Albert Serra
In an ambiance loaded with tension, intellectual doubts and creative frustration, Rainer Werner Fassbinder writes and teaches the staging of a theater piece about the 18th century Libertiage at a great theater in Berlín.
In “Spaces #3”, 7 internationally acclaimed directors shot, after commissioning by the Thessaloniki International Film Festival, a short film at home, making their own timely comment on the new reality that we live in. The project is inspired by the book “Species of Spaces” by the French novelist, filmmaker, documentalist, and essayist, Georges Perec and the days of quarantine. The idea is to create a film at home, using the environment, the people or the animals in that space. The only outdoor areas that may be used are outdoor living spaces, such as the terrace, the garden, the balcony and the stairwell. “My influences” is Albert Serra’s submission.
1774, shortly before the French Revolution, somewhere between Potsdam and Berlin. Madame de Dumeval, the Duke de Tesis and the Duke de Wand, libertines expelled from the puritanical court of Louis XVI, seek the support of the legendary Duc de Walchen, German seducer and freethinker, lonely in a country where hypocrisy and false virtue reign. Their mission is to export libertinage, a philosophy of enlightenment founded on the rejection of moral boundaries and authorities, but moreover to find a safe place to pursue their errant games, where the quest for pleasure no longer obeys laws other than those dictated by unfulfilled desires.
Louis XIV is no newcomer to Albert Serra’s filmography, the hero of his latest opus to date, THE DEATH OF LOUIS XIV (2016). ROI SOLEIL features a twin, even though, in the game of differences, it turns out that there are quite a few. Instead of Jean-Pierre Léaud, a non-professionnal actor whom Serra already worked with in his first films.
August 1715. After going for a walk, Louis XIV feels a pain in his leg. The next days, the king keeps fulfilling his duties and obligations, but his sleep is troubled and he has a serious fever. He barely eats and weakens increasingly. This is the start of the slow agony of the greatest king of France, surrounded by his relatives and doctors.
The singularity is the concept that mathematicians and artificial intelligence researchers use to name the moment where our relationship with the machine changes, when technology ceases to be a tool and becomes a companion to the human species. Under this rubric, the artist has conceived a new piece, an immersive film installation projected onto 5 screens arranged in a dynamic structure taking up the entirety of the exhibition space. Specifically conceived for this presentation in Venice, the installation choreographs not only a wide range of views on today’s world but also the visitors’ movement through the space.
An homage from Serra to one of his idols, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, shot in a nightclub full of characters that resemble the ones of Fassbinder films. The title comes from the favourite drink of “Beware of the Holy Whore” characters.
Famous lover Casanova (Vicenç Altaió), now long past his prime, meets Count Dracula (Eliseu Huertas) during a journey to Transylvania.
Reflection on the construction of Europe, its cultural identity and its foundations through the complete adaptation of the texts Conversations with Goethe, by J.P. Eckermann, Hitler's Table Talks and Fassbinder uber Fassbinder: Die ungekurzten Interviews (compilation of interviews with the German filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder, which is used as a counterpoint to the first two books).
Part of the crew of Honor of the Knights travels to La Mancha to see the real settings of Quixote’s life in order to shoot a film.
The film is a collection of one-minute short films created by 60 filmmakers from around the world on the theme of the death of cinema.
Episodic film, divided into 14 chapters, based on the play De los nombres de Cristo (1586), by Fray Luis de Leon and intended for exhibition "Are You Ready for TV?". Filmed partly in the rooms of MACBA (Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona), is about the difficulty of naming or visually represent abstract concepts.
The exhibition 'The Complete Letters' features epistolary works defined by cinematographic creation. This is an experimental communication format used between pairs of film directors. Although each director is situated in a location geographically distant from that of their partner, they are united by their willingness to share ideas and reflections on all that motivates their work. Within this space of freedom, the directors featured in the exhibition examine their affinities and differences, within an environment of mutual respect and simultaneity of interests and with notable formal variants established in each of the correspondences.
A short film by Albert Serra, made in conjunction with his third feature film, Birdsong, from a small reference by Dante to the King Arrigo VII (Henry VII) in “Paradise” from “The Divine Comedy.”
SYNOPSIS Albert Serra’s piece for and audiovisual tribute to Chaplin the filmmaker… What is Chaplin’s legacy in contemporary cinema? It is not about producing films like Chaplin did, nor remembering the icon in a naïve fashion, but about finding traces of his cinema in their own individual looks.
Waiting for Sancho is an ontological investigation into a place where cinema becomes something more than cinema. Filmed in high-definition colour over five days in the Canary Islands of Fuerteventura and Tenerife, Waiting for Sancho is a kind of experimental “making of” the critically acclaimed El cant dels ocells (Birdsong_/_Le chant des oiseaux). A particular take on the Biblical story of The Three Kings en route to the baby Jesus, El cant dels ocells premiered at the Quinzaine des Realisateurs at Cannes 2008.
The filmmaker Albert Serra and producer Àngel Martin present their last work on the web dedicated to the club Atlètic Club Banyoles and the authentic football.
Lluís Carbó and Lluís Serrat, i nubliables Quixote and Sancho d'Honor de Cavalleria, philosophize, improvise and rehearse, as if at the top of the world, under the eye of Albert Serra.
Trusting in fate, Don Quixote and Sancho pursue their travels in search of adventure day and night. They ride through fields, talking about subjects as varied as spirituality, chivalry and daily life. A growing bond of friendship unites them.
A portrait of the world of contemporary art. A world full of extravagances and colorful characters, but suggestive of the contrast it represents with the normal life of most people. An artificial, theatrical and equivocal world but inhabited by innocence and blind faith in the transforming power of art. The film is a tribute to this world and to these people, with ironic and often provocative borders, but sincere in their admiration for the subversive power of the artists who always question, and in the most unexpected (sometimes involuntary) way, our system of values.
A successful black theatre and opera stage director, a very demanding and determined person, is going through a prolonged and devastating spiritual ordeal, of unknown origin, to which she seems to have become accustomed. She lives in a permanent drunkenness, shocking and implausible but paradoxically controlled and with hardly any excesses. She has a growing fascination for the talent and magnetism of one of the actresses, whose career she wants to dominate, as she considers herself responsible and owner of her triumph.
"Tardes de soledad" aims to be the first documentary to tackle the aesthetic side of bullfighting in all its complexity and to do so with the expressiveness and plastic and conceptual refinement of director Albert Serra.
On an island in French Polynesia a writer returns to her country after having triumphed in France with a novel. However, it is disoriented and with a creative crisis. Given the impossibility of writing new works, he decides to accept a simultaneous translation job with an ambassador. A strange loving attraction begins between them, full of contrasts. Little by little she realizes the cynicism of international politics, with a latent threat of new nuclear tests by the French government. Your love story with the ambassador will be affected by that conflict, and interest and romanticism will mix in a confusing and absorbing way until the sad end.
