Patino, Basilio M.

b. 1930, Lumbrales (Salamanca)

   Filmmaker

   Founder of the Salamanca University Film Club and organizer, with Bardem, of the 1955 film congress known as the Salamanca Conversations, Patino studied at the IIEC and produced his first film Nueve cartas a Berta (Nine Letters to Berta), a study in black and white of the monotony of provincial life, in 1965. His Canciones para después de una guerra (Songs For After a War) (1971) combining Civil War documentary footage with recordings of popular songs of the time, banned for five years as anti-Francoist, has been described as "one of the most evocative films ever made in Spain". Queridísimos verdugos (Dearest Executioners) (1973) and Caudillo (Military Boss) (1976) had to be made in secret, documentary footage for the latter being smuggled in from France and elsewhere. Los paraísos perdidos (Lost Paradises) (1985) conveys a sense of disillusionment with post-Franco Spain.

   See also: censorship; film and cinema; Francoist culture

   Further reading

   - Besas, P. (1985) Behind the Spanish Lens: Spanish Cinema under Fascism and Democracy, Denver, CO: Arden Press (a comprehensive information source).

   - Hopewell, J. (1986) Out of the Past: Spanish Cinema After Franco, London: British Film Institute (a very readable general account of contemporary trends).

   EAMONN RODGERS