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- Identity: the
building blocks of
2. Literature
and philosophy
3. Art and
architecture
4. Performing
arts
5. Cinema
and fashion
6. Media and
communications
7. Food and drink 8. Living culture:
the details of
innovative. He spent most of his career at work in
France and Italy, yet was still the most progressive
director of early Spanish cinema. As the first director to
actually move the camera, he’s been labelled, rather
grandiosely, as the inventor of the travelling shot, but
more impressive was his use of frame-by-frame filming.
By splicing single frames he created and starred in early
sci-fi.El Hotel eléctrico(1908), in which a suitcase and
its contents come to life in a boarding house, was a
famous example. Segundo de Chomón’s reliance on
foreign investment and expertise was typical of Spain’s
fledgling film industry. Companies were formed –
notably Hispano Film in Barcelona in 1907 – but were
usually propped up with French cash. By the time
talkies evolved in the early 1930s, Spanish talent was
being pilfered by Hollywood and used to make Spanish
language versions of successful American films (they
even used the same sets) that were then sold back to
Spain.
Breaking the sound barrier
As Spain got to grips with feature films in the early
1920s, established theatrical genres transferred from
stage to silver screen. Live music was played to
accompany on-screenzarzuelas(see section 4.1.3.
for more onzarzuelas), but the most popular genre to
emerge was theespañolada; historical, often comedic
films with a rather clichéd portrayal of Spanishness
featuringflamenco, gypsies et al. Florián Rey proved
himself an early master of theespañolada, making
films throughout the 1920s and 30s and successfully
negotiating the switch from silent to talkie. He made
La Aldea Maldita(1929/1942) twice, first silently and
later with sound; the story of a doomed Castilian village
where the crops continually fail became his most
popular work.
Film’s favourite couple
Florián Rey and his lover,
Imperio Argentina, were
the glamour couple of
early Spanish film.
He directed popular
screenzarzuelaslikeLa
Revoltosa(1924). She, the
first real star of Spanish
cinema, acted in his films.
In the early 1930s, Rey
was hired by American
studios to make Spanish
talkies, while Argentina
made movies in the
United States, Paris and
Berlin. The couple married
in 1936 but separated only
three years later. Franco-
friendly Rey worked for
Goebbels for a spell in the
late 1930s, before making
Spain’s first post-Civil War
film,La Dolores(1940).
His directorial career
began to decline soon
after and by the 1950s he
was running a restaurant
near Benidorm. As for
Argentina (actually
Argentinian as her stage
name suggests), she was
the biggest star of Spain’s
early talkies, displaying
a particular talent for
musical comedy in films
likeMorena Clara(1935),
for which Rey took the
directorial helm. She
appeared in dozens of
films after the Civil War,
recruiting a legion of fans
- Adolf Hitler and Fidel
Castro apparently among
them.
