Vicente Aranda
Vicente Aranda | |
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Amantes |
Vicente Aranda Ezquerra (Spanish: [biˈθente aˈɾanda eθˈkera]; 9 November 1926 – 26 May 2015) was a Spanish film director, screenwriter and producer.[1]
Due to his refined and personal style, he was one of the most renowned Spanish filmmakers. He started as a founding member of the Barcelona School of Film and became known for bringing contemporary Spanish novels to life on the big screen. Aranda was also noted for exploring difficult social issues and variations on the theme of desire while using the codes of melodrama.
Love as uncontrollable passion, eroticism and cruelty are constant themes in his filmography. The frank examination of sexuality is one of the trademarks of his work, as seen in his most internationally successful film:
Early life
Vicente Aranda Ezquerra was born in
After the war ended, Aranda spent a lot of time in the local movie theatre, much against the wishes of his mother, who took to smelling him on his return for traces of the disinfectant that was sprayed in cinemas of the time. in 1959.
Wealthy and married upon his return, he intended to become a novelist, but found that he lacked enough talent as a writer. He fell in with the cultural elite of Catalonia and was encouraged to try his hand at filmmaking. He was not allowed to enroll at the School of Cinema in Madrid because he had not graduated from high school.[5] In Barcelona and completely self-taught, Aranda found a way to direct his first feature film.
Nearly 40 years old when he started directing, Aranda did not gain international success until his 60s. He had a long and prolific career, making 27 films in more than 40 years as a director.[7]
Vicente Aranda married twice. His first wife, Luisa, a name he used repeatedly for the female leads in his films, committed suicide years after they divorced. They did not have children. Aranda's second wife, Teresa Font, was thirty years his junior. She was the editor of his movies since the mid-1980s; they had two daughters together, but separated a few years before Aranda's death.
Film career and later life
Early films (1964–1974)
Aranda made his directorial debut with the low-budget
The director's second film, Fata Morgana (1965), an unusual work in Spanish Cinema, is an experimental film, based on a script written with Gonzalo Suárez. The film took inspiration for its graphic visual style from television commercials and comic strips.[8] Ignored upon release, Fata Morgana would eventually be recognized for inspiring the particular kitsch aesthetic of La Escuela de Barcelona (the Barcelona School of Film),[5] an avant-garde movement which sought creative innovation in Spanish films.
In the following years, Aranda's work played between pushing the artistic envelope and using a virtual style drawn from mass media. In these films, Aranda tackled established film genres with an eye on revising and modernizing them.[8]
Since his first features were not widely seen, Aranda produced a commercially oriented film with fantastic and erotic overtones: Las Crueles (1969) (The Exquisite Cadaver). In it, a mysterious woman elaborates a scheme to avenge the death of her girlfriend by a callous publisher. This filmed was plagued with a series of problems: it was long in the making; Aranda suffered an accident during the shooting, which forced him to work from a stretcher, and finally he had a legal battle with the producers.[9] It would take Aranda many years to recover ownership of this film. The experience made him found his own production company: Morgana Film, which produced his next six features.[10]
In
Aranda started to use the codes of melodrama with
This was made during El Destape, a period in Spanish Cinema that had a proliferation of
Cambio de Sexo (1976)
Following the fall of Franco's regime, social censorship was lifted. Under the new permissiveness, Aranda shot more daring films such as
He began to use a more realistic style rather than the stylish aesthetics prominent in his early films.[11] Cambio de Sexo also marks the beginning of his long collaboration with Victoria Abril, who became his favorite actress.[11] Over the next three decades, director and star worked together in a dozen films that would include major artistic triumphs for both. Cambio de Sexo dramatizes the development of the destape – the period in the late 1970s and early 1980s Spain characterized by a much more open portrayal of sex in the press, literature and film.
Cambio de Sexo recounts the story of a young effeminate boy, played by Victoria Abril, who lives in the outskirts of Barcelona and escapes to the city to explore his desire to become a woman. The character of the young man is an embodiment of the changes in Spain, with political extremes of uncompromising orthodoxy and unrestrained anarchy.
