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RETROSPECTIVE
THE SPANISH FANTASY PICTURES SHOW
This year’s retrospective is the logical complement to A FANTASTIC CENTURY, and our own personal extension of the celebrations of cinema’s centenary. As we explained in a previous communication, we have searched for those films that belong to the Fantasy genre that we think are the most fantastic, leaving to one side those films that only exist in books together with many others that are conserved in the archives as endangered species. THE SPANISH FANTASY PICTURES SHOW covers the period from 1926 until the end of the 80s. The films are rather unevenly distributed throughout history, with very little fantasy present until the 50’s, then compensated in the 60’s and 70’s. We have decided to leave out the most recent films which are already known by the public, in order to be able to show previous more significant films. The result is a retrospective which orthodox followers of Spanish cinema historiography might find rather . . . heterodox, but which tries to brings together examples of all the different families of the genre in Spain. The complete list of films in the retrospective is:
EL SEXTO SENTIDO, Nemesio Sobrevila, 1929. With Antoñita Fernández, Enrique Durán, Eusebio Fernández Ardavín. The first example of avant-garde cinema in Spain, this film is a vindication of the freedom of cinema as language.
UNA DE MIEDO, Eduardo Maroto, 1934. Maroto directed three entertaining shorts with scripts by Miguel Mihura. For their total surrealism, any of the three could be in this selection but we’ve chosen this one because it’s closest to the genre.
DE L’AULA A LA FAULA, Evarist Moliné, 1936. Curious amateur film shot in Vallés during the Republic. The classroom is the University and its prehistory classes, the tale is an adventure with dinosaur-dragon included around La Mola. A rarity to be discovered.
EL BAILARÍN Y EL TRABAJADOR, Luis Marquina, 1936. With Ana Maria Custodia, Roberto Rey, Pepe Isbert. Is the musical a fantastic genre? We think so. That’s why this film is here, a free adaptation of a comedy by Benavente which brings up to date the tale of the Cicada and Ant and fits perfectly into the retrospective.
NOCHE FANTÁSTICA, Luis Marquina, 1943. With Carlos Muñoz, Isabel de Pomés, Fernando Fernán Gómez. A train is derailed in the night. The passengers take refuge in a small hotel. A strange countess seduces them all. Mystery and romanticism.
EL CRIMEN DE LA CALLE DE BORDADORES, Edgar Neville, 1946. With Mary Delgado, Mauel Luna, Julia Lajos. An example of a thriller with crime included, set in Madrid at the start of the century. One of the most curious pieces of work from the most personal director of Spanish cinema.
LA SIRENA NEGRA, Carlos Serrano de Osma, 1947. With Fernando Fernán Gómez, Isabel de Pomés, María Asquerino. Third film from a director worth discovering for his capacity to create crazily romantic worlds.
EL HUÉSPED DE LAS TINIEBLAS, Antonio del Amo, 1948. With Carlos Muñoz, Pastora Peña, Tomás Blanco. The interesting script by Manuel Mur Oti about the life of the poet Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer found the perfect setting for its nightmares in the fantastic sets by Burman.
LA CORONA NEGRA, Luis Saslavsky, 1950. With María Félix, Rossano Brazzi. A story by Cocteau, written by Miguel Mihura, performed by María Félix. A rarity not to be missed.
PARSIFAL, Daniel Mangrané and Carlos Serrano de Osmo, 1951. With Ludmila Tcherina, Gustavo Rojo, Félix de Pomés. Freely inspired by the legends of the Holy Grail, Parsifal is born from a double devotion: to Wagner’s music and to the mountain of Montserrat. One of the strangest films in the history of Spanish cinema.
LAS AVENTURAS DE TAXI KEY, Juan Fortuny, 1959. With Ricardo Palmerola, Inés Alma. "A radiophonic avenger surrounded by the paranormal. Like The X-Files but on radio" (M. Ordoñez)
DIFERENTE, Alfredo Alaria and Luis María Delgado, 1961. With Alfredo Alaria, Sandra Lebocq, Manuel Monroy, Julia Gutiérrez Caba, Mara Laso, Gracita Morales. Completely personal piece of work by the dancer and choreographer Alfredo Alaria, this gay fantasy is a fantastic musical, one of the few examples of crossing genres in Spanish cinema.
