This Margaret Atwood’s novel is not an easy book to read. I liked very much the plot at the beginning. The author sets out a dystopian world in which the two main characters – the couple Germaine and Stan – face the big choice: freedom versus security. They live in very bad conditions due to…
Beastly Things
This summer I spent my free time with Commissario Guido Brunetti, the character created by fiction crime’s writer Donna Leon. In ‘Beastly Things’ the Venetian Commissario is looking into a veterinarian’s manslaughter. The more he digs into the facts the more complicated becomes the case. As usual, Donna Leon links her novels with current social…
Captain Fantastic
Viggo Mortensen’s performance in ‘Captain Fantastic’ really deserved the Oscar nomination. This is an amazing film containing a smart criticism of our consumerist way of life and how difficult is to fight against and try to behave different from the majority. Ben is a father with six children living in the forests and being self-reliant….
Their Finest
Danish Film Director, Lone Scherfig, has adapted Lisa Evans’ novel ‘Their Finest Hour and a Half’ into a very interesting film. It depicts the British attempt to produce a film in order to cheer up the population during the Second World War and the German bombing over London. In this propaganda action a young woman,…
Controversy in antibiotics’ use
During long years we have been told that antibiotic’s treatments must be followed strictly until the very end – usually 8 or more days – in spite of the fact that we would feel better. Doctors and scientists supported this idea and almost made feel us guilty when we forgot to take our pills. It…
Get out
This film is a paradigmatic example how rave reviews can turn sometimes into disappointing experiences. That’s the case of ‘Get out’, the Jordan Peele’s opera prima. After reading some pieces of criticism about it, I expected a master piece but it wasn’t at all. At the beginning the films seems a remake of ‘Guess Who’s…
Image and social manipulation
Physical appearance is really overvalued nowadays. It has almost become a social dictatorship mainly for women. We should be young and slim for ever in order to get a job and to reach success personally and professionally. On the one hand, this highly demanding society is producing a lot of young girls suffering from eating…
Ethics in advertising
Advertising is always a controversial issue and everybody has their own opinion. Even though there are fans who like ads’ music, slogans or design, advertisements are spreading out stereotypes and principles. On the one hand it seems that everything is permitted in order to attract consumers and sell products, however some images or slogans could…
Lady Macbeth
The breathtaking landscapes in rural England are as shadowy and disturbing as Katherine, the film’s main character. Based on ‘The Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk’, a novel by Nicolai Leskov written in 1865, the film fantastically portrays the dark story of a young wife secluded in a farm with her obnoxious husband and father in law….
Mingling at the Station
This week I attended the ‘Friday Language Exchange’ that takes place every Friday at the Estació de França in Barcelona. I enjoyed very much the experience with two of my English class peers. I found that this is a very good initiative that gives the opportunity to mingle and practice languages with native people. We met…
The Lahti File
I had read ‘The Lahti File’ by Richard MacAndrew for the Literary Corner that took place last Friday. This detective novel was easy to read because his main character, Ian Munro, is the typical secret agent sorting out where villains are and chasing after them. In this occasion Munro’s adventure was located in Finland and…
What is art?
Is art just an expression? Should art be meaningful to the viewer? A piece of art must be beautiful? What is beauty? A piece of art should be understandable? A piece of art could be compared with another one? Artists could be compared? Ancient art has more worth than the modern one or the contemporary…
word up! 