October 2020 Watchlist: Hispanic Heritage Month

October 2020 Watchlist: Hispanic Heritage Month

Mid-September to mid-October is Hispanic Heritage Month: a celebration of cultures in the Spanish-speaking word. We love our foreign language selection, and going through it we found we had recommendations from every majority Spanish-speaking country/territory on the planet! Here are some of our faves.

If you'd like to see the full list, our synopsis, why we recommend, and who should watch, subscribe at $5/month on our Patreon @westsidevideo! We’re also prepared to explain the difference between Latino/a/e/x and Hispanic terms if you need to ask an educating-forward party instead of making your friends teach you.

Argentina

La historia oficial (The Official Story)

Bolivia

Erase una vez en Bolivia (Once Upon A Time In Bolivia)

Chile

Una mujer fantástica (A Fantastic Woman)

Colombia

El abrazo de la serpiente (Embrace Of The Serpent)

Costa Rica

El despertar de las hormigas (The Awakening Of The Ants)

Cuba

Fresa y chocolate (Strawberry And Chocolate)

Dominican Republic

Carpinteros (Woodpeckers)

Ecuador

Qué tan lejos (How Much Further)

El Salvador

El lugar mas pequeño (The Tiniest Place)

Guatemala

La Llorona (2019)

Honduras

El espíritu de mi mamá (The Spirit of my Mother)

Mexico

Y tu mamá también

Nicaragua

La Yuma

Panama

Caja 25 (Box 25)

Paraguay

Las herederas (The Heiresses)

Peru

Contracorriente (Undertow)

Puerto Rico

Lo que le pasó a Santiago (What Happened To Santiago)

Spain

El orfanato (The Orphanage)

Uruguay

La noche de 12 años (A Twelve-Year Night)

Venezuela

Pelo malo (Bad Hair)

Look, no one gave me the idea. I decided to ask Amy to marry me all on my own on April 28th.

April 2020 Watchlist: We Are In A Bottle Episode

A bottle episode of a series is one where the scope is more limited than what is typical, usually with a single location and/or heavily focus on just a few characters. The purpose is usually to save production costs, but it also can be a real playground for writers and actors to explore people and places in depth. 

Sound familiar? It should, ‘cause it’s us! Here we go a-sheltering, so thank goodness for television.

Archer S6E5 “Vision Quest” - This show is wacky anyway, but locking all the characters in an elevator for a real time bottle episode is a whole new hilarious danger zone chock-full of in-jokes and call-backs.

Atlanta S2E6 “Teddy Perkins” - Atlanta is a funny show, but “Teddy Perkins” is a psychological horror masterpiece. One of the series regulars arrives at a mansion to pick up a free piano from essentially a late stage Michael Jackson lookalike, and things go from unsettling to much worse over the course of 41 minutes. This aired without commercials or advanced critic screenings, and both helped us feel absolutely suffocated in this giant house.

Breaking Bad S3E10 “Fly” - Extremely over budget and looking at the lives of their characters, the Breaking Bad producers decided to make an episode with just two characters, set in the lab. Rian Johnson- yes, THAT Rian Johnson- directed this tale of two guys with big contamination in their lives who focus their energy on ridding themselves of at least one toxic thing: a fly in their workspace.

Community S2E8 “Cooperative Calligraphy” - Annie’s purple pen is missing, and she is TIRED of lending out her stuff and not getting it back. Nobody is seeing the puppy parade, touching that just-finished diorama, or even leaving this room until it’s found! Community had multiple bottle episodes, but this was a truly incredible feat of small screen filmmaking.

Fawlty Towers S1E4 “Hotel Inspectors” - This show is one of John Cleese’s most enduring works, and still holds up decades later. This particular episode, loosely based on a Nikolai Gogol satirical play, has Basil Fawlty hearing that inspectors are coming to his hotel and immediately mistaking regular guests for them. The cycle of frustration is hilarious!

Friends S3E2 “The One Where No One’s Ready” - It takes a lot of work to make even a single member of an audience feel kinda bad for Ross, but if you’re a punctual person, he’ll earn a bit of your pity in this one. Ross shows up to collect the whole gang for a fancy dress work event only to witness, in real time, some of the most ridiculous bickering, problem solving, and going commando ever undertaken on the show. This is also the one with Monica trying to delete her voicemail message from her ex’s phone and the one where Joey wears all of Chandler’s clothes at once. 

It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia S7E7 “Chardee MacDennis” - The absolute chaos that is the Reynolds siblings and the most terrifying tabletop extravaganza of Game Of Games, aka Chardee MacDennis, meet and peak in this episode, when the gang is stuck inside the bar on a rainy day. There are notebook-sized sets of rules for this game if you’d like to risk your life and friendships at home, but we recommend just watching this absolutely ridiculous episode instead.

