Vicente Aranda
Encyclopedia
Vicente Aranda is a Spanish
film director
, screenwriter
and producer
.
Due to his refined and personal style, he is one of the most renowned Spanish filmmakers. He started as a founded member of the Barcelona School of Film
and became known for bringing contemporary Spanish novels to life on the big screen. Aranda is famous for exploring difficult social issues and variations on the theme of desire that employs the codes of melodrama.
Love as uncontrollable passion, eroticism and cruelty are constant themes in his filmography. The frank examination of sexuality is one of the trademarks of his work as can be seen in his most internationally successful film: Amantes (1990) (Lovers).
on 9 November 1926. He was the youngest son in a large and impoverished family who had emigrated from Aragón
to Barcelona twenty years before he was born. He barely knew his father, an itinerant photographer, who died when the child was only seven years old. The Spanish Civil War
, in which his family took the side of the losing Republicans, marked his childhood. Thinking that the war was going to be more bearable in a small town than in Barcelona, the family moved early in the war to Peñalba
, his mother's native village. The dire situation there, close to the Aragon's front, forced them to come back to Barcelona in 1938.
After the war ended, Aranda spent a lot of time in the local movie theatre, much against the wishes of his mother, who took to smelling him on his return for traces of the disinfectant that was sprayed in cinemas of the time. He never finished his studies. At age thirteen, he had to begin to work in order to help his family. He had a number of different jobs in his home town, trying a multitude of trades before following his brother Palmiro to Venezuela
in 1952. He emigrated for economical and political reasons. In Venezuela, Aranda worked as a cargo technician for an American shipping business and later became responsible for programs at NCR
. After seven years, he came back to Spain
in 1959.
Wealthy and married upon his return, he had the initial desire to become a novelist, but found that he lacked enough talent as a writer. He fell in with the cultural elite of Catalonia
and was encouraged to try his hand at filmmaking, even after being denied access to the School of Cinema in Madrid
because he never graduated from high school. In Barcelona and completely self-taught, Aranda found the way to direct his first feature film.
Aranda started directing films late in life, at almost forty and did not reach international success until his 60s, nevertheless, he has had a long and prolific career making twenty-seven films in more than forty years as director. Vicente Aranda is married to Teresa Font, his second wife who is thirty years his junior. She has been editor of his movies since the mid 1980s; they have two daughters.
(1964) (Promising Future), co directing with screenwriter Román Gubern to avoid problems with the director guild of Spain. Loosely inspired by the Great Gatsby
, the film employed the aesthetic of the neorealism
in a story of a young man from the provinces who tries to make it into the Catalan middle class. Brillante Porvenir
, cut by censors, was received coldly by public and critics, but made Aranda interested towards the more fantastic ambit of film making.
His second film, Fata Morgana
(1965), an unusual work in Spanish Cinema
, is an experimental film, based on a script written with Gonzalo Suárez
. The film took inspiration for its visual style from television commercials and comic strips. Ignored upon release, Fata Morgana
would eventually be recognized for inspiring the particular kitsch aesthetic of La Escuela de Barcelona (the Barcelona School of Film), an avant garde movement which sought creative renovation of Spanish films.
In the following years Aranda’s work oscillated between certain artistic pretensions and a virtual style drawn from mass media. In these films, Aranda tackled established film genres with and eye on revising and modernizing them.
Since his first features were not widely seen, Aranda followed up with a commercial film with fantastic and erotic overtones: Las Crueles (1969) (The Exquisite Cadaver
). In it, a mysterious woman elaborates a scheme to avenge the death of her girlfriend from a callous publisher. This filmed was plagued with a series of problems: it was long in the making; Aranda suffered an accident during the shooting, which forced him to work from a stretcher and finally he had a legal battle with the producers. It would take Aranda many years to recover ownership of this film. The experience made him found his own production company: Morgana film, which would produce his next six features.
In La Novia Ensangrentada (1972) (The Blood Spattered Bride), a female vampire seeks revenge against all men. A genre film for the cultural elite, that got around the censors by virtue of its incomprehensibility. By Aranda own admission he sacrificed conventional coherence for the cinematographic and phenomenological possibilities of each action. The film was distributed internationally in the United States
, France
and Italy
.
Aranda started to employ the codes of melodrama with: Clara es el Precio
(1974) (Clara is the Price), an offbeat mix of melodrama, parody and surreal comedy. He cast Amparo Muñoz
, Spain’s future Miss Universe
, as a naive housewife adrift in a world without taboo who pursues a career as a pornographic film actress in order to fund a business project for her impotent husband. Made during El Destape, a period in Spanish Cinema, that experienced a proliferation of nudity in film taking advantage of the new liberties obtained during the political period that follow the fall of Franco's regime. The film’s imprudence was also its purpose.” Like the Surrealist, Aranda’s ability to shock was itself a political statement. “ We had lived in a state of consensus and this is fatal for cinema”, he complained, “ We have become our own censors and all we want to do is forget, be silent, not speak"
’s regime, brought a new permissiveness and the Catalan director was finally able to shoot more daring films like: Cambio de Sexo
(1976) (Sex Change), skillfully tackling the subject of transexuality, using it as an embodiment of the political transition lived at the time in Spain. This film marks a switch in Aranda's filmography. He began to use a more realistic style rather than the stylish aesthetics prominent in his early films. Cambio de Sexo marks the beginning of a long collaboration with Victoria Abril
, who became his favorite actress. Over the next three decades director and star would be paired in a dozen films that would include major artistic triumphs for both. Made in the period called the transition, Cambio de Sexo
is a salient example of the use of transsexualism to reflect social change. The film dramatizes the development of the destape – the period in the late 1970s and early 1980s Spain characterized by a much more open portrayal of sex in the press, literature and film.
Cambio de Sexo recounts the story of a young effeminate boy, played by Victoria Abril, who lives in the outskirts of Barcelona and escapes to the city to explore his desire to become a woman. The character of the young man with a sex identity problem is an embodiment of the changes confronted by the two sides of Spain with their opposites extremes of uncompromising orthodoxy and unrestrained anarchy. Cambio de Sexo
allured audiences with its controversial theme, a real novelty, and was released to critical acclaim.
(1980) (Girl with the Golden Panties), a film adaptation of a popular novel by his fellow Catalan Juan Marsé
, in which Aranda displayed a more mature style.
In La Muchacha de las Bragas de Oro
, a Falangist character, writing his memoirs accommodates his past to the new democratic realities, but his world of lies falls apart when he is confronted by his carefree niece, who playfully stars a game of seduction.
Very interested in literature, over the next fifteen years Aranda established himself, as Spain’s foremost adapter of popular contemporary novels into film. A great number of his movies are based on literary works from short narratives to novels, including even biographies. Unlike the more traditional adaptation that stressed their classical literary origins, his choices usually were guided by the centrality of an erotically defined female character, and a contemporary story emphasizing the force of the milieu on the shaping of actions.
For Aranda, adapting a literary work does not involve complications of faithfulness, or lack of the same, to the original text. For him the novel is a raw material with which to create new forms: “ As for adaptations, I feel very comfortable doing them. I don’t have problem with authorship. I don’t think I am more of an author if I write a screenplay of something I’ve read on the news papers or seen on the street that if I take a novel and make a movie based on its contents”.
(1982) (Murder in the Central Committee). In this thriller, a power cut interrupts the proceedings of the Communist Congress and, when the lights come back on, the leader is found death, murdered. The film was based on one of a series of novels by Manuel Vázquez Montalbán
that featured a hard-boiled detective called Pepe Carvalho
. The intrigue runs a poor second to Aranda’s commentary on the Spanish transition to democracy
. “ The truth is that I cannot think of another film that deals with this fascinating period’, he stated, there is a kind of collective amnesia about the time”.
Much of the film’s action is filtered through headlines and television reports in imitation of the way in which the Spanish public lived the transition. The televised funeral of the Communist leader is a sly montage of mourners at the funeral of Franco
, while La Pasionaria (the legendary Spanish Communist leader who passed dictatorship in exile in the Soviet Union) appears as a senile old dear who sits next to the victim but does not even realize he is dead. Like La Muchacha de las Bragas de Oro
, this was a film about extremist coming together in a democracy, in this case in order to solve a crime. Whodunnit ? it does not matter. As the interior minister exclaims: In the same way that we’ve had to forget everything, you should to the same”
Asesinato en el Comité Central
was Aranda’s first work shot in Madrid instead of his native Barcelona. The film was received with a cold commercial response.
detective novel, Prótesis, in which he transformed the male protagonist into a female retitling the work Fanny Pelopaja
(1984). The film depicts a violent love hate relationship between a delinquent woman and the corrupt police officer she wants to get even with.
