My suggestions, as I prepare the movie:

Playing on the background:

KREIDLER. The album is called WONDER, and it's a perfect background for any activity. Instrumental, it's got rhythm, it's not lounge, nor Latin. I don't mean it's cold, just distant, like a cat.

ST. GERMAIN, TOURIST. The first track, "Roce Rouge". You won't get tired of playing it. It's definitely this winter's song. You'll end up hating it after so much hearing.

69 LOVE SONGS. THE MAGNETIC FIELDS. Incredible. Beautiful songs, all different and all good. I don't know where they come from but they're essential -if one wants to break the silence.

BOOKS

I listen to the albums I've just recommended as I edit the screenplay or go away looking for exteriors. I don't have much time left to read, but I'm unfortunately sleepless; I have problems disconnecting from everything filling my head. So I get to read, even though your capacity for concentration drops dramatically when you're preparing a film. Let me give you the list of books I take with me; good companions indeed (no matter your sex or social status).

"SECRETS" by Naruddin Farah. Rushdie says about him that he's the best African writer. I've just begun with it and his is the kind of prose you really enjoy. A must.

"DIAS DE LLAMAS" by Juan Iturralde. Our war described in time with its wounds. Fair and necessary recovery of an author we've been deprived of. Thanks to Antonio Muñoz Molina for his suggestion.

I'm feeling rather classical, but I just think Clarin is to be kept near your bedside table. Alfaguara has just released an anthology of his stories; one of them ("Doña Berta") has been my delight for years. Some day I'll finally take it to cinema.

For the more modern: Bruce Chatwin's biography. I haven't read it yet, but it's already on my bedside table. I read another one long ago, I can't remember the author, and even though I didn't like it I found great potential in the character. A sort of devilish/angelic boy (like an non-swollen Capote) everyone wanted to fuck but who turned as attractive as slippery. It's his life that matters, that's why his best book could be his autobiography. I'm not being fair with him because he actually did things and wrote books, apart from travelling restlessly and having an exquisite taste. We have something in common: Betarice Monti della Corte, a literary maecenas who invited me to her retreat, Santa Maddalena Foundation in Tuscany, one of Chatwin's favorite places for writing. Beatrice was the one behind the report on Bruce Weber just published in the Vanity Fair February issue. I'm so bashful I haven't read it yet. It's about my life, and I already now that story.

Pedro Almodovar