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Each December we dedicate the
lion’s share of our program to both new and
classic Spanish cinema. Spanish cinema continues
to gain audiences and admirers internationally,
as witnessed by this year’s best Foreign Language
Film Oscar for Alejandro Amenabar’s The
Sea Inside, starring Spanish Cinema Now favorite
Javier Bardem. Each year the films for the series
are selected on the basis of trying to present the
finest and most varied panorama of current Spanish
production; there are no themes or subjects that
are decided beforehand. Nevertheless, now that the
smoke has cleared, it is possible to discern at
least a few trends in this year’s crop. “Spaniards
Abroad” might be one such theme, as several
of the films (Train of Memory, Habana
Blues, and Juanita Narboni) explore
the lives of Spaniards living or working outside
the country itself. The mystic heart of Spain—a
persistent theme in literature and the visual arts—can
be seen in works as otherwise varied as Obaba,
Hidden and Ausentes. As always,
our selection features both familiar directors—we’re
delighted to welcome back Montxo Armendáriz
and Ventura Pons, both of whom were subjects in
retrospectives here in previous years—with
fine new works, whereas emerging talents are represented
by Mercedes Alvarez, Farida Benlyazid and Manuel
MartÌn Cuenca. So join us at the Walter Reade to
discover the best in recent Spanish cinema.
Little introduction is needed for Miguel de Cervantes’ timeless masterwork; one
of the most noble achievements of the human imagination, Don
Quixote was celebrated
around the world this year in recognition of its 400th anniversary. As our small
part of these festivities, we offer this brief selection of cinematic adaptations/responses
to the adventures of the noble Don and his faithful companion Sancho. Among the
cinematic Quixotes to be screened are Orson Welles’ rarely seen, incomplete
but nevertheless fascinating gloss, featuring a Don trying to make sense of Spain
in the late 50s; Grigori Kozintsev’s magisterial Russian version; Rafael Gil’s
super-production of 1947, the most expensive Spanish film ever made up until
that point; and Manuel Gutierrez Aragon’s TV mini-series, featuring one of the
final performances by the great Fernando Rey in the title role.
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Affiliate ticket price of
$6.00 for Instituto Cervantes members.
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A new film by Montxo Armendáriz
is always a cause for celebration since his remarkable
debut with Tasio (1984). Here, he has created
a remarkable adaptation of Bernardo Axtaga’s Obabakoak;
Axtaga’s series of short, finely observed stories
have been deftly woven into haunting portrait of
an isolated community whose surface calm hides deeper
mysteries. Video camera in hand, university student
Lourdes travels to the Basque town of Obaba to make
a study of its inhabitants; her aim is to discover
how the changes in contemporary Spain have affected
even its most out-of-the way corners, but what she
soon learns is that time seems to have a different,
far more fluid nature in Obaba. The Opening Night
film of this year’s San Sebastian Film Festival,
Obaba has also been chosen as Spain’s candidate
for Best Foreign Language Film at next year’s Academy
Awards.
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Fri Dec 9: 2
Fri
Dec 9: 6:30 (Intro by Director)
Sun Dec 11: 3:30
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Madrid, the early 80s. Sara’s
a girl from a nice, middle-class family, a good student
who nevertheless longs for a little bit of excitement.
One night she sneaks out of her house and heads to
El Calentito, the hottest of the happening clubs
that form the bedrock of that explosion of art, culture
and nightlife known as la movida. Slated
to perform are a trio called the Siux, but just before
they’re about to go on one of their members quits;
desperate for a replacement, the remaining Siux ask
Sara to perform with them for the night. It’s beyond
a dream come true — and since the Siux have an interview
with a record producer the next day, maybe even a
future. Chus Gutiérrez’s buoyant, perceptive new
film captures not only the spirit of freedom that
characterized those first years of post-Franco Spain
but also the threat to that freedom that still haunted
Spain at that time.