Co financed by French producers, the film was made in Barcelona with Spanish supporting cast and crew, but with two French actors in the lead. Dissatisfied with the French dubbing of the film, done without his oversight, Aranda tried to stopped the premiere of the film in France, were it was released with the title Á coups de crosse. As a result of this dispute Aranda sold its shares in Morgana films, the production company he had created. Fanny Pelopaja failed to find an audience when first released, but now has become one of Aranda best regarded works.
, Ricardo Franco
, Juan Antonio Bardem, Pedro Costa
and Vicente Aranda were invited to direct, each one of them, a different episode.
Aranda’s chapter El Crimen del Capitán Sánchez
(1984) (Captain Sánchez's Crime), was considered the best episode of the series.
Made in 16 mm and with a very low budget, the one-hour film tells a story in which incest, jealousy and death mix in Spain of beginnings of the twenty-century. The title character is a military officer, who supports his poor family and pays his gambling debts plotting an elaborate trap to swindle money from those who fall for the charms of his pretty eldest daughter.
novel, Tiempo de Silencio
(1986) (Time of Silence). The film had a major cast headed by Imanol Arias
, Victoria Abril
and Francisco Rabal
. Set in the 1940s, in the early days of the Franco’s regime, the plot follows the story of an ambitious doctor who is accused of killing a woman while he tried to save her life after a botched abortion. The story moves from the sordid life of shanty dwellings to the hypocrisy of the middle classes in a critic of Franco’s regime. Aranda’s themes of sexuality are used as a register to which political and historical issues can be expressed. Though it was criticized by some for his realistic approach to the narrational complexity of the Martín Santos novel, Time of Silence was generally well received by audiences.
(1987) (El Lute, Run for Your Life), and El Lute II, mañana seré libre (1988) (El Lute Tomorrow I’ll be Free). El Lute: camina o revienta
(1987) (El Lute, Run for Your Life) concerns the legendary delinquent Eleuterio Sánchez
, known as El Lute, a poor man forced by social deprivation into delinquency in the 1960s. After an early nomadic period of his life, El Lute moves to Madrid's slums outskirts, becomes involved in a burglary and murder, is tortured and condemn to life in prison. His spectacular escapes from jail turn him into a popular folk hero and public enemy number one for the Franco police.
Aranda’s hybrid combination of period drama, thriller and social realism reveals how the criminal career and media profile of this petty thief were manipulated and exploited by the authorities as a diversionary tactic at a time of political unrest. El Lute: camina o revienta
(1987) (El Lute, Run for Your Life) was one of Aranda’s most successful adaptation and became the highest grossing Spanish film in 1987.
Compared to the strongly realistic and political tone of the first installment, El Lute II, mañana seré libre took a more fictionalized, folkloric approach, adopting a more pronounced thriller profile. Although the film includes numerous concessions to violence and eroticism, it delivered a resounding critique of the Franco regime and its brutal treatment of the Spanish gypsy population.
playing three different characters, the film was daring an ambitious in its scope.
, then director of TVE, Aranda took on :Los Jinetes del Alba
(1990) (Riders of the Dawn) an adaptation of the novel by Jesús Fernández Santos about the Spanish Civil War
and the anarchist movement.
Made as a five parts TV miniseries, it centers on a young woman driven by the ambition to own the resort where she works in a small town in Asturias
. When she finally achieves her goal, there is little to rejoice about. Aranda's favorite topics: cruelty, violence and sex pervade a story framed by the tumultuous life of Spain in the 1930s, the uprising in Asturias in 1934 and the Spanish Civil War. This is one Aranda’s most paradigmatic works.
, inspired by real events. In the repressive Spain during the early 1950s, a young man just out of military service is torn between his attraction for the two opposite women who love him: his girlfriend, a naïve maid and, his landlady, an attractive, scheming widow.
Originally conceived as a T.V project, Amantes, was made with few actors, a small crew and with few exteriors. Nevertheless, it is widely considered as the director's most accomplished work, becoming a classic of Spanish Cinema
It marked the beginning of Aranda most prolific period.
(1993) (The Bilingual Lover), also an adaptation of a story by Juan Marsé. Set in Barcelona, this is an ironic film that mixes Catalan
linguistic policies, nationalism
and eroticism
with a pattern of double identity. The central character is a humble man who falls in love with a beautiful rich woman, they marry but his unfaithful wife abandons him later. He is horribly disfigured in an explosion and gradually adopts a new identity in an effort to lure back his spoil ex-wife.
(1993) (Intruder), Aranda takes the theme of the relationship between love and death through a passionate love to its ultimate conclusion. This film is a psychological thriller with much of the visual atmosphere and exacerbated passions of Amantes. A middle class woman is torn between her love for her spouse and her ill ex-husband, both of which were her childhood friends. After ten years of separation, they are entangled in a tragic story.
(1994) (Turkish Passion) an adaptation of a novel by Antonio Gala
, is an exploration of female sexual desire. Here a bored housewife from a well to do family, decides to risk everything by leaving her husband to return to her lover who she met while on holiday in Turkey
. Her pursuit of sexual pleasure leads her to an obsessive dependence, degradation and total collapse of her selfesteem. La Pasión Turca became one of Spain's highest grossing films of the 1990s.
(1996) (Women Freedom Fighters) an epic drama with an ensemble cast that reconstructs the role played by anarchist women during the Spanish Civil War
. Set in Barcelona at the start of the war, a young naive nun has to flee her convent and seeks refuge in a brothel, where she is recruited to the anarchist cause, along with the prostitutes. Together, a group of six women (Mujeres Libres or Free Women
) face the perils of war until their idealistic dreams of utopia are brutally crushed.
(1998) (The Naked Eye), with a script based on a novel by Fernando G Delgado, is an erotic psychodrama
; a woman in her 30s embarks on a quest for sexual pleasure which only brings her loneliness. The sordidness of the plot overpowered the credibility of the characters and the film was spurned by public and critics.
(1999) (Jealousy), his third entrance in the love triangle trilogy formed with Amantes and Intruso
. Once again the director constructed a story around destructive passions that lead to tragedy. A truck driver is tormented by jealousy about the man who was the former boyfriend of the beautiful woman he is about to marry, launching a detective labor to find him and know the truth that he feels his fiance is hiding from him.
"Jealousy is at the center of stories of passion", Aranda explained. "To suffer with relish, there is nothing better than uncertainty. A good story demands that audiences share the same doubts than the main characters in the story: whether there is or is not a betrayal. There is always some else lurking and we also know that crime is among us even if exist albeit only at the bottom of our hearts".
(2001) (Mad Love), a reinterpretation of the tragic fate of the 15th century Spanish Queen, Joanna of Castile
, who fell madly in love with her unfaithful husband. The film, a commercial and critical hit, was Spain's entry at the 2001 Academy Awards
for Best Foreign Language Film and it became Aranda’s biggest box-office movie.
(2003), a film based on Prosper Merimée
’s 1845 novella about jealousy and passion that inspired the famous Opera of the same name
by George Bizet. Set in Andalusia
in 1830, a military officer is seduced by a striking gypsy girl who works in a cigarette factory. His love for her only brings his downfall. Carmen is a story of desire, betrayal and death as the filmography of Vicente Aranda. The film was made with high production values and was another success with audiences for the veteran director.
(2006) (The Maidens' Conspiracy), an adaptation of the seminal Catalan chivalry
novel written in fifteenth century by Joanot Martorell
. The plot follows the adventures of Tirante, a knight from humble origins in the Byzantine Empire
who gains the favor of the ailing Emperor fighting the incursion into Constantinople
by the Turks, but later seduces the royal family's only surviving child, a young, fanciful, and impressionable princess.
Made with a large budget (This is Aranda's most expensive work) the film, filled with both humor and drama, is lavish, risqué, and skillfully composed, but superficial and unsatisfying. Tirant lo Blanc did not enjoy the success of the director's two previous films.
(1980); Si te dicen que caí (1989), El Amante Bilingüe
(1993) and Canciones de Amor en Lolita's club
(2007) (Lolita’s Club), the director has a track record of four adaptations from Marsé’s contemporary novels.
Canciones de amor en Lolita’s Club (2007) is an erotic thriller, in which sex and brutality are mixed in a story of very different twin brothers, one is a coldhearted violent police officer the other is a helpless romantic suffering from a mental handicap. The two brothers are tragically involved with a prostitute who works in the bordello that gives the film its title. Released in November 2007, the film was widely considered a disappointment and quickly disappeared from the Spanish screens.
