A Spanish film, “I am loving you madly”, which the Ministry of Culture has subsidized with one million euros, has been a box office flop despite being led by a purebred actress, Alba Flores, who many will know for her role as Nairobi in “The paper house”; having received the best reviews and, most importantly, being warmly recommended by Ángela Rodríguez “Pam”, the Secretary of State for Equality. If, in addition, we add that the plot of the film deals with the beginnings of the LGTBI movement in Seville and that the protagonist has revealed herself as one of the leaders of the “anti-fascist resistance” in Spain, it certainly seems difficult to explain that they only went to see it 9,000 spectators and that the collection of the first weekend, which is the one that sets the tone, does not reach 67,000 euros. As the premiere caught me far from home, on the Portuguese coast, I haven’t had the chance to go see it and I can’t give you my opinion, a matter that worries me a bit, if only because part of the million euros in the grant It has come out of my taxes and one, believe me, is not to throw away money that does not have plenty. Now, if our government can drop a million euros for an anti-fascist film and such that the militants of Unidas Podemos are not even interested, then it will be true what Pedro Sánchez says that the Spanish economy is going like a motorcycle and if you can’t afford it, Spain can. This is what Eduardo Casanova, the director of another film success, “La piedad”, which received 320,000 euros in public subsidies and had 2,500 spectators, said that the State should promote “anti-fascist culture” through the cinema, an issue that we are not going to to discuss, but that, apparently, brings it to the fore to the majority of the spectators, who that weekend opted for Santiago Segura and Harrison Ford, and that they were premiering the same films as always. Of course, it is not easy to predict whether anti-fascist cinema has a future, but if it does, it does not seem that public subsidies are the way to ensure it. After all, when Margaret Thatcher reduced official aid to a minimum, British cinema took a giant leap, became profitable, conquered half the world’s screens and, furthermore, for two decades it dedicated itself to giving birth to the prime minister with the monotheme of deindustrialization, the destruction of unionism and references to the oppression of homosexuals. They also did “Four Weddings and a Funeral” and “A Fish Called Wanda”, but those fall under the domain of the Santiago Segura and, surely, do not count. By the way, when Thatcher came to power, the marginal tax rate was 85 percent and annual inflation was 22 percent, a minor issue that British filmmakers did not think it necessary to address in their works. But returning to our matter, it occurs to me that, in order to promote anti-fascist Spanish cinema, a matter of maximum citizen interest, our producers, directors and actors could be encouraged to shoot films about the Civil War, a practically unprecedented subject in the cinematography of left and that would not only be very successful with the public and critics, but would also give content to the law of democratic memory. Because of course, what cannot be is to reduce flagship actresses, like Alba Flores, to interpreting things like “La casa de papel”, even if Bella Ciao comes out.
2023-07-17 07:58:45
#antifascist #cinema
