Vampir-Cuadecuc is possibly a key film in understanding the transition in the Spanish film world from the period of the “new cinemas” (permitted by the Franco government) towards the illegal, clandestine or openly antagonistic practices against the Franco regime.
It consists of shooting the filming of a commercial film El conde Drácula by Jesús Franco. Portabella practices two types of violence on the standard narrative: he totally eliminates color and substitutes the soundtrack with a landscape of image-sound collisions by Carles Santos. Filmed provocatively in 16mm and with sound negative, the tensions between black and white favor the strange “fantasmatic materialism” of this revealing analysis of the construction mechanism for the magic in dominant narrative cinema, which at the same time constitutes a radical intervention in the Spanish cinematographic institution. —pereportabella.com
Since the 1960s, Portabella always maintained a political commitment with all those movements against the Franco dictatorship that supported individual and collective democratic liberties.
In 1977, he was elected Senator in the first democratic elections and he participated in the writing of the present day Spanish Constitution. In 1999, was honoured with the Creu de Sant Jordi, the highest recognition that a person can receive from the institutions of the Generalitat de Catalunya. He has presided over the Fundación Alternativas since 2001.
As a filmmaker Pere Portabella has been a relevant presence in the Spanish film world for the last fifty years. With Films 59, his production company, he fostered some of the most emblematic films in the history of Spanish cinema. Los Golfos by Carlos Saura (1959), El Cochecito by Marco Ferreri (1960) and Viridiana by Luis Buñuel (1961). He directs his own creations combining a heritage of avant-garde culture with breakaway forms of… read more
The post modernist Dracula. It refers forward and back. The wonderful high contrast b/w reduction of the original color takes you into Nosferatu, Caligari, Dryer's beautiful Vampyr and of course the Universal Lugosi classic ... while coming forward into Hammer's take on the whole thing, with the amazing Christopher Lee and all them Bond era babes slinking in with smoothjazz backgrounds ... yet somehow it manages to actually TELL the tale in a unique way, using the most campy materials made magical by losing the evil color of those late 50s, early 60s versions; and then to have Lee actually read the final passages of the book is a wonderful touch. I would say this is my favorite Dracula film. Really amazing!
The film is a great example of how quietness can build tone better than sound or even dialog; much of the exposition is delivered by title cards and thank god as the boring explanations given would destroy the movie with their banality if delivered any other way.
I saw this film last year and was blown away with it. Pere Portabella made the best Christopher Lee Dracula film on the sets of the worst Christopher Lee Dracula film. And the result is a work that… read review
