Culture and Sports Minister Miquel Iceta confirmed. Berlanga Archive “will end in Valencia” and pointed out that the Valencian Generalitat was looking for a place to find the legacy of Valencian filmmaker Luis García Berlanga.
This was announced by Iceta on Thursday after consulting with journalists from the Berlanga Archive. It was purchased by the ministry for 357,000 euros and contains 74 boxes with various types of documents. collected by the filmmaker during his lifetime and now become part of the state public collections.
The minister recalled that the material is in the process of being cataloged, but noted that the “president” of the Generalitat, Ximo Puig, forwarded it to him in the interests of the Council to “host the legacy of Berlanga”.
“Generalitat Valenciana will look for a place and tell us. The Berlanga Archive will end in Valencia,” he said.
A field with no location yet
As Puig noted after the minister’s announcement this Wednesday, the acceptance of the archive “will serve as a cornerstone of the space that will become the space” dedicated to the artist. As announced by Levante-EMV of the Prensa Ibérica group, Generalitat plans to set up a space dedicated to the director from 2021, where the director’s work is studied and disseminated, and personal memorabilia and objects related to his films are displayed.
“We wanted it at the time, and so it’s a matter of finding the right place and serves as a lever for recognition of an international filmmaker,” Puig said on Wednesday.
At the moment, it was not specified where this “Berlanga area” could be its headquarters. Last December, when it was announced that the director’s archive had been purchased by the ministry, the Minister of Culture, Ximo Lopez, The ideal place to house this heritage. Valencia Film Library. But this Wednesday, sources from the Ministry of Culture said on Wednesday that the department headed by Raquel Tamarit (from Compromis) “No request or notification has been received from the ministry regarding the transfer of the file”.
Purchased for 357,000 Euros
in December of last year Ministry of Culture and Sports finished getting the file Luis García Berlanga in exchange for some 357,000 euros. After several years of negotiations with the family, an agreement was reached. goodwill agreement among the parties that 74 boxes containing documents of various types collected during the filmmaker’s life have become part of the state public collections.
Since the Berlanga family sold their home in Somosaguas a few years ago, the material has been kept in the premises of Filmoteca Española, an affiliate of the Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts (ICAA), which initially took over its preservation and distribution. .
But at the beginning of 2022, the Minister of Culture himself, Michael Iceta, He showed himself willing to find “for obvious reasons” the Berlanga Archive in the filmmaker’s hometown of Valencia. The Berlanga family also expressed their wishes for the collection to be kept and displayed in Valencia on several occasions. “The fact that my father’s legacy has a physical place to showcase itself is the highest commendation. We would like that to happen in Valencia,” said Fernando García-Berlanga, receiving the Levante-EMV Award in 2021.
Another son of the director, José Luis García-Berlanga, said in December: elevator-EMV that the decision regarding the possible transfer of his father’s archive to Valencia rests with the Ministry of Culture and the Generalitat. “I hope I go to Valencia,” said García-Berlanga, who “knows” that “President” Ximo Puig “knows”. He would be “excited” to see it exhibited in his hometown. However, Berlanga’s eldest son acknowledged that in negotiations with the ministry the Berlanga family did not place any conditions on the possible transfer of the archive to Valencia.
Since this newspaper was already published a year ago, Generalitat does not want its corporate memory to be diluted after the year dedicated to the filmmaker for Luis García Berlanga’s centennial in 2021 and plans to offer a dedicated space to the director. studied and disseminated his work, and displayed personal memoirs and objects related to his films.
Sources from the Generalitat Presidency admitted to this newspaper a few months ago that this legacy does not have a specific destination. In this context, last December, regional secretary for Culture, Ximo López Camps, assured that the Filmoteca de València has “the place and staff” to house director Luis García Berlanga’s archive, but stated that this is the organization’s “priority”. is “collaboration” to value heritage.
The documents that make up the archive are very diverse and include the entire trajectory of Berlanga. This, according to the ministry, One of the “most complete and complex” files received by the Spanish Film Library, As conservation and future consultations are thought to shed a lot of light on the cultural life of Spain and one of its most relevant artistic and cultural figures in the past century.
Heritage is organized into several categories: personal and family documents, creative work, working documents, correspondence, awards, souvenirs and personal objects, graphic documents, magazines and press clippings, and work created by others.
Personal and family documents include: Personal memories such as albums with family photos, notebooks with childhood school notes, documents from their time in the Blue Division, or Valencia Football Club season tickets or collections of Christmas cards taken from other movie figures.
The original scripts, typed or handwritten, with explanations and ideas of Berlanga himself, are among the works of creation. There are several among others versions of some of his most iconic movies “That happy couple”, “Welcome back, Mr. Marshall!” or ‘Plácido’ and lots of scripts for unfinished projects.
According to the ministry, the archive perfectly documents Berlanga’s conflict and constant conflicts with Franco’s censorship through these writings and will allow us to know firsthand the consequences of this in one of the most relevant Spanish artworks of the last period. century. There is also a large sample of drafts of speeches, conferences, interventions at congresses, academic meetings, and other types of forums over several decades.
The archive also preserves correspondence with some important figures of Spanish cinema, such as Rafael Azcona, Juan Antonio Bardem, Basilio Martín Patino, Luis Ciges or José Luis López Vázquez. Added to this are nearly a hundred awards and prizes, as well as memorabilia and personal items such as documents from the 1962 Oscars ceremony for which ‘Plácido’ was nominated.
Photos, posters and illustrations
Graphic documentation is also an important part of the filmmaker’s legacy: on paper he captures photos of positives, negatives and personal, family and professional themes as well as corporate and political actions and many of his films.
Among the documents are: Lots of drawings by Berlanga with a different theme. Some are erotic, others are just characters, objects or comics. They are made on a wide variety of supports and in a variety of techniques such as pencil drawing, watercolor or felt-tip pens. ‘Welcome, Mr. Marshall!’ or set plans and location search graphic files such as those of ‘Calabuch’ as well as ‘Esa pareja feliz’.
This group is complemented by a collection of film festivals and promotional material for their films, as well as their own and others’ movie posters. The archive also contains photocopies of articles from press clippings, newspapers and interviews and information about Luis García Berlanga’s films in different publications.