Juan Antonio Bardem
About
Biography
Filmography
Notes
"After 60 years the Spanish cinema is politically ineffective, socially false, intellectually infirm, aesthetically empty, industrially rickety. We now want to fight for a national cinema with love, sincerity and honor." --Bardem in a statement of principles from a 1955 meeting of Spanish filmmakers in Salamanca
"Undoubtedly a filmmaker cannot himself hope to change the world. Nonetheless, he must make a contribution. He must devote all his efforts towards a positive, useful cinema that will reveal the reality of things so that they will change. The Spanish spirit is realistic in literature as it is in painting. I consider the cinema deeply rooted in reality. It is the witness of its time. It is necessary to say as much as possible as quietly as possible." --Bardem
Biography
An internationally acclaimed figure in features, Juan Antonio Bardem, with former classmate Luis-Garcia Berlanga, developed a filmmaking style known as "estetica franquista" in the 1950s. The object of the movement was to avoid political censorship by couching criticisms of Franco's regime in satirical terms. Bardem, nevertheless, was jailed after making the neorealist-influenced "Death of a Cyclist" (1955), a film which, along with "Calle Mayor" (1956), won him international acclaim. Bardem was also responsible--through his production company Uninci--for Luis Bunuel's return to Spain for the making of "Viridiana" (1961).
Filmography
Director (Feature Film)
Cast (Feature Film)
Writer (Feature Film)
Life Events
1949
Short film co-directing and co-writing debut (with Luis Garcia Berlanga), "Paseo sobre una guerra antigua" (used in Luis Escobar's feature, "La honradez de la cerradura")
1950
Solo short film writing and directing debut, "Barajas, aeropuerto internacional"
1951
Feature co-writing and co-directing debut (with Luis Garcia Berlanga), "Esa pareja feliz"
1953
Founded film magazine "Objectivo" (banned by government in 1955)
1954
Solo feature writing and directing debut, "Comicos"
1958
Founded production company Uninci, which co-produced Luis Bunuel's "Viridiana" (1961), was closed down in 1962
Family
Bibliography
Notes
"After 60 years the Spanish cinema is politically ineffective, socially false, intellectually infirm, aesthetically empty, industrially rickety. We now want to fight for a national cinema with love, sincerity and honor." --Bardem in a statement of principles from a 1955 meeting of Spanish filmmakers in Salamanca
"Undoubtedly a filmmaker cannot himself hope to change the world. Nonetheless, he must make a contribution. He must devote all his efforts towards a positive, useful cinema that will reveal the reality of things so that they will change. The Spanish spirit is realistic in literature as it is in painting. I consider the cinema deeply rooted in reality. It is the witness of its time. It is necessary to say as much as possible as quietly as possible." --Bardem
