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Pere Portabella i Ràfols ( Catalan pronunciation: [ˈpeɾə ˌpɔɾtəˈβeʎəj ˈrafuls]; born in 1927) is a Spanish politician, director, and producer. In 1977, he was elected Senator in Spain's first democratic elections and participated in the writing of the Spanish Constitution.
As a filmmaker Pere Portabella has been a relevant presence in the Spanish film world for the last fifty years. With Films 59, his production company, he fostered some of the most emblematic films in the history of Spanish cinema.
By Erika Balsom. Pere Portabella with cameraman Teo Escamilla shooting Nocturno 29, Barcelona, 1968. PERE PORTABELLA made his first film in Barcelona in 1967, a time marked by intense repression in Francoist Spain and a worldwide proliferation of cinematic new waves that were challenging the parameters of filmic language.
- Erika Balsom
For the second year in a row, the boldest new work I saw at Cannes was by Pedro Portabella. Umbracle, a multi-faceted statement of political despair from Franco Spain, is far more ambitious and open-ended than last year’s Vampir-Cuadecuc, and even harder to encapsulate.
My argument seeks to critique the obsessive preoccupation with origin or essence, particularly that of national origin, that has plagued writing on Spanish film in order to I am grateful to Josetxo Cerdán for help in accessing some of Portabella’s films. Likewise, I thank Pere Portabella and Films for providing me with a copy of Informe ...
- Steven Marsh
In practical terms, I started my phase as producer in 1959, enrolling in the Show Business Union, in the Producers' association under the name Films 59 – Pedro Portabella. I set up an office in Madrid, on Guzmán el Bueno Street.
Pere Portabella’s 1972 film Umbracle works in a similar way, consistently priming, then undermining, forward impulses toward a linear narrative through various strategies, most conspicuously by intercalating heterogeneous sequences.