GRITOS EN LA NOCHE, Jesús Franco, 1961. With Conrado San Martín, Diana Lorys, Howard Vernon. "The first horror film, strictly speaking, made in Spain and a total masterpiece" (C. Aguilar).
LA HORA INCÓGNITA, Mariano Ozores, 1963. With Emma Penella, Carlos Estrada. One of the few examples of apocalyptic cinema made in Spain. The last minutes before the end of the world in a film which Ozores took seriously.
LA LLAMADA, Javier Setó, 1965. With Emilio Gutiérrez Caba, Carlos Lemos, Dianik Zurakowska. Strange film of irritating romanticism, a rarity in its time which has hardly ever been seen.
EL SONIDO DE LA MUERTE, José Antonio Nieves Conde, 1965. With Arturo Fernández, Soledad Miranda. Exotic American production directed and acted by a Spanish team with an antediluvian monster on a Greek island. An unusual B-movie for this country.
TERROR EN EL ESPACIO, Mario Bava, Italy-Spain, 1965. With Barry Sullivan, Ángel Aranda. Science fiction a la Italiana, a group of astronauts get lost on a threatened planet. A local predecessor to Alien. Unmissable.
EL AMOR BRUJO, Rovira Beleta, 1967. With Antonio Gades, La Polaca. A musical fantasy with impossible loves, music by Falla, and flamenco as a narrative element.
LA MARCA DEL HOMBRE LOBO, Enrique Eguiluz, 1968. With Paul Naschy, Dianik Zurakowska, Rossana Yanni. First appearance of our local wolf man. The creativeness of Universal and the eroticism of Hammer meet together with purely Spanish elements in the first chapter of what would be a large filmography.
EL EXTRAÑO CASO DEL DOCTOR FAUSTO, Gonzalo Suárez, 1969. With Gonzalo Suárez, Teresa Gimpera, Emma Cohen. Personal approximation to the Faust myth through the eyes of one of the most unclassifiable of Spanish directors.
LA RESIDENCIA, Narciso Ibáñez Serrador, 1969. With Lili Palmer, John Moulder Brown, Cristina Galbó. Gothic horror in a school for young ladies. Frights and nudity in a film that was better-made than most of that time.
EL CONDE DRÁCULA, Jesús Franco, Spain and a multitude of other countries, 1969. With Christopher Lee, Herbert Lom, Klaus Kinski, Soledad Miranda. Without doubt, the most faithful Dracula that has ever been made in Spain. Memorable performances from Kinski, Lee and the ill-fated Soledad Miranda. One of the best films from the prolific Jesús Franco.
VAMPIR-CUADECUC, Pere Portabella, 1970. With Christopher Lee. Original and personal "making of" avant la lettre which Portabella made during the shooting of Jesús Franco’s El Conde Drácula. A reflection on the genre as well as a fantastic experiment. It’s one of the most interesting films that Spanish cinema has produced.
AOOM, Gonzalo Suárez, 1970. With Lex Barker, Romy. One of the "Films of Iron" from Gonzalo Suárez, surely the most eccentric of our directors, which was never released.
LIBERXINA 90, Carlos Durán, 1970. With Serena Vergano, Romy. As part of the experimentation at the Barcelona School, Durán tried to make a political-fiction film. The period meant that Liberxina 90 became a cursed film worth watching with contemporary eyes.
EL BOSQUE DEL LOBO, Pedro Olea, 1970. With José Luis López Vázquez, Amparo Soler Leal, Alfredo Mayo. This Galician approach to the myth of the wolf man is one of the best films of Spanish fantasy cinema.
LA NOCHE DE WALPURGIS, León Klimovsky, 1970. With Paul Naschy, Patty Shepard. The national wolf man against a female vampire with an English accent. A damned monk, a special appearance by the Devil. In other words, one of the most representative films of the genre "Made in Spain".
PASTEL DE SANGRE, Josep Maria Vallés, Francesc Bellmunt, Emilio Martínez Lázaro, Jaime Chávarri, 1971. With Eusebio Poncela, Julián Ugarte, Charo López, Marisa Paredes, Carlos Otero, Luis Ciges. Debut of future famous directors in a fantastic experiment with uneven results but with a morbid attraction.
LA NOCHE DEL TERROR CIEGO, Amando de Ossorio, 1972. With Lone Fleming, Helen Harp. First appearance of Ossorio’s Knights in a horror story which kicked off a mini-saga of walking bodies.
