A Moment in
the Life of Other
José Luis López-Linares
2004
Synopsis
Madronita Andreu-Klein was born into an upper middleclass Barcelona family in 1895. Her father was a wealthy industrialist and her early years were spent in euphoric modernist surroundings, in which machines and inventions gave rise to special fascination. Since her youth, she had been interested in photography and then progressed to cinema that became her great passion. From then on, she tirelessly filmed her own life and that of all those around her. A moment in the life of others presents a selection of what Mrs. Andreu filmed between 1922 and 1980. It portrays the sequence of images in the life of a well-off cosmopolitan family: their journeys from New York to Bombay, from Kingston to Seville, at a time when travelling was still an adventure… what happened to them, their parties… and also their everyday life.
At the same time that the children grew up, and their faces transformed with the elapse of time, we are witnesses to the development process of the 20th Century.
TECHNICAL DATA
Original Title: UN INSTANTE EN LA VIDA AJENA
Genre: Documentary
Year: 2004
Director: José Luis López-Linares
Country: España
Format: 35 mm (recuperación de materiales en 16mm y super 8mm telecinados a Betacam). DTS. Color y B/N
Length: 80 min
Lenguage: Spanish
Production Companies:
Cero en Conducta (Spain)
Fresdeval Films (Spain)
With the support of:
RTVE (Televisión Española)
Vía Digital
TVC (Televisió de Catalunya)
ICO (Instituto de Crédito Oficial)
INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE
Venice Film Festival 2003
NATIONAL PREMIERE
September 12, 2023
2003
Venice Film Festival
2004
Goya Award Best Documentary Film
Based in the idea by Arantxa Aguirre,
And the Madronita Andreu’s images
Director: José Luis López-Linares
Screenplay: Javier Rioyo, Arantxa Aguirre, Mauricio Villavecchia
Executive Producer: José Luis López-Linares, Javier Rioyo
Associate Producer: María José Díez, Jaime Rosales, José Mª de Orbe
Production Manager: Silvia Martínez
Music: Mauricio Villavecchia
Editor: Fidel Collados, Ana Serret, Pablo Blanco Guzmán
Sound Editor and Mix: Juan Carlos Cid
Interpreter: Jesús Agelet
Digital Postproduction: Juan Ignacio Sánchez
OFICIAL TRAILER
"From then on, she tirelessly filmed her own life and that of all those around her"
Director's notes
José Luis López-Linares
“The work of Madronita has the power of retaining the images, the instants of a n exceptional world that has disappeared yet”
The Klein legacy is a collection of more than 900 tins of 16mm negative stock, that contain familiar scenes filmed by Madronita Andreu along the 20th century. That means around one hundred and fifty hours of film about the history of th Klein-Andreu family, from the twenties to the decade of seventies.
At first, it is remarkable the personality of the its author, a woman that, at the beginning of the century, becomes interested in a new technique –she is probably the first Spanish woman able to operate a film camera- and that along all her life, she perseverates in following by images to the members of her family, until she came to gather an unusual legacy, unique in the history of documentary films.
The first challenge of this project was to condense in ninety minutes all this “Capital” of shooting materials. Javier Rioyo and José Luis López-Linares, script-writers and directors, have proved with their previous works their experiences and enormous sensitivity for the creation of a plot that caught the audience. In this particular case, the starting point is also a splendid, wonderful visual material.
The work of Madronita has the power of retaining the images, the instants of a n exceptional world that has disappeared yet. This testimony cannot be ignored. The filmmakers´ will is to share with the audience the same astonishment and admiration that they felt when, some years ago, they discovered the Klein legacy in the Filmoteca de Barcelona.
