Pedro Almodóvar was highly anticipated at noon in Plaza Catalunya, the first of his three stops to sign copies of his book The Last Dream in this, his first Sant Jordi. The fans have given him, however, all kinds of objects for him to stamp dedications. From posters of All About My Mother, the film he shot in Barcelona, to DVD booklets of The Skin I Live In: "sign it for that page on which you appear on set," they ask him. They even drop gifts, like that still from Hitchcock's Marnie the Thief, told by a man who had been stored in a cardboard box for sixty years and is now part of an animated short... "Oh, yes, look , that's Tippi Hedren", identifies the Manchego filmmaker.
The friendship party is especially for filmmakers who might feel like intruders in the literary world. "I follow you from I'm from Tehran Great bargain with MacNamara," says a woman who identifies herself as Paqui and hands her several copies with post-its attached to which are the first names to whom she should dedicate them. Another one hands her a billet that she has brought in her backpack... After the Pedro Almodóvar files, and she still takes out another one, the script for The Skin I Live In.
Javier Cercas has been practically warming up the chair in the previous shift. The author of No Silence regrets that the passage of readers asking for a signature is not fluid in his case. "I see people three rows away with my book in hand who won't be able to get there before I leave." At minus five he leaves without waiting to meet the divo. Almodóvar has Javi Rey and Isra Bravo by his side, and on the other, four strong men who have an American football podcast and yell for no reason.
Juan Cruz, the one who was in tandem with José Corbacho, approaches him "to say hello" and apologizes, "I couldn't get your book." Next to her, a true fan asks her to sign "here, right next to the signature of Alberto Iglesias", in a copy of Talk to her (Talk to her). The selfie moment always comes no matter how many architectural barriers there are. "I don't know how we're going to do it," Almodóvar tells a young woman in a wheelchair from whom the board separates her. At times, fifteen fit in a selfie... who disperse to make way for a couple of FNAC employees: it's time to take a "super quick" photo for the archive.
The journalist Víctor Fernández carries a copy of Conversations with Enrique Vila-Matas, which Almodóvar asked him about in the interview they had previously. He gives it to her. Meanwhile, another fan who was waiting for her turn stands in front of the author: "I am very nervous, the truth is that it is an honor, you do not always have the opportunity to be before a star," she manages to say. "It happens to all of us," the artist jokes with a serious face.
Almodóvar seems at times a child with homework. "I am very excited - he assures -, this is wonderful, that all this crowd is celebrating friendship and reading. So many people, so many smiles... I think it is a party that should be copied all over the world".
Storyteller says he has been one all his life. "But when I spoke of a writer I was someone of great height. Before authors like Bolaño, Virginia Woolf or Henry James one feels insignificant, and yet what it is to write I have written all my life. This book -he continues- is like a moral lesson, because I wrote for the sake of writing, for the joy of it, and here are stories from the late sixties that I never thought would be published and from all decades.There is a lot of material before I became a film director , etc".
A couple of streets further up, on Paseo de Gràcia, another filmmaker with a very different label arrives much more relaxed at his appointment with the Diada signatures. Albert Serra, with an earring in his ear and sunglasses, takes a seat 20 minutes late next to Francesc Serés, who jokes about his being late: "He's afraid of me." The line of people waiting is less impressive than that of Almodóvar, but the relationship established in that half minute of exchange is particular.
A young man approaches him, overcoming his shyness and tragic drift. "I would like to be a writer, to study literary studies," he confesses to this newspaper. For now, he is in high school and says that his favorite film by Serra is La mort de Lluís XIV. "He always gives the impression of a serious person and I don't know if it's a pose because here he has been affable and communicative," he adds.
Immediately afterwards, Albert Serra receives the first video selfie request of his life... But he has to do it himself. A couple hands him the camcorder and asks him to film the situation. Without blinking, the author of El cant dels ocells or Pacificction autofocuses and spends a few words, turning the optics around to capture his fans. A gift that they take home. "Yes, they have asked me and I have done it. But, well, that does not interest me."
His dedications in Un brindis per Sant Martirià he always ends up surrounding them with a heart to which he later stamps pen stitches. Because you do that? "Because Sant Jordi, love... although I add spikes as if it were a cactus, because love is like that, it always ends badly". He also likes to draw penises. The first thing he does when they hand him a bookmark is to take advantage of the phallic verticality. And he also stamps them on entire pages of his book. "Well, depending on who I dare. If you were a woman, perhaps better than not"... And the boy leaves.