(2009) (Hot Moon), tells the story of a poet, who briefly returning to his home town, gets entangled in a web of sex and violence with the young daughter of his host after he rapes her. The script is based on a novel by Argentine Mempo Giardinelli, which places the action in the last military coup in Argentina
. Aranda set the story in Spain of the 1970s during the process of Burgos, which caused some of the last death sentences in Spain during Francos' regime. Luna Caliente premiered in October 2009 at the Valladolid International Film Festival
, but like his two previous films was ill promoted and failed to find an audience.
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
film director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
, screenwriter
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
and producer
Film producer
A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...
.
Due to his refined and personal style, he is one of the most renowned Spanish filmmakers. He started as a founded member of the Barcelona School of Film
Barcelona School of Film
The Barcelona School was a 1960s group of Catalan filmmakers, concerned with the disruption of daily life by the unexpected, whose stylistic affinities lie with the pop art movement of the same years. Their aim was to move away from the social realist films that had become associated with the New...
and became known for bringing contemporary Spanish novels to life on the big screen. Aranda is famous for exploring difficult social issues and variations on the theme of desire that employs the codes of melodrama.
Love as uncontrollable passion, eroticism and cruelty are constant themes in his filmography. The frank examination of sexuality is one of the trademarks of his work as can be seen in his most internationally successful film: Amantes (1990) (Lovers).
Early life
Vicente Aranda Ezguerra was born in BarcelonaBarcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
on 9 November 1926. He was the youngest son in a large and impoverished family who had emigrated from Aragón
Aragon
Aragon is a modern autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. Located in northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces : Huesca, Zaragoza, and Teruel. Its capital is Zaragoza...
to Barcelona twenty years before he was born. He barely knew his father, an itinerant photographer, who died when the child was only seven years old. The Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
, in which his family took the side of the losing Republicans, marked his childhood. Thinking that the war was going to be more bearable in a small town than in Barcelona, the family moved early in the war to Peñalba
Peñalba
Peñalba is a municipality located in the province of Huesca, Aragon, Spain. According to the 2004 census , the municipality has a population of 742 inhabitants.http://www.penalba.es/index.php[Original in Spanish]...
, his mother's native village. The dire situation there, close to the Aragon's front, forced them to come back to Barcelona in 1938.
After the war ended, Aranda spent a lot of time in the local movie theatre, much against the wishes of his mother, who took to smelling him on his return for traces of the disinfectant that was sprayed in cinemas of the time. He never finished his studies. At age thirteen, he had to begin to work in order to help his family. He had a number of different jobs in his home town, trying a multitude of trades before following his brother Palmiro to Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
in 1952. He emigrated for economical and political reasons. In Venezuela, Aranda worked as a cargo technician for an American shipping business and later became responsible for programs at NCR
NCR Corporation
NCR Corporation is an American technology company specializing in kiosk products for the retail, financial, travel, healthcare, food service, entertainment, gaming and public sector industries. Its main products are self-service kiosks, point-of-sale terminals, automated teller machines, check...
. After seven years, he came back to Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
in 1959.
Wealthy and married upon his return, he had the initial desire to become a novelist, but found that he lacked enough talent as a writer. He fell in with the cultural elite of Catalonia
Catalonia
Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...
and was encouraged to try his hand at filmmaking, even after being denied access to the School of Cinema in Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
because he never graduated from high school. In Barcelona and completely self-taught, Aranda found the way to direct his first feature film.
Aranda started directing films late in life, at almost forty and did not reach international success until his 60s, nevertheless, he has had a long and prolific career making twenty-seven films in more than forty years as director. Vicente Aranda is married to Teresa Font, his second wife who is thirty years his junior. She has been editor of his movies since the mid 1980s; they have two daughters.
Early films (1964- 1974)
Aranda made his directorial debut with the low- budget Brillante PorvenirBrillante Porvenir
Promising Future is a 1965 Spanish film directed by Vicente Aranda and Román Gubern. Set in Neorealism style, the plot was inspired by F...
(1964) (Promising Future), co directing with screenwriter Román Gubern to avoid problems with the director guild of Spain. Loosely inspired by the Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby is a novel by the American author F. Scott Fitzgerald. First published in1925, it is set on Long Island's North Shore and in New York City from spring to autumn of 1922....
, the film employed the aesthetic of the neorealism
Neorealism (art)
In art, neorealism was established by the ex-Camden Town Group painters Charles Ginner and Harold Gilman at the beginning of World War I. They set out to explore the spirit of their age through the shapes and colours of daily life...
in a story of a young man from the provinces who tries to make it into the Catalan middle class. Brillante Porvenir
Brillante Porvenir
Promising Future is a 1965 Spanish film directed by Vicente Aranda and Román Gubern. Set in Neorealism style, the plot was inspired by F...
, cut by censors, was received coldly by public and critics, but made Aranda interested towards the more fantastic ambit of film making.
His second film, Fata Morgana
Fata Morgana (1965 film)
Fata Morgana is a 1965 Spanish drama directed by veteran filmmaker Vicente Aranda and distributed in America by Troma Entertainment. It grossed 1,882,000 ESP in the box office with 40,053 in attendance....
(1965), an unusual work in Spanish Cinema
Cinema of Spain
The art of motion-picture making within the nation of Spain or by Spanish filmmakers abroad is collectively known as Spanish Cinema.In recent years, Spanish cinema has achieved high marks of recognition as a result of its creative and technical excellence...
, is an experimental film, based on a script written with Gonzalo Suárez
Gonzalo Suárez
Gonzalo Suárez Morilla is a Spanish writer, screenwriter and film director.-Career:In 1963 he published his first novel De cuerpo presente....
. The film took inspiration for its visual style from television commercials and comic strips. Ignored upon release, Fata Morgana
Fata Morgana (1965 film)
Fata Morgana is a 1965 Spanish drama directed by veteran filmmaker Vicente Aranda and distributed in America by Troma Entertainment. It grossed 1,882,000 ESP in the box office with 40,053 in attendance....
would eventually be recognized for inspiring the particular kitsch aesthetic of La Escuela de Barcelona (the Barcelona School of Film), an avant garde movement which sought creative renovation of Spanish films.
In the following years Aranda’s work oscillated between certain artistic pretensions and a virtual style drawn from mass media. In these films, Aranda tackled established film genres with and eye on revising and modernizing them.
Since his first features were not widely seen, Aranda followed up with a commercial film with fantastic and erotic overtones: Las Crueles (1969) (The Exquisite Cadaver
The Exquisite Cadaver
The Exquisite Cadaver AKA: The Cruel Ones is a 1969 Spanish art house exploitation film directed by Vicente Aranda, based on the short story, Bailando Para Parker written by Gonzalo Suárez. The plot follows a well-do-do publisher and family man, who begins to receive severed body parts in the...
). In it, a mysterious woman elaborates a scheme to avenge the death of her girlfriend from a callous publisher. This filmed was plagued with a series of problems: it was long in the making; Aranda suffered an accident during the shooting, which forced him to work from a stretcher and finally he had a legal battle with the producers. It would take Aranda many years to recover ownership of this film. The experience made him found his own production company: Morgana film, which would produce his next six features.
In La Novia Ensangrentada (1972) (The Blood Spattered Bride), a female vampire seeks revenge against all men. A genre film for the cultural elite, that got around the censors by virtue of its incomprehensibility. By Aranda own admission he sacrificed conventional coherence for the cinematographic and phenomenological possibilities of each action. The film was distributed internationally in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
.
Aranda started to employ the codes of melodrama with: Clara es el Precio
Clara es el Precio
Clara is the Price' is a 1975 Spanish film directed by Vicente Aranda. It stars Amparo Muñoz, Máximo Valverde and Juan Luis Galiardo. It was shot in Cadaques, Ampuriabrava , Delta del Ebro and Barcelona.-Synopsis :...
(1974) (Clara is the Price), an offbeat mix of melodrama, parody and surreal comedy. He cast Amparo Muñoz
Amparo Muñoz
Amparo Muñoz Quesada was a Spanish actress who, in 1974, became the first, and so far, only Spaniard to win the Miss Universe pageant.-Miss Universe 1974:Amparo Muñoz came from the town of Vélez-Málaga, Andalusia,...
, Spain’s future Miss Universe
Miss Universe
Miss Universe is an annual international beauty contest that is run by the Miss Universe Organization. The pageant is the most publicized beauty contest in the world with 600 million viewers....
, as a naive housewife adrift in a world without taboo who pursues a career as a pornographic film actress in order to fund a business project for her impotent husband. Made during El Destape, a period in Spanish Cinema, that experienced a proliferation of nudity in film taking advantage of the new liberties obtained during the political period that follow the fall of Franco's regime. The film’s imprudence was also its purpose.” Like the Surrealist, Aranda’s ability to shock was itself a political statement. “ We had lived in a state of consensus and this is fatal for cinema”, he complained, “ We have become our own censors and all we want to do is forget, be silent, not speak"
Cambio de Sexo (1976)
The fall of Francisco FrancoFrancisco Franco
Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...
