Pere Portabella has been a pioneering movie producer and celebrated Spanish statesman, denounced by both the Franco dictatorship and The Vatican. But it’s his subversive work as a director that has rewritten the rules of genre narrative. Or as The Museum of Modern Art says, “The films of Portabella expand the expressive potential of cinema”: In 1970, Portabella was invited by Jess Franco to make a behind-the-scenes documentary on the filming of COUNT DRACULA.
21 January 2020, 8.15pm Pere Portabella Short Films
We’re pleased to present a selection of Pere Portabella’s short films, including four collaborations with Spanish painter, sculptor, and ceramicist Joan Miró.
Pere Portabella (1929, Figueres, Spain) is known as one of the most acclaimed Spanish film directors and producers. After Franco's death, he followed a political career. With 'Vampir-Cuadecuc' he put in 1970, the demands of "nuevos cines" - the cinema supported by the Franco regime - aside. Filmed on the set of Jess Franco's "Count Dracula" (starring Christopher Lee and Herbert Lom) 'Vampire-Cuadecuc' can be best described as an 'avant-garde making-of', where the behind-the-scenes footage is used to bring an equally tragic and funny story about vampirism.
Ben Rivers went to work in a similar way with the recent 'A Distant Episode'. He was filming on the set of the London artist Shezad Dawood and refers not only to Portabella's 'Vampire-Cuadecuc' by using the same method, but also by returning to the electronic soundtrack written by Carles Santos.
Dates:
Monday, October 3, 2016 - 20:00 to Tuesday, October 4, 2016 - 19:55
The work of Pere Portabella (Figueras, 1927) stands at the crossroads of art, film and politics. Close to the surrealist sensibility and conceptualism (he produced Viridiana by Luis Buñuel in 1962, among his colleagues are Brossa and Carles Santos), he has created since the late sixties one of the most unique filmographies of Spanish cinema, alternating with his political activity as a parliamentarian and senator. In his films, Portabella uses strategies of estrangement and dislocation that both formally bypass censorship as to enhance the expressive range of works, leading to fascinating symbolizations.
