Portabella’s first feature, co-scripted by poet Joan Brossa, became one of the most influential works of the Barcelona avant-garde, although like all his early films, it circulated only in an underground fashion. Eschewing dialogue, the director constructs a non-narrative story in fragments that reveal the daily lives of an adulterous couple interspersed with a cryptic stream of unrelated imagery. The title of this homage to directors including Eisenstein, Antonioni, Bergman, and Buñuel refers to the 29 “black years” of the Franco dictatorship. — chicago.cervantes.es
Pere Portabella’s first work as a director starts with the following phrase: “defeated…but not conquered”. This may or should be taken as an allusion to the technical K.O. taken by Portabella from Franco’s regime during the sixties as regards his work as a producer. Through the extremely raging playthings of the words of Catalan poet Joan Brossa, Portabella attempts to dismantle the forms of advertising discourse of that time.
A former convict, named Raul Vela, and a cabaret singer, called Clara, are a couple who tries to lead a normal life. He has found an employment and she wants to leave the cabaret. One day an old chief, who wants to disappear, proposes him to justify his supposed death in a supposed accident. In exchange, Raúl will receive one hundred thousand pesetas as gratification. Raul refuses to engage in the deception. Shortly after, he reads in a newspaper about the death of Cervera, which makes the police relate him to the case.
Blanquita, a very superstitious Cuban young woman, visits a fortune teller on the eve of her wedding to Roberto. She predicts that her first husband is destined to die, as well as would not make her happy. Believing this and according to her uncle, Blanquita starts looking for a man about to die, with the intention to marry him, then become widower and take Roberto as her second husband, thus freeing him from the curse.
Pandora Reynolds is a woman who has never fallen in love – but one who men kill and die for. When she meets dashing and mysterious ship's captain Hendrik van der Zee, he pushes her to commit the ultimate act of love.
