some of his others.

Closer to the ground? Yike! While I must admit that watching two men beat each other with jamon serrano was fascinating (and made me think, actually, of the apes in 2001!) I thought the plot was w-a-a-a-a-a-a-y out there! You're telling me he has some movies that are even stranger?
Yowser, have I led a sheltered life!

I believe Jamón, jamón was directed by Bigas Luna.

And, of course, the more you go back in Almodovar's films, the weirder and the more 'underground' they are.

[ 08-14-2001: Message edited by: MadridMan ]

Right, Ignacio, Bigas Lunas directed "Jamón Jamón" Like his other movie "La Teta y la Luna" or his latest "Valveront" Bigas Lunas is becoming the most international of Spanish directors second only to Almodóvar. Myself, I prefer Julio Medem. His "Lovers of the Artic Circle" and "Tierra" are two of my favorites. Medem was a young psychiatrist (I think he's 28 y/o) who decided to go the way of film directing and his films are very psychologically challenging. Has anyone seen any of them?

I saw "Lovers of the Arctic Circle" last year. It´s a beautiful love story of two adolescents that grow up in the same family (their parents get married) knowing they belong together. It´s magical and at the same time a bit strange, especially at the end but I don´t want to unveil anything.

I´m planning to see "Goya in Bordeaux" during the next few days - not only to fresh up my Spanish but even to learn more about the Spanish society of the 18th Century through the eyes of this brilliant painter. Saw some posts about that film on the board and it seems to be the kind of film I enjoy.

Good choice, Tia! Let us know what you think of the film when you see it...I saw it at a film festival in February of last year and I liked it...although, since it concentrates more on the older Goya, his old age and feebleness was reflected in his paintings in a gloomy way. Bigas Lunas "Valveront" is also about Duchess Cayetana de Alba and Pepita Tudo, the girl that was supposed to have been his model for the "Maja" paintings, but of a younger Goya. Enjoy the movie!