Big screen bigger emotions: a look at a powerful season

Step into the season of heightened emotions, with a select series of films chosen by the Warwick Arts Centre in their latest program titled Big Screen Bigger Emotions. The viewing of Pedro Almóvar’s Volver was set up with an introduction by the host of the film podcast Eavesdropping at the movies and film lecturer, José Arroyo. I got the chance to interview both the producer at the Arts Centre as well as Jose and found out why it was so important to have these films refurbished for the big screen.

Melodrama envelopes every aspect of Volver as we follow three women in a multigenerational feast for the eyes

Volver premiered at the 2006 Cannes festival and managed to gross $87,226,613 at the worldwide Box office marking it as one of the best releases of the 21^st century. And as Arroyo stressed, it is only right to watch this vibrant celebration of female solidarity and Spanish forward humour on the big screen. It is the second in a series of screenings being showed by the Arts Centre, funded by the British Film Institute (BFI) the UK’s leading organisation for film and the moving image. And the perfect choice for a series that stresses the importance of Melodrama. Defined as a sensational or dramatic piece with exaggerated characters and exciting events intended to appeal to the emotions, melodrama envelopes every aspect of Volver as we follow three women in a multigenerational feast for the eyes. Everything from the vibrant colours to sardonically dark humour to the subtly devasting performances from each of the female actors.

Warwick Arts Centre: Big screen bigger emotions cinema season

As stated in the interview Arroyo stresses the love for spontaneity which the medium of the podcast allows for, Eavesdropping at the Movies, adds a peripheral context to films by mimicking the overhearing of people’s film opinions as they come out of a cinema (which also was the inspiration for the podcast’s title) – a practice that is slowly being replaced as people move away from the big screen and towards streaming site supremacy. The programme does a good job of aiding audiences into looking deeper into the thematic resonances of film. If you are a casual or first-time viewer of the film, like I was watching Volver, Arroyo and Glass’s discussion on the film help beginners to start looking at the themes discussed, through a more intellectual lens.

The vibrant visuals are matched by the equally vibrant and nuanced female relationships; the emotional intensity is echoed in the sly humour which speaks to a joyful resistance in the face of devastating trauma.

We follow Raimunda a working-class woman living in Madrid supporting her daughter whilst trying to overcome the reality of a fire that killed her parents in her native village of La Mancha. In the rural setting where folklore and superstition run wild, Raimunda’s life is further complicated, when rumours about her deceased mother return to pay the family of women a visit, resolving unfinished family business, including a murder and other buried truths. The vibrant visuals are matched by the equally vibrant and nuanced female relationships; the emotional intensity is echoed in the sly humour which speaks to a joyful resistance in the face of devastating trauma.

The podcast becomes a secondary and spontaneous platform to affirm the primary visual experience of the film

As Arroyo stresses, it is only fitting that you watch the film on the big screen and after viewing Volver myself, I can only stress that sentiment. The only additional thing I can suggest is that you catch the rest of the programmes set to screen, which aim to speak to the audience’s love of film by featuring a range of introductory speakers, which the screening of Volver included, to Live scores and even a panel discussion for the 80^th anniversary of David Lean’s Brief Encounter. From my perspective, the aim of the programme is to highlight certain classics whilst giving them a new lens to promote a culture of engagement with films audiences seem to have lost in our current high-speed attention economy. From the 1925 The Phantom of The Opera to the Bollywood classic Sholay these screenings are the types of art house picks that people are still talking about. The podcast becomes a secondary and spontaneous platform to affirm the primary visual experience of the film – and it remains one of the reasons why Arroyo refuses to film his, allowing for unscripted moments of conversation that really highlight smaller moments of the film that you would not notice otherwise.

I feel like the podcast form, for me is giving an audience permission to eavesdrop on a conversation between two, I would say very knowledgeable friends.

José Arroyo

I had the opportunity to interview José Arroyo on his process:

How do you think the podcast form lends itself to talking about cinema in a way that critical essays and articles do not?

