remembering the good the bad and the ugly
Last Updated : GMT 06:49:16
Arab Today, arab today
Arab Today, arab today
Last Updated : GMT 06:49:16
Arab Today, arab today

Remembering the good, the bad and the ugly

Arab Today, arab today

Arab Today, arab today Remembering the good, the bad and the ugly

Extras make their wayto Girona Cathedralwhile filming forSeason 6 of the TVseries Gameof Thrones in
Madrid - Arab today

Half a century ago, Hollywood came to Spain, turning Madrid into revolutionary Russia and the arid south into the Wild West. Now the government is trying to lure the movie industry back with a fistful of dollars.

Tinseltown and television never gave up on Spain; its dry climate, rugged landscape and historical architecture have attracted HBO’s hit medieval fantasy “Game of Thrones” for a second year in a row. In one Danish series, southern Spain doubled as Afghanistan, complete with Taliban fighters.

But the heyday of the mid 1960s, when British director David Lean filmed “Doctor Zhivago” in the capital and Italian Sergio Leone shot a series of spaghetti Westerns including “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” around the country, are long gone.

Now Spain is trying to catch up with locations such as the United States and Canada. Since earlier this year, the government has offered tax breaks for cinema and animation producers, hoping this will play a modest role in stimulating an economy that is recovering from crisis but still relies excessively on tourism for jobs.

Rosa Jaen remembers the winter of 1965 when, nearly 50 years after the Russian revolution, hundreds of Bolshevik protesters spilled onto the streets of Canillas, a Madrid suburb. Prevented by Cold War politics from filming in Moscow, Lean had brought “Doctor Zhivago” to her doorstep

As a teenager, Jaen came to gawp at the shoot and its replica Kremlin. At a time when Spain was still poor, some of her neighbours earned enough as extras to head for one of the resorts then springing up on the Mediterranean coast.

“Many families here couldn’t afford even the smallest luxuries,” said Jaen, 65. “Thanks to Moscow, many were able to go to the beach in Benidorm, or buy a fridge.” By 2007, tourism and construction contributed more than 30 per cent of Spanish gross domestic product. A property crash then wiped out many construction jobs and tourism is not enough to complete the recovery from a double-dip recession.

The incentives to create jobs in film production are only a small push after a wave of spending cuts by the centre-right government, which despite being credited with important economic reforms has done little to foster new industries desperately needed to bring down unemployment from over 22 per cent.

With a general election due on December 20, Spain is offering a 15 per cent tax rebate on foreign filmmakers’ production costs, though that is less generous than many schemes elsewhere. The ceiling of 2.5 million euros ($2.8 million) per film is also a stringent limit for blockbuster budgets in the tens of millions.

“For a studio working on a large scale production, it does not allow you to really benefit,” said Ignacio Perez Dolset, founder of Ilion Animation Studios, whose 350 employees are working on a secret project commissioned by Paramount.

Unstoppable opportunity

According to the Spain Film Commission, the country was by last year losing out on about 80 per cent of possible movies to other locations. It believes the tide is turning, but says the government needs to raise the rebate to support the industry.

Many point to the Canary Islands. The autonomous Spanish region brought in its own film breaks several years ago, immediately attracting several US productions. It followed this up by increasing the tax rebate to 35 per cent of costs, up to a 4.5-million-euro limit.

“It’s an unstoppable opportunity for jobs and business,” said Jose Manuel Bermudez, mayor of Santa Cruz on the island of Tenerife, best known for its white- and black-sand beaches.

The city recently masqueraded as Athens for the latest Jason Bourne spy thriller; Bermudez expects the five-week shoot to bring about 14 million euros to the island, thanks partly to spending on hotels and restaurants. About 350 people were hired as crew and 600 others as extras.

Peter Welter, whose Malaga-based Fresco Film company is working on season six of “Game of Thrones”, said the new national incentives had been important to the decision to shoot in Spain again.

