There are many ways to talk about cinema. You can resort to a record that delves into the intellectual dimension of art, referencing technical concepts and audiovisual movements until the receiver is dizzy. Or you can appeal to the emotion – without neglecting the informative substance – of the trace that certain titles leave in the memory and on the skin. Journalist Toni Garcia Ramon (Mataró, 1971) belongs rather to the second group. When he talks about movies, he is understood. He is nice. And even better: it’s a lot of fun. All these qualities crystallize in his new book (No) I’m at the movies (Cathedral), now for sale. A text in which life is intertwined with the seventh art until both manage to significantly enhance each other.
In an interview for this header about your first film book, kill your idols, the question arose if there would be more titles about it and you answered the following: “No, please no. There is one and it already seems to me many ”. Clearly you’ve changed your mind. Why?
Because the first one was very good and they convinced me by paying me more. Damn editors.
What is the premise from which this second book starts?
I wanted to talk about cinema without releasing an inhuman turra and that it could be enjoyed even if you didn’t like this discipline. I thought about making a book of adventures, stories, comics, that somehow connect with movies that I have always considered a kind of anesthesia, vitamin or anxiolytic. Medicinal films that would have marked my existence in a greater or lesser way. I repeat, more like Jules Verne than Marcel Proust. I like to think that it is an entertaining book, that it accompanies you for a while and you may even enjoy it.
At what point did you know that you had to keep writing, that this publishing project was viable?
I wasn’t very clear that I was going to write another book until they asked me, and when they did, it was hard for me not to repeat myself. I didn’t want to go through the Hollywood anecdote routine again because I had already done it and I wanted something different. Later, when I hit the key and saw that I could still write something worthy, the delivery date had already passed. At that moment, I knew that I would either write it or return the money and I was not going to return the money, so I had to write the damn book.
Do you think that cinema can change your life if it is the right movie at the right time?
Totally. But I don’t think it’s something exclusive to the cinema. I think it can be a book, or a play, or a song, or a poem. I think that sometimes, in difficult moments, art is a door to other places and that is what makes it so extremely powerful. In my case, movies have saved my life many times, but each one has its anchors and its shelters. My book is about mine, but there are as many as there are inhabitants on this planet.
Have you ever sinned as a snob when it comes to talking about cinema? Is there any film genre that arouses your anger or is the target of your prejudices?
Of course. It’s a horrible thing, but terribly human. Sometimes one believes himself to be in possession of the absolute truth and positions himself above the masses because he or she is ‘special’. I suppose that if you dedicate yourself to it, it is something inevitable. I also think that over time it passes and you learn that your opinion is great, as much as that of the neighbor across the street or the person who serves you in the supermarket. Life is much better this way. And I hate musicals and movies where I’m forced to be a voyeur. When they start to sing or do something to someone and I notice that they only want me to be a voyeur (not an observer) I disconnect immediately; I can make exceptions in the first, but not in the second.
Do you think that the evolution of the collective conversation about the representation of women and minorities in cinema has altered your critical judgement?
I think the conversation has altered everyone’s critical judgment and made us aware of many things that we previously overlooked. I am very glad that it is so. I must also say that I have always tried to contextualize the cinema I see: when it was made and where and under what circumstances. Judging with the look of the present what was done 40 or 50 years ago is a somewhat surreal exercise and, from my point of view, absolutely sterile.
5 masterful films to watch at 5 very specific moments in your life, according to Toni García