’s regime, brought a new permissiveness and the Catalan director was finally able to shoot more daring films like: Cambio de Sexo
Cambio de Sexo
Sex Change is a 1976 Spanish film, written and directed by Vicente Aranda. It stars Victoria Abril. The film dramatizes the story of a young effeminate boy, who moves to the city to explore his desire to become a woman.-Synopsis :...
(1976) (Sex Change), skillfully tackling the subject of transexuality, using it as an embodiment of the political transition lived at the time in Spain. This film marks a switch in Aranda's filmography. He began to use a more realistic style rather than the stylish aesthetics prominent in his early films. Cambio de Sexo marks the beginning of a long collaboration with Victoria Abril
Victoria Abril
Victoria Abril is a Spanish film actress. She is best known to international audiences for her performance in the movie ¡Átame! by director Pedro Almodóvar....
, who became his favorite actress. Over the next three decades director and star would be paired in a dozen films that would include major artistic triumphs for both. Made in the period called the transition, Cambio de Sexo
Cambio de Sexo
Sex Change is a 1976 Spanish film, written and directed by Vicente Aranda. It stars Victoria Abril. The film dramatizes the story of a young effeminate boy, who moves to the city to explore his desire to become a woman.-Synopsis :...
is a salient example of the use of transsexualism to reflect social change. The film dramatizes the development of the destape – the period in the late 1970s and early 1980s Spain characterized by a much more open portrayal of sex in the press, literature and film.
Cambio de Sexo recounts the story of a young effeminate boy, played by Victoria Abril, who lives in the outskirts of Barcelona and escapes to the city to explore his desire to become a woman. The character of the young man with a sex identity problem is an embodiment of the changes confronted by the two sides of Spain with their opposites extremes of uncompromising orthodoxy and unrestrained anarchy. Cambio de Sexo
Cambio de Sexo
Sex Change is a 1976 Spanish film, written and directed by Vicente Aranda. It stars Victoria Abril. The film dramatizes the story of a young effeminate boy, who moves to the city to explore his desire to become a woman.-Synopsis :...
allured audiences with its controversial theme, a real novelty, and was released to critical acclaim.
La Muchacha de las Bragas de Oro (1980)
Sexuality and the past, key themes in Aranda's work, are at the center of La Muchacha de las Bragas de OroLa Muchacha de las Bragas de Oro
The Girl with the Golden Panties is a 1980 Spanish Film directed by Vicente Aranda. It stars Victoria Abril and Lautaro Murúa. The film was based upon a novel by Catalonian author Juan Marsé. La Muchacha de las Bragas de Oro explores the changing nature of a former fascist, a reflection of Spain...
(1980) (Girl with the Golden Panties), a film adaptation of a popular novel by his fellow Catalan Juan Marsé
Juan Marsé
Juan Marsé is a Spanish novelist, journalist and screenwriter, born in Barcelona on January 8, 1933 as Juan Faneca Roca.His mother died in childbirth, and he was soon adopted by the Marsé family. At age 14 he started to publish some of his writings in Insula magazine and in a cinema magazine while...
, in which Aranda displayed a more mature style.
In La Muchacha de las Bragas de Oro
La Muchacha de las Bragas de Oro
The Girl with the Golden Panties is a 1980 Spanish Film directed by Vicente Aranda. It stars Victoria Abril and Lautaro Murúa. The film was based upon a novel by Catalonian author Juan Marsé. La Muchacha de las Bragas de Oro explores the changing nature of a former fascist, a reflection of Spain...
, a Falangist character, writing his memoirs accommodates his past to the new democratic realities, but his world of lies falls apart when he is confronted by his carefree niece, who playfully stars a game of seduction.
Very interested in literature, over the next fifteen years Aranda established himself, as Spain’s foremost adapter of popular contemporary novels into film. A great number of his movies are based on literary works from short narratives to novels, including even biographies. Unlike the more traditional adaptation that stressed their classical literary origins, his choices usually were guided by the centrality of an erotically defined female character, and a contemporary story emphasizing the force of the milieu on the shaping of actions.
For Aranda, adapting a literary work does not involve complications of faithfulness, or lack of the same, to the original text. For him the novel is a raw material with which to create new forms: “ As for adaptations, I feel very comfortable doing them. I don’t have problem with authorship. I don’t think I am more of an author if I write a screenplay of something I’ve read on the news papers or seen on the street that if I take a novel and make a movie based on its contents”.
Asesinato en el Comité Central (1982)
After democracy was installed in Spain, Aranda made a film politically charged with the aftereffects of Franco's regime: Asesinato en el Comité CentralAsesinato en el Comité Central
Murder in the Central Committee is a 1982 Spanish Film directed by Vicente Aranda. It stars Patxi Andión and Victoria Abril. The film was based on a novel by Manuel Vázquez Montalbán...
(1982) (Murder in the Central Committee). In this thriller, a power cut interrupts the proceedings of the Communist Congress and, when the lights come back on, the leader is found death, murdered. The film was based on one of a series of novels by Manuel Vázquez Montalbán
Manuel Vázquez Montalbán
Manuel Vázquez Montalbán was a prolific Spanish writer: journalist, novelist, poet, essayist, anthologue, prologist, humourist, critic, as well as a gastronome and a FC Barcelona supporter....
that featured a hard-boiled detective called Pepe Carvalho
Pepe Carvalho
Pepe Carvalho is a fictional private detective, the protagonist of a series of novels written by Manuel Vázquez Montalbán.-The character:Carvalho has a rich, complex and contradictory personality. The author uses his adventures to describe, and in many instances criticize, the political and...
. The intrigue runs a poor second to Aranda’s commentary on the Spanish transition to democracy
Spanish transition to democracy
The Spanish transition to democracy was the era when Spain moved from the dictatorship of Francisco Franco to a liberal democratic state. The transition is usually said to have begun with Franco’s death on 20 November 1975, while its completion has been variously said to be marked by the Spanish...
. “ The truth is that I cannot think of another film that deals with this fascinating period’, he stated, there is a kind of collective amnesia about the time”.
Much of the film’s action is filtered through headlines and television reports in imitation of the way in which the Spanish public lived the transition. The televised funeral of the Communist leader is a sly montage of mourners at the funeral of Franco
Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...
, while La Pasionaria (the legendary Spanish Communist leader who passed dictatorship in exile in the Soviet Union) appears as a senile old dear who sits next to the victim but does not even realize he is dead. Like La Muchacha de las Bragas de Oro
La Muchacha de las Bragas de Oro
The Girl with the Golden Panties is a 1980 Spanish Film directed by Vicente Aranda. It stars Victoria Abril and Lautaro Murúa. The film was based upon a novel by Catalonian author Juan Marsé. La Muchacha de las Bragas de Oro explores the changing nature of a former fascist, a reflection of Spain...
, this was a film about extremist coming together in a democracy, in this case in order to solve a crime. Whodunnit ? it does not matter. As the interior minister exclaims: In the same way that we’ve had to forget everything, you should to the same”
Asesinato en el Comité Central
Asesinato en el Comité Central
Murder in the Central Committee is a 1982 Spanish Film directed by Vicente Aranda. It stars Patxi Andión and Victoria Abril. The film was based on a novel by Manuel Vázquez Montalbán...
was Aranda’s first work shot in Madrid instead of his native Barcelona. The film was received with a cold commercial response.
Fanny Pelopaja (1984)
Aranda then adapted another popular Catalan author making a daring rewrite of Andreu Martín noirFilm noir
Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...
detective novel, Prótesis, in which he transformed the male protagonist into a female retitling the work Fanny Pelopaja
Fanny Pelopaja
Fanny Strawhair is a 1984 crime thriller film, directed by Vicente Aranda and starring Fanny Cottençon and Bruno Cremer. The film, a Spanish and French production, was based on the novel Prótesis, written by Andreu Martin...
(1984). The film depicts a violent love hate relationship between a delinquent woman and the corrupt police officer she wants to get even with.
Co financed by French producers, the film was made in Barcelona with Spanish supporting cast and crew, but with two French actors in the lead. Dissatisfied with the French dubbing of the film, done without his oversight, Aranda tried to stopped the premiere of the film in France, were it was released with the title Á coups de crosse. As a result of this dispute Aranda sold its shares in Morgana films, the production company he had created. Fanny Pelopaja failed to find an audience when first released, but now has become one of Aranda best regarded works.
