SFC EVENTS / SPAIN (UN)CENSORED
THE FILM SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CENTER, New York
ShortMetraje: New short stories from Spain | December 14-18, 2008
ShortMetraje: New short stories from Spain | December 14-18, 2008
GENE SISKEL FILM CENTER, Chicago
FESTIVAL OF NEW SPANISH CINEMA | December 5-29, 2008
FESTIVAL OF NEW SPANISH CINEMA | December 5-29, 2008
UNIVERSITY OF OREGON, Eugene
FESTIVAL OF NEW SPANISH CINEMA | November 17-23, 2008
FESTIVAL OF NEW SPANISH CINEMA | November 17-23, 2008
NORTHWEST FILM CENTER, Portland
FESTIVAL OF NEW SPANISH CINEMA | November 21-December 11, 2008
FESTIVAL OF NEW SPANISH CINEMA | November 21-December 11, 2008
NORTHWEST FILM FORUM, Seattle
FESTIVAL OF NEW CINEMA FROM SPAIN | November 14-20, 2008
FESTIVAL OF NEW CINEMA FROM SPAIN | November 14-20, 2008
MIAMI INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL, US
FESTIVAL OF NEW SPANISH CINEMA | November 5-9, 2008
FESTIVAL OF NEW SPANISH CINEMA | November 5-9, 2008
FILMOTECA REGIONAL DE CASTILLA Y LEON, Spain
LATINBEAT: From de Film Society of the Lincoln Center to Spain | November 18-December 23, 2008
LATINBEAT: From de Film Society of the Lincoln Center to Spain | November 18-December 23, 2008
FILMOTECA CANARIA, Spain
LATINBEAT: From the Film Society of Lincoln Center to Spain | October 3-17, 2008
LATINBEAT: From the Film Society of Lincoln Center to Spain | October 3-17, 2008
FILMOTECA DE CANTABRIA, Spain
LATINBEAT: From the Film Society of Lincoln Center to Spain | July 9- August 17, 2008
LATINBEAT: From the Film Society of Lincoln Center to Spain | July 9- August 17, 2008
CIRCULO DE BELLAS ARTES, Spain
LATINBEAT: From the Film Society of Lincoln Center to Spain | July 15-20, 2008
LATINBEAT: From the Film Society of Lincoln Center to Spain | July 15-20, 2008
FILMOTECA REGIONAL FRANCISCO RABAL, Spain
LATINBEAT: From the Film Society of Lincoln Center to Spain | May 20-25, 2008
LATINBEAT: From the Film Society of Lincoln Center to Spain | May 20-25, 2008
VARIOUS VENUES, US
DOCUSPAIN: Spanish Documentary Tour | February 15- November 29, 2008
DOCUSPAIN: Spanish Documentary Tour | February 15- November 29, 2008
MEDINA DEL CAMPO FILM FESTIVAL, Spain
American Spectrum: Short films from the Americas | April 11-19, 2008
American Spectrum: Short films from the Americas | April 11-19, 2008
ESCOLA TECNICA SUPERIOR D’ARQUITECTURA DEL VALLES, Spain
Dissensus. Architecture, Politics and Cinema | March 26, 2008
Dissensus. Architecture, Politics and Cinema | March 26, 2008
EL MUSEO DEL BARRIO, New York
Latinoamerican Women Celebration | March 5, 2008
Latinoamerican Women Celebration | March 5, 2008
BFI SOUTHBANK, London
Spain (Un)censored | January 15 through 17 February, 2008
Spain (Un)censored | January 15 through 17 February, 2008
BFI SOUTHBANK & INSTITUTO CERVANTES, London
Other events celebrating Spain (Un)Censored | January 15 through 17 February, 2008
Other events celebrating Spain (Un)Censored | January 15 through 17 February, 2008
THE KING JUAN CARLOS I OF SPAIN CENTER, New York
Documenta Spain | February 5- March 25, 2008
Documenta Spain | February 5- March 25, 2008
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Is it possible to make good films during a dictatorship? Between Buñuel and Dalí (Un chien andalou, 1929) and Almodóvar’s first film (Pepi, Luci, Bom and Other Girls on the Heap, 1980) there emerged a whole series of directors whose films developed the visual and oral language which would be used by subsequent Spanish film-makers. This is a cinema, argues Marta Sánchez, which has not always received the recognition it deserves. |
BFI SOUTHBANK, London |
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WELCOME MISTER MARSHALL! ¡Bienvenido Mister Marshall! | Luis García Berlanga | Spain | 78 min. | 1952 |  |
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The witty, multi-layered and subversive Welcome, Mr Marshall! - a watershed in Spanish cinema history - captures the intrigues and insecurities of a Castilian village that rouses at the news that Americans, representing the post-WW2 European Recovery Program (the Marshall Plan), are due to visit. With the help of Juan Antonio Bardem and humorist Miguel Mihura, Berlanga transformed what began as a hymn to Spanish hospitality into a sinister critical farce about meek villagers and their incompetent leaders, as the local mayor kits out all the men in traditional Andalusian costume and the women as flamenco dancers. Ironically, the film missed out on a Cannes prize when jury member Edward G Robinson complained of its anti-Americanism. Tue 15 Jan 18:30 NFT1 Fri 25 Jan 20:40 NFT2 |
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THE DISENCHANTMENT El Desencanto | Jaime Chávarri | Spain | 95 min. | 1975 | |