Mad Men S4E7 “The Suitcase” - There’s a sporting event happening that all but two characters are heading toward. The remaining two are Peggy, who is only waiting for her boss to leave so she can go celebrate her birthday with her boyfriend, and Don, who is sinking into his ad deadline like it’s television quicksand. Peggy and Don end up spending the night working together, refreshingly without romance, even as their personal lives continue to encroach. Their process leads to a brief but absolute understanding between them. Shame the show peaked here, at its halfway point.

Parks & Recreation S7E4 “Leslie & Ron” - There’s a time jump between the 6th and 7th seasons, and for some reason Leslie and Ron are no longer on speaking terms this side of the series. Tired of this nonsense, the rest of the gang tricks them both into meeting in the good ol’ office and locks them in overnight so they can talk it out. What starts as Ron being sullen and silent and Leslie trying to annoy Ron ends in secrets shared, reconciliation, and a stunning rendition of “We Didn’t Start The Fire.”

Star Trek TOS S1E5 “The Enemy Within” - No show ep deserves to be on this list more than The Enemy Within- possibly the origin of the term ‘bottle episode,’ Leonard Nimoy’s invention of the Vulcan nerve pinch, the first time McCoy says, “he’s dead, Jim,” and the true start of the person-split-in-two-parts trope. 

Veep S2E8 “First Response” - Imagine the most uncomfortable interview you’ve ever seen or been part of. Now imagine that interview involved a supposed fluff news reporter who is suddenly intent on asking hard-hitting questions and a socially inept, graceless vice president. This episode is all the secondhand cringe an audience could handle, and we will let you decide who- if anybody- won this battle of wills. 

The West Wing S2E18 “17 People” - This is a nearly perfect hour of television, even if the show as a whole has some issues in hindsight. Several conversations all happening inside the White House weave together to form a hilarious and heartbreaking narrative that drives the remainder of the season. How good is it, you ask? A fan (some fans?) literally built an entire website for this episode alone.

As always, this pared down dozen and the masterlist are available on our Patreon. Enjoy!

types of weather + old film recs

day

rainy ~ for listening to the soft pitter-patter on your window and getting comfy

♡ films: the women, how to marry a millionaire, bombshell, rings on her fingers, sabrina

sunny and warm ~ for laying in front of a fan and snacking on something cool

♡ films: singin’ in the rain, a date with judy, state fair, the seven year itch, viva las vegas

dark and overcast ~ for making a hot drink and enjoying some classic gloom

♡ films: the maltese falcon, the lady from shanghai, rebecca, the petrified forest, laura

chilly ~ for bundling up in a blanket and feeling warm all over

♡ films: vivacious lady, the shop around the corner, the awful truth, holiday, love affair

night

stormy ~ for dramatic weather and taking cover

♡ films: camille, dial m for murder, imitation of life, the bad and the beautiful, mildred pierce

still and quiet ~ for when you want something, anything to happen

♡ films: roman holiday, slightly dangerous, to catch a thief, jewel robbery, how to steal a million

foggy ~ for lovely fantasies and writing recipes for dreams

♡ films: one touch of venus, a midsummer night’s dream, love in the afternoon, the reluctant debutante, ziegfeld girl

too warm ~ for tossing and turning and those twisted romantic midnight moods

♡ films: it happened one night, gilda, casablanca, hands across the table, cat on a hot tin roof

Reunion, sorta

Drehbuchautorin Céline Sciamma: Die Frau hinter den großen Gefühlen - DER SPIEGEL - Kultur

Drehbuchstars gibt es wenige, doch sie ist einer: die Französin Céline Sciamma. Ob "Mein Leben als Zucchini" oder "Mit siebzehn", so einfühlsam wie sie schreibt zurzeit niemand übers Heranwachsen.

Translated interview

Screenplay writer Céline Sciamma: The women behind the big emotions

Patrick Heidmann, in: DER SPIEGEL, 18th of March 2017

There are very few screenplay writer stars, but she is one of them: the Frenchwoman Céline Sciamma. Whether it is ‘My Life as Courgette’ or ‘Being 17′, there is currently no one else who writes as empathetic as she does about growing up.

// Additions or clarifications for translating purposes are denoted as [T: …]. //

Interviewer: Ms Sciamma, you already directed three films, but at the moment you are quite successful in writing screenplays for your colleagues. Does that not almost feel like going backwards?

Céline Sciamma: Oh, not at all. Writing screenplays has always been my job, and that is also what I studied at the film school. To work behind the camera as a director only came later, with my first film ‘Water Lilies’. So, it’s not unusual for me to write for other directors. And I don’t find it unsatisfying, because I don’t pick random commissions.

I: Indeed, you cherry-pick your projects, such as the animated film ‘My Life as a Courgette’ or now ‘Being 17′…

CS: I often work with directors for their first film, with colleagues of my generation. So, with Claude Barras for ‘My Life as a Courgette’, who brought me in for his film years ago. I hadn’t even started working on my own film ‘Girlhood’ back then. But when a director legend like André Téchiné came knocking at my door, that was a new and very exciting experience.

