Cinema
El sexto sentido
Nemesio M. Sobrevila · 1929
Synopsis
Madrid, in the late twenties. Carlos, the optimist, and León, the pessimist, are friends. Carmen, Carlos's fiancée, sells her engagement ring for a charitable cause. León frequents an eccentric scholar, Kamus, who regards the cinematograph as a sixth sense, able to grasp reality better than the eye, and shows him his experimental films. But the images recorded by Kamus's camera, misinterpreted, give rise to a misunderstanding that threatens the couple formed by Carlos and Carmen.
Context
Shot in Madrid in the spring of 1929, the film was developed at the laboratory of the Fernández Ardavín family; Eusebio Fernández Ardavín, who plays León, is sometimes given as co-director. It was not released in cinemas at the time and was saved only later by the archives. On the basis of a serial plot, the director combines the observation of manners with formal experiment, and Kamus's films parody city symphonies and Dziga Vertov's theory of the kino-eye: the work discusses the avant-garde rather than belonging to it. Ricardo Baroja plays the role of Kamus.
Who it is for
A silent feature film, halfway between the serial and the experimental film; knowing what the kino-eye was helps in seeing what it mocks.
Prizes and reception
It remained unreleased at the time, was saved by the archives, and is regarded as a singular contribution to the Spanish avant-garde.
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