Cuadecuc, Vampir / Umbracle (BLU-RAY)

Pere Portabella has been a pioneering movie producer and celebrated Spanish statesman, denounced by both the Franco dictatorship and The Vatican. But it’s his subversive work as a director that has rewritten the rules of genre narrative. Or as The Museum of Modern Art says, “The films of Portabella expand the expressive potential of cinema”: In 1970, Portabella was invited by Jess Franco to make a behind-the-scenes documentary on the filming of COUNT DRACULA. Instead, CUADECUC VAMPIR became a dreamlike deconstruction of myths, monsters and moviemaking featuring Christopher Lee, Herbert Lom and Soledad Miranda as you’ve never seen them before. Christopher Lee also stars in Portabella’s companion piece UMBRACLE, an unsettling journey through dread, violence and discontinuity with Lee at his most candid. Both films are now scanned in HD from Portabella’s own vault elements for the first time ever in America.