Crítica de 'Eden', de Mia Hansen-Løve

L’ambientació hipnòtica i esteticista i l’omnipresent banda sonora de música electrònica de ‘Eden’ són només el vistós embolcall d’un caramel que deixa un cert regust amarg. Amarg, com a mínim pel seu protagonista, un entregat Félix de Givry que interpreta magistralment el descens als inferns d’un antiheroi que lluita per tal que el seu talent brilli enmig de la foscor de les festes nocturnes. Amb tot, el personatge central gairebé no desprèn empatia, malgrat els seus constants fracassos, però el film tampoc la necessita. Al cap i a la fi, el cinema de Mia Hansen-Løve no acostuma a ser gens autocomplaent. Així, tot i que la història estigui lleugerament basada en la vida del seu germà Sven (també coautor del guió), no acabem de percebre que la pel·lícula sigui una crònica negra de les raves esbojarrades dels noranta o, com a mínim, no la rebem com el retrat d’una generació, sinó com una història que algú explica des d'una certa distància.

Elio & Linda: “George R.R. Martin often says he feels that we know Westeros better than he does”

Elio & Linda.                                                                 Photo: Anna Guxens

“I don’t think it has just been a day in 18 years where we haven’t even mentioned A Song of Ice and Fire in some way!”. These are words of Linda Antonsson, one of the heads of the couple behind the most important webpage about this gigantic universe writer George R.R. Martin had been developing since 1996: www.westeros.org. With her husband, Elio M. García Jr, she has now written The World of Ice and Fire, a beautiful coffee table book that follows the recent history of the Seven Kingdoms and beyond with lots of attention-grabbing information and marvelous illustrations.

“We looked at actual medieval history because we were interested in how people viewed history back then, since they were still figuring it out”, they say. That’s the reason they invented the figure of Maester Yandel, which allows them to have an imperfect text that makes the book more interesting and realistic. Elio confesses he has developed Yandel’s whole story and he would love him to appear as the last A Dream of Spring point of view of. “He could write in his book: ‘And the winter came forever and ever’”.

For sure, A Song of Ice and Fire has changed the face of fantasy, turning it into “something adults can read without being ashamed or thinking of it as kid’s stuff”. And the TV show has definitely helped in that way. Thus, Elio & Linda are grateful to HBO because thanks to them there are more people willing to read the books. They even gave more exposure to their webpage, as the couple explains. “Despite Westeros is a term used in the Free Cities to describe the Seven Kingdoms, they are using it in the series all the time”. However, there are also things of the show that piss them off, like the fact a lot of people is now blame George for things HBO does that are not in the books or the fact the series will finish the story before the books, something that will be “very hard” for the fans.

Adria’s News takes advantage of their visit to Barcelona and thinks Gigamesh bookstore is the perfect setting to interview these two big fantasy fans who not only didn’t get to know each other in a Lord of the Rings online game, but who also got married the day A World of Ice and Fire came out. Adria’s News talks with Elio & Linda to get to know how they achieved building up the big community behind Westeros.org, to discuss how much Martin is a descendant of Tolkien and especially, to ask for their thoughts about the future of the books and their legacy.