Tag Archives: cinema of Spain

The perilous camera-eye: El sexto sentido | The Sixth Sense (ES 1929)

Posted on 22 May 2018 by silentsplease

The camera never lies. This cliché is now so discredited that even its antithesis is something of a truism: images are almost infinitely manipulable, via both technology, context, and human interpretation. Ultimately, El sexto sentido puts stock in both the idea of … Continue reading →

Posted in Film | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

A rainbow of silent film

Posted on 21 August 2017 by silentsplease

Regular readers will have noticed that things have been pretty quiet around Silents, Please! for the last year or so. Partly, this was because I channelled a lot of energy into researching, writing and drawing my Feminist Media Histories article: a very … Continue reading →

Posted in Film, Misc | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 14 Comments

Xirgu on film: Alma Torturada | Tortured Soul (ES 1916)

Posted on 21 February 2015 by silentsplease

I first became interested in Margarita Xirgu a year or two ago, when I saw a performance of the opera Ainadamar (‘Fountain of Tears’, 2003). The opera centers on the relationship between the poet Federico García Lorca and the actress Xirgu, his close friend, muse, … Continue reading →

Posted in Film | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Tórtola Valencia in Pasionaria | Passionflower (ES 1915)

Posted on 28 January 2015 by silentsplease

   From the Spain of a century ago comes the extraordinary film Pasionaria. The film is a star vehicle for Carmen Tórtola Valencia, better known simply as Tórtola Valencia, a famous Spanish dancer of the era who specialized in exotic dances. Here she … Continue reading →

Posted in Film | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments