The saddest but most beautiful festival and other plans for cinema, music, books and exhibitions for the weekend

Javier Giner, the character of the series I, addict (Disney+), is press officer. And Javier Giner, one who exists in real life, we know in journalism for being press chief. There are two, but it is the same.

In the interview that Javier Zurro did a few days ago, on the famous blue sofa in the elDiario.es editorial office, Giner spoke of it as “dissociation well.” It is a great theme about the person and the character (sometimes it reaches the limit of contradiction, as we already know) and this interview (and the series, and the book on which it is based) allows us to reflect on how to tell oneself same. “The Javier Giner of the series not only represents the real guy, but also a multitude of addicts,” he told her.

Everything that is told in this wonderful series, whose characters you don’t want to distance yourself from, is real, although not everything happened that way. As we already said, it is a leap into the void of radical honesty. And it turns out well. From it, he comes out – the spectators come out – stronger. You have to see it.


a concert


This is an extreme proposal. It is not for all audiences. But if you go in, you won’t be able to get out. There are not many artists as charismatic as the American Chelsea Wolfe. He revels in pain and beauty, as his latest album says, which presents in Spain with a date in Barcelona (November 8, Razzmatazz 2) and November 9 in Madrid (La Sala del WiZink Center). From doom to folk, from metal to gothic, from shock to strangulation. You have to dare.

Three recommended books


  1. ‘Under the sign of repentance’, by Alejandro Cesarco. How the topics addressed in the books from the wonderful Caniche publishing house always surprise, where they usually propose reflections on art and culture. In this case, the Uruguayan Cesarco, artist, editor and curator, asks if repentance is a form of memory and also a methodology. For him, it can be a generative, driving, creative force. Already in bookstores.
  2. ‘Joni Mitchell. From both sides. Conversations with Malka Marom’ (Kultrum Books). There are conversations that last a lifetime and the one that the singer (and writer and radio host and documentary filmmaker) Malka Marom had with the singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell is one of them, and the reader is also lucky that it has become a book. They met in 1966 and the first interview took place in 1973. It continued for four decades. This voluminous book, translated by Elena and Cristina Villalonga, allows you to sit at the same table as them and also links the transcription of the conversations with song lyrics and a few pages of photographs and artistic works. Joni Mitchell will return to the present with the biopic directed by Cameron Crowe and written by him and by Mitchell herself. It will be Meryl Streep who will play her. In addition, some very complete boxes are being released (on CD and vinyl) and the last one includes a conversation between Crowe and Mitchell. In bookstores from September 16.
  3. ‘Clown’ by Luis Maura (Two Bigotes). Let’s go with a fun final recommendation that also comes with a great cover. It is a mystery novel written by this Ciudad Real author who is also a columnist in El Asombrario about LGTBI culture and activism. The protagonist is an actor dressed as a clown who flees from the police in a shopping center. He’s terrible at casting and relationships, and he also has a secret hidden in the refrigerator. Sometimes, we need novels like that. In bookstores on November 18.

Three recommended films, by Javier Zurro


  1. ‘Marco’. Enric Marco spent a lifetime giving interviews and telling his experience as a victim of the Holocaust. He gave visibility to the association, he got Zapatero to attend a tribute… the problem is that he was never a real victim. With such a history, the Moriartys (the trio of Basque filmmakers responsible for The flowers o Handia) They have created a film that speaks of the story, of the truth and that has a colossal interpretation, that of Eduard Fernández.
  2. ‘The kitchen’. Trump’s victory gives even more relevance to this adaptation of the play directed by Alonso Ruizpalacios and which shows the bowels of the kitchen of a restaurant where migrants (almost all Latinos) are exploited and try to survive as best they can. Ruizpalacios can use spectacular aesthetic flashes, but his proposal takes you ahead.
  3. ‘Pedro Páramo’. Is it possible to adapt something as unadaptable as Juan Rulfo’s novel? Perhaps the closest one can get is in this sometimes irregular but always beautiful attempt by Rodrigo Prieto, director of photography for directors like Scorsese who here makes his directorial debut with this trip to Comala that has a script by the Spanish Mateo Gil.

