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Written by Diana Fernandez and Brittany Stevens
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Monday, 27 October 2008 |
 Recently actor Robert Pattinson, who plays Salvador Dali in Little Ashes, talked about his fascination with Dali and compared Dali to his most recent role, Edward Cullen of Twilight, in an interview with Noticontactos. Here is a translated piece of the interview:
What can you tell us about your portrayal as Dali in Little Ashes? It’s a role that’s very different from the rest, and he’s one of the founders of surrealism…Is there something surrealist in your life or do you identify with this character?
I filmed it before Twilight, two months before, but it was very different from anything I’ve done. I felt I didn’t understand why I was picked for the role, I have nothing to do with him, but then I started obsessing about the role. Everyone involved in the production were Spaniards and knew him, I don’t know how to speak Spanish, so the only thing I could do was read books about Dali every day and then I started feeling affection for him after that. I think even though for some reason he turned into a very strange man , I felt I could identify with him when he was young, and I started seeing myself more like him in the movie, which is a little strange.
What did you like more, playing Edward Cullen or Dalí?
They’re very different. For the Dalí movie I had to do a lot of research and it was a great challenge. In Twilight I also had to do some research and these are the first two roles in which I really dig deep. They’re very different one from the other, but I try to give each the interest they deserve. I think I’ve learned a lot from these two movies, I think you can portray any character, as long as you set your mind to it and you make the role as interesting as you can.
To read more of the interview, you can visit the Noticontactos website.
[ Photo courtesy of VMAN Magazine ] |
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Written by Victor Marzowicz-Velasquez
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Monday, 27 October 2008 |
Sometimes don’t you wish you could live vicariously through the life of someone else? Perhaps even create an  elaborate secret alias? In this segement of his weekly editorial, Victor educates us on how Lorca took that very route thereby further expanding our knowledge on the personality of Lorca.
Fascinated with Lorca and would like to educate yourself further? You can do so by taking a gander at Victor’s blog.
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It’s easy, faced with the drama of Federico Garcia Lorca’s life and tragedy of his death, to forget that he was also “the life of the party.” He’s almost universally described as exuding charisma, charm, and yes, even a great sense of humor. Sadly, he took most of that to the grave with him, as even the most passionate of his written works are underscored by a profound melancholia. In his teenage years, however, we catch a glimpse of Lorca the prankster.
Lorca had an intense love-hate relationship with the city of Granada from the time he first set foot there as a child until his death in its outskirts 28 years later. He was enchanted by its rich history as the capital of Moorish Al Andaluz and immersed himself thoroughly in the folk traditions of the region. In modern times, however, Granada had become one of the most conservative cities in Spain, and Lorca found the town’s intense parochialism and small-mindedness stifling. |
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Written by Tracy Garrett
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Saturday, 25 October 2008 |
It has been confirmed by the Little Ashes producers that director Paul Morrison, actor Javier Beltrán and actress Marina Gatell will be at the 53 Semana Internacional de Cine de Valladolid, in Valladolid, Spain at the Little Ashes Spain premiere on Monday, October 27th at 4pm.
Little Ashes will also be screened on Tuesday, October 28th at 11:30am. Tickets for the festival are 40.00€ (that’s about $ 52.50). For more ticket information, to buy tickets online, and to read more on the festival you can visit the ticket information page and the festival's official site. |
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Written by Diana Fernandez
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Saturday, 25 October 2008 |
Advancing forward with the next segment of Dali-centric stories, we distance ourselves from academies and prisons to explore a one-in-a-lifetime experience, meeting the renowned artist Pablo Picasso. However, based on his personality and mentality that we have progressively begun to discover, how do you think Dali acted during this encounter? Better yet, how did Picasso respond?
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In 1926, after being permanently expelled from the San Fernando Academy of Fine Arts for refusing to take his exams on the grounds that he knew more about the subject than those examining him, Salvador Dali moved to Paris with the permission of his father. He was 23 at the time.
When Dali arrived in Paris, he frequented the Café Cyrano, where the Headquarters of the Parisian surrealists was. His objective was to surround himself with the créme de la créme of the arts in those times. Once there, he established himself as the principal figure of a group of Surrealist artists that were grouped around French poet Andre Breton.
Dali studied all great masters, and one he especially admired was another Spanish painter, world-renowned Pablo Picasso.
