More than Almodóvar

The Spanish Cultural Centre’s exhibitions deliberately focus on popular culture, aiming at a broad audience across all classes. A unique thing about Spanish cinema is that popular culture appears in both commercial cinema and more artistic films. Street life, low culture and comedy are just as much part of box office hits like Santiago Segura’s Torrente as they are of art-house staple Almodóvar’s films. What I particularly love about the cinema of Alejandro Amenábar is that he is not afraid to make accessible genre films like Tésis.

The cross-over ability of Spanish cinema is now carried on by the international breakthrough of actors like Javier Bardem, Paz Vega and Penélope Cruz. Cruz became the first Spanish actress to win an Oscar earlier this year. Actors have traditionally been important in the continuation of Spanish films, especially actresses like Carmen Maura and Marisa Paredes. Before Spanish films came to international attention in the 1980’s, Carlos Saura’s collaboration with Geraldine Chaplin gave him international appeal. Saura’s Ay Carmela! is set during the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. As in many of his films traditional music plays an important role. Saura worked with choreographer and dancer Antonio Gades to make a flamenco adaptation of the opera Carmen, combining high culture, folk traditions and box office success.

During the Franco era cinema was heavily censored. But films still found a way to be critical of the regime. Luis García Berlanga’s Bienvenido Mr. Marshall from 1953 is perhaps the best known example. It was originally presented as a film critical of the USA and shows a small town’s preparations for a visit from American Marshall aid-workers. But it unfolds many subversive comments in a multilayered way. It’s a great example of how comedy can be a complex and suitable cover-up for political cinema. Berlanga’s collaborator, scriptwriter Juan Antonio Bardem directed important films like Caye Mayor and Muerte de un cyclista. The third great “B” is of course Luis Buñuel, known in Latin America for Los Olvidados.

Another film screened at the Spanish Cultural centre is Tasio, by Montxo Armendáriz. It’s a socially conscious film about a boy in a rural area of Spain, who starts his working life at only eight years old. There are many examples of Spanish films where children are vehicles for stories about a certain way of life. One of the finest is Barrio by Fernando León de Aranoa, showing you the life of three boys in a though neighbourhood of a big city. The film is beautiful in the way it portrays people with social urgency but without being condescending to them.

Eva Sancho Rodríguez