Sesión continua (1984) - full transcript

Double Feature

Written by: JL Garci
& Horacio Valcarcel.

Produced and directed by:
Jose Luis Garci.

Dedicated to them.

My love...

I love you.

And I need you

I spend all day thinking about you.

Hundreds of times I pick up the phone,
dial your direct number and...

and I hang up before it sounds.

When I watch a program on TV,
I tell myself:



"Is he watching it?

Did he felt the same thing as me
when they say such things? "

I love you so much, my love, that
when I do something silly,

I say to myself:
"My God, if he knew."

Go on, honey.

I know that you are not one of those who
can lead a double life for a long time.

I know you, you are too honest,
it would end up destroying you.

And because of that,

and because I don't want to break up your
marriage... - I'm not breaking anything.

You can't break something that
has been broken for a long time.

Marriages never break
when they break,

everything always comes from behind.
Only routine...custom,

or, in my case, a certain
social convenience

is what keeps them going.



But now it's different.

Now you're here.
Sweetie...

My love, my love,
my love, I love you.

I have to end it now,
immediately.

Not one more day.

No, no, no, my love, you have to wait
until a government crisis arises.

My love, my love,
don't be overwhelmed...

Hey, enough with the "My love,
my love, my love".

- Why?
- 'Cause no one talks like that, fuck.

Why you talk like a 40-year-old
woman, and not like a 20-year-old girl?

You're wrong, girls in
their 20's are like that.

And say "my life", "my love", the one
that doesn't is my wife. - OK, OK.

Well... let's see, Federico,

Sequence 24,
Room: San Marcos' Hostel,

Interior: night

And less lyrical.

You are a 22 year old girl,
you're a Philosophy freshman.

Men-ta-li-ze.

The minister,
the minister is in bed, eh?

She has been crying in the
bathroom so he wouldn't see her,

and when he returns...
he says:

"What's wrong, are you okay?”

Come on, go.

Go.

Come on.

Let's leave it for today. To do
something right, I need to be relaxed,

comfortable and not dressed like
some distinguished character.

I'm also nervous,
because I don't know at what time

I'll get to the fucking wedding
of the daughter of whoever.

Look, it’s almost 6 and I still have to
go get the car at the workshop.

You don't know how lucky you
are not to own a car.

And I should go to
La Confianza too.

And Pili must be pissed already.
She's havind a spell like that...

Well tell Pili to be cool, after all
she's not the one who marries.

- Tomorrow at 11.
- At 10.

- At half past ten.

Okay, at 10:30 but already showered eh?
And understand already, Spielberg,

Every time a married woman
attends a wedding,

It's as if she were
getting remarried a little.

Yeah right? But let me
remind you, nuptials aside,

that Balboa Films
is biting his nails,

because for the first time in his
life he has paid half in advance,

as it should be. Well, fuck him.
- OK, OK, OK.

And I warn you, Mr. Vencex,

that we've been at it for four
months and have only 30 sheets.

And we don't
have the title.

Come on, have some guts and don't go
to that wedding, we can finish the 24.

And why don't you do that, and come
with me to the cocktail ah?

We can face together
the poisoned canapé

and while we talk:
Euro building, amber room.

No, no, no, I pass on weddings,
christenings, funerals, communions,

all of that gives you cancer.

One of the reasons for my
separation with Maruja

was because I always refused to go to
any kind of social celebration.

- Hey, you can't ever win here.
- Never.

And don't think I did it on a whim,
it's that I got pimples on my groin

and in the armpits every time
I went to such events.

A psychiatrist friend told me:
"ceremonial allergy".

The root of everything, according
to him, was here, in my German ass.

He wanted to cure me, but I
told him to take a hike,

that my brain is untouchable,
since it's what feeds me.

Okay, right? Eh? How about this?

Passable.

What sort of things
does my boyfriend has.

- It's going to be our best movie.
- Yes my love.

Beware of those with mayonnaise.

Have you already told
the story to your father?

Yes, darling.

Well, get going, you get to the
cocktail, and say: "Hello, Pili"

and you chat with
everyone except me.

As if I were a widow.

The same as if I were a widow.

I'm a widow.

Don't fight with them anymore,
I love your wrinkles.

They belong to me, I've seen them born,
they are part of my achievements.

You don't even need to say it.

Most carry your signature. If I
could, I'd return them all to you.

And I'd accept them
without hesitation, my love.

Wow, what's wrong?

Have you met some girl who calls you
my love and has grown in you? Move.

Never say "my love" to your wife,
she'll think that you are teasing her.

Simply say: "You", "Hey", "eh!”

The movie is a "love story",
a love story

between a man in his forties
in perpetual recycling,

and also minister, and a 20 year old
girl who is a Philosophy student.

With less Shakespeare did
"Romeo and Juliet".

But it's very clear man, it's the fight
between the postwar model carriage

full of pending tasks,

and the super young girl
overflowing with withouts.

Of what? Withouts.

The generational abyss.

OK, generational abyss.

Anyways, I'm going
to shit on my father.

Listen to this, Varelita,
and you too, Ionesco,

What I want is a movie,
do you understand? - OK, yeah.

- A movie.
- Yes, Yes.

What is a movie, Matias?
Tell that to them.

- It's a love story, Don Dionisio.
- Aha.

Where many things happen but
at the end all ends up OK.

Exactly.

- Don't go, we have to talk.
- Alright.

Something entertaining where
many things happen.

Love, jealousy, hate,
wrong weddings...

Something that makes
people have fun.

And, at the end: "I love you so, Purita,
I love you so much, Pepe".

And that's cinema,
and that's the way movies are.

If they are so simple,
why don't you write them?

Because I don't have the time,
smart ass, if I had the time...

Cesareo told me that, many times.

I'm already seeing it:

"Balboíta, you with
your imagination

would make wonderful stories. "

Excuse me, I have
to use the bathroom.

Happens every time, whenever we talk to
him, the guy gets up and takes a piss.

It's because we're a diuretic,
they'll sell only in pharmacies.

- And without prescription.
- Yeah.

So don't bring me one of
those author's films

full of people who just look around
and nothing ever happens

and if something happens,
it happens very slowly.

The public wants stories,
not personal ironies.

Fede, leave that trophee alone,
I can see you through the mirror.

Hey, how do you do it?

- What?
- Pissing without noise.

I couldn't piss, not a drop.

- Then it has to be prostate.
- Of course.

Well, the only important
thing in a movie

is to succeed on the main thing.

What a funny guy,
and what is the main thing?

Hey, smart ass,
if I only knew...

If that was something known,
Cinema would be done by banks.

The Banesto, eh...eh...
The Hispano, the...

- The Zaragozano.
- That one.

But there's one thing
that is very clear,

and that Alfred Hitchcock
and I say a lot:

The spectator has to be
seated in his chair

as if he were on top
of a time bomb.

That's it, action, love,
adventure, mystery...

Cinema.

So let's forget about
the generational abysses.

I have a son of 20.

And my son does what I say
and thinks what I think.

Well, alright, it'll be the exception
that confirms the abyss.

Boat horn

Hey, don't you have that thing too
far away? Maybe it won't record.

No, it doesn't have batteries,
considering what they pay me.

Besides, they edit
everything I write.

Then you leave the theater and start
writing movies and television,

and also novel.