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Fri Dec 9: 4:15
Sat Dec 10: 9:15 (Intro by Director)
Tue Dec 13: 3
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Benito Zambrano, whose debut feature, Solás,
was a worldwide hit, moved in a decidedly different
direction for his equally impressive second feature.
Cuba is a land of music, and consequently a land
of musicians. Longtime friends and collaborators
Tito and Ruy are preparing for a big concert when
they learn that two Spanish record producers want
to hear them play; this could be the break they’ve
been waiting for. Will Ruy accompany his wife and
children to Miami? What will happen to Tito’s grandmother
if he goes off on the worldwide tour the Spaniards
have been talking about? Havana
Blues is full of
lots of extraordinary music, but what makes it so
special is the way Zambrano details the lives of
these artists, and the choice they might be forced
to make regarding their music, their families and
their country.
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Fri Dec 9: 9 (Intro by Director)
Sat Dec 10: 6:45 (Intro by Director)
Mon Dec 12: 1
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Jose Monge Cruz, known
as the “CamarÛn de la Isla,” was a flamenco
legend. Discovered singing at a bar by guitarist
Paco de Lucia, Camarón quickly shot to the top of
the flamenco world, revolutionizing the music while
winning broad new audiences for it. Yet his great
commercial success and artistic achievements didn’t
protect him from falling victim to his own demons,
and eventually his drug use threatened to take complete
control of his life. Oscar Jaenada, a mass of curly
locks sitting atop a wiry frame, brilliantly incarnates
Camarón, getting his remarkable mixture of innocence
and recklessness just right. Heís especially good
in the concert sequences, and Jaime Chávarri’s
film is a wonderful introduction to the work of an
artist whose considerable contributions to contemporary
Spanish music might have been even greater had his
artistry had the chance to mature.
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Sat Dec 10: 1:30
Sun Dec 11: 8:15
Mon Dec 12: 3:15
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One day in school, Gonzalo decides
to simply not take a test given his class; upon going
home, he announces to his mother Ana that he’s not
leaving his room. Ana works for an NGO that deals
with refugees; one of her clients is Carlos, a Cuban
exile who gets by selling black-market cigars and
artworks. Carlos brings Mikel, just released from
prison, to Ana’s house so that he can teach Gonzalo
how to play chess — and possibly get him to start
living again. Each of these characters faces a kind
of wall, an actual or emotional barrier they know
they have to get past if their lives are going to
go on in any meaningful way. Cuenca’s beautifully
crafted screenplay, co-written with Alejandro Hernandez,
deftly moves from story to story, creating at times
parallels and ironies that we recognize long before
his characters. Like other films that employ multiple
storylines, there’s a sense that the film emphasizes
the randomness of modern life, but for Cuenca it
really is a succession of chances and opportunities
his characters must muster the courage to take.
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Sat Dec 10: 4:15 (Intro by Director)
Sun Dec 18: 8:30
Tue
Dec 20: 1:20
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“Beginning in 1957 and continuing
on-and-off for the next 15 years, Welles self-financed
and directed an audacious film version of Cervantes’
Don Quixote which brought the legendary knight
and his rotund aide Sancho Panza out of 16th century
Andalusia and into the world of modern Spain. Much
of this work was considered lost … and the
footage that remained was not properly stored! However,
throughout the 80s and early 90s the Spanish filmmakers
Jess Franco and Patxi Irigoyen tracked down nearly
all of the surviving footage, finished the incomplete
soundtrack based on Welles’s notes, restored
the footage where they could and offered a reconstructed
Don Quixote de Orson Welles in 1992…
Don Quixote de Orson Welles presents a very
special side of Welles, showing his ability to take
chances that none of his peers would ever dare to
dream. The film’s production values and continuity
are remarkable, considering it was shot in bits and
pieces by seven different cinematographers over an
extended stretch of time. – Phil Hall, Film
Threat
The Thursday, December 22, 6:30 pm show will also
include THE ROUTE OF DON QUIXOTE, directed by Ramon
Biadiu (18 min), Introduced by Director of the Filmoteca
Española, Jose Maria Prado
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Sun Dec 11: 1
Thu Dec 22: 2
Thu Dec 22: 6:30
Tue Dec 27: 3
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Adapting a novel by Lluis-Anton
Baulenas, whose Anita
Takes a Chance was previously adapted by Pons, Idiot
Love begins as Pere-Lluc drowns his sorrow with
alcohol after learning of the death of a close friend
in Buenos Aires. Wandering home after his bender,
he slams into a ladder being used by a young woman
hanging banners on the street; when he attempts to
wake up from his stupor, all he can see is the woman.
