The broken mirror

OK, so I'm trying to come to terms with this novel. My first contact with it was last year in Catalan class where we watched the TV3 TV-movie version of the book. I didn't like it because I felt like it was too disjointed. I thought 'here they are trying to fit what must be a fantastic realist novel into a time slot and they have to sacrifice content to do it.' I assumed that the book was much more...complete?...whole?...fluid?
Anyway, the film left a lot to be desired.
Now I'm reading the novel and I realize that the joke was on me. I was hoping for a Galdosian realist novel in Catlan, and it just didn't happen. The title says it all: the broken mirror. I think Rodoreda's genius lies partly in that she is able to re-recreate and transmit the frustration that comes from looking at your reflection in a broken mirror. It turns out that what most frustrated me about the film is the thing I most love about the novel. I'm not sure why it works so much better on paper than on film, but with each new chapter I feel like the story becomes deeper - not clearer, or even more complete, but she adds facets. I like it.

Quarta entrada de Mirall Trencat

La primera família de la novel·la formada de pare, mare i fills és la família de Salvador Valldaura, Teresa Goday, i Sofia. Formen també els personatges principals en la primera part de la novel·la, però la seva relació no és gaire senzill. Rodoreda crea una rivalitat que existeix entre tots tres, fins que quasi podem dir que és un triangle amorós. En la pagina 125 apareix la cita de sota on la casa dels Valldaura té una posició bé notable:

I mentre caminaven per sota dels castanyers, totes dues de dol rigorós amb els vels que els voleiaven per l'esquena, s'adonà que la seva mare entrava a la torre d'una manera diferent: mirava els arbres, les flors, les columnes de marbre rosa que sostenien la tribuna, els escuts i els alabastres del vestíbul, satisfeta. «Teresa Goday, viuda de Valldaura—pensà Sofia—, avui entra a casa seva.» Fins a la matinada, ella, que s'havia convertit en una de les noies més riques de Barcelona, plorà de ràbia i de vergonya perquè el seu pare l'havia enganyada.

Aquesta cita esta plena de repeticions de sons (“totes dues de dol” i “els vels que voleiaven”) que donen un aspecte prou poètica. El ritme també ens enfoca en la relació entre “vergonya” i “enganyada” al final. Pregunto, doncs, és només una representació del complex Electra? Quin paper té la casa en aquesta relació més que se altre punto de conflicte entre la mare i filla?

Neix l'Acadèmia del Cinema Català

An article in Avui has announced the creation of the Catalan Film Academy.  Joel Joan i Juvé is its new president.  Its purpose in as stated in Avui is to give awards, organize Catalan film production, and promote the the investigation of a film language cinema, and organize debates and seminars.  Recently, we discussed the vital need for a low Catalan culture in a meeting of the Catalan group.  Will this new academy promote films on the level of Guillermo del Toro, Quentin Terentino, Georg Lucas, or Steven Spielberg.  Or will the catalans have to look elsewhere for entertainment?  On the otherhand, maybe it is no longer possible to do Catalan film just for the sake of entertainment.  But what happens when a culture only has art?

Tercera entrada sobre Mirall Trencat

Per causes tècniques fora del nostre control, poso aquesta entrada per en Bill:

You will all excuse both my lagging behind for so long in posting on the novel and also the lack of coherence to the entry. My thoughts haven't quite come together to form a logical narrative, so I hope you can look past the scattered nature of the post. The epigraphs that precede the start of each chapter leads me to believe that in addition to portraying a story, Rodoreda is also meditating on novelistic form. My thought is that this isn't a novel as a strictly objective mirror of reality, or, more precisely, of the decline of a bourgeoisie family at a particular date in Barcelona. The narration of this work always passes through subjectivity, and this logically "trenca el mirall". In that sense, it is not a strictly traditional realism at stake here. One scene I point to is at the beginning of the work, the scene with Armanda and the mirror. This dynamic seems to, pardon my expression, mirror the style of the novel. This accumulation of objects reflects how the very novel is a slow aggregation of objects (a fact that acquires a symbolism all it's own, as I see the different objects found in the well as something signifying the mechanics of memory as a sort of reaching into an abyss). The different objects in the novel also slowly acquire other representations, such as the representation of death and other edifices--like the house itself--portrays the limited urban geography of the high class status of the family, the Valldaura. I might add that the metaphor of a ruined, detritus-filled house is repeated as an image of Spain in novels written by authors such as Juan Benet (though I'm not sure I'd go so far as to make a Heideggerian assessment here on language and Being, though it might be fruitful).

A quick concluding thought is the relationship of a novel of objects with the remarks that Rodoreda makes in the prologue. Novels too are an accumulation of things--or, words--and some types of novels are constructed by one having to "anar traient d'un pou sense fons" (10). As a Catalan writer in exile, Rodoreda herself is digging deep into a linguistic labyrinth of secluded and buried cultural artifacts and arranging them in such a manner so as to obliquely relate the tragedy of post-Franco Catalunya through the story of this obsolete and dying family. As a final image, think of the overgrown and uncared for garden. This is the image of a country that has experienced poor and neglectful stewardship.

Un article d'Esteve Riambau

Esteve Riambau, el qual estava a la festa de cine català fa una setmana, va escriure un article que sumeix la festa. Volia senyalar un ponto que vaig trobar relacionant amb la entrada passada. Primerament la cita de Joaquim Jordà “a que no podem fer Victor Hugo, farem Mallarmé” defenia el cine català durant l'era de Franco. I com comenta Riambau aquest marca segueix: “Ara que ja no hi ha cap censura que impedeixi practicar el realisme identificat amb Victor Hugo, és evident que alguns cineastes catalans se senten més còmodes en el terreny de la poètica de Mallarmé.” Serà això la cosa que fa el cine català català? Val una interpretació poètica de la realitat com no-ficció u realista?

Catalan Film

Last week we had a Catalan film festival and conference: Under the Magnifying Lens: Catalan Cinema of the Real. I was merely a spectator, hopefully we will get a more inside look later. Many of the leading Catalan film makers came to Stanford. While many topics were discussed, I came out with one basic one that I feel is yet to be answered: what is Catalan film? I understand that Catalan literature is literature written in Catalan. But language is the medium of books. Is there something special about the visuals and audios of Catalan film that defines it as different than say Spanish, French, or Italian film? Wikipedia was little help. I did find some information at the Lincoln Center, but neither of these sites talks about the film medium. I feel that theme and language are such a small part of film that they cannot define it. Maybe this leads to another question: is there such a thing as a national cinema or is cinema a universal medium?