You win the Nadal with
"Death of a telephone".

Aha, yes.

So what?

You're also very shy, huh?

Sorry, sorry.

- Hey, Gorochenco, Gorochenco.
- What's going on now?

Well, I understand that you
as the author are nervous,

but try to understand me,

With so many interruptions,
we'll never finish this.

Sorry man, it's not a small thing.

It's okay, it's okay,
chill, kid, chill.

Che, stop, stop, you cunt,
stop that, fuck it.

Can't you hear? Everyone stop.

Ah, speak, Epi, speak, speak.

You see, it seems to me
that the third ant

should speak with her true
voice and not force it.

But, listen to me, kid,

you, you have to bear in
mind that it's an ant,

Understand?

Fuck, no one knows how ants talk,

she's an actress dressed
as a third ant,

to me that they speak with ant voice
seems like, I do not know, man...

Also, let's see Gorochenco,
where are the 30 ants,

that should make sense of this scene?
Here I only see eight.

Oh, that to me...?
Go ask production.

Do you know what an ant charges
for two daily functions? Hey?

Voices on television

We have to kill the minister.

- How?
- An attack.

An attack?
No, let's kidnap the minister.

Let's see, go on, go on.

It's a false kidnap.

The minister has told his wife,

that he is writing
a bill in a place X.

Then they call from the President’s
office, it's urgent.

She tells them where he is, but he's
not there, 'cause he's where he is,

I mean he's not there,
he's with Pili.

in another place, without listening
to the radio or watching TV.

In short, the minister vanishes.

And the mess comes when
the truth comes out,

because then they have to deny
the news of the kidnapping.

A kidnap never ends
a political career,

but a love story, does.
Very nice, very nice.

It's evident that Mala has returned.

Hey, I'm cold, this habit of yours
of writing in the outdoors,

It's fine in summer, but now...
I'm starting to get chilblains.

She's my daughter, isn't she?

Solitude, Solitude.

And what does that mean?

The empty stalls? What, that
the movie is going to be a failure?

I don't watch your movie,
that's less important.

You're wrong, Mala, that's
the most important thing to me.

My life is cinema.

You hold on to the movies because
everything else scares you.

¿Wh... Where is she putting that one?
On which card does she put it?

You have to talk to Sonia.

Why? Is something wrong?

Talk to your daughter,
if only once.

Fu... ha!

Thank God I don't want to
believe in these things,

else, it's really something
to terrify you.

It's all very clear.

OK, it's very clear that
the message is obscure.

Everything is magic.

On Thursday, next week they
premiere "The return of the Jedi",

I can get tickets for Sunday,
So, are you in?

-No. - Not for me,
I'm leaving for the weekend.

- Where?
- Camping.

- Where?
- To the mountain.

To Bustarviejo with some friends.

Fine, so it's me and you going.

I can't either Dad,
it's Celia's birthday.

OK. And who is Celia?

A friend from school,
she's my best friend.

Well, whatever, we'll have to give the
Jedi a shot in two months. - Aha.

Please, sir, could you
bring some cold milk?

- What about your mother?
- Mom? She's fine.

What do you mean fine?
She breathes? She watches TV?

She's still jogging? Can't you be a
little more explicit, my child?

Dad, don't start.

In other words, Mom OK and
Dad OK and the girls, OK too.

That's, fine because everyone's OK,
then let's get bored for a while.

Not a good time.

Hello.

Yes.

Stanley Kubrick.

Tell me.

I'm slowly getting depressed.

What?

That I'm slowly getting depressed.

So what?
Are you drunk?

A bit. Well, how about it?
Do you like the title?

Title? What title?

The film's title:
"I'm slowly getting depressed."

The phrase that the minister tells
to the girl in the 19th.

"A terrible thing happens to me, it's
that I'm slowly getting depressed."

You no longer remember?
Well, you like it or not?

Well, on the one hand, not much.

But on the other, neither.

The one that's going to be excited
by this is going to be Balboa Films.

See you tomorrow.

"I'm slowly getting depressed."

It's very clear, dad, the thing is
that I don't know how to tell stories.

I haven't lived a story since,
well...

since I was ten years old

and I kissed Marisa under
water in Torrelodones.

And that I've always lived
in a movie state.

I tell that to Fede every day:

"Fede, we’ve dedicated our lives to
John Ford, to Spencer Tracy,

to the RKO and we fucked up. "

Always paying attention
to myths, to the movies,

and we've forgotten to
live our own lives.

Yes, I know you always told me
dad, don't be a jerk.

That also happens to
politicians, to doctors,

to musicians, to priests...

And that's why, we don't know
how to tell stories.

Because in our lives,
there are no stories.

In contrast, the John Fords and company
loved life before the movies,

that has been our mistake,

to love cinema and
not life. Fuck.

It's indeed scary, come on.

For us, life is in the 100 minutes
that you spend in the living room.

Because then, on the street,
it's like if you were in a movie,

who am I?

Me, I'm Captain Blood,
sailing alone and feeling

the wind in the sails.

Or, or you´re going to deny
that I wasn't the fastest

along with Johnny Guitar
in northern Arizona?

The problem now is that
I wear glasses, I feel tired,

I'm about to be shot
by a blurry kid.

I would have liked
to live fast, as well.

die young and to
have a beautiful corpse.

Like Nick Romano.

But as you can see,
"I'm slowly getting depressed."

A scary movie.

Written by José Manuel Varela
and Federico Alcántara

that isn't going
to make a cent, Dad.

How are you doing?

Bad.

Do you know what's
a flashback, Pili?

No. And what about Ávila?

- I'm on it.
- OK.

Well, a flashback, Pili, is that you
and I love each other a little.

In other words,
going back to the past.

Typewriter

It took me longer than expected,
you must be bored, right?

It's very nice in here.

Look, I've told the superior that
I've come with a friend

and she gave me these sweets,
they're for you.

They make them.
Those are delicious.

Thank you!

They're the ones who sing psalms.

I like it.

Everything is magic.

And it's not playback,
they do it live.

♫Chorus♫

Perdigero. Do you know that
when his daughter got married

he hired 100 extras from
the union, half and half,

he took them to Cornejos, put them in
tuxedos, the gals in a long dress

and made them sing
Mozart's "Hallelujah"?

- OK, OK. Haëndel's.
- What?

- That the "Hallelujah" is Haëndel's.
- Well, what I said.

Perdigero.
Sumer told me recently,

that he took a blood test
and the results were J&B positive.

Let's go to another country.

With Perdiguero,
you'll end up doing everything.

He won't let the directors
say action or cut,

because the metre is lost.
And what do they say?

"Jip."

They say "jip".
They say, "jip" and it's a cut.

But let's get back
to our issue,

What is that, when you talk
about a girl with-out?

Pili, the girl who hooked up
with the minister,

is an authentic "FM girl in".

A woman on FM.

Drinks canned soda,
wears Calvin Klein jeans,

reads poetry, is honest, she doesn't
spend time with the video or the TV,

and above all, pay attention,
always live with-out:

without bubbles, without alcohol,
without caffeine...

Our minister is tacky,
but has become modern,

his traumas have been left behind,

phimosis, premature ejaculation,
all aesthetic as you can see.

He's one more of those 3 million
Spanish men / Spanish women

that have become modern.