Mesmerized, he claims he’s in love with her and sets
out to win her affection —even though she’s
married. Pons’s films have always had an anarchic
undercurrent — a
sense that at any moment his characters could just
abandon everything — but Idiot
Love is by far his
fullest exploration of this theme. The energy and
humor has a harsher edge than in his earlier work,
aided by the excellent performances he gets from
his two leads, Santi Millán and Cayetana Guillén
Cuervo.
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Sun Dec 11: 6 (Intro by Director)
Tue Dec 13: 1
Sat Dec 17: 5:45
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From 1973 until 1975, Mikel Lejarza, an agent of
the Spanish secret police, code name “El Lobo” (the
wolf), was able to infiltrate the very top echelons
of the militant Basque group ETA. Lejarza’s revelations
were so far-reaching that he personally was able
to bring down almost one quarter of the entire organization.
A few years ago producer Melchor Miralles established
contact with El Lobo, and convinced him to tell his
story; the result is this absolutely riveting thriller
starring Eduardo Noriega in the lead role and featuring
Jose Coronado, Jose Sanz and Silvia Abascal. The
film explores the contradictions of El Lobo’s role
— he was, after all, working for the Franco government,
at a time when ETA was allied with pro-democratic
forces throughout Spain — as well as the tensions
within Basque separatist politics.
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Wed Dec 14: 1:45
Wed Dec 14: 6:30
Sat Dec 17: 1
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The wonderful Fernando Fernan
Gomez offers yet another marvelous performance in
his illustrious career as Mateo, a man caught in
an emotional struggle between his daughter and his
grandson. Long separated from her husband, Irene
has pretty much raised her son David on her own.
Now a brilliant architecture student, David shows
every sign of fulfilling all his mother’s hopes and
dreams for his future. Then one day David meets Clara,
and in a short while they’re are talking about moving
in together. Irene doesn’t understand David’s attraction;
Clara works as a checkout cashier in a supermarket,
and as far as Irene can see shares almost nothing
in common in terms of interests or ambitions as her
son. Inevitably, Mateo is drawn into this story to
serve as an emotional buffer for all concerned —
but then something happens that forces everyone to
rethink their attitudes and positions. Director Patricia
Ferreira, who previously had directed two fine thrillers,
shows considerable skill in shaping this very contemporary
melodrama, creating a number of rich, complex characters
dealing with feelings that often go against their
better instincts.
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Wed Dec 14: 4:15
Wed Dec 14: 9
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Made simultaneously in English,
French and German language versions, G.W. Pabst made
his version of Cervantes’ classic in the shadow of
Hitler’s rise to power and the spread of fascism
in Europe. The great Russian bass Feodor Chaliapin
starred as the Don in all three versions. He is an
extraordinary performer and despite his accented
English brings great pathos to his rendition of the
part. Upon its premiere in 1933, a critic called
the film “a picture book for adults, full of overpowering
poetry and atmosphere. Already in its purely animated
introduction, the film takes us into the realm of
fairy tales. The wandering shadows of an extinct
age of knights cast the spectator under a spell,
pulling the viewer into a suddenly revived world
with its own laws.” N.B. The opening animation referred
to in the above quote is by the great German animator
Lotte Reininger.
