The art of motion-picture making within Spain or by Spanish filmmakers abroad is collectively known as Spanish Cinema.
In recent years, Spanish cinema has achieved high marks of recognition.[citation needed]
Only a small portion of box office sales in Spain are generated by domestic films. The different Spanish governments have therefore implemented measures aimed at supporting local film production and the movie theaters, which currently include the assurance of funding from the main television broadcasters. Nowadays, the Instituto de la Cinematografía y de las Artes Audiovisuales (ICAA) is the State agency in charge of regulating the allocation of public funds to the domestic film industry.
The first Spanish film exhibition took place on 5 May 1895, in Barcelona. Exhibitions of Lumière films were screened in Madrid, Málaga and Barcelona in May and December 1896, respectively.
The first Spanish film director to achieve great success internationally was Segundo de Chomón, who worked in France and Italy but made several famous fantasy films in Spain, such as El hotel eléctrico (1908).
The height of silent cinema
Luis Buñuel pioneering Spanish filmmaker, is renowned for his surreal and provocative cinematic works.
In 1914, Barcelona was the center of the nation's film industry. The españoladas (historical Spanish epics) predominated until the 1960s. Prominent among these were the films of Florián Rey, starring Imperio Argentina, and the first version of Nobleza Baturra (Juan Vila Vilamala, 1925). Historical dramas such as Vida de Cristóbal Colón y su Descubrimiento de América –The Life of Christopher Columbus and His Discovery of America– (Gérard Bourgeois, 1917), adaptations of newspaper serials such as Los misterios de Barcelona –The Mysteries of Barcelona– (starring Joan Maria Codina, 1916), and of stage plays such as Don Juan Tenorio (Ricardo de Baños [es], 1922) and zarzuelas (comedic operettas), were also produced. Even the Nobel Prize-winning playwright Jacinto Benavente, who said that "in film they pay me the scraps," would shoot film versions of his theatrical works.
In 1928, Ernesto Giménez Caballero and Luis Buñuel founded the first cine-club, in Madrid. By that point, Madrid was already the primary center of the industry; forty-four of the fifty-eight films released up until that point had been produced there.
The rural drama La aldea maldita –The Cursed Village– (Florian Rey, 1929) was a hit in Paris, where, at the same time, Buñuel and Salvador Dalí premiered Un chien andalou. Un chien andalou has become one of the most well-known avant-garde films of that era.
The crisis of sound
By 1931, the introduction of foreign sound films had hurt the Spanish film industry to the point where only a single title was released that year.
In 1935, Manuel Casanova founded the Compañía Industrial Film Española S.A. (Cifesa) and introduced sound to Spanish film-making. Cifesa would grow to become the biggest production company to ever exist in Spain. Sometimes criticized as an instrument of the right wing, it nevertheless supported young filmmakers such as Buñuel and his pseudo-documentaryLas Hurdes: Tierra Sin Pan (1933). In 1933 it was responsible for filming seventeen motion pictures and in 1934, twenty-one. The most notable success was Paloma Fair (Benito Perojo, 1935). They were also responsible for Don Quijote de la Mancha (Rafael Gil, 1947), the most elaborate version of the Cervantes classic up to that time. By 1935 production had risen to thirty-seven films.
The Civil War and its aftermath
Sara Montiel captivated audiences worldwide during the 1950s and 1960s
The Civil War devastated the silent film era: only ten per cent of all silent films made before 1936 survived the war. Films were also destroyed for their celluloid content and made into goods.[6]
Around 1936, both sides of the Civil War began to use cinema as a means of propaganda. A typical example of this is España 1936 (Buñuel, 1937), which also contains much rare newsreel footage. The pro-Franco side founded the National Department of Cinematography, causing many actors to go into exile.
