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Pere Portabella
Pere Portabella i Ràfols (; born in 1927) is a Spanish politician, director, and producer. In 1977, he was elected Senator in Spain's first democratic elections and participated in the writing of the Spanish Constitution. As a filmmaker, his style is experimental, reaching new aspects of film language, often with a poetic tone and social content. Portabella is hailed as an iconic figure in Spanish film. Film career Raised among the great Catalan industrial bourgeoisie, Portabella moved at an early age to study chemistry in Madrid. There he met artists such as Joan Ponç, Antoni Tàpies and students at the Escuela Oficial de Cine (EOC), including Carlos Saura and Julio Diamante. The first contacts Portabella made with the world of cinema came in 1958, where he met Leopoldo Pomés in order to make a documentary on bullfighting. Portabella took on the role of producer, while the co-director of the short film was Carlos Saura. Portabella lamented an inability to edit the mater ...
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Senate Of Spain
The Senate () is the upper house of the , which along with the Congress of Deputies – the lower chamber – comprises the Parliament of the Kingdom of Spain. The Senate meets in the Palace of the Senate in Madrid. The presiding officer of the Senate is the president of the Senate, who is elected by the members at the first sitting after each national election. The composition of the Senate is established in Part III of the Spanish Constitution. Each senator represents a province, an autonomous city or an autonomous community. Each mainland province, regardless of its population size, is equally represented by four senators; in the insular provinces, the larger islands are represented by three senators and the minor islands are represented by a single senator. Likewise, the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla elect two senators each. This direct election results in the election of 208 senators by the citizens. In addition, the regional legislatures also designate their ...
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Bullfighting
Bullfighting is a physical contest that involves a bullfighter attempting to subdue, immobilize, or kill a bull, usually according to a set of rules, guidelines, or cultural expectations. There are several variations, including some forms which involve dancing around or leaping over a cow or bull or attempting to grasp an object tied to the animal's horns. The best-known form of bullfighting is Spanish-style bullfighting, practiced in Spain and its former American colonies, as well as parts of Portugal (see: Portuguese-style bullfighting) and Southern France. The Spanish Fighting Bull is bred for its aggression and physique, and is raised free-range with little human contact. The practice of bullfighting is controversial because of a range of concerns including animal welfare, funding, and religion. While some forms are considered a blood sport, in some countries, for example Spain, it is defined as an art form or cultural event, and local regulations define it as a cu ...
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Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach (German: Help:IPA/Standard German, [ˈjoːhan zeˈbasti̯an baχ]) ( – 28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque music, Baroque period. He is known for his prolific output across a variety of instruments and forms, including the orchestral ''Brandenburg Concertos''; solo instrumental works such as the Cello Suites (Bach), cello suites and Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin (Bach), sonatas and partitas for solo violin; keyboard works such as the ''Goldberg Variations'' and ''The Well-Tempered Clavier''; organ works such as the ' and the Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565, Toccata and Fugue in D minor; and choral works such as the ''St Matthew Passion'' and the Mass in B minor. Since the 19th-century Reception of Johann Sebastian Bach's music, Bach Revival, he has been widely regarded as one of the greatest composers in the history of Western music. The Bach family had already produced several composers when Joh ...
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The Silence Before Bach
''The Silence Before Bach'', originally titled , is a 2007 Spanish musical drama film co-written and directed by Pere Portabella about the life and works of Johann Sebastian Bach. The film premiered in the Orizzonti section of the 64th edition of the Venice Film Festival. Plot Cast * Àlex Brendemühl as the truck driver * Christian Brembeck as J. S. Bach * Féodor Atkine as the piano seller * George-Christoph Biller as the cantor of St. Thomas * Georgina Cardona as the cellist * Lucien Dekoster as the piano tuner * Beatriz Ferrer-Salat as the Amazon * Fanny Silvestre as Anna Magdalena Bach * Daniel Ligorio as Felix Mendelssohn * Lina Lambert as Mendelssohn's mother Reception On Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ..., the film has a 84% app ...
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Warsaw Bridge
''Warsaw Bridge'' () is a 1990 feature film by Pere Portabella. It was written by Portabella and his frequent collaborator Carles Santos, who also wrote the score. It was Portabella's first film since 1977, and his first to be photographed entirely in color Color (or colour in English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English; American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or, see spelling differences) is the visual perception based on the electromagnetic spectrum. Though co .... External links * 1990 films 1990s Catalan-language films 1990s Spanish-language films Spanish independent films Films directed by Pere Portabella 1990s Spanish films Spanish drama films {{1990s-Spain-film-stub ...
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Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco Bahamonde (born Francisco Paulino Hermenegildo Teódulo Franco Bahamonde; 4 December 1892 – 20 November 1975) was a Spanish general and dictator who led the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalist forces in overthrowing the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War and thereafter ruled over Spain from 1939 to 1975, assuming the title ''Caudillo''. This period in Spanish history, from the Nationalist victory to Franco's death, is commonly known as Francoist Spain or as the Francoist dictatorship. Born in Ferrol, Spain, Ferrol, Galicia, into an upper-class military family, Franco served in the Spanish Army as a cadet in the Toledo Infantry Academy from 1907 to 1910. While serving in Spanish protectorate in Morocco, Morocco, he rose through the ranks to become a brigadier general in 1926 at age 33. Two years later, Franco became the director of the General Military Academy in Zaragoza. As a Conservatism, conservative and Monarchism, ...