PÁNICO EN EL TRANSIBERIANO, Eugenio Martín, 1972. With Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Telly Savalas. Interesting horror film with an alien, devil, heroes, and trains which could be mistaken for a Hammer film.
CEREMONIA SANGRIENTA, Jorge Grau, 1972. With Lucía Bosé, Espartaco Santoni, Ewa Aulin. One of the classics of Spanish fantasy, based on the character of the Marquess Erzebeth Bathory and her horrible baths of virgin blood.
EL GRAN AMOR DEL CONDE DRÁCULA, Javier Aguirre, 1972. With Paul Naschy, Haydee Politoff, Rossana Yanni. Typical story of vampires set in a sanatorium where Dracula tries to bring his daughter back. A mad movie very much of the period.
EL ESPÍRITU DE LA COLMENA, Victor Erice, 1973. With Fernando Fernán Gómez, Teresa Gimpera, Ana Torrent. The best fantasy film in Spanish cinema, for many simply the best film in Spanish cinema. In any case, the best approximation to the Frankenstein myth that has ever been made.
NO PROFANAR EL SUEÑO DE LOS MUERTOS, Jorge Grau, 1974. With Cristina Galbó, Arthur Kennedy. First ecological movie with a story about the living dead. One of the director’s best.
DUERME, DUERME, MI AMOR, Francisco Regueiro, 1974. With José Luis López Vázquez, María José Alfonso. Unclassifiable black comedy in which the director’s characteristic humour almost reaches the limits of cruelty and irony that belong to the famous "La Codorniz".
LA CRUZ DEL DIABLO, John Gilling, 1975. With Carmen Sevilla, Ramiro Oliveros, Adolfo Marsillach. The magic and romantic world of Bécquer in a film that didn’t manage to live up to expectations.
BRUJA, MÁS QUE BRUJA, Fernando Fernán Gómez, 1976. With Fernando Fernán Gómez, Emma Cohen. Fantastic parody of a rural zarzuela, one of the most unknown and crazy films from a director who isn’t unknown but just as crazy.
GULLIVER, Alfonso Ungría, 1977. With Fernando Fernán Gómez, África Pratt. Gulliver’s Travels in an Hispanic version, somewhat influenced by Herzog’s dwarves. Gulliver had never been so human.
IN MEMORIAM, Enrique Brasó, 1977. With Geraldine Chaplin, José Luis Gómez. The only film directed by Enrique Brasó, inspired by a tale by Adolfo Bioy Casares, it tells a fantastic story of love in different times.
MARAVILLAS, Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón, 1980. With Fernando Fernán Gómez, Cristina Marcos. A magic tale with a jewel, prince and princess in contemporary Madrid. The film that discovered Cristina Marcos.
CON EL CULO AL AIRE, Carles Mira, 1980. With Ovidi Montllor, Eva León, María José Arenós, Joan Monleón. Carles Mira has been the most genuine representative of Valencian humour. Whether in historic fiction or rock madness (as in this film), his surreal stories, full of Mediterranean scatological humour, are a faithful representation of a very Spanish way of seeing the world.
EL CABALLERO DEL DRAGÓN, Fernando Colomo, 1985. With Miguel Bosé, Harvey Keitel, Klaus Kinski, Fernando Rey. One of the few examples of fantasy cinema that mixes science-fiction with the Middle Ages. A film to look closely at again. It might be a surprise.
LA NOCHE DE LA IRA, Javier Elorrieta, 1985. With Patxi Adion, Beatriz Elorieta, Terele Pávez. A cross between The Most Dangerous Game and the most terminal Peckinpah, with Mad Doctor included.
TRAS EL CRISTAL, Agustí Villaronga, 1985. With Marisa Paredes. Villaronga’s best film takes place in a house that contains evil and morbidity in equal doses. Splendid performance by Marisa Paredes.
MÉS ENLLÀ DE LA PASSIÓ, Jesús Garay, 1986. With Patricia Adriani, Juanjo Puigcorbé. Garay constructs an unnerving film of sounds and silences, video images and transgressions. A love story for three with a fascinating Patricia Adriani.
MERLÍN, Udolfo Arrieta, 1990. With Clara Sanchis, Javier Grandes. Crazy version of Knights of the Round Table in an impossible castle, with a beautiful Guinevere. The photography by Gormezano stands out.
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