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Thu
Dec 15: 1:30
Thu
Dec 15: 6:20
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At the time it was made, Rafael
Gil’s Don Quixote de la
Mancha was the most expensive
Spanish film ever. Nothing was spared in the way
of production; the film in many ways became a kind
of national project, made by the quasi-governmental
studio CIFESA as, in the words of critic Roman Gubern,
“an attempt by the Franco regime to appropriate the
myth.” Despite
some of the political overtones in this adaptation
that contemporary critics have pointed out, Gil’s
film still remains one of the finest and most faithful
screen versions of Quixote. Theater actor
Rafael Rivelles cuts a striking figure in the lead,
more dynamic and well appointed than one normally
expects to find Quixote, yet he exudes a quiet dignity
in the face of increasingly impossible odds that
finally makes him a figure worthy of our sympathy
and even admiration. A rare opportunity to see a
much-loved and much-debated Spanish classic.
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Thu
Dec 15: 3:30
Thu
Dec 15: 8:15
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“In his new film Piñeyro
explores the dark inner workings of the corporate
world. While the streets of Madrid are filled with
anti-globalization demonstrators, candidates are
assembled to be put through the final selection process
for a single high-level position at a multinational
corporation. From the outset, there is a palpably
tense, competitive atmosphere among the group. Feelings
of distrust increase when they realize they are aspiring
for the same position, and that the Grönholm Method
(a human resources strategy supposedly imported from
the U.S.) is being used to assess their respective
merits. They find themselves pitted against one another
in a contest that elicits fear, suspicion, paranoia
and betrayal. The humiliation these people are willing
to endure or inflict on others for the sake of the
job is chilling to witness. Piñeyro works with an
incredible ensemble cast of actors: Young, attractive
executives Carlos (Eduardo Noriega) and Nieves (Najwa
Nimri) are cold, calculating and unscrupulous. Fernando
(Eduard Fernández) and Ana (Adriana Ozores) represent
the older generation, insecure about their age and
lack of cutting-edge skills. Enrique (Ernesto Alterio),
meanwhile, is the typical kiss-ass, continually praising
the human resources department’s cryptic techniques…
Piñeyro’s
timely film shows how this type of “natural” selection
truly dehumanizes us in the ceaseless race to get
ahead.” — Diana Sanchez, 2005 Toronto International
Film Festival catalogue
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Fri
Dec 16: 2
Fri Dec 16: 8:30
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The last child to be born in the
tiny village of La Aldea in Spain’s rugged north,
Mercedes Álvarez and her parents left the area when
she was three years old. Decades later she decides
to return home, to discover the world her family
like so many others left behind. The town now has
been reduced to just a few elderly people, in whose
lined faces the history of the region seems to be
etched. Some plans to revitalize the region are proposed;
the castle could become a hotel, and fossils of ancient
creatures and ruins of bygone civilizations could
attract tourists, yet whatever remedy is proposed
would surely be too late for those who live there
now. Álvarez’s most telling encounter is with
Pello Azketa, a painter gradually going blind, who
tries to capture the disappearance of a way of life
as his own eyesight slowly deserts him. Filmmaker
Mercedes Álvarez
has fashioned a terrifically moving, loving portrait
of a vanishing world in The
Sky Turns, another testament
to the growing vitality of Spanish documentary.
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Fri Dec 16: 4:15
Sun Dec 18: 6:15
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Filming Cervantes’ immortal classic
has been a goal for filmmakers from the earliest
days of the silent cinema, and records show that
several Quixote-inspired projects were made
before this British production, generally considered
the first serious attempt at bring the novel to the
screen. Maurice Elvey was a seasoned director and
it’s clear that the novel was mined for those episodes
that might be most entertaining. Thereís some wonderfully
imaginative passages using superimpositions to denote
the Don’s fantasies, especially the obligatory joust
with the windmills. Jerrold Robertshaw (Don Quixote)
was a British matinee idol who seemed to specialize
in playing royalty or at least aristocrats, and he
brings a certain grace to the role; George Robey,
who plays Sancho, would later be cast by G.W. Pabst
for the same role in his 1933 version.