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The widow and children of an official poet of Franco’s regime speak out. A veritable cult classic, this documentary profiles the widow and children of Leopoldo Panero, an official poet of Franco’s regime. The surviving family members, now expressing themselves in post-Franco democracy, proceed to voice their anger and disgust - towards Panero and one another. Hailed as “the best creative documentary in Spanish cinematographic history”, this is a beautiful portrait of a family – and post-Franco Spain – trying to come to terms with its own history. Sun 20 Jan 18:40 NFT2 Mon 21 Jan 20:40 NFT2 |
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AUNT TULA La Tía Tula | Miguel Picazo | Spain | 107 min. | 1964 | |
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A widower finds himself falling for his sister-in-law. For his intelligently staged debut feature - a film about women making decisions of whom to marry at a time when other issues than love were to the fore - Picazo adapts Unamuno’s 1920 novel to the particular circumstances of modern Spain. A bank employee suffers a tremendous loss after his wife dies, calls on sister-in-law Tula to care for the children, then finds himself falling for her. Aunt Tula was cut by nearly five minutes, excising most references to matters such as virginity and the Civil War. Fri 25 Jan 18:20 NFT2 Wed 30 Jan 20:40 NFT2 |
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THE CUENCA CRIME El Crimen de Cuenca | Pilar Miró | Spain | 88 min. | 1979 | |
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Two village men are falsely convicted of murdering a shepherd. Based on real events, The Cuenca Crime focuses on two village men, falsely convicted of murdering a shepherd and subjected to torture and imprisonment. The film’s depiction of the torture too closely referenced the brutality of Franco’s police during the regime’s final years, so military courts blocked the premiere and unsuccessfully prosecuted Miró for slandering the Civil Guard. When released in 1981, four years after censonship was abolished, it became the highest grossing film in Spanish box-office history. Fri 18 Jan 18:20 NFT2 Sat 26 Jan 20:40 NFT2 |
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DEATH OF A CYCLIST Muerte de un Ciclista | Juan Antonio Bardem | Spain | 84 min. | 1955 | |
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An adulterous couple hit a cyclist while driving on a deserted highway. Bardem’s most celebrated solo effort centres on the angst of an adulterous couple who hit a cyclist while driving on a deserted highway and leave him to die. The love story intertwines with a critique of a society in which the rich and the poor only cross paths tragically on the curve of a highway or at high-society women’s charity games. Bardem brought a new social and political consciousness to Spanish cinema, though censorship forced him to punish the adulterous woman in a melodramatic ending. Sun 20 Jan 20:40 NFT2 Thu 24 Jan 18:20 NFT1 |
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THE HUNT La Caza | Carlos Saura | Spain | 88 min. | 1965 | |
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Three friends go hunting in a sun-scorched area pockmarked by Civil War trenches. The story explores the interaction among three friends who go hunting with 20-year-old Enrique in a dry, sun-scorched area pockmarked by rabbit holes and old Civil War trenches. As the day wears on and the heat intensifies, the three older men find it harder and harder to hold back the tensions among themselves. Their lives have taken different paths, and each man confronts the other in clashes that ultimately reproduce the fratricidal war for which this film is a resounding metaphor. Fri 18 Jan 20:20 NFT2 Sat 26 Jan 18:00 NFT2 |
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NINE LETTERS TO BERTHA Nueve Cartas a Berta | Basilio Martín Patino | Spain | 95 min. | 1965 | |
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A student’s correspondence with the daughter of a Spanish exile. Narrated via letters written by Lorenzo, a student who met the daughter of a Spanish exile in England the previous summer, the film bears witness to the unease of a 60s generation in a fascist Spain that lives in the past and does not want to let it go. Patino’s first full-length film, showing glimmers of optimism about a Spain shifting towards modernity, does not follow a linear structure, but instead reinstates cinema’s capacity to pull together images according to the laws of emotion, as in dream or memory. Sat 19 Jan 18:10 NFT3 Mon 28 Jan 20:40 NFT2 |
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POACHERS Furtivos | José Luis Borau | Spain | 82 min. | 1975 | |
