IRCANIA

Orson Welles and Goya (2008)

From his youth Orson Welles was fascinated by two geniuses: the works of Shakespeare and the paintings from the mind of Francisco de Goya. These fascinations, in addition to what he felt for Spain and his most popular manifestations are those set out in the documentary. Between 1957 and 1961 Orson Welles recorded images throughout Spain following the bullfighting seasons of his great friend the bullfighter Antonio Ordonez. These new images, mostly of family or personal nature, screened to compliment series sold to foreign television stations or for his own enjoyment, are the basis of the documentary that shows us that remote Spain of the 50's and the biographical, thematic and technical coincidences with Francisco de Goya .

Welles did not tend to take notes, preferring to record anything that interested him. But perhaps the most interesting thing that he left us are the reels dedicated to the towns and cities of Spain. Towns which had never been filmed with the expertise and the freedom of the great American director. Most of the images that have survived from those times are the official images of the NODO. But Orson Welles was interested in another Spain, the rudimentary Spain of farmers ploughing dry stony ground or ordinary people chatting in the streets. It is the unknown Spain, which never had a face.