Carlos Saura: the Political Development of Individual Consciousness Author(S): Marsha Kinder Source: Film Quarterly, Vol

Carlos Saura: The Political Development of Individual Consciousness Author(s): Marsha Kinder Source: Film Quarterly, Vol. 32, No. 3 (Spring, 1979), pp. 14-25 Published by: University of California Press Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1212203 Accessed: 12-08-2018 17:26 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at https://about.jstor.org/terms University of California Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Film Quarterly This content downloaded from 209.122.234.52 on Sun, 12 Aug 2018 17:26:24 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 14 CLAUDE CHABROL The PostmanPostman Always Always Rings Rings Twice Twice by by Tay Tay Garnett, Garnett, country. I was lucky that in a given moment based on the book by James Cain. What is fan- between shots I looked forward and saw the tastic is that they found Cain's book at the guy's reflection of the conductor's hand in the window, house. That is, he was really inspired by the and I thought: "This is too beautiful! I don't book. And since James Hadley Chase borrowed believe it!" This is the sort of thing that you don't it from Cain and Verneuil adapted Chase's novel, rationalize at the time-it is based entirely on that explains it ... sensations. Also, you couldn't disturb the actress To conclude, how did you construct the street- -she had changed the text quite a bit, changed car scene in La Rupture? the story of her life, but I didn't care because it It's for this scene that I made the film, just was good. Stephane respects the text and the about. A woman recounts her life-where can dialogues, but the minute she has a monologue, she do it? In a streetcar. This is why we had she changes everything. It's very strange, but it's to shoot the film in Brussels, because there are not serious . So, in all my films I put little more streetcars there. I was also lucky. The route things like that in order to see what she's going I chose was ideal, and it was by chance-it was to tell me, because I never know what it will be. like in Murnau, passing from the city to the MARSHAMARSHA KINDER KINDER Carlos Saura: The Political Development of Individual Consciousness After Luis Bufnuel, Carlos Saura is the most of Saura, but alsoalso forfor ManualManual GutierrezGutierrez Aragon'sAragon's brilliant and highly acclaimed film-maker to iHabla Mudita! (Mute Speech), 1973, and Ca- come out of Spain. Yet few of his twelve features mada Negra (Black Brood), 1977; Jose Luis Borau's have been seen in the United States-La Caza Furtivos (Poachers), 1975; Jaime Chavarri's El (The Hunt) 1965; El Jardin de los Delicias (The Desencanto (The Disenchanted), 1976, and A Un Garden of Delights), 1970; La Prima Angelica Dios Desconocido (To an Unknown God), 1977; (Cousin Angelica), 1973; and Cria Cuervos (Raise and Victor Erice's Espiritu de la Colmena (Spirit Ravens), 1975-and of these, only Cr/a Cuervos of the Beehive), 1974. has been widely distributed, proving successful Apparently the American distribution of these in Spain, France, Belgium, Japan, and the US. films has been held up by US economics rather Nevertheless, Saura's latest films-Elisa, Vida than Spanish politics. Saura claims: "It is very Mia (Elisa, My Life), 1977, and Los Ojos Ven- difficult for small films to get distribution in dados (Blindfolded Eyes), 1978-have not yet this country. We have no control over advertising been scheduled for distribution in this country. or the choice of theaters. Even when a foreign One would expect better exposure for such a movie is an economic success in the US, the major figure, especially now that Franco is dead money rarely reaches Spain. It's a disaster! . and since the New Spanish Cinema has recently Nevertheless, I am still interested in having my been generating enthusiasm at international films distributed in the USA." (I)1 festivals all over the world, not only for the works Saura was recently in Los Angeles for a Copyright 1979 by The Regents of the University of California 0015-1386/79/020014+12$00.50 This content downloaded from 209.122.234.52 on Sun, 12 Aug 2018 17:26:24 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Ana and her deadfather: CRIA CUERVOS UNESCO five-day symposium on "Cinema and Society," which brought 13 noted international Franco in November 1975 would lead to a new film-makers to the American Film Institute to surge of political films or a renaissance of the discuss the social and political impact of cinema New Spanish Cinema, Saura claims the situation on twentieth-century culture.2 As part of the pro- is far more complicated: "It is my personal gram, there was a free public screening of one opinion that the New Spanish Cinema does not film by each visiting participant followed by a exist. What does exist is a number of individuals discussion with the film-maker. who make films. I don't know what this label Saura was an excellent choice for the con- refers to-is it Bufiuel?, is it me and Chavarri? ference since he represents a country that has Of course, there are several magnificent directors recently undergone a dramatic political change who are working now in Spain, but I think it's that will undoubtedly be reflected in its cinema. wrong to generalize. For me, the individual works Unlike earlier artists such as Bufiuel, Picasso, come first, then the culture." (I) and Casals, who chose to leave Fascist Spain, Acknowledging that a group of individuals Saura (born in 1932) belongs to the generation may be influenced in similar ways by social-politi- that grew up under Francoism, and the theme of cal events, Saura suggests that sometimes re- the Spanish Civil War was obsessive in his work pression can be a stimulus to create: "For me and and life. Although one would expect that the my compatriots, to make the stories we wanted lifting of political censorship since the death of to do, we had to use indirect methods. For ex- This content downloaded from 209.122.234.52 on Sun, 12 Aug 2018 17:26:24 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 16 CARLOS SAURA ample, we couldn't use a linear structure or the one would really have to see all of his films. Yet ideas would be too clear. It often forced me to some strong patterns emerge even in the few films exercise my imagination. The same was true in that have reached this country. the Golden Age of Spain when artists like Cer- Many of Saura's films focus on childhood. In vantes, Calderon de la Barca, and Lope de Vega his first feature Los Golfos (The Urchins), 1959, had to avoid the repression of the Inquisition." the first Spanish film to be shot entirely on loca- (S) Franco's repression stimulated, not only artis- tion, he used a neorealistic style to document a tic inventiveness, but also moral commitment. group of impoverished young delinquents who are "For many years under Francoism, all of us who trying to get the money for one of them to be- made movies and painted and wrote were search- come a bullfighter, which they see as the only ing for a way to make our medium more effec- way for them to achieve success in their society; tive, not only at the personal level, but also at the release of the film was held up until 1962. the level of Spanish society. I believe that when Perhaps as with their later choice of a nonlinear Franco was still alive, I had a moral obligation- structure, Saura and some of his compatriots maybe more for myself than for society-to do began focusing on youth as a means of getting everything that was possible within my form of political commentary past the censors, who have work to help change the political system as quickly persistently plagued them. For example, from as possible. That was in no way an imposition Saura's second film Llanto por un Bandido (La- on me as an individual, for I was living in a ment for a Bandit), 1963, which portrayed the life repressive society that did not allow me to express of an Andalusian outlaw, government censors cut many of the things I wanted to express." (I) many scenes, including one in which Bufiuel Although he now expects to have greater free- plays a hangman. In The Hunt, which deals dom of expression, Saura wants to use it to develop with a hunting trip taken by three friends who a more personal rather than a political cinema. earlier had fought on the winning side of the In a recent interview, he observed: "When I Civil War, Saura was prevented from mentioning began making films in the late fifties, I some- any political events. When The Garden of Delights times felt myself a spokesman for ideas which was first shown in Spain, five out of ten reels were only partially my own.

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