Cinema in the park hits BCN this week—and for a total of 12 nights in August

Better late than never. While exploring the vast stretches of Pest last week, we stumbled upon the Hungarian equivalent of New York's Bryant Park summer outdoor film fest. "Surely Barcelona can do something like this," I thought. Even Montréal, for christ's sake, pulls one or two of these off each summer, with particular panache. And suddenly one Sunday while hojeanda the Sunday papers, voilà, here it is: as reported in El Periódico today, a new edition of the Gandules cycle which this year is entitled Travelling: Travel, discovery and emotions at 24fps. While the interpretation, at least as reported in EP, seems a bit pathetic (a tour of the world through film for those who were not able to escape for real voyage and discovery), the line-up of titles is nothing to be sneezed at: films by Oskar Fischinger, Wim Wenders, Jean-Luc Godard, Roman Polanski, and John Cassavetes. The first is scheduled for Wednesday of this week (starting at 10 p.m.), the first day of August. In fact, it appears it's to be a double billing, with Abderrahmane Sissako's La vie sur la terre to follow. Entrance is free but space (or at least the number of lawn chairs) is limited. All is to take place at the Pati de les Dons of the Contemporary Culture Center of Barcelona (CCCB) each Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evening of August. Pity I will miss it.

All screenings will be in original versions with Spanish (castellano) subtitles unless otherwise indicated.