El Crimen del Capitán Sánchez (1984)
After his two previous films were received coldly by audiences, Aranda accepted to take part in La Huella del Crimen (The Trace of the Crime), a television series consisting of six episodes depicting infamous crimes happened in Spain. Renown Spanish film directors: Pedro Olea, Angelino FonsAngelino Fons
Angelino Fons Fernández , was a Spanish film director and screenwriter.-Career:Angelino Fons was born on March 6, 1936 in Madrid, just months before the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. He grew up in Murcia and Orihuela, where he moved with his family in 1940, there he studied at the Jesuit...
, Ricardo Franco
Ricardo Franco
Ricardo Franco was a Spanish screenwriter and film director.- Biography :Nephew of Jesús Franco. He died at 49 years old when he filmed Lágrimas negras....
, Juan Antonio Bardem, Pedro Costa
Pedro Costa
Pedro Costa is a Portuguese film director.He is acclaimed for using his ascetic style to depict the marginalised people in desperate living situations...
and Vicente Aranda were invited to direct, each one of them, a different episode.
Aranda’s chapter El Crimen del Capitán Sánchez
El Crimen del Capitán Sánchez
Captain Sánchez’s Crime is a 1985 Spanish drama film, made for TV in 16 mm and directed by Vicente Aranda. It stars Fernado Guillén, Victoria Abril and José Cerro. The film is based on a real crime which occurred in Madrid in 1913.-Plot :Madrid, 1913...
(1984) (Captain Sánchez's Crime), was considered the best episode of the series.
Made in 16 mm and with a very low budget, the one-hour film tells a story in which incest, jealousy and death mix in Spain of beginnings of the twenty-century. The title character is a military officer, who supports his poor family and pays his gambling debts plotting an elaborate trap to swindle money from those who fall for the charms of his pretty eldest daughter.
Tiempo de Silencio (1986)
Aranda's career began to soar when he made a film adaptation of the famed Luis Martín SantosLuis Martín Santos
Luis Martín-Santos Ribera was a Spanish psychiatrist and author of Tiempo de silencio , considered one of the greatest Spanish novels of the twentieth century.-Biography:...
novel, Tiempo de Silencio
Tiempo de silencio
Tiempo de Silencio is a 1986 Spanish film directed by Vicente Aranda adapted from a well-regarded novel written by Luis Martín-Santos. It stars Imanol Arias, Victoria Abril and Francisco Rabal...
(1986) (Time of Silence). The film had a major cast headed by Imanol Arias
Imanol Arias
Imanol Arias born Manuel María Arias Domínguez , is a Spanish actor and one off film director.Imanol Arias began his career with a travelling theatre group in Spain performing in the Basque Country of northern Spain. He debuted on TV in 1976 and his first film was in "Cecilia " of 'Humberto Solas'...
, Victoria Abril
Victoria Abril
Victoria Abril is a Spanish film actress. She is best known to international audiences for her performance in the movie ¡Átame! by director Pedro Almodóvar....
and Francisco Rabal
Francisco Rabal
Francisco Rabal , perhaps better known as Paco Rabal, was a Spanish actor born in Águilas, a small town in the province of Murcia, Spain....
. Set in the 1940s, in the early days of the Franco’s regime, the plot follows the story of an ambitious doctor who is accused of killing a woman while he tried to save her life after a botched abortion. The story moves from the sordid life of shanty dwellings to the hypocrisy of the middle classes in a critic of Franco’s regime. Aranda’s themes of sexuality are used as a register to which political and historical issues can be expressed. Though it was criticized by some for his realistic approach to the narrational complexity of the Martín Santos novel, Time of Silence was generally well received by audiences.
El Lute (1987)
Aranda took a deconstructive approach to the manipulation of popular myth in his two- part biopic: El Lute: camina o revientaEl Lute: camina o revienta
El Lute: Run for Your Life is a 1987 Spanish film written and directed by Vicente Aranda, based on the memoirs of Eleuterio Sánchez, “El Lute”, a delinquent who became notorious in Spain for his jail escapes in the 1960's. It stars Imanol Arias and Victoria Abril. The film was a hit in Spain and...
(1987) (El Lute, Run for Your Life), and El Lute II, mañana seré libre (1988) (El Lute Tomorrow I’ll be Free). El Lute: camina o revienta
El Lute: camina o revienta
El Lute: Run for Your Life is a 1987 Spanish film written and directed by Vicente Aranda, based on the memoirs of Eleuterio Sánchez, “El Lute”, a delinquent who became notorious in Spain for his jail escapes in the 1960's. It stars Imanol Arias and Victoria Abril. The film was a hit in Spain and...
(1987) (El Lute, Run for Your Life) concerns the legendary delinquent Eleuterio Sánchez
Eleuterio Sánchez
Eleuterio Sánchez Rodríguez , known as El Lute, was at one time listed as Spain's "Most Wanted" criminal. He was a legendary Spanish outlaw who escaped several times from prison after being convicted and sentenced at age 23 to 30 years for murder...
, known as El Lute, a poor man forced by social deprivation into delinquency in the 1960s. After an early nomadic period of his life, El Lute moves to Madrid's slums outskirts, becomes involved in a burglary and murder, is tortured and condemn to life in prison. His spectacular escapes from jail turn him into a popular folk hero and public enemy number one for the Franco police.
Aranda’s hybrid combination of period drama, thriller and social realism reveals how the criminal career and media profile of this petty thief were manipulated and exploited by the authorities as a diversionary tactic at a time of political unrest. El Lute: camina o revienta
El Lute: camina o revienta
El Lute: Run for Your Life is a 1987 Spanish film written and directed by Vicente Aranda, based on the memoirs of Eleuterio Sánchez, “El Lute”, a delinquent who became notorious in Spain for his jail escapes in the 1960's. It stars Imanol Arias and Victoria Abril. The film was a hit in Spain and...
(1987) (El Lute, Run for Your Life) was one of Aranda’s most successful adaptation and became the highest grossing Spanish film in 1987.
El Lute II, mañana seré libre (1988)
In the second part:El Lute II, mañana seré libre (1988) (El Lute Tomorrow I’ll be Free), El Lute, now a fugitive, is reunited with his siblings. He tries to start a new life, but fails to fit in as a normal member of society. After an spectacular escape from prison, El Lute becomes the focus of an obsessive pursuit by the Francoist authorities and the object of massive popular interest by the press and public in the late 1960s and early 1970s.Compared to the strongly realistic and political tone of the first installment, El Lute II, mañana seré libre took a more fictionalized, folkloric approach, adopting a more pronounced thriller profile. Although the film includes numerous concessions to violence and eroticism, it delivered a resounding critique of the Franco regime and its brutal treatment of the Spanish gypsy population.
Si te dicen que caí (1989)
The frank examination of sexuality is one of the trademarks of Aranda’s work and he made his most sexually explicit film with Si te dicen que caí (1989) (If They Tell You I Fell), an adaptation of a novel of the same name by Juan Marsé. With a labyrinthine structure in which imaginary facts and real events are blend in a crosswords style, the main part of the story is set in the old quarter of 1940’s Barcelona during the early years of Francoist repression. The plot centers on a young man who, trying to survive in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, is hired to perform sexual acts with a prostitute for the voyeuristic pleasure of a rich falangist rendered crippled during the war. With a large cast, including Victoria AbrilVictoria Abril
Victoria Abril is a Spanish film actress. She is best known to international audiences for her performance in the movie ¡Átame! by director Pedro Almodóvar....
playing three different characters, the film was daring an ambitious in its scope.
Los Jinetes del Alba (1990)
At the request of Pilar MiróPilar Miró
Pilar Miró was a Spanish screenwriter and film director.She directed TVE from 1986 to 1989, and in the 90's, the weddings of the daughters of King Juan Carlos I. In 1992, her film Beltenebros won the Silver Bear for an outstanding artistic contribution at the 42nd Berlin International Film...
, then director of TVE, Aranda took on :Los Jinetes del Alba
Los Jinetes del Alba
Riders of the Dawn is a 1990 Spanish film, written and directed by Vicente Aranda, an adaptation of a novel by Jesús Fernández Santos. It stars Victoria Abril and Jorge Sanz...
(1990) (Riders of the Dawn) an adaptation of the novel by Jesús Fernández Santos about the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
and the anarchist movement.
Made as a five parts TV miniseries, it centers on a young woman driven by the ambition to own the resort where she works in a small town in Asturias
Asturias
The Principality of Asturias is an autonomous community of the Kingdom of Spain, coextensive with the former Kingdom of Asturias in the Middle Ages...
. When she finally achieves her goal, there is little to rejoice about. Aranda's favorite topics: cruelty, violence and sex pervade a story framed by the tumultuous life of Spain in the 1930s, the uprising in Asturias in 1934 and the Spanish Civil War. This is one Aranda’s most paradigmatic works.
