In this
Spanish name, the first or paternal
surname is Martín and the second or maternal family name is Patino.
Basilio Martín Patino (29October 1930 – 13August 2017)[1] was a Spanish
film director, specializing in a creative approach to
documentary works. Patino produced pieces on the
Spanish Civil War (Canciones para después de una guerra), the famous
dictator (Caudillo), or his executioners (Queridísimos verdugos). He also produced fiction (Nueve cartas a Berta, Octavia).[2] Patino often experimented with new technologies, including digital tools,
3D, and
offline editing.[3]
Basilio Martín Patino was born on 29 October 1930 in Lumbrales, a small rural town of
Salamanca Province,
Castile and León in
Spain. He is son of Catholic professors and the younger brother of the well-known priest José María Martín Patino. He studied
Philosophy and Letters at
University of Salamanca, where he founded the University cinema club.[5]In 1955 he organized the celebrated Conversaciones de
Salamanca, the first critical analysis of
Spanish cinema, and he later moved to
Madrid and enrolled in
film school after graduating from
university. He graduated from film school Escuela Oficial de Cine en
Madrid in 1961 and soon after was met with
censorship for his first
short film, Torerillos (1963).[6]
In 1969 he shot "Del amor y otras soledades", mutilated by censorship, and in 1971 "Canciones para después de una guerra", a singular and moving critical radiography of the post-war period, which also suffered censorship for five years.[12]
In response, Martín Patino filmed "Querídisimos verdugos" (1973) and "Caudillo" (1977) in hiding. Caudillo is a documentary film that follows the military and political career of Francisco Franco and the most important moments of the Spanish Civil War. It uses footage from both sides of the war, music from the period and voice-over testimonies of various people.[13][14][15]
With the advent of democracy, the filmmaker founded his production company, La linterna mágica, from which he has alternated his fiction and documentary work with titles such as
The Lost Paradise ("Los paraísos perdidos", 1985) screened at the 42nd
Venice International Film Festival, "Madrid" (1987) and " Octavia" (2002).[16][17]
His production, although it has spread over time, has received tributes and has been the material for studies and cycles, such as the one dedicated to him by the
Pompidou Center within a space dedicated to Spanish documentary, or the tribute paid in May 2005 by Documenta Madrid to someone considered one of the best Spanish documentary filmmakers.[18][19]
The Spanish Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences awarded the
2005 Gold Medal to the director, writer and researcher Basilio Martín Patino, whose work "represents the enduring values of the commitment to intelligent, complex cinema immersed in reality and evolution of a country"[20]
In 2012, he made his last film, the documentary film Libre te quiero (2012) about the camp of the
15-M movement in
Madrid.[21]
An example of a free and
rebellious filmmaker, Martín Patino leaves for history some of the most important titles of Spanish cinematography. Behind his elegance, calmness and shyness was hidden a fierce and determined attitude to make the movies he wanted, always on the margins, away from the industry, without caring about commercial successes. He died in Madrid at the age of 86 after a long degenerative disease.[22][23][24]
^Keller, Patricia (2013). "Letters from The City: Writing Boundaries in Nueve cartas a Berta (1965)". Bulletin of Hispanic Studies. 90 (8): 945–964.
doi:
10.3828/bhs.2013.57.
^Keller, Patricia (2013). "Letters from The City: Writing Boundaries in Nueve cartas a Berta (1965)". Bulletin of Hispanic Studies. 90 (8): 945–964.
doi:
10.3828/bhs.2013.57.
Pavlović, Tatjana (2008). "Los paraísos perdidos: Cinema of Return and Repetition (Basilio Martín Patino, 1985)". In Resina, Joan Ramon (ed.). Burning Darkness. A Half Century of Spanish Cinema.
State University of New York Press. pp. 105–124.
ISBN978-0-7914-7503-4.