Jogging, golf, tennis, Valium,
blunts on their days off,

- Barely any rhythm...
- Half a dozen credit cards.

Watches that go: "Pi pi pi",
"Pi pi pi pi", at the movies.

The "Time" magazine,
"Heavy Metal" type comics,

and, above all,
our tamed male

has discovered the
personal computer.

On weekends, he goes out with
the children and the dog

to his old mill, that's been made
decent with stereo sound, diverse videos

and rugs from Isfahan

in search of the lost trauma
in his first computer.

But that... it's modern,
but it's not authentic.

Sure! That's why the meeting of our
gimp with the with-out girl is...eh

Like Faust's with Marguerite,
a commotion.

That, that, of course!

Understand that he hasn't lived, Balboa
in spite of his almost 45 years.

Because his whole life,
he's been preparing to live.

- Do you understand Balboa?
- Where is my life?

Where is my life?

And that's the movie.
The great movie.

I have to tell him,
and I don't know how.

25 years of a life together
that are coming to an end.

If you ask me, I feel even
worse to tell Luisito.

Because, how do you say that?

Although I hope he understands that
I'm still young to start a new life.

Hey, Mom...

I just can't get used
to call you Mala.

You have no idea how good
it's been for me, to talk to you.

I just had to tell someone.

Can I ask you a question?

Is it true that you can
cure a nephritic colic,

just by putting your
hands on the kidney?

Fede told me.

Among other things.

That's not the question
you want to ask me.

What you want to know is, if there's
something between Jose and me.

Hi. Um, it smells very good.

How are you?

- Sister Inés. - Hello.
- My sister.

- And... - Hi.
- A friend.

I just stumbled upon
the word "universe",

and I've discovered
that it's false.

But what's false,
the word or the universe?

No, no, all of it,
all of it, all of it.

The concept and the term.

The universe doesn't exist,
the multiverse does.

Of course, of course, of course.

Hey, let's rest for a
little while, eh?

Relax, Fede, relax, that
this is just a movie.

Each and every one of us...
is a sensations' center.

OK.

Only... we only perceive
what's in our wave,

- in our frequency.
- Ah.

And why does that matter
to you and me?

In the scene in bed with the girl, the
minister has just discovered... that.

That there's a universe for each
brain, that is, the multiverse.

But I can't find a way for
him to explain it simply.

Let's see, Fede,

In the bed scene, why don't
they just stick to the:

"Do you like it?
Yes, a lot, a lot?"

I'd even allow them to say a
couple of times "my love, my love",

and in the end, the usual:
"Did you like it? Yes, a lot, a lot."

But what are you thinking? A bed
scene like the one everyone else films,

- based on gasps? - No, fuck,
but it isn't normal either

having the dude reciting
a Hamlet's monologue, fuck that.

Fede, this isn't "The ants."

The bed isn't the most suitable place

to discover that the universe doesn't
exist, I think, I don't know.

- We have to insert the bus scene.
- Which one?

Have you seen people's faces
when a bus passes in front of you?

That 12 o'clock bus
at night, half empty,

they all go home, but wrapped
in an almost magical sadness.

That feeling, can only
be given by cinema.

And we also have to include the
the savings bank coin's scene.

Which one?

When our minister came to study in
Madrid and ran out of tobacco,

he sat on a bench in Cibeles,

and there he killed time watching how
the little coin fell, tac, tac, tac.

It's one of the first things
he's going to tell the girl.

Hey Fede, stop going to
"The Ants" rehearsals.

That Gorochenco is
eating your brain.

I'm talking seriously, we have
to put some things like that,

at least once.

The main advantage of American
Cinema, which we like so much,

is that it doesn't tell stories,
but fragments of stories.

- But those... Where are you going?
- To find you a bus.

Damn, but those fragments

give you the impression of following
a complete story. Well, that's all.

As... As we did with "The
travelers", don't you remember?

What's the best football
you've ever seen?

- Brazil's at Mexico's World Cup.
- No.

- Better was Madrid's in Glasgow.
- You think? - Sure man.

Fifth European
Cup's finals, 7-3.

A painter?

- Eh... Picasso.
- Goya.

- A playwright?
- Mmm... Arthur Miller.

- A musician?
- Mozart.

- No, no, from cinema.
- Ah, from cinema...

- Eh... Mancini.
- Aha.

- Your best year?
- 62.

I premiered "The fence" in Bucharest,
and my son was born,

I had a hemorrhoids procedure,
Oh, what a relief!

- I can only imagine.
- And my Atleti won the Recopa.

- Your best year?
- None.

No, do not laugh, I mean it.

You know something? When me and my
wife split, we reached an agreement:

"She stayed with everything."
Ha, ha, that's Woody Allen's.

Yeah, but what about this?
about this? Let's see...

Let's see, what's the difference
between an orchestra and a quartet? "

I don't know, what is it?

Well, the orchestra is what comes out of
Moscow and the quartet what comes back.

- Hey, hey, that's a good one.
- Well, it's mine, it's mine.

- We have to put it in the script.
- Sure.

Thank you.

Sonia, please.

From a friend.

She's my mother in law.

Sonia.

Hey, it's me dad.

Yes.

Can we see each other tomorrow
to talk for a while?

About camping.

That guy, that you can see there,
the diplodocus carnegii,

was herbivorous.

And how do you know that?

Well, I've known about its
family for a long time.

That individual is a reptile dinosaur
of the suborder of the auritians...

Hey, tell me one thing,
are you happy?

Tell me a color, black or
white aren't allowed eh.

- Uh... blue.
- Grey.

- A novel?
- Red harvest.

No, can't you remember when you
were a kid? Treasure Island.

- No, and red harvest too.
- Sure.

A filmmaker, not
from the usual ones?

- Always Chaplin.
- Always Lubitsch.

- A woman?
- A woman? How about three.

- What are you saying?
- Man, of course.

- A country?
- Spain.

- A bandit?
- Eh... John Dillinger.

Why John Dillinger?

- Because he was killed while leaving
a cinema. - Oh, sure, of course.

- A song?
- Yesterday.

A movie? and no,
not from the usual lot.

Almost all from when I was a kid, some
as teen and almost none as of now.

- What about you, a movie?
- "As we were".

It was a movie where
two guys said each other:

"Tell me a book, a
year, a failure..."

Booth laugh.

You want to do it how?
In black and white?

And what's that?
A coffee with a ball of ice cream?

I need to do something
about you two, huh?

First the title:
"I'm strongly getting depressed".

"Slowly", "I'm slowly
getting depressed".

And when I have to sell it to the
television, what should I do?

Do I color it by hand?
Come on, man, let's be serious.

Balboa Films only
makes films in color.

The other type leave it
to your friend Woody Allen.

Well, I'm in a hurry,
do you like the script or not?

But which of them?
Because there are three.

No, it's just one script with
three different endings. Fuck!

Pay attention,
Samuel Goldwyn's imitation,

the movie is called
"I'm slowly getting depressed",

We're going to do it in black and white
and I'm going to shoot three endings.

But who do you think you are?

- The neighborhood tough guys.
- We are bakers.

Just a moment,
I need the bathroom.

Hey, Vin Wenders, who's the one who
understands about cinema around here?

Me, naturally. You, and very little,
understand about how to sell it.

