I had the chance to read the very sharp afterword written by Marta Sanz, on the occasion of a reading club that I have been running for about five years, where a few women come together every month to talk about books written by women writers. for “Tea Rooms: Working Women” From a writer from Madrid Luisa Carnes.
The Tea Rooms is not a simple novel about class struggle: it can be broken down into a thousand pieces from literary studies and from his own literature, as Sanz does so well in his text. Through its own sources, through something new for the time, it brings us closer to the pre-war political reality in Spain; The reality of working women in Madrid in the 1930s. A “distant” reality that maintains parallels with today in some ways.
Women’s labor is now becoming visible “everyone seems to be writing” and also, “Write like churros”They once again describe novels written by women as “sincere”. It’s “intimate” and theatrical, as if talking about periods or describing abortion-related contractions are topics always relegated to the private sphere, still embarrassing and meant to be talked about in the small committee of a book club or over pre- or post-movie coffee.
And as in the Tea Rooms (Matilde’s interest in literature and journalism; Laura’s admiration for cinema and theatre… right up to the serendipitous scene where Marta is seen leaving the cinema) it seems that even things relegated to the private sphere are unimportant , is far from universality and “otherness”. The truth is that thanks to the demand for equality in positions of responsibility and recognition of our creators, this “otherness” begins to be reflected more strongly; One example of this is the number of films directed by women that are proliferating and taking the world by storm. festivals in recent years.
Five little wolves, O horn, China anyone girls good These are just a few of the works that transfer what is in literature to cinema: We no longer write it, it is just published and advertised in the same way. Writing has always been written with more and fewer tools. Luisa Carnés, self-educated and critical, is a prime example.
However, I read with astonishment a while ago that some “critics” noted that the “flood” of films directed by women touched on the following themes: “They neither reach him nor concern him.”. It saddens me to think that over ninety percent (minimum) of women experience this situation.They line up at their main cinema in Alicante; the same Main Theater: Only I see women with their friends or women aloneThey are mostly accompanied by men. This is not a statement thrown out of nowhere, but rather a reflection I have heard from many of my colleagues, and something that can be statistically proven by the audience lining up on any given day.
Universality in culture and the voices echoing from this universality continue to be the tweeter expressing his opinion from home. potential consumers of that culture are always the same. I ask them not to stop talking about 2024 and its cinema, “crazy”, “intense” women, even “truck drivers” (they say this as an insult even though it seems untimely in 2024), not to stop writing. their lives, their children, those without children, their friends, their girlfriends and lovers, their grief (which is not always about love) and the everyday things that have always been written and told but fortunately now win awards and festivals. He sets an example for many people.
Meanwhile, they and their friends are lining up in these cinemas and theaters (and everywhere, as Itsaso Arana says). The girls will be fine.