Vampir Cuadecuc

Pere Portabella's 1971 film was shot on the set of Jess Franco's Count Dracula, and it is not a making-of documentary. Portabella was invited onto the set and recorded the shooting on high-contrast black-and-white 16mm without sync sound; what emerged is the same scenes turned into another film. Christopher Lee's Dracula appears here putting on makeup, resting and stepping out of character. The cuadecuc of the title is a Catalan word for the unexposed strip at the end of a film reel. The film was made in the last phase of the Franco dictatorship under heavy censorship, and Portabella smuggled politics inside genre cinema. The sound design consists of noise and electronic tones; there is almost no dialogue. Who it's for: viewers interested in experimental cinema, the Spanish avant-garde and cinema about cinema. Who it's not for: anyone wanting narrative and explanation, or who will find the harsh sound design and image processing wearing.