There and Back Again

Listening to: A Question of Time (Depeche Mode)
Pondering: The choice of personnel, perhaps the most important choice (because ‘people are policy’), never proceeds according to plan, but there have been some successful transitions that upheld high standards. (Richard V. Allen)

I forgot to mention that two Sundays ago I went to see Eduardo Noriega on the big screen, for the first time ever! His latest movie, El Metodo (a.k.a. The Grönholm Method) was one of the features in this year’s San Francisco International Film Festival. I was thrilled when I found out and equally thrilled to find out later that my favorite DVD seller in Spain is already carrying the DVD. It should be arriving soon!

The Grönholm Method was an interesting watch, though probably made more interesting by Mr. Noriega himself. The story is like Survivor-in-the-boardroom. Eight applicants for a prestigious job at a prestigious company meet in a boardroom, expecting to go through an interview process. Instead they start interviewing each other as they are subjected to the so-called Grönholm Method, which consists of a series of analytical challenges – debates really – and each challenge results to one of the candidates being eliminated from the room. And yes, to complicate things, one of the eight is a mole so that question is in the back of your mind all through out. (No, it can’t be Eduardo. That would have been too obvious.)

Coming from an HR environment, I thought the story was representative of the challenges job seekers out there face during this age. Subtly, it explores the issues of young vs. old, male vs. female, old school vs. new school, street smarts vs. educational credentials – who can outlast who? The winner at the end didn’t surprise me but how this character won and why the other character didn’t win got me scratching my head all the way home.

Anyway, most of the people in the theater were movie aficionados, probably film students. I could hear some of them analyzing the story, the camera movements, etc. But me, I was just there for one thing. I was there for Eduardo and I got what I came for, and more…