SPAIN: MYSTERY, PASSION, LIFE

By: Kenji

Ah, Spain! Land of the bull and the baking plains, of guitar and gazpacho, of fiestas and flamenco, siestas and Cervantes, of paella and Picasso, Alicante and El Cid; the scorching sun, the sashaying swarthy senoritas of Salamanca, the monstrous man-eating catfish of the Ebro, the dark dark coal mining valleys of Asturias, and the extraordinary braying citizens of Gijon. Oh and the beautiful Picos de Europa, lovely verdant Galicia, the buildings of Gaudi and the Moors; land with a soul large enough for Welles; elusive, impenetrable, vivacious, seductive, sensuous, irrepressible Spain.Oh and football world champs!

The list is in year order. I’ve included the portmanteau film Ten Minutes Older: Trumpet for Erice’s short Lifeline. Early silent film maker Segundo de Chomon moved to work in Paris in 1905, but i’ve included an example of his work there anwyay.

Other lists:
Laali: Homage to Catalonia
Angel: In Spanish covers many Spanish as well as Latin American films.
Brian Davisson:50 Spanish Films

Wikipedia: CINEMA OF SPAIN

2003 article on VICTOR ERICE

Ariadna Gil (Belle Epoque, Pan’s Labyrinth..)

My favourites:

Spirit of the Beehive (Erice)
Berta’s Motives (Guerin)
El Sur (Erice)
Cria Cuervos (Saura)
All about my Mother (Almodovar)
The Flower of my Secret (Almodovar)
Lovers of the Arctic Circle (Medem)
Death of a Cyclist (Bardem)
Belle Epoque (Trueba)
Talk to Her (Almodovar)
Tierra (Medem)
Made of Clay (Val del Omar)
Solas (Zambrano)
Strange Voyage (Fernan Gomez)
Nocturno 29 (Portabella)

Vibracion en Granada (Val del Omar)

Other suggestions very welcome.

I couldn’t find on the site:

La aldea maldita (1930 version- have 1942 one here)
Cielo negro
Historias de la radio
Calabuch
Surcos
Amenece Que No Es Poco
Atraco a las Tres
La Venganca
La Tia Tula
Nueve Cartas a Berta
Aoom

Emma Suarez (Red Squirrel, Tierra..)

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Pedro Almodovar

Splashing his colorful films across the dour post-Franco Spanish landscape with the irreverent glee of a prostitute arriving late to church after a long night, Pedro Almodóvar has been called the most influential Spanish filmmaker since Luis Buñuel. Beginning in the 1980s, Almodóvar started serving up provocative, candy-colored visions fraught with postmodernist insight into everything from sex and violence to religion and the dangers of good gazpacho. Sometimes shocking, sometimes controversial, Almodóvar’s films have always managed to present a new and intriguing view of his native country, shaping the attitudes of both his compatriots and a larger international audience.

Born September 25, 1951, in Calzada de Calatrava, an impoverished hamlet of La Mancha, Almodóvar was raised in a traditional Spanish household. He studied with Salesian monks, sang in the choir, and generally felt like a misfit; he was later to remark that, for him, growing up in such an environment was tantamount to being an astronaut in King Arthur’s court. At the age of 12, on seeing Richard Brooks’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Almodóvar decided to give purpose to his alienation, marking himself down for “a life of sin and degeneracy.” As a teenager, Almodóvar was influenced by the films of such directors as Billy Wilder, Douglas Sirk, Alfred Hitchcock, Luis Buñuel, Blake Edwards, and neorealists Marco Ferreri and Fernando Fernán-Gómez; deciding to pursue a career as a filmmaker, he got out of La Mancha and headed to Madrid in 1969. Working at a phone company by day, he wrote short stories, mock newsreels, and spoof commercials at night, as he also made Super-8 shorts and one Super-8 feature.

One of Almodóvar’s stories, a dirty photo-novel he was commissioned to write for a fanzine in 1978, became his first feature film, the 1980 Pepi, Luci, Bom…. An outrageous sexual satire, the film delivered a happy slap to the face of Spanish society, which at the time still wallowed in Franco-style social intolerance. The film’s campy, pop-art-colored hedonism and sexual vulgarity were mirrored two years later in Almodóvar’s second effort, Labyrinth of Passion. Many Spanish critics, who had a bias toward the more “quality” films of the Spanish cinema establishment, reacted negatively to Almodóvar’s work, labeling him too modern and superficial.