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Fri Dec 16: 7
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“Through a Sherlock Holmes-type
mystery, Oristrell playfully uncovers and questions
sexual taboos as his protagonists investigate a missing
persons case. It is the year 1913 in Barcelona, where
people are discovering Freud’s revolutionaty ideas
about the unconscious and how we can come to know
each other better. Through Alma (Leonor Watling),
one of the most progressive women of her time, Oristrell
elucidates ideas about feminism and the role of women
in society. Alma gives free rein to her emotions
and is constantly trying to surmise the reasoning
behind her actions. When her psychiatrist husband
León (Alex Brendemühl) flees their home in
tears, she asks her conservative brother-in-law Salvador
(Luis Tosar), also a psychiatrist, to help her find
him. This begins a love story between polar opposites…
Unconscious explores the mysteries of human nature
with fun and irreverence.” – Diana Sanchez,
2004 Toronto International Film Festival catalogue
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Sat Dec 17: 3:30
Sun Dec 18: 2
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ShortMetraje features the most challenging Spanish short films from a provocative and vivid generation of cinÈastes. Additional films at the Instituto Cervantes in New York. For more information visit www.shortmetraje.com.
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Sat Dec 17: 8:15
Sun Dec 18: 4:15
Mon Dec 19: 1
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In Ausentes Calparsoro
offers his own version of a very modern horror story.
Julia (Adriana Gil) moves with her husband Samuel
(Jordi Mollà) and her two stepsons to a new luxury
development somewhere in the far suburbs. Just completed,
the development has just everything a family could
want, yet days pass and Julia hasn’t noticed any
of her new neighbors. Traces of them can be seen
and heard, but as far as she can tell she and her
family are completely alone out there. Reminiscent
in ways of The Shining, Ausentes similarly
brings a sense of dread to wide open spaces; the
community Julia and her family have moved to is a
human-made, planned and manicured environment that
seemingly has a life of its own, with no need for
human beings to fill it. A provocative, unsettling
film from one of Spain’s most consistently challenging
filmmakers.
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Mon Dec 19: 9
Tue
Dec 20: 3:25
Wed Dec 21: 5
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The Wretched
Life of Juanita Narboni is a portrait of Tangiers
and its now vanished world through the eyes of a
woman who lived through its crises and transformation.
Daughter of a British father from Gibraltar and an
Andalusian mother, Juanita Narboni (a remarkable
performance by Mariola Fuentes) witnesses the Spanish
invasion during the Civil War, the arrival of refugees
from across war-torn Europe, and the return of the
city to Arab control following Moroccan independence.
Her sister Helena elopes with a Frenchman; her close
friend Esther, a Sephardic Jew, suffers an impossible
love for a Moroccan Muslim. Yet while Juanita stands
as witness to all this and more, she herself keeps
the world at bay, denying her own emotions behind
a façade of colonial privilege and social standing.
Farida Benlyazid has created a moving portrait of
a rapidly changing world as experienced by a character
who herself resists any change at all.
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Wed Dec 21: 1
Wed Dec 21: 7
Mon
Dec 26: 6:45
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In the 60s, almost two million
Spaniards left Spain in search of work in France,
the Netherlands, Switzerland and especially West
Germany. Poor, unskilled and largely illiterate,
most thought they’d stay abroad for a matter of months;
many wound up settling in these countries for the
rest of their lives. Piecing together extraordinary
archival footage along with testimony by the emigrants
themselves, the film recounts the harsh conditions
that forced so many Spaniards to abandon their farms
and villages in search of work, as well as the often
less than welcoming reception many received upon
arriving at their destinations. The impact of the
emigrants on politics back in Spain is also explored.
