SelectionWhile waiting for better days, it is possible to discover the world without leaving your room. The vibrant capital of Andalusia never ceases to surprise us around its narrow streets.
Dance until the end of the night
It is during the holiday season, as spring approaches, that flamboyant dresses are brought out to try Sevillana at home, with friends or in bars. This festive dance (if it mimics the different phases of a romantic relationship – the copias -, it has lost this connotation) is practiced in duo, with one or more couples. Unlike flamenco where the dancers are in charge, when it comes to the Sevillana, it is the music that imposes the rhythm on them. This dance is such an institution that the director Carlos Saura dedicated a fascinating documentary to him in 1992 (and Guillaume Gallienne paid him a very personal tribute in Boys and Guillaume, to the table !)
Wear the hat
On closer inspection, the typical Seville hat resembles that of Don Diego de la Vega (alias Zorro, whose adventures are rather located in Upper California): flat cap and wide brims. Since 1847, women and men have supplied themselves to Antonio García, a family and artisanal house, and do not fail to have their initials embroidered with gold thread on the dark ribbon. Among the multitude of models available in wool felt or straw, José Antonio García advises to stick to the classic sombrero by ala ancha (“Wide brimmed”), mixed model, suitable for all styles and all heads.
Rediscover a magnetic scenario
Freely inspired by the novel by Pierre Louÿs The Woman and the Puppet, deemed unsuitable (Julien Duvivier and Josef von Sternberg had tried this with varying fortunes), That Obscure Object of Desire, released in 1977, tells the obsession with a desire that slips away. A French bourgeois (Fernando Rey) on vacation in Seville falls under the spell of Conchita, beautiful and elusive Andalusian (played by two different actresses, Carole Bouquet and Ángela Molina, as if to underline his duplicity), who plays at seducing him while being refusing to him. Co-written with Jean-Claude Carrière, this burlesque dance of frustration, humiliation and fetishism will be the last film by Luis Buñuel, who died in 1983.
Let yourself be captivated by Carmen
The rebellious Gypsy has become, unwillingly, the embodiment of Sevillian femininity. However, it is in the imagination of the French that the cigar maker was born: Prosper Mérimée, first, wrote the short story in 1845, Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy designed the libretto for the opera and, finally, Georges Bizet composed the music interspersed with a few “hits” (the Habanera and the Seguedille).
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