As in Vampir-Cuadecuc, this film turns on two basic axes: the inquiry into ways of cinematographic representation and a critical image of official Spain at the time of the Franco dictatorship. Montage ofattractions and Brechtianism in strong doses. Umbracle is made up of fragments (some are archive footage) that resound rather than progress by unusual links, with dejá vu scenes that promise us more but remaintensely unfinished. Jonathan Rosembaun said: “few directors since Resnais have played so ruthlessly with the unconscious narrative expectations to bug us“. Learning from the feeling of strangeness caused by Rossellini as he threw well known actors into savage scenery in southern Europe. Portabella makes Christopher Lee wander around a dream-like Barcelona. Without a doubt Portabella’s most structurally complex and most profoundly political film, that is ferociously poetic.
Production Company: Films 59
Director: Pere Portabella
Script: Pere Portabella – Joan Brossa
Music: Carles Santos
Photography: Manel Esteban
1st Assistant Director: Anne M. Settimó
Production Manager: Pere Fages
Original Version: Spanish – Catalan
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Color: B&W
Original Format: 16 mm
Screening Formats: DCP / Digital
Christopher Lee – Jeanine Mestre
Pere Portabella – Films 59
produccio@films59.com
Copyright ©. All rights reserved. Pere Portabella – Films 59.
Copyright ©. All rights reserved.
Pere Portabella – Films 59.