Out now – Spanish Cult Cinema, volume 1, 1960-1964

Spanish Cult Cinema, Volume 1, 1960-1964
Spanish Cult Cinema, Volume 1, 1960-1964

I’m sure you’ve all been waiting with baited breath… yes, there’s a new WildEye release!

This is one I’ve been working on for some time now, intended as the first in a sequence of books looking at cult and genre films made in Spain (a film industry which I feel has been unfairly neglected by both critics and fans to date).

This first volume covers the years 1960-1964, so it includes: the last and most fruitful years of the cine negro (Spanish noir films, kind of antecedents to the Italian giallos and cop thrillers); the brief flourishing of the historical adventure genre; tentative early attempts at horror films; and the rise (and rise) of the Spaghetti Western.

It’s a bit of a mammoth tome as well, coming in at a whopping 346 pages (dimensions 18.9 x 1.98 x 24.61 cm, basically the same as for Science Fiction Italian Style)… but I’ve still tried to keep the cost low.

Now the big difference from my previous books is that there are two different versions. For those who want the cheaper option, the black and white one retails at £16.99 (or international equivalent). For those who want to splash the cash a little, there is also a colour option available for £35.99. This has colour images and, I’ve got to say, the quality of the black and white stills also looks a bit better. Just to emphasise, the difference in price is entirely down to printing costs: printing in colour is a lot more expensive than black and white.

Here’s where to find the black and white version:

And here’s where to find the colour version

(all versions are in English language and it can also be found on Amazon.jp, Amazon.au etc).

Here’s the blurb:

During the 1960s, Spain had one of the busiest film industries in Europe and, indeed, the world. In the first half of the decade, there were just under a hundred productions made on average per year, a number that rose as the decade progressed. And yet… very little is known, in the English-speaking world at least, about any of this bustling activity. Whereas directors of the period from Italy, Germany, France, and the UK are familiar to most people with an interest in cinema, the likes of Carlos Saura, Francisco Rovira Beleta and Luis García Berlanga have a rather lower profile, despite their winning numerous accolades across the world at the time. And then there were other filmmakers who plied their trade at a less elevated level; the likes of Eugenio Martín, José María Elorrieta and José Luis Madrid. Spanish Cult Cinema, Volume 1, is an examination of the whole range of Spanish cinema from 1960 to 1964. Within it, you can read about releases from popular genres including cine negro films (low budget, black and white thrillers), swashbucklers, war films, comedies, and westerns. You can discover more about productions ranging from the Oscar nominated Los tarantos to the poverty-row oater La tumba del pistolero, from Marco Ferreri’s blacker-than-black comedy El cochecito to the little-known science fiction film La hora incógnita. Featuring over a hundred detailed and lavishly illustrated reviews, Spanish Cult Cinema, Volume 1 is an invaluable introduction to a criminally underexamined area of cinema history, making it an essential purchase for anyone with an interest in either Spanish or popular cinema.

And here are some images:

Spanish cult cinema - interior spread
Spanish cult cinema – interior spread

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spanish cult cinema - interior spread - colour version
Spanish cult cinema – interior spread – colour version

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spanish cult cinema - interior spread - Fuerte perdido
Spanish cult cinema – interior spread – Fuerte perdido

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spanish cult cinema - interior spread - Fuerte perdido - colour version
Spanish cult cinema – interior spread – Fuerte perdido – colour version

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A small pile of Spanish Cult Cinema, Volume 1!
A small pile of Spanish Cult Cinema, Volume 1!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spanish Cult Cinema - Interior - Black and white
Spanish Cult Cinema – Interior – Black and white

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As always please, please, please… if you do buy it and you do enjoy it, please write a review on Amazon, it’s really helpful for other people.

About Matt Blake 890 Articles
The WildEye is a blog dedicated to the wild world of Italian cinema (and, ok, sometimes I digress into discussing films from other countries as well). Peplums, comedies, dramas, spaghetti westerns... they're all covered here.

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