The Film Society of Lincoln Center announces
Lineup for the 20th edition of SPANISH CINEMA NOW
December 9-22
Film series includes salute to director Luis García Berlanga
New York, NY, November 15, 2011 – The Film Society of Lincoln Center announced today the lineup for the 20th edition of Spanish Cinema Now featuring the latest films from Spain as well as a tribute to legendary director, Luis García Berlanga.
Highlights for this year’s series include the Opening Night screening of Nacho Vigalondo’s sci-fi thriller EXTRATERRESTRIAL, Mireia Ros’ fascinating Catalan documentary BARCELONA BEFORE, and the magic realist Galician film CREBINSKY, directed by Enrique Otero. A new generation of Spanish comedy is also well represented in this year’s edition of Spanish Cinema Now, with box-office superstar Santiago Segura’s TORRENTE 4: LETHAL CRISIS, the latest film in the Torrente series, and Daniel Sánchez Areválo’s comedy COUSINHOOD. Also of note is the Spanish-Portuguese co-production JOSE AND PILAR, an engaging, revealing portrait of the final years of Nobel Prize winner José Saramago and his Spanish wife Pilar del Rio.
Attending filmmakers and actors include Nacho Vigalondo (EXTRATERRESTRIAL), Daniel Sanchez Arevalo and Quim Gutierrez (COUSINHOOD), Mireia Ros (BARCELONA BEFORE), Santiago Segura (TORRENTE 4: LETHAL CRISIS), Jonás Trueba (EVERY SONG TALKS ABOUT ME), Maria Comas (BLACK BREAD), and Alberto Morais (THE WAVES).
A centerpiece of the film series will be a 10-film tribute to Luis García Berlanga, one of Spain’s greatest directors, who sadly passed away in November 2010. Together with Juan Antonio Bardem, Berlanga revolutionized Spanish cinema in the Fifties and early Sixties with such masterworks as WELCOME MR. MARSHALL!, PLÁCIDO, and THE EXECUTIONER.
Together with Bardem in the early Fifties, Berlanga shook up what had been a fairly dormant scene for Spanish cinema with a series of works—THAT HAPPY COUPLE, THE ROCKET FROM CALABUCH, and especially WELCOME MR. MARSHALL!,—that revealed uncomfortable truths about the rigidly controlled Francoist society. Even as the regime began to ease in the early Sixties, Berlanga, often working with screenwriter Rafael Azcona, became if anything even more barbed in his criticisms in works such as PLÁCIDO and THE EXECUTIONER. Yet beyond being important documents of the growing social resistance to Franco, Berlanga’s films are treasures because their extraordinary humor always seems to propel the often madcap tales into more general, timeless observations on the human condition. There are rarely villains in his works, just characters with greater or lesser levels of self-delusion.
Spanish Cinema Now is presented by the Film Society in collaboration with the Spanish Film Institute (ICAA) in Madrid and the Instituto Cervantes in New York. Special thanks also to the Spanish Consulate General in New York.
Tickets go on sale both at the box office and on-line Thursday, November 24. Discount single screening tickets are available for students, seniors, Film Society and Cervantes Institute members. Everyone can enjoy a Special Four-Film Discount Package!! Read more about The Film Society of Lincoln Center.
Public and Press Screenings will be held at the Film Society of Lincoln Center's Walter Reade Theater (located at 165 West 65th Street, between Amsterdam Avenue and Broadway), unless otherwise noted.
PRESS SCREENING (AT THE WALTER READE THEATRE)
RSVP to John Wildman at [email protected]
Monday, November 21
10:00AM EXTRATERRESTRIAL (90min)
12:30PM EVERY SONG TALKS ABOUT ME (105min)
3:45PM THE EXECUTIONER (90min)
Tuesday, November 22
10:00AM ISPANSI (115min)
Wednesday, November 23
11:00AM DON'T BE AFRAID (89min)
Films and Descriptions for 2011 Spanish Cinema Now
23-F (2011) 97min
Director: Chema de la Peña
23-F is a vibrant retelling of the extraordinary 1981 coup attempt by Civil Guards demanding that the King proclaim an end to Spain’s just-emerging democracy.
