Martyn Richard Jones, Spain 8th July 2025

We frequently reveal a little of ourselves when we disclose the things we detest and love. Especially little things that delight, fascinate, and entertain us. Here are ten films that I have taken as my own. Of course, the choice is highly arbitrary, and I love many more movies. I am using these devices. They help me reconstruct the foundations of my life. This was before my journey to Galicia. They also support my current life in Bandoxa. They are films, but they also form a small part of my identity.

Dawn Breaks, Which Is No Small Thing (Amanece, que no es poco) is a 1989 Spanish cult film comedy written and directed by José Luis Cuerda.

The film critiques Spain under General Franco’s dictatorship. It also critiques Spain in the eighties, where everything changed so that nothing would change. It’s a magic cult film with a great script, a wonderful cast and perfect settings.

The film includes some really surrealistic scenes, for example:

Teodoro: Father. Are you asleep, father?

Jimmy: Eh?

Teodoro: Are you asleep?

Jimmy: No, son, ‘course not, ‘course not.

Teodoro: I remember mother, father.

Jimmy: But don’t you like the motorbike I bought you?

Teodoro: Yes, the bike is excellent, but that’s an entirely different thing. Don’t you remember what I told you in the letters? I told you, ‘I’m eager to see you both when I get back’. You both, I told you, mother and you. And then I come back, and you’ve killed her. Why did you kill her?

Jimmy: Because she was very bad.

Teodoro: But, father…

Jimmy: It’s hard to tell this to a son, but your mother was very bad. I’ve waited for you to be raised and for you to have a good job. But now you have that post in Oklahoma; why do you want a mother?

Teodoro: I don’t know, but as I’m beginning a sabbatical year with nothing to do…

Jimmy: But you’re riding a bike because of that. A motorcycle with a sidecar, so you can see the world. Because, you see, all the fucking day there in Oklahoma.

Notting Hill is a 1999 romantic comedy starring Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant, with Rhys. The storyline tells of the romance between a British bookseller and a famous American actress who happens to walk into his shop in the Notting Hill district of London.

One of my favourite bits of the film is this:

Honey: William just turned down Anna Scott.

Spike: You daft prick.

You’ve Got Mail is a 1998 American romantic comedy film starring Tom Hanks and Meg. It was inspired by the 1937 Hungarian play Parfumerie by Miklós László (which had been adapted in 1940 as The Shop Around the Corner and in 1949 as In the Good Old Summertime). It tells the story of two people who carry on an online romance, unaware that they are also business rivals.

Kathleen Kelly: I thought all that Fox stuff was so charming. F-O-X.

Joe Fox: Well, I didn’t lie about it.

Kathleen Kelly: ‘Joe’? ‘Just call me Joe’? As if you were one of those stupid 22-year old girls with no last name? ‘Hi, I’m Kimberly!’ ‘Hi, I’m Janice!’ Don’t they know you’re supposed to have a last name? It’s like they’re an entire generation of cocktail waitresses.

French Kiss is a 1995 romantic comedy about a woman who flies to France to confront her straying fiancé and gets into trouble when the charming thief sitting next to her uses her to smuggle a stolen diamond necklace. French Kiss was filmed in Paris, the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region, and Cannes.

Kate: A healthy person is someone who expresses what they’re feeling inside. Express, not repress.

Luc: In that case, you must be one of the healthiest people in the world.

Dogma is a 1999 American fantasy comedy film written and directed by Kevin Smith, also starring Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, George Carlin, Linda Fiorentino, Janeane Garofalo, Chris Rock, Jason Lee, Salma Hayek, Bud Cort, Alan Rickman, Alanis Morissette in her feature film debut, and Jason Mewes.

The story revolves around two fallen angels who plan to employ a supposed loophole in Catholic dogma to return to Heaven after being cast out by God, but since existence is based on the principle that God is infallible, their success would prove God wrong, thus undoing all creation. The last scion and two prophets are sent by the seraph Metatron to stop them.

Serendipity: I’m responsible for nineteen of the twenty top-grossing films of all time.

