'Films from Spain'

  • Film
  • San Diego
  • Tue, February 25 —
    Tue, June 10, 2014
'Films from Spain'

Celebrating Spanish cinema and culture in San Diego.

The House of Spain in San Diego, a nonprofit devoted to promote the culture of Spain in San Diego, organizes the first edition of Films from Spain. The event is a series of screenings of Spanish films, held once a month from February until June in Balboa Park. Attendees will have the opportunity to enjoy outstanding films from Spain, from successful recent releases to all-time masterpieces, some of which have never been screened before in San Diego. Films from Spain aims to combine great cinema with a taste of Spain’s culture.

Bienvenido Mr. Marshall (Welcome Mr. Marshall)

  • Luis García Berlanga, 1953, 75 minutes. In Spanish with English subtitles.
  • On Tuesday, February 25th, 2014 at 7 pm.
  • One of the greatest masterpieces of Spanish cinema, Welcome, Mr. Marshall! is an Ealing-style satire set in the era of Franco’s dictatorship in Spain in which a Castilian backwater town adopts Andalusian stereotypes to hoodwink a group of Marshall Plan representatives. Although more than 60 years have passed, this witty and compassionate classic transcends its historical context.

Celda 211 (Cell 211)

  • Daniel Monzón, 2009, 113 minutes. In Spanish with English subtitles.
  • On Tuesday, March 25th, 2014 at 7 pm.
  • Cell 211 is one of the most outstanding prison films of recent years and a powerful well-plotted thriller with superb actor performances. Juan is a prison warder who turns up at his new job one day before his official starting date to familiarise himself with his duties. While he is being shown around the prison a riot breaks out and Juan is trapped in the sector containing the most dangerous prisoners. Juan immediately pretends to be an inmate in order to survive the situation. However the development of events leaves him facing a paradoxical fate.

No Habrá Paz para los Malvados (No Rest For The Wicked)

  • Enrique Urbizu, 2011, 104 minutes. In Spanish with English subtitles.
  • On Tuesday, April 22nd, 2014 at 7 pm.
  • Inspector Santos Trinidad, a veteran policeman, drinks too much and works too little. Maybe to forget he was once a model officer at the Intelligence Unit now downgraded to Missing Persons. Events turn sour one night and Santos finds himself implicated in a triple homicide in an after-hours club. He cleans up the crime scene and starts the hunt for the one witness who managed to escape. Following his trail, Santos discovers a complicated and sordid network of prostitution and drug trafficking that serves to finance a far more sophisticated criminal plan. Although the official police investigation on the triple murder begins to tighten the net around him, Santos is finally back doing what he does best.

Blancanieves (Blancanieves)

  • Pablo Berger, 2011, 104 minutes. In Spanish with English subtitles.
  • On Tuesday, May 13th, 2014 at 7 pm.
  • In 2011, various Snow White reappropriations were released but Pablo Berger’s 1920s-set silent tale, offset by punchy Flamenco rhythms, was hands-down the most imaginative. Rejected at birth by her father, Carmencita (Macarena Garcia) is raised by her grandmother. But when granny dies, the poor dark-haired maiden is sent to the lower depths of her evil stepmother’s villa. Maribel Verdu (Y Tu Mama También) gives a knockout performance as the villainess, keeping Carmencita from Prince Charming —a bullfighting dwarf!— and thwarting her dreams of becoming a matador.

También la Lluvia (Even The Rain)

  • Icíar Bollaín, 2010, 103 minutes. In Spanish with English subtitles.
  • On Tuesday May 27th, 2014 at 7 pm.
  • This smart fable stars Gael García Bernal as a heartthrob film director whose film crew starts to perpetuate the exploitation they hope to denounce. As he and his crew shoot a controversial film about Christopher Columbus in Cochabamba, Bolivia, local people rise up against plans to privatize the water supply. Icíar Bollaín’s makes pertinent, if heavy handed, comparisons between European imperialism five centuries ago and modern globalization.

Pa Negre (Black Bread)

  • Agustí Villaronga, 2010, 108 minutes. In Catalan with English subtitles.
  • On Tuesday, June 10th, 2014 at 7 pm.
  • Contender for best foreign film at the 2011 Oscars, Black Bread is set in the harsh post-war years’ Catalan countryside. Andreu, a child that belongs to the losing republican side, finds the corpses of a man and his son in the forest. The authorities want his father to be made responsible of the deaths, but Andreu tries to help his father by finding out who truly killed them. In this search, Andreu develops a moral consciousness against a world of adults fed by lies.

The series opens on February 25th, 2014 with the screening of the classic Welcome Mr. Marshall. Complimentary Spanish wine and tapas will be served during the event. View full program in PDF.

Venue

Venue map

Hall of Nations in Balboa Park, 2191 Pan American Rd West, San Diego, CA 92101
858-405-3629

Admission

Tickets available on location. Suggested donation: $5.00.

More information

Casa de España en San Diego

Credits

Organized by The House of Spain in San Diego with the support of SPAIN arts & culture.

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