Otros Cines Europa (Other Cinemas in Europe) has published a list of Spanish  directors’ choices for  best film of 2017. The list is a fascinating one for many reasons, one of them being a revelation of the extent to which we in Britain are cut off from the major currents of culture in mainland Europe: the majority of the titles on the list are still unknown to me.

I thought I’d extract and translate Almodóvar’s choice, which has been distributed in the UK, and which many of you will have seen, because there’s already the beginnings of a backlash amongst those most self-identified with queer theory/ queer cultural production and I thought that perhaps what Almodóvar likes about the film might be of interest to those amongst you who do not speak Spanish and would like to know:

Pedro Almodóvar: Luca Guadagnino’s Call Me By Your Name. Everything is pretty, attractive, desirable and moving in this movie: Boys, girls, breakfasts, fruit, cigarettes, pools, bicycles, open-air dances, the 80s, the protagonists’ doubts and dedication, the sincerity of all the characters, the relationship of the protagonist with his parents. The authors’ (André Aciman, James Ivory and Luca Guadagino) commitment to sensual passion. The light of the north of Italy, and most especially, Timotée Chalamet, the great revelation of the year.

José Arroyo (translation my own and any corrections gratefully received)