The film will be shown tomorrow, on Sunday 24, in a special screening scheduled at 9:30 p.m.
The Italian actress, who passed away last February, was one of the main characters of this 14-episode tragicomedy that became the Spanish filmmaker’s penultimate work
Tickets to attend the screening cost 4,5 euros and are available at Cinesa El Muelle’s website, as well as through the link provided on lpafilmfestival.com
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Saturday 23 April 2022.- El 21st Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival will dedicate a special screening to the film Le fantôme de la liberté, by Luis Buñuel, in memory of Monica Vitti. The Italian actress, who passed away last February, played Madame Foucault in this film that uses surrealism as social criticism. It will be shown on Sunday 24 at 9:30 p.m. at Cinesa El Muelle Screen 11. And it’ll be a single screening, whose tickets are available at Cinesa’s website as well as through a link provided at lpafilmfestival.com.
The 104-minute film develops several stories dealing with different topics such as power, social life or religion. The plot starts in Toledo, in 1808, when Napoleón’s troops stormed the city. After that, a total of 14 episodes or film sketches, seemingly unrelated, intertwine randomly through a character or a situation.
Coproduced between France and Italy, this tragicomedy was released in 1974 and became the penultimate work made by the Spanish filmmaker (naturalized Mexican) who at that time had obtained dozens of nominations and awards including a Palm d’Or at the Cannes Festival for Viridiana (1961). A festival where he also won the Best Director Award for The Young and the Damned (1950), the International Award for Nazarin (1959), a Special Mention for The Young One (1960) and the FIPRESCI Award for The Exterminating Angel (1962).
Likewise, his career, which included An Andalusian Dog (1929), L’age d’or (1930) or Land Without Bread (1933), had already been recognized with a FIPRESCI Prize and a Special Jury Prize for Simon of the Desert at the Venice Film Festival. He had also won there two Golden Lion awards for Belle de jour (1967) and another Career Golden Lion in 1969. That same year, he received the Interfilm Award at the Berlin Film Festival for The Milky Way. USA’s Academy couldn’t resist Buñuel’s creations either and granted him the Best Foreign Language Picture Oscar for The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie. He thus became the first Spanish director in receiving this award, after having been nominated to it once before, in 1978.
As a matter of fact, these last two films make up with The Phantom of Liberty a sort of trilogy in which chance rules behaviors and the world, going beyonf the limits of conventional cinema. Buñuel filmed this last work when he was 74 years old. Its main cast included Monica Vitti. Throughout her career on the big screen, the late Italian actress was awarded around 40 times.
Muse of directors such as Mario Monicelli or Alberto Sordi, the iconic actress, who many considered an antidiva, won the Best Actress Award at the 1968 San Sebastian Film Festival for her role in La ragazza con la pistola or the Career Golden Lion at the 1995 Venice Film Festival. She was also nominated at other festivals and events, including the Best Foreign Actress at the 1961 BAFTA Awards for the role that made her internationally famous: L’avventura.
The 90-year-old actress, whose real name was Maria Luisa Ceciarelli, passed away last February. In its 21st edition, the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival wished to remember this iconic actress, one of the most important ones within 70s’ Italian comic genre. And it has done it through her role as Madame Foucault in Buñuel’s film.
The Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival, organized by the Culture area of the Gran-Canarian capital’s City Council through Promoción de la Ciudad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, has received public assistance by the ICAA [Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts] and the program for the internationalization of Spanish culture, PICE Visitantes, of Acción Cultural Española (AC/E).
Among the Festival’s collaborators we may find Cinesa El Muelle, El Muelle Shopping Center, Hotel Cristina by Tigotan, the Elder Museum of Science and Technology or Casa África, places which also function as seats or hold activities; as well as other institutions and companies such as Audiovisuales Canarias, Music Library & SFX or the International Bach Festival. Likewise, its market, MECAS, has been possible thanks to the sponsorship of the Gran Canaria Film Commission-Sociedad de Promoción Económica de Gran Canaria and the support of Canary Islands Film and Proexca.
The University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, the Mid Atlantic University, the Audiovisual Cluster of the Canary Islands, CIMA Canarias, the Asociación Microclima Cineastas de Canarias [Association of Filmmakers of the Canary Islands ‘Microclima’] and Repeople are also collaborators of the Festival.
Share this Post