Amantes (1991)
In the 1990s, Vicente Aranda continued to make films that were commercial hits at home and were shown at film festivals worldwide. With Amantes (1991) (Lovers), the director finally achieved wide international exposure and critical acclaim. This tragic story of forbidden passions and betrayed innocence is a film noirFilm noir
Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...
, inspired by real events. In the repressive Spain during the early 1950s, a young man just out of military service is torn between his attraction for the two opposite women who love him: his girlfriend, a naïve maid and, his landlady, an attractive, scheming widow.
Originally conceived as a T.V project, Amantes, was made with few actors, a small crew and with few exteriors. Nevertheless, it is widely considered as the director's most accomplished work, becoming a classic of Spanish Cinema
Cinema of Spain
The art of motion-picture making within the nation of Spain or by Spanish filmmakers abroad is collectively known as Spanish Cinema.In recent years, Spanish cinema has achieved high marks of recognition as a result of its creative and technical excellence...
It marked the beginning of Aranda most prolific period.
El Amante Bilingüe (1993)
Still investigating into the passion of love, Aranda directed El Amante BilingüeEl Amante Bilingüe
The Bilingual Lover is a 1993 Spanish film, written and directed by Vicente Aranda adapted from a novel by Juan Marsé. It stars Imanol Arias, Ornella Muti and Loles León. The film is a grotesque drama with some elements of comedy...
(1993) (The Bilingual Lover), also an adaptation of a story by Juan Marsé. Set in Barcelona, this is an ironic film that mixes Catalan
Catalan language
Catalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...
linguistic policies, nationalism
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
and eroticism
Eroticism
Eroticism is generally understood to refer to a state of sexual arousal or anticipation of such – an insistent sexual impulse, desire, or pattern of thoughts, as well as a philosophical contemplation concerning the aesthetics of sexual desire, sensuality and romantic love...
with a pattern of double identity. The central character is a humble man who falls in love with a beautiful rich woman, they marry but his unfaithful wife abandons him later. He is horribly disfigured in an explosion and gradually adopts a new identity in an effort to lure back his spoil ex-wife.
Intruso (1993)
Some of Vicente Aranda films present real events, things that happen on the street but that have had the appearance of the exceptional occurrences, where passion, toughness, and violence manage to acquire a tone of unreality that is almost literary. In IntrusoIntruso
Intruder is a 1993 Spanish film, written and directed by Vicente Aranda. It stars Victoria Abril, Imanol Arias and Antonio Valero. The film is a psychological thriller. A middle class woman torn between her love for her spouse and her ill ex-husband, both of them were her childhood friends...
(1993) (Intruder), Aranda takes the theme of the relationship between love and death through a passionate love to its ultimate conclusion. This film is a psychological thriller with much of the visual atmosphere and exacerbated passions of Amantes. A middle class woman is torn between her love for her spouse and her ill ex-husband, both of which were her childhood friends. After ten years of separation, they are entangled in a tragic story.
La Pasión Turca (1994)
In almost all of Aranda’s films, a woman is the protagonist and the center around which the story turns. La Pasión TurcaLa Pasión Turca
The Turkish Passion is a 1994 Spanish film, written and directed by Vicente Aranda adapted from a popular novel by Antonio Gala. It stars Ana Belén and Georges Corraface. The film is an erotic drama, an exploration of female sexual desire. Highly controversial, La Pasion Turca continues Spanish...
(1994) (Turkish Passion) an adaptation of a novel by Antonio Gala
Antonio Gala
Antonio Gala Velasco is a Spanish poet, playwright, novelist and writer.Gala was born in Brazatortas, Ciudad Real , although he moved very soon to Córdoba and is widely considered an Andalusian....
, is an exploration of female sexual desire. Here a bored housewife from a well to do family, decides to risk everything by leaving her husband to return to her lover who she met while on holiday in Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
. Her pursuit of sexual pleasure leads her to an obsessive dependence, degradation and total collapse of her selfesteem. La Pasión Turca became one of Spain's highest grossing films of the 1990s.
Libertarias (1996)
Aranda’s interest in the Spanish Civil War finally found an outlet in: LibertariasLibertarias
Libertarias is a Spanish historical drama made in 1996. It was written and directed by Vicente Aranda.In 1936, Maria , a young nun is recruited by Pilar , a militant feminist, into an anarchist militia following the onset of the Spanish Civil War...
(1996) (Women Freedom Fighters) an epic drama with an ensemble cast that reconstructs the role played by anarchist women during the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
. Set in Barcelona at the start of the war, a young naive nun has to flee her convent and seeks refuge in a brothel, where she is recruited to the anarchist cause, along with the prostitutes. Together, a group of six women (Mujeres Libres or Free Women
Mujeres Libres
Mujeres Libres was an anarchist women's organization in Spain that aimed to empower working class women. It was founded in 1936 by Lucía Sánchez Saornil, Mercedes Comaposada and Amparo Poch y Gascón and had approximately 30,000 members...
) face the perils of war until their idealistic dreams of utopia are brutally crushed.
La Mirada del Otro (1998)
La Mirada del OtroLa Mirada del Otro
The Naked Eye is a 1998 Spanish film, written and directed by Vicente Aranda adapted from a novel by Fernando G. Delgado. It stars Laura Morante, Miguel Ángel García and José Coronado. The film is an erotic psychodrama, an exploration of female sexual desire...
(1998) (The Naked Eye), with a script based on a novel by Fernando G Delgado, is an erotic psychodrama
Psychodrama
Psychodrama is a method of psychotherapy in which clients utilize spontaneous dramatization, role playing and dramatic self-presentation to investigate and gain insight into their lives. Developed by Jacob L. Moreno, M.D. psychodrama includes elements of theater, often conducted on a stage where...
; a woman in her 30s embarks on a quest for sexual pleasure which only brings her loneliness. The sordidness of the plot overpowered the credibility of the characters and the film was spurned by public and critics.
Celos (1999)
A veteran explorer of life at emotional extremes, writer-director Vicente Aranda was back in familiar territory with CelosCelos
Jealousy is a 1999 Spanish film, written and directed by Vicente Aranda. It stars Daniel Giménez Cacho, Aitana Sanchez-Gijón, Maria Botto and Luis Tosar.-Plot:...
(1999) (Jealousy), his third entrance in the love triangle trilogy formed with Amantes and Intruso
Intruso
Intruder is a 1993 Spanish film, written and directed by Vicente Aranda. It stars Victoria Abril, Imanol Arias and Antonio Valero. The film is a psychological thriller. A middle class woman torn between her love for her spouse and her ill ex-husband, both of them were her childhood friends...
. Once again the director constructed a story around destructive passions that lead to tragedy. A truck driver is tormented by jealousy about the man who was the former boyfriend of the beautiful woman he is about to marry, launching a detective labor to find him and know the truth that he feels his fiance is hiding from him.
"Jealousy is at the center of stories of passion", Aranda explained. "To suffer with relish, there is nothing better than uncertainty. A good story demands that audiences share the same doubts than the main characters in the story: whether there is or is not a betrayal. There is always some else lurking and we also know that crime is among us even if exist albeit only at the bottom of our hearts".
Juana la Loca (2001)
Vicente Aranda, switched to period pieces, initiating a trilogy of historic costume dramas with Juana La LocaJuana la Loca (2001 film)
Mad Love is a 2001period drama film written and directed by Vicente Aranda starring Pilar López de Ayala and Daniele Liotti. The plot follows the tragic fate of Queen Joanna of Castile madly in love to an unfaithful husband, Philip the Handsome, Archduke of Austria.The film received 3 Goya...
(2001) (Mad Love), a reinterpretation of the tragic fate of the 15th century Spanish Queen, Joanna of Castile
Joanna of Castile
Joanna , nicknamed Joanna the Mad , was the first queen regnant to reign over both the Crown of Castile and the Crown of Aragon , a union which evolved into modern Spain...
, who fell madly in love with her unfaithful husband. The film, a commercial and critical hit, was Spain's entry at the 2001 Academy Awards
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
for Best Foreign Language Film and it became Aranda’s biggest box-office movie.
Carmen (2003)
Desire and betrayal, themes that have been recurrent in Aranda's career, are center to the plot of CarmenCarmen (2003 film)
Carmen is a 2003 film about the classical romance of the same name by Prosper Mérimée. Director Vicente Aranda bases the plot on Mérimée's original novella from 1847 , changing some details about the love story between Carmen and José...
(2003), a film based on Prosper Merimée
Prosper Mérimée
Prosper Mérimée was a French dramatist, historian, archaeologist, and short story writer. He is perhaps best known for his novella Carmen, which became the basis of Bizet's opera Carmen.-Life:...
