Javier Ocaña: “Children do not become racists by watching ‘Dumbo'”

Javier Ocana is a person who has seen more movies than normal. When he was a teenager, his parents told him that watching so many movies could not be good. Concerned about his mental stability (not about his grades, which were always good) they came to comment on it with his older brothers. But he, who was also passionate about football, was perfectly fine. I did not watch so much cinema to be more cultured, or more supportive, or more respectful. He did it because he enjoyed it.

Turned to film critic and fatherNow she also enjoys watching movies with her children (Julia, who is 15 and Santi, who is 12). His latest book, ‘From Snow White to Kurosawa’ (Editorial Peninsula), is not a pedagogical guide but a personal chronicle of the adventure of sharing movies with them. The critic and teacher affirms that there are only two categories of films: the good ones and the bad ones. And, of course, that immense range of gray between one and the other. “Stations to see movies at home, let’s choose the first & rdquor ;, he concludes.

Fathers and mothers always want our children to repeat our childhood and we fall into an exercise of nostalgia. You have fled from that habit. How did you get it?

I have tried to keep what served me emotionally as a child, but as long as it maintains the status of classic. That is to say, that it survives through generations. You cannot say that Chaplin is cinema of the 20s but universal and imperishable, like John Ford, ‘The seven samurai’, the Disney classics, ‘How beautiful it is to live’ and ‘To kill a nightingale’. However, trying to get my children excited about series that were a myth for me, such as ‘Heidi’ or ‘Marco’, is useless because they do not maintain that classic consideration.

Boys and girls get excited today with ‘Sponge Bob‘. You compare their crazy bullshit to the universe of the Marx Brothers.

The children’s series is a cinephile first step to draw parallels with the gags because the surrealism of the Marx brothers is the same as that of Bob, Patrick and Squidward. It is a way of introducing them in black and white, in films of 70 or 80 years ago.

And do you think there are racist messages in some Disney classics?

I am an observant person and I like to see the behavior of parents and children. My son plays soccer and my daughter basketball. I have seen games where parents mess with the referees and have ugly details with the physical appearance of certain teammates. Those parents, with those behaviors, are the ones who create racist people, not the movies. I laugh a lot when someone says that watching ‘Dumbo’ children are going to become racists. Quite the opposite. Children’s classics, like stories, contain a certain cruelty and confront children with their own problems, those they have now and those they will have in the future.

He states that the first act of ‘WALL.E’ (Andrew Stanton, 2008) is “the most suggestive challenge for the little ones in all of Pixar & rdquor; filmography.

Pixar always starts at full speed. However, WALL.E goes against the grain and begins without dialogue. If your child is between 5 and 8 years old, Pixar is fine, but I would not start with this movie but with others. I would do it when they already had some training, which does not consist of giving classes but, simply, in watching movies. There is a very nice parallel between the intertwined hands of the robot and his girl and City Lights.

In addition, the female character, Eva, implies a change in the usual stereotypes of the feminine and the masculine.

She is the tough guy, with personality, determination and even capacity for violence. He, scary, shy and delicate. There is a process of mutual knowledge in which exhilarating moments of tenderness emerge, something that, in this aspect, has a lot of Buster Keaton and his cinema.

We are still at Christmas, let’s talk about ‘How beautiful it is to live’ (Frank Capra, 1946). Do we put it on our sons and daughters?

The more you insist on them seeing a movie, the less they will see it. The first time I put it on my children, I noticed that they liked it but that they were not excited like me. They did it when the protagonist begins to suffer hardships. I don’t know when kids start to think not only about children’s characters but also about their parents. To show them those films is to confront them with the problems of adults. Make them aware that there are adults who have a hard time. There is nothing evil about it. The downside is putting them in a false bubble of happiness. Boys and girls, at a certain age, have to realize that sometimes they have a hard time in life.

‘Jaws’ (Spielberg, 1975) is a different experience after the covid.

Yes, with that scene in which the characters say: “Where do we keep the closed beach signs? We’ve never had them & rdquor ;. In the script you see the closure of certain rulers when danger comes. He also talks about how we must pay attention to those who know, about the importance of saving ourselves in community and not as selfish individuals looking to their own side. It is inevitable to think about the pandemic. But I don’t know if children do. I think not.

Will they be afraid of the sea?

There is a cinephile phrase that I especially like: “The cinema does not provoke serial killers, it only makes them more original & rdquor ;. Regarding children’s fears, do not jump into the pool without knowing how to swim. With the horror genre you have to be especially careful because there are childhood fears and bad dreams. I have gone little by little. Each child is also different. My daughter, who is now 15 years old, has never been afraid in that sense and she likes horror movies.

And Santi, who is 12?

It’s scarier. There are tapes that Julia saw when she was 12 years old and he still does not see them. I do not insist. He will find his moment, and it will probably be with his friends. Of the 150 titles that I talk about in the book, there are some that Julia has not seen and others that Santi has not seen. There is no force.

You don’t have to force, okay. But how to instill in them the love of cinema?

There is a classic joke that shows two moms on a park bench. One asks the other: “What do I have to do to make my son read, like yours? & Rdquor; The other mom is reading. Something similar happens with cinema. My children have always seen me watching movies of all kinds at home. You have to get excited and have fun. Enjoying the road is being with them, laughing and crying with them. It’s okay because he likes a story that you don’t. That is not a failure. You have to take into account personal taste. We must flee from sermons and doctrines.

What is the difference between a child who loves movies and another who does not?

None. What I do admit is that a lot of the things I know about life have been taught to me by the movies. But there are also things about cinema that life has taught me. It is constant feedback. A child who has not enjoyed movies and reading may be just as happy as one who has. The only thing I aspire to with my children is to be good people, it is the most important thing in life. And if they don’t like movies, soccer or reading, what are we going to do to them & mldr; Make them good people and that’s it.

Father and autonomous. Where did you find time to write the book?

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The publisher’s offer came in and I couldn’t refuse it. They told me “write what you want & rdquor ;. I work too much, freelancers are like that. Classes, radio, reviews, & mldr; I didn’t have time, but I found it with the pandemic.