Pedro Almodóvar's "THE SKIN I LIVE IN" at Cannes Film Festival 2011

The Spanish representation at Cannes Film Festival (Southern France) will include this year the new Almodóvar film "The Skin I Live In" that will play in competition in the Festival's official selection.
The 64th Cannes Festival will be held from 11 May until 22 May with Robert de Niro as the president of the Jury. The other Jury members are Martina Gusman, Nansun Shi, Uma Thurman, Linn Ullmann, Olivier Assayas, Jude Law, Mahamat Saleh Haroun and Johnnie To. The Serbian filmmaker Emir Kusturica will be the president of the Jury for the -Un Certain Regard- selection, and the French director Michel Gondry will chair the Cinéfondation and short film selections.

Almodóvar will be competing together with filmmakers such as Lars Von Trier with his new work "Melancholia" or the Finnish Aki Kaurismaki with "Le Havre" or the Italian actor/director Nanni Moretti with his "Habemus Papam", among others.
According to the information that is already circulating about the new Almodovar work, "The Skin I Live In" seems to have a dramatically heavy impact. The script is an adaptation of Thierry Jonquet's novel "Tarantula", which tells the story of a plastic surgeon who is seeking a revenge against someone who raped his daughter.

At the same time there seems to be something malicious about the surgeon himself which is played by Antonio Banderas. The rest of the cast consists of Elena Anaya, Marisa Paredes, Blanca Suárez, Eduard Fernández and Bárbara Lennie among others.

 The films has been picked by Sony Pictures Classics and will be released, after the Cannes Festival, in the month of September in Spain, on October in Germany and on November 2011 in UK and US.

Málaga Spanish Film Festival 2011

From 26 of March until the 2 of April took place the 14th Málaga Spanish Film Festival. This year the Southern Spanish Film Awards were celebrated under the burning Spring sun and a lot of new and exciting proposals for the Spanish Film Industry.

Malena Alterio,Max Lemcke and Fernando Tejero among others

Max Lemcke’s “Cinco Metros Cuadrados” (Five Square Meters) starring Fernando Tejero, Malena Alterio, Manuel Morón, Secun de la Rosa, Emilio Gutiérrez Caba and Jorge Bosch was the winner of the Golden Biznaga, while the Documentary Section’s main award went to Aaron Schock’s “Circo” (Circus). We had the opportunity to see both Films. The two of them were magnificent works and therefore fair Winners.

Actors Antonio Dechent and Emilia Uutinen with José Miguel Ibarretxe

In the alternative Movie Section Zonazine I would distinguish two Films; Martín Sastres Argentinian  adventure “Miss Tacuarembó” starring Natalia Oreiro, Rossy de Palma, Mike Amigorena, Mirella Pascuel, Diego Reinhold and Alejandro Tous,  and Esteban and José Miguel Ibarretxe’s “Un Mundo Casi Perfecto” (An almost Perfect World), starring Javier Merino, Antonio Dechent, Velilla Valbuena, Jon Inciarte, Emilia Uutinen and Mairim Perez. The last one is a bit crazy comedy that takes place in the Spanish Basque Country.

                                                                

Martin Sastre with actors Eva Marciel and Alejandro Tous among others

What comes to the actor’s awards, this year Fernando Tejero received the Biznaga for the best actor as well as all the male cast of “Miss Tacuarembó”. The best female interpretation went to Begoña Maestre for “Arriya” (another Basque Country’s contibution to the festival) and the alternative film section’s Biznaga went to “Miss Tacuarembó’s” female cast.

I would emphasize this year’s Tribute award to José Luis Alcaine who has worked as director of Fotography for the main Spanish cinema figures such as Pedro Almodóvar or Fernando Trueba.

José Luis Alcaine

In summary, the festival was once again a tribute to a good Spanish Cinema. We look forward to the next year’s proposals and will follow with all our interest the path that this year’s movies will take from now on.