Bethany: Nineteen?

Serendipity: Yeah, the one about the kid, by himself in his house, burglars trying to get in and he fights them off? I had nothing to do with that one. Somebody sold their soul to Satan to get the grosses up on that piece of shit.

Dr. Knock (original title: Knock) is a 2017 French comedy film directed and adapted by Lorraine Lévy and starring Omar Sy. It is a remake of the 1951 Dr. Knock, directed by Guy Lefranc.

In the second half of the 1950s, Dr Knock, a former thug turned medical doctor, arrives in the small town of Saint-Maurice to make his fortune by following his adage: ‘Every healthy man is a sick man who doesn’t know it. He skillfully manipulates the townspeople into believing that they are not as healthy as they might think. In this way, he was able to find a symptom in everyone, usually imaginary, and thus practice his profession profitably. Beneath his seductive exterior and having won the trust of the town, Knock is about to achieve his goals. But his past catches up with him, and an old acquaintance upsets the doctor’s plans.

Amélie (Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain) is a 2001 French romantic comedy is a whimsical depiction of contemporary Parisian life, set in Montmartre. It tells the story of Amélie Poulain, played by Audrey Tautou, a shy and quirky waitress who resolves to change the lives of those around her for the better while also coming to terms with her own isolation.

[Amélie hands a beggar some money]

Beggar: Sorry, madam, I don’t work on Sundays.

Cinema Paradiso (Nuovo Cinema Paradiso) is a 1988 drama film written and directed by Giuseppe Tornatore.

The film, set in a small Sicilian village, focuses on the friendship between a young man and an old projectionist working at a cinema. The film features Philippe Noiret, Jacques Perrin, Leopoldo Trieste, Marco Leonardi, Agnese Nano and Salvatore Cascio. The film’s score was composed by Ennio Morricone and his son, Andrea.

Alfredo: With all due respect to the Lord, who made the world in two or three days – I’d have taken a bit longer, but, in all modesty, I would’ve done it better.

Melancholia is a 2011 science fiction drama film written and directed by Lars von Trier and starring Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Kiefer Sutherland, with Alexander Skarsgård, Brady Corbet, Cameron Spurr, Charlotte Rampling, Jesper Christensen, John Hurt, Stellan Skarsgård and Udo Kier in supporting roles. The film’s story revolves around two sisters, one of whom gets married just before a rogue planet is about to collide with Earth. Melancholia is the second film in von Trier’s Depression Trilogy. It was preceded by 2009’s Antichrist and followed by Nymphomaniac in 2013.

John: I would like to raise a toast to life.

Claire: To life? What do you mean by life? You said it was going to be okay.

John: Well, there was no sense in alarming everybody.

Claire: So, you’re saying that our lives were in danger?

John: No, I was saying – No. I was saying that when dealing with science and calculations of this magnitude, you have to account for a margin of error. That’s all – that’s all I’m saying.

Run Lola Run (Lola rennt) is a 1998 German experimental thriller film written and directed by Tom Tykwer. The story follows a woman named Lola (Franka Potente) who needs to raise 100,000 Deutsche Marks in twenty minutes to save the life of her boyfriend Manni (Moritz Bleibtreu). Manni, tasked with delivering 100,000 German marks, frantically calls his girlfriend, Lola. Manni says he was on the U-Bahn to drop off the money and fled when he saw the conductors before realizing he had left the bag of money behind; he saw a homeless man examining it as the train pulled away. Manni’s boss, Ronnie, will kill him in twenty minutes if he doesn’t have the money, so he sets out to rob a nearby supermarket to replenish the funds. Lola implores Manni to wait for her and decides to ask her father, a bank manager, for help.

Narrator: Man… probably the most mysterious species on our planet. A mystery of unanswered questions. Who are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going? How do we know what we think we know? Why do we believe anything at all? Countless questions in search of an answer… an answer that will give rise to a new question… and the next answer will give rise to the next question, and so on. But, in the end, isn’t it always the same question? And always the same answer?