Spanish Film at Gijon Film Festival 2012

When you say Spanish film you think Almodóvar, Alejandro Amenábar, Vicente Aranda, Bigas Luna, Álex de la Iglesia, Ricardo Franco etc… But very least know the phenomenon of expanded Spanish national cinema without actually mentioning the Spanish filmmakers who immigrated to US. A decade of world cinema imposing as the perfect blend of artistic and cleverly composed populist film, because culture of one country need to differ itself in cinematography, with of course equal potential to win prizes and commercial distribution.

Browsing via Internet I found the book by Barry Jordan and Rikky Morgan Tamosunas Contemporary Spanish Film and reading it I find that it does not provide any practical or theoretical formula to answer the question of how to make a successful film industry, but I find that by the recapitalization of impressions of the great films we've seen over the past decade we did not think about the conceptual relationship between different directors. Indeed, some authors characterized much more with style, and production of different dramatic variations more than with similarities. So there it is at Gijon Film Festival 2012, both in the feature films section and in the short section the titles included in the Festival's competition are undoubtedly the right choice for the spectator with an interest beyond the conventional cinema in addition to this, the Non-fiction and Documentary categories.

(The Festival founded in 1963 in the beginning it was an initiative of the City Council of Gijón in co-operation with Caja de Ahorros de Asturias (nowadays Cajastur)).

Spanish does not have unique national engagements in film like Iran or modernist manifesto cinematography of some countries: and not ethnographic visual consistency like Chinese or Japanese. And especially in the genre, Spanish film is similar to the "French New Wave" and sometimes resembles to German or even Australian film. There are differences such as if Almodóvar or Bigas Luna lavish tragedy via asceticism they give us a bit of a social theory, then some other filmmaker will use the conventional approach to highlight the grotesque. Or, for example to depict the formalism of modern and experimental in film, or if there are examples of the historical and political Renaissance of the so called post – Franco liberalism etc. Spanish film features no particular waves or the directions and there is surrealism and maybe a bit of cubism or as some may say pop art in Almodóvar´s film, or of there is also baroque in Luna´s films or realism in Franco´s. There is also one thing common to almost all Spanish films: a kind of ambitious mysticism in contemporary Spanish film with either rigid or hilarious melancholic atmosphere: or explicit or conservative or highly intellectual with great variations, depends of the author.

At Gijon Film Festival 2012 it's still a competitive section that holds movies that do have interesting features worth highlighting in the Festival. To show how some of the most suggestive, daring and avant-garde films of nowadays movie and to widen a series of themes and aesthetic as possible and showcase the infinite artistic and plot creative potential. Risky bets, extreme approaches and unorthodox section films were also presented at the festival. Some titles included new experience in the audiovisual. There were sections called Mutant Genres and French Cruelty Cinema reserved for the best horror and science fiction movies: the festival held the intriguing mixture cocktail of sorts. For instance, Noche Del Corto Espanol or Spanish Short Film, the section that beside my section (for FIPRESCI Award) in the competition section I have managed to see. Well, judging by the audience this was probably one of the public's most eagerly awaited moments. The talent that decided to turn short films into their main style, become important with the screening of the latest Spanish feature films. Or the Festival's commitment to Asturian productions and directors evident in this section where all short films directed by Asturian film makers were shown. The new festival direction has been qualified for interesting movies so that they follow the traditional tendency of the previous years of the festival in order to attract the attention of some important international directors such as the presence of Jakubisko, Amir Naderi or Emir Kusturica with his support.

To be continued…