ABOUT THE FILM
Main Idea/Topic:
The main idea of this movie is death itself, that there is no need to be afraid of death because it is a natural thing it will happen, it will come sooner or later, but it will come. From the moment we are born we start running towards the arms of death. But even when our close ones are gone we have to keep smiling, because they would not like to see us crying, because we should know that they live in us, as my beloved grandfather used to say: “Our children are our vengeance against death”. I would like to extend the main idea of the film with some words and a poem I wrote some time ago, it follows like this: “Go to sleep with the thought of death and wake up with the thought that life is short. Like that a productive day will bring a sweet dream, and a productive life will bring a sweet death. Then, the day of your death will happen that everything that you poses will be given to another person; but, what you are will always be remembered and will always be yours.”
Scent of Jasmine
“Remembering Death”
How many times have we wondered ourselves,
how so fragile we are?
How many others have we occurred to account,
of how much we really are?
Facing life, we found ourselves insignificant,
when we realize that this world
would unsurprisingly follow
its flow of natural ways
without mattering if we are here or not.
Life is nothing and is short;
and the scent of jasmine
reminds us about it constantly.
Main Characters:
Ramón Sampedro
Julia
Rosa
Manuela Sampedro
José Sampedro
Javier Sampedro
Gené
Joaquín
Marc
PERSONAL RESPONSES
Initial Responses:
It was a really touching film, as it deals with one of the topic most of the people fears the most, which is death. I was totally collapsed with this film, and heart broken. It is really sad, but hopeful at the time.
Later Responses:
Later I thought that because of the tradition of religion is very possible that we might have forged an idea about life and death that is not the right one, and it persists today through the government laws; because I totally agree with Ramón Sampedro when he says that there is death with dignity; not many time and probably today Samurai warriors committed Hara-kiri, which was a death with honor, I’m not saying is the same but is really close to it. Even more, soldiers all over the world die for their countries and kill other countries soldiers; because one’s enemy is another’s hero. The hoe people dare to dispose of our lives; is important for everyone to know that our lives are ours to make with them what we consider is the best for us.
Who is the writer on the film? / Has the screenplay been adapted from another work?
Alejandro Amenábar
Mateo Gil
The film is based on the true story of Ramón Sampedro, the documentary footage about him and his book Cartas desde el Infireno (Letters from Hell).
Background on the director:
Amenábar was born in Santiago Chile, on the eve of Pinochet's 1973 coup-de-état, such that his mother, who had already gone through the Spanish Civil War, uprooted the whole family and fled back to Spain. He grew up in Madrid and entered the Sciences Information Faculty at Madrid's Complutense University, where he was not exactly a brilliant pupil, and after numerous scholastic failures he decided to give up studying cinema -- which was not what he wanted -- and started to make cinema -- which definitely was. Since his perhaps best-known early short-film "Himenóptero" in 1992, in which he directed, produced, acted and wrote the script and the music, Amenábar progressed and reached his first commercial success in 1996 with "Thesis", a film which undoubtedly showed that a major new director had arrived on the scene. Later "Abre Los Ojos" and "Los Otros" (The Others) confirmed his arrival in the cinematographic world. In all his films he also writes the script and the music, as well as composing the music for other films, most notably "La Lengua de las Mariposas" (1999). He differs from most other Spanish directors inasmuch that he does not ingratiate himself on pet themes such as national foibles or recent past history, but ventures out into other spheres and has no fears about embarking into the phantasmagorical, psychological or even quasi-surrealist. Not yet thirty, this young man holds great promise for the next few years.
(www.imdb.com)
When was the film made? / What is/was the social and political climate like at the time in that country and the world?
