By a hair, Carles Mir was not born in a movie theater. It was a night in 1948. His mother's water broke just at the end of a comedy with Cary Grant that she was watching at the Astoria, and there was just enough time to get home so that, a little later, in the early hours of the morning, the baby came into the world. At five years old, Carles was already going to the cinema regularly with his parents. At seven, not a week went by without him seeing at least three movies. In addition to the films absorbed in theaters, there were the reels shown at home with a Pathé Baby projector: from home recordings to old Charlie Chaplin or Harold Lloyd films. That could only end in a total rejection or an unrestrained love for cinema. And, in his case, the answer is well known to anyone who has enjoyed his long and acclaimed career as a film expert on Betevé, at the helm of programs like Barcelona i Acció, dedicated to rescuing cinematic gems filmed in the city.
The patron delights in a "very cold drink" of Viña Sol at the bar, while the notes of Will you still be mine by Ella Fitzgerald and Oscar Peterson glide over the night air that permeates the Bar.
On his face, the eternal smile of a man who throughout his life has accumulated many and very good friends and, under his arm, Los cines de mi vida (Comanegra): his recently published sentimental memoir. A profusely illustrated volume that covers two decades of Barcelona movie theaters, from 1950 to 1970, filled with anecdotes, historical curiosities, countless references to the seventh art, and juicy personal anecdotes. The prologue is written by one of his many friends, none other than Román Gubern.
Back to celluloid
After a childhood and adolescence lived in close contact with the world of movies, at twenty-five years old the patron traveled to Nepal and India. "It was a land trip, from Barcelona to Kathmandu, and I stayed there for six months. That journey transformed me, and when I came back here, I had changed. I came out of the closet and left my neighborhood, Sant Gervasi, to move to live in Raval. There I made good friends like Nazario, Ocaña, or Camilo and lived in that Barcelona where things could happen that didn't happen in other neighborhoods."
It was at that time that he began to collaborate in the press as a film critic for titles such as Pronto or Lecturas, and his name began to sound as a reference cinephile in the city. "But that didn't last and I got fully into hospitality. For years I ran a bar called Caos Mil where jazz and soundtracks played and everything was linked to the movies I like. But that adventure lasted a few years, between the late 80s and mid-next decade."
In 2001 he lived in Vallvidrera and worked in a place in Plaça Sant Agustí. "I commuted every day by motorcycle and it was a pace of life that, at 52, I could no longer endure, so I decided to quit." It was then that his friend Terenci Moix suggested his name for the municipal television channel. "I started directing and presenting a program specialized in Western films, mostly spaghetti western. A space that would be unthinkable today!" It wouldn't be long before he took charge of the referential Barcelona i Acció.
Carles Mir loves a Barcelona where he has lived in seven different neighborhoods, but which he will soon leave to move to a nearby townThat was areturn in style to the world of cinema,which he complemented with various collaborations in media such as Com Ràdio or Radio 4 of RNE. "And today I am retired, enjoying my friends and, of course, the movies I watch at the cinema or from my DVD collection."
The enchantment of the sea
Carles Mir loves a Barcelona in which he has lived in seven different neighborhoods, but which he will soon leave to move to a nearby town. "People get older and we change, and the city also changes. My relationship with it is one of total love, but I have already done everything I had to do here."
---And what has been your favorite neighborhood in the city?
---They all have something. I strongly advocate for the area where I was born, Sant Gervasi, where there is everything: bars, parks, services. It is very clean and many Barcelonians do not know it.
But, despite this affection for his native neighborhood, his relationship with the city focuses on the sea and the enchantment that, since childhood, the Mediterranean has exerted on him. "One of the memories that make me fall in love with Barcelona is the first time I saw its coastline on what was my first boat trip, going to Ibiza. I also love the Golondrinas and the breakwater and, if I'm honest, I even like the port more than Barceloneta," he laughs.
---Now that you're leaving, won't you miss that sea?
Carles Mir finishes his glass of wine, perhaps to make way for another, and in the background Ella works hard with her unbeatable version of Someone to watch over me.
---I'm moving to a coastal town ---he replies with his wide smile---, so I won't be lacking that.