If Jean-Luc Godard had not already used it in his “History(ies) of cinema”, this book could have been titled that “History(s) of cinema”. In the entertaining and documented “For a handful of stories” (“For a handful of stories”, paraphrasing Leone’s classic “For a Fistful of Dollars”), Bunyol Duran, director and presenter of the radio program “Memento”germ of the book, collects eighteen moments in the history of universal cinema starring personalities such as Steven Spielberg, Sigourney Weaver or Stanley Kubrick.
Although there is a preponderance of the Hollywood universe, the stimulating will in the selection of names to escape from the Mecca of cinema is perceived. Hence, the inclusion of stories about Sergio Leone, the Russian Andrei Tarkovski, Monty Python or even the indie terror of George A. Romero, in addition to the very pertinent recovery of close stories such as those of Elena Jordi, the first female director of Spanish cinema. , Llorenç Llobet-Gràcia and his cursed classic “Life in Shadows” or the Esplugues City studios. This more plural vision of the history of cinema is joined by a decidedly feminist spirit –sometimes somewhat repetitive– that throughout the work recalls the forbidden territory that cinema has traditionally been for women.
As a work in Catalan, “For a handful of stories” It helps to fill an important gap: the publication of original works specialized in cinema in that language, which have been scarce in recent years. Due to its formal approach, the narration, as if it were fiction, of historical facts through, here, descriptions, jumps in time and dialogues -even with daring decisions such as getting into the head of a cat-, connects with a small Catalan classic also of radiophonic origins, “The secret archive of Augustus Blom”, by Alex Gorina. Bunyol Duran, radio scriptwriter of the program of “History on guard!”, is well managed in the collection of documentation, in the presentation of data and in the description of historical moments. More doubts are left by the inclusion of certain invented dialogues that are unnecessary concessions to a hypothetical easier reading.