23-F screens Wednesday, December 14 at 8:40PM and Friday, December 16 at 2:30PM.
AN ALMOST PERFECT WORLD (Un mundo casi perfecto) (2011) 88min
Director: Esteban Ibarretxe & José Miguel Ibarretxe
In this fast and furious comedy with delightful twists, a failed screenwriter witnesses a crime and quickly learns about life on the wrong side of the tracks.
AN ALMOST PERFECT WORLD screens Sunday, December 18 at 5:40PM.
BARCELONA BEFORE (Barcelona, abans que el temps ho esborri) (2011) 95min
Director: Mireia Ros
The life of Barcelona’s respected Baladía family provides the lens for a curious personal portrait of the 20th century and the Golden Years before the Civil War.
BARCELONA BEFORE screens Sunday, December 11 at 4:45PM. Q&A with director Mireia Ros will follow.
BLACK BREAD (Pa Negre) (2010) 108min
Director: Agusti Villaronga
An encore presentation following its premiere at the 2010 Spanish Cinema Now, BLACK BREAD has since gone on to become one of Spain’s biggest hits of 2011, as well as their Oscar entry this year. In this drama set in the harsh postwar Catalan countryside, a child belonging to the losing side finds the corpses of a man and his son in the forest. The authorities want his father to be held responsible for the deaths, but the child tries to help him by finding out who truly killed them.
BLACK BREAD screens Friday, December 16 at 6:45PM. Q&A with actress Maria Comas will follow.
Treasures from the Spanish Film Archive, Filmoteca Española!
CONTACTS (Contactos) (1970) 64min
Director: Paulino Viota
Viota’s rarely seen masterwork, about a woman from the provinces involved in shady business with two men, was one of the first underground anti-Franco features.
CONTACTS screens Sunday, December 18 at 7:45PM.
COUSINHOOD (Primos) (2011) 98min
Director: Daniel Sanchez Arevalo
A man reacts to being jilted at the altar by running off with two cousins to a childhood refuge. A “guy movie” in the truest sense, COUSINHOOD skillfully dissects competing ideas of Spanish manhood.
COUSINHOOD screens Sunday, December 11 at 7:00PM and Thursday, December 15 at 1:00PM. Q&A with director Daniel Sanchez Arevalo and actor Quim Gutierrez follows Sunday’s (12/11) screening.
CREBINSKY (2011) 90min
Director: Enrique Otero
Otero’s beautiful, fable-like film, featuring touches of magic realism and slapstick silent comedy, follows the Crebinsky brothers on a search for their swept-away cow.
CREBINSKY screens Sunday, December 18 at 9:15PM and Thursday, December 22 at 2:10PM.
DON’T BE AFRAID (No tengas miedo) (2011) 89min
Director: Montxo Armendáriz
A young woman confronts her father about years of incest in this complex, multi-leveled drama, featuring terrific performances by Belen Rueda, Lluís Homar and newcomer Michelle Jenner.
DON’T BE AFRAID screens Friday, December 9 at 9:15PM and Tuesday, December 13 at 8:10PM.
DON’T TOUCH THE DEAD, KID (Los muertos no se tocan) (2011) 90min
Director: Jose Luis Garcia Sanchez
Set in the late Fifties in the provincial capital of Logroño, DON’T TOUCH THE DEAD, KID is a comedy about an aspiring teenage poet, who watches the arrangements for the funeral of his grandfather, an ex-civil servant and bullfighting enthusiast. The funeral brings to a head a number of tensions boiling just below the surface, as the teenager discovers the secret world of adulthood.
DON’T TOUCH THE DEAD, KID screens Saturday, December 17 at 6:45PM and Wednesday, December 21 at 1:30PM.
DOUBLE STEPS (Los pasos dobles) (2011) 90min
Director: Isaki Lacuesta
The story of the remarkable artist François Augiéras, who ventured deep into the Sahara for his art, the journey leads us from fact to fiction and back again.
DOUBLE STEPS screens Thursday, December 15 at 7:00PM and Tuesday, December 20 at 2:00PM.
