I love Cronenberg and his way of telling stories. He’s of the most free artist that we have in the current movies scene, he does what and how he wants. He’s honest in his approaches: he gives expressions to his fears, his worries and his obsessions. There are three constants in his creations: physical and mind degeneration (due to his father’s long degenerative disease) that you can see it in movies like The Fly, Deadringers, M. Butterfly and many others. The second one is the technology, a human evolution through the technology, merging organic with inorganic, for instance, Crash, ExistenZ or Videodrome. And the last one, the sex. Cronenberg has been accused of misogynist, but I don’t agree with that. In all his works, there is an important erotic factor: all the sexual scenes are wild, it doesn’t matter if the scene is homo or heteroerotic, they are always violent, pressing, urgent, dark and necessary. Maybe with a sad longing connotation and even a death connotation, like Romans used to say Post festum, pestum. The most impressive for me is all the starring characters are lonely, outsiders by a world, that quite often, they don’t understand it pretty well and it’s that world who find them guilty of acts that they commit because they can’t help themselves. A society who excludes them but at the same time, it makes them to be like they are.

The same way that in 1988, his career suffered an infection point with Deadringers, this movie is one of the best or even the best in my opinion, now with A History of Violence, it was taken as a new full stop. Critics are talking about his maturity but I don’t think there has been any change in this main structure creating stories, It’s just a matter of evolution.

I earnestly recommend you his filmography, from the adaptation of books by Ballard (“Crash”), by Burroughs (“naked lunch”) and the adaptation of the comic by John Wagner and Vincent Locke (“History of Violence”), to his own scripts. For a first approach to Cronenberg´s works, without a previous knowledgement, I recommend if you’re a thriller movies fan, History of Violence, or if you’re a sci-fi movies, existenZ or The fly, in this way you can go forward to the less “easy watching” movies like Deadrings or Spider.

Last year was the première of “Eastern Promises” working again with Viggo Mortensen on an original Cronenberg script. Everything started with a prostitute’s death but Cronerberg didn’t focus the story in who did what and why, but how this fact will help us to know a context, a world, some characters, how they think and they behaves. I want to remark Mortensen´s performance, who was accused of a lack of expression, for me it was fantastique. There is a scene, a fighting scene, that it was really impressive but the best one (for me) was the last one. Just a scene without talking, without any kind of action, it showed us the purest Cronenberg. Honestly a stunning work!

What does Lovecraft think about it?

Next Monday, I will be here in Dublin 2 years, in Ireland, in a new country, in a new life. I’ve had the chance to get a new start and let bygones be bygones. This time, everything is new, better, different. All the bad times are gone now and everything doesn’t have anything to do with the past.

I like my life here, I healed my wounds, I spoiled myself just a little and I do like the person that I see in my mirror every morning. For me, this last point is very important. In addition, I’m not alone, I have a wonderful person by my side sharing our days together. Furthermore, I met a lot of people, when I less expected, that they helped me a lot. Some of them are friends of mine and we have shared and we will share good times together; and the rest of the people are not important, they are one way people, not important at all.

I miss Spain but not as a country, just as a group of people that I love and they live there. But I’m doing my best to show them how much I care and maybe I’m far from them, but I don’t forget them.

Two years is just a beginning.

Plot: In the spring of 2003, a pride of lions escaped from the Baghdad Zoo during an American bombing raid. Lost and confused, hungry but finally free, the four lions roamed the decimated streets of Baghdad in a desperate struggle for their lives. In documenting the plight of the lions, PRIDE OF BAGHDAD raises questions about the true meaning of liberation — can it be given, or is it earned only through self-determination and sacrifice? And in the end, is it truly better to die free than to live life in captivity? Taken from Vertigo webpage

Pride is a story full of metaphors and questions that catch on deep. A beautiful art and a meaningful story makes of Pride of Baghdad, an impressive find! When the writer makes questions about freedom and war, although he has got a strong opinions about them, he doesn´t try to persuade you, just let you think about them. I really appreciate it because I don´t like movies, books or comics where the reader or watcher only have a way. I really enjoyed reading it.

These previous weeks I´ve read some comic and I´d like to talk about them.

Sueños sin noche. Authors: Felideus (art and writer), Jezabel (art), José Antonio Cotrina, Santiago Eximeno, David Jasso, Juan Antonio Fdez. Madrigal y MªIsabel Rodríguez (writers). Published by Diábolo Ediciones.

This is a horror short stories anthology. They were written and illustrated by young artist who are making their career in Fantasy Spanish Literature World. I do say that they are doing it pretty well. This small horror different sides kaleidoscope is a luxurious interesting bet: What a luxurious edition!

These stories talk about many subjects, from: lost childhood after finding out a secret (“Sueños febriles” by Jasso), all the closet have a monster inside (“Alicia” by Cotrina) o they talk about a new humanity beginning (“Transitus homini” by Madrigal). Eximeno contributes with his bitting sense of humour in a gore black joke (“Alimento para el alma”). I´d like to remark Felideus´story, “Black Hole Jack”, because it´s the most original and cinematographic story that I´ve ever read. It´s a mix of Tarantino with Rober Rodriguez with 80´s B-movies. It has something that makes me remind me of magazine “Creepy” stories. Just awesome.

And last but not least, Isabel Rodríguez´s story and art by Jezabel. Maybe this one is not a real comic, it´s closer to a legend and that´s why it needed an art like Old Church´s book pictures. It made me afraid if this happened in ancient times. Was it told in very old church stained-glass windows? This kind of story reminds me on the last illustrated novels by Brom.

Congratulations guys for this book! It´s just stunning!