La Muchacha de las Bragas de Oro (1980)
Sexuality and the past, key themes in Aranda's work, are at the center of
Always interested in literature, over the next fifteen years, Aranda became Spain's foremost adapter of popular contemporary novels into film.[8] His films have been adapted from short narratives to novels, as well as biographies. His choices usually were guided by the centrality of an erotically defined female character, and a contemporary story emphasizing the force of the milieu on the shaping of actions.[8]
For Aranda, adapting a literary work did not involve complications of faithfulness, or lack of the same, to the original text. For him the novel was a raw material with which to create new forms: " As for adaptations, I feel very comfortable doing them. I don't have a problem with authorship. I don't think I am more of an author if I write a screenplay of something I've read on the newspapers or seen on the street that if I take a novel and make a movie based on its contents".[citation needed]
Asesinato en el Comité Central (1982)
After democracy was installed in Spain, Aranda made a film politically charged with the aftereffects of Franco's regime:
Much of the film's action is filtered through headlines and television reports in imitation of the way in which the Spanish public lived the transition.
This was Aranda's first work to be shot in Madrid instead of his native Barcelona. The film was not successful commercially.[12]
Fanny Pelopaja (1984)
Aranda adapted the popular Catalan author Andreu Martín's
Co-financed by French producers, the film was made in Barcelona with Spanish supporting cast and crew, and with two French actors in the lead. Dissatisfied with the French dubbing of the film, done without his oversight, Aranda tried to stop the premiere of the film in France. It was released under the title, Á coups de crosse. As a result of this dispute, Aranda sold the film's shares in Morgana Films, the production company he had created.[14] Fanny Pelopaja failed to find an audience when first released, but now has become one of Aranda's best regarded works.[14]
El Crimen del Capitán Sánchez (1984)
Needing to make some money, Aranda accepted a job to take part in La Huella del Crimen (The Trace of the Crime), a television series consisting of six episodes depicting infamous crimes in Spain. He was one of several renowned Spanish film directors: Pedro Olea, Angelino Fons, Ricardo Franco, Juan Antonio Bardem, Pedro Costa and Vicente Aranda, who were each invited to direct an episode.[15]
Aranda's chapter,
Tiempo de Silencio (1986)
Aranda's career began to soar when he made
El Lute (1987)
Aranda took a deconstructive approach to the manipulation of popular myth in his two-part biopic:
Aranda's hybrid combination of period drama, thriller and social realism reveals how the criminal career and media profile of this petty thief were manipulated and exploited by the authorities as a diversionary tactic at a time of political unrest.
El Lute II, mañana seré libre (1988)
In the second part:
Compared to Aranda's strongly realistic and political tone in the first installment, in
Si te dicen que caí (1989)
Aranda made his most sexually explicit film with
Los Jinetes del Alba (1990)
At the request of
Made as a five-part TV miniseries, it features a young woman ambitious to own the resort where she works in a small town in Asturias. When she finally achieves her goal, there is little to rejoice about. Aranda's favorite topics: cruelty, violence and sex pervade this story framed by the tumultuous life of Spain in the 1930s, the uprising in Asturias in 1934, and the Spanish Civil War.[21] This is one Aranda's most paradigmatic works.[22]
Amantes (1991)
In the 1990s, Aranda continued to make films that were commercial hits at home and were shown at film festivals worldwide. With
Originally conceived as a television project, Amantes was made with few actors, a small crew, and with few exterior locations.[23] It is widely considered as the director's most accomplished work, becoming a classic of Spanish Cinema.[24] It marked the beginning of Aranda's most prolific period.[25]
El Amante Bilingüe (1993)
Still exploring the passion of love, Aranda directed
Intruso (1993)
Some of Vicente Aranda films present real events, things that happen on the street but that have had the appearance of the exceptional occurrences, where passion, toughness, and violence manage to acquire a tone of unreality that is almost literary. In Intruso (1993) (Intruder), Aranda takes the theme of the relationship between love and death through a passionate love to its ultimate conclusion.[26] This film is a psychological thriller with his characteristic visual atmosphere and exacerbated passions.[27] A middle-class woman is torn between her love for her spouse and her ill ex-husband, both of whom were her childhood friends. After ten years of separation, they become entangled in a tragic story.