The director reacted to such criticisms with Dark Habits (1983) and What Have I Done to Deserve This?! (1984). Although both films were comedies, they delved into more serious, complex subjects. Dark Habits presented a criticism of the Catholic Church through the story of a woman forced to hide out with a group of outrageous nuns, while What Have I Done to Deserve This?! was the tale of a housewife struggling to cope with the travails of everyday life. This latter theme of the downtrodden housewife would arise repeatedly in the director’s work, as would other issues of female independence and solidarity. Almodóvar’s subsequent films deepened his exploration of sexual desire and the sometimes brutal laws governing it. Matador (1986) offered up desire as a bridge between sexual attraction and death, presenting the viewer with a cornucopia of sexual options, including fetishism, gay and straight voyeurism, necrophilia, and female penetration. This variety was further explored in the aptly named Law of Desire (1987), which offered up similarly overt sexuality, as well as Antonio Banderas in his first starring role. Banderas also starred in Almodóvar’s subsequent feature, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988), which took a sharp and unfailingly amusing look at female sexuality and desire, and further established Almodóvar as a “women’s director.” It also earned its director international acclaim and 7.8 million dollars domestically, remaining the highest-grossing film in Spanish history for a decade.

Following the success of Women, Almodóvar took a turn toward controversy with his next film. Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1989) was the subject of heated stateside debate, thanks to its premise of a famous actress (Almodóvar muse Victoria Abril) falling in love with the man who kidnaps her and holds her hostage. Decried by feminists and women’s advocacy groups, the film also received a negative reception among certain Spanish critics, who declared that Almodóvar had lost his sense of direction. Similar criticism was leveled at his two subsequent films, the family melodrama High Heels (1991) and Kika (1993). Like Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!, Kika incurred a certain amount of controversy in the States, thanks to a rape scene that was perceived as both misogynistic and exploitative.

The director changed gears with his next effort, 1995’s The Flower of My Secret. Starring Almodóvar regular Marisa Paredes as a pulp romance writer, the film was a psychological drama hailed by many as his most mature film to date. It also heralded a change in Almodóvar’s portrayal of his male characters; rather than fashion the kind of clueless male protagonist often featured in his earlier films, Almodóvar created a more positive image of a “new man.” Similar male characterization followed in his next film, Live Flesh (1997). Loosely based on a Ruth Rendell novel of the same name, the film explored love, loss, and suffering with a sober restraint only briefly glimpsed in the director’s earlier work.

Almodóvar then continued to work in more serious dramatic confines, directing All About My Mother in 1999. The story of a woman’s search for her dead son’s father, it revisited Almodóvar’s familiar themes of the inherent force of sisterhood and the power of family, no matter how unconventional that family may be. Dedicated to Bette Davis, Romy Schneider, and Gena Rowlands, the film premiered to great acclaim at the 1999 Cannes Festival, where it won Almodóvar a Best Director prize. He enjoyed further success at the 2000 Golden Globes and Academy Awards ceremonies, both of which saw All About My Mother garner honors for Best Foreign Language Film.

All About My Mother

Two years later, Almodóvar hit another career high with Talk to Her, a melodrama as notable for its complex sexual politics as it was for its stylistic flourishes. The film, which revolved around two comatose women and the men who love them, was hailed by critics and embraced by arthouse audiences. However, certain plot points also revived charges of misogyny that had been leveled at the director for some of his earlier films (specifically Kika and Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!). Despite such controversy, Almodóvar won numerous honors across the world for his film, including a French César for Best Film and an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.
(Allmovie.com)

During the decade he cemented his reputation with Bad Education (2004), an autobiographical film centred on a religious school in the late 60s, the much admired Volver (2007), a ghostly mystical drama starring Penelope Cruz, and Broken Embraces (2009) in which a film director, having lost his sight and the love of his life in a car crash on Lanzarote, reverts to his writer alter ego, the pseudonym character Harry Caine. In 2011 he moved into the realm of horror with The Skin I Live In, a clinical yet extraordinary film in which a plastic surgeon whose wife was burned in a car crash creates a new type of protective skin.