But with every passing day you're
becoming more messed up,

and critics are even
starting to like you.

- And that's the end.
- Well, almost.

Didn't you enjoyed going to Cannes to
receive the prize of "The travelers".

Dman, I should have been
the one to get that.

I'm in a rush, need to be at the theater
in half an hour, in 5 minutes I'm out.

Hey Ponti, how many movies
have you done with me?

- Too many.
- Not, too many, six.

Six, and have you lost money with
any of them? No, right? So then?

Because none was in black and
white, none had three endings

and above all, none was called
"I'm strongly getting depressed".

- "Slowly" "slowly..."
- Play it again, Sam, fuck!

Man! look: "the refreshment."

I'm sure the planes of the bus
and the coin are yours too.

Because when you get the vein of the
absurd, everyone needs to tremble.

- So what?
- Play it again, Sam, what?

- "Casablanca". Did you piss?
- Not a drop.

Sure "Casablanca",
I'm not that ignorant.

Prostate.

Had many endings and
it seems that it was liked.

It only had two.

And yes, it's the prostate,
what's wrong with that?

Listen, Balboa Films,
the best years of our life,

that were the worst
years of our life,

or the other way around, as you
wish, it's the same to me,

we have them pinned
to black and white movies.

That's what happens to our minister.

His childhood and youth
are linked to black and white.

The school in Vitoria,
his first girlfriend,

the pension on Silva Street,

the five Real Madrid's cups, the NO-DO,
everything was in black and white,

that's why we'll tell his story like
that, in grays and... leave me alone!

We are in the 80s if
I remember correctly, right?

Well, for every movie
we watch from the 80s,

we watch five from
the 40s on TV,

We're watching more 40's cinema than in
the 40's itself... - Don Dionisio...

Get out!

And what were movies like, at the time?
Well, in black and white.

Meaning that people, via TV, is
heavily used to black and white.

Balboa Films, really, it's not a pose,
it's not a snobbish stance,

I implore you, by your noble compassion,
to let me film it like that.

And about the ending, we'll see if the
minister resigns and keeps the girl,

or if he doesn't resign
and leaves the girl,

or if he resigns or doesn't,
and the girl shows him the door.

Alright.

About going to film
in Portugal, not a chance.

No bungalow on Nazareth's beach.

That means going back
to San Marcos' Hostel.

- Neither.
- Oh no?

But can I know what has the
Guadarrama done to you?

It is right here, he comes
and goes in the day, half diet.

That is, about exteriors,
beach and sunset, nothing.

Decoration: interior, night cabin
and a good fireplace's fire.

- And it's great like that.
- Oh yeah?

Oh, and the bed scene is also gone,
I want kisses, kisses and not fucking,

kisses like in
yesterday's movies.

It's because you're not up to date,
people are now kissing more than ever,

go to a park and see it yourself,
we've returned to the "roundabout kiss".

We are in a new era,
a new neo-romanticism.

Young girls in America
barely fuck anymore,

They want kisses,
love, tenderness.

In Spanish films you no
longer kiss, you just fuck.

Well, at Balboa Films,
cinema productions,

from now on we're back to the kiss.
I want kisses in the foreground,

face against face,
lip against lip.

- I guess you'll know how to do that.
- I don't.

I want high-precision kisses,
as Melvin Le Roy and I say.

What? Who's the
modern one now, huh?

Who's not up to date?

Where have you read all that?

- Nowhere, my son told me...
- Who thinks what you think

and who does what you do.

Well yes, that, that.

Well, I'm leaving.
You accept the script, don't you?

He-he-he.
Yeah, man, yes, I accept it.

Good, then you can go tell
Mr. Ranseros to start making copies.

- Tomorrow I'm coming for the check.
- Hey...

Can you tell me what's wrong with
you that you're so turned off?

Sadness "pos folium".

As others feel the
sadness "pos coitum",

This guy gets it after he finishes a
script, he feels like an... emptiness.

- Ah, so he's slowly getting depressed.
- Oh, he knows.

Balboa Films,
you're like a dry leaf

that the wind drags
from sewer to sewer.

But I love you.

- "Return to the past".
- Jacques Tourneur.

- 1947.
- Black and white.

No, no, thing is, that you're her
grandfather and you try to excuse her.

Well, I'm her father, you know?
Her father, and I can't allow...

Ah well that, that, that a shitty
girl talks to me in that way,

as if I were a stranger.
You should have heard it.

I've already called her four times
and nothing. There's just no way.

Good and what do you want me to do?
Huh? To keep my arms crossed?

Sonia is almost a girl. No, hey,
hey, no. Not 20 years old, 19.

She's my daughter and I love her, yes,
I love her, even if it doesn't show.

- Doorbell - ... I love her and
I don't want to see her suffer

But who the fuck can it be now?

- I know she's nervous and scared, but
that doesn't mean that... - Doorbell

But she's scared not of her story,

but that I'm aware of the mess, and
we'll have to do something, right?

- Hello.
- Hello.

Have you lost the key?

I'm going to get some herbs and sleep,
tomorrow I need to wake up early.

- To Ávila again?
- Aha.

- Hey, why don't you use your broom?
- I have it in the workshop.

Look, I don't know what's happening in
Avila, nor I care, but Fede is sad.

- Do you want an infusion?
- Sure, yes, but with a shot of anise.

Well, dad, let's forget about
the girl's matter eh?

... Let’s leave it, I have a
lot to do and I'm tired.

Besides... As much as we talk, you
and me, it won't fix anything.

In how many weeks are you
going to make the movie?

- Well, look, the work
plan says eight. - Seven.

This is in 7. The "Dir" lowers it to
six and a half with reduced equipment,

and the boss says nope,

and he's right because this isn't
Hollywood, that it can be done in five.

- You know something? - Go ahead
- It can be done in four.

- Yes.
- 3 while we're at it.

We haven't even started to roll and
you two are already driving me crazy.

- Hey, Matias.
- What is it now?

Marisa's representative,
he says no lower than 60,

- and for 2 sessions it will be a 100.
- Have you heard?

- With a wig I can do better than her.
- Ha-ha-ha.

- Very good.
- I already told you to go away man.

Yes Boss.

Tell him to forget it, and
tomorrow, when he calls again,

you close the two
sessions for 75.

Okay.

Call Valero and hire
the big crane for a week.

- OK.
- OK, OK, OK, no, Now!

Then she's always busy
doing advertising.

And wise up Matias, cut the bullshit,
that these are not "The metabolics",

if any of these things fails,
I won't film, I won't film!

We're all going to
take it in the ass.

- Hello Dad.
- Hello.

What's up?

What do you mean, what's up?
Didn't you wanted to talk to me?

But now I can't.
Can't you see that I can't?

Good, good.
Whatever, see you later.

- Hey... hey Sonia...
- Whatever, man, whatever.

I can tell that when you're working
you don't exist for anyone.

- Go ahead
- How long for us to do it?

- On whose behalf?
- Huh?

- Five weeks, - One moment
- and a half with reduced equipment.

- Matias, to the phone.
- Who is it?

Hey Jose, two things, and nothing else
then I'm leaving. First: I want a script.

Haven't they already given you a script?
Hey, Manolo, a script for Federico.

What is it Manolo? What is it? Has a
scriptwriter no right to anything?