La Pasión Turca (1994)
Aranda's films feature a woman as the protagonist and the center around which the story turns.
Libertarias (1996)
Aranda returned to the Spanish Civil War in Libertarias (1996) (Libertarians), an epic drama with an ensemble cast that reconstructs the role played by anarchist women during the Spanish Civil War.[30] It is set in Barcelona at the start of the war, where a young naive nun flees her convent and seeks refuge in a brothel. There she and the prostitutes are recruited to the anarchist cause. Together, a group of six women (Mujeres Libres or Free Women) face the perils of war but their idealistic dreams are brutally crushed.
La Mirada del Otro (1998)
Celos (1999)
Aranda returned to familiar territory with
"Jealousy is at the center of stories of passion", Aranda explained. "To suffer with relish, there is nothing better than uncertainty. A good story demands that audiences share the same doubts than the main characters in the story: whether there is or is not a betrayal. There is always some else lurking and we also know that crime is among us even if it exists albeit only at the bottom of our hearts".[citation needed]
Juana la Loca (2001)
In the early 21st century, Aranda started to explore period pieces, initiating a trilogy of historic costume dramas with
Carmen (2003)
Desire and betrayal, themes that have been recurrent in Aranda's career,[30] are central to the plot of Carmen (2003), a film based on Prosper Mérimée's 1845 novella about jealousy and passion. (This had also inspired the opera of the same name composed by Georges Bizet. Set in Andalusia in 1830, a military officer is seduced by a striking gypsy girl who works in a cigarette factory. His love for her brings his downfall. The film was made with high production values and it was another success with audiences for the veteran director.[32]
Tirant lo Blanc (2006)
Aranda completed his costume drama trilogy with Tirant lo Blanc (2006) (The Maidens' Conspiracy), an adaptation of a seminal Catalan chivalry novel, written in the 15th century by Joanot Martorell. The plot follows the adventures of Tirante, a knight from humble origins in the Byzantine Empire, who gains the favor of the ailing Emperor by his triumphs in fighting the incursion into Constantinople by the Turks. Tirante later seduces the royal family's only surviving child, a young, fanciful, and impressionable princess.
This is Aranda's most expensive work and was made with a large budget. The film has both humor and drama, is lavish, risqué, and skillfully composed, but it was considered to be superficial and unsatisfying.[33] Tirant lo Blanc did not enjoy the success of the director's two previous films.
Canciones de Amor en Lolita's club (2007)
Aranda has created a niche in adapting novels by Juan Marsé for film.
