CaixaForum València has released today an exhibition that proposes a journey through the professional and personal career of the filmmaker Luis García-Berlanga based on projections, objects and documents from his personal archive, many of which have remained unpublished until today. The exhibition, titled “Interior Berlanga” brings together more than 300 original pieces with a carefully cinematic scenography that invites viewers to discover the multiple facets of a fundamental creator of the 20th century in Europe.
This exhibition offers an intimate and never-explained look at Luis García-Berlanga (1921-2010), an unprecedented approach thanks to the cataloging and digitization work of Berlanga’s private archive that, after its acquisition for state public collections by the Ministry of Culture, will be made available to the public for the first time. The deputy general director of the ”la Caixa” Foundation, Elisa Durán; the curators of the exhibition, Sol Carnicero and Bernardo Sánchez Salas; The content advisor and director of the audiovisuals of the exhibition, José Luis García-Berlanga, and the director of CaixaForum València, Álvaro Borrás, have presented the exhibition.
The exhibition will reveal to the general public – both the most cinephile and connoisseur of Berlanga and the youngest and most remote – the figure of the filmmaker who promoted Spanish cinema and transformed it with his biting irony and his satires on social and political issues. The exhibition is conceived as a long sequence shot following the director’s indisputable narrative seal, with a carefully cinematic staging by set designer Carles Berga and which is divided into an introduction and seven areas: “Introduction”, Cabinet. Shelter, housing and family”, “The school of history. National episodes”, “Ill prepared for this world of cinema”. “The life of the movies”, “The Austro-Hungarian tour. Memories from here and there”, “Eros and fears”. “Fetishes, Inventory and cream. La falla” and “Lo berlanguiano. Academic session”.
According to José Luis García-Berlanga, director, chef and son of the film director, “Interior Berlanga is an unusual project.” «The exhibition that my father would have liked to see. “We will learn many new things.” And the exhibition is based on an archive that his father kept since he was a child: his school notebooks, the letters he wrote to his parents when he was institutionalized, and also the intimate relationships that have remained in the bedroom of what we have seen in the screen. “You will discover a very intimate Berlanga who complements and expands the public persona,” adds his son.
The title, Interior Berlanga, abounds in that idea. It is a walk through what no one knew about this cinematographic creator, everything that he kept in his studio. After his death, everything was deposited in more than 70 boxes that have been opened, catalogued, digitized and studied in a project that began in September 2022 thanks to the initiative of the ”la Caixa” Foundation and the collaboration of the Spanish Film Archive , which guards the archive as an organism dependent on the Ministry of Culture in charge of the preservation of Spanish cinematographic heritage and which carries out the loan of funds for the exhibition. “That archive, which is wonderful, is not only about my father: it is about Spain throughout the 20th century,” says Berlanga, who has been in charge of the audiovisuals projected in each area of ??the exhibition.
Berlanga is one of the most popular and internationally recognized Spanish film directors, author of classic films such as Bienvenido, Mister Marshall (1953), Plácido (1961), The Executioner (1963), The National Shotgun (1978), National Heritage (1981 ) or Everyone to Jail (1993). Since this Thursday he has also become the protagonist of a major exhibition at CaixaForum València.
The exhibition begins with a first scenographic space that evokes the boxes that formed the legacy of Luis García-Berlanga. In this area, the image of a still young Berlanga with a reflective and serene attitude is offered, immortalized in an iconic snapshot by photographer Oriol Maspons. The objective is to introduce visitors to an intimate space of memory and discovery, and to predispose them to find, along with the best-known aspects of Berlanga’s work and life, ignored or little-known elements and others belonging to the personal sphere. who talk about their training and the details of their work. It is an evocative entry whose intention is to predispose visitors to adopt an attitude of expectation and curiosity.
“My brothers and I didn’t know what to do with all those elements that my father had kept,” remembers his son, José Luis García Berlanga. «I saw a suggestion box on the “la Caixa” Foundation website and wrote: “Hello, I am José Luis García-Berlanga, son of the film director, and I have a file that I don’t know what to do with.” And that’s how it all began.
That was five years ago. A trip by those responsible for the Culture and Science Area of ??the ”la Caixa” Foundation to Madrid, to the family home, made it possible to verify the enormous heritage value of the Berlanga archive. The idea arose not only to hold an exhibition but also to collaborate in the cataloging and digitization of his legacy by the ”la Caixa” Foundation. Interior Berlanga is much more than an exhibition: it is an enhancement of heritage, a collective work in which professionals from different areas and institutions have participated. The purpose is to ensure that all this heritage, which is now publicly owned, can be accessible online to all citizens, as a joint wish of the Berlanga family, the ”la Caixa” Foundation and the Ministry of Culture.
At the same time, it is an opportunity to connect with the current social debate. In a time of great conflicts, Berlanga’s perspective helps to understand the dynamics of social groups, to detect vices and virtues, and to underline the value of good people.
CaixaForum will premiere two new documentaries and four emblematic films
On the occasion of the exhibition, the platform has prepared a special program about this fundamental filmmaker in the history of Spanish cinema. In the coming months he will release a feature film and a short documentary film (both directed by his son, José Luis García-Berlanga) and four of his most emblematic films: The National Shotgun, Moros y Cristianos, Nacional III and La Boutique. The first of them arrives on the platform today coinciding with the opening of the exhibition and can be seen for free on the platform until next June 4.
CaixaForum also premieres today, exclusively, the original short documentary La Mirada de Berlanga. José Luis García-Berlanga directs this sincere tribute to his father with enormous sensitivity and displaying a great sense of humor. As the voice-over of this piece concludes, “if life is not like in the movies, Berlanga’s films are like life.” In a few months, another documentary will arrive on the platform, in this case a feature film, also directed by his son and made from unpublished material, which shows us the most intimate facet of the Valencian genius.
Beyond the exhibition halls: activities to broaden Berlanga’s vision
The ”la Caixa” Foundation proposes an assortment of innovative activities during the months in which the exhibition will remain at CaixaForum València so that all audiences can approach the art of the great filmmaker from different perspectives. The starting signal will be given this Thursday by a concert by Pablo García-Berlanga, pianist and grandnephew of the director, who pays tribute to his cult films: through music, the public will return to films such as Plácido, El verdugo , Calabuch or Welcome, Mister Marshall, among many others.
Also notable is the cycle Todo me Seme Berlanga, which includes conferences and round tables by the writer Elvira Lindo; the film director and writer Vicente Molina Foix; the director’s son, José Luis García-Berlanga, and the curators of the exhibition, Sol Carnicero and Bernardo Sánchez Salas. The center will also host a dramatized reading of Long Live Russia!, an unpublished script that would have been a fourth installment of its national saga.
In addition, family audiences will be able to delve into Berlanga’s work through the “Americanooos!” workshop, where adults and children will discover all the power of the invisible element of cinema: music. As usual, the cultural center also makes commented tours available to the public in different formats. All expanded information can be consulted through this link:
https://caixaforum.org/es/valencia/actividades-exposicion?a=164395436
