Nerea González |
Paris, (EFE).- With a retrospective that will feature almost all of his films, the French Cinematheque has decided to rescue this summer the work of the Spanish Eloy de la Iglesia, icon of quinqui cinema and a reference for directors such as Pedro Almodóvar or Gaspar Noah, but practically unknown to the French public.
“He is a filmmaker who is very little known in France, almost none of his films, perhaps one or two, have had commercial distribution,” Jean-François Rauger, programming director of the French Cinematheque, located in the Parisian neighborhood, told EFE. de Bercy.
The cycle in homage to De la Iglesia will take place at its own headquarters and will begin tomorrow Wednesday with “The Week of the Assassin”, a 1972 film whose cast includes Vicente Parra, Emma Cohen and Eusebio Poncela.
That opening session will be attended by director Gaspar Noé (originally from Argentina and based in France), who is a declared admirer of De la Iglesia.
In fact, according to Rauger, despite the fact that the Spanish director who died in 2006 is considered one of the great references of quinqui cinema of the 80s and that in France there is much appreciation for Spanish celluloid, in the Hexagon his relevance is limited practically by word of mouth among their own peers.
“He is highly admired by other filmmakers, he is a filmmaker for filmmakers,” he reflects, as is the case with Noé or Almodóvar himself. But for that very reason, De la Iglesia’s influence is rather “discreet, subterranean, subtle”, says Rauger.
De la Iglesia is someone who addressed issues such as homosexuality, terrorism, crime, drug addiction or political activism in his work, especially after the death of the dictator Francisco Franco in 1975 and the end of censorship.
Usually, moreover, he did so from an exploration of the margins of society.
A “missing link” for lovers of Spanish cinema in France
It is because of these factors of ignorance and because of the conviction that the public in Paris will know how to appreciate De la Iglesia’s films, that the Cinematheque has decided to bet on this retrospective, which will last until July 29.
“He is the missing link of Spanish cinema, he is the one who has not been seen, he is the one who is not known. We know the cinema of Berlanga, Bardem, Buñuel…”, recapitulated the programming director.
“Then there was a vacuum from which some films emerged, mostly genre films, known above all by fans. And within that, Eloy de la Iglesia was a bit marginalized, but he stands out because he made films that could satisfy the public with strong sensations. That allowed him to talk about his central theme, ”he adds.
That main axis is “sexual repression”, which for the Basque filmmaker was a key aspect of fascism, Rauger points out.
In total, the retrospective will have 21 films, which represents almost all the films made by De la Iglesia throughout his life (1944-2006).
Among them there will be titles such as “La estanquera de Vallecas” (1987), “Colegas” (1982), “El diputado” (1978) or “Navajeros” (1980).
There will also be a screening of “Los novios bulgaros” (2003), starring Fernando Guillén Cuervo and the last film directed by De la Iglesia before his death in Madrid.
His career was especially successful in the eighties, but at the end of that decade and the beginning of the nineties he had suffered a serious stoppage because of his drug addiction problems.