Pere Portabella receives an honorary doctorate from UAB
17/03/2009
Professor Josep Maria Català, Chair of the University's Department of Audiovisual Communication and Advertising, was the sponsor of UAB's new honorary doctorate. In his speech, Català commented on how "many have pointed out the correlation" between a "decline in ethics" and the "rise of audio-visual culture", but that "Portabella is the proof that this is untrue".
Català described the career of UAB's new honorary doctorate and highlighted the originality of his works, stating that they were "ahead of the times" in both the fields of arts and politics. He also emphasised the coherence between Portabella's social commitment and his films,
as well as Portabella's contribution to "post-cinema", which he defined as a "cinema of thought whose emblematic form is that of the film essay genre". He also drew a parallel between the "concern for transcendence" of Johann Sebastian Bach and Pere Portabella.
Portabella, after receiving the honorary doctorate diploma and medal from the UAB Rector, gave a master lecture in which he talked about his career and his conceptions of films.
He highlighted the influence of philosopher and cultural critic Walter Benjamin, who claimed that the importance of the spectator lies in the fact that "the vision of the other is what completes the unfinished work of an artist". According to Portabella "Benjamin believed that it did not make sense to limit political contents of a work to the arguments or contents of the 'theme' of the work", since these originate in "the language and film techniques which form the shape" of the film. He went on to say that "it is possible to make reactionary films with progressive arguments".
The new honorary doctorate recounted his first contacts with Luís Buñuel and anecdotes from the filming of Viridiana (1961), the success of the film at the Festival de Cannes and problems with censorship in Franco's Spain. He also recounted meetings with writer Luís Martín Santos, philosopher Manuel Sacristán or filmmaker Orson Welles. During his speech, Portabella quoted a phrase pronounced by Manuel Vázquez Montalbán after he received an honorary doctorate from UAB upon nomination by the Faculty of Communications Studies.
Portabella concluded his master lecture with a focus on the present scenario in which "cinema is surviving into the digital era with incontestable success more than a century after it was invented. The consequences of the digital revolution will have a similar or even greater impact than those of the industrial revolution". According to Portabella, "corporatism, the maximalisation of benefits and common narrative formulas seem to govern the film market worldwide, together with the announcement of decadence and the death of cinema. Reality however seems to demonstrate that contemporary cinema is richer and more diverse than ever".
Following his speech, UAB Rector Ana Ripoll defined Portabella as "one of the cultural references Catalonia has had in the past 40 years". She explained that the works of UAB's new honorary doctorate helped to "awaken dormant consciences" during Franco's dictatorship. Ripoll spoke on the coherence of his career and pointed out that Portabella continues to work on "establishing points of dialogue" through Fundació Alternatives, a foundation he currently presides, and concluded by stating that Portabella is "an integral man with clear convictions which are reflected in his films and his political activity".
The ceremony ended with a performance by the UAB Choir, directed by Poire Vallvé. The choir interpreted "Jesu, meine Freude" by J. S. Bach, with the collaboration of a dancer from the UAB Aula de Dansa, as well as Gaudeamus igitur.
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