Spanish master filmmaker Carlos Saura’s latest feature, ‘Flamenco, Flamenco’, a poetic filmic journey starring the most prominent figures of Spanish Flamenco opened the Spanish Film Panorama at the Shanghai Film Art Center tonight. During the next four days, eight films representative of the latest Spanish Cinema would run in four downtown theaters in Shanghai. The Panorama will conclude on Sunday, October 24th.
Saura, director of award-winning films such as ‘Carmen’, ‘Tango’ and ‘Goya in Bordeaux’ attended the opening ceremony of the Panorama. ‘Flamenco, Flamenco’ is a sequel to Saura’s 1995 ‘Flamenco’ -- a previous approach in which the veteran director poured the best examples of this traditional artistic dance onto the silver screen. Fifteen years on, the whole flamenco scene has evolved, and along the most established household names such as Sara Baras, José Mercé and Manolo Sanlúcar, new figures emerged -- Miguel Poveda, Israel Galván, Diego Amador, Dorantes, Rocío Molina, Farruquito, Eva Yerbabuena or Arcángel --- all of who have enriched and modernized this emotional artistic form.
‘Flamenco, Flamenco’ blends the artistry of this traditional dance with a delicate use of lighting, complemented with sceneries from Andalusia-style paintings, where the art of Flamenco originates. The film, yet to be released in Spain, had Isidro Muñoz as music advisor and Saura’s long-term friend and world-famous cinematographer, Vittorio Storaro, in charge of a careful arrangement of lighting. The backgrounds for many of the scenes are provided by large-scale reproductions of canvases by Julio Romero de Torres, Ignacio Zuloaga or Francisco Goya, featuring typical Andalusian scenes. Filming took place last year in Seville’s Cartuja Island, in the building which hosted the Future Pavilion of World Expo Seville in 1992.
Shanghai Film Art Center, Shanghai Cathay Cinema, BroadBand International Cineplex and Stellar Cinema City will screen the eight Spanish movies: ‘Me Too’, ‘Flamenco, Flamenco’, ‘The Sea Inside’, ‘Seven Billiard Tables’, ‘The Blind Sunflowers’, ‘My Life without Me’, ‘Obaba’ and ‘Mataharis.’ The selection of movies represents the highest quality of Spanish productions and the panorama is the largest Spanish film festival in China in recent years.
Opening of the festival was also joined by Tang Lijun, Managing Director of the Shanghai International Film Festival; Liu Wenguo, Artistic Director of Shanghai Municipal Administration of Culture, Radio, Film and Television; and María Tena, General Commissioner of the Spain Pavilion Expo Shanghai.
赌博app’s Managing Director stressed that Spanish cinema “has enjoyed critical acclaim for its artistic innovation and special characteristics in international film festivals all over the world”. “Shanghai International Film Festival is trying to organize film panoramas with different genres of films out of the festival, in an effort to help vitalize the personality of Chinese film creation to form a diversified market pattern in China,” added Tang.
Spain Pavilion’s Commissioner General said that the success of Spain Pavilion during the last six months of Expo has been “due in part to the fact that the exhibition was created and designed by Spanish filmmakers.” “I couldn’t thing of any better way to put an end to a succesful Expo but to present in Shanghai a panorama with the most creative contemporary films”, said Tena.
‘The Blind Sunflowers’: The panorama also brought to Shanghai Maribel Verdú, glamorous Spanish actress from blockbusters such as ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ and ‘And your mother too.’ Ms. Verdú would be in person at a special screening scheduled in Shanghai Cathay Theater, presenting her film ‘The Blind Sunflowers’, in which she plays a widow during the Spanish civil war. The film was directed by veteran filmmaker José Luis Cuerda.
Another movie with star power is ‘The Sea Inside’, starring Javier Bardem, which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2004, as well as the 2004 Grand Jury Prize of the Venice International Film Festival, among other prizes.
‘Me Too’, co-directed by Álvaro Pastor and Antonio Naharro, tells a story of an impossible love. Lead actress Lola Dueñas was awarded the Best Actress in the San Sebastian Film Festival and the Goya Awards (Spanish equivalents to the Academy Awards). ‘My Life without Me’, which was one of the competition pieces in the Berlinale, narrates a woman’s fading life in the midst of cancer, bringing emotional waves to the audiences. Another tale, ‘Seven Billiard Tables’ tells the fate of a woman who rediscovers her life after her father dies and her husband disappears.
The Spanish Film Panorama will also show very different genres: ‘Obaba’, a mystery thriller in a deep and remote Northern Spanish township, and ‘Mataharis’, a comedy about three detectives failing to manage their private lives.
The four-day festival is co-organized by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT); the Ministry of Culture of Spain through the Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts (ICAA); the Shanghai International Film Festival (赌博app); and Spain Pavilion in World Expo 2010.. The panorama was also made possible thanks to the Shanghai Municipal Administration of Culture, Radio, Film and Television as well as with the support of Spain’s Embassy in People’s Republic of China. Tickets are available at the four downtown cinemas taking part in the panorama or from www.tickets.com.cn and www.ticket2010.com.