A policy of autarky tried to keep foreign currency in the country and establish a domestic film industry. If the distributors wanted licences to import and dub foreign films (audiences preferred American films), they would have to acquire them from producers of local films. The number of licences depended on the merits (artistic, moral, cultural, political) acknowledged by the government to each local film. The American distributors of the MPAA tried to open the market removing the local producers. To that end, they embargoed Spain since May 1951. The embargo goes into 1952 due to complications with American studios outside MPAA and reorganizations within the Spanish government. Spanish producers, lacking the income from the dubbing licences and with an uncertain future, greatly diminished their production as well. An agreement between Spain and the United States was finally reached.[7]
Marisol was a popular wunderkind during Francoism.[8]
In 1951, the regime instituted the Ministry of Information and Tourism to safeguard and develop the Spanish brand, the social imagery and the public image under the slogan "Spain is different" which was launched in the 1920s and then internationally spread in the 1960s.[9] Its main purpose was to promote the Spanish tourist industry and a massive inflow of people who came from all the Europe towards the Andalusia, looking for what they saw in the Spanish films: sun and sea, comfortable transports and hotels, good ethnic cuisine, passion and adventure, and the so called españoladas (bulls, castanets, flamenco, Gitano culture and folklore).[9]Fog and Sun (José María Forqué, 1951) was the first movies belonging to the genre of the "touristic cinema". It was followed by Veraneo en España (Miguel Iglesias, 1958) and by Spain Again (Jaime Camino, 1969).[9]
Luis Buñuel in turn returned to Spain to film the shocking Viridiana (1961) and Tristana (1970).
Co-productions and foreign productions
Several international blockbusters were shot in Spain in the 1950s and 1960s. An example is the Italian-American Samuel Bronston-produced epic historical drama El Cid. In the image, shooting of the film in the Castle of Belmonte.
A 1954 report by Eduardo Moya from the Ministry of Trade remarked that the Spanish cinema industry had to become competitive at home and abroad. Co-productions with France and Italy could bring the equipment and skills needed.[7]
Numerous co-productions with France and, most of all, Italy along the 1950s–1970s invigorated Spanish cinema both industrially and artistically. Actually the just mentioned Buñuel's movies were co-productions: Viridiana (1961) was Spanish-Mexican, and Tristana (1970) Spanish-French-Italian. Also, the hundreds of Spaghetti-westerns and sword and sandal films shot in southern Spain by mixed Spanish-Italian teams were co-productions.
Pedro Almodóvar in 1988. The filmmaker, is known for his vibrant and daring storytelling.
Warner Bros., an American studio had opened its local headquarters in Spain in the early 1970s under the name of Warner Española S.A. Warner Española, alongside releasing Warner Bros. films (as well as films by Disney theatrically in the late 1980s-90s) is also involved in distribution of Spanish films such as Ensalada Baudelaire (1978), Adios Pequeña (1986) and most of 1990s Pedro Almodóvar's films such as High Heels (1991), Kika (1993), and Live Flesh (1997).
The Hunt (1966) by Carlos Saura. "The Hunt" delves into the consequences of false accusations and mob mentality, emphasizing the vulnerability of innocence.
The 1968–1980 period saw the golden age of Spanish B-Movie horror, underpinning the term fantaterror to convey the set of films blending supernatural and horror themes that originated as an answer to European and American exploitation titles.[14]
In the 1960s (and 1970s), a new sort of españolada different from the previous one brought the formulation of an "Iberian" model of masculininity associated to casticismo [es], represented by a male star system consisting of the likes of José Luis López Vázquez, Alfredo Landa, Andrés Pajares, and Fernando Esteso.[15] A new wave of popular and reactionary mainstream comedy films came to be collectively known as landismo [es] –after Alfredo Landa, a recurring appearance in many of those films playing foreign-women-preying "Latin lover" types–,[16] which was a cultural phenomenon in the 1970s.[17]
The cinema of the democratic era
Juan Molina, Quique San Francisco (a prominent cine quinqui actor), Polo Aledo, Enrique Viciano and Óscar Ladoire in 1978
With the end of dictatorship in the mid 1970s, censorship was greatly loosened and cultural works were permitted in other languages spoken in Spain besides Spanish, resulting in the founding of the Centro Galego de Artes da Imaxe or the Institut del Cinema Català [ca], among others. Also with the end of censorship and repression, a commercial cinema –of low quality and minimal cost– with a high erotic content and gratuitous nudity –mostly feminine– appeared, which was called cine de destape [es] and which lasted until the early 1980s.[18]
Shooting of Alatriste (Agustín Díaz Yanes, 2005) in Cádiz. At the time of its release, Alatriste became the most expensive Spanish film ever.[19]
In the context of the Transition, the so-called cine quinqui –of which Eloy de la Iglesia and José Antonio de la Loma [es] were prominent representatives–, particularly popular from 1977 to 1987,[20] approached taboo issues from a sensationalist angle, criminalizing the lumpenproletariat.[21] These films (whose lead performers sometimes were delinquent themselves)[22] also ended up contributing to the promotion of an imaginary of symbolic violence associated to the naturalization of the punitive and non-rehabilitating function of the prison system.[23] In the view of Germán Labrador Méndez [es], many of the quinqui films underpinned a true allegory of the Transition, conveying "the mythical domestication of the non-consensual socio-political forces embodied by the quinquis, as children of the working class and, above all, as young people".[24]
The Spanish cinema, however, depends on the great hits of the so-called comedia madrileña by Fernando Colomo or Fernando Trueba, the sophisticated melodramas by Pedro Almodóvar, Alex de la Iglesia and Santiago Segura's black humour or Alejandro Amenábar's works, in such a manner that, according to producer José Antonio Félez [es], "fifty per cent of total box office revenues comes from five titles, and between eight and ten films give eighty per cent of the total" during the year 2004.