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An emotionally underdeveloped poacher’s first experience with romantic love. One of Luis Buñuel’s favourite films, Poachers boldly tells of an emotionally underdeveloped poacher, his first experience with romantic love, and his mother’s obstructionism. Inspired by Franco’s description of his Spain as a ’peaceful forest’, this cruel - and at times raunchy and brutally incestuous - film was denied permission to go to Cannes and finally opened in Spain two months before Franco’s death. While its subversion comes more strongly through its visuals than its plot elements, Poachers is a masterpiece of artistic control and emotional compression. Mon 28 Jan 18:20 NFT2 FILMMAKER AND SCREENWRITER IN ATTENDANCE!!!! Thu 31 Jan 20:40 NFT2 |
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SONGS FOR AFTER A WAR Canciones para Después de una Guerra | Basilio Martín Patino | Spain | 96 min. | 1971 | |
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Documentary about popular songs in the first 15 years of Franco’s dictatorship. A documentary about popular songs in the first 15 years of the Franco dictatorship (1939-1953), Songs for After a War montages archival images to the rhythms of popular music of the time, featuring such emblematic figures of popular culture as singer Estrellita Castro and bullfighter Manolete, along with scenes of hunger and Falangist meetings, and forms a subtle mosaic of postwar Spain. Despite its lack of direct political criticism, the film was deemed unacceptable for public viewing. Sun 20 Jan 16:30 NFT2 Wed 30 Jan 18:20 NFT2 |
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THE SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE El Espíritu de la Colmena | Víctor Erice | Spain | 98 min. | 1973 | |
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In 1940s Spain, two sisters become obsessed with finding Frankenstein’s monster. In a small Castilian village in the early 40s, in the wake of the devastating Civil War, Ana and her sister, having seen a mobile projection of Frankenstein, becomes obsessed with locating the legendary Monster. A complex allegory and bewitching portrait of life under Franco’s regime, the film captured the effects of hidden traumas resulting in the willed avoidance of painful past experience, and the resonance of the absences that the Civil War had caused in every family. Wed 23 Jan 21:00 NFT1 Sun 27 Jan 16:10 NFT2 |
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THE STRANGE TRIP El Extraño Viaje | Fernando Fernán Gómez | Spain | 92 min. | 1964 | |
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A violent and bitingly humorous confrontation over family wealth erupts between siblings. In a small village near Madrid, Ignacia, the eldest of three grown single siblings, dominates the lives of Paquita and Venancio. When Paquita overhears Ignacia disclose her intent to cash in the family wealth and travel to Paris, a violent and bitingly humorous confrontation ensues. The Spanish taste for grotesque caricature, from the tradition of popular theatre known as sainete, courses through this fabulous oddity: part murder mystery, part passionate indictment of Franco’s society. Thu 17 Jan 18:20 NFT2 Sat 19 Jan 20:50 NFT2 |
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VIRIDIANA Viridiana | Luis Buñuel | Spain/ Mexico | 90 min. | 1961 | |
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Luis Buñuel’s Palme d’Or-winning masterpiece of subversive cinema. Awarded the Cannes Palme d’Or, this was Buñuel’s sole interruption of his post- Civil War exile. Viridiana centres on an idealistic, devout young nun who, before taking her final vows, visits her wealthy uncle Don Jaime, who has ’selflessly’ provided for her over the years... Buñuel critiques the double standards of the Church and power- elite, and fills the most mundane gestures with erotic intent. Unreleased in Spain until 1976, and only recognised as a Spanish film in 1984, Viridiana remains a masterpiece of subversive cinema. Tue 22 Jan 18:20 NFT1 Sun 27 Jan 18:15 NFT1 |
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FURROWS Surcos | José Antonio Nieves Conde | Spain | 100 min. | 1951 | |
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A portrait of postwar Madrid which set a precedent for Spanish neo-realist film-making. Tackling such issues as rural immigration into the cities, poverty, prostitution, unemployment, and class conflict, the film is an expression of the contradictions within Franco’s regime. While the Catholic Church considered the film ‘deeply dangerous’, the political wing labelled it of ‘national interest’. The film wasn’t released until its controversial ending was removed. Sat 2 Feb 18:20 NFT2 Fri 8 Feb 20:40 NFT2 |
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MAIN STREET Calle Mayor | Juan Antonio Bardem. | Spain/ France | 97 min. | 1956 | |
