«The waves of the sea, the raindrops and the days of the past… who can count them?». Such a question appears in epigraph 1,2 of the Ecclesiasticus and is used by Mario Camus to open ‘The days of the past’, a film about the drama of the maquis and their relatives that was released in 1977, the year in which the PCE was legalized in our country.
Starring Pepa Flores (who won the best actress award in Karlovy Vary) and Antonio Gades, the work shines for the precise portrait that is made of post-war Francoist Spain: rural schools and their teaching methods, the ration card, the fear of public speaking and complicit silences, the role of women and, of course, the anti-Franco guerrillas who continued their resistance to the dictatorship under a panorama every more discouraging.
Mario Camus García (1935-2021), who was born and died in his beloved Santander, dedicated his entire artistic career to answering this question posed by the sacred book. His eagerness for tell the past and that it will not be forgotten he focused mainly on the Franco era, that which he knew so well and lived in his own flesh.
His gaze, always on the side of the victims, was sharp and hurtful, because it did not remain in the mere vindication and innocuous tribute of the victims and reprisals by the war and subsequent dictatorshipRather, in his rigorous and scathing image of those years, the rancid and at the same time fascinating Spanish idiosyncrasy is contemplated, both for better and for worse. That of defeated and victorious, poor and rich, peasants and landowners, mourning, masses and rifles.
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The two pillars of Camus
Leaving aside the ideological question, in order to define Camus’s cinematographic work, the focus must be placed on two pillars: The adaptations that he brought to the big screen of important national novels and the series he directed, especially the miniseries of few chapters, which have been so popular in the last decade.
Camus’ passion for adaptations comes from the beginning, when he turned the novel into a film ‘Carp’ from the Galician writer Daniel Sueiro, who wrote the film script. Thus, ‘The phonies’ It was his first work, where he recounted the vicissitudes of a theater company with little fortune in its journey through the Spanish towns. Shortly after he premiered ‘Young Sánchez ‘, loosely based on the homonymous story by Ignacio Aldecoa. It is a film about the lumpen in the context of boxing, located on the outskirts of Barcelona and which surprised us with its clever ending.
Later came the adaptations of literary texts by Joaquín Calvo Sotelo with ‘The visit that did not touch the bell’ (1965), again by Aldecoa with ‘El viento solano’ (1965), which competed in Cannes, and ‘Los birds de Baden-Baden’ (1975), by Antonio Gala with ‘Esa mujer’ (1969), by Calderón de la Barca with ‘The legend of the mayor of Zalamea’, performed by Francisco Rabal and Fernando Fernán Gómez, by Juan Luis Cebrián with ‘La Russian’ (1987), by Pierre Louÿs with ‘La mujer y el pelele’ (1990), or Eduardo Mendoza with ‘La ciudad de los prodigios’ (1999).
Point and apart they deserve what are probably his three best adaptations: ‘La colmena’ (1982), ‘Los santos inocentes’ (1984) and ‘La casa de Bernarda Alba’ (1987). The adaptation to the novel by Camilo José Cela, whose acting cast was made up of José Sacristán, Victoria Abril, Luis Escobar, Ana Belén and José Luis López Vázquez, won the Golden Bear in Berlin ex aequo with the British ‘Ascendancy’ ( Edward Bennett, 1982) and placed the Cantabrian filmmaker as an important figure in European cinema beyond our borders.
Two years later the adaptation to the homonymous novel by Miguel Delibes from Valladolid would arrive, an uncensored portrait of classist Spain of the 60s through the life of a peasant family and their landowner in an Extremadura farmhouse. The film stars Alfredo Landa, Francisco Rabal, Juan Diego and Terele Pávez, among others, the first two being awarded the ex aequo prize for best actor at the Cannes Film Festival, a distinction that was added to the special mention of the jury.
The phrase “Milana bonita” remains to be remembered, with which Azarías (Paco Rabal) calls his distinguished companion, a jackdaw that frequently perches on his shoulder. Already in 87 he moved to the cinema the most universal poet from Granada. To capture this powerful story of women from Lorca, it had a splendid group of actresses led by Irene Gutiérrez Caba, who played Bernarda Alba. The film received three Goya Award nominations and won the best artistic direction.
In the apparatus of series are also found great adaptations like ‘Fortunata and Jacinta’, a ten-chapter miniseries that adapts the famous novel by Benito Pérez Galdós, or ‘La forja de un rebelde’ (1990), an adaptation of six chapters of the acclaimed text by Arturo Barea. He also directed ‘The truckers’ (1973), ‘The disasters of war’ (1983) and some chapters of the mythical ‘Curro Jiménez’ (1976), which narrated the adventures of a 19th century Andalusian bandit, a milestone in homeland television. The three series were carried out by Sancho Gracia.
An essential name within the New Spanish Cinema
With a filmography of about forty works (among shorts, longs, documentaries and series) it is worth mentioning projects by Camus that were not well received by critics, such as the musicals he recorded with the singer Raphael, the Hitchcockian thriller ‘Muere una mujer’ (1966), which he wrote with Carlos Saura, or his spaghetti western ‘The Wind’s Wrath’ and ‘The Return of El Coyote’, starring Terence Hill and José Coronado respectively.
Of his last years, the titles stood out ‘Shadows in a battle’ (1993), drama about two ex-ETA militants with which Camus won the Goya for best screenplay, ‘The color of the clouds’ (1997), an exciting melodrama starring Julia Gutiérrez Caba, and her last work before leaving the cameras, ‘El prado de las estrellas’ (2007), a story about maturity and friendship whose Main actor was Álvaro de Luna.
Camus studied Law and later trained at the Official Film School, he belongs to the generation of New Spanish Cinema along with other great directors such as Carlos Saura, Basilio Martín Patino, José Luis Borau, Manuel Summers, Miguel Picazo or Julio Diamante, the latter passed away in 2020. National Film Award in 1985 and winner of the Honorary Goya in 2011He also directed plays and published books of stories such as ‘A hidden fire: 14 short stories’ (2003) and ‘Apuntes del natural’ (2007).
Jealous of his private life, his originality and great humility characterized him in life. For this reason and for its rich legacy, the Cantabria Film Library will now bear his name. Mario Camus died last Saturday, September 18. A unique narrator of our Spain, an expert portraitist of innocent characters that populate his work, an unforgettable accountant of the past.