- Fuck, you know Balboa has them all.
- Well, ask him for one.

He just left and he have them locked.
You already know that.

I'll be damned..., don't worry,
you'll have your script. Word.

It happened, it happened. Took a
lot of work, what do you think?

- The registration certificate...
- Listen.

Yes, yes, I mean we already
have the circulation permit.

- What? It's not?
- Well, thank you very much, regards.

Tell him to stick it
up his ass. Will you?

Stick it up your ass.

That no one here performs,
they go to a concert, asshole.

Return it immediately, man.
Can it be possible?

- Are you coming to the premiere?
- What premiere?

Fuck.

Hey, what are those
kids doing there?

What are those
kids doing there?

What are those
kids doing there?

- What are those kids doing there?
- Oh, I don't know,

the councilor brought them.

Those aren't fucking kids?
They are dwarfs.

Let's see. Excuse me, please, if
you're so kind, can you please leave?

There's been a mistake,
excuse me, huh?

- Didn't looked right to me, there
are no dwarves in the script, - No.

- Well, are you coming to the premiere?
- But what premiere?

Ah, yes, "The Ants",
I forgot.

- So it's tonight, huh? - Aha.
- Boy, do we have a mess now...

I want to start rolling the 24th and
we haven't located the exteriors yet.

- Tomorrow you pick me up at 7, right?
- Yes, I'll pick you up at home.

- Well, don't worry...
- Earlier, of course, earlier.

-...earlier.
- You'll see her another day.

- What do you think?
- I don't like it.

You see, Jose...

I don't like it...

Huh?

Listen to me, Jose, I would like you
to take a look at the third ant,

It's a girl that...

- But why don't you like it?
- Because I don't like it.

The third ant is called Amelia

- and is a girl who could do very
well as Pili's sister. - Yes.

Go ahead

You're boning her, huh?

Me? Buah, you know I'm a
man that barely fucks.

On whose behalf?

Then for me, send her to me.

Tell her to introduce herself as the
third ant and I'd know what's up.

- Jose, to the phone.
- Who is it?

A guy about a conference that you
have to give I don't know where.

What I needed.
And now what do I tell this guy?

Hey Fede, why don't you give this talk
for me, and get yourself some cash?

- No, no, don't mess with me.
- It's about the usual.

- Yes, yes, you do it very well.
I can't help you, leave me alone.

Fede, it's going to be impossible
for me to go to the theater,

at 9 we have a meeting
with the whole team.

- It's at 9, right?
- Yes at 9.

Yeah, it won't end until
after 12 at least.

How about... you come home later
and we have a drink together?

- Well we'll see. Bye.
- Alright.

- Pass me the call.
- Of course.

What are you doing there? Always
stirring my papers. - Damn it.

- Always bugging me, bothering me.
- You're all crazy.

Jose, there might be problems with
the minister's BMW.

- A SEAT won't do, right?
- No, I rather use a motorcycle.

A bike, a bike, so the minister can
take the girl to the mountains.

A bike! A bike! A bike!
Let's see, go ahead.

No, I'm not Don Matias,
I'm Don Matias’s mother!

Whistles and protests

And it will be a new,
different day,

as the first day of creation.

And we'll recognize it,

because on that day
the light of freedom,

will illuminate
all the anthills.

Poor guy, he's fallen asleep.

And this isn't a good time,
I already warned Fede.

But you've seen it already, when
he get something in his head...

And the dwarves? What are
those dwarves doing there?

- And Fede? Where is Fede?
- He's parking.

Your parking space is occupied
by a car... a small one,

emerald green, very beautiful.

Ah yes, that asshole on
the ninth-left letter D.

Hey, that asshole that from
the ninth-left letter D

has left his shit
fig of a car again

In your garage, you have to
tell him something, right?

I know, it won't happen again.
Go make yourself comfortable,

that the piper is getting warm.

The piper? Why? Is there
something to celebrate?

What happened?
Did they suspended the premiere?

Unfortunately not.

Starting the second act,
half the theater was gone.

Well look, if the audience got bored
tomorrow you'll have good reviews.

I knew it, I knew it was
going to be a disaster.

But what can you expect from a guy
who confuses irony with violence.

He got the ants
with biker helmets,

the whole second part,
with biker helmets.

"Che, be calm, Federico.

You have to get the catharsis
to purify the mise en scene

by means of a rebellious distancing
performance. Son of a fucking bitch!

- Fede!
- Yes, son of a fucking bitch.

"The debut of pure anguish theater,
a dramaturgy of purification

like that hairy ape..."
Son of a fucking bitch!

All of it... he took out
the entire opening.

When the curtain came up, you know,
we should have the impression

to be at the entrance of
an anthill. Well, none of that.

"And if... we'll divide
the stage into two halves,

the horror and... the horror, the earth
below, the stone is the sky, above".

Also the bastard wiped the
entire end of the first part

when the red ants fight
with the blue ants

to the delight
of the colorless ants.

Colorless ants?
I haven't seen those.

Did Gorochenco
also wiped them?

"But what you sayin'", Gorochenco wiped
everything that came out of his ass.

The colorless constitute
the dominant race,

those that whatever happens,
always live well,

because their bodies
are transparent,

and they adopt the same
color of the ones that rule.

- Right? Kind of... - Sure,
sure, but he understood nothing,

Well, with this montage
no one understands.

"Look, we'll get a greater impact than
what the theater of cruelty got,

we're going to Broadway, man"

If we go to Broadway,
they put us down with a bazooka.

Look, it's not that I want to defend
Gorochenco, you know that I hate him,

but I've always told you that your
play had a very difficult montage

that it was practically
unpresentable.

Hey, difficult maybe, but not
unpresentable at all.

20 years ago the crew of education
and rest stealthily represented it

in the mobile park and they did it very
well. Remember what Marqueríe said.

- No, I don't remember.
- Well, that.

"Well, che, come,
come with me".

"Help me to directly
bring the cups, eh?”

Leave it, Jose, don't
bother, it's too late.

I don't drink alcohol,
it wakes me up.

Ah good.

Just a moment,
a moment, a moment...

Let's clarify this
once and for all.

Here we've come to
have a drink with Jose,

to celebrate the failure
of "The Ants".

That you don't want to have a drink
with Jose? Well, you don't have it.

If here, Sondra the mysterious, Queen
of Shangri-La or whoever the fuck she is

doesn't want to drink with Jose,
well she just doesn't,

but I'll have it, is that clear?
I'll have a drink with Jose,

because that's why we came.

Or didn't we came for that?
Hey? No, no, answer me!

Why did we come here? Did or
didn't we came just for that?

- Hey, the failure has gone
to your head. – No, no.

Let her say it, let her, we've
come to have a drink with Jose.

Well, I'll have it.

"Che be cool, Federico, it's going to be an
exceptional premiere." Son of a bitch.

That asshole Gorochenco says that
he's been at the Moscow's theater...

... it might have been
in Stalingrad...

Although he'll never recognize it,
"The Ants" is his favorite work.

A work of his youth.

He wrote it shortly after we
met, it's dedicated to me.

Problem is, that I had planned to
present the issue today.

But with all this,
I don't know how to do it.

Let a few days pass, if you tell
him now, it will hurt him more.