Picasso also was a Surrealist painter at that time and had also attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Madrid in 1897. By 1926, he was already a very well-known painter. He had heard of Dali’s work because a friend, Joan Miro, had been to one of Dali’s exhibits in Catalonia.
Dali’s other main goal in Paris was to meet Picasso, because he wanted to be able to tell everyone that he had a friendship with the very well-known painter. Meeting the Cubist painter was an unforgettable event for Dali, but did not impact Picasso. |
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Written by Brittany Stevens
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Saturday, 25 October 2008 |
Our partner, Marta, at the Spanish Little Ashes Blog got a hold of a new publicity picture from Little Ashes and you can also see the new image at the Valladolid Film Festival official site, where Little Ashes will screen in just 3 days!
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Nice find! As the Spain premiere looms, we will bring you the updates as they come in. Stay tuned for more! |
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Written by T. Isilwath
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Friday, 24 October 2008 |
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In last week’s poll we asked – What scene in Little Ashes are you most excited to watch? As illustrated in the bar graph below, the water scene in Cadaqués triumphed. Even though many are eagerly anticipating the artistic cinematography and the beautifully choreographed interaction between Dali and Lorca displayed in the scene, one may wonder: Where is Cadaqués and in what ways does this location hold significance in Dali’s life? You’re about to find out!
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Located on the Spanish Cap de Creus Peninsula, Cadaqués is cut off from the rest of Spain by the Peni Mountains, and its bay forms the largest natural harbour in Catalonia.
Cadaqués is one of those quiet places that time forgot, still maintaining its traditional architecture and small-town charm. Its white stuccoed buildings sprawl along the edge of the bay, rising up from the rocky landscape like the foam on the crest of a wave. With its white-walled houses and narrow, stone-lined streets, it is easy to imagine Salvador Dali strolling along the winding avenues and slipping into one of the many cafes tucked under the whitewashed arches of this fishing village.
Dali’s family spent many weekends and summers in Cadaqués, staying with the Pichot family at their villa, Es Sortell. The Pichots were close friends of Dali’s father, and young Dali would spend his time soaking up the sunlight and local sights and listening to the artist and musician friends of the Pichots as they wiled away the warm days. Senor Pichot was a painter, and he was friends with Pablo Picasso and Andre Derain. |
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Written by Shanna Murady
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Wednesday, 22 October 2008 |
Lately, we’ve been endowing you with details that envelop the lives of Dalí, Lorca, and Buñuel. Attempting to create some balance, we are excited to impart some upcoming articles that although aren’t specific to Little Ashes, are quite entertaining while still maintaining some relevancy to the film’s core motifs.
Commencing these more liberal types of articles, is one concerning slash fiction. Unaware or unsure of what slash fiction is? Good! Allow us to enlighten you. This first of two parts will answer your inquisition of what exactly slash fiction is and what it consists of. Stay tuned for part two!
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The fandom phenomenon is not always black and white: within it exists an area where the dark and the bright collide. For some fans, being cheerleaders on the sideline is not enough to satisfy their need to make their object (or subject) of admiration their own, and this is typically true when it comes to fans of cult TV series, books and movies. Matt Hills, in his book Fan Cultures, regards fandom as a form of affective play, saying that fans create culture.
One example where fans create their own culture comes in the form of fan fiction. Today, fans never are more secure in terms of anonymity to share with others their interpretation of pop culture phenomenon as most fandoms have found a permanent address in cyberspace. The earliest known fan fiction was published in the 1930s whereas its popularity was on the right track ever since the emergence of Star Trek’s fan fictions some time in the 1960s. Fan fiction is inarguably an active way for fans to show their appreciation, one which many authors, filmmakers and some fellow fans do not keenly appreciate in return.
Of this debate, one side deems fan fiction as shallow and stains the original works, while the other argues that it’s a direct form of appreciation, which illustrates a deep level of commitment. To paint a picture of how divided this matter of fan fiction is, author Anne Rice once firmly stated, “I do not allow fan fiction” while J.K. Rowling on the other hand considers it “a form of flattery.” Regardless, fan fictions continue to flourish in number — making up 33% of all written publications in the Internet. Within that percentage, there is a special form of fan fiction that has been gathering a dedicated group of fans as well as enemies — a sub-genre called slash. |
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Written by Brittany Stevens
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Tuesday, 21 October 2008 |
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Little Ashes will soon be shown, not once but twice, at the 53 Semana Internacional de Cine de Valladolid, in Valladolid, Spain. The Valladolid International Film Festival runs from October 24 – November 1, displaying a diverse range of cinematic art. Here’s a little background information on the festival:
The Semana Internacional de Cine de Valladolid, or otherwise referred to as Seminci, began in 1956. It has now become one of the oldest festivals in Europe, introducing new and virtually unknown directors and cinematographers such as Ingmar Bergman, Luis Buñuel, François Truffaut, Andrzej Wajda, Federico Fellini, Ermanno Olmi and Yilmaz Güney. The festival is keen on exhibiting feature films, short films, animations and documentaries. It also carries the reputation of taking risks and strives to “innovate in its programming.” Focusing on the actual art form of film-making, rather than the glitz and glam, the festival has built an identity of its own.