’s 1845 novella about jealousy and passion that inspired the famous Opera of the same name
Carmen
Carmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...
by George Bizet. Set in Andalusia
Andalusia
Andalusia is the most populous and the second largest in area of the autonomous communities of Spain. The Andalusian autonomous community is officially recognised as a nationality of Spain. The territory is divided into eight provinces: Huelva, Seville, Cádiz, Córdoba, Málaga, Jaén, Granada and...
in 1830, a military officer is seduced by a striking gypsy girl who works in a cigarette factory. His love for her only brings his downfall. Carmen is a story of desire, betrayal and death as the filmography of Vicente Aranda. The film was made with high production values and was another success with audiences for the veteran director.
Tirant lo Blanc (2006)
Aranda completed his costume drama trilogy with Tirant lo BlancTirant lo Blanc (film)
Tirant lo Blanc is a 2006 historical adventure film directed by Vicente Aranda. It is based on Tirant lo Blanch, a Catalan language chivalry novel dating to 1490, written by Joanot Martorell...
(2006) (The Maidens' Conspiracy), an adaptation of the seminal Catalan chivalry
Chivalry
Chivalry is a term related to the medieval institution of knighthood which has an aristocratic military origin of individual training and service to others. Chivalry was also the term used to refer to a group of mounted men-at-arms as well as to martial valour...
novel written in fifteenth century by Joanot Martorell
Joanot Martorell
Joanot Martorell was a Valencian knight and the author of the novel Tirant lo Blanch, which is written in Valencian...
. The plot follows the adventures of Tirante, a knight from humble origins in the Byzantine Empire
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
who gains the favor of the ailing Emperor fighting the incursion into Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
by the Turks, but later seduces the royal family's only surviving child, a young, fanciful, and impressionable princess.
Made with a large budget (This is Aranda's most expensive work) the film, filled with both humor and drama, is lavish, risqué, and skillfully composed, but superficial and unsatisfying. Tirant lo Blanc did not enjoy the success of the director's two previous films.
Canciones de Amor en Lolita's club (2007)
Aranda has developed a specialism in making screen version of novels by Juan Marsé. With La Muchacha de las Bragas de OroLa Muchacha de las Bragas de Oro
The Girl with the Golden Panties is a 1980 Spanish Film directed by Vicente Aranda. It stars Victoria Abril and Lautaro Murúa. The film was based upon a novel by Catalonian author Juan Marsé. La Muchacha de las Bragas de Oro explores the changing nature of a former fascist, a reflection of Spain...
(1980); Si te dicen que caí (1989), El Amante Bilingüe
El Amante Bilingüe
The Bilingual Lover is a 1993 Spanish film, written and directed by Vicente Aranda adapted from a novel by Juan Marsé. It stars Imanol Arias, Ornella Muti and Loles León. The film is a grotesque drama with some elements of comedy...
(1993) and Canciones de Amor en Lolita's club
Canciones de Amor en Lolita's club
Canciones de amor en Lolita's Club is a 2007 Spanish film written and directed by Vicente Aranda. It stars Eduardo Noriega and Flora Martínez. The plot follows the story of twin brothers, one is a coldhearted violent police officer, the other is a helpless romantic with a mental disability...
(2007) (Lolita’s Club), the director has a track record of four adaptations from Marsé’s contemporary novels.
Canciones de amor en Lolita’s Club (2007) is an erotic thriller, in which sex and brutality are mixed in a story of very different twin brothers, one is a coldhearted violent police officer the other is a helpless romantic suffering from a mental handicap. The two brothers are tragically involved with a prostitute who works in the bordello that gives the film its title. Released in November 2007, the film was widely considered a disappointment and quickly disappeared from the Spanish screens.
Luna Caliente (2009)
Aranda most recent film, Luna CalienteLuna Caliente
Luna Caliente is a 2009 Spanish film written and directed by Vicente Aranda, starring Eduard Fernández and Thaïs Blume. The film is an adaptation of the novel of the same title by Argentine author Mempo Giardinelli...
(2009) (Hot Moon), tells the story of a poet, who briefly returning to his home town, gets entangled in a web of sex and violence with the young daughter of his host after he rapes her. The script is based on a novel by Argentine Mempo Giardinelli, which places the action in the last military coup in Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
. Aranda set the story in Spain of the 1970s during the process of Burgos, which caused some of the last death sentences in Spain during Francos' regime. Luna Caliente premiered in October 2009 at the Valladolid International Film Festival
Seminci
Valladolid International Film Festival is a film festival held annually in Valladolid, Spain since 1956....
, but like his two previous films was ill promoted and failed to find an audience.
Filmography
| Year | English title | Original title | Notes | Audience |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1964 | Promising Future Brillante Porvenir Promising Future is a 1965 Spanish film directed by Vicente Aranda and Román Gubern. Set in Neorealism style, the plot was inspired by F... |
Brillante Porvenir | co directing with crititic and historian Román Gubern. | 130.012 |
| 1965 | Fata Morgana Fata Morgana (1965 film) Fata Morgana is a 1965 Spanish drama directed by veteran filmmaker Vicente Aranda and distributed in America by Troma Entertainment. It grossed 1,882,000 ESP in the box office with 40,053 in attendance.... |
Fata Morgana | Original Script written with Gonzalo Suárez Gonzalo Suárez Gonzalo Suárez Morilla is a Spanish writer, screenwriter and film director.-Career:In 1963 he published his first novel De cuerpo presente.... . |
40.053 |
| 1969 | The Exquisite Cadaver The Exquisite Cadaver The Exquisite Cadaver AKA: The Cruel Ones is a 1969 Spanish art house exploitation film directed by Vicente Aranda, based on the short story, Bailando Para Parker written by Gonzalo Suárez. The plot follows a well-do-do publisher and family man, who begins to receive severed body parts in the... |
Las Crueles | Based on a short story written by Gonzalo Suárez Gonzalo Suárez Gonzalo Suárez Morilla is a Spanish writer, screenwriter and film director.-Career:In 1963 he published his first novel De cuerpo presente.... |
338.695 |
| 1972 | The Blood Spattered Bride The Blood Spattered Bride The Blood Spattered Bride is a 1972 Spanish horror film written and directed by Vicente Aranda, based on the vampire story, "Carmilla" by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu. It stars Simón Andreu, Maribel Martín, and Alexandra Bastedo.The film has reached cult status for its mix of horror, vampirism and... |
La Novia Ensangrentada | 531.108 | |
| 1974 | Clara is the Price Clara es el Precio Clara is the Price' is a 1975 Spanish film directed by Vicente Aranda. It stars Amparo Muñoz, Máximo Valverde and Juan Luis Galiardo. It was shot in Cadaques, Ampuriabrava , Delta del Ebro and Barcelona.-Synopsis :... |
Clara es el precio | Original script written with Jesús Ferrero | 1.013.439 |
| 1976 | Sex Change Cambio de Sexo Sex Change is a 1976 Spanish film, written and directed by Vicente Aranda. It stars Victoria Abril. The film dramatizes the story of a young effeminate boy, who moves to the city to explore his desire to become a woman.-Synopsis :... |
Cambio de Sexo | 840.261 | |
| 1980 | The Girl with the Golden Panties La Muchacha de las Bragas de Oro The Girl with the Golden Panties is a 1980 Spanish Film directed by Vicente Aranda. It stars Victoria Abril and Lautaro Murúa. The film was based upon a novel by Catalonian author Juan Marsé. La Muchacha de las Bragas de Oro explores the changing nature of a former fascist, a reflection of Spain... |
La Muchacha de las Bragas de Oro | An adaptation of the novel by Juan Marsé Juan Marsé Juan Marsé is a Spanish novelist, journalist and screenwriter, born in Barcelona on January 8, 1933 as Juan Faneca Roca.His mother died in childbirth, and he was soon adopted by the Marsé family. At age 14 he started to publish some of his writings in Insula magazine and in a cinema magazine while... |
795.848 |
| 1982 | Murder in the Central Committee Asesinato en el Comité Central Murder in the Central Committee is a 1982 Spanish Film directed by Vicente Aranda. It stars Patxi Andión and Victoria Abril. The film was based on a novel by Manuel Vázquez Montalbán... |
