miércoles, 12 de diciembre de 2007

IT IS A JOURNEY TO THE END OF THE WORLD...

Con esa enigmática y hermosa frase se inicia una de las películas inglesas más interesantes de la historia. No está en youtube, pero yo la encontré en el kazan unos meses atrás. London, de Patrick Keiller, largometraje en el que no participa ningún actor, y que consiste meramente en una sucesión de diversos planos fijos de la ciudad, mientras una sugerente voz en off explica en inglés educado las andanzas por la capital de los dos protagonistas del film.

Tras la frase inicial, tomada de una novela de Jonathan Swift; con la imagen del Tower of London bridge en un día nublado y contaminado, asistimos a una de las más poéticas y a la vez crudas y certeras descripciones sobre la ciudad del Támesis que se hayan recitado jamás.

Dirty old Blighty. Undereducated, economically backward, bizarre. A catalog of modern miseries, with its fake traditions, its Irish war, its militarism and secrecy, its silly old judges, its hatred of intellectuals, its ill health and bad food, its sexual repression, its hypocrisy and racism, and its indolence. It's so exotic, so . . . homemade.

Año 92. El protagonista acaba de llegar del extranjero después de varios años sin pisar la ciudad. Robinson, profesor universitario homosexual que fue amante suyo durante su juventud, le ha llamado pidiéndole que retorne urgentemente, pues se encontra a punto de realizar un importante descubrimiento sobre la esencia de Londres. Poco se nos dice sobre el tal Robinson:

Robinson lives in the way people were said to live in the cities of the Soviet Union. His income is small but he saves most of it.

He isn't poor because he lacks money but because everything he wants is unobtainable.
Juntos, aunque en ningún momento del film se les ve, comienzan una serie de periplos por las zonas más literarias de Londres, en especial aquellas que dieron cobijo en siglo XIX a poetas franceses exiliados como Rimbaud, Verlaine o Baudelaire. Pero en ninguno de esos parajes encuentran atisbo alguno de poeticidad o de esa rebeldía decimonónica, sino una ciudadsucia y hostil, sin apenas vida social.
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In the supermarket we found a cafe with friendly staff and pleasant, inexpensive food, but there was no sign of anyone writing poetry.London, he says, is a city under siege from a suburban government which uses homeless, pollution, crime, and the most expensive and run down public transport system of any city in western Europe as weapons against Londoners' lingering desire for the freedoms of city life.

A cada paso que dan, la ciudad se les antoja más hostil:

There is no town in the world which is more adapted for training one away from people and training one into solitude.

Esta película sirvió de inspiración a la novela "The Beerclock" de Elvar Ata, otra crítica feroz al modo de vida inglés y al capitalismo anglosajón.

Far in the distance the tugboat whistled; its shade all passed the bridge. . . . It was summoning all the barges on the river, every last one, and the whole city and the sky and the countryside, and ourselves, to carry us all away . . . and that would be the end of us.

Pese al tono general de la película, más bien grave y metafísico, la crítica política alcanza momentos de gran sentido del humor:

On June the 4th we passed through Leicester Square again and found it being officially reopened by the queen who was to switch on a new electricity substation which had been built beneath it. We heard that earlier someone in the crowd had shouted "Pay your taxes you scum" but there had been no other incidents.

Uno de los momentos más agudos es cuando los dos protagonistas asisten horrorizados a una enésima victoria de los conservativos en las elecciones generales del año 92. Pese a que las condiciones de vida de los británicos se deterioran año tras año, debido a las salvajes políticas capitalistas de los tories, el populacho inglés ha acabado votándoles una vez más. Ello nos remite al clásico fenómeno de los pobres de derechas, y cómo la clases populares europeas han ido sucumbiendo a la propaganda de los capitalistas hasta acabar votandoles una y otra vez por motivos abstractos de patriotismo o para salvaguardar a la nación de amenazas más o menos ficticias, aunque ello pusiera en peligro sus conquistas sociales y sus intereses de clase. Si bien es cierto en los países anglosajones tal fenómeno se produce de una manera más flagrante que en el resto de Europa, por ser en esos países donde el capitalismo ha llegado a extremos más despiadados.
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Robinson began to consider what this result would mean for him. His flat would continue to deteriorate and its rent increase. He would be intimidated by vandalism and petty crime. The bus service would get worse. There would be more traffic and noise pollution and an increased risk of getting knocked down crossing the road. There would be more drunks pissing in the street when he looked out of the window and more children taking drugs on the stairs when he came home at night. His job would be at risk and subjected to interference. His income would decrease. He would drink more and less well. He would be ill more often. He would die sooner. For the elderly or anyone with children it would be much worse. For London as a whole, there would now be no new elected metropolitan authority. The public transport system would degenerate into chaos as it was deregulated and privatised. There would be more road schemes. Hospitals would close. As the social security system was dismantled there would be increased homelessness and crime, with police more often carrying guns. The population would continue to decline as those who could would move away and employers followed.

Su periplo les lleva al carnaval de Nottin Hill del que sacan paradójicas conclusiones:

He asked me if I find it strange that the largest street festival in Europe should take place in London, the most unsociable and reactionary of cities. I said that I didn't find it strange at all, for only in the most unsociable of cities would there be a space for it. And in any case for many people London was not at all unsociable.

Y finalmente, se dedican a buscar el origen de Londres. Gran paradoja, la única ciudad europea en la que el distrito financiero, con las sedes principales de los grandes ancos y empresas de seguros, se encuentre ubicado en el mismo centro histórico y no en las afueras, ocurriendo que los mayores rascatas se encuentran en tortuosas y estrechas calles de traza medieval.
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He argued that the failure of London was rooted in the English fear of cities, a protestant fear of popery and socialism, the fear of Europe, that had disenfranchised Londoners and undermined their society. He denounced the anachronisms of the City and its constitutional privileges.

Después de un momento de caos en el que Robinson a punto está de perder el conocimiento y la vida, el protagonista de la película llega a una conclusión tan sorprendente como brillante. Si pensáis ver la peli, es mejor que no leáis esta frase:

For Londoners, London is obscured. Too thinly spread, too private for anyone to know. Its social life invisible, its government abolished, its institutions at the discretion of either monarchy or state or the City, where at the historic centre there nothing but a civic void, which fills and empties daily with armies of clerks and dealers, mostly citizens of other towns. The true identity of London, he said, is in its absence. As a city it no longer exists. In this alone it is truly modern. London was the first metropolis to disappear.

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