España 1936

España 1936
Directed by Jean-Paul Le Chanois
Produced by Luis Buñuel
Written by Luis Buñuel (story)
Pierre Unik (commentary)
Distributed by Subsecretaría de Propaganda del Gobierno de la República
Release dates
  • 1937 (1937)
Running time
 35 minutes
Country Spain
Language Spanish

España 1936 (1937) is a Spanish short documentary film.

Production

The film was directed by Jean-Paul Le Chanois and produced and co-written by Luis Buñuel, about the early days of the Spanish Civil War. It contains much genuine newsreel footage.

“ Among the unique scenes in this film, special mention should be made of the following, due to their value as historical documents: the speech of Alvarez del Vayo at the League of Nations, the speech of La Pasionaria in Paris, the defence of Irún and San Sebastián by the Basque militiamen and the battles in the streets of Carabanchel, Casa de Campo, Parque del Oeste and Somosierra. In all of them the heroism of the soldiers of the people reaches levels of unparalleled bravery. Never before have scenes of such realism been shown on the screen as in España 1936, the most authentic and realistic documentary made of this war.[1] ”

It should be noted that although Buñuel made the film in association with the French Communist Party, the film lacks a lot of the overt biases known for political documentaries at this time. Buñuel chronicled this film in his typical style showcasing the inhumanity, death, and destruction of the Spanish Civil War rather than focusing solely on the political message supporting one side or the other. This notable style of Buñuel stands in contrast to other politically based documentaries at the time including Triumph of the Will, The Man with the Movie Camera, Night Mail, and Battleship Potemkin, among others.

See also

Further reading

Sources

  1. ↑ El Sol (Madrid, 6 June 1937).

External links


This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Sunday, February 07, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.