Umbracle
Christopher Lee haunts Barcelona as Portabella pushes cinema to its limits to disarm the authoritarian gaze.
A bridge between Spanish modernism and the European avant-garde, Pere Portabella – who produced works by Buñuel, Saura, and Ferreri – delivers perhaps his boldest film with “Umbracle” (1972).
Shot clandestinely amid Francoist censorship and death sentences, the film turns the silencing and fracturing of the subjugated subject into a critical device of the medium itself against the symbolic violence of authoritarian discourse.
From that premise, the film unfolds as an urban phantasmagoria. Christopher Lee, freed from narrative ties, drifts through a spectral Barcelona while the editing strings together shock sequences, disarms hegemonic codes, and tightens the viewer’s expectations. This combination of forces allows the filmmaker to test the limits of cinema as resistance and to open a space for critical reappropriation in today’s cinema.
For all this, “Umbracle” endures as an emblem of cinema’s formal power to confront any authoritarian gaze and stands as a living instrument for the present.
Adrián Onco
Pere Portabella (1927) Pere Portabella is a Spanish filmmaker, producer, and politician. He studied chemistry in Madrid. In 1959, he founded the production company Films 59, which produced significant films like Luis Buñuel's “Viridiana” (1961). His most notable films include “Nocturno 29” (1969), “Cuadecuc, vampir” (1971), and “Umbracle” (1972). His works often blend documentary and fictional elements, employing avant-garde techniques to address political and social issues. Portabella’s commitment to political activism led him to a career in politics. In 1977, he was elected as a senator in Spain’s first democratic elections and participated in drafting the Spanish Constitution. Throughout his career, he has received numerous accolades, including the National Award of Cinema in 2009, and the Gaudí d’Honor Award from the Acadèmia del Cinema Català in 2012. His films have been featured in retrospectives at institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Centre Pompidou in Paris.
Filmography:
(Valik/Selected): Nocturno 29 (1969), Cuadecuc, vampir (1971), Umbracle (1972), Pont de Varsòvia (1990), Die Stille vor Bach (2007), Informe general II. El nou rapte d'Europa (2015, doc)