e
In the Heart of the Sea
Doctor Who in Lanzarote
INTERVIEW:
Ismael Curbelo
“There’s nowhere else
in Europe like Lanzarote”
Ismael Curbelo, film maker and director
of the Lanzarote Film Commission,
spoke to us about the project.
When does the Lanzarote Film
Commission’s website go online?
It will be up on January 1st, primarily in Spanish
and English. Later we´ll add versions in German
and French.
Is it a passive tool, or will there
be efforts to promote Lanzarote
as a film location overseas?
The Lanzarote Film Commission is a product of
the Lanzarote Tourist Board, which has long
experience in promoting the island abroad. The
strategy is to get the word across to the principal
fairs, festivals and specialist markets.
Do you think Lanzarote is suited
to a particular type of production?
Lanzarote is ideal for any type of film. The island
enjoys a perfect geographical situation, and a
climate and light quality that are exceptional. The
clear, cloudless skies and the scarce
rainfall means that there are many
sunny days and many hours of daylight.
In Lanzarote we receive 3,000 hours of
sunshine a year, and an overall total of
4,800 hours of daylight. Nowhere else
in Europe can offer figures like that.
The island also offers a huge variety
of landscapes in relation to its size.
There are black beaches and white
beaches, volcanic terrain, charming
villages, quarries, unique roads, and all
of them are only a short distance form
each other.
What is your favourite
production that has
taken place on the island?
In 1978 the director Valerio Lazarov
made a Spanish TV movie called “The
Smile of a Child” here on Lanzarote. I
was one of the children who was
chosen to be an extra and this awoke
my ambition to work in cinema.
Lanzarote on Screen
As Lanzarote attempts to entice more film makers to come
to the island, it´s worth remembering how perfect a
location the island has proven in the past.
One of the first productions to use the island as a location was a
game changer for British cinema. One Million Years BC was
Hammer films’ first international blockbuster, paving the way for
hundreds more. The film not only revealed Lanzarote to the
world, but also young American actress Raquel Welch, whose fur
bikini fully deserves the word “iconic.”
Later, Rita Hayworth filmed one of her last movies, Road to
Salinas, here and Omar Sharif arrived to film a production of
Jules Verne´s Captain Nemo.
The island has proven popular with German film makers.
Volker Schlondorff made student films here and the great
Werner Herzog set his strange film Even Dwarves Started
Small near Tinajo. Later, Wolfgang Peterson filmed the science
fiction classic Enemy Mine at El Golfo.
While lunar landscapes have made the island the perfect
stand-in for alien planets, the stark romantic scenery of the
island has also been the backdrop for romance – most
notably in the Spanish films Mararia, Timanfaya and Pedro
Almodovar´s Broken Embraces, in which Penelope Cruz loved
and died on the island.
The most recent large production is linked to the very first
major film shot in the Canaries. In the Heart of the Sea, partially
filmed at El Golfo, is based on the real-life shipwreck that inspired
the classic American novel Moby Dick. Calm seas and maximum
daylight saw John Huston bring Gregory Peck to the Canaries in
1954 to film the original story of the great white whale.
Competitive prices,
quality & speed
• Litho Printing
• Personalised Stationery & Office Supplies
• Graphic Design
• Photocopying, Binding, Laminating etc.
Other Services:
• Personalised print & Embroidery:
caps, T-shirts, pens, diaries…
• Design and hosting of web pages
• Gift promotions • Rubber/data stamps
Industrial Zone Playa Honda Road Arrecife-Yaiza, 3.6km Tel. 928 823400/01 Fax 928 821501 [email protected] www.imprentaminerva.com
The Gazette | January 2015 | 23