Spain is a constitutional monarchy, with a hereditary monarch and a bicameral parliament, the Cortes Generales or National Assembly. Spain is, at present, what is called a State of Autonomies, formally unitary but, in fact, functioning as a Federation of Autonomous Communities, each one with different powers (for instance, some have their own educational and health systems, others do not) and laws. There are some differences within this system, since power has been devolved from the centre to the periphery asymmetrically, with some autonomous governments (especially those dominated by nationalist parties) seeking a more federalist—or even confederate—kind of relationship with Spain, now the Central Government is dealing with autonomous governments for the transfer of more autonomy. This novel system of asymmetrical devolution has been described as a coconstitutionalism and has similarities to the devolution process adopted by the United Kingdom since 1997. The terrorist group, ETA (Basque Homeland and Freedom), is attempting to achieve Basque independence through violent means, including bombings and killings of politicians, police and militaries. They consider themselves a guerrilla organization. Although the Basque Autonomous government does not condone any kind of violence, their different approaches to the separatist movement are a source of tension between the federal and Basque governments. The Spanish Constitution of 1978, in its second article, recognizes historic entities ("nationalities," a carefully chosen word in order to avoid "nations") and regions, inside the unity of the Spanish nation. But Spain's identity is sometimes, in fact, an overlap of different regional identities, some of them even conflicting. Castile is considered by many to be the "core" of Spain. However, this may just be a reflection of the fact that the Castilian national identity was the first one to be quashed by the Spanish Empire in the revolt of the Communards (comuneros) in 1518-1520. The opposite is the case of a large part of Catalans, Basques and, in some measure, Galicians, who quite frequently identify primarily with Galicia, Catalonia and the Basque Country first, with Spain only second, or even third, after Europe. The situation is even more confusing, since there are regions with ambiguous identities, like Navarre, Valencia, the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, etc. There has been a lot of internal migration (rural exodus) from regions like Galicia, Andalusia and Extremadura to Madrid, Catalonia, Basque Country and the islands. (www.wikipedia.com)
What does the title mean in relation with the film as a whole?
Try to establish a connection –sometimes clear, sometimes metaphorical.
The film’s title relation to the film as a whole is really clear, as an Spanish speaker it was easier to make the relation for me and to notice that the translation was done wrongly; anyways, the title makes reference to the last poem or letter that is read in the movie, the last poem written from Ramón to Julia, in which he talks about in the sea inside he remembers Julia and they meet further on like the wish they had. Also every time that Ramón flies away and sees his freedom he gets to the sea inside.
Describe how the opening credits are presented? / How do they relate to meaning?
First there is a black background and a voice of a woman starts talking is like a hypnotic or relaxing session. We are in the mind of the person which is breathing, that is Ramón Sampedro, a screen opens up and he is in the beach walking, the a thunders sound and there is a cut to the room of were the session was being held, a woman closes the window and talks to Ramón, but we don’t see him she puts some music for Ramón and leaves, then the credits start appearing in white letters while a pan that starts in the bookshelf and ends in the window is done from left to right , then it dissolves to a shot of a ship close to a pier and then there is a tilt down from the ship through the water up to a shot of a woman looking at the sea from the pier. The credits are related to the movie as whole because of the presence of the sea and the breathing of Ramón in the same pace as the waves clash into the shores; the credits are related because the sea represents the freedom that the main characters search for, because they relate the sea with love and flying over it to meet each other and accomplish their wish, Julia and Ramón.
What three or four sequences are most important in the film? / Why?
The scene in which Julia asks Ramón “why die?” and he responds that because life for him in that condition has no dignity, that he understands that other quadriplegics might get offended when he says that, but he is not judging anyone, so nor him nor the person who help him die are judged, then Julia asks him if he think someone is going to help him. This scene is important because the whole plot of the film is said in this few minutes. What he thinks and how he looks at things in life, Ramón Sampedro that is.
The scene in which Ramón is seeing through the window, and he stands up from his bed moves the bed to a side, starts running and gets out trough the window flaying until he gets to the beach were he meets Julia and kisses her. This scene is important because it represents Ramón’s escape from his reality, it represents the hope he has to get out of that bed and be free once again.
The scene in which he is leaving, he is off to Boiro and says goodbye to his family, his nephew who was like the son he never had hugs him and closes the door of the car he is on, the car speeds up and heads to Boiro while Javier runs a little after it. This scene is important because all of them, the family knows that he is never coming back, he has just settled his journey to death, what he most wanted, he is finally going to obtain his freedom through death. And Javi runs after the car representing people when someone dies and tries to run after them, never recover and live in the memories and the past.
