Carles Santos

The opening ceremony of the Barcelona Summer Olympics took place on July 25, 1992, at the Montjuïc Olympic Stadium before an audience of over 65,000. This historic event was largely orchestrated by the renowned Catalan troupe La Fura dels Baus, which staged spectacular scenes depicting the history of the Mediterranean and the Labours of Hercules. Music played a central role in the evening, featuring great operatic voices; the audience was captivated by performances from Montserrat Caballé, José Carreras, Plácido Domingo, Alfredo Kraus, and Teresa Berganza. Although he had passed away the previous year, Freddie Mercury was also present—both on screen and in voice—through the broadcast of their iconic duet "Barcelona," which became the definitive anthem of the Games. Additionally, British pop star Sarah Brightman performed the official anthem, "Amigos Para Siempre," alongside José Carreras.

Documentary about the history of experimental cinema in Spain. FRAGMENTS is a historical survey of “the other” Spanish Cinema — films that brazenly explored their artistic, poetic and conceptual potential. Spanish experimental cinema can be glimpsed in a series of important yet isolated events that FRAGMENTS compiles through various firsthand accounts, film excerpts and documents. For the first time in Spain, a documentary brings together the most relevant of a cinema that is slowly losing its invisibility.

A beautiful, sometimes faintly bonkers celebration and contemplation of the role Bach’s music plays in the world today. Blending historical reconstruction with very loosely linked ‘dramatic’ scenes and documentary sequences, the film constitutes a playful, painterly sequence of variations on the argument that Johann Sebastian changed the way the world hears thanks to his extraordinary ear for harmony.

Constel·lació Portabella traces the exciting life of the great Catalan film director and artist Pere Portabella , which traverses the cultural and political history of the country and the last seventy years, letting us be carried away by the passion, the intellect intelligence and curiosity.

A female professor, a writer, and an orchestra conductor--three characters, two couples--attend a grand literary cocktail party. The writer has just won the prize for his book "Warsaw Bridge." The winner answers the journalist's questions one after another, but he is unable to come up with a synthesis of the plot of his book. They will simply have to read it.

The first of the conceptual short films directed by Carles Santos and produced by Pere Portabella. Here, only the soundtrack allows us to know what is happening. An empty frame serves as a container for everyday noises such as traffic, the uncorking of a bottle or the clatter of cutlery, thus giving the feeling that we can hear people sitting and eating at the table. The sound was recorded with a conventional tape deck and the person eating is Carles Santos himself.

A beautiful, sometimes faintly bonkers celebration and contemplation of the role Bach’s music plays in the world today. Blending historical reconstruction with very loosely linked ‘dramatic’ scenes and documentary sequences, the film constitutes a playful, painterly sequence of variations on the argument that Johann Sebastian changed the way the world hears thanks to his extraordinary ear for harmony.

A female professor, a writer, and an orchestra conductor--three characters, two couples--attend a grand literary cocktail party. The writer has just won the prize for his book "Warsaw Bridge." The winner answers the journalist's questions one after another, but he is unable to come up with a synthesis of the plot of his book. They will simply have to read it.

The first of the conceptual short films directed by Carles Santos and produced by Pere Portabella. Here, only the soundtrack allows us to know what is happening. An empty frame serves as a container for everyday noises such as traffic, the uncorking of a bottle or the clatter of cutlery, thus giving the feeling that we can hear people sitting and eating at the table. The sound was recorded with a conventional tape deck and the person eating is Carles Santos himself.

How does a country go from a dictatorship to a democracy? A detailed report on the political representation in the heart of the Spanish Transition, only a few months after General Franco’s death, when the sincere democratic vocation of Spanish people must effort to destroy, one heavy brick after another, the wall that those who supported the dictatorship and those who fought it from the exile built with resentment, hatred and prejudices.

Conceptual short film consisting of four independent pieces, filmed in Carles Santos' own apartment, on Madrazo Street in Barcelona.

A tape recorder captures a voice (the narration is by Pere Portabella) rigorously and exhaustively reading all the symbols that appear in the piano score of Chopin's piece. The text, five or six pages long, was written by Carles Santos for a tribute book to the gallery owner Joan Prats after his death, a book that also included texts by Antoni Tàpies, Joan Brossa, Joan Miró, and others. Santos even staged a performance of it in New York, and after reading it, he would play Chopin's prelude on the piano.

Carles Santos, at the piano, plays the notes that make up the title 74 times, dressed up and disguised as that many characters.

Carles Santos plays several of his pieces on the piano. This film was made for the exhibit on Carles Santos Visca el piano! held at the Miro Foundation in the summer of 2006.

Naked bodies are buffeted by water accompanied by the music Il Temporale from the opera La Cenerentola and the overture to Il Barbiere di Siviglia both by Gioacchino Rossini.

1967 short film from Spain

1967 short by Carles Santos

1967 short from Spain by Carles Santos

1967 short by Carles Santos