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Granada 1968
Granada 1974
Alternative title: Color de mi Granada / Colour of my Granada
1968 and 1974 - 35mm Bi-Standard, colour, 7 reels
In 1968 Val del Omar shot metres and metres of film in his native Granada, apparently with no other prior objective than to explore for its own sake the use of colour film and the Bi-Standard format format he himself invented as compared to the more emphatic black and white and the traditional proportions of his previous elementaries. On the basis of this material, together with additional footage shot in 1974, he sketched out various drafts for a new documentary poem on Granada.
In one of his notes he assigns the title ''ChoqueScope Arábigo-Andaluz'' [Arab-Andaluz ShockScope] to the project as a whole, estimating a final running time of 33 minutes. In another note he divides the project into two films of 15 minutes each, with the titles ''Paraíso cerrado (turistas resbalando)'' [Paradise closed (tourists slipping along)] and ''Alhucema: un puñado de tiempo'' [Lavender: a handful of time]. He also sketched out the idea of a 45-minute ''Granada triptych'' that, combining ''reportage, lyricism and delirium'', would consist of the following parts: ''Blind tourists'', ''Water-mirror of the Great Siguiriya'' (that is, the film we know as Aguaespejo granadino) and ''A summer-house on time''.
In these notes he also talks of creating an olfactory atmosphere for the screenings by the simple expedient of scattering bouquets of herbs characteristic of the Sierra Nevada, such as lavender and thyme. And as for the other elementaries, he envisages diaphonic sound, a second overlapping image and a pulsating (blinking) lighting.
Although it is generally thought that Val del Omar left this material unedited, the fact is that some of the six reels of Granada 1968 reveal at least a fairly intentioned editing, with recurrent inserts (mainly of the fountains of the Alhambra) and a certain sequential ordering of the principal thematic motives: the architecture and gardens of the Alhambra, the hordes of tourists being hurried along, Granada on feast days... Only the sixth reel and the reel shot in 1974 have a truly miscellaneous character: this last presents more images of tourists, in addition to aquatic motives and a great variety of flowers, groves, cacti, shrubs and hedges. [EB]
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