Canciones de amor en Lolita's Club (2007) is an erotic thriller, in which sex and brutality are mixed in a story of very different twin brothers. One is a coldhearted, violent police officer; the other is a helpless romantic suffering from a mental handicap. The two brothers become involved with a prostitute who works in the bordello for which the film is named. Released in November 2007, the film was widely considered a disappointment and quickly disappeared from the Spanish screens.[34]
Luna Caliente (2009)
Aranda's last film,
Aranda set the story in Spain of the 1970s during the process of Burgos, under which some of the last death sentences in Spain during Franco's regime were executed. Luna Caliente premiered in October 2009 at the
Filmography
Year | English title | Original title | Notes | Audience |
---|---|---|---|---|
1964 | Promising Future
|
Brillante Porvenir | Co-director with critic and historian Román Gubern | 130,012 |
1965 | Fata Morgana | Fata Morgana | Original script written with Gonzalo Suárez | 40,053 |
1969 | The Exquisite Cadaver | Las Crueles | Based on a short story written by Gonzalo Suárez | 338,695 |
1972 | The Blood Spattered Bride | La Novia Ensangrentada | 531,108 | |
1974 | Clara is the Price
|
Clara es el precio | Original script written with Jesús Ferrero | 1,013,439 |
1976 | Sex Change
|
Cambio de Sexo | 840,261 | |
1980 | The Girl with the Golden Panties
|
La Muchacha de las Bragas de Oro | An adaptation of the novel by Juan Marsé | 795,848 |
1982 | Murder in the Central Committee
|
Asesinato en el Comité Central | Based on the novel by Manuel Vázquez Montalbán | 170,618 |
1984 | Fanny Pelopaja
|
Fanny Pelopaja / Á coups de crosse (France) | Based on the novel Protesis by Andreu Martín | 182,664 |
1984 | Captain Sánchez's Crime
|
El Crimen del Capitán Sánchez | Made for TV in 16 mm
|
|
1986 | Time of Silence | Tiempo de Silencio | Based on the novel by Luis Martín Santos
|
433,149 |
1987 | El Lute: Run for Your Life
|
El Lute: camina o revienta | Based on the biography of Eleuterio Sánchez | 1,422,188 |
1988 | El Lute: Tomorrow I'll be Free
|
El Lute II: mañana seré libre | Based on the biography of Eleuterio Sanchez | 382,764 |
1989 | If They Tell You I Fell | Si te Dicen que Caí | An adaptation of a novel by Juan Marsé | 338,369 |
1990 | Riders of the Dawn
|
Los Jinetes del alba | Based on the novel by Jesús Fernández Santos. Made as a five-episode television miniseries, it premiered at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival as a two-part feature film. | |
1991 | Lovers
|
Amantes | Winner of two Goya Awards: Best Picture and Best Director Screened at the 41st Berlin International Film Festival[35] |
697,368 |
1993 | The Bilingual Lover
|
El Amante Bilingüe | Based on a novel by Juan Marsé | 273,218 |
1993 | Intruder | Intruso | 249,087 | |
1994 | The Turkish Passion
|
La Pasión Turca | Based on a novel by Antonio Gala Entered into the 19th Moscow International Film Festival.[36] |
1,240,044 |
1996 | Libertarias | Libertarias | 594,978 | |
1998 | The Naked Eye
|
La Mirada del Otro | An adaptation of the novel by Fernando G. Delgado Screened at the 48th Berlin International Film Festival[37] |
107.489 |
1999 | Jealousy | Celos | 338,073 | |
2001 | Mad Love
|
Juana la Loca | Based on a play | 2,067,004 |
2003 | Carmen | Carmen | Based on Prosper Mérimée's famous novella | 1,362,874 |
2006 | The Maidens' Conspiracy | Tirante el Blanco | Based on the novel by Joanot Martorell | 296,585 |
2007 | Lolita's Club
|
Canciones de amor en Lolita's Club | Based on a novel by Juan Marsé | 59,308 |
2009 | Hot Moon
|
Luna Caliente | Based on a novel by Mempo Giardinelli | 59,388 |
Notes
- ^ Galán, Diego (26 May 2015). "Muere Vicente Aranda". El País. Retrieved 26 May 2015.