What were your expectations from your knowledge of that country’s cinema or director’s work? / Where they confirmed or disappointed? Explain.
As I said before I’m very fond of Spanish Cinema, because I consider it is very thoughtful, no matter the overtly used themes, but apparently the tendencies are changing, and films are taking a turning point into more realistic stories, almost documentary, such is the case of this film and Fernando León de Araona’s Mondays in the Sun. Another fact that motivated me to watch this movie is that it was an Amenábar work; I certainly expected that death was touched in this film since it is always done in Alejandro’s films, but this time it was a brilliant acquisition to the director. The music, the mood, the pace… everything worked great. This movie certainly, over passed my expectations.
In your opinion, what was the aim/purpose of this film? Be specific.
Is to show that there is many times that euthanasia or to choose dying is not a horrendous thing, neither a way to escape from our problems, but the path of getting to that other place we want to go to.
Give at least five examples from the film (besides the language) which signal it’s being labeled a film from _____________________ (country).
Direct contact with the vicissitudes and redefinitions of Spanish society
Imprisoning mechanisms of social control
Mechanism of dialogue and perspectivism
Complexities of a masculine role
Human relations between the sexes
Theme of desire
Reflexions on identity
How does the film try to make its case? (e.g. by emotional appeal, alienation, manipulation of point of view, documentary authority, symbolism, etc.) Give examples. / Is it persuasive?
This film makes it case through documentary authority and emotional appeal. The first one is obvious; the film is based on a true story, the life of the Ramón Sampedro, the film was done after a research on the tapes were he spoke. And for the emotional appeal y consider that it does because the theme of death is always hard to digest for some people, and we all have lost someone really close to us, at least in my case I have had many loses throughout my short life, that is why this film touched me really deep inside like the sea. But I learned as Sampedro said which not only applies to his specific situation, “to cry smiling.”
Main Idea/Topic:
The main idea of this movie is death itself, that there is no need to be afraid of death because it is a natural thing it will happen, it will come sooner or later, but it will come. From the moment we are born we start running towards the arms of death. But even when our close ones are gone we have to keep smiling, because they would not like to see us crying, because we should know that they live in us, as my beloved grandfather used to say: “Our children are our vengeance against death”. I would like to extend the main idea of the film with some words and a poem I wrote some time ago, it follows like this: “Go to sleep with the thought of death and wake up with the thought that life is short. Like that a productive day will bring a sweet dream, and a productive life will bring a sweet death. Then, the day of your death will happen that everything that you poses will be given to another person; but, what you are will always be remembered and will always be yours.”
Scent of Jasmine
“Remembering Death”
How many times have we wondered ourselves,
how so fragile we are?
How many others have we occurred to account,
of how much we really are?
Facing life, we found ourselves insignificant,
when we realize that this world
would unsurprisingly follow
its flow of natural ways
without mattering if we are here or not.
Life is nothing and is short;
and the scent of jasmine
reminds us about it constantly.
Main Characters:
Ramón Sampedro
Julia
Rosa
Manuela Sampedro
José Sampedro
Javier Sampedro
Gené
Joaquín
Marc
PERSONAL RESPONSES
Initial Responses:
It was a really touching film, as it deals with one of the topic most of the people fears the most, which is death. I was totally collapsed with this film, and heart broken. It is really sad, but hopeful at the time.
Later Responses:
Later I thought that because of the tradition of religion is very possible that we might have forged an idea about life and death that is not the right one, and it persists today through the government laws; because I totally agree with Ramón Sampedro when he says that there is death with dignity; not many time and probably today Samurai warriors committed Hara-kiri, which was a death with honor, I’m not saying is the same but is really close to it. Even more, soldiers all over the world die for their countries and kill other countries soldiers; because one’s enemy is another’s hero. The hoe people dare to dispose of our lives; is important for everyone to know that our lives are ours to make with them what we consider is the best for us.
