Letter from Spain #55

Madrid, Almodóvar ... and almost talking to him.

So … many congratulations to the 74-year-old Pedro Almodóvar for winning the Golden Lion at the Venice International Film Festival for The Room Next Door - his 23rd feature film and, most importantly, his very first in English.

Despite having won two Oscars, two Golden Globes, five BAFTAs, five Goyas and no end of other awards, I never realised he was missing the top award from one of the ‘big three’ European festivals: Venice (Golden Lion), Cannes (Palme d’Or) or Berlin (Golden Bear). It’s about time.

The Room Next Door had been widely tipped to win after receiving a record 17-minute standing ovation last week. I’m sure it is brilliant, it must be, although it sounds a bit heavy, to be honest. But then a film about euthanasia and the climate crisis is hardly going to be light watching.

‘The film’s very fragility is what makes it so gorgeous,’ said one critic about this ‘death-struck new melodrama’. But I’ve also read that the first third of the film is ‘a bit of a mess … with too many unnecessary flashbacks’.

I’m a big fan of Almodóvar and his films have had a huge influence on me in many different ways, coinciding with my time living in Madrid from the late eighties for a decade (more on that below) - but I can’t say that I’ve enjoyed every single one of his 23 films to date.

My favourite films have been Talk to Her, Matador, Bad Education and, of course, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown - probably in that order. I have watched them many times. I also enjoyed Parallel Mothers.

There are several, however, that I couldn’t even finish (The Skin I Live In, Pain & Glory, I’m So Excited …) and at times I wondered if he’d lost his touch (in the same way Woody Allen had, many years ago).

I have no right to criticise, however, and I fully acknowledge that a director’s vision and style adapts as they age. His more recent films have clearly been marked by a preoccupation with death. I’m sure that’s also age-related, but they’re too morbid for me - perhaps because I was such a fan of his earlier fun and more quirky work.

The Room Next Door is another film about death. I will still go to a cinema to watch it. A new Almodóvar film has always been an event for me.

When I travel to Madrid next week, there’s an exhibition that I also can’t wait to take in during my visit: ‘Madrid, chica Almodóvar’ (‘Madrid, Almodovar Girl’). It is an exhibition that could have been curated specifically for me in mind - and I mean it.

Anyone who has followed my research notes below on locations in Barcelona, Cadaqués and Figueres for The Barcelona Connection will also know that I’m fascinated by film locations - real and completed films or still in development!

‘Madrid, chica Almodóvar’ runs until 20 October at the Conde Duque cultural centre, featuring 200 photos from his 23 movies, as well as notebooks, movie props and the first camera he ever bought, a hand-held Super-8. It coincides with the 50th anniversary since he began his film career in Madrid in 1974 with the release of his first short film.

It also includes a map to head off and match the locations to the films, and which I will try to do if I have time. At least those that I don’t already know.

I got to know and appreciate many areas and landmarks of Madrid thanks to his earlier films … the Plaza de Santa Ana, the Circulo de Bella Artes, Taberna Alhambra, Museo Chicote, the Viaducto de Segovia, the Calle Almirante and even the Villa Rosa, the tablao-style nightclub where I almost struck up a conversation with him, back in 1990 …

It’s a true anecdote and it appears in Chapter 23 of ‘A Load of Bull - An Englishman’s Adventures in Madrid’ …

Near the bar, talking to friends and minding his own business, was the film director, Pedro Almodóvar. I was very drunk but he also looked as if he’d had a few. He was a chubby, funny-looking chap. I was about to go up to him to recount my idea for a movie about a kidnapped matador, but he caught my eye and looked like he was silently pleading with me not to.

Re-reading this now, it shows that I had the idea for one of the sub-plots behind The Barcelona Connection some 20 years before I wrote it as a screenplay, and 30 years since the novel was finally published. That’s weird.

What’s also weird is that Almodóvar has a copy of the Spanish edition of ‘A Load of Bull’ (‘Mucho Toro’) somewhere on his shelves, because a dedicated, signed edition was sent to him with a professional note from an agent to see if he’d be interested in adapting it for the screen and directing it. He never replied (of course). I now wonder whether he might have tossed the book in the bin after Chapter 23.