EVERY SONG TALKS ABOUT ME (Todas las canciones hablan de mí) (2011) 105min
Director: Jonás Trueba
In Trueba’s charming romantic comedy debut, poor Ramiro finds reminders of his ex everywhere he turns. Nominated for Best New Director at last year’s Goya Awards.
EVERY SONG TALKS ABOUT ME screens Saturday, December 10 at 6:00PM and Wednesday, December 14 at 1:30PM. Q&A with director Jonás Trueba follows Saturday’s (12/10) screening.
EXTRATERRESTRIAL (Extraterrestre) (2011) 90min
Director: Nacho Vigalondo
From the director of TIMECRIMES comes an alien invasion movie in which a man and a woman wake up to a Madrid taken over by spaceships.
ISPANSI (2011) 115min
Director: Carlos Iglesias
The gripping, little-known story of children sent to Russia by the Republic during the Civil War is told with grace and sensitivity in this wartime drama.
ISPANSI screens Friday, December 9 at 1:00PM.
JOSE AND PILAR (2011) 125min
Director: Miguel Gonçalves Mendes
Country: Spain/Portugal/Brazil
This affectionate portrait of Portugal’s Nobel Prize–winner José Saramago reveals the struggle between the very private man and the world-famous artist.
JOSE AND PILAR screens Wednesday, December 14 at 6:10PM and Friday, December 16 at 12:00PM.
TORRENTE 4: LETHAL CRISIS (Torrente 4: Crises letal) (2011) 93min
Director: Santiago Segura
The most successful series in Spanish film history continues the saga of detective José Luis Torrente—overwrought, overfed, highly opinionated, and now in spiritual crisis.
TORRENTE 4: LETHAL CRISIS screens Saturday, December 10 at 8:45PM and Monday, December 19 at 1:30PM. Q&A with director/actor Santiago Segura follows Saturday’s (12/10) screening.
THE WAVES (Las Olas) (2011) 94min
Director: Alberto Morais
A journey into the dark recesses of Spain’s past in the form of a contemporary road movie, Alberto Morais’s second film charts the journey of an 80-year-old widower, Miguel, from his home in Valencia to the French town of Argelès-sur-Mer, close to the Spanish border, where he spent time as a refugee in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War almost 60 years earlier. Winner of both the Grand prize and the Critics’ Prize at this year’s Moscow International Film Festival.
THE WAVES screens Sunday, December 11 at 9:15PM and Monday, December 19 at 3:30PM. Q&A with director Alberto Morais will follow Sunday’s (12/11) screening.
Luis García Berlanga Retrospective
EVERYONE OFF TO JAIL (Todos a la Cárcel) (1993) 99min
Director: Luis García Berlanga
A motley mix of political prisoners, Fascists, and clueless parvenues dine together at the infamous Cárcel Modelo in a farcical reconciliation effort.
THE EXECUTIONER (El Verdugo) (1963) 90min
Director: Luis García Berlanga
Country: Spain/Italy
Berlanga’s eccentric masterpiece about a Republican executioner facing retirement yields a scathing look at a society in which family obligations can be deadly.
THE EXECUTIONER screens Friday, December 9 at 3:20PM and Tuesday, December 13 at 6:15PM.
THE HEIFER (La Vaquilla) (1985) 122min
Director: Luis García Berlanga
In this early comedy about the Spanish Civil War, a group of Republicans attempt to sabotage the Nationalists by stealing a cow, but incompetence triumphs.
THE HEIFER screens Wednesday, December 14 at 3:40PM and Thursday, December 22 at 8:10PM.
LIFE SIZE (Tamaño Natural) (1976) 101min
Director: Luis García Berlanga
Country: France/Italy/Spain
Michel Piccoli stars as a mild-mannered dentist who finds love with an imported blow-up doll. Exquisitely shot and surreally erotic, it’s a fabulous allegory about modern isolation.
LIFE SIZE screens Saturday, December 17 at 8:45PM and Wednesday, December 21 at 3:30PM.
LONG LIVE THE BRIDE AND GROOM (Que Vivien Los Novios) (1070) 83min
Director: Luis García Berlanga
A middle-aged man on holiday with his bride-to-be and elderly mother is driven to comic distraction by hot Swedish beachgoers. Written by Rafael Azcona.