There's no way, Mala,
there's no way.

I've tried, I've talked
to Sonia and nothing.

It turned out to be fatal:
"Dad, don't be a hypocrite".

She told me that and it's over.

I didn't knew what to answer.

A father like me,
has nothing to do.

- Why?
- Because she's right.

I'm a father who sees
her from time to time,

that takes her to the movies,
who asks her if she studies a lot.

Just that much, what gives me
the right to get into her life now?

But it bothers me,
because I love her.

I love her very much, even if
don't know how to tell her.

There are people who do well,
being friend to their friends,

but not as a father,
and that's me.

And that's the thing.

That she's going out with
a guy around my age,

and that in the best case, will
complicate her life for a while.

No.

Why not?

'Cause that guy isn't
like you imagine.

Oh no?

So what's that guy like?

Mmmm... Sequence 34.

"I know that I'm at a loss with
you and that I'll always be,

but not by age, it doesn't matter
that I'm 42 and you're 20.

I'm at a loss because I'll always
need your good sense,

Your sincerity,
your emotional balance.

You know, emotionally,
I'm still a child.

A child who's afraid of life."

- Very nice, nice but...
- But what?

That it isn't true?
That everything you write is a lie?

Yes. No. Well...

One thing is cinema and another,
much more dangerous, is life.

- Besides, my daughter isn't that
girl in the script. - You sure?

Sure.

"I think I need you because
in you I've found

something that I've never
felt around my family.

My parents, my people,
have always seen me

in a different way
to how I really am.

I believe that as children we're never
as we really are with our parents.

A strange modesty prevents
that, to them and to us.

With you, on the other hand, I have
the feeling that life is fine,

That it's great to get ready
to go and meet you,

It's great to wait for
a phone call from you,

that is great, to go anywhere
and think about you,

listen to music
and smile or get sad.

Did you notice that our songs,
Barbra Streisand, Serrat,

Don't sound the same
if we're not together?"

What?

It's long, that paragraph is
long, I've already told Fede.

If the world according to
Varela-Alcántara doesn't work,

It would be better if you
don't start filming tomorrow.

Why don't you talk to him?

Because I don't know...

I would know how to write
my scene with him, but talk...

I don't know. No...

OK. Cafeteria, general plane.

Camera frames Sonia's father,

and it goes traveling with him to
the table where the guy waits for him.

Short plane of the guy,
back plane of the father.

Why don't you talk to him?

I already have.

And?

He's a good person, divorced.

Like me.

- They have two children.
- Like me.

One of nine and the other
is seven years old.

And he loves Sonia, he really
loves her, eh? No nonsense.

But who's that guy?
Where did she met him?

In the faculty,
he's Sonia's teacher.

Economic Theory's Professor.

Fuck, fuck.

Hey, Jose, and a man
as romantic as your father,

What does he think
about this?

You already told him, right?

Getting depressed,
49-3, second.

Action!

Traveling.

Yes.

Yes, who's calling?

One moment, please.

Girl, come here!

- What?
- Phone call.

Who is it, grandma?

He says it's a friend,
but I think it's your father.

Yes. Hi, dad.

And what do we
have to talk about?

- Dad, the camping thing
is my business. - Cut.

Listen for once,
that I won't repeat it again,

I've known Mala for a long time,
but I don't know who she is.

I know she comes and goes, that she
appears and disappears from Jose's life,

that she has a very good
influence on him,

that she's a little weird,
well, a little...

But she's a very good
person, you've seen it,

I told him to go with you to Ávila and
you saw. Come, let's get the chorizo,

I don't know
anything else.

To me, all those things
that keep you up at night,

if he sleeps with her or doesn't,
I couldn't care less.

- No, no... that one.
- Sure, it makes me sick.

Jose has his life
and I have mine.

By the way, both are
equally tasty. Anyways...

Mala's father was a
merchant sailor, a captain,

- from Gijon.
- Oh.

And he was married here, but
in Rio, in Rio de Janeiro,

he broke his leg while drinking
in the middle of the carnival

and there he met a mestiza

and begot in her a daughter
during his convalescence.

What do you think?

Well, that lately you read
too much of the Bible,

because that of
"and begot in her..."

Well, the merchant sailor,

Lived ever since with his
heart divided in two,

because he loved the Brazilian and
her little girl with passion...

- Hey, do we have lemon jam?
- We do.

- And pickles?
- Yes.

- Should I go on?
- Yes, Yes.

Well, the sailor also
loved his Spanish wife,

and his son, because they
had a 15-year-old son.

And that child was...
your friend José Manuel Varela.

That is, Jose and Mala are
brothers of the same father.

And Mala's name is Graciela
dos Santos Varela Leiriña.

- What?
- And who told you that?

She did, Mala.

And Mala is called Mala, because it's
the name that Jose's mother gave her.

Because she died convinced
that her husband in Rio

was bewitched by a love potion.

Or that the Brazilian was able to
seduce him by conjuring a macumba.

Well, in Rio de Janeiro, you can't
even walk around all those macumbas.

Alright...

This is not the bus in the script,
you'll have to repeat it.

Alright.

The bus in the script is one of
those around midnight, half-empty,

in motion...

wider planes.

Like this.

This shot is fine.

It's better than the first one.
Very nice. It has good focus.

Mala...

I want to ask you something.

The same thing of every year?

Yes.

No.

Why not?

Because.

But if you love me
and I love you...

we would be happy.

- Be good, Mala.
- No.

No what?

You don't love me, I don't love you?
Or you don't want to live with me?

Yes, I love you,
yes, you love me...

and no, I don't want
to live with you.

I like... to
depend on someone,

someone to take care of me,

I like to play
with the magic lantern,

make films,

but outside of it,

I already know that my life
doesn't make sense.

Have you ever thought,
that your job of making movies

Is in itself a movie
that you make?

I don't know what you mean.

Sure?

Everything is magic.

I don't understand you,
but it's the same.

It's wonderful to be here
on a Sunday morning,

listening to Bach,

and smearing a bit of metaphysics
on a piece of toast.

"Dear mom, I understand you very
well. These things happen.

Something similar, but more vulgar
is my relationship with the mountain.

It calls me and
I have to go to it.

I hope dad understand you and
show his generous side.

You deserve to be very happy.
Kisses. I love you. Luisito."

You don't know what it means to a Mom
to have a son who writes like this.

Your son writing is awful, he has
no style or strength or simplicity.

He's a corny and cheeky.
"The mountain calls me".

He writes just like when
he was in school.

Please, don't drink any more.

My duties in this house...
I have fulfilled.

I gave you a son
and I raised him.

Lives his life
and doesn't need me.

You have your little books, your
little theater, your little movies...

You could say your books,
your theater, your movies...

Forgive me. But I don't
even have that.

You live surrounded by things you
like, and that fill your time.

No, it's over.

I don't intend to continue
with my arms crossed.

And before it's too late.

Very well, but listen
to me carefully.

And I speak to you coldly,
calmly, without nerves.

If you leave this house, little one,
get used to the idea that this time...

No, not this time, Fede.

Don't start to act like John
Wayne, this is very serious.

Forget cinema for
a moment, will you?

It's terrible... to live with a
person that with every new situation

starts taking mental notes

as if he were going to use
it for his next script.