Three plans for the weekend, by Laura G. Higueras


  1. HematoFesti. From November 6 to 10, Vigo hosts an exciting festival of humor and children’s literature created to pay tribute to the writer and comedian Hematocrito, who died a year ago and who has been programmed by his friends. The program includes a concert by the group Triliterate, storytelling sessions, a talk by Paco Roca and a gala directed by director Nacho Vigalondo that will feature performances by Amaral, Noel Ceballos, Carolina Iglesias, Laura Márquez, Joe Crepúsculo, PAVA , Manuel Bartual and the La Ruina podcast.
  2. Cuéntalo Narrative Festival. The city will be the central theme of the VIII edition of this festival held in Logroño, which will include conversations with writers, book presentations, talks, performing arts at street level, literary creation workshops, live music inspired by cinema classic and the popular literary vermouth.
  3. Matadero DJ Set The Matadero Madrid cultural center turns 100 years old and, as part of the program for its centenary, this Saturday it will feature a morning session with Guacamayo tropical and DJ Meneo, a Guatemalan musicologist who has dusted off hits from the collective imagination with urban, electronic, Latin and retrofuturistic remixes. Access is free until capacity is reached and they will be there from 12 to 3 p.m. Let’s dance!

Three exhibitions, by Jaime Molero Torres


  1. ‘In the moved air…’. This exhibition has just opened its doors at the Reina Sofía Museum to show you something paradoxical: two invisible elements, air and emotion. With a strong influence from García Lorca, from whom the verse that gives its name is even rescued, this exhibition is a perfect plan to play and experiment with emotions from a poetic key. You will be able to see paintings, sculptures, photographs or documents by artists such as Dalí, Goya, Goethe, Víctor Hugo, Miró or Picasso. Also give a twist to the concept of emotion, which here is understood more as a shock that affects the whole, the community. For me it is an essential stop.
  2. ‘Close from here’ (Cerca de aquí). If you like social portrait photography, you already have it, this is your plan. Exhibited at La Virreina Center de la Imatge, Clemente Bernad’s photographs exhaustively capture the period of violence of what he himself calls the “Basque conflict.” More than 400 images taken between 1987 and 2018, until the dissolution of ETA, which in an act of historical memory bring a very interesting exhibition to Barcelona. While you’re at it, you can take advantage of your visit to take a look at the historic baroque palace where it is exhibited.
  3. ‘Hilma of Klint’. Complete change of style to recommend the work of one of the great pioneers of abstract art. A tour of the colorful paintings by the Swedish artist Af Klint on spiritualism, theosophy or anthroposophy is what reaches the walls of the Guggenheim in Bilbao. A unique work due to its early development at the beginning of the 20th century that seems to have been too groundbreaking for its time, since she herself wanted not to exhibit it until 20 years after her death. I wouldn’t pass it up if you like abstract art.

Three readings

The life of Robert Graves. Many will remember him for being the author of I, Claudio. Some of you will know that you fell in love with Mallorca. Less is known about his life and the impact that the First World War had on him. But he wrote his autobiography at 34.

‘Nothing’ in the theater. The first theatrical adaptation of Carmen Laforet’s influential and enduring novel premieres this week on the CDN, putting the emphasis on “brutal sexist violence.”

Do you like Talking Heads? Well, you’re a cool person, says cartoonist Lorenzo Montatore, a big fan of the group. He has drawn one of those comics of his that allow themselves to be inspired through drawing.

Librotea’s recommendations

In the last seven days, Librotea has taken us through reading clubs like Dua Lipa’s, through fictional worlds where there are also presidential elections, and through the question we ask ourselves every day when we wake up.

Source: www.eldiario.es