Friends, family and collaborators of the late filmmaker Ventura Pons will pay tribute to him next Monday at the Filmoteca de Catalunya, in an event chaired by the Minister of Culture, Natàlia Garriga, which will be free access until capacity is reached.
The Department of Culture has informed this Saturday that the event will be held in the Chomón room of the film library, at its headquarters in Barcelona’s Raval, and will have the collaboration of the Pons production company, Els films de la Rambla, and the Academy of Catalan Cinema
To remember Pons, some of his most beloved films will be shown: Actresses (1996), an adaptation of the play by Josep Maria Benet and Jornet E.R., starring Núria Espert, Rosa Maria Sardà, Anna Lizaran and Mercè Pons.
The Catalan filmmaker, producer and screenwriter Ventura Pons died on the 8th in Barcelona at the age of 78.
He was one of the most important filmmakers in Catalonia “and the one who has done the most for Catalan cinema and in Catalan”, according to the Catalan Film Academy.
With a career spanning nearly five decades and more than thirty films, from his debut with Ocaña, retrat intermittent (1978) to his latest, Be Happy! (2019), Pons had a long career in Catalan cinema consolidated in Catalonia and also internationally, with successful comedies in the 80s and 90s such as El vicari d’Olot (1981) or Què t’hi juges Mari Pili (1991).
He also directed documentaries about figures in Catalan popular culture, such as El gran Gato (2003) or Cola, Colita, Colassa (Ode in Barcelona) (2015), and numerous adaptations of narrative and dramatic pieces from Catalan literature such as El cuche de all together (1995) by Quim Monzó, Amic/Amat (1999) by Josep Maria Benet y Jornet or Morir (o no) (2000) by Sergi Belbel.
Actrius is the chronicle of lost illusions and the story (much more complex than its clear surface suggests) of a vampire inoculation: the poison of theater to withstand the poison of life, according to critic Marcos Ordóñez.
It is a bitter, hilarious and deeply adult comedy; a major piece by Benet i Jornet, one of the greatest Catalan playwrights, and a gift that Ventura Pons has given to himself and to the adult audience, adds Ordóñez.