OK, OK, so my sweet Pili,
Pili the lively,

My dear Pili has also
a vial of poison hidden.

Well, whatever, woman,
goodbye and good for you.

At least from now on I'll be what
I've always been for the two of you:

a ghost, a simple ghost.

And if I want to speak like John
Wayne, I speak like John Wayne

and like the whore who gave
birth to John Wayne. Fuck!

But didn't you say that
we still have Forzacao, my love.

She's becoming a nun.

- Who?
- Pili.

No.

Why not?

No, in that case I'd rather
have her leave the minister.

She's becoming a nun.

- But who?
- Pili.

- And who's Pili?
- My wife.

Fuck...

Pili Martínez de Lorenzo,
my wife, is becoming a nun.

- How come?
- Like that.

- I don't get it.
- Me neither.

Sorry, it's 2:30.

- No, 2 and 28.
- We're done.

For me #12, but instead of two
sausages, can I get two croquettes?

That is #9.

No...

because #9 has
Russian potato salad

and this one has lettuce.

- All right.
- And you sir?

- Vermouth with gin.
- One more?

Yes, one more, because I'm going
to drink this one right away.

- See?
- I see.

Well, then, take it away.

What's wrong?
Why are you so angry?

It's not that he's angry,
it's that he's unfriendly.

Well, look,

Ingrid Bergman was gorgeous as a nun
in "The Bells of Santa Maria",

Don't you remember?

Alright.

- Carmelite?
- What, you're going to joke with this?

The hell do I know?

But where do I stand, with an
alpinist son and a nun wife?

To misbehave.

Did you say nun?

Nun? sure?

Everyone is going to
think that to live with me

is more boring than
living in a convent.

- And it's not that bad, is it, Jose?
- Boy, I don't know, no...

Thank you!

Get yourself something to eat,
I'm fasting since yesterday.

And...then there's the
other issue. What am I, now?

Divorced? No.
Widowed? Neither.

Single, well,
neither.

Hey, hey, the
croquettes are great,

it was a great idea to change
them for the sausages.

All right, OK.
Stay there, stay there.

That's it. Wet your lips.
Wet your lips!

- That's it. Everything OK?
- Aha

Silence!
SILENCE!

But who the hell is coming in?

- It was closed, eh, Paquito?
- It's because Don Matias has entered,

with Mr. Alcántara.

Sorry, sorry.

Well let's see if it's true
that we all get to shut up.

- Motor.
- Rolling.

"Getting depressed",
44-1, first.

Take the action, Victor.

"I know you don't believe
it, but I'm a child."

"Emotionally I'm still a child,
a child who's afraid of life."

"You'll never get
to understand it,

but post-wars impact you
in a tremendous way."

"It's known, that when there's
no bread, they give you taboos."

"My love, I spend all my
time thinking about you.

I see a movie on TV and I say to
myself: "Is he watching it?

Did he felt the same as I did
when they say such a thing?"

"You'll say that since I don't have
much experience on other stories,

and it's true,

to tell you all this
doesn't mean much,

but I love you so
much, my love,

that when I do something
foolish, I say to myself:

My God, if he knew."

Cut!

No, no, no, I don't like it,
come on... let's do another one.

Hey, more passion, you're in
love with him, you're in love.

- When did he left?
- This morning, at 8.

I took him to Barajas and thank
goodness, today there was a flight.

- Hey, what are taboos? - I think
they're pussies or something.

Pussies? But...but
how ignorant you are.

Taboos are a tribe
of Indians,

like the Cherokees, the
Cheyenne, the Arapahoe...

- What's wrong?
- No, nothing.

What's up, Fede?

Balboa, his son died.

Give me a cigarette.

- What happened?
- An overdose.

They found him last night
at a hotel in Tangier.

Balboa have left by plane.

Well, let's film.

Fede, don't go, I want
to talk about the opening.

I'm thinking of putting
the minister's voice in off.

Hey, Manolo, don't say
anything until the end.

Sure.

Silence, let's film.

Patricia, come on.

- Silence!
- Silence!

- Motor.
- Rolling.

"Getting depressed",
44-1, second.

"I know you don't believe
it, but I'm a child."

"Emotionally,
I'm still a child."

Generational abyss.

Here is the abyss.

Read it...

if you want to find out.

Although it's not for cinema...

no one pays to know the truth.

This is all that I have left...

of a 19 year old son.

A notebook,

where he says that
his life is hell,

and his father is
a poor devil.

A piece of wood
without sensitivity,

with whom he has never
been able to speak.

Do you know one thing?

That father he talks about,

I give you my word,

it's not me.

It can't be me

His father loved him,
loved him very much.

Loved him with madness.

As a child,

he didn't pronounce
the "r" well,

so I went to his
room every night,

and we went with:

"On Carretas Street
there were runty curs..."

As a grown up,

I would've liked to
continue to kiss him.

Why is it so hard
to say "I love you"?

You who are a writer,

What will become of my life,

without those 19 years?

19 years.

Do you realize?

19 years.

My son...

was only 19 years old.

Balboa, I'm a very bad dialogist,

I've never been
able to write well

let alone say that very simple
line of "I love you".

Maybe that's why my son
is now on a mountain

until one day...

one of those pegs that
goes into a rock fails,

and good bye.

We came for you,
to take you to dinner.

This morning, I watched
the whole week's film.

It's very good.

Don't make it long.

Try not to exceed an hour forty.

Oh, and thanks.

We go out on another night.

Lots, and lots of happiness to all,
on behalf of Spanish Television.

We're already in the New Year.

We have just arrived to 1984.

These are its first moments and,
as you see, they can't be happier.

Our cameras cover the event,
wanting to transmit and bring you,

this same joy that is felt and
heard in La Puerta del Sol.

Joy that translates in: hugs,
songs, congratulations, music,

sound of rockets,
rattles, whistles,

everything that sounds is
represented in La Puerta del Sol.

Gone is already, 1983, a year that
has already gone down in history...

Now we are in the first
moments of the year of 1984...

Happy New Year.

Should we have a
drink... to celebrate?

Thanks, I don't feel like it.

Happy New Year.

... Stay in our company in front of
the television, have a nice night

and enjoy the program
we have prepared.

We return the transmission
to our studio.

We just started a new year,
and I want to request yet again,

that during the year,
you remember every day,

that only if each and every
one of us, puts his part

... respecting traffic regulations,

and to the people who share
the streets with us,

We'll get these streets, to be
as safe as we all want.

This is a General Direction
of Traffic's advice.

Ah! Happy and safe 1984.

- Cheers.
- Cheers.

I walk you out.

Have fun.

Remember me, be good.
And remember to come to me, eh?

Kiss Me.

Sure.

Goodnight.

Happy New Year, dad,
let's go with your double step.

Oh, do you know where's
your granddaughter?

Well at home,
having fun like crazy,

with her little sister,
mother and grandmother.

Can't she see that the guy is with his
kids? Well, she's at home, at home,

waiting for him to call.

Well, great.

Next year will be
different, my love.

We'll spend it together
in Venice or New York.

OK, OK.

You remember?

They always played "Suspiros de España"
on Radio Madrid at 12 o'clock.

And tears will
always came to you.

Of course, dad.

Yes... yes,
double steps are great.

They give you goose bumps.

As Fede says,

They have confused us a lot,
with the "españolada".