LONG LIVE THE BRIDE AND GROOM screens Thursday, December 22 at 6:15PM.
THE NATIONAL SHOTGUN (La Escopeta Nacional) (1978) 95min
Director: Luis García Berlanga
In Berlanga’s first post-censorship film, a bourgeois businesman attempts to make new contacts by participating in a traditional, staged hunt with aristocrats.
THE NATIONAL SHOTGUN screens Tuesday, December 20 at 9:00PM and Thursday, December 22 at 4:10PM.
PLÁCIDO (1961) 87min
Director: Luis García Berlanga
Film is a black comedy that takes off on the tradition of inviting the destitute for Christmas in order to lambast the hypocritical treatment of the poor under Franco.
PLÁCIDO screens Sunday, December 11 at 2:45PM and Thursday, December 15 at 3:10PM.
THE ROCKET FROM CALABUCH (1956) 93min
Director: Luis García Berlanga
Country: Spain/Italy
When a high-profile astrophysicist gives the government the slip in a seaside village, atomic age paranoia and bucolic traditions get playfully shaken up.
THE ROCKET FROM CALABUCH screens Tuesday, December 20 at 4:00PM.
THAT HAPPY COUPLE (Esa Pareja Feliz) (1953) 83min
Director: Juan Antonio Bardem, Luis García Berlanga
In this satire of Franco’s economic policies, a couple wins an absurd contest that promises to solve their financial woes––and worsen all other aspects of their lives.
THAT HAPPY COUPLE screens Saturday, December 17 at 1:00PM.
WELCOME MR. MARSHALL! (Bienvenido, Mr. Marshall!) (1953) 95min
Director: Luis García Berlanga
In a biting, Ealing-style satire of Franco’s Spain, a Castilian backwater adopts Andalusian stereotypes to hoodwink a group of Marshall Plan representatives.
WELCOME MR. MARSHALL! Screens Sunday, December 11 at 12:45PM and Thursday, December 15 at 5:00PM.
Short Film Program (Shortmetraje) (93min)
This year’s selection of award-winning short films is specially curated by the cultural initiative Pragda (www.pragda.com) and features a rich assortment of fiction and documentary.
The Short Film Program screens Friday, December 16 at 4:30PM and Saturday, December 17 at 4:45PM.
GENTLEMEN (De Caballeros) (2010) 17min
Director: Adrián Orr
In this lovely documentary portrait of a barbershop, owner José and his customers share their time and their stories.
ESTEREOSCOPIA (2011) 12min
Director: Xacio Baño
Living on his own in the city, Emiliano takes refuge in his anonymity. One day on his way to work, an accident befalls him and he loses sight in his left eye. When doctors transplant the eye of another person, he starts to see things from a different point of view.
BIRDBOY (2010) 12min
Director: Alberto Vázquez & Pedro Rivero
A terrible industrial accident changes Little Dinki’s life forever. Her fate now rests in the hands of her eccentric friend Birdboy, a misfit who hides in the Dead Forest, lost in his fantasies.
BEDS (Camas) (2010) 10min
Director: Manuela Moreno
If only beds could talk… This time, they do: the beds of four different couples reveal their stories, ever in flux.
THE GERMAN PAVILION (El Pabellón alemán) (2009) 14min
Director: Juan Millares
In 1929, Mies van der Rohe unveiled one of the most emblematic buildings of the 20th century during the Universal Exhibition of Barcelona. Politicians, celebrities, and even the Queen of Spain attended the event. But there is some mystery hidden in the old photographs of the German Pavilion.
DYING EVERY DAY (Morir cada día) (2010) 11min
Director: Aitor Echevarría
Blanca is not willing to let her family enjoy a quiet dinner. The conversation is boring, and she is irritated by the same old jokes. Knowing things could be different, she takes a new tack…
MY FRIEND (Lagun mina) (2011) 12min
Director: Jose Mari Goenaga
Ekaitz and Román meet in a hostel during their holidays and vow to be friends for a lifetime. But something goes wrong, and they must come to terms with their promise, and their lives.
A SHITTY BOYFRIEND (Un novio de mierda) (2010) 4min
Director: Borja Cobeaga
Months after their break-up, a young woman receives a visit from her ex-boyfriend.
