"The Fernando Arrabal Collection"
1970-1975
Directed by Fernando Arrabal

Playwright, novelist, poet, filmmaker and provocateur Fernando Arrabal has both confounded and delighted audiences with his blasphemous and outrageous cinematic works. This boxed set collects the first three films from Arrabal: Viva La Muerte (1970, 87 mins.) is set during the tumultuous days of the Spanish Civil War. Episodic in structure, the film is a harsh, violent, poetic and often nightmarish coming-of-age story about a youngster's search for meaning. "Inescapably a major work" (The New York Times). I Will Walk Like a Crazy Horse (1973, 90 mins.) stars George Shannon as an American playboy who falls in love with a desert mystic and becomes increasingly aware of the modern world's hypocrisy. "Surreal and stimulating" (Chicago Tribune). Finally, The Guernica Tree (1975, 100 mins.) chronicles the depravity and violence that occurred under Franco's tyrannical regime. "Beautiful as a song coming from the origin of time, melancholic and violent" (Le Monde). French and Spanish with English subtitles. 277 minutes.