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by Matt Blake (Author)
During the 1960s, Spain had one of the busiest film industries in Europe and, indeed, the world. In the first half of the decade, there were just under a hundred productions made on average per year, a number that rose as the decade progressed. And yet... very little is known, in the English-speaking world at least, about any of this bustling activity. Whereas directors of the period from Italy, Germany, France, and the UK are familiar to most people with an interest in cinema, the likes of Carlos Saura, Francisco Rovira Beleta and Luis García Berlanga have a rather lower profile, despite their winning numerous accolades across the world at the time. And then there were other filmmakers who plied their trade at a less elevated level; the likes of Eugenio Martín, José María Elorrieta and José Luis Madrid. Spanish Cult Cinema, Volume 1, is an examination of the whole range of Spanish cinema from 1960 to 1964. Within it, you can read about releases from popular genres including cine negro films (low budget, black and white thrillers), swashbucklers, war films, comedies, and westerns. You can discover more about productions ranging from the Oscar nominated Los tarantos to the poverty-row oater La tumba del pistolero, from Marco Ferreri's blacker-than-black comedy El cochecito to the little-known science fiction film La hora incógnita. Featuring over a hundred detailed and lavishly illustrated reviews, Spanish Cult Cinema, Volume 1 is an invaluable introduction to a criminally underexamined area of cinema history, making it an essential purchase for anyone with an interest in either Spanish or popular cinema.
