Altered Innocence to Bow Classic LGBTQ Pics, Such as ’The Wounded Man,’ as ‘Arrebato’ Plays Lumière’s MIFC (EXCLUSIVE)
variety.comEd Meza @edmezavar A restored version of Iván Zulueta’s ground-breaking 1979 film “Arrebato” (“Rapture”) is screening at the Lumière Festival’s International Classic Film Market (MIFC) in Lyon, France, thanks to Los Angeles distributor Altered Innocence and Madrid’s Mercury Films.
The cult film, considered a milestone in Spanish cinema from the post-Franco years, is seen as metaphor for how directors can be consumed by filmmaking.
It centers on José, a frustrated low-budget horror movie director trying to complete a film while struggling with drug addiction.
When he receives a package from past acquaintance Pedro — a Super-8 film reel and audiotape – José soon finds himself sucked back into the eccentric young man’s vampiric orbit. “‘Arrebato’ has such a rich mix of horror influences, punk aesthetics, arthouse vibes, and queer cinema history that audiences can’t help being enraptured by this total gem of a film,” says Frank Jaffe, founder and head of Altered Innocence. “It also helps that besides acting in the film as a dubbed transgender character, Pedro Almodóvar has been such an outspoken patron of the film and of its director, Iván Zulueta,” Jaffe adds. “Audiences really came out in support of the film and of the new 35mm print we had created for the theatrical run and we’re thrilled that Criterion Channel realized the potential of the film and signed it for an exclusive run on their channel.” Jaffe notes that the film never got a theatrical release in U.S. “besides a couple festivals and a repertory run in South Florida in the ’80s that apparently went on for a while.” Jaffe oversaw the new 4K restoration, completed in 2020 by the American Genre Film Archive in Texas using a 4K scan by Mercury Films. “Arrebato”
