Aficionados of Spanish film, take heart: the 20th edition of
Spanish Cinema Now arrives at the
Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center this coming Friday, December 9, and will feature, as usual, an array of the latest films from Spain, as well as its usual "tribute" portion of the program -- this year honoring the late and legendary Spanish director,
Luis García Berlanga.
According to FSLC press release, highlights for this year’s series include the opening-night screening of the new film from
Nacho Vigalondo, who three years ago gave us the terrific little sci-fi thriller
Time Crimes, and now has another original, sci-fi-based delight called
Extraterrestrial (shown at top, and one of the must-sees of the series)
Mireia Ros’ 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 (above). Also of note is the Spanish-Portuguese co-production
José and Pilar,
Miguel Gonçalves Mendes' portrait of the final years of Nobel Prize winner
José Saramago and his Spanish wife
Pilar del Rio.
Attending filmmakers and actors include Señores Vigalondo, Sanchez Arevalo and Segura;
Quim Gutiérrez (above, from SCN's 2009
Sangre de Mayo and appearing this year in the the ensemble of
Cousinhood); Ms. Ros;
Jonás Trueba, write/director of
Every Song Talks About Me (a still from which appears at bottom of post);
Marina Comas, one of the stars of
Black Bread (shown below, left: Her film is back this year for an encore screening after walking away with with a bunch of Goya Awards), and
Alberto Morais, write/director of
The Waves, a still from which is the penultimate photo below.
A centerpiece of the film series will be the 10-film tribute to the late Luis García Berlanga, one of Spain’s greatest directors, who died last year. Together with
Juan Antonio Bardem, Berlanga revolutionized Spanish cinema by shaking up what had been a fairly dormant scene with a series of films such as
Welcome Mr. Marshall,
Plácido and
The Executioner (below, and one of the must-sees of this series).
Having viewed but eight of the 27 films that comprise this year's program,
TrustMovies is in no state to say much more about the series, other than: Go if you can! Of the eight films so far, three -- maybe four -- are must-see, with the rest at least worthwhile, pleasant and/or interesting. I'll start posting on the individual films tomorrow -- each post will begin with the letters SCN -- and will continue throughout the series for the next three weeks until I have seen and covered all the films. Well,
almost all. We shall see....
Spanish Cinema Now is presented by the FSLC in collaboration with the
Spanish Film Institute (ICAA) in Madrid and the
Instituto Cervantes in New York, with special thanks also to the Spanish Consulate General in New York.
Tickets are on sale now, both at the box office and on-line. Discount single screening tickets are available for students, seniors, Film Society and Cervantes Institute members, but anyone can enjoy a Special Four-Film Discount Package. Click
here to view the entire program. To purchase tickets, click on the individual film and then on the BUY TICKETS link under SHOWTIMES.
Photos above are from the films themselves.
for the still from The Executioner.
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