Fernán Gómez’s Real Madrid fandom

Now we have simply celebrated the Nationwide Day of Spain on October 12 and, amongst so many fantastic issues that we are able to reward, there are figures from our current previous that shine with their very own mild.

Fernán Gómez, who has been so many males, is acknowledged as an actor, director and author. Attributable to his prolixity and excessive capabilities, I might not hesitate to call him on an inventory as one of many males who has most affected our tradition. His profession is so sensible that even the Royal Spanish Academy made him an instructional in 2000, ultimately occupying chair B.

Just a few weeks in the past, in a Twitter interplay, Jesús Bengoechea and I requested ourselves if Fernando Fernán Gómez was a Actual Madrid fan. All of it stems from the well-known controversy about whether or not studying is overrated or not. We have been at first of September and a rich influencer convulsed the residing forces of nationwide tradition with the next two phrases: “Studying doesn’t make you a greater individual. Solely the conceited suppose that studying makes you higher than others.” Within the midst of this ignominious storm, Jesús Bengoechea needed to have available an excerpt from the fabulous documentary La Silla de Fernando (2006) during which the comic commented that “studying is critical, as a result of not doing so deprives you of the really nice pleasure, which is rereading.”

Fortunately, Don Fernando didn’t get to know the world of influencers and social networks. As an example that, within the period of posturing, this well-known compatriot influencer needed to open a melon. Sure, in the present day everybody opens melons, from Manolo Lama with Kylian Mbappé to your neighbor on the fifth ground. In mellifluous jargon, this sport known as “unpopular opinion”, though tweeters use the linguistic mortgage of “unpopular opinion” as Miguel Quintana repeats the horrible phrase “facto”. Sure, now everybody “throws info”. Cheesy folks normally wish to at all times be updated and that’s the reason, as Sofía Mazagatos would say, “being within the highlight” is their highest aspiration.

For sure, Fernando Fernán Gómez represents the exact opposite. In lots of interviews he sarcastically commented that he was a fantastic lazy one who might spend the day studying quietly, with out doing anything. In actual fact, he very amusingly appeared unhappy, as a result of based on him he couldn’t retire as he would really like, since he was not an American actor who at a sure age has a succulent patrimony after a lifetime of work in Hollywood. In a column in El País he went as far as to specific his love for studying within the following phrases: “The ebook opens earlier than us like a faithful and possessive lover opens her legs. Like a pal and member of the family open their arms to welcome us.” I like to recommend studying this discussion board known as The Embrace of Studying.

After all, a Renaissance man of his peak might solely be a Actual Madrid fan. The primary soccer analogy that appears similar to me is Alfredo Di Stéfano. For versatility, character and excellence. If the Argentine was able to being excellent in all areas of the sphere, Fernán Gómez has been an actor and director with the identical solvency that he has served as a author. For many years, the actor was involved with cultivating an intensive and profound literary work. He dealt with genres as completely different as theater or poetry with ease. As a novelist and columnist he stunned everybody and everybody. A few of his works have been tailored to movie with nice success. Two of them are important: Bicycles are for Summer time or The Journey to Nowhere are two masterpieces that I extremely advocate studying or watching.

Genius imprints character. And if each nice males stood out publicly for one thing, it was for his or her indomitable character. It was mentioned that the Argentine was fairly retiring and will seem surly at many occasions. Nonetheless, those that handled him as locker room companions don’t hesitate to spotlight his bonhomie. Many colleagues from his technology spotlight Fernán Gómez as a fantastic socialite and evening companion with very nice firm. However, within the face of imposture and impertinence, he was blunt: Pablo Carbonell was in a position to give testimony throughout his tv stint on Caiga Who Falls.

The primary soccer analogy that appears similar to me is Alfredo Di Stéfano. For versatility, character and excellence. If the Argentine was able to being excellent in all areas of the sphere, Fernán Gómez has been an actor and director with the identical solvency that he has served as a author

In his intensive filmography there are two movies devoted to soccer or with the gorgeous recreation as a backdrop. The primary is The Phenomenon (1956) and is directed by José María Elorrieta. The movie is a sitcom during which the comic performs a professor on the College of Frankfurt who, upon his arrival in Madrid, is mistaken for a Russian soccer participant. The second movie is Fuera de Juego (1991), written, directed and starring Fernán Gómez himself. In it he performs Don Aníbal, an aged man who lives in a nursing residence and whose best pleasure is having fun with his Madrid video games with different fellow asylum seekers. Within the solitude of the place, the aged arrange a soccer group and fight the challenges of the passage of time with friendship and good humor.

If any reader pal of La Galerna wish to get nearer to the determine of Don Fernando, I like to recommend studying his memoirs El tiempo Amarillo, a useful testimony of an period. For a similar causes, I like to recommend the documentary Fernando’s Chair, which David Trueba and Luis Alegre astutely composed. It’s a delight to see how somebody of his class critiques common themes or boldly dismisses some taboos.

In actual fact, within the aforementioned Twitter anecdote that motivated this column, a follower of Jesús Bengoechea named @jcbingui contributed an excerpt during which Fernán Gómez talks about Spanish envy. On the similar time, he noticed an evident contempt for excellence: “There’s a need to contempt in direction of those that are worthy of admiration. For instance, the soccer participant Raúl. They need him to fail, to fail.” Allow us to keep in mind that at the moment (in 2006 the documentary was printed) the press started to direct a great a part of the followers in opposition to Raúl. The remainder is historical past.

In a rustic filled with rogues, there’s nonetheless a spot for quixotic spirits. As a result of though, once we have a look at the partitions of our homeland, we wish to have Quevedo’s expertise to maintain us complete and take the each day disappointments with irony, we nonetheless have references like Fernando Fernán Gómez to really feel pleased with having been born Spanish.

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