Foreign films often dominate box offices in Spain, with average monthly receipts of €35–50 million, making Spain the tenth largest country in the world for international theatrical release, with a total gross of USD 193,304,925 in 2020, thus giving Spain a worldwide market share of 1.8%.[25]
The Sitges Film Festival, now known as the Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia, was started in 1967. It is considered one of the best cinematographic contests in Europe, and is the best in the specialty of science fiction film.
The Goya Awards are the main film awards in Spain. They were established in 1987,[28] a year after the founding of the Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences of Spain, and recognize excellence in many aspects of Spanish motion picture making such as acting, directing and screenwriting. The first ceremony took place on 16 March 1987 at the Lope de Vega Theatre, Madrid. The ceremony continues to take place annually around the end of January, and awards are given to films produced during the previous year. The award itself is a small bronze bust of Francisco de Goya created by the sculptor José Luis Fernández.
Antonio Banderas in 2007. Captivates with his charisma and talent.
A large part of the funding of Spanish-produced films is covered in advance of the theatrical window by pre-sales to public (RTVE) or private (Atresmedia or Mediaset) broadcasters, subsidies (from ICAA, from regional or provincial administrations, or from tax rebates) and from pre-sales to streaming platforms.[34] Pre-sales may cover up to a 60–70% of the budget of a film with an average budget of €2.5 million.[34] This system, which favours the attempt to approach the break-even point before the first window of theatrical exhibition, has received criticism from within the industry because it might discourage the pursuit of "commercial success".[34] The AIE (agrupación de interés económico; transl. 'economic interest grouping') legal form is used as a tax vehicle to take advantage of rebates.[34]
^It was not made mandatory to officially communicate the number of tickets sold until 1 January 1965.[35] Before that, box office grosses were a secret kept by exhibitors for tax reasons. The only guide to estimate them was the length of the first-run and the capacity of the venue.
^Aldana Reyes, Xavier (2018). ""Fantaterror": Gothic Monsters in the Golden Age of Spanish B-Movie Horror, 1968–80". In Edwards, Justin D.; Höglund, Johan (eds.). B-Movie Gothic. International Perspectives. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. pp. 95–96. ISBN978-1-4744-2344-1.
^Marsh, Steven; Perriam, Chris; Woods Peiró, Eva; Zunzunegui, Santos (2013). "Comedy and Musicals". In Labanyi, Jo; Pavlović, Tatjana (eds.). A Companion to Spanish Cinema. Wiley Blackwell. p. 196. ISBN978-1-4051-9438-9.
^Pavlović, Tatjana; Perriam, Chris; Triana Toribio, Nuria (2013). "Stars, Modernity, and Celebrity Culture". In Labanyi, Jo; Pavlović, Tatjana (eds.). A Companion to Spanish Cinema. Wiley Blackwell. ISBN978-1-4051-9438-9.
The Cinema of Spain and Portugal (24 Frames (Paper), ed. by Alberto Mira, Wallflower Press 2005 – 24 films are analyzed
Ronald Schwartz: Great Spanish Films Since 1950, Scarecrow Press, 2008
Tatjana Pavlovic: 100 Years of Spanish Cinema, John Wiley & Sons, 2008
Juan Antonio Gavilán Sánchez y Manuel Lamarca Rosales: Conversaciones con cineastas españoles, Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Córdoba, 2002. ISBN9788478016112.
Manuel Lamarca y Juan Ignacio Valenzuela: Cómo crear una película. Anatomía de una profesión, T&B Editores, Madrid, 2008. ISBN9788496576766.