I saw an interesting article on CNN.com today about why more Americans don't travel outside of the States. Why Americans don't go abroad
Basically, the upshot of this article is that we don't travel internationally because there is so much to see here domestically. And we work a lot, so we take shorter vacations. And we just don't really care about other places anyway because we are so comfortable here.
Yep. Pretty much. I go with number three.
So, as a fairly typical American, exploring Spanish culture via the web (and via Tour Torbe), is a bit...jarring. It is hard to understand the words written at times, yes. But understanding the culture is ten times more difficult.
For example, this whole Torrente thing. What is the big deal? And who is this Santiago Segura guy that Torbe keeps talking about and to? Alex de la Iglesia is easy...he is known over here if one is into film, which I am. But the Segura guy...not so much.
And what exactly is the Torrente plot line? Some cop-type who bumbles around? Is it a send off on American cop films? And what does Torbe have to do with it all? He appears in the series (because apparently one Torrente movie is not enough), I gather...but as what?
So, so confusing.
Torbe ran a trailer on his blog, and the trailer is basically a music video promoting the latest Torrente movie. I did discover that the guy singer in the trailer is some Latin Grammy winner named David Bisbal...but I still don't understand why he is in the movie, and why he is doing a John Travolta in Pulp Fiction dance move.
Explicame, por favor.
Ok, let me explain you. Santiago Segura is one of the most popular actors (and now directors) in Spain. He began working with Alex de la Iglesia in "El día de la Bestia" (The day of the beast).
ReplyDeleteSeveral years ago he launched a film that was a real BOMB here, "Torrente, el brazo tonto de la ley" (Torrente, the dumb/silly arm of the law). In that movie he depicted a policeman in excedence that was the model of detestable person by conventional standards here. Torrente was a fat, bald, very conservative man (in fact he was "franquist"... it's a politic term, I dunno if u have read sth about our recent history), he was very machist (in fact he liked bitches, that altough common here is socially detestable), was against inmigrants, was very nationalist (here this is unpopular, but not being a nationalist of the so called "historical" regions) and also supported the football team "Atlético de Madrid". You'd need to know well our culture to understand why all this is so important, its very long to explain.
A brief summary is that "Torrente" (interpreted by Segura) was what americans know as the "anti-hero". It was one of the most succesful movies, making a lot of money and they made two sequels, the second also very good but the third one was kinda a failure.
Segura has also worked in tv. He had a program in La Sexta (translated channel six) called "Sabías a lo que venías" (U know what u were going to find). There he was famous by the ppl he invited and his irreverent sense of humour.
If u want I can try to explain this issue in spanish, I feel that my limited english is a barrier.
Cliente X...your English is excellent! Thank you for the explanation. I just posted something else about Segura that I found interesting. Now with the information you have added, I have an even better understanding. Muchas gracias. :-)
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