Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Me (But Were Afraid to Ask)...

...Greg Smalley Has Asked Me Yet For 366 Weird Movies:

Photo by Susana Ortega

366: You’ve announced a new project, Gallino, which you describe as a”pornophilosophical film.”  What can you tell our readers about the movie?

Atanes: It is a step forward in my rise to weirdness.Gallino is related to my last movie Maximum Shame in many of its subjects. There are different actors and characters, other aesthetics and other conflicts, but in fact it is like a next part, a complement to Maximum Shame. Both are like a “double feature.” Gallino goes deep into parallel realities, meta-narrative and blurred borders between the pornographic and and the non-pornographic.  Why do we consider one thing pornographic and not another, exactly?  Why some things are visible/presentable and other things are not?  So, Gallino is an strange trip along the cracks, halfway between dream and wakelfulness, porn and no porn, skin and flesh, story and essay.  The plot is hard to explain, but in short I can say it is about a group of people who use pornography —in a very particular sense— for seeing beyond everyday life.  For tearing away the Veil of Isis.

366: One of the weird things about your previous film Maximum Shame is that it uses the iconography of the fetish world, with the Queen dressed in leather bondage gear and the slave harnessed in some bizarre restraints, but there is no actual sex in it.  The closest we come is a foot massage.  Can we expect the same approach to the erotic in Gallino, or will it be more explicitly sexual?
(...)

Read the interview on 366 Weird Movies

Carlos Atanes website: www.carlosatanes.com

366 Weird Movies reviews my old and loved "CODEX ATANICUS"

"Though born in Paris, Surrealist cinema was conceived in Spain, the love-child of Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí. If either patriarch had lived to see the mirror succubi, the crab-armed women and the staircase orgies of Codex Atanicus, they’d be proud to claim Carlos Atanes as their offspring. Today, when pure surrealism has been almost abandoned in movies, it’s refreshing to see someone who remains dedicated to probing the mysterious subconscious and carrying on the tradition of Continental Surrealism, despite lack of funding and public indifference. The three films that comprise Codex Atanicus showa a passion for the irrational and a knack for nailing down the way dream concepts follow their own logic, morphing into new entities and images. Like his spiritual grandfather Dalí, Atanes is unabashedly egotistical to the point of self-parody, coining the adjective “Atanic” to describe his own movies; he’s also unafraid to tap into his own erotic impulses for material. The resulting films are intensely personal, and the effects uneven; but when viewing them, it’s impossible to complain that you’ve been exposed to something ordinary and expected..." - Read the whole review at 366 Weird Movies




More info about Carlos Atanes' films
at www.carlosatanes.com

Horrorphilia Podcast reviews CODEX ATANICUS

"There are visions you can say I understand what the thought process was, and there are visions you just sit there and think how can someone think of this. Carlos Atanes is a genius. The introduction alone you got Arantxa just sitting there explaining to you about Carlos and what the films mean, and then she drinks a glass of milk. You almost feel like she is warning you about something, and then just not caring anymore. My favorite of the three is Welcome to Spain. This one is just hard to describe without giving you almost all the short. When you go into stuff like this blind, you are more thankful than knowing what is going to happen or plot. I mean if your watching a Carlos Atanes movie for a easy to talk about experience, or a plot that fascinates you, turn it off. The plot is just as strange and odd as the movies themselves. I feel artists like Carlos are easily going to either go over someones head or irritate them. In a sick way its almost like David Lynch meets Clockwork Orange (...)"

Read the whole review at Horrorphilia Podcast

More info about CODEX ATANICUS

Carlos Atanes website: www.carlosatanes.com

Hall of Fame: Queeny Love

Great Germann actress and model Queeny Love has seen “CODEX ATANICUS“. Queeny Love is, you know, my favourite actress in the world and I'd love to work with her. She is, yes, a pornstar and I don't make porn films -yet. But my friends she's not only a pornstar, she is much more than that. Before working in Porn Walley Queeny begins her career as amateur performer in his own website (I can't link it from here, because non-adult blog restrictions, but you'll find it at once writing her name at any browser) and along the years she reached audacity and creativity heights that I've ever seen. For me there are a time before and a time after Queeny Love in porn film and therefore -you know my way of thinking- in film. So you could understand why it was imperative for me to give one of my films to her and ask for a pic for my Hall of Fame. I am not a mythomaniac but I created this Hall for all those people who have worked with me in the past or I wish to work with in the future, so a Queeny Love's pic must to be here because I really admire this girl. Unfortunately it seems she is now retired from show business. I hope it will not be a definitive decision!