We've been ashamed of
many of our things,

that are wonderful.

What I liked the
most in school...

was to clear the blackboard.

I always volunteered.

And that's because,
since I was a kid,

I have had the need to forget.

When I grow up I want to
write a book of amnesia.

Sounds good to me.

And that book,

will be a detailed account of
everything that I managed to forget

And why is that?

It'll be an unforgettable book.

No, fuck,
it'll be a forgettable book.

My father always says:

"Behind every book

There's a boring afternoon. "

By the way, hey, when are you
going to bury your father?

Excuse me, man, but that
thing with your father...

Fuck, dude, you’re...
you're loony bin material.

And it's about time, you let
the poor man rest in peace.

Hey, you think
I'm an asshole,

and that I don't know
that my father is dead.

The thing is...

that if I definitely
get rid of my father,

Who will I talk to?

But, hey, does your father really
talk to you? Can you see him?

No, it's always a voice over.

Hey, what do you want?

There are people who die and,
nevertheless, are still alive.

I talk to my father about what I want,
and he answers me, and that's it.

I was able to talk about
everything with my wife.

Except of many things.

That's why I tell you that
we should be like mussels.

Mussels have a huge
advantage over us humans.

- In what?
- In the matter of understanding.

Don't you know what happens
to the mussels?

No. Enlighten me.

The mussels...

change sex.

They're females a season,
then they're males.

And so several times
throughout their life.

They're females one season,

then they're males.

It's one hell of a solution,

that way there are no problems
when it comes to understanding,

and they can live their whole life
together. Hey, come here.

Do you... do you know
how mussels live?

Well, like that, all together,
side by side, those guys.

- The word mussel...
- Fuck them in the ass,

the mussels are male or
female, do you understand?

Our true drama,
do you know what it is?

So I am going to tell you.

That we have grown older
without realizing it.

And I ask you,
do you know why?

Listen, listen,
the word mussel,

that comes from the Galician
"mexillón", with an "x",

it's a vulgar name,
because the real name,

the scientific name...

Damn it, Federico,
I've asked you a question.

To me?

Do you know why we have grown
old without realizing it?

Well for a very simple fact,
because we haven't lived.

- Oh no?
- No.

No, "they" have
lived for us.

We have always lived lives
that were not our lives,

because in our lives there are
only stories... of other lives.

You... Are you sure?
Are you sure of that?

Completely, completely Federico.

We're unreal, we
live in a movie state.

In a state of literature.

Of course... so... Wait!

Wait a moment that
I'll help you.

Invented parts of our life
contain certain truths.

Scott Fitzgerald in
"Tender is the Night".

But what the fuck does that have
to do with the mussels?

What are we talking about?

The true scientific name,
as I was saying, is mytilus edulis.

You're drunk, eh?

- You're totally wasted. – He-he-he
- You're totally wasted.

If we were like mussels...
He-he-he!

If we enjoyed of something like
their sexual condition,

...I would allow to look
it over, he-he-he!

Well, every once in a while,
I would be my wife

- and my wife would be my husband.
- Where am I? Where are you?

And no more problems, hey,
that would give marriage,

an ambiguous morphing face and even,
and even, multipurpose.

No, I didn't like at all
that you removed my bed scene

where the girl talks about the
multipurpose generation.

You always cut my scripts,
why did you CUT IT?

Because we have dedicated
our lives to cinema,

and cinema has ran
over us and crushed us.

Of course, Hollywood really
did a good thing for us.

What?

- It helped to crack our
glorious empire. - Oh really, how?

It informed us that being Spanish

wasn't being the most important
thing in the world. - Yeah...

They went...
the jokes went like this:

"A Frenchman, a German, and an
American, and a Spaniard."

- And a Russian.
- And a Russian, a Russian.

- And they were all assholes, they
were all assholes. – Ha-ha-ha.

Except us.

But fuck it, it was Saturday, you went
to the neighborhood movie theater,

Four afternoons of continuous sessions
and you left without a penny.

Broke, after seeing Robert
Mitchum, Charlton Heston,

- Clark Gable...
- And even Fred McMurray...

All so tall, so blond,
with those pecs...

And those bulks in their arms.

You went to bed
with the "fondarino",

the next day when you
talked about it with

the Political Education,
channels and ports' professor...

- I was saying... - Queers, queers,
all those artists are queers.

Now that was an empire, fuck.

Of course, they immediately
came back saying:

"What a Spaniard doesn't reach
with the tip of his hand,

reaches with the tip
of his sword."

Eduardo Malquina....

to say: enough, then go on a
sword fight with those lyrics,

With a scratchy voice, it doesn't
bother you? it doesn't? bo...

An... anyway, that after some
time, we managed to retire.

And the sons of
Nestlé's young lions

They shot up, up, up,
and everything turned to shit.

We didn't got that right either.
Now, the dwarfs are in fashion.

Dudley Moore, Woody Allen,

Al Pacino and Dustin Hoffman.

Hey, I just realized.

What?

That I didn't bring
the car today.

Hey, hey, if you want,
I'll carry you in my arms?

"Since I was a child,
I've always been fascinated,

by the big cities."

"They are hot and tender
as a last hug."

It's very dark, isn't it?

They always say that it's fixed
in the laboratory, but you see.

I told him many times. - Oh.
Well whatever.

... With the truth
and with the lie.

It's almost always in big cities

where the amorous passions
are dangerously strolling.

In the city nothing
is what it is.

In the city you always
starts from scratch.

Hi, Federico,
How are you doing?

Hi, beautiful.

I'm going to find my sit.

Sit down, I'll see you later.

I had been appointed minister
three months ago and until then

I hardly had experienced any
major changes in my private life.

I met her in a fortuitous way.

All important stories,

always start in a fortuitous way.

I LOVE YOU

Hey, come on! the asshole
of the ninth-left letter D

has yet again left his
shitty car in your garage.

- But, haven't you told him anything?
- And the journalist?

She says that she's married and also
that she gets along with her husband.

Of course, I won't fly to a
premiere until the next one.

Go, get a glass.

It's gone.

Well, we'll have to start thinking
about another movie.

- Balboa Films wants a medieval one.
- OK.

He says they're going
to be in fashion.

Can I talk to your father?

Sure.

There.

Do you know one thing?

Your son and... me,
are not that weird.

What happens is that...
we are made of the material

with which dreams are done.

- That's all.
- William Shakespeare.

And Sam Spade.

... Go ahead, go ahead with them.

... We said that.

Yes, that was exactly...

...stays mainly...
in the plain...

...♪Play it again
... My Johnny♫

...it's for the author
and the director.

... At 11:45.

There has been no
greater light at any time,

than that which Eva reflects...

Hello.

- Steve.
- Yes

- I'm Coby.
- Hi, what's up, Coby?

- Bush gave me your number.
- OK.

Listen, Dick, would you like
to be a part in something big?

Two eggs boiled in water
and two in tortilla.

- And also two hard boiled eggs.
- And also two hard boiled eggs.

Instead of two, put three.

See the real star from
pictures: Kathy Sal...

♪Glory, glory, hallelujah... ♫

"Second class citizens,
that's what we are".

JOHN FORD.

Original Spanish subtitles: TVE.

Translation and timings
done for my friends on KG by FFC.