Director of the University Culture Service Adela Cortijo, describes this year’s programme, which will open with Jaws, a film by Steven Spielberg that stirred up commercial cinema in 1975. The film, which combines Hitchcockian suspense with an almost non-existent shark, suggested by the famous disturbing musical theme created by John Williams, will leave the audience open-mouthed and will submerge them in the pleasure of enjoying the film on the big screen. The following day, Sundown (2021) by the Mexican director Michel Franco, with Tim Roth and Charlotte Gainsbourg, will be shown. A film in which the main character is a kind of Meursault lost in Acapulco who decides to isolate himself socially among the sun, sea and sand. 

On Thursday, 11 July, the film Conte d’été by Éric Rohmer (1996), emblematic filmmaker of the Nouvelle Vague, will be screened as part of a tetralogy or cycle of the seasons, says Adela Cortijo. Summer is one of this filmmaker’s favourite seasons –Le genou de Claire (1970), Pauline à la plage (1983)– for his characters to engage in endless conversations about love and life. On Friday 12, Été 85 (2020) by François Ozon, reminiscent of Rohmer, will be the next to be screened. The film nostalgically recreates teenage desire during summer in the 1980s. The long, hot summer (1958) by Martin Ritt, a free Faulkner adaptation, will be screened on Saturday, 13. The director points out that the audience will be drenched in the transpiration of Paul Newman, imitating Brando in A Streetcar named Desire. On Sunday 14, Do the Right Thing (1989) by Spike Lee we will feel the tension, violence, racism and temperature rise in a Brooklyn slum. On 15 July, A Bigger Splash (2015) by Luca Guadagnino will close this series of summer films with a remake or an aesthetically and thematically intelligent and updated revision of La Piscine (1969) by Jacques Deray, adds the director.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) will give the finishing touch to ‘Nits de Cinema’ of the UV on 17 July. It is a benchmark of German expressionism that has influenced numerous filmmakers, including Tim Burton and Martin Scorsese. The screening of this classic film by Robert Wiene will be supported by original live music, composed and performed by Tránsito Sonoro, a electronic music and clarinet duo comprised of Bartolomé Llorens and Alberto Trabajos.

In charge of the Cinema Club of the Universitat de València is Manuel de la Fuente, who explained that this initiative opens the ‘On mute and live’ series. The series will offer regular screenings of classic silent films, as “the Cinema Club wishes to draw attention to a time period (silent films) that created the grammar of audiovisual language, used from the classical era to the current TV shows.” Additionally, he pointed out that the ‘Sea, Sex & Sun’ series took inspiration for its title from a song by Serge Gainsbourg, which “pays tribute to the history of the club, the creation of ‘Nits de Cinema’ in 2008, a series inaugurated with an edition that aimed to explore, through different films, the relationship between cinema and summer.”

The cloister of La Nau will hold the screening of ‘Nits de Cinema’ from 9 to 17 July at 10:00pm, free entry and limited capacity. These screenings will be combined with introductory sessions by critics and university professors to provide the contextual and analytical keys for each feature film.

This year’s poster is designed by Cachetejack, the duo of illustrators Nuria Bellver and Raquel Fanjul. This colourful poster reflects the summer cinema association: enjoyed outdoors, with emotions associated with summer and full of pleasure, eroticism and interaction with nature. According to the illustrators, “this poster reminds us that taking the time to disconnect from the digital world and be present with other humans and with nature helps us to enjoy the moment and find peace, serenity and pleasure within ourselves. To focus on what really matters and learn to celebrate life every day,” they conclude.