More info about Carlos Atanes films at

www.carlosatanes.com

Hall of Fame: Eleanor James

English actress and Scream Queen Eleanor James has seen “CODEX ATANICUS” and “PROXIMA” and has taken this beautiful picture for my Hall of Fame. I knew her through Myspace and I thought she was perfect for playing The Queen of Catalan Love in my movie "Maximum Shame". And, of course, I was right and she done a perfect work. Please, visit her website and keep yourself up-to-date about her rising career.

More info about Carlos Atanes films at www.carlosatanes.com

Hall of Fame: Bianca Barnett

Actress Bianca Barnett, from USA, has seen “CODEX ATANICUS” and “PROXIMA”.

FilmBizarro reviews CODEX ATANICUS

"Our thoughts: I didn't know what I was getting into when I contacted Carlos Atanes about getting a screener for his DVD collection "Codex Atanicus". I've seen plenty of surreal/art house films and I wasn't really expecting to be surprised. Shocked even. Not at graphic violence or violation, but at how different Carlos Atanes' movies are to anything I've ever seen. He has a certain way to confuse the flying fuck out of me, while still keeping me interested in whatever messed up situation is playing on the screen in front of me. I don't understand what he is trying to say, and I don't understand how he comes up with it, but I'm impressed.

The first short on the DVD, "Metaminds & Metabodies" is really hard to dissect and go through in detail. It's all taking place in a bar that is suppose to represent the waiting room for Hell... somehow, and it starts out with something that seems like a live performance where a girl is singing some strange song while being hooked into the wall through barbed wire. Meanwhile, a man is threatening her that he will eat a contract. Like I said, it first seemed like a live performance in the bar, but that kinda changed when the man gets shot after eating the contract and whatnot. Don't ask me what kind of contract it is, 'cause I don't know. Following scenes seemed pretty much random but I'm sure that Carlos Atanes had a point in all of this, and I would love to find out some day, but right now it all just seemed like random ideas put together. But, it offered some twisted moments, some gore and some naked chicks, so even if you don't understand what's going on, there's still some odd pleasures to find in this movie (...)"

Read the entire review at FILM BIZARRO

More info about Carlos Atanes films at

www.carlosatanes.com

Through a looking glass: “CODEX ATANICUS”

http://www.carlosatanes.com/codex_atanicus_most_weird_bizarre_movie.html – Extract from “CODEX ATANICUS” (dir. Carlos Atanes 1995-1999), with Antonio Vladimir, Arantxa Peña and Manuel Solàs in a misterious scene with mirror.

Hall of Fame: Joan Frank Charansonnet

Actor and filmmaker Joan Frank Charansonnet, from Spain, supports Carlos Atanes’ movie (CODEX ATANICUS) and book (“Los Trabajos del Director“).

Hall of Fame: Cytherea

Astonishing American actress and model Cytherea, from USA, has seen “CODEX ATANICUS“. She is a living legend in Adult films who took her name from Greek goddess of love. Cytherea has performed in over 300 movies and won an AVN award in 2005 (Best New Starlet). As you can see Cytherea has not a DVD in the photo. That's because some odd problems of organization. Of course she watched my film but at the time of photo shoot the DVD was not at hand and Cyt decided to print the cover and take the photo anyway. I am very grateful to her for this photo, her beautiful smile and for the great moments she have got to me trough her performances: I remember with special affection a sequence she did dressed in red panty hoses with Peter North (in this movie) - with no doubt one of my Top Five moments in Seventh Art ever! 

