Ernesto Giménez Caballero (1899–1988) was a Spanish writer, diplomat, and pioneer of Falangism. Together with Luis Buñuel among others, he was the founder of the first ciné-club in Spain and he also made some short documentaries. One of them is Esencia de Verbena—the Spanish word “verbena” does not only refer to a flower but also means festival or open-air dance. Subtitled as a “Poema documental de Madrid en 12 imagenes,” the film thus first and foremost visualizes several Madrid festivals (San Antonio, San Isidro, San Lorenzo, el Carmen, la Paloma), presenting the city as a space of leisure and festivities. Much attention goes to several fairground attractions such as automatons, merry-go-rounds, roller coasters, and Ferris wheels—in the process, Giménez Caballero uses these devices to select unusual camera positions and to create a film based on circular patterns and movements. The film also includes some remarkable multiple- exposure shots, sometimes resulting in almost surreal juxtapositions such as a combination of a city gate with traffic, pigeons, and a depiction of the Virgin. Strikingly, the filmmaker also attempted to combine traditional religious imagery with modern artworks by Goya, Picasso, Picabia, and Maruja Mallo, who wrote a pamphlet entitled Verbena a few years before the film’s release.
The film was screened at the second Congrès International du Cinéma Indépendant (CICI) in Brussels in November 1930, where it was praised by Jean Painlevé among others. Later, a sound version of the film was released with a soundtrack combining a descriptive voice-over commentary and fairground music.
Steven Jacobs
further reading
Anderson, Andrew A., Ernesto Giménez Caballero: The Vanguards Years (1921–1931) (Newark, NJ: Juan de la Cuesta, 2011).
Llopis, Juan Manuel, Juan Piqueras: El “Delluc” Español (Valencia: editiones textos Filmoteca, 1988), 274.
Torres Hortelano, Lorenzo J. (ed.), Directory of World Cinema: Spain (Bristol: Intellect, 2011).
_________________________