José Luis Guerín

[DarkImbecile]

José Luis Guerín (1960 - )



"Sometimes documentary captures things that are there; it’s a reproduction of life. But sometimes film is not a reproduction of reality... it’s the creation of a new reality."

Filmography (*=Documentary)

Features
Berta's Motives (1984)
Innisfree* (1990)
Train of Shadows (1997)
En construcción* (2001)
Dans la ville de Sylvia / In the City of Silvia (2007)
Unas fotos en la ciudad de Sylvia / Some Photos in the City of Sylvia* (2007)
Guest* (2010)
Correspondences: Jonas Mekas - J.L. Guerin* (2011)
La academia de las musas / The Academy of Muses (2015)

Shorts
"Souvenir" (1986)
"Eulalia & Marta — Barcelona" [segment, City Life] (1990)
"Tren Estrasburgo: Paris" (2006)
"Mujer esperando al tranvía" (2006)
"En la ciudad de Lotte" (2007)
"Dos cartas a Ana" (2011)
"Recuerdos de una mañana" (2011)
"Le Saphir de Saint-Louis" (2015)
"De una isla" (2019)

Television
"Pilot" — De Moda, S01E01 (1986)

Books
Cinema At the Edges: New Encounters with Julio Medem, Bigas Luna and José Luis Guerín by Abigail Loxham (2014)

Web Resources
Collection of video interviews and conversations with Agnès Varda, Víctor Erice, and more
"Filmmaker-Spectator, Spectator-Filmmaker: José Luis Guerín's Thoughts on His Experience as a Teacher"
2003 interview with Mazzino Montinari, Cineuropa
2010 interview with Michael Guillen, Screen Anarchy
2010 interview with Darren Hughes, MUBI
2011 interview with Rolando Caputo, Senses of Cinema
2015 interview with Héctor Llanos Martínez, Cineuropa
2016 interview with Christopher Small, Film Comment
2016 interview with Michael Guileen, Bright Lights

Forum Discussion
In the City of Sylvia (José Luis Guerin, 2007)

[franco]

After having seen En la ciudad de Sylvia and Unas fotos en la ciudad de Sylvia at the International Film Festival in Rotterdam, I was wondering if there are any films of Guerín available on DVD with English subtitles?

Whoa... is this real? They have En Construcción too.

[Oedipax]

Wow, I sure hope it's real and the English subtitles are included as advertised. I really didn't expect to be seeing In the City of Sylvia anytime soon, could be an awesome surprise.

[franco]

It is also available at fnac.es, but from my impression, dvd.go seems more reliable. Either way, I have to navigate through the Spanish interface... I have little patience to wait for any other version to emerge in the market.

[pro-bassoonist]

Wow, I sure hope it's real and the English subtitles are included as advertised. I really didn't expect to be seeing In the City of Sylvia anytime soon, could be an awesome surprise.

I have the official press release in my email tonight and it is indeed advertised as English-friendly.

Pro-B

[franco]

I wish I bought mine from xploited cinema. I got it from DVDGO and now I have this weird customs charge that I have to deal with.

[foggy eyes]

Ah, I didn't notice that Xploited had it - but have just asked a friend who is travelling to Spain next week to pick up a copy. What's the disc like anyway - good quality?

Been dying to see this after reading Bordwell's fascinating blog entry on (and around) the film.

[franco]

The disc is single-layered, but the film is so short and there is so little extra that the image and sound qualities are practically flawless. I can post some screenshots, but I need to figure out where to upload them.

You could also get En Construcción if you don't mind movies that look like they were made by Pedro Costa when he was in a sunny mood.

[foggy eyes]

You could also get En Construcción if you don't mind movies that look like they were made by Pedro Costa when he was in a sunny mood.

Hell, why not - I hadn't noticed that it was available as well. The fnac listing promises English subs, so I'm all over it. Thanks!

[franco]

Yes, En Construcción comes with subtitles and probably the most reasonable image quality a film with such source materials deserves to have. The DVD cases are all ugly and cheap, but we could also do upgrades ourselves.

[foggy eyes]

The disc is single-layered, but the film is so short and there is so little extra that the image and sound qualities are practically flawless. I can post some screenshots, but I need to figure out where to upload them.

Done. Lovely disc and film. There's so little dialogue that one could muddle through quite easily without subtitles, but having them is a blessing. Highly recommended.

[Trelkovsky]

Hi, I am from Spain and this is my first post here, although I've been reading you for a long time.