Public Screening Schedule for Spanish Cinema Now
Screening Venue:
The Film Society of Lincoln Center – Walter Reade Theater
165 West 65 Street, between Broadway & Amsterdam (upper level)
Friday, December 9
1:00PM ISPANSI (115min)
3:20PM THE EXECUTIONER (El Verdugo) (90min)
6:15PM EXTRATERRESTRIAL (Extraterrestre) (90min)
(Q&A with director Nacho Vigalondo)
9:15PM DON’T BE AFRAID (No tengas miedo) (89min)
Saturday, December 10
6:00PM EVERY SONG TALKS ABOUT ME (Todas las canciones hablan de mí) (105min)
(Q&A with director Jonás Trueba)
8:45PM TORRENTE 4: LETHAL CRISIS (Torrente 4: Crises letal) (93min)
(Q&A with director/actor Santiago Segura)
Sunday, December 11
12:45PM WELCOME MR. MARSHALL (Bienvenido, Mr. Marshall!) (95min)
2:45PM PLÁCIDO (87min)
4:45PM BARCELONA BEFORE (Barcelona Abans) (95min)
(Q&A with director Mireia Ros)
7:00PM COUSINHOOD (Primos) (98min)
(Q&A with director Daniel Sanchez Arevalo and Quim Gutierrez)
9:15PM THE WAVES (Las Olas) (94min)
(Q&A with director Alberto Morais)
Tuesday, December 13
6:15PM THE EXECUTIONER (El Verdugo) (90min)
8:10PM DON’T BE AFRAID (No tengas miedo) (89min)
Wednesday, December 14
1:30PM EVERY SONG TALKS ABOUT ME (Todas las canciones hablan de mí) (105min)
3:40PM THE HEIFER (La Vaquilla) (122min)
6:10PM JOSE AND PILAR (125min)
8:40PM 23-F (97min)
Thursday, December 15
1:00PM COUSINHOOD (Primos) (98min)
3:10PM PLÁCIDO (87min)
5:00PM WELCOME, MR. MARSHALL (Bienvenido, Mr. Marshall!) 95min
7:00PM DOUBLE STEPS (Los Pasos Dobles) (90min)
9:00PM EXTRATERRESTRIAL (Extraterrestre) (90min)
Friday, December 16
12:00PM JOSE AND PILAR (125min)
2:30PM 23-F (97min)
4:30PM Short Film Program (Shortmetraje) (93min)
6:45PM BLACK BREAD
(Q&A with actress Maria Comas)
Saturday, December 17
1:00PM THAT HAPPY COUPLE (Esa Pareja Feliz) (83min)
2:45PM BARCELONA BEFORE (Barcelona Abans) (95min)
4:45PM Shortmetraje (93min)
6:45PM DON’T TOUCH THE DEAD, KID (Los muertos no se tocan) (90min)
8:45PM LIFE SIZE (Tamaño Natural) (101min)
Sunday, December 18
5:40PM AN ALMOST PERFECT WORLD (Un mundo casi perfecto) (97min)
7:45PM CONTACTS (Contactos) (64min)
9:15PM CREBINSKY (90min)
Monday, December 19
1:30PM TORRENTE 4: LETHAL CRISIS (Torrente 4: Crises letal) 93min
3:30PM THE WAVES (Las Olas) (94min)
Tuesday, December 20
2:00PM DOUBLE STEPS (90min)
4:00PM THE ROCKET FROM CALABUCH (93min)
9:00PM THE NATIONAL SHOTGUN (La Escopeta Nacional) (95min)
Wednesday, December 21
1:30PM DON’T TOUCH THE DEAD, KID (Los muertos no se tocan) (90min)
3:30PM LIFE SIZE (Tamaño Natural) (101min)
8:30PM EVERYONE OFF TO JAIL (Todo a la Carcel) (99min)
Thursday, December 22
2:10PM CREBINSKY (90min)
4:10PM THE NATIONAL SHOTGUN (La Escopeta Nacional) (95min)
6:15PM LONG LIVE THE BRIDE AND GROOM (Que Vivien Los Novios) (83min)
8:10PM THE HEIFFER (La Vaquilla) (122min)
