Spanish cinema would not be the same without Pere Portabella. Probably not in the history of our country either. The Catalan producer and director was the one who performed three masterpieces that our cinema noted: Gulfs (1960), Wheelchair (1960) and Viridiana (1961). Luis Buუნიuel’s film is the only Spanish work to have won the Palme d’Or, and its concept was a plan to attack Francoism through cinema. Censorship gave the green light to the film to go to the skin, and it was there that the Vatican removed the voice and called it a scandal.
The operation was successful. This artistic and political union perfectly defines Portabella cinema, where both elements are inseparable. In fact, he was an important participant in the constitutional process and Taradela’s return to Catalonia. He also took the pulse of society in the last years of Francoism and in the early stages of the transition. He performed this in two masterpieces of the director’s work.
In Take off (1974) brought together several political prisoners to discuss what the term meant. It was on this day of the meeting that Salvador Puig Antic died by an evil club. In General report on issues of interest to the public (1977), brought together politicians to explain how the Spanish state could move from dictatorship to democracy. A radical, modern and lively work now restored in the Madrid Film Library, presented in person by the 95-year-old producer and director.
This cycle should have been done in 2020, it will be done a little later, what does this retrospective mean to you, is it proof that your work is still relevant and modern?
The facts show that my proposal is supported and supported by me.
Do you like to be thought of?
Taste is not a problem. It is a strategy that is always elevated by the idea of the character that culture has from the very first moment it was formed, when we are born as a species. Culture is a place where we can identify with ourselves and identify with others. And in this space there is the responsibility of coexistence as long as you are able to create the story. Never separate politics from other levels of activities such as cinema or theater.
This is one of the keys to your film that copyright and political are intertwined, what do you think when you see current filmmakers who say their cinema is not political, is it possible?
This is not what I think, this is what politics has realized since the founding of the states, that states have an ideological character, that we depend on them. And there politics is handed over to power because it offers citizens an alternative, but always as long as the state has ideological and economic control. And in this we are the same.
Godard was credited with a phrase on the moral issue a TravelEthical and aesthetic goes together in her cinema.
Goddard Group and I, from the very beginning, offered a vision of how to enable a citizen to be the protagonist of his own journey, which is an absolute democratic concept. And with that in mind, there is a whole process in which you open up, but it is always based on what the principles of equality mean. I lived through a period of crime in which these currents were. My suggestions have an impact on politics from the top down. I was a senator, I was in the constitutional process and at the same time I was in prison. These are all fundamental parts of my point of view.
I am going to tell one anecdote. Years ago there was a TV interview in which there was a Communist Party, Mr. Jose Pratz was there, I was … and we were discussing a proposal. At the moment, when it’s my turn, I’m interfering. Santiago Carillo, who was very fond of him, took the floor and said: “Once again Portabella made a brilliant intervention, but he made a mistake, it is that, as you know, we have several previous agreements that are objectively fundamental and these are the agreements Beyond and nullifies their argument. Then Mr. José Prats asks for the floor and says: ‘Look, Mr. Santiago, Portabella made a brilliant reflection, but as for what you say he lacked in the objectivity of the agreements, he did one thing, he did not. Give up subjectivity. This is exemplary. It seems like nothing, what does that mean? “Well, in terms of parties, you’re in this or that place and there are certain rules that you agree with, and subjectivity is that you can always, first and foremost, reach agreements without compromising subjectivity, and that ‘s what’s democratic in the first place.”
Protecting subjectivity is the opposite of what they sell us.
On the contrary, they always tell you, “Come here,” and tell you what to do.
We, as journalists, are always told that we should look for objectivity.
Be objective, because in this way “either you act as I tell you, or you stay out.” Subjectivity is the first thing that is restored in a political situation like today. Subjectivity.
Her cinema had a political urgency, it was the movies that were on the street. How do you see after Spanish cinema, it has lost its relevance?
I just do not care … not because it’s better or worse. They are great directors, but they make products.
The word “product” itself is ugly.
Ultimately, the product is a film that is ideologically controlled by states with subsidies and a return on capital for multinational companies. And here even the best actors invest money in it and go to festivals …
Have you ever tried the industry for making products?
Not me Viridiana I did the challenge. When I entered and decided to produce, I offered a deal with Buუნიuel. I said, “We are going to make a film together, with me as a producer, on the condition that we write a script suitable for us and send it to go to Cannes, which has to go through censorship. I will send you what you want to censor and when we have it, I will make a signed letter that I agree with your demands. ” Buუuel told me, “This movie is going to be a bomb,” and I said, “Here’s what it’s, Louis, we have to do something serious to get out of this situation.” Everything sank and this is one of the biggest successes … I had two years before I entered Spain, but many filmmakers supported me.
Was it worth it?
You can not imagine, success is … fantastic. I was dressed
I always liked that anecdote, I do not know is an urban legend, Sylvia Pinal that ran a copy Viridiana So that the Franco regime does not burn.
With the material already assembled with all the negatives, I sent the film to a multinational company that had held a pre-assembly and when we went ahead and the scandal arose, it was no longer in my hands or in someone else’s hands but Sylvia’s. Partner.Penal and everything saved and maintained by them. The film was saved and it took a century to come out in Spain and it shows that we were right. You think about how important it was and what that result meant. This scandal is part of something that proves these subjective abilities to do the story of the function of freedom. Compiling projects without receiving production fees.
I wonder what is written in the censorship report Viridiana.
They remained speechless. At the Vatican, and rightly so, were outraged by the film, saying that in front of humanity it was an excrement, an insult to the Spaniards. The Vatican attacked the Franco regime for good reason.
When you saw the Vatican’s reaction was when you thought: Have we succeeded?
It was exactly like that. Because it was a challenge. Everything was made for what happened.
He created, in my opinion, the three greatest masterpieces of Spanish cinema. Bays, wheelchair ი ViridianaAnything left to make?
I have a producer, but fundamentally as a producer I have helped some of them make their films, but in that sense my career is an approach to the 60s challenge that brings me here.
Is his proposal as a director as well.
It is that one thing is not separated from another. What I have done is to rearrange the entire operating system culturally. These are films that subjectively suggest that they produce, in this case, a process in which I have always maintained this attitude. And these are the movies that are still being talked about.
And they continue to talk about the present. In 2018, it was renewed Take off Which included a final code that talked about processes. Do your films talk about the present, about what is happening now?
My movies are very consistent. What is happening … you see. We are talking about a completely different situation now, we are in a total catastrophe. We talk like this when the planet is sinking. There are no reserves for the survival or survival of any species and we continue the war in which we all lose. We live on the brink of crisis today.
He had a retrospective at MoMa, Pompidou … However, he did not receive the Honorary Goya or the National Film Award.
No, probably because they do not care and it seems very good to me.
Does not bother you?
No, I respect that. You will never see me complain about it.
Do you think your proposal was better understood outside?
If I mention the number of recognitions I have … I have two Honoris Causa that go against the system! Cambridge organized a symposium for me. My movies are everywhere in the US and their screenings continue … Ask yourself the question, how is it possible that they are not here?
Source: El Diario
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