Well, Spontaneity. So, the Eavesdropping at the Movies podcast comes from the feeling I had as a child you know as an immigrant kid and I would often go to the movies by myself and I didn’t know anyone and I loved overhearing, so you would come out of the film and kind of eavesdrop on what people were thinking, right. Did they feel like you? Did they not and why? So, I feel like the podcast form, for me is giving an audience permission to eavesdrop on a conversation between two, I would say very knowledgeable friends. I’m a film lecturer and Michael is someone who has done a film studies degree so we can talk about it in different ways. But that’s the thing it’s a spontaneous conversation; it’s not meant to be the last word on anything, right? But it is two people giving their feelings and impressions after seeing the film. I think that is what the podcast form lends itself to, which is why I still insist on not filming it. I think for me that is a kind of layer that I don’t want. I think the conversation just the voice lends itself to a kind of intimacy

You frequently have guest speakers on your podcast. How does having a dialogue with other film enthusiasts add to cinematic discussion?

I mean, you know I just love doing that, I think the whole point of any writing on art or any commentary on art, is to get people talking to get people discussing really – so I love talking to different people. We usually choose them in the light of our lacks, and they bring in different ideas and different perspectives, and you know sometimes we agree and sometimes we don’t. I think my favourite thing is where we’ve had several episodes on the same film and often with different people talking about it from different perspectives, so I think some of those queer films we had a heterosexual person talking it and a gay person and sometimes a old gay person or a young gay person and that’s the idea, right? Get all those different perspectives.

In an era which people are calling the ‘death of criticism’ in the arts space, do you see that reflected in your practice?

I am very insistent, the whole point is to be honest as possible, but also I think there is a question of, I don’t know of social responsibility really, so I do have friends who argue that in their own practice they never say anything negative so they will only deal with stuff that they can encourage or support so they only write about what they like and the different ways they end up liking it. And I can understand that, as a mode of criticism I don’t have any argument with that by not discussing it you also don’t give air to it, right? But if you are a regular reviewer, the podcast for example, then I think you have to be negative because I mean if you think about it, we see hundreds of films a year, well maybe like five would be really great, if that and you have to be able to make distinctions or judgements and criticism is all about. So, the great stuff can only be great only in relation to that which doesn’t live up to it in various ways. So, I am very insistent on kind of not negativity, but you know honesty, really you are giving an informed opinion, informed by readings and lots and lots of viewing.

In your podcast you talk about how specific Almóvar’s language is in terms of colloquial terms of phrase which helps to locate itself in a small rural community – what does this mean for a type of cinema that refuses to translate itself and lets audiences figure out those particulars for themselves?

It’s a very good question you know, because that is something that no matter how you cut it you are watching a foreign film, you are only understanding partially. So even if the subtitles are very good, you’re only actually getting a reduced bit of dialogue. And then these things about inflection or the way that people speak or how speech can signify class or region; you miss all of that. And foreign audiences of Almodovar will always miss that, right, but it is one of the richest aspects of his cinema – you know? I always feel when I’m listening to his characters that I’m listening to my aunts in Spain, that the speech is so true, he uses sayings that are common but regionally specific and for me and I think for Spanish people it’s a beautiful aspect of his films if you are from a foreign country, even a Spanish speaking foreign country you won’t necessarily get all of that. But the films are so rich that you get so much else, and I think the very greatest artists you’re lucky to live in their time and I think Almodovar is one of those.

Volver

It is in the natural dialogue between the characters that speaks to the greater thematic richness of the film. Solidarity is survival, especially in a society where being a woman is such a violently oppressive experience. And it’s the hopeful conclusion to the film, that has this season of melodrama continuing to speak to a new audience. I would give both the season of films and the podcast their kudos, in having the ability to engage people despite the ever cynicism in an era of rapid media production.

The Podcasts Section, on behalf of The Boar, would like to thanks the Warwick Arts Centre for this opportunity and also to thank José Arroyo for sitting down and speaking to us.

If you’d like to catch any of the films left in the season, you can find them on the Warwick Arts Centre website. The season will continue to run until 18 December.