Little Ashes is scheduled to be screened on Monday, October 27 th at 16:00 (4pm) and Tuesday, October 28 th at 11:30am. Tickets are 40.00€ (that’s about $ 52.50). For more ticket information, to buy tickets online, and to read more regarding the festival, you can do so by visiting the ticket information page and the official site. |
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Written by T. Isilwath
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Tuesday, 21 October 2008 |
 If gossip rags and tabloids had been as widely available in the 1920s and 1930s as they are today, no doubt Salvador Dali would have featured prominently in them. Based solely on what little snippets we have of Dali’s private life, there is ample fodder for speculation and scandal. Headlines such as “Surreal Artist has Surreal Sex Life!” or “Dali Caught in Scandalous Threesome! – With Wife!” would have blazed across the headlines. Quotes from unidentified “friends” would corroborate the outlandish claims: “Oh, I know of a young actress he disrobed for. She thought he was going to paint her portrait, but instead he made her have sex with a stranger!” “Oh yes! He even brings sailors home for Gala!” “Dali hates to be touched, but he likes to watch.”
There is much fuel for the imagination, but little evidence to prove what friends, and even Dali himself, have said about the artist’s private life. Most of what has been printed comes from undocumented sources, and the truth is shrouded in thinly veiled comments and whispered asides, brief mentions in biographies and hints in interviews. But there is nothing concrete, no smoking gun, left behind to confirm what was widely accepted as sexually deviant behavior on Dali’s part.
What we do know does create a picture of a man who had an intense dislike of physical contact and a very warped sense of sexuality. Dali claimed in his biography, Being Salvador Dali that his mother performed fellatio on him as a child, thus putting him off sex for life, and that he physically assaulted a young woman for touching his feet. He also published a series of articles in 1929 describing such obscene fantasies as sodomizing his sister and eating feces, although the possibility that he was making all of it up has gone widely unacknowledged. Dali’s habit of excess simply for the sake of being outrageous may have played a significant role in the artist’s wild writings. |
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Written by Victor Marzowicz-Velasquez
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Monday, 20 October 2008 |
How does anyone evolve into who they are today? It all begins with one’s own childhood, of course. In this edition of his editorial, Victor elucidates Lorca’s adolescent experiences, thereby exposing the catalysts that transformed the infamous poet in which we are familiar.
Fascinated with Lorca? You can educate yourself further by taking a gander at Victor’s blog.
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Federico Garcia Lorca’s poetry and dramas are steeped in the unique culture of rural Andalusia, pervaded by the rhythms and vibrancy of the natural world and marked by profound themes of loss and longing, all of which have their roots in his childhood.
Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca (Pictured on the right at age 6) was born June 5, 1898, in Fuente Vaqueros, a small village in the Sierra Nevada mountain range outside Granada, the eldest son of a prosperous family of sugar-beet farmers. Lorca had come into the world with some congenital abnormalities in his spine and legs and wouldn't start walking until he was 4 years old. He walked with a pronounced limp for the rest of his life and was never able to run. In spite of his physical limitations, he was a musical prodigy, able to hum the melodies of several dozen folk songs before he had even learned to speak. By age 5, he was composing pieces of his own.
Lorca was a happy, precocious child who made friends easily and enjoyed talking with the grown-up townspeople and hearing the stories of their lives and the rich folklore of the region – the romance of Gypsies, history of Moorish glory and mysticism. He had an early flair for the dramatic and used to love to "play Mass." He would put on an odd assortment of rags he'd found in the attic as vestments and would play the part of the priest, inviting anyone and everyone he could get to attend the ceremony and giving them all stern stage directions that at some point in the proceedings, would have each one of them weeping uncontrollably. |
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