- ^ Vera, Vicente Aranda, p. 13
- ^ a b Colmena, Vicente Aranda, p. 14
- ^ a b c d e f Stone, Spanish Cinema, p. 115
- ^ a b c d e f g Stone, Spanish Cinema, p. 114
- ^ a b Torres, Diccionario del cine Español, p. 80
- ^ Colmena, Vicente Aranda, p. 11
- ^ a b c d e f g h i D'Lugo, Guide to the Cinema of Spain, p. 119
- ^ Cánovas, Miradas sobre el cine de Vicente Aranda, p. 54
- ^ a b Cánovas, Miradas sobre el cine de Vicente Aranda, p. 55
- ^ a b c Mira, Historical Dictionary of Spanish Cinema, p. 21
- ^ a b c d e f Stone, Spanish Cinema, p. 119
- ^ Alvarez & Frías, Vicente Aranda, p. 130
- ^ a b Cánovas, Miradas sobre el cine de Vicente Aranda, p. 59
- ^ Vera, Vicente Aranda, p. 152
- ^ a b Cánovas, Miradas sobre el cine de Vicente Aranda, p. 66
- ^ a b c Morgan, Contemporary Spanish Cinema, p. 26
- ^ a b Morgan, Contemporary Spanish Cinema, p. 27
- ^ Colmena, Vicente Aranda, p. 184
- ^ Colmena, Vicente Aranda, p. 188
- ^ a b Colmena, Vicente Aranda, p. 191
- ^ Colmena, Vicente Aranda, p. 200
- ^ Colmena, Vicente Aranda, p. 202
- ^ Cánovas, Miradas sobre el cine de Vicente Aranda, p. 69
- ^ Torres, Diccionario del cine Español, p. 81
- ^ Perriam, Stars and Masculanities, p. 31
- ^ Cánovas, Miradas sobre el cine de Vicente Aranda, p. 30
- ^ a b Jordan & Morgan, Contemporary Spanish Cinema, p. 170
- ^ a b Mira, Historical Dictionary of Spanish Cinema, p. 22
- ^ Cánovas, Miradas sobre el cine de Vicente Aranda, p. 74
- ^ "Film Affinity". Retrieved 20 September 2008.
- ^ "Strictly film school". Retrieved 20 September 2008.
- ^ "Film Affinity". Retrieved 20 September 2008.
- ^ "Berlinale: 1991 Prize Winners". berlinale.de. Archived from the original on 15 October 2013. Retrieved 21 March 2011.
- ^ "19th Moscow International Film Festival (1995)". MIFF. Archived from the original on 22 March 2013. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
- ^ "Berlinale: 1998 Programme". berlinale.de. Retrieved 21 March 2011.
References
- Alvarez, Rosa & Frias, Belen. Vicente Aranda: El Cine Como Pasión. Huelva, XX Festival de Cine Iberoamericano de Huelva, 1994, ISBN 84-87737-04-8
- Benavent, Francisco María. Cine Español de los Noventa. Ediciones Mensajero, 2000, ISBN 84-271-2326-4
- Cánovás, Joaquín (ed.), Varios Autores: Miradas sobre el cine de Vicente Aranda. Murcia: Universidad de Murcia, 2000, ISBN 84-607-0463-7
- Colmena, Enrique. Vicente Aranda. Cátedra, Madrid, 1986, ISBN 84-376-1431-7
- D'Lugo, Marvin. Guide to the Cinema of Spain. Greenwood Press, 1997. ISBN 0-313-29474-7
- Guarner, José Luis. El Inquietante Cine de Vicente Aranda. Imagfic, D.L.1985
- Majarín, Sara. Una vida de cine: Pasión, Utopía, Historia: Lecciones de Vicente Aranda. Editorial Zumaque S.L., 2013. ISBN 9788494011016
- Jordan, Barry & Morgan-Tomosunas, Rikki. Contemporary Spanish Cinema, Manchester University Press, 1998, ISBN 0-7190-4413-8
- Mira, Alberto. Historical Dictionary of Spanish Cinema. The Scarecrow Press, 2010, ISBN 0-8108-5957-2
- Perriam, Chris. Stars and Masculinity in Spanish Cinema: From Banderas to Bardem. Oxford University Press, 2003. ISBN 0-19-815996-X.
- Stone, Rob, Spanish Cinema. Pearson Education, 2002, ISBN 0-582-43715-6
- Torres, Augusto. Diccionario del cine Español. Espasa Calpe, 1994, ISBN 84-239-9203-9
- Vera, Pascual. Vicente Aranda. Ediciones J.C, Madrid, 1989, ISBN 84-85741-46-3
External links
- Vicente Aranda at IMDb