Formentor, a sea of words.
Last year, the Hotel Formentor celebrated their 90 years standing. 90 years of respect for a unique paradise, World Heritage, a Mediterranean forest that decorates a steep headland, full of coves in Mallorca. 90 years, moreover, of being a corner of culture and happiness. Because that's how it was born as the dream of a couple, Adam Diehl and Elena Popolicio, to share his paradise with other artist friends, to share his happiness with others.
The documentary Formentor: the sea of words, available in Filmin (August 1) and premiered as part of the Atlantida Film Fest, recovers the history of this mythical Majorcan hotel and tries to unveil the mystery of its magic, of its success. “Why is it that the beauty of a bay, of a sea and some mountains forming a special arrangement is also, as Dudamel says of music, an invitation to resurrect? asks the director of the film, Jose Luis Lopez-Linares.
A place of happiness, a cultural legacy.
Around this mystery revolves the film that uses the concerts of the sessions of Formentor Classic Sunsets, held in the hotel garden since 2013, as the musical thread that leads to a unique story that began in the 1920s. With the Costa i Llobera family, owners of this corner. Later, the Argentine writer, Adán Diehl, acquired it and, enjoying a vacation there with his wife, reflected: "why not share this place with other artist friends?" The best way to do this was by building a hotel which they opened in 1929 even before they put roads on the cape.
For a year clients and friends (who were staying for free) were arriving by boat. In the 1930s, Formentor was "the best party for the European aristocracy", They say in the documentary. The place more “aphrodisiac”, where to go to create and have a few drinks. Diehl organized the Wisdom Week, days of literary reflection, antecedent of the Poetic conversations promoted by Camilo José Cela with the help of the next owner of the hotel, Tomeu Buadas.
A triumph of encounters that culminated in the Formentor Award, created in 1961 and resumed in 2011, and awarded to Borges, Beckett, Semprún, Vila-Matas, Carlos Fuentes… In 2019 it was received by the first woman, Annie Ernaux, and this year, despite the covid, it will also be celebrated and delivered to Cees Nooteboom.
The hotel in the 30s.
STAR GUESTS
Always called as the hotel of the stars and rightly so. The Hotel Formentor has accommodated the Kennedys, Grace Kelly and Raniero, John Wayne, Chaplin, Peter Ustinov, Jane Birkin (guest in the documentary)… Gorbachev He was a regular customer and friend of employees. The Dalai Lama passed by, even though he was sleeping on the floor of his suite.
His gardens have inspired poetry, novels, music and above all, peace. In the documentary they appear anonymous clients, not famous, who have been going to Formentor every summer for three and four decades. A summer inherited by family generations. Clients who know the employees by name, because they, the hotel workers, have also spent decades, a whole life working there. Like the head janitor who entered as a bellboy in 1950 and retired in 1996. Or the one who started as a child as a ball boy. The one who entered as a single man and left as a grandfather.
In 2006 the Barcelo Group He bought the hotel and not only maintained the paradisiacal spirit, but also resumed his cultural activity to relocate the hotel in its privileged literary place. Inspiration of peace, happiness and fantasies, as Mario Vargas Llosa says in the film.
The magic of the Formentor.