It was a colloquium in which the director of the festival, Juan Ramón López from Albacete, and the philologist and writer David Felipe Arranz took part.
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Last Sunday, at the Filmoteca de Albacete, the III Cinemasmusic Awards 2022 celebrated the sixtieth anniversary of the premiere of Agent 007 against Dr. No (1962), by Terence Young, the already mythical first installment on the big screen of James Bond, with the broadcast of a digitally restored copy and a discussion in which the director of the festival, Juan Ramón López from Albacete, and the philologist and writer David Felipe Arranz took part.
There were many anecdotes that were reeling off throughout the colloquium Lopez and Arranzfor whom the first installment of James Bond was very much inspired by the reality of the time: “although they may seem like fiction, at that time the missile crisis broke out in Cuba and the Caribbean broadcasts that intercepted satellite orbits, lunar missions or shields missiles were real: a 1962 Pentagon dossier collected the strange emissions that came out of the island of Cuba and that threatened to intercept the path of the orbital mission of John Glenn of the month of February”, recalled Arranz, professor of journalism at the University Carlos III of Madrid.
José Ramón López and David Arranz during the act.
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“Was Albert R. Broccoli the one who discovered Connery during the filming of Darby O’Gill and the Goblin King (1959), a Disney adventure film in which the Scottish actor took the blows very well: that and his strength were what convinced him, although the United Artists It had a lot of problems, because Bond was English, not Scottish like Connery”, indicated the journalist from Valladolid, who considered the premiere of Ursula Andress: “in the novel Fleming describes Honey’s first appearance on the beach in Jamaica completely nude, but Andress refused and now her bikini makes history.” the one youerence Young I would have already directed Connery in the frontier of terror (1957), also opened the doors of the project for him; Young always paid special attention to casting, as was the case with Bernard Lee, Lois Maxwell –Canadian actually– or the sensual Eunice Gaysonwhich he also directed Zarak (1956).
The music of the tape opened the debate about the authorship, one of the aspects that he likes the most. John Ramon Lopez: although the main theme is signed by the composer Monty Norman, who had composed it for the musical The House of Mr. Biswas with the title of “Good Sign, Bad Sign”, it corresponded to John Barry the final arrangement and the development of the rest of the film’s themes. Arranz also pointed out the active participation in the genesis of the project to Ian Fleming, who had served during World War II in the Naval Intelligence Division (NID) and where he had met David Nivenwho at that time was also a member of the British commandos and who was his choice to embody Bond on celluloid, along with Trevor Howard and Michael Redgravejust as he thought Christopher Lee to bring to life Doctor No.
Sean Connery and Ursula Andress in ‘James Bond vs. Dr. No’.
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Arranz also singled out the production designer, Ken Adam, “who gave the ensemble that unmistakably pop vibe and who he signed Stanley Kubrick after for Red phone? We fly to Moscow (1964)”. At the end of the day, it was about recovering the character of the supervillain that dr. Fu Manchu, created by Sax Rohmer in 1913, and that Harry Saltzman he wanted me to finally incarnate Joseph Wisemanafter seeing it in 21 Brigade (1951), from William Wyler. David Felipe Arranz has coordinated the collective volume Sean Connery. The man who said never (Silex, 2020), with abundant information about the film. The projection, which surprised all the spectators due to its quality standard and the sharpness of the copy, showed the great restoration work carried out by the technical team of the MGM. Among the winners this year with the “baton” of the Cinemasmusic Awards, the filmmaker Julio Medemthe journalist and presenter of the Sequences in 24 the TVE Moses Rodriguezfilm music composer Joseph Grandsonfilm music composer Zeltia Montes or the lawyer and writer Eduardo Torres-Dulcewho came to collect the award. The director has also been graced Jose Luis Garcia and the audiovisual communicator and doctor in Information Sciences Celia Martinezwho sent two messages of thanks.
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