It’s being weird and a bit awkward. This year’s national box office is not working as it should. Something more or less logical if we take into account the historical moment in which we find ourselves, yes, but that becomes strange when one looks at the collection of international successes or the latest film by Santiago Segura, which has added more than double its immediate persecutor, ‘Operation Camarón’. But here we have to talk about opting for a prize.
The other Spanish cinema
Carlos Therón’s film has been seen by more than half a million viewers, it adds up to one million euros more than ‘Parallel mothers’ and almost two more than ‘The good patron’, which seem to be the only Spanish films released in 2021. For course, ‘Maixabel’ (would be a candidate for better performances) has also added more money, although her time at festivals also publicized her more. Something similar to the tremendous turra of Mediaset with the comedy of Therón during sports broadcasts. Once again, Santiago Segura wins at the box office, only surpassed (and narrowly) by ‘Fast & Furious 9’.
But when diving, the jump that occurs after a rather unbalanced Top 10. Even the film that occupies that position, ‘The laws of the border’, has barely exceeded 600,000 euros in collection. Filmmakers who should be more than consecrated, such as Daniel Monzón, Óscar Aibar or such excellent titles as Pablo Agüero’s ‘Akelarre’ (which did have recognition at the Goya 2020), end their tour of theaters with dignity but without the destined glory for others.
Of all these cases, the case of ‘The Substitute’, Aibar’s latest film, is surprising, which in addition to having the usual talent of the director of ‘Flying saucers’ or ‘The dancing machine’ (to be urgently rediscovered), offers a great protagonist to Ricardo Gómez, whom he had directed in 40 episodes of ‘Cuéntame’, and possibly the best role in the career of his inseparable Pere Ponce. It is as if somehow the audiovisual historical memory did not work in his case. Ponce, Aibar’s production design and script deserve to be nominated, not to mention Gómez, a guy who never hesitates when it comes to somersaulting, as he did with his great work on ‘Stage 0’.
Aranoa’s film has been chosen to represent Spain at the Oscars, and that’s always good. The director of ‘Los Mondays in the Sun’ or ‘Barrio’ has had artistic and box office ups and downs, but it has always been shown as a sure value. And the reviews have been very good, surely higher than those of an Almodóvar that has ended up bothering, perhaps too much, with the keys you pressed in your latest movie. And, perhaps, Aibar is paying with the same currency albeit on a smaller scale. Javier Bardem, as always, will be in the ointment. The actresses of ‘Parallel Mothers’, too.
But why doesn’t a film that has had so many good reviews (possibly the highest rated next to Aranoa’s) like ‘The Substitute’ feel so endorsed in general? Right now Chema García Ibarra is moving his ‘Sacred Spirit’ through Seville a couple of weeks after its national premiere. Here I rated it myself as masterpiece after seeing the film twice in the same day, and since then I can only wait to see if its reception will be comparable to that of Carlos Vermut with his second feature film. The same is true for ‘Six days current’, by Neus Ballús, which has emerged triumphing from Valladolid or Locarno. Wouldn’t it be really nice to see a group of non-professional actors hoarding the candidacies?
But there is not only the media or academic attention. There are also strange decisions that are hindering the arrival of long-awaited titles such as ‘La abuela’, an incredible film by the Paco Plaza / Carlos Vermut tandem, or ‘Veneciafrenia’, by the normally reliable box office Alex de la Iglesia, despite the public’s indifference to the exquisite restoration of ‘The Day of the Beast’ . But, be careful, that ‘Malnazidos’, the film by Javier Ruiz Caldera that opened Sitges 2020, is still under lock and key. Or the delay of ‘Way down‘, by Jaume Balagueró, which has been available for almost a year in vod and international domestic formats. Beware of the two protagonists of the Plaza film and the work of the director, nominated for ‘Verónica’ and who presents, for the moment, his mature work.
All this leads me to finish with a bitter aftertaste, where the public and the system continue to pat them on the back while titles that deserve all the possible attention. will be buried by the usual. In this way we continue to make it difficult for new talents and old foxes to attack, who will have no choice but to continue surviving through festive word of mouth and getting discovered via platforms when it may be too late.