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The figure of the director Luis García Berlanga transcends cinematography to establish influences with all the arts, but finds a special relationship with comics. The humour of the comic strips of the 1940s and 1950s and Berlanga's work share common ground, born both from a way of understanding social criticism and from coexistence in a post-war period in which comic strips were established as a portrait of a devastated society. Berlanga and his collaborators grew up as readers of comics that influenced their humour, but the graphic humour and comics that developed from the 1960s onwards were clearly influenced by the Valencian director. It is impossible to understand today's satire in cartoons without the Berlanga look, so it is easy to find his influences -sometimes explicit and others more subtle- in today's graphic humour and comics.
BERLANGA'S LIFE
Berlanga's life was, without a doubt, a comic book life. It is not difficult to imagine that the Valencian director would be happy to star in a comic like his fellow Valencian Juanjo Cuerda (Quart de Poblet, 1978) imagines. His ease with caricature and humour is cemented in a style of incredible plasticity in which we find not only the influences of Franco-Belgian authors and the Bruguera School, but also the dynamism of Chuck Jones' animations. Since 2011 he has been a regular contributor to El Jueves, where he has produced different series and graphic humour, forming part of the Editorial Board. He is also the creator, together with Julio Serrano, of the series Cecilia Van Helsing (Mamut Cómics).
THE CHARACTERS IN THE FILMS
The characters in Berlanga's films form, in their chorality, a portrait of post-war and transition Spain that is as reliable as it is scathing. Characters that are easy to recognise in everyday reality, but also in the protagonists of the series that filled the pages of DDT or Pulgarcito. Paco Alcázar (Cádiz, 1970) is one of the most acute notaries of that everyday reality of the absurd through characters like Silvio José, who, from the pages of El Jueves, composed a vitriolic view of reality. A regular contributor to magazines such as Cinemanía, Rolling Stone, El País Semanal and Rockdelux, his homage to film characters is also a reflection of our past and present.
BERLANGA'S FILMS
Berlanga's films are part of the popular imagery, an obvious and recognisable reference point for the satire that has developed in this country. Graphic humour has drunk from those images engraved in the retinas of Plácido, El verdugo, La escopeta nacional or Bienvenido Mr. Marshall to reinterpret them in the present and show that Berlanga's films are not only current, they are part of our DNA. Participating artists: Alberto Guitián, Asier y Javier, Bernardo Vergara, Darío Adanti, Enrique Flóres, Felípe H. Navarro, Ferrán Martín, Idígoras y Pachi, Juanjo Cuerda, Lorenzo Montatore, LPO, Manel Fontdevilla, María Herreros, Pablo García, Paco Alcázar, Rafa Kosta, Raúl Salazar, Ricardo, Ricardo Cavolo, Sansón, Tomás Serrano, Ulises Culebro.
The exhibition will travel through all the campuses of the University of Valencia
