Post by london777 on Sept 6, 2021 18:44:12 GMT
Link to article: Why Berlanga is Spain's greatest film director
Informative article by Thomas Graham. Note that the silly and provocative title is unlikely to be the work of the judicious Mr Graham, but rather of some juvenile sub-editor working on minimum wage. (The BBC's editorial standards have slipped year on year since Thatcher's reforms.)
Graham nowhere suggests that Berlanga is the 'greatest', and indeed his products are a level below the films of Buñuel, Saura and Almodóvar, but Graham does make a case for 'most neglected', and possibly for 'most influential'.
I own two of his movies, ¡Bienvenido, Mister Marshall! (1953) and Plácido (1961), and have seen El Verdugo (1963). I enjoyed all three, but they really did not seem that different to Ealing comedies to me. In post-war UK, national and local government was fair game for any criticism, fair or unfair, as people were fed up with the restrictions and austerities of the WWII and post-war years. So no-one would call the Ealing comedies 'daring' or 'subversive'. But the same level of satire or ridicule in Fascist Spain was a lot more courageous.
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Below, Alastair Sim, some Rank starlet, and A E Matthews in ¡Bienvenido, Mister Marshall! (1953):
Below Plácido (1961):
Below El Verdugo (1963):
Informative article by Thomas Graham. Note that the silly and provocative title is unlikely to be the work of the judicious Mr Graham, but rather of some juvenile sub-editor working on minimum wage. (The BBC's editorial standards have slipped year on year since Thatcher's reforms.)
Graham nowhere suggests that Berlanga is the 'greatest', and indeed his products are a level below the films of Buñuel, Saura and Almodóvar, but Graham does make a case for 'most neglected', and possibly for 'most influential'.
I own two of his movies, ¡Bienvenido, Mister Marshall! (1953) and Plácido (1961), and have seen El Verdugo (1963). I enjoyed all three, but they really did not seem that different to Ealing comedies to me. In post-war UK, national and local government was fair game for any criticism, fair or unfair, as people were fed up with the restrictions and austerities of the WWII and post-war years. So no-one would call the Ealing comedies 'daring' or 'subversive'. But the same level of satire or ridicule in Fascist Spain was a lot more courageous.
----------------------------------------------------------
Below, Alastair Sim, some Rank starlet, and A E Matthews in ¡Bienvenido, Mister Marshall! (1953):
Below Plácido (1961):
Below El Verdugo (1963):