I: Téchiné is 74 years old and hired you for his film about two 17-year-olds, also because there are not many who write so well about young people and their emotions like you do. Where does this ability come from?

CS: If only I could answer this easily. The way I see it, it is important to take adolescence seriously and not dismiss it as a phase, which you need to leave behind. What I’m not interested in are questions like ‘What makes young people tick nowadays?’ This ignores the fact that there is nothing more universal than the experiences that you have as a teenager. What else is there that every single human being in this world goes through? And whether it be in the 19th century or with a smartphone in your hand today - the emotional side of coming of age is always the same.

I: True, but that’s also what others could come up with. There must be a personal reason why you are so good with these stories.

CS: I just have a strong connection to my own childhood and adolescence. It is not so much about memories but perceptions and feelings. This frequently invoked ‘teenage angst’, this vague fluttering in your stomach - all of this is still quite familiar to me. As if it were yesterday. Likewise, adolescence is not hazy-nostalgic for me but crystal clear before my very eyes.

I: As a gay man I have a theory about this: maybe your perception of adolescence was just different for you as a lesbian… [T: That is so straightforward 😏, ze Germans!]

CS: Possibly. We may have experienced this stage of our life not only differently but also more intensively, because we had to think a lot more about our feelings and our identity. On top of that, there is also the element of secrecy. If you have to hide a part of yourself or choose to, then it makes you a good observer. Lying nurtures the ability for analysis, and makes you lonely. [T: Not necessarily what Céline was referring to, but these articles (1, 2) talk about how ubiquitous lying is.] Maybe that is why you are more of an observer than other teenagers, and you are more aware of your experiences during that time.

I: Many of your characters are not heterosexual, but it is the first time that you write about male adolescents in ‘Being 17′. Was that different for you?

CS: The elementary thing about adolescence, like first love or searching for your own identity, is certainly not so different for boys and girls. But they don’t experience these under the same conditions, that is the difference. The expectations and pressure are different or are at least imposed on them in a different way and area. The environment just reacts differently to an adolescent girl than an adolescent boy. I think about this a lot, ever since I made ‘Tomboy’ and [T: tried to] figure out what it means to be a boy.

I: So, you didn’t feel like you were talking about something that is unfamiliar to you?

CS: So basically: oh, men, how exotic? Not at all. In fact, the great thing about cinema, for me as an auteur and for the audience, is: that you can empathise with someone who is different, irrespective of their gender, age, nationality or anything else. I probably would have faced a bigger challenge if Téchiné and I wanted to do a film about being male [T: male gender is used here in German] or the typical male teenager. But for us it was specifically about these two boys - so I could fully concentrate on depicting their personalities as accurately as possible. The universal effect of a film is always derived from the unique and personal.

I: Fortunately, ‘Being 17′ doesn’t shy away from showing the physical, sexual side of the love between the characters. That’s not a given in a film about gay youths.

CS: True, but I can’t really take the credit for that. Téchiné and I only wrote ‘They have sex’ in the script! He worked with the boys on everything else during the shooting. When I saw the finished scene, in all its explicitness and length, I was gaping. This 74-year-old man is really gifted, he is truly the boss!

I: Is that not bitter for you as a screenplay writer?

CS: Not at all. As a writer, I really want the director to accomplish something great and make the best film possible. But you can’t sell yourself short. Téchiné could also make the aforementioned scene so convincing, because of the way we developed the characters and story up to this point.

I: If you compare the French and German cinema, it is striking that many more queer stories are told by [T: French cinema]. Also in mainstream and by well-known directors. Do you have an explanation for that?

CS: I would really like to tell you that the French [T: film] industry is inclusive, interested and liberal. But that’s not true. I guess the reason for the difference that you noticed can be found in the figures: Our film industry is huge, we produce 250 films per year. And we have a high number of debut film directors. This provides of course more space for diversity and so-called niches.

I: Pity, I was hoping for a socio-cultural theory…

CS: Maybe there is one. You wrong-footed me, I’ve never really thought about the issue in this way. Is homosexuality in France more established in cultural mainstream, because Marcel Proust [T: see here], one of the biggest novelists of all time, already wrote about it a century ago? That’s possible… But don’t forget that the German cinema had Fassbinder [T: see here] after all. And the Italian one had Pasolini [T: see here]. That there is not much left of it, has probably more to do with the business than art.

I: And what is your own stance in this industry which is equally characterised by art and business? Do you feel a certain obligation as female, homosexual director to provide more diversity?

CS: I do, more and more. I notice that many people expect me to do something different with my work, to change something and even make a difference. But I don’t see this as a burden but as an opportunity. It also corresponds to what I expect from my films. There is nothing more exciting for a director than fresh, new stories and characters who are outsiders. And when I look around, then I really get the feeling that it is similar for a large part of the audience.

Picture sources: [1], [2]