Madrid-based distributor Atalante is ramping up its heritage cinema titles in Spain, where it’s set to release Vera Chytilová’s 1966 Czechoslovakian dark comedy “Daisies” and Kavery Kaul’s 1988 calypso music documentary “One Hand Don’t Clap.”
“Daises,” which Atalante is releasing in November, “is maybe one of the most iconic modern European films that we are very proud to put in theaters,” Atalante CEO Ramiro Ledo Cordeiro told Variety at the Lumière Film Festival’s International Classic Film Market (MIFC) in Lyon, France.
While the company had previously released one or two heritage films a year, 2024 saw an extraordinary number of releases, Ledo added.
Indeed, Atalante’s releases this year included the 4K restoration by Toho of Yasujiro Ozu’s 1950 Japanese drama “The Munekata Sisters,” which premiered last year in Cannes; the new restoration of Martha Coolidge’s 1975 U.S. drama “Not a Pretty Picture,” a reconstruction of sexual assault that bowed last year at the Berlinale; and Jacques Rivette’s “L’Amour fou” (1969), along with two other titles celebrating the collaboration between the director and actress Bulle Ogier, “Céline and Julie Go Boating” (1974) and “Le Pont du Nord” (1981).
Set to premiere in Spain next year, “One Hand Don’t Clap” “is very important because of its capacity to gather in one feature film a portrait of two very important figures in calypso music and at the same time to make a portrait of society and of the history of the musical style of calypso,” Ledo explained. The doc, which originally premiered in Telluride, focuses on legendary artists Calypso Rose and Lord Kitchener.
Atalante has been attracting Spanish audiences with international and domestic titles and had a very good experience last year in reaching younger audiences in particular with the 4K restoration of Lou Ye’s Chinese arthouse romance “Suzhou River” from 2000.
“It demands very special and almost tailored work in terms of marketing and raising awareness,” Ledo explained.
‘The Green Years’
Courtesy of Atalante
The distributor enjoyed similar success with the works of Portuguese filmmaker Paulo Rocha, starting with his first film, 1963’s “The Green Years.” The company also collected several other works for its Paulo Rocha Esencial retrospective showcase for the non-theatrical circuit that also includes “Change of Life” (1966), “Island of Loves” (1982), the 1984 documentary “A Ilha de Moraes” and “River of Gold” from 1998.
“We observed that many young people that had not heard of Paulo Rocha’s work were very curious and went to cinemas. I think young people are starting to have an interest in knowing more about historical movies that were not available,” he added.
Atalante also released this year the short film double feature “Costa+Godard,” comprising Jean-Luc Godard’s last film, “Trailer of the Film That Will Never Exist: ‘Phony Wars’” and Portuguese director Pedro Costa’s “The Daughters of Fire,” both of which screened last year in Cannes.
The company’s other upcoming releases include Payal Kapadia’s Indian drama and Cannes Competition winner “All We Imagine as Light”; Margarita Ledo-Andión’s Spanish title “Prefiro condenarme”; and Hong Sang-soo’s “A Traveler’s Needs,” which won Berlin’s Silver Bear Grand Jury Award this year, as well as the South Korean director’s Locarno award winner “By the Stream.”