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BEYOND FILMS

Antonio Lopez Garcia: Carmencita Playing

Federico Garcia Lorca: La Casada Infiel

Y que yo me la llevé al río
creyendo que era mozuela,
pero tenía marido.
Fue la noche de Santiago
y casi por compromiso.
Se apagaron los faroles
y se encendieron los grillos.
En las últimas esquinas
toqué sus pechos dormidos,
y se me abrieron de pronto
como ramos de jacintos..
El almidón de su enagua
me sonaba en el oído,
como una pieza de seda
rasgada por diez cuchillos.
Sin luz de plata en sus copas
los árboles han crecido,
y un horizonte de perros
ladra muy lejos del río.

Pasadas la zarzamoras,
los juncos y los espinos,
bajo su mata de pelo
hice un hoyo sobre el limo.
Yo me quité la corbata.
Ella se quitó el vestido.
Yo el cinturón de revólver.
Ella sus cuatro corpiños.
Ni nardos ni caracolas
tienen el cutis tan fino,
ni los critales con luna
relumbran con ese brillo.
Sus muslos se me escapaban
como peces sorprendidos,
la mitad llenos de lumbre,
la mitad llenos de frío.
Aquella noche corrí
el mejor de los caminos,
montado en potra de nácar
sin bridas y sin estribos.
No quiero decir, por hombre,
las cosas que ella me dijo.
La luz del entendimiento
me hace ser muy comedido.
Sucia de besos y arena
yo me la llevé al río.
Con el aire se batían
las espadas de los lirios.

Me porté como quien soy.
Como un gitano legítimo.
La regalé un costurero
grande de raso pajizo,
y no quise enamorarme
porque teniendo marido
me dijo que era mozuela
cuando la llevaba al río.

Federico Garcia Lorca: The Unfaithful Wife

So I took her to the river
believing she was a maiden,
but she already had a husband.
It was on St. James night
and almost as if I was obliged to.
The lanterns went out
and the crickets lit up.
In the farthest street corners
I touched her sleeping breasts
and they opened to me suddenly
like spikes of hyacinth.
The starch of her petticoat
sounded in my ears
like a piece of silk
rent by ten knives.
Without silver light on their foliage
the trees had grown larger
and a horizon of dogs
barked very far from the river.

Past the blackberries,
the reeds and the hawthorn
underneath her cluster of hair
I made a hollow in the earth
I took off my tie,
she took off her dress.
I, my belt with the revolver,
She, her four bodices.
Not nard nor mother-of-pearl
have skin so fine,
nor does glass with silver
shine with such brilliance.
Her thighs slipped away from me
like startled fish,
half full of fire,
half full of cold.
That night I ran
on the best of roads
mounted on a nacre filly
without bridle or stirrups.

As a man, I won’t repeat
the things she said to me.
The light of understanding
has made me most discreet.
Smeared with sand and kisses
I took her away from the river.
The swords of the lilies
battled with the air.

I behaved like what I am,
like a proper gypsy.
I gave her a large sewing basket,
of straw-colored satin,
but I did not fall in love
for although she had a husband
she told me she was a maiden
when I took her to the river.

Baiona, Galicia, oh what a heavenly spot.

—
“Somewhere in la Mancha, in a place whose name I do not care to remember, a gentleman lived not long ago, one of those who has a lance and ancient shield on a shelf and keeps a skinny nag and a greyhound for racing.” (Don Quixote)

—

time for some music

Rodrigo Concierto de Aranjuez

and dance

The great romany dancer Carmen Amaya

Salvador Espriu: The Garden of Five Trees

Later, when i was already in great pain and almost all
I could do was smile,
I chose the simplest words to tell myself
how the sun’s momentary gold had crossed the ivy
of the garden of five trees.
Fleeting yellow, of sunset in winter, while the winding
water’s final fingers
fell from the high clouds
and the strange time entered me
in jails of silence.

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