{"id":17632,"date":"2014-09-09T11:36:00","date_gmt":"2014-09-09T11:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ihmadrid.com\/blog\/spanish-cinema-five-great-movies-to-get-to-know-madrid-better\/"},"modified":"2024-10-17T14:22:32","modified_gmt":"2024-10-17T12:22:32","slug":"spanish-cinema-five-great-movies-to-get-to-know-madrid-better","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ihmadrid.com\/en\/blog\/spanish-cinema-five-great-movies-to-get-to-know-madrid-better.html","title":{"rendered":"Spanish cinema: five great movies to get to know Madrid better"},"content":{"rendered":"

El D\u00eda de la Bestia (Day of the Beast)<\/a> [\u00c1lex de la Iglesia, 1995]<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tired of conventional horror movies?<\/strong> Fed up by those inadvertently hilarious films about Satan and his crew? Well, you\u2019d better try this outrageous comedy made by Alex de la Iglesia, a true filmmaking hooligan<\/strong> who has perpetrated some of the funniest and most shocking films of recent Spanish cinematography. \u201cEl D\u00eda de la Bestia\u201d is, of course, about the Apocalypse, which allegedly was about to take place in Madrid, 1995. A crazed priest and a no less crazed heavy metal fan are struggling to find out when the ominous event is going to take place. Throughout this frantic adventure you can take a look at some of Madrid\u2019s most emblematic places<\/strong>, including Torres Kio -\u00a1a symbol of the Fallen Angel!- and the huge Schweppes advert hung in Callao. A ridiculously funny cult film not to be missed.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00bfQu\u00e9 he hecho yo para merecer esto?\u00a0<\/strong><\/a>(What Have I Done to Deserve This?)<\/a> [Pedro Almod\u00f3var, 1992]<\/strong><\/p>\n

For me \u2013as for many- Almod\u00f3var\u2019s career reached some of its peaks during the nineties, when he managed to find a perfect balance between his funny and grotesque but anarchic early films and the more ambitious narrative he later developed; \u201cWhat Have I Done to Deserve This?\u201d is one of the funniest portraits of a dysfunctional family ever committed to film<\/strong>. A ensemble movie, crammed with black humour, it follows the unconventional life of a housemaid facing the most disturbing facets of the modern world \u2013in its bizarre Spanish incarnation-, surrounded by an astounding gallery of far-out but soulful characters<\/strong>. Needless to say, this amazing comedy takes place in Madrid, although you are advised not to take it as a representative or realistic slice of life in the city.<\/p>\n

Surcos (Furrows)<\/a> [Jos\u00e9 Antonio Nieves Conde, 1951]<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the most exceptional Spanish movies ever filmed \u2013in every sense-, this film is a rara avis<\/em>. Filmed during Franco\u2019s regime, its director, Nieves Conde, was once a man of the regime who eventually became disaffected with it; \u201cSurcos\u201d makes this pretty clear, as the film draws heavily on Italian neorealism<\/strong> of that time and the parallelisms between it and the works of De Sica and Rossellini are apparent. Nieves Conde depicts the tribulations of a low-class rural family that emigrate to Madrid<\/strong> in pursuit of a brighter future, although their path is far from easy and they soon become victims of exploitation and misery. Not only does this film have a brilliant narrative and top notch natural acting, but it also faithfully portrays how Madrid was during that time.<\/p>\n

El Verdugo (The Executioner)<\/a> [Luis Garc\u00eda Berlanga, 1963]<\/strong><\/p>\n

Critically acclaimed, \u201cEl Verdugo\u201d, as well as the aforementioned \u201cSurcos\u201d, is a must-see for those who want to achieve a better understanding of Spanish society during the dictatorship and the misery and moral dilemmas that took place during that time and in this case in particular, the death penalty,\u00a0Berlanga vividly depicts the life of a young man who is the son of an executioner<\/strong>; he has to deal with his father\u2019s retirement and his unwillingness to follow in his professional footsteps. Leaving aside Berlanga\u2019s courage in dealing with such a hot issue as the death penalty was during that time, he also managed to humanize his characters in a brilliant way; instead of blaming it on the hangman, he chose to use the story as a vehicle to make a sharp social diagnosis (like \u201cEl cochecito\u201d, it was also written by Rafael Azcona). Furthermore, \u201cEl Verdugo\u201d\u2019s final scene is one of the most outstanding ones in the entire story of the seventh art<\/strong>. And, for those interested in knowing what Madrid was like during the early sixties, the film is rich in images of its streets and cafeterias, and also faithfully depicts family relationships.<\/p>\n

El cochecito (The Little Coach)<\/a> [Marco Ferreri, 1960]<\/strong><\/p>\n

Although Ferreri is, of course, an Italian director, some of his early films were produced in Spain; among these, the most remarkable might be \u201cEl cochecito\u201d, the fruit of a collaboration between him and Rafael Azcona, one of the cleverest screenwriters<\/strong> to ever grace a screen. As a result, this film portrays an older man who becomes obsessed with buying a little coach<\/strong> \u2013of the kind that serves as a vehicle for disabled people- and, for that purpose, sqanders his wealth and his family\u2019s. The crux of the matter is that our main character is not a disabled person, although he envies the comfortable, lazy life of his friends who truly are, and wants to have the vehicle to team up with them as equals. From this witty but bizarre starting point, the author builds up a deep drama punctuated by strokes of dark humour about the childishness of the third age and the well known Spanish picaresque<\/strong>, but he also addresses social issues of the time and even the role that technology plays in our lives \u2013the duality between serve or to be served. And, like every other movie in this article, it provides a great view of how Madrid looked at the time and a bitter portrait of Spanish society \u2013and human nature, by extension.<\/p>\n

We hope you have enjoyed these reviews; remember to follow International House Madrid’s blog<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0and our Facebook<\/a>\u00a0page to learn more about language and to get the most out of your visit to Madrid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tired of conventional horror movies? Fed up by those inadvertently hilarious films about Satan and his crew?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":17634,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[440,904,976],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-what-to-see-in-madrid","category-spanish-school-madrid","category-study-spanish-language"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ihmadrid.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ihmadrid.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ihmadrid.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ihmadrid.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ihmadrid.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17632"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ihmadrid.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17632\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36844,"href":"https:\/\/www.ihmadrid.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17632\/revisions\/36844"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ihmadrid.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ihmadrid.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ihmadrid.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ihmadrid.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}