Books, Reviews, Research, News & Events

Forthcoming Events

I’m coming to Madrid! On Friday 20 September, I’m doing an event at the Secret Kingdoms Bookshop in the Calle Moratín 7, to celebrate the re-issue of ‘A Load of Bull - An Englishman’s Adventures in Madrid’ (see details of book below). Please come along if you can, it would be great to see you there!

It starts at 8pm and while the event is free, places will be limited. You can reserve a place by buying a €3 voucher redeemable in the store on the night. You can reserve your place here via this link - or click on image below.

I have also been invited to do two events at the Hotel Castell d’Empordà in La Bisbal d’Empordà (Catalonia) on Friday 8 November and Friday 13 December alongside the hotel’s owner, Albert Diks, as part of the hotel’s 25th anniversary. The hotel is part of a key plot element in The Barcelona Connection (mentioned in Letter from Spain #8) and which is based on true events. The event is planned to be about ‘The Dalí Connection’ to the hotel and, of course, the book! More details about these events will follow in due course …

The Barcelona Connection - Research

In my weekly ‘Letter from Spain’ from #7 right up to #42, I included notes about all the research I carried out for The Barcelona Connection. Many of the posts include photos and descriptions of locations that appear in the book, from Nîmes, Figueres, Cadaqués, La Bisbal d’Empordà and, of course, many areas of Barcelona. There are also posts about Salvador Dalí’s Hallucinogenic Toreador and ‘The Face’, the Dalí Museum in Figueres, the Picasso Museum and MNAC in Barcelona, even Girona Airport and nearby motorway service station - as well as the G20 Spouse Party, museum visits and ‘art attacks’. I hope the notes about the research are of interest … and I hope you might buy, read and take The Barcelona Connection with you to some of the locations that appear in the book! If you do, please send me a photo and I’ll post it here …

The Barcelona Connection - Book & Reviews

A murder. A kidnapping. A lost Salvador Dalí painting. Just 36 hours to resolve all three. Every crime scene is a work of art …

Benjamin Blake is no ordinary detective. Specialising in the criminal underworld of stolen and forged art, things don’t always go the right way for Benjamin. But when they don’t, he has a stubborn determination to put them right.

Within hours of being sent to Barcelona to authenticate a possible Salvador Dalí painting, Benjamin is left stranded without his cell phone at a service station alongside a bloody corpse in the early hours of the morning, after being savagely attacked with his hire car stolen, together with the painting.

Helped and hindered by the fiery Elena Carmona, pursued by a psychopathic hitman, Benjamin becomes the prime suspect in a politically motivated kidnap and murder. All this on the eve of Barcelona hosting a G20 summit and UN climate change conference, with the police in hot pursuit fearing a wider terrorist threat.

From Nîmes in the South of France, across the border to the sweltering humidity of Girona, Barcelona, Figueres and Cadaqués, The Barcelona Connection is a fast-paced, gripping page-turner sprinkled with black comedy, blending the real with the surreal, art crime and mistaken identity … and where the clues at the crime scene might just be the mirror image of a long-lost work of art …

If you can’t locate a copy of The Barcelona Connection in your local store, it can be ordered from any bookshop simply by giving the ISBNnumber: 978-1-7393326-1-7.

It is also available in print or as an eBook via Amazon and Barnes & Noble, or you can also click here to choose where else to order your copy from.

Click here for the latest reviews on Amazon and on Goodreads.

A review by Michael Eaude of The Barcelona Connection was published in the October 2023 edition of Catalonia Today.

‘Short, fast-moving scenes and the deft joining of two completely different plots … the novel is not just breathlessly rapid and action-packed, but overflows with humour and satire.’

‘The excellent plotting, the local knowledge, the surreal humour, the political satire and the speed of events … it’s an admirable and very readable crime novel.’

A review by Dominic Begg of The Barcelona Connection was published in La Revista, a publication of the British-Spanish Society.

‘The Barcelona Connection is a fast-moving page-turner with a helter-skelter plot.’