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Fondation Maeght
The Maeght Foundation or Fondation Maeght () is a museum of modern art on the ''Colline des Gardettes'', a hill overlooking Saint-Paul de Vence in the southeast of France about from Nice. It was established by Marguerite and Aimé Maeght in 1964 and houses paintings, sculptures, collages, ceramics and all forms of modern art. Fraser, C. Gerald (7 Sep 1981)Aimé Maeght Dies; Art Dealer Was 75''The New York Times''. The collection includes works by many important 20th-century artists including Jean Arp, Pierre Bonnard, Georges Braque, Alexander Calder, Marc Chagall, Sam Francis, Alberto Giacometti, Wassily Kandinsky, Ellsworth Kelly, Fernand Léger, Anne Madden and Joan Miró among others. The building was designed by the Spanish architect Josep Lluís Sert, houses more than 12,000 pieces of art and attracts "on average, 200,000 visitors ... every year". There is a small chapel dedicated to Saint Bernard, in memory of Bernard, the son of Aimé and Marguerite Maeght wh ...
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Hydrangea
''Hydrangea'' ( or ) is a genus of more than 70 species of Flowering plant, flowering plants native plant, native to Asia and the Americas. Hydrangea is also used as the common name for the genus; some (particularly ''Hydrangea macrophylla, H. macrophylla'') are also often called hortensia. The genus was first described from Virginia in North America, but by far the greatest species diversity is in eastern Asia, notably China, Korea, and Japan. Most are shrub, shrubs tall, but some are small trees, and others lianas reaching up to by climbing up trees. They can be either deciduous or evergreen, though the widely Horticulture, cultivated Temperate climate, temperate species are all deciduous. The flowers of many hydrangeas act as natural pH indicators, producing blue flowers when the soil is acidic and pink ones when the soil is alkaline. Etymology ''Hydrangea'' is derived from Ancient Greek language, Greek and means 'water vessel' (from ''húdōr'' "water" + ''ángos'' or ' ...
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Francesco Rosi
Francesco Rosi (; 15 November 1922 – 10 January 2015) was an Italian film director and screenwriter. His film '' The Mattei Affair'' won the Palme d'Or at the 1972 Cannes Film Festival. Rosi's films, especially those of the 1960s and 1970s, often appeared to have political messages, while the topics of his later films became less politically oriented and more angled toward literature. He made his debut with his first self-directed film in 1958 and continued to direct until 1997, his last film being the adaptation of Primo Levi's book, '' The Truce''. In 2008, 13 of his films were screened at the Berlin International Film Festival. He received the Honorary Golden Bear for Lifetime Achievement, accompanied by the screening of his 1962 film '' Salvatore Giuliano''. In 2012 the Venice Biennale awarded Rosi the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement. Biography Origins and early career Rosi was born in Naples in 1922. His father worked in the shipping industry, but was also a carto ...
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Palme D'Or
The (; ) is the highest prize awarded to the director of the Best Feature Film of the Official Competition at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the festival's organizing committee. Previously, from 1939 to 1954, the festival's highest prize was the Grand Prix du Festival International du Film. In 1964, the was replaced again by the Grand Prix, before being reintroduced in 1975. The is widely considered one of the film industry's most prestigious awards. History In 1954, the festival decided to present an award annually, titled the Grand Prix of the International Film Festival, with a new design each year from a contemporary artist. The festival's board of directors invited several jewellers to submit designs for a palm, in tribute to the coat of arms of the city of Cannes, evoking the famous legend of Saint Honorat and the palm trees lining the famous Promenade de la Croisette. The original design by Parisian jeweller Lucienne Lazon, inspired by a ...
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Viridiana
''Viridiana'' () is a 1961 Spanish-Mexican surrealist comedy-drama film directed by Luis Buñuel and produced by Gustavo Alatriste. It is loosely based on the 1895 novel ''Halma'' by Benito Pérez Galdós. The film was the co-winner of the Palme d'Or at the 1961 Cannes Film Festival, but was banned in Spain and denounced by the Holy See for its criticism of the Catholic Church. In a 2016 poll of 350 experts organized by Spanish film magazine ''Caimán Cuadernos de Cine'', it was voted the best Spanish film of all time, with 227 votes. Plot Before taking her final vows as a nun, Viridiana is instructed to visit her only living relative, an uncle named Don Jaime who financed her education. Don Jaime is a recluse with a decaying mansion and estate, cared for by a servant named Ramona. On Viridiana's last night at the estate, Don Jaime discloses that his wife, who bore an uncanny resemblance to Viridiana, died in their bed on their wedding night. He implores Viridiana to wear ...
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Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes Film Festival (; ), until 2003 called the International Film Festival ('), is the most prestigious film festival in the world. Held in Cannes, France, it previews new films of all genres, including documentaries, from all around the world. Founded in 1946, the invitation-only festival is held annually (usually in May) at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès. The festival was formally accredited by the FIAPF in 1951. Cannes is one of the "Big Three" major European film festivals, alongside Venice and Berlin, as well as one of the "Big Five" major international film festivals, alongside Venice, Berlin, Toronto and Sundance. History The early years The Cannes Film Festival has its origins in 1938 when Jean Zay, the French Minister of National Education, on the proposal of high-ranking official and historian Philippe Erlanger and film journalist Robert Favre Le Bret decided to set up an international cinematographic festival. They found the support of the ...
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