Asesinato en el Comité Central | Based on the novel by Manuel Vázquez Montalbán Manuel Vázquez Montalbán Manuel Vázquez Montalbán was a prolific Spanish writer: journalist, novelist, poet, essayist, anthologue, prologist, humourist, critic, as well as a gastronome and a FC Barcelona supporter.... |
170.618 |
| 1984 | Fanny Pelopaja Fanny Pelopaja Fanny Strawhair is a 1984 crime thriller film, directed by Vicente Aranda and starring Fanny Cottençon and Bruno Cremer. The film, a Spanish and French production, was based on the novel Prótesis, written by Andreu Martin... |
Fanny Pelopaja / Á coups de crosse (France) | Based on the novel Protesis by Andreu Martín | 182.664 |
| 1984 | Captain Sánchez's Crime El Crimen del Capitán Sánchez Captain Sánchez’s Crime is a 1985 Spanish drama film, made for TV in 16 mm and directed by Vicente Aranda. It stars Fernado Guillén, Victoria Abril and José Cerro. The film is based on a real crime which occurred in Madrid in 1913.-Plot :Madrid, 1913... |
El Crimen del Capitán Sánchez | Made for T.V in 16 mm. | |
| 1986 | Time of Silence Tiempo de silencio Tiempo de Silencio is a 1986 Spanish film directed by Vicente Aranda adapted from a well-regarded novel written by Luis Martín-Santos. It stars Imanol Arias, Victoria Abril and Francisco Rabal... |
Tiempo de Silencio | Based on the novel by Luis Martín Santos Luis Martín Santos Luis Martín-Santos Ribera was a Spanish psychiatrist and author of Tiempo de silencio , considered one of the greatest Spanish novels of the twentieth century.-Biography:... |
433.149 |
| 1987 | El Lute: Run for Your Life El Lute: camina o revienta El Lute: Run for Your Life is a 1987 Spanish film written and directed by Vicente Aranda, based on the memoirs of Eleuterio Sánchez, “El Lute”, a delinquent who became notorious in Spain for his jail escapes in the 1960's. It stars Imanol Arias and Victoria Abril. The film was a hit in Spain and... |
El Lute: camina o revienta | Based on the biography of Eleuterio Sánchez Eleuterio Sánchez Eleuterio Sánchez Rodríguez , known as El Lute, was at one time listed as Spain's "Most Wanted" criminal. He was a legendary Spanish outlaw who escaped several times from prison after being convicted and sentenced at age 23 to 30 years for murder... |
1.422.188 |
| 1988 | El Lute: Tomorrow I’ll be Free El Lute II: mañana seré libre El Lute II: Tomorrow I’ll be Free is a 1988 Spanish film written and directed by Vicente Aranda, based on the memoirs of Eleuterio Sánchez, “El Lute”, a delinquent who became notorious in Spain for his jail escapes in the 60's. It stars Imanol Arias, Angel Pardo and Jorge Sanz... |
El Lute II: mañana seré libre | Based on the biography of Eleuterio Sanchez | 382.764 |
| 1989 | If They Tell You I Fell If They Tell You I Fell If They Tell You I Fell is a 1989 Spanish film written and directed by Vicente Aranda, starring Jorge Sanz and Victoria Abril. The film is an adaptation of the novel of the same title by Catalan author Juan Marsé. Set mostly in the old quarter of 1940's Barcelona, the film centers in a young rag... |
Si te Dicen que Caí | An adaptation of a novel by Juan Marsé Juan Marsé Juan Marsé is a Spanish novelist, journalist and screenwriter, born in Barcelona on January 8, 1933 as Juan Faneca Roca.His mother died in childbirth, and he was soon adopted by the Marsé family. At age 14 he started to publish some of his writings in Insula magazine and in a cinema magazine while... |
338.369 |
| 1990 | Riders of the Dawn Los Jinetes del Alba Riders of the Dawn is a 1990 Spanish film, written and directed by Vicente Aranda, an adaptation of a novel by Jesús Fernández Santos. It stars Victoria Abril and Jorge Sanz... |
Los Jinetes del alba | Based on the novel by Jesús Fernández Santos. Made as a five episodes television minisieres, it premiered at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival 1990 Cannes Film Festival - Jury :*Bernardo Bertolucci *Alexei Guerman *Anjelica Huston *Bertrand Blier *Christopher Hampton*Fanny Ardant *Françoise Giroud *Hayao Shibata *Mira Nair *Sven Nykvist... as two part feature film. |
|
| 1991 | Lovers | Amantes | Winner of two Goya Awards Goya Awards The Goya Awards, known in Spanish as los Premios Goya, are Spain's main national film awards, considered by many in Spain, and internationally, to be the Spanish equivalent of the American Academy Awards.... : Best Picture and Best Director Screened at the 41st Berlin International Film Festival 41st Berlin International Film Festival The 41st annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from February 15 to 26, 1991.-Jury:* Volker Schlöndorff * Chantal Akerman* Laurie Anderson* José Luis Borau* Judith Godrèche* Yuri Klepikov* Renate Krößner* Gillo Pontecorvo... |
697.368 |
| 1993 | The Bilingual Lover El Amante Bilingüe The Bilingual Lover is a 1993 Spanish film, written and directed by Vicente Aranda adapted from a novel by Juan Marsé. It stars Imanol Arias, Ornella Muti and Loles León. The film is a grotesque drama with some elements of comedy... |
El Amante Bilingüe | Based on a novel by Juan Marsé. | 273.218 |
| 1993 | Intruder Intruso Intruder is a 1993 Spanish film, written and directed by Vicente Aranda. It stars Victoria Abril, Imanol Arias and Antonio Valero. The film is a psychological thriller. A middle class woman torn between her love for her spouse and her ill ex-husband, both of them were her childhood friends... |
Intruso | 249.087 | |
| 1994 | The Turkish Passion La Pasión Turca The Turkish Passion is a 1994 Spanish film, written and directed by Vicente Aranda adapted from a popular novel by Antonio Gala. It stars Ana Belén and Georges Corraface. The film is an erotic drama, an exploration of female sexual desire. Highly controversial, La Pasion Turca continues Spanish... |
La Pasión Turca | Based on a novel by Antonio Gala Antonio Gala Antonio Gala Velasco is a Spanish poet, playwright, novelist and writer.Gala was born in Brazatortas, Ciudad Real , although he moved very soon to Córdoba and is widely considered an Andalusian.... . |
1.240.044 |
| 1996 | Libertarias Libertarias Libertarias is a Spanish historical drama made in 1996. It was written and directed by Vicente Aranda.In 1936, Maria , a young nun is recruited by Pilar , a militant feminist, into an anarchist militia following the onset of the Spanish Civil War... |
Libertarias | 594.978 | |
| 1998 | The Naked Eye La Mirada del Otro The Naked Eye is a 1998 Spanish film, written and directed by Vicente Aranda adapted from a novel by Fernando G. Delgado. It stars Laura Morante, Miguel Ángel García and José Coronado. The film is an erotic psychodrama, an exploration of female sexual desire... |
La Mirada del Otro | An adaptation of the novel by Fernando G. Delgado | 107.489 |
| 1999 | Jealousy | Celos | 338.073 | |
| 2001 | Mad Love Juana la Loca (2001 film) Mad Love is a 2001period drama film written and directed by Vicente Aranda starring Pilar López de Ayala and Daniele Liotti. The plot follows the tragic fate of Queen Joanna of Castile madly in love to an unfaithful husband, Philip the Handsome, Archduke of Austria.The film received 3 Goya... |
Juana la Loca | Based on a play . | 2.067.004 |
| 2003 | Carmen Carmen (2003 film) Carmen is a 2003 film about the classical romance of the same name by Prosper Mérimée. Director Vicente Aranda bases the plot on Mérimée's original novella from 1847 , changing some details about the love story between Carmen and José... |
Carmen | Based on Prosper Merimée Prosper Mérimée Prosper Mérimée was a French dramatist, historian, archaeologist, and short story writer. He is perhaps best known for his novella Carmen, which became the basis of Bizet's opera Carmen.-Life:... 's famous novella |
1.362.874 |
| 2006 | The Maidens' Conspiracy Tirant lo Blanc (film) Tirant lo Blanc is a 2006 historical adventure film directed by Vicente Aranda. It is based on Tirant lo Blanch, a Catalan language chivalry novel dating to 1490, written by Joanot Martorell... |
Tirante el Blanco | Based on the novel by Joanot Martorell Joanot Martorell Joanot Martorell was a Valencian knight and the author of the novel Tirant lo Blanch, which is written in Valencian... |
296.585 |
| 2007 | Lolita’s Club Canciones de Amor en Lolita's club Canciones de amor en Lolita's Club is a 2007 Spanish film written and directed by Vicente Aranda. It stars Eduardo Noriega and Flora Martínez. The plot follows the story of twin brothers, one is a coldhearted violent police officer, the other is a helpless romantic with a mental disability... |
Canciones de amor en Lolita’s Club | Based on a novel by Juan Marsé. | 59.308 |
| 2009 | Hot Moon Luna Caliente Luna Caliente is a 2009 Spanish film written and directed by Vicente Aranda, starring Eduard Fernández and Thaïs Blume. The film is an adaptation of the novel of the same title by Argentine author Mempo Giardinelli... |
Luna Caliente | Based on a novel by Mempo Giardinelli. | 59.388 |