Few scenes from the history of Spanish cinema are more emblematic than that of the balcony of 'Bienvenido Míster Marsahll' (‘Welcome Mr Marshall’), a film that came out in 1953, which was a satirical critique of Spanish society of the time in the midst of the censorship by the Franco regime. This was precisely the hallmark of its director - Luis García Berlanga (1921-2010) – one of the greatest revolutionaries of Spanish post-war cinema and whose creations, with such mythical films as 'El verdugo' (‘The Executioner’), 'La escopeta nacional' (‘The National Shotgun’) and ‘Placido’ – are characterised by irony and satire to describe even the very worst circumstances.
'Bienvenido Míster Marshall' (1953)
This year marks the centenary of his birth in Valencia and, to commemorate it, the Berlanga Year has commenced. The Ministry of Culture and Sport kick-started this year on 1 March, with the presentation of the programme of activities, which will run from the summer of 2021 until the summer of 2022, and can be broken down into two areas: the spread of his works and the restoration of his film heritage.
As stressed by the Minister for Culture and Sport, José Manuel Rodríguez Uribes, at the press briefing, “the ministerial department will pursue a celebration of his legacy”, with a programme that will not just have a presence in Spain, but also further afield, as Berlanga “is universal".
Retrospective and restoration of Berlanga’s works
The activities programmes include the restoration of some of his works in 4K. Like his first professional film – 'Esa pareja feliz' (‘That Happy Couple’) (1954) - co-directed and written with Juan Antonio Bardem – another of the revolutionaries of Spanish cinema of the 20th Century – which will be presented at the next Malaga Film Festival.
'La muerte del leñador' (‘The Death of the Woodcutter’) (1962) has also been restored – a 28-minute work that formed part of an international joint film – ‘The Four Truths’ - which adapted the fables of La Fontaine.
Four of today’s directors - Nuria Giménez, Fernando Franco, Elías Siminiani and Carolina Astudillo - have been commissioned with a joint film based on the 15 minutes of discarded material saved from another of his films – 'Paseo por una guerra antigua' (‘Stroll Through an Old War’) (1948), a project that will see the light of day in 2022.
Presentation of activities in the Berlanga Year. EFE/Press Agency and Ministry of Culture and Sport
As from 21 June – the day on which he was born – the Spanish Film Library will host a complete retrospective of his works, in which Berlanga’s cinema will interact with other great international films of the same era. In the field of diffusion, as well as this retrospective, the “porn” cinema cycle that Berlanga programmed at the Spanish Film Library at the end of the 1970s will be recovered, during his time as President of this institution. This cinema genre, according to the current President of the Spanish Film Library, which had an LGTBI outlook, will be shown in the context of the celebration of LGTBI Pride.
At an international level, a travelling exhibition will also be put on in collaboration with Spanish Cultural Action (AC/E), the Cervantes Institute and the Spanish Cooperation Agency (AECID), called ‘Berlanga Today’, and an international congress will be held on Berlanga at the University of Regensburg, in Germany.
As mentioned by the Minister for Culture, Berlanga is the first of several characters from the world of cinema, whose centenaries will be commemorated over the next two or three years, including Fernán Gómez, José Luis López Vázquez, Luis Ciges, Alberto Closas, Lola Gaos, Juan Antonio Bardem, Toni Leblanc and Lola Flores – a generation that marked Spain’s audio-visual imagination in the 20th Century.
Great exhibition in Valencia
'¡Viva Berlanga! Una historia del cine'. EFE/ Biel Alino
The different activities to pay tribute to Berlanga include the exhibition '¡Viva Berlanga! Una historia del cine' (‘Long Live Berlanga! A History of Cinema'), which will run from 4 March at the Museum of Illustration and Modernism of Valencia (MuVIM), although this will be a travelling exhibition that involves the collaboration of the Institute of Culture of the Region of Valencia and the Ministry of Culture and Sport.
The aim of this exhibition, according to the Director of MuVIM, Rafael Company, is to make the figure of the film director better known among younger generations, whose vision was “rabidly independent” and who, together with the composer Joaquín Rodrigo, is one of the most universally known sons of Valencia in the second half of the 20th Century. The exhibition reviews the most iconic elements of the ‘Berlanguiana’ creation – documents censored by the Franco regime, the use of graphic design and typeface by the cinema industry of the era, posters, publications and material from between the 1950s and the 1990s. These include items from France, Italy, Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Poland, Romania, Argentina, the USA and even Japan, which reflect the international scope of Berlanga’s films.
2022 Goya Awards, finishing touch of Berlanga Year
If the last Goya Awards ceremony – the most important awards of Spanish cinema – held last weekend in Malaga, marked the start of the commemorations of the Berlanga Year by the Cinema Academy, the 2022 edition will be held in Valencia as the culmination of the centenary.
The actor Rosana Pastor, Commissioner for the García Berlanga Year – a commission made up, among other members, of the Regional Government of Valencia, the Ministry of Culture and Sport, the Provincial Councils of Alicante, Castellon and Valencia, the City Council of Valencia, the Federation of Municipalities and Provinces of Valencia, the Department of Culture of the Regional Government of Valencia and the Academy of Arts and Cinema Sciences of Spain – hopes that this commemoration will bring “some joy” and hope to the audio-visual and cultural industry in general.
More information about Luis García Berlanga:
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