With new immigrant populations from Asia, Africa
and Latin America increasingly visible in Spain,
The Train of Memory is a powerful reminder that the
problems of dislocation, assimilation and resettlement
have a long history throughout Europe.
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Wed Dec 21: 3:10
Wed Dec 21: 9:15
Tue
Dec 27: 7:15
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Kozintsev re-creates an arid,
dusty Spanish wasteland as the fitting geography
for Cervantes’ errant knigh’s doomed quest
for the ideal. Especially notable is the director’s
sophisticated and subtle use of color; Kozintsev
fills his frames, so often dominated by the tans
and dry browns of the landscapes, with bursts of
color that come to represent the energy and resistance
of the Don. Nikolai Cherkasov, Eisenstein’s star
for both Alexander Nevsky and Ivan
the Terrible,
brings out the nobility of Quixote, making him a
man unbowed by the realities he’s forced to confront
because of the certainty of and value of his principles.
Long considered one of the very best Cervantes adaptations,
and the first of remarkable, late-career literary
adaptations by Kozintsev that would also include
his Hamlet and King
Lear.
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Thu Dec 22: 4:15
Thu Dec 22: 8:45
Fri Dec 23: 4:15
Fri
Dec 23: 8:45
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At a conference of dream interpretation,
the lives of three people will become inescapably
entangled: Beatriz, hired to do public relations
for the conference; Alex, a writer for an Internet
publication covering the event; and Natalia, an audience
member whose revelation of her dream sets off a chain
of events that brings together these three otherwise
disparate characters. The
Hidden is about those unseen, largely unknowable
forces that seem to surround us and define our lives.
Natalia’s dreams might be expressions of her fears
and anxieties, but perhaps they could be messages
from some beyond. For Beatriz, whatís “hidden” may
be less supernatural than emotions she can barely
express or control. Antonio Hernandez deftly navigates
the lives and feelings of these three characters,
gradually peeling away their self-deceptions and
delusions until thereís a remarkable and unexpected
final revelation.
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Fri Dec 23: 2
Fri Dec 23: 6:30
Mon Dec 26: 9
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The great Fernando Rey —
known for his extraordinary work with Buñuel
in masterpieces such as Tristana and That
Obscure Object of Desire — gives one of
his richest, most deeply felt performances in Gutierrez
Aragonís wonderful adaptation of Cervantes’
classic. His Don Quixote is earthier, more human-scaled
than earlier versions; he is less a symbol or a metaphor
than a man buffeted by his physical age and the distance
between his ideals and their realization. While certainly
faithful to the spirit of the original, this take
on the “impossible dreamer” offers not
merely an excellent rendition of the novel but also
a fresh, provocative reading that shows how startingly
contemporary he and his quest remain.
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Sat Dec 24: 1
Mon Dec 26: 1
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“An elegy for every doomed
picture never made.” – Stephanie Zacharel
For years, Terry Gilliam — director of some of Hollywood’s most inventive
works in recent years, from Brazil to 12 Monkeys — dreamed
of bringing a Cervantes-inspired work, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote,
to the screen. Finally, in August 2000, his chance finally came through; having
cobbled together European financing sources to the tune of $32 million, Gilliam
assembles his cast and crew on the Spanish plains for the shoot. That’s when
the problems begin: a series of accidents, disasters natural and otherwise, begin
arriving in quick succession, as Gilliam, his worried investors and reps from
the completion bond company can only look on. What began as a “The Making of…”
kind of documentary wound up becoming something else: a moving look at a modern-day
dreamer tilting against an unexpected yet infernal set of windmills. Preceded
by Ub Iwerks’ wonderful cartoon version of
Don Quixote (1934; 8m).
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Tue Dec 27: 1
Tue
Dec 27: 5:15
Tue Dec 27: 9:15
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