Pa negre

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Movie
German title Black bread
Original title Pa negre
Country of production Spain
original language Catalan
Publishing year 2010
length 108 minutes
Rod
Director Agustí Villaronga
script Agustí Villaronga
based on the book by Emili Teixidor
production Isona Passola
music Jose Manuel Pagan
camera Antonio Riestra
cut Stephen Mirrione
occupation
chronology

←  Predecessor
cell 211 - The prison riot

Successor  →
No Rest for the Wicked

Pa negre ( Catalan for black bread ) is a Catalan-language film from Spain , written and directed by Agustí Villaronga. The plot is based on the book of the same name by Emili Teixidor with elements of two other stories by the same author: Retrat d'un assassí d'ocells ( Story of a Bird Killer ) and Sic transit Gloria Swanson .

The plot of the film takes place in rural Catalonia a few years after the end of the Spanish civil war . The 11-year-old Andreu finds the bodies of a man and his son. The authorities want to hold his father responsible for this act, but Andreu tries to prove his innocence. But while looking for the perpetrators, Andreu comes across a world of lies and is becoming increasingly alienated from his family.

The film won thirteen Gaudís (Catalan Film Awards) and nine Goyas . As the first katalanischsprachiger film Pa negre by the Spanish Film Academy as a candidate for the Oscar as best foreign language film submitted.

action

During the difficult post-war years in rural Catalonia , Dionís, a bird dealer, was murdered by a masked man along with his son Culet. The 11-year-old Andreu finds the bodies of the two and alerts the authorities. Before Culet dies, he can whisper the word "Pitorliua" to Andreu, the name of a ghost who allegedly lives in a nearby cave. The Falangist mayor suspects that Andrei's father is responsible for the deaths of Dionís and Culet. Farriol, who was a business associate of the victim, is an easy target for these allegations given his past as a supporter of the Second Spanish Republic prior to the Civil War . In addition, he and the mayor competed for the love of Andrei's mother years ago, which is still not forgotten. Fearing for his life, Farriol decides to flee across the border into France .

Florència, Andreu's mother, has to work in a factory in Vic and therefore sends her son to her father's side in a house full of women and children. Avia, his grandmother, and Ció, a widowed aunt who lives there with her son, guard the country estate of the richest family in the region, the Manubens. Enriqueta also lives there, a younger aunt who is being pressured to marry an older neighbor she does not love. Another resident is Núria, an orphaned cousin of the same age of Andreu, who lost a hand while playing with a grenade.

Andreu quickly begins to discover his family's dark secrets. His aunt Enriqueta is the talk of the town and is having a secret affair with a civil guard police officer . The precocious and energetic Núria maintains a sexual relationship with her alcoholic teacher. Meanwhile, Andreu befriends an older boy whom he sees for the first time while bathing nude in a river in the forest. The young man is a tuberculosis patient from a nearby monastery who dreams of having angel wings. Andreu helps him get something to eat. Rather by chance, Andreu suddenly learns that his father is not in France but is hiding in the attic of the farmhouse.

Andreu and Núria regularly walk together through the mysterious forest. She is in love with him and approaches him sexually, but he rejects her. When the mayor orders the farm to be searched, they come across Farriol, who is then arrested. Farriol secretly whispers to Andreu that he must convince his mother to seek help from the influential Señora Manubens. After a few doubts, Florència gives in. Reluctantly, Señora Manubens writes a letter to the mayor in favor of Andrei's father. The mayor, however, is not impressed and tries to attack Florència.

Andreu slowly discovers that his mother also has her own secret. In her youth she was a close friend of Pitorliua, the spirit of legend, whom she describes as a nice young man. While visiting his grave, Andreu and Núria meet Pauletta, Dionís' half-mad widow. She tells them that Pitorliua was the homosexual lover of Señora Manubens' only brother and that he was therefore neutered by the men of the village . Pauletta also suggests that Farriol had something to do with this. While exploring the cave where Pitorliua was castrated, they discover the names of the perpetrators on the wall: Dionís and someone whose name begins with the letter F. Andreu suspects: Farriol. He confronts his mother about this and she admits that Señora Manubens' two men received money to intimidate Pitorliua, but then went too far.

Farriol is sentenced to death. Before his execution, Florència and Andreu visit him in prison and he tells his son never to forget his ideals. After the funeral, a hateful Pauletta Florència and Andreu reveals that Farriol actually murdered her husband and son and that Señora Manubens paid for this. She says that Dionís tried to blackmail the rich lady and that she wanted to get rid of him and then Farriol. Farriol did not tell this in court because Señora Manubens had promised him an excellent education for Andreu in exchange for his silence.

Andreu now finally rejects his family with their lies and disappointments. Instead of fleeing with Núria, as she had planned, he accepts the offer of an education paid for by Señora Manubens. When Florència visits him at a boarding school (where Andreu is already called out by the surname Manubens) it becomes clear that he has not forgiven his family. After a classmate asks him who visited him, he only replies that a woman from his village brought him something.