Who is the writer on the film? / Has the screenplay been adapted from another work?
Alejandro Amenábar
Mateo Gil
The film is based on the true story of Ramón Sampedro, the documentary footage about him and his book Cartas desde el Infireno (Letters from Hell).
Background on the director:
Amenábar was born in Santiago Chile, on the eve of Pinochet's 1973 coup-de-état, such that his mother, who had already gone through the Spanish Civil War, uprooted the whole family and fled back to Spain. He grew up in Madrid and entered the Sciences Information Faculty at Madrid's Complutense University, where he was not exactly a brilliant pupil, and after numerous scholastic failures he decided to give up studying cinema -- which was not what he wanted -- and started to make cinema -- which definitely was. Since his perhaps best-known early short-film "Himenóptero" in 1992, in which he directed, produced, acted and wrote the script and the music, Amenábar progressed and reached his first commercial success in 1996 with "Thesis", a film which undoubtedly showed that a major new director had arrived on the scene. Later "Abre Los Ojos" and "Los Otros" (The Others) confirmed his arrival in the cinematographic world. In all his films he also writes the script and the music, as well as composing the music for other films, most notably "La Lengua de las Mariposas" (1999). He differs from most other Spanish directors inasmuch that he does not ingratiate himself on pet themes such as national foibles or recent past history, but ventures out into other spheres and has no fears about embarking into the phantasmagorical, psychological or even quasi-surrealist. Not yet thirty, this young man holds great promise for the next few years.
(www.imdb.com)
When was the film made? / What is/was the social and political climate like at the time in that country and the world?
Spain is a constitutional monarchy, with a hereditary monarch and a bicameral parliament, the Cortes Generales or National Assembly. Spain is, at present, what is called a State of Autonomies, formally unitary but, in fact, functioning as a Federation of Autonomous Communities, each one with different powers (for instance, some have their own educational and health systems, others do not) and laws. There are some differences within this system, since power has been devolved from the centre to the periphery asymmetrically, with some autonomous governments (especially those dominated by nationalist parties) seeking a more federalist—or even confederate—kind of relationship with Spain, now the Central Government is dealing with autonomous governments for the transfer of more autonomy. This novel system of asymmetrical devolution has been described as a coconstitutionalism and has similarities to the devolution process adopted by the United Kingdom since 1997. The terrorist group, ETA (Basque Homeland and Freedom), is attempting to achieve Basque independence through violent means, including bombings and killings of politicians, police and militaries. They consider themselves a guerrilla organization. Although the Basque Autonomous government does not condone any kind of violence, their different approaches to the separatist movement are a source of tension between the federal and Basque governments. The Spanish Constitution of 1978, in its second article, recognizes historic entities ("nationalities," a carefully chosen word in order to avoid "nations") and regions, inside the unity of the Spanish nation. But Spain's identity is sometimes, in fact, an overlap of different regional identities, some of them even conflicting. Castile is considered by many to be the "core" of Spain. However, this may just be a reflection of the fact that the Castilian national identity was the first one to be quashed by the Spanish Empire in the revolt of the Communards (comuneros) in 1518-1520. The opposite is the case of a large part of Catalans, Basques and, in some measure, Galicians, who quite frequently identify primarily with Galicia, Catalonia and the Basque Country first, with Spain only second, or even third, after Europe. The situation is even more confusing, since there are regions with ambiguous identities, like Navarre, Valencia, the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, etc. There has been a lot of internal migration (rural exodus) from regions like Galicia, Andalusia and Extremadura to Madrid, Catalonia, Basque Country and the islands. (www.wikipedia.com)
What does the title mean in relation with the film as a whole?
Try to establish a connection –sometimes clear, sometimes metaphorical.
The film’s title relation to the film as a whole is really clear, as an Spanish speaker it was easier to make the relation for me and to notice that the translation was done wrongly; anyways, the title makes reference to the last poem or letter that is read in the movie, the last poem written from Ramón to Julia, in which he talks about in the sea inside he remembers Julia and they meet further on like the wish they had. Also every time that Ramón flies away and sees his freedom he gets to the sea inside.
