The Prada Foundation has launched the fifth series of the "Soggettiva" film festival, conceived and planned by director Pedro Almodóvar, with eight Spanish films in the series to be released between June 6 and July 26, 2019. During the "Pedro Almodóvar SOGGETTIVA" film series will simultaneously present nine works of art for the film created by the director between 1983 and 2004, as well as 4 films produced by El Deseo Film production company, founded by the brothers Pedro and Augustine Almodóvar.
On the first day of the festival ,"Pedro Almodóvar Soggettiva" will feature a public special screening of Director Almodóvar's new film Dolor y Gloria, which has been shortlisted for the main competition section of the 72nd Cannes Film Festival and will be screened at the Prada Foundation Cinema at 9 p.m. on Saturday, June 1, when the director will also be present. Pain and Glory will also be released on Saturday, June 8, Saturday, 22, and Saturday, June 29 as part of the "Indagine" section. On 1 June, the public can purchase tickets to the Prada Foundation website (fondazioneprada.org) and the Prada Foundation Cinema Ticket Office.
"Soggettiva": 8 films selected by Pedro Almodóvar (June 6 – July 26, 2019)
Director Almodóvar explains, "When I selected 8 Spanish films to exhibit in, I focused on and selected those that have endured and have a lot of artistic value. At the same time, I would like to present italian audiences with a series of films that are not widely known outside of Spain, and they are not all well known. ”
During the "Pedro Almodóvar Soggettiva" film festival from June 6 to July 26, the Prada Foundation Cinema will release four films created at the end of Francisco Franco's dictatorship: Peppermint Frappé, 1967, directed by Carlos Saura; El Verdugo (the Executioner), 1969, Directed by Luis García Berlanga; El espíritu de la colmena (Beehive Ghost), 1973, directed by Víctor Erice; Furtivos (Across the Border Poachers), 1975, directed by José Luis Borau. As director Almodóvar puts it, "In addition to their unquestionable and immortal artistic value, these films were able to circulate by cleverly circumventing the absurd and harsh censorship that was then established by the Catholic Church in Spain." The other four films in the exhibition show the vitality and progress of Spanish film and television art in the last 40 years: Arrebato, 1979, directed by Iván Zulueta, Tésis, 1996, directed by Alejandro Amenábar, Blancanieves, 2012, directed by Pablo Berger, and "Wonder Girl" Magical Girl, 2014, directed by Carlos Vermut. In these films, directors succeeded in breaking down barriers between different film genres to create unexpected modern works of art, such as a ridiculous story about self-destruction and surrender to heroin and illusions (directed by Zulueta); a classic youth school thriller (directed by Amenábar); a black-and-white silent film based on Grimm's fairy tales (directed by Berger); and a grotesque mystery film about an obsession with Japanese pop culture (directed by Vermut).
"Origine": 9 film artworks by Pedro Almodóvar (June 2 – July 28)
Director Pedro Almodóvar decided to pair the series with nine self-created film artworks for the screening of his new film Pain and Glory, which will be released every Sunday from June 2 to July 28 as part of the "Origine" section: Entre tinieblas (1983); Why Should I Be So? (¿Qué he hecho yo para merecer esto?), 1984; La ley del deseo (Law of Desire), 1987; Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios (Woman on the Verge of Collapse), 1988; Tacones lejanos (1991); La flor de (My Mysterious Flower). Mi secreto), 1995; Todo sobre mi madre (All About My Mother), 1999; Hable con ella (2002); La mala educación (bad education), 2004. The project offers the opportunity to explore and experience director Almodóvar's artistic adventures: first, his early films with enormous transformative influence, which illustrate the cultural reflections in the anarchy represented by la Movida, a cultural and artistic movement in Spain during franco's posthumous transition and upheaval, and then Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios (Woman on the Verge of Collapse), which opened him up international fame. To his three recent critically acclaimed films, Todo sobre mi madre, Hable con ella, and La mala educación, director Almodóvar's personal artistic perspective has become deeper and sharper.
As film critic Jordi Costa puts it, "Pedro Almodóvar's cinematic art is premised on the premise that "everything is not so simple," and in fact, the most difficult task is to explore the laws of desire that both allow people to create art and lead people to self-harm." [...] Almodóvar has turned and changed direction many times in his artistic career in order to achieve clarity that can present the complexity of things, rather than blindly simplifying this complexity. He adds, "As a master of artistic creation, Almodóvar has always been adventurous. He always leaned towards thriller and high-stakes stories. In many of his films, there are many plots that seem to threaten and destroy everyone and things, destroy and crush the entire narrative structure of the film, and these plots eventually become memorable and unique creative masterpieces. ”
Milan Film Week: 4 films by El Deseo Film & Television Productions (13 – 15 September)
Coinciding with Milan Film Week 2019, the Prada Foundation Cinema will release four films produced by El Deseo Film productions from 13 to 15 September: Acción mutante, 1993, directed by Álex de la Iglesia; El espinazo del Diablo (2001), directed by Guillermo Del Toro; Mi vida sin mí (Days Without Me), 2003, directed by Isabel Coixet; Relatos salvajes (Wild Story), 2014, directed by Damián Szifron. Founded in 1986 by the brothers Pedro and Agustín Almodóvar, El Deseo film & Television Productions initially participated in Almodóvar's film La Ley del deseo (The Law of Desire), and in the years since then has been discovering and launching talented Spanish and Latin American filmmakers, who have been promoting Spanish filmmaking and raising the international profile of Spanish-language films.
The Prada Foundation will publish the Quaderni series of illustrated publications related to the "Pedro Almodóvar Soggettiva" film festival, which includes a monograph on Almodóvar's work by film and culture critic Jordi Costa, Screened Desire, as well as a feature section focusing on the participation of eight Spanish films.
The success of the "Pedro Almodóvar Soggettiva" series was made possible by close dialogue and collaboration between El Deseo (Madrid) and producer Bárbara Peiró Aso. All exhibited films will be presented in their original form. Special thanks: Filmoteca de Zaragoza, Movies Inspired (Turin), Playtime (Paris), TF1 Studio (Boulogne-Billancourt), Lucky Red (Rome), Lince Comunicación (Madrid), The Festival Agency (Paris), Pathé Films (Paris), Studiocanal (Issy-les-Moulino), Video Mercury Films (Pozuello de Alarcón), and Warner Bros. Entertainment Company Italy (Rome).