Reactions

The film was initially shown predominantly in Catalonia and was only seen in a few cinemas outside of the Catalan-speaking area. There the film was released in cinemas both with subtitles and in a dubbed version. The dubbing was done by the actors themselves, with the exception of the voice of Andreu, since according to the director, the actor Francesc Colomer had too strong a Catalan accent. The film reviews were mostly positive to very positive.

“(The film) is one of the strongest works of the always demanding Villaronga. It is a logical extension of a discourse about monstrosity and its ambiguities. A film of overwhelming abundance. "

- El País

“The strongest point of Pa Negre is its narrative accuracy: every scene has its own rhythm, and they all work without any potholes in the way. It is part of this precision of tone that, except in the opening scene, the hard plot is staged without any gimmicky or rawness. "

- La Vanguardia

“If the whole film had been like the powerful beginning and the poignant end, we would now be speaking of a true masterpiece. The narrative break-in in the second part of the film prevents such a qualification, although we are always faced with a film that is as unusual as it is recommendable. "

- ABC

Of the films nominated for the Goyas, Pa negre was the least visited candidate with only around 140,000 viewers (90,000 of them in Catalonia) and had only brought in around 850,000 euros of its around 4 million euros in production costs. After the success, however, the film was shown again all over Spain and ultimately achieved revenues of around 2.6 million euros. Around 215,000 people have seen it in Catalonia.

After the announcement of the award, the Spanish conservative media criticized that the success was due to the closed voting behavior of all Catalan members of the Spanish Film Academy and a “homosexual lobby”.

Oscar nomination

As the first katalanischsprachiger film Pa negre as a candidate for the Oscar as best foreign language film submitted. In the second half of 2011 the producer Isona Passola led a campaign in the USA to improve the chances of the candidacy. Among other things, the film was shown as part of the Spanish Cinema Now festival at Lincoln Center in New York . Part of the campaign was a video Good luck, black bread in which famous Catalans and Spaniards (including Josep Carreras , Gerard Piqué and Ferran Adrià ) pledged their support. In the end, however, the film was not shortlisted for this award.

Awards

25. Goya (Film Award) (Spain)

3. Premis Gaudí (Catalonia)

  • Best film in Catalan
  • Best director: Agustí Villaronga
  • Best Actress: Nora Navas
  • Best Supporting Actress: Marina Comas
  • Best Supporting Actor: Roger Casamajor
  • Best script: Agustí Villaronga
  • Best camera: Antonio Riestra
  • Best artistic director: Ana Alvargonzález
  • Best production manager: Aleix Castellón
  • Best note: Dani Fonrodona, Fernando Novillo and Ricard Casals
  • Best make-up: Satur Merino i Alma Casal
  • Best sound editing: José Manuel Pagán
  • Best costume design: Mercè Paloma
  • Best editing: Raúl Román

58th San Sebastián Film Festival (Spain)

Fotogramas de plata 2010 (Spain)

  • Best Spanish film

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ "Agustí Villaronga roda‹ Pa negre ›, adaptació de la novel·la d'Emili Teixidor" , 3cat24.cat , 20 July 2009.
  2. ↑ 'Pa Negre' triumphs at Gaudí Awards with 13 prizes including Best Film and Best Director , Catalan News Agency. January 18, 2011. Archived from the original on June 9, 2013 Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved January 22, 2012. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.catalannewsagency.com 
  3. ↑ 'Pa negre' representará a España en los Premios Oscar , La Vanguardia. September 28, 2011. 
  4. ↑ 'Pa Negre' vive su segundo 'efecto Goya' , El Mundo. February 14, 2011. 
  5. ↑ 'Donde viven los monstruos , El País. October 15, 2010. 
  6. ↑ 'Pan negro: La semilla del mal , La Vanguardia. 1.5 October 2010. 
  7. ↑ 'Donde viven los monstruos , ABC. February 3, 2011. 
  8. ↑ 'Pa Negre' vive su segundo 'efecto Goya' , El Mundo. February 14, 2011. 
  9. ↑ 'Siento responsabilidad por representar a España y por hacerlo en catalán' , El Mundo. September 28, 2011. 
  10. ↑ El número de espectadores de cine catalán crece un 52.3 por ciento , La Vanguardia. March 28, 2011. 
  11. ↑ 'Catalanismo y' lobby gay ', claves del triunfo de' Pan negro 'en los Goya , La Gaceta. February 15, 2011. 
  12. ↑ 'Pa negre' representará a España en los Premios Oscar , La Vanguardia. September 28, 2011. 
  13. ↑ 'Pa negre' Apunta a Hollywood of de Nova York , Ara. January 18, 2012. 
  14. ^ "Good luck 'Black Bread'": els famosos fan campanya per 'Pa negre' , Ara. January 10, 2012. 
  15. ↑ 'Pa Negre' dice adiós a los Oscar , La Vanguardia. January 18, 2012.