The Circuit

by Emilio Mayorga
The highlight of this year’s Cinema Jove, in Spain’s Valencia, a festival famed for celebrating young talent, were a bunch of card-carrying pensioners.

Cinema Jove jury president Jerzy Skolimowski, has been written off, regularly and wrongly, as retired. Richard Lester ("A Hard Day's Night") writes himself off as retired, maybe not so wrongly.  Joined by Jiri Menzel and Michael Sarne they were all brought into Cinema Jove for the “Cann(es)celled” showcase - pics which never got to screen in Cannes Competition in 1968.

Forty years later they swapped anecdotes and proved life - and movie-making problems - go on after 60.

Better known as an actor ("Eastern Promises"), Sarne talked about a Barcelona-set Bukowski adaptation he’s trying to make. "The main role’s for a skinny, haggard and ugly woman. I can't find the actress," he explained.

Spanish director Bigas Luna ("I Am Juani," "Golden Balls"), who has a rep as a talent discoverer; having given Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz their big breaks in “Jamon, Jamon,” brought an actress to him.

"Jesus, she was the most voluptuous and stunning girl I've ever seen," Sarne said. "I need a new producer," he concluded.

Menzel ("I Served the King of England"), a Jove habitue, said he had “more and more doubts about new projects. It's so difficult to find an exceptional script.”

Also recently back in the limelight, after "Four Nights with Anna" opened Directors’ Fortnight, Skolimowski told Variety he’d definitely abandoned, “America,” a long-mooted adaptation of a Susan Sontag's novel. The producers couldn't raise the budget, he said.

Skolimowski soon dispatched Cannes 1968, then told a story about Lee Marvin and John Boorman getting smashed at a party in Hollywood. Boorman, slightly the better for wear, offered to drive Marvin home. Marvin accepted, but only if he could lie on his roof of his car.

A policeman soon flagged them down.

"Sir, you have actor Lee Marvin on the roof of your car…," he told Boorman.

"Yes, I know. But… Is it illegal?" Boorman asked.

40 years after Cannes, Valencia’s Cinema Jove allowed the directors the sweet taste, if not of success, at least of Iberic jam.

“It’s over,” Richard Lester said of his career, talking at the Hotel Las Arenas, giving on to that most aristocratic now of Valencian beaches, the Malvarrosa. 

Then he tasted the jam, looked at the horizon, and his smile deepened into happiness.
Photo: fest director Rafael Maluenda, Richard Lester, Michael Sarne and Blighty film critic Philippe Bergson.

by Emilio Mayorga
Spain’s third biggest city, backing off from a sparkling Mediterranean down on its eastern seaboard, Valencia’s a paradox, a place of vast ambitions and - being Mediterranean - a relaxed life-style. 

The Moors lived there for centuries. It still tells: in the huge orange groves, the city’s round turret towers, the bustle, Valencia’s noise, its poky old parts, its paella.

Valencian’s parties, sometimes surreally. In March, for its Fallas, Valencia’s fiesta, its townfolk drag out huge cardboard and wood sculptures of well-known figures - politicians, film stars - which they’ve spent months building, then burn them to cinders, tossing fireworks into the blaze.

But Valencia’s has galloped into the present. In events, or buildings, its ambitions run high. Sometimes literally. The Chicago Spire, projected to become the highest scyscraper in the U.S., is designed by Valencian architect Santiago Calatrava.

Valencia’s City of Arts and Sciences is astonishing: You don’t have to look further than its sci-fi chic architecture.

The city hosted the last America’s Cup.

The regional government of Valencia is ploughing Euros270 million ($425 million) into its Ciudad de la Luz studios, where Francis Ford Coppola’s shooting “Tetro.” 

Now, the nearby town of Alzira is building Spain’s first Museum of Audiovisual Arts.

And, being Valencia, it doesn’t have one film festival  it has two: the Cinema Jove and the Mostra de Valencia.

Late June’s Jove (which means “young” in Valencian), which wrapped last Saturday, showcases new generation trends and talents. Until recently, directors had to be under-35 just to get into its competition.  It screens a few world preems, often from local helmer’s such as, this year, Pau Hernandez’s “El Kaseron” (pictured).

Fest winners tend still to be firs t- or second-timers - like Estonia’s Veiko Ounpuu, who snagged Cinema Jove’s Golden Moon for “Autumn Ball.”

Or they’re at least young-ish, such as  Macedonia’s Teona Strugar, who received a special jury mention for "I Am From Titov Veles.”

Cinema Jove’s Film Future Prize, a traditional fest plaudit, went to Spanish actress Barbara Goenaga (pictured).

Jove winners, like Valencia itself, deserve more attention.