I've got great news: versus entertainment will release a box set containing 3 films by Guerín: 'Innisfree', 'Tren de sombras' and 'Unas fotos en la ciudad de Sylvia' (not to be confused with 'En la ciudad de Sylvia') and a 4th bonus disc with interesting extra features, as far as I know it will include English and French subtitles.

You can find more information here (in Spanish).

[foggy eyes]

Thank you very much for posting that news - I'd really appreciate confirmation of English subs when the set actually comes out too.

[John Cope]

Me too; very exciting news (though I'm making a genuine effort to sharpen up my Spanish).

And welcome to the forum. Great first post.

[Trelkovsky]

Don't worry, as soon as I get the box set I'll check the subtitles, but I think that my sources are really reliable

If you have any doubt about other spanish releases, maybe I could help, but including english subtitles, unfortunately, is not a common practice.

Here's a text by Spanish critic Miguel Marías about 'Unas fotos en la ciudad de Sylvia' (in English):

The box set is now available for pre-order at dvdgo.com

[rohmerin]

news about the box in Spain

[lord patchogue]

any news on subs and the release date? the box set was supposed to come out yesterday according to dvdgo's description.

[Trelkovsky]

I have just bought it and I can confirm that it includes english subtitles, it even includes menus in english (also in french).

Sadly, the bonus disc is in spanish only.

[Trelkovsky]

[domino harvey]

Are all the subtitles like that, and by "like that" I mean written by non-native speakers?

[Trelkovsky]

I guess so, but anyway there's not much of a need for subtitles. Actually 'Innisfree' is entirely spoken in english, 'tren de sombras' is nearly silent (only one line of dialogue in the whole film), and 'unas fotos...' is silent but uses intertitles and some texts written on the photographs.

[TheDoman]

I ordered this DVD pack at the weekend, and I was unsure of the difference between the Spanish and French edition, and the French edition is about 15 euros cheaper. I luckily saw that the extras discs that someone above has was unsubbed, so I decided to go with the French edition, thinking it was going to save me 15 euros as I wouldn't understand the unsubbed extras.

I had a nice surprise today, when I got a response back from the distributor:

The orginal boxset was released in Spain in 2008 (3 discs with the movies and a 4 disc with all the extras + Booklet)
In 2010, the boxset was redone to be released in France and maybe, someday, in England. All the extras that were included in the fourth disc were distributed in the other three discs and we also created new improved French and English subtitles for movies and extras.
We recommend you to buy the French edition. It has all the extras, and everything is well subtitled to Spanish, French and English.
The French Edition also includes the same booklet than the Spanish Edition, inside the boxset (All the texts have been translated to French, of course).

Many of you may already know this, but I thought it would help those who don't, as you will get the much better edition for a much cheaper price.

[zedz]

This reminds me: Guerin's latest feature, Guest is out on DVD in Spain, subbed. I've got the disc but haven't watched it yet. I'll report back when I have.

[elcinegro]

New 35mm print of José Luis Guerín's rare debut film, "Los motivos de Berta" (Berta's Motives) （1983,115min） will be screened at José Luis Guerín Retrospective(30 June -27 July 2012) at Theatre Image Forum - Tokyo. Official Site: http://www.eiganokuni.com/jlg/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The most important Spanish first feature film since Vicor Erice's "The Spirit of the Beehive" (1973).
Guerín was only 23 years old at the time he directed it.
Kinokuniya-shoten/Mermaid Films will probably release the DVD(R2) with Japanese subs.

They released "Dans la ville de Sylvia"（In The City of Sylvia）Blu-ray（Region A, DTS-HD）for the first time in the world. Original French version. Japanese subs only, but it has very few dialogues (only 8min).

amazon.co.jp/dp/B004IPQE8K/

About José Luis Guerín on DVD/Blu-ray（in Japanese）: https://sites.google.com/site/cinemajos ... -on-dvd-bd" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[zedz]

Goosing this thread reminded me that I hadn't yet reported back on Guest.

The Spanish disc is fine. The film is a diary film, made as Guerin toured the film festivals of the world with Sylvia. At each stop, he tried to get out into the streets to get the flavour of the place. As a result, it's intimate and rambly and patchy, but quite enjoyable, all in all. He tracks down Jonas Mekas in New York, that sort of thing. It's hardly a major new work from Guerin, but it's a nice 'in-between' film. Fans should appreciate it; newcomers should definitely opt for In the City of Sylvia or the box set first.