Mediterráneo, fiesta y carnaval

Fiesta –a word which can mean “party”, “celebration”, “holiday” and “festival” in Spanish – runs right through the cinema of the Valencian director, Luis García Berlanga, being present, to a greater or lesser degree, in all his work. It has a festive – in the true sense of the word – nature which can be traced back to Fallas, the raucous annual festival of his hometown. It certainly shows through in the joyful, anarchic and carnivalesque character of his films. His cinema is very Mediterranean and very Spanish, and yet it has a power that, like a firecracker in the hazy March sunlight typical of Fallas-time in Valencia, lies latent until someone lights the blue touchpaper and lets it explode onto the scene shared by directors from other countries across the Mediterranean.

Indeed, his films are very similar in spirit to the equally fun and playful work of directors such as Jean Renoir in France, Federico Fellini in Italy, Ferzan Ozpetek in Turkey, and Michael Caccoyanis in Greece, to name just a few examples. The Mediterranean has left its mark on this cinema, as the filmmakers seem to make the light which bathes these lands a part of the stories they want to tell. These are the stories we would like to explore in this international conference, in order to debate the festive character that they share. This is a fiesta which is joyful and uninhibited, of course, but not without a certain bleakness.

We would therefore like to invite anyone who finds this issue appealing to explore what fiesta really is. Is fiesta and its accompanying rituals present in the same way in the cinema of those Mediterranean directors who feed off it? Has fiesta lost its symbolic character and become just a meaningless show? Has it become a devalued, commercial celebration that merely serves as a relief, rather than being an outlet, a vessel, or an opportunity for the expression of real emotion?

By taking Berlanga as our reference point in the centenary year of his birth, we call on all those who find this subject matter appealing to delve into his cinema and attempt to gain some insights into the essence of the fiesta he shows the spectator. This exploration can also seek connections and disconnections with other filmmakers in Spain, the Mediterranean and Europe, especially those who are also interested in the kind of popular traditional festivals which Berlanga was so fond of. He said of his own films that they were “falleras, pyrotechnical and filmed on the basis of instantaneous inspiration”. They elicit reflection from the viewer, especially now that we have become so inured to isolation and social distancing, the antithesis of the festive spirit of his cinema.

Thematic areas:

• Mediterranean identity
• Carnival and popular festivals
• Cinematographic critique
• Cinema aesthetics
• Cinema and history
• Cinema and carnival
• Music in cinema

Email address for conference information: [email protected]

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