Locations include arid Almeria in the south — home to many of the spaghetti Westerns — and hundreds of people will chip in as extras over the eight-week shoot.

Transferring skills

Some say Spain needs to develop its own expert workforce linked to the cinema world, instead of relying on odd-jobbers such as extras. Four years ago, Perez Dolset launched U-tad, a university in Madrid specialising in engineering, animation and design next to his studio.

Many students there want an introduction to the world of animation, but their skills are transferable outside the movie business, Perez Dolset said, giving Spain another reason to nurture the sector.

“New employment is going to come from the digital world,” he said. “Animation is going to be applied in the medical world, in simulations for doctors, in making machinery, in all kinds of industries.” Back in Canillas, only the over 60s really recall the circus surrounding Doctor Zhivago, which starred Omar Sharif in the title role and Julie Christie as the lovelorn heroine Lara.

But the movie did leave its mark in one way, residents say — an unusually high proportion of local ladies go by the name of Lara

source : gulfnews

arabstoday
arabstoday

Name *

E-mail *

Comment Title*

Comment *

: Characters Left

Mandatory *

Terms of use

Publishing Terms: Not to offend the author, or to persons or sanctities or attacking religions or divine self. And stay away from sectarian and racial incitement and insults.

I agree with the Terms of Use

Security Code*

remembering the good the bad and the ugly remembering the good the bad and the ugly

 



Name *

E-mail *

Comment Title*

Comment *

: Characters Left

Mandatory *

Terms of use

Publishing Terms: Not to offend the author, or to persons or sanctities or attacking religions or divine self. And stay away from sectarian and racial incitement and insults.

I agree with the Terms of Use

Security Code*

remembering the good the bad and the ugly remembering the good the bad and the ugly

 



GMT 13:42 2015 Saturday ,04 April

Libyan warplane targets camp in Gharyan town

GMT 15:14 2017 Wednesday ,01 March

UN documents nearly 1,500 child soldiers in Yemen

GMT 07:24 2017 Sunday ,01 October

Mexico unlikely to find more quake survivors

GMT 16:15 2015 Wednesday ,11 November

German intelligence 'spied' on Fabius, FBI, UN bodies

GMT 01:32 2017 Saturday ,15 April

Russia's Putin earns about 157,000 USD in 2016

GMT 16:30 2017 Saturday ,15 July

Minister of planning gives priority

GMT 19:45 2017 Wednesday ,05 April

President of Senegal Meets Attorney General

GMT 05:18 2017 Thursday ,21 September

Over 80 missing after migrant boat sinks off Libya

GMT 19:22 2017 Saturday ,01 April

UN: Number of Syrian Refugees Tops 5 million

GMT 15:16 2016 Thursday ,29 September

FBI to put up database on police use of deadly force

GMT 05:06 2016 Friday ,30 September

Indian markets open flat

GMT 01:57 2017 Tuesday ,10 October

Twin suicide bombs kill 13 near Mogadishu airport

GMT 02:25 2017 Friday ,08 September

UAE celebrates National Day at Expo 2017 Astana

GMT 06:19 2017 Sunday ,08 January

Bleaching poses the gravest threat to coral reefs

GMT 12:35 2017 Monday ,18 September

Elham Shahin happy for “Day for Women”

GMT 09:46 2017 Thursday ,22 June

US existing home sales unexpectedly rise in May

GMT 02:36 2017 Tuesday ,10 January

US embassy condemns Al-Arish suicide attack

GMT 10:34 2017 Sunday ,26 November

czar faces graft probe
Arab Today, arab today
 
 Arab Today Facebook,arab today facebook  Arab Today Twitter,arab today twitter Arab Today Rss,arab today rss  Arab Today Youtube,arab today youtube  Arab Today Youtube,arab today youtube

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday
arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday
arabstoday
بناية النخيل - رأس النبع _ خلف السفارة الفرنسية _بيروت - لبنان
arabstoday, Arabstoday, Arabstoday