Hating Spanish cinema, like this, point blank, in 2022, as if it were a genre in itself, does not make sense. It never had it, but you just have to take a look at the Goya nominees (and the films that have been left out) to know that the four mantras that are always used no longer have any validity, if they ever had it. After a few years (let’s face it) a bit lazy, the machinery has returned to maximum power: Are we facing the best moment in the history of national cinema?
rural rupture
For years, it seemed that there were only three female filmmakers in Spain: Gracia Querejeta, Icíar Bollaín and Isabel Coixet. Fortunately, the variety of new stories, textures and sensibilities that have developed in recent years it has opened the range of stories that can be told on a screen. Without going any further, this edition of the Goya will feature three new wave women (Carla Simón, Pilar Palomero and Alauda Ruiz de Azúa) removing the seats with a cinema as small as groundbreaking.
After a few years of stupendous thrillers (‘May God forgive us’, ‘Late for Wrath’, ‘The Kingdom’, ‘Outdoors’), the cinema machinery once again turns towards the little stories told with exquisite sensitivity. After years obsessed with comparing ourselves face to face with American cinema, we have finally surrendered to the evidence – almost obligation – of highlight our own icons and linguistic codes and our own rural idiosyncrasies.
Even the two most bombastic productions of the year, ‘Modelo 77’ and ‘As bestas’, they abandon universality to focus on the specific. And this specificity makes the Spanish cinema of 2022 a vintage that has known how to reap the fruits of what has been worked during the last decade, raised between shorts and rupturismoand take a step in the best possible direction.
Torrente and the children, part 3
The Goyas have the same problem as the Oscars: people, in general, are no longer interested in cinema. At least not the one that is awarded in three-hour galas with musical numbers, jokes and endless speeches. We can congratulate ourselves all we want on the good data from ‘As bestas’ or ‘Alcarràs’, but the truth is that the highest grossing Spanish films this year have been two thirds: those of ‘Father there is only one’ and ‘Tadeo Jones’. Be careful, without detracting from any merit: it is very difficult to know how to engage with the tastes of the general public and clearly they have achieved it more than any nominated film.
To give an example of this break between cinema and public that I am talking about: Two of my favorite movies this year, ‘Unicorn wars’ and ‘Pig’, have barely been seen by 4,000 and 60,000 people, respectively. ‘Alcarràs’ has been a success, but it has not even reached half a million viewers. In Spain the best cinema that has ever been made is being made, but there is no one to see it.
There are prejudices that, at this point, they are encysted and pass from generation to generation. Iranian cinema is boring, auteur films are for gafapastas, in Spain only films about the Civil War are made. It matters little that no nominated film has anything to do with the Civil War: having prejudices, who needs realities?
For whom is Spanish cinema directed?
The Spanish cinema of 2022 is in a state of form as he hadn’t been seen for many years: even very localized musicals like ‘I’m going to have a good time’ or horror movies more or less to use like ‘Grandma’ they succeed in their intentions and result in solvent and intelligent products. Also, although some do not want to believe it, outside our borders this is one of the countries best considered audiovisually… And not only because of Almodóvar.
From Berlanga to Buñuel, passing through Fernán Gómez, Sorogoyen or Simón, the cinema of our country no longer has anything to prove. It is one of the most complex and complete filmographies in the world, and it has been so since its very birth, with Segundo de Chomón, Florián Rey and Edgar Neville. giving rise to a cinema as unique as, at the same time, universal.
The astronomical box office figures of ‘Ocho apellidos vascos’ or ‘A monster comes to see me’ are already behind us, and it is normal: post-pandemic Spanish cinema, aware that it will not be able to compete face to face with Hollywood blockbusters, he has preferred to focus on small stories full of life: different films for different timesbubbles of a fabulous filmography that has always known how to survive and raises its head proud of what it knows how to do. Now all that remains is for the public to decide to accompany her.