‘The background to this thriller is realistic and familiar to those who know Barcelona well. It’s a world of cynical, ambitious politicians; civil servants promoted via enchufe; friction between Spanish and Catalan investigators; disruptive anti-capitalist activists; bumbling US dignitaries and security guards; the continuing influence of old supporters of Franco; the soulless 21st century, exemplified by apartment hotels seemingly without human staff-members …’

Here’s a link to a review of the book by Eve Schnitzer published by the Spain in English online newspaper.

‘Tim Parfitt very cleverly weaves together two parallel though quite different stories, set against the background of a contemporary Barcelona that is even busier than usual with major international meetings.’

‘Two plot lines interweave, with some highly ironic as well as suspenseful results … this book has a lot to offer the reader, from pure entertainment to solid information and, possibly, a fuller understanding of the complexities of Spain and Catalonia in particular.’

Here’s the link to an article I was asked to write for The Art Newspaper about my research on Salvador Dalí.

A Load of Bull - An Englishman’s Adventures in Madrid - Book & Reviews

Eighteen years since it was originally published, ‘A Load of Bull - An Englishman’s Adventures in Madrid’ has been re-issued with a new introduction, new cover and five extra chapters that were cut from the original book.

It is available in print and as an eBook worldwide, in both formats. You can also order the new paperback or digital edition via Amazon and Barnes & Noble, or the digital version on Apple, Kobo, Smashwords, or on many other platforms by clicking here.

If you’ve never read the book, I hope you will now acquire a copy and laugh out loud. If you did read and enjoy the original edition, I think you’ll love this new edition with additional chapters! More details about the book and links to many reviews are below.

As with previous posts showing images and locations that form part of the research I carried out for The Barcelona Connection novel (above), I am also planning to publish an archive of photos here of Madrid that relate to many chapters in ‘A Load of Bull’ - although it will take time! In Letter from Spain #52, I cover Chapter 1 - the Centro Colón aparthotel (entrance) Watch this space for further images …

A LOAD OF BULL - An Englishman’s Adventures in Madrid

The hilarious true story of an Englishman sent to Madrid to help launch Spanish Vogue …

In the late eighties Tim Parfitt blagged his way into a job at Condé Nast in London and from there into a six week stint in Madrid to help launch Spanish Vogue. Six weeks turned into nine years, and helping out turned into running the company. Along the way, Tim Parfitt discovered the real 'real' Spain. He never saw a Costa and he certainly never bought an olive grove. Instead, he discovered a booming city in hedonistic reaction to years of fascism, where sleep was something you only did at work and where five hour lunches invariably involved a course of bull's testicles.

Tim Parfitt's rise from unwanted guest to paparazzi-pursued mover in Spain's glamorous social scene is a hilarious comedy of errors. Frothing with a language designed to make foreigners dribble, hospitalised by tapa-induced flatulence and constantly frustrated by the unapproachable beauty of the women parading through the Vogue offices, he nevertheless falls in love with a city, a country and its people - despite the fact he hasn't a clue what they're on about.

You can click here for all the reviews of A Load of Bull on Amazon, as well as on Goodreads.

Links to newspaper and magazine reviews:

‘A hugely entertaining memoir ... frequently laugh-out-loud funny.’ (The Daily Express)

‘Parfitt is no ordinary Englishman … his light touch and neat line in self-deprecating humour perfectly suits this entertaining urban spin on the old tale of Brits having fun under the Spanish sun.’ (The Sunday Times)

‘A love letter to Madrid ... brilliantly captures a truly eccentric and hedonistic place.’ (The Daily Mirror)

‘Often hilarious ... a side-splittingly funny travel memoir.’ (BBC Online)

‘Vivid yet affectionate … fascinating, escapist stuff.’ (OK! Magazine)

‘Magnificent ... brilliant and moving, hilarious and truthful.’ (La Vanguardia)

‘Don't miss it … Madrid through the eyes of an Englishman.’ (Vogue España)

Spanish edition

A Load of Bull was also published in Spanish under the title, Mucho Toro - las tribulaciones de un inglés en la movida. Click here or on image below for the current eBook version.

Contact Details

You can email me at: tim.parfitt@hotmail.co.uk

Thanks for reading Letter from Spain! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.