I know the film is set in Barcelona and it was even shot there... still, I can't help but thinking the story is happening in Mexico and not in Barcelona,it doesn't feel like Barcelona to me at any point.
I don't know if it is just me, I just wanted to share this opinion and see if someone else had noticed the same!
Everything you know is wrong!
(Watch more TV)
I agree, and in the political context of the film it's really thought-provoking.
shareDH lived in Mexico and thought it was Mexico as well. It was interesting how they made Barcelona look so gritty. It's such a beautiful city...but you know, no place is beautiful for everyone.
I can't expect others to share my virtues, it's good enough for me if they share my vices.
no place is beautiful for everyone
could be,
there are always two sides of the coin. and believe me (living in BCN) the things you see in the movie are not distorted. It is all there (of course you won't see it, if you go from your hotel to the 'bus turistic' and back again). but all the insides, the lousy living conditions, are 'real life' for a lot of people. the feeling of the couple is totally realistic. I see this stuff every day.
europe (usa too?) is coming closer to the so called 3rd world every time.
but of course, there are also the rich people, making their living upside of the 'diagonal' that still cuts the city in two halves as 200 years ago, getting richer every day.
s.o.s
same old *beep*
yeah i noticed Iñárritu left a lot of the details to subtlety, like you had to pay attention to the mural in catalan and the TMB logo in the metro...i got the feeling that he wanted the setting to be known but not over-emphasized in an ethno-touristy kind of way
share[deleted]
[deleted]
Yes, these are all in Barcelona, beauituful real parts of Barcelona, not just the tourist stops.
shareI just watched this film and this is exactly the first comment that I would make about the movie (I mean, aside from everything that concerns the content). I've seen Barcelona as a tourist and I would have never guessed this was the same city I've visited if it wasn't for a couple of giveaway shots (La Sagrada Familia from the hospital window) and the explicit mention of the city in the dialogue.
I agree with the posts above that it just shows that for every "biutiful" place there is an ugly side, which fits very well with the themes of the movie. If it had actually been shot in another city known for poverty, crime and low quality of life this particular detail (i.e. the incongruity between Barcelona's beautiful "surface" and ugly "underground" image) would have been lost.
~*~
Having lived in Barcelona for three years, I also can confirm that this is very truthful to some parts of Barcelona. The undergrounds of Barcelona and Spain for that matter, especially since this last crisis hit, is very depressing.
I was living in Barceloneta, which used to be a pretty local place and has been slowly populated by foreigners. The few locals that still live there are of a way lower status in society and are sometimes quite bitter about it. There's something really curious about lifelong rental agreements that were done in the 60's and still hold its legal value, which means there are whole families living in tiny apartments for as little as 50 euros a month.
There was an older couple that lived on the building across the road from us, their window faced ours and they hated us, to the point where the husband once started trying to spit from their window into ours, screaming slurs of hate and xenophobia. It was pretty tense and, mind you, we didn't really do anything to tease this people at all, in fact, we almost never opened the windows to avoid them snooping into our house.
The immigration situation is very critical as well, since a lot of the immigrants are ilegal, they are forced to perform ilegal activities for survival, being it theft, scams, piracy, drugs. I'd sit and watch mesmerised all the tourists being robbed and scammed on the Rambla, either by fast pickpockets or Romanian hustlers, that played the "where's the ball" game. And all that in front of the police, which I was pretty sure was letting them do it, playing a game of cat and rat everyday. Next day, everyone at the same spot, playing the same game, different tourists.
This is a very depressing movie, but very beautiful at times. Definitely very real.
Spain for the European Spanish.
shareI finally watched this movie, I had no idea it was set in Barcelona when I started to watch it. However, I assumed it was as I watched. THe tourist places look grand because they are tourists places, and we never see the poor areas on ads for travel or when we travel. How many people come to my city of NYC and go to Washington Heights or the seedy parts of Harlem? When tourists venture out to Brooklyn, they do not go to BEd Stuy or East NY. ANd NO ONE ventures out to the streets of the South Bronx as they make their way to the Bronx ZOo or Yankee Stadium. They just take the bus or train, get in their destination and out. Its the same in all big cities.
ALthoigh when I went to SAN Fran I was staying in the Tenderloin district. Was alittle scary as I was alone (female).
Spain, mainly Barcelona is in my top 3 European travel destinations I would love to visit.