1 month ago 02nd Jul 14:52
Like French and Russian cinema the Spanish film industry has been enjoying major success in recent years with both movies and their actors breaking into worldwide, in particular American, mainstream.
Movies such as Pan's Labyrinth and The Orphanage and actors like Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem have all broken into the American market and enjoyed major success there.
During the silent era of cinema the city of Barcelona was the centre of the country's filmmaking industry. They produced historical epics of Spain as well as adapting stage plays such as Don Juan Tenorio for the big screen.
By the 1920s Luis Bunel was one of the country's most successful directors who produced controversial pictures such as L'Age d'or, based on 120 Days of Sodom by the Marquis de Sade, Las Hurdes: Tierra Sin Pas (Land Without Bread), which looked at peasant life, and Espana 1936 which looked at the changing political climate in Spain before the Civil War.
After the War Bunel was exiled and he moved to America where he continued to make foreign language pictures which were a successful fad in Hollywood at the time. Before going on to work in Mexican cinema during fifties and later working in the French film industry in the sixties.
The 1930s brought sound to Spanish cinema the Compañía Industrial Film Española S.A.was founded in 1935 and it grew to be the biggest production company in the country.
The Civil War hit the film industry hard as cinema was used as a means of propaganda and under heavy censorship.
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