Describe how the opening credits are presented? / How do they relate to meaning?
First there is a black background and a voice of a woman starts talking is like a hypnotic or relaxing session. We are in the mind of the person which is breathing, that is Ramón Sampedro, a screen opens up and he is in the beach walking, the a thunders sound and there is a cut to the room of were the session was being held, a woman closes the window and talks to Ramón, but we don’t see him she puts some music for Ramón and leaves, then the credits start appearing in white letters while a pan that starts in the bookshelf and ends in the window is done from left to right , then it dissolves to a shot of a ship close to a pier and then there is a tilt down from the ship through the water up to a shot of a woman looking at the sea from the pier. The credits are related to the movie as whole because of the presence of the sea and the breathing of Ramón in the same pace as the waves clash into the shores; the credits are related because the sea represents the freedom that the main characters search for, because they relate the sea with love and flying over it to meet each other and accomplish their wish, Julia and Ramón.
What three or four sequences are most important in the film? / Why?
The scene in which Julia asks Ramón “why die?” and he responds that because life for him in that condition has no dignity, that he understands that other quadriplegics might get offended when he says that, but he is not judging anyone, so nor him nor the person who help him die are judged, then Julia asks him if he think someone is going to help him. This scene is important because the whole plot of the film is said in this few minutes. What he thinks and how he looks at things in life, Ramón Sampedro that is.
The scene in which Ramón is seeing through the window, and he stands up from his bed moves the bed to a side, starts running and gets out trough the window flaying until he gets to the beach were he meets Julia and kisses her. This scene is important because it represents Ramón’s escape from his reality, it represents the hope he has to get out of that bed and be free once again.
The scene in which he is leaving, he is off to Boiro and says goodbye to his family, his nephew who was like the son he never had hugs him and closes the door of the car he is on, the car speeds up and heads to Boiro while Javier runs a little after it. This scene is important because all of them, the family knows that he is never coming back, he has just settled his journey to death, what he most wanted, he is finally going to obtain his freedom through death. And Javi runs after the car representing people when someone dies and tries to run after them, never recover and live in the memories and the past.
What were your expectations from your knowledge of that country’s cinema or director’s work? / Where they confirmed or disappointed? Explain.
As I said before I’m very fond of Spanish Cinema, because I consider it is very thoughtful, no matter the overtly used themes, but apparently the tendencies are changing, and films are taking a turning point into more realistic stories, almost documentary, such is the case of this film and Fernando León de Araona’s Mondays in the Sun. Another fact that motivated me to watch this movie is that it was an Amenábar work; I certainly expected that death was touched in this film since it is always done in Alejandro’s films, but this time it was a brilliant acquisition to the director. The music, the mood, the pace… everything worked great. This movie certainly, over passed my expectations.
In your opinion, what was the aim/purpose of this film? Be specific.
Is to show that there is many times that euthanasia or to choose dying is not a horrendous thing, neither a way to escape from our problems, but the path of getting to that other place we want to go to.
Give at least five examples from the film (besides the language) which signal it’s being labeled a film from _____________________ (country).
Direct contact with the vicissitudes and redefinitions of Spanish society
Imprisoning mechanisms of social control
Mechanism of dialogue and perspectivism
Complexities of a masculine role
Human relations between the sexes
Theme of desire
Reflexions on identity
How does the film try to make its case? (e.g. by emotional appeal, alienation, manipulation of point of view, documentary authority, symbolism, etc.) Give examples. / Is it persuasive?
This film makes it case through documentary authority and emotional appeal. The first one is obvious; the film is based on a true story, the life of the Ramón Sampedro, the film was done after a research on the tapes were he spoke. And for the emotional appeal y consider that it does because the theme of death is always hard to digest for some people, and we all have lost someone really close to us, at least in my case I have had many loses throughout my short life, that is why this film touched me really deep inside like the sea. But I learned as Sampedro said which not only applies to his specific situation, “to cry smiling.”
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