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In this sobering indictment of provincial hypocrisy, a group of gamblers convince a mate to pretend to fall in love with a village spinster. Widely considered to be one of Bardem’s masterpieces, Calle Mayor was eventually screened at the 1956 Venice Mostra where it won the International Critics’ Prize after near-successful attempts by censors to block its distribution. To satisfy the censors, an initial foreword – claiming the events depicted could happen anywhere – was added. Fri 1 Feb 18:20 NFT2 Thu 7 Feb 20:30 NFT3 |
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THE LITTLE FLAT El Pisito | Marco Ferreri, Isidoro M. Ferri | Spain | 80 min. | 1958 | |
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Ferreri’s anti-bourgeois black comedy centres on the life of Rodolfo, a middleclass man who leases one room in the overcrowded apartment of Doña Martina, a crotchety octogenarian who is dying. Until he can afford his own place, Rodolfo cannot marry Petrita, his embittered fiancée. Petrita persuades her meek boyfriend to propose to Doña Martina so that he can inherit the apartment. Grotesque, funny, macabre, this is the result of the first union of two geniuses – Ferreri and the corrosive and highly intelligent screenwriter Rafael Azcona. Sat 2 Feb 16:20 NFT2 Mon 11 Feb 20:45 NFT2 |
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THE HOOLIGANS Los Golfos | Carlos Saura | Spain | 88 min. | 1959 | |
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Recognised as the first Spanish film shot entirely on location, Los Golfos presents the harrowing story of a teenage gang (played by street children) who plan to execute a heist to finance the bullfighting dreams of one of its members. Inspired by the work of Luis Buñuel and with a production hampered by censor’s delays, Saura referred to his as ‘the most difficult film of his career’. A near-documentary vision of the impossibility of social mobility. Mon 4 Feb 18:30 NFT1 Tue 5 Feb 20:40 NFT2 |
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PLACIDO Plácido | Luis García Berlanga | Spain | 88 min. | 1961 | |
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Nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film award at that year’s Oscars, Plácido is a scabrously mocking portrait of an impoverished man who spends the day before Christmas trying to avoid foreclosure on his motorbike. In Plácido, the farce of appearances – instanced by the charity campaign ‘Sit a poor person down at your table’ – develops into a biting and harshly funny criticism of bourgeois attitudes, of bureaucracy and the hypocrisy of Catholicism. Wed 6 Feb 18:20 NFT2 Sun 10 Feb 20:45 NFT2 |
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THE EXECUTIONER El Verdugo | Luis García Berlanga | Spain | 91 min. | 1963 | |
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Berlanga’s most elegant film tells the story of a funeral-home employee who marries a government executioner’s daughter and – in order to get an apartment – agrees to take over his father-in-law’s job with the hope of never actually having to perform it. Through a savagely black humorous tone, The Executioner is a vehement condemnation of the death penalty, which caused the Spanish government to try (unsuccessfully) to stop it being screened at the Venice Festival and later to make numerous cuts. Sat 9 Feb 18:15 NFT2 Wed 13 Feb 20:40 NFT2 |
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FROM PINK…TO YELLOW Del Rosa…al Amarillo | Manuel Summers | Spain | 90 min. | 1963 | |
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Two love stories are told in parallel: in the first, demythologising the love of innocents, a young boy falls for an older girl and becomes increasingly obsessed with winning her affections, while she toys with his. In the second, set in a nursing home for the poor, Valentin and Josefa find ways to subvert the rules of the institution and exchange mash notes. Summers’ auspicious directorial debut was one of the most acclaimed releases of its year and a seminal film in the Nuevo Cine Español movement. Sat 9 Feb 15:50 NFT2 Sun 17 Feb 18:10 NFT2 |
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MY DEAR YOUNG MISS Mi Querida Señorita | Jaime de Armiñán | Spain | 84 min. | 1971 | |
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Adela, a provincial middle-aged spinster, gleefully accepts the engagement of a local businessman before becoming appalled by his physical advances. Upon the advice of her local priest, she sees a psychiatrist, who discloses the unspeakable: Adela is, in fact, a man. Horrified, she moves to Madrid and begins a new life as Juan. Far from being just a transgender drama, the film is about boundless desire, showing that love pays no attention to reason. Mon 11 Feb 18:20 NFT2 Sat 16 Feb 20:50 NFT3 |
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