This coming June, the Instituto Cervantes New York will present two screenings commemorating each an important anniversary in the history of Spain's cinema. On June 8, Fifty Years of a Scandalous Premiere recalls the world premiere of Luis Buuel's Viridiana at the 1961 Cannes Film Festival.
Buñuel returned to Spain in 1960 after nearly twenty-five years of exile to make this movie, a co-production between the Spanish production company UNINCI, Films 59, headed by Catalan filmmaker Pere Portabella, and Mexican producer Gustavo Alatriste, whose wife, Silvia Pinal, starred as the homonymous protagonist, a pious novice whose religious faith is tested by her lecherous uncle (Fernando Rey) and her attractive atheist cousin (Francisco Rabal).
Using a print shipped to a French film laboratory in order to avoid potential problems with General Franco's film censorship commission, Viridiana's producers presented the film on May 17, the last day of the festival; its projection caused such an impact that it was awarded the Palme d'Or (ex-aequo with Henri Colpi's Une aussi longue absence) the following night.
The prize, the only Palme d'Or ever awarded to a Spanish film, was received in Buñuel's absence by Spain's General Director of Cinema, José María Muñoz Fontán, who was immediately fired from his position in the wake of a vehement attack upon Viridiana by the Vatican's newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, which considered the film blasphemous. As the outrage from conservative and ecclesiatical quarters increased, Franco's government stripped the film of its Spanish nationality and prohibited its screening in Spain's territory. Alatriste rescued a negative, enabling Viridiana's international distribution, now as a Mexican film. Viridiana only reached Spanish movie theaters fifteen years later, once Franco had passed away.
On June 15, Remembering Luis García Berlanga pays tribute to the late director, one of Spain's greatest filmmakers, on the week of what would have been his 90th birthday. García Berlanga, who died last December, directed the first Spanish film to ever win an award at the Cannes Film Festival: the beloved Bienvenido Mr. Marshall/Welcome Mr. Marshall. An endearing satire about the inhabitants of a Spanish village who, seized by the illusion that a visiting American delegation will shower them with Marshall Plan dollars, prepare to greet the delegates with an elaborate festive ceremony, Bienvenido Mr. Marshall won several prizes at the 1953 Cannes Film Festival, including the FIPRESCI award (given by the federation of international film critics), despite the objection of actor Edward Robinson, a member of the jury, who found the film to be anti-American.
SCREENING SCHEDULE
Wednesday, June 8 6:30pm FIFTY YEARS OF A SCANDALOUS PREMIERE: VIRIDIANA (Luis Buñuel, Spain/Mexico, 1961, 90 minutes)
After the screening, Spanish film scholar Marvin D'Lugo (Clark University) will discuss the background to the making of Viridiana, its reception in Cannes, and its history of censorship.
Wednesday, June 15 6:30pm REMEMBERING LUIS GARCÍA BERLANGA: BIENVENIDO MR. MARSHALL/WELCOME MR MARSHALL (Luis García Berlanga, Spain, 1953, 95 minutes). After the screening, Spanish film scholar Kathleen M. Vernon (Stony Brook, SUNY) will talk about Luis García Berlanga's career, the significance of tonight's film in the history of Spanish cinema, and the reasons behind its perennial popularity.
----------------
For further information, please contact Barbara Celis: presscervantes@gmail.com.
All films will be shown with English subtitles. Screenings take place in the auditorium of the Instituto Cervantes New York, 211 East 49th Street (between Third and Second avenues). Admission to the films is free of charge.
Barbara Celis Press & Communications Department
Instituto Cervantes New York 211E 49th street, NY, NY 10017 T 646 361 32 66
presscervantes@gmail.com
Follow Instituto Cervantes New York on Twitter http://twitter.com/CervantesNY
Facebook http://tinyurl.com/yh3j8fo