Cultural events

Spanish Cinema Now 2010

film series

One of the Walter Reade Theater’s longest-running series, Spanish Cinema Now, first presented in October 1992, has accompanied the wonderful renaissance of Spanish filmmaking over the past two decades. From a low of barely 40 films per year when the series began, annual film production in Spain is now counted well into the triple digits, and Spanish directors, actors and technicians can be found working all over the world. Audiences for Spanish films at home are not only growing, but they are considerably younger nowadays. Meanwhile, the links between Spanish and Latin American cinema are stronger than ever, with co-productions at an all-time high. The past three years saw the commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the Spanish Civil War, during which many new studies and reports offered revelations and refinements to our knowledge of the conflict. Reflecting that, a number of films in this year’s program are set during the Civil War or immediately thereafter, and even if they are not concerned directly with conflict, the Civil War very much informs the atmosphere, the characters, and the way they act. Alex de la Iglesia’s The Last Circus, for example, begins with a powerful Civil War scene, then moves to another era while detailing the lingering influence of that first scene. With no longer a need to rehash the issues or declare a stand, filmmakers feel a freedom to explore lesser-known, more offbeat aspects of the conflict. This year Spanish Cinema Now also includes a tribute to Agustí Villaronga, one of Spanish cinema’s most affecting (and darkest) filmmakers, as well as a rare opportunity to see a masterpiece of the “exiled” Spanish cinema, On the Empty Balcony, courtesy of the Filmoteca Española.