Spanish Cinema Now

Presented in collaboration with the Instituto de la Cinematografía y de las Artes Audiovisuales (ICAA) of the Spanish Ministry of Culture, the Instituto Cervantes of New York and the Spanish Institute for Foreign Trade (ICEX).

2006 should go down as a banner year for Spanish cinema; the great international success of Pedro Almodóvar’s Volver and Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth set the pace, together providing powerful evidence that daring, imaginative works can still attract broad audiences. This year’s selection for Spanish Cinema Now shows in its breadth of styles and subjects how Spanish filmmakers refuse to rest on the tried and true, continuing instead to work out news forms of expression. Agustín Díaz Yanes’s Alatriste, based on the series by Pérez-Reverte, offers a different kind of swordsman-hero, more brooding and pensive in actor Viggo Mortensen’s interpretation. Celia’s Lives, directed by leading producer Antonio Chavarrías, is an effective updating of film noir, while Esteve Riambau and Elisabet Cabeza’s The Magicians interprets a bizarre fantasy-adventure film made during the Spanish Civil War as a true and revealing document of the period. The series also features several extremely impressive debuts, including Daniel Sánchez Arevalo’s wonderful DarkBlueAlmostBlack and Javier Rebollo’s Lola — powerful evidence that the future indeed should be bright for Spanish Cinema Now!

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The program includes:

• Dark Blue Almost Black (Azul Oscuro Casi Negro), directed by Daniel Sánchez Arévalo, 2006; 105m
• Crossing the Border (Un Franco, 14 pesetas), directed by Carlos Iglesias, 2006; 105m
  Celia's Celia's Lives (Las vidas de Celia), directed by Antonio Chavarrías, 2006; 101m
• Alatriste, directed by Agustín Díaz Yanes, 2006; 135m
• Welcome Home (Bienvenido a casa), directed by David Trueba, 2006; 118m
• The Tower of the Seven Hunchbacks (La Torre de los siete jorobados), directed by Edgar Neville, 1944; 90m
• Life Hanging by a Thread (La vida en un hilo), directed by Edgar Neville, 1945; 92m
  The Night of the Sunflowers (La Noche de los girasoles), directed by Jorge Sánchez-Cabezudo, 2006; 123m
• Lady Nitwit (La dama boba), directed by Manuel Iborra, 2006; 98m
• Quixotic (Honor de Cavelleria), directed by Albert Serra, 2006; 111m
• Tirant Lo Blanc – The Maidens' Conspiracy (Tirante El Blanco), directed by Vicente Aranda, Spain/Italy/U.K., 2006; 120m.

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