Issue date: 22 Jul, 2011
This Spanish cinemas series is devoted to Luis García Berlanga and Rafael Azcona, two prominent names in the Spanish film industry.
Film director Luis Garcia Berlanga (Valencia, 1921-Madrid, 2010) studied in the Instituto de Investigaciones y Experiencias Cinematográficas (Institute for Research and Cinematic Experiences) in Madrid, an institution created in 1947 offering training in the various disciplines within film production. He soon made his debut as film director and in 1951 directed Esa pareja feliz (That happy couple) in collaboration with Juan Antonio Bardem. Both filmmakers are considered to be the main innovators of Spanish cinema after the war. Amongst the first films of García Berlanga are Bienvenido Mr. Marshall, which reflects the humbleness of the inhabitants of a small town hoping to be rescued by a visiting American delegation. For decades he worked in fruitful collaboration with screenwriter Rafael Azcona and together they made memorable films such as Plácido (1961), El Verdugo (1963), La Escopeta Nacional (1977), La Vaquilla (1985), Moros y Cristianos (1987) and Paris-Timbuktu (1999), amongst others. He was the first President of the Academy of Arts and Cinematographic Sciences of Spain. In 1981 he received the National Film Award and the Gold Medal of Fine Arts. In 1986 he won the Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts. His film Plácido was nominated for an Oscar and Todos a la cárcel (1993) won the Goya for the Best Director.
Rafael Azcona (Logroño,1926 - Madrid, 2008) was one of the most brilliant screenwriters in Spanish cinema. When he first arrived in Madrid in the 1950's, he wrote in the humour magazine La Codorniz and by the end of the decade he began in the film industry with Italian director Marco Ferreri who staged his first scripts of El Pisito and El Cochecito in which he ironically portrays the dark and miserable life in Spain at the time. He worked with important film directors such as the aforementioned Berlanga and Carlos Saura for whom he wrote Peppermint Frappé (1967), Ana y los lobos (1972) and La prima Angélica (1974). For José Luis Cuerda he wrote the script for El Bosque Animado (1988) for which he received the Goya for Best Screenplay and adapted La Lengua de las mariposas(1999). Other directors with whom he worked were Fernando Trueba, José Luis García Sánchez and Manuel Gutierrez Aragón. He won the National Film Award in 1982 and the Honorary Goya in 1988. Throughout his film career he made over 80 films.
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