Pere Portabella”s subversive and avant-garde work as a director ”expand the expressive potential of cinema” (MoMA).

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Pere Portabella has been a pioneering movie producer and celebrated Spanish statesman, denounced by both the Franco dictatorship and The Vatican. But it”s his subversive work as a director that has rewritten the rules of genre narrative. Or as The Museum of Modern Art says, ”The films of Portabella expand the expressive potential of cinema”: In 1970, Portabella was invited by Jess Franco to make a behind-the-scenes documentary on the filming of COUNT DRACULA. Instead, VAMPIR-CUADECUC became a dreamlike deconstruction of myths, monsters and moviemaking featuring Christopher Lee, Herbert Lom and Soledad Miranda as you”ve never seen them before. Christopher Lee also stars in Portabella”s companion piece UMBRACLE, an unsettling journey through dread, violence and discontinuity with Lee at his most candid. Both films are now scanned in HD from Portabella”s own vault elements for the first time ever in America.

Special Features

Media

Bonus Materials

• A Cinema Of Vampires: Pere Portabella, Jess Franco And The School Of Barcelona – Interview With Spanish Film Scholar Dr. Álex Mendíbil
• VAMPIR-CUADECUC Trailer
• Booklet Featuring Text By Pere Portabella And Film Critics Jonathan Rosenbaum And Federico Karstulovich

Cast & Crew

Actors:

• Christopher Lee
• Herbert Lom
• Soledad Miranda
• Maria Rohm
• Jack Taylor
• Emma Cohen
• Jesús Franco
• Paul Muller
• Colette Jack
• Jeannine Mestre as Fred Williams
• Miguel Bilbatúa
• Román Gubern
• Joan Enric Lahosa
• Joan Miró

Director: Pere Portabella

Additional Details

Label: Severin Films

Genre: Documentary

Language: English

Run Time: 157 mins

Region: 0

Release Date: 11/28/23

UPC: 760137141006