My Short Movie about Misericordia

My Short Movie Project

Misericordia Novel by Galdós

I love Madrid ... but specially the Old City.

You can find very historic places in every square, street or building.

As the novel Misericordia from the Spanish writer Galdós was a mandatory reading, I decided to know more about the locations and how they have been transformed after several years

Planning

First, using the names of the places described in the book, I use a map to find the curren location and identify the area where most of the action and the narration happen.

I researched the places using mainly the Wikipedia and several websites focused in the History of the Old Madrid. Of course, many of these sources, they also included several references to the author and the characters of the novel.

In this pictures, you can see the map of the city I use for the preparation:

Also, I attached several notes about the key locations to plan the tour for capturing the images and preparing the content of the short movie:

Some of the most interesting places are:

Iglesia de San Sebastian (The church where Benina used to ask for money)
Calle Cañizares (Obdulia's house)
Calle del Olmo (Paca's house)
Plaza de Tirso de Molina (where Benina and Almudena encountered)
And many others

Learning Outcome

In the 19th century, this traditional area of Madrid served as a setting in several novels of Benito Pérez Galdós, and was even known with the name of Madrid Galdosiano by historians. In 1896, Galdós wrote one of his most popular works, Misericordia, in which he mentions the restaurant Botín and many other famous buildings very well know in Madrid.

I learned how the author is presenting the city as vast mural in which history, society and the urban profile of Madrid unite to provide the background of a story in which the characters try to survive in a very difficult conditions. In my opinion, the atmosphere in the book reveals the influences of the Dostoievski and Dickens.

I visited the restaurant Botín as Galdós makes reference to several dishes on the menu , especially the crème pastries. I discovered that in tribute to the author, the dining room at its entrance is named as Galdós.

This project helped me a lot to have a better understanding of the author and the context of the novel, but more important, I think that now I have a lot knowledge about my own city.

Short Movie - Misericordia

I produced a short movie to collect all the places I visited during the preparation of the project. I am working to include some subtitles to enrich the explanation of the places and the relationship with the novel.

You can enjoy the video just clicking the link below: