Filmoteca de Catalunya continues to rescue and revitalize titles that are somewhat emblematic of local cinema as part of the systematic plan to digitize its heritage fund. Now is a good time to remember La ciutat cremada (Anthony Ribas, 1976), the kind of historical blockbuster (including two and a half hours of footage) that represented an important step forward in the normalization of Catalan-language cinema. It premiered last Tuesday and is scheduled for another session on Sunday the 18th at 8pm. From March 4 to April 7, you can watch it for free on Filmoteca's Vimeo channel.
At the beginning of a national trilogy completed with victory! and Terra de Canones, Ribas explored the Catalan period and, more specifically, the history of Barcelona, from the return of colonial forces from the Cuban disaster (1899) to the tragic week (1909), leaving room for the plot for a bourgeois stroke (the famous “closing of the boxes”) and a more general one. And another revolutionary or the arrival of the politician Alejandro Leroux (Alfred Lucchetti) to Barcelona, precisely on the same train that FC Barcelona took to return from its triumphant passage through the World Cup semi-finals. Coronation Cup (Alfonso XIII): 3-1 against FC Madrid
The bourgeois Palau family is supposed to be at the center of the storm, although “digressions and a proliferation of secondary elements (almost) overshadow the main characters,” as Ramón Freixas and Joan Basa explain in their personal and transferable dictionary for company managers. Spanish cinema Among a handful of luxurious characters (not only by artists, but also by journalists or politicians), Joan Manuel Serat (whom Ribas had already portrayed in Paraules d'amor) in the role of the disabled agitator Ramón Clemente y García, who danced with A mummified nun in front of Palau Moja here has never been realized as a landscape.
Among the iconic sites we find the Arc de Triomphe, where Josep Benet embodies a man who provides answers to everything through a snake: “The wise bird will tell you for a penny,” he promises the attraction. Some questions have a complex answer even today: “When will the federal republic come?”
A little further away, we see Pere Palau (Josep Vivo), the head of the family, strolling down Carrer Petat Street: the clearly visible sign of Antiguitats Esclasans, although (anachronistically) it was in 1917 when the company was established in this place and in addition, We traveled to San Puy de Llobregat for a fraternal snack of the Radical Republican Party at Ermita de San Ramón, where there is a poster of Our Lady of the Eight Hours, a virgin and martyr of the working class. But perhaps the most memorable part of the film is that long final climax of repression around the church of Santa María del Pi, where Josep (Xavier Elorriaga), the soldier-turned-bourgeois worker, finally returns to the fray.
“Professional web ninja. Certified gamer. Avid zombie geek. Hipster-friendly baconaholic.”