More info about Carlos Atanes films at www.carlosatanes.com

Mondo Digital reviews “CODEX ATANICUS”

“Apparently Spain has its share of lunatics, too, if you take a look at Codex Atanicus: Three Wild Tales, a trio of short films by Spanish avant garde filmmaker Carlos Atanes, who’s been churning out mind-bending shorts since the early 1990s. The first and earliest, “Metaminds & Metabodies,” is a shot-on-video 20-minute fantasy about a beer hall outside the entrance to Hell, where a group of debauched arrivals live it up and raving women entertain the audience while lashed to the wall. Or something like that. A likely descendant of the Panic Movement which spawned filmmakers like Alejandro Jodorowsky and Fernando Arrabal, it quickly sets the pace for what’s to come and, despite the very low technical quality, it’s a suitably frenzied intro. Next up in “Morfing,” essentially a longer expansion on the same theme with Atanes playing “himself” as an unhinged director who wants to off himself while doing a TV pilot, and a girl intervenes to stop him by introducing him to a world of mutated, sexualized grotesqueries that, er, climaxes in a most unforgettable fashion. Oh, and it also features some now-famous Spanish filmmaking personalities, but I don’t want to ruin the surprise. Finally, “Welcome to Spain” must be the strangest tourist endorsement ever as two visiting guys by a roadside end up tangling with a quartet of psychos thrashing around with a bunch of chickens, coughing up blood, attacking each other, and yanking their pants down in a bright orange stairwell. It’s guaranteed to get a reaction even among seasoned experimental film fanatics. The collection is introduced by actress Arantxa Peña, who appears in many of his films. Certainly the perfect title for those who think they’ve seen it all.”

(From Mondo Digital)

More info about Carlos Atanes films at

www.carlosatanes.com

Hall of Fame: Thee Maldoror Kollective

JD and EVE (TMK – The Maldoror Kollective), from Italy, have seen “CODEX ATANICUS“

Hall of Fame: José Manuel Serrano Cueto

José Manuel Serrano Cueto, Spanish film journalist and writter, has seen “CODEX ATANICUS“.

More info about Carlos Atanes films at

www.carlosatanes.com

Hall of Fame: Víctor Conde y Lucía Moreno

Stage director Víctor Conde and actress Lucía Moreno, from Spain, have seen “CODEX ATANICUS“.

More info about Carlos Atanes films at

www.carlosatanes.com

Hall of Fame: Wil Keiper

Wil Keiper, webmaster of Horror Yearbook, from USA. has seen “CODEX ATANICUS“.

More info about Carlos Atanes films at

www.carlosatanes.com

Hall of Fame: Chiruzita

Actress and writer Chiruzita, from Spain, has seen “CODEX ATANICUS“.

More info about Carlos Atanes films at www.carlosatanes.com

Hall of Fame: Nic Brown

Nic Brown (B Movie Man) from USA has seen “CODEX ATANICUS“.

More info about Carlos Atanes films at

www.carlosatanes.com

Evil Dread reviews “CODEX ATANICUS”

Berislav Kucan reviews “CODEX ATANICUS” for Evil Dread.

“Codex Atanicus is a three story anthology by Spanish director Carlos Atanes. Before watching the movie I never heard of the guy, but the introduction video on the DVD by one of his regular actresses Arantxa Peña made me realize that I’m in for a hell of a ride. Experimental, bizarre, sick, strange – these are some of the words that describe the stories contained in Codex Atanicus.”

(…)

READ MORE at Evil Dread.

More info about Carlos Atanes films at

www.carlosatanes.com

“B Movie Man” reviews “CODEX ATANICUS”

Nic Brown reviews “CODEX ATANICUS” for B Movie Man:

“When one thinks of science fiction, many different films may come to mind: STAR WARS, 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, BLADE RUNNER, just to name a few. One film that most likely doesn’t jump immediately to mind is from Spanish writer/director Carlos Atanes called CODEX ATANICUS.

CODEX ATANICUS is a collection of three short films by Atanes: METAMINDS & METABODIES, MORFING and WELCOME TO SPAIN. All were made in the 1990s and represent Atanes’ interesting views on society, culture and the world around us. The classification as science fiction comes from amazon.com, but if you are looking for aliens and ray guns then you will be disappointed. These surreal visions bear much more resemblance to the style of David Lynch than Gene Rodenberry.

The viewer knows that CODEX ATANICUS will be different right from the introduction of the DVD. Arantxa Peña, one of the actresses featured in the short films, does the intro. She talks about working with Atanes, his vision and being a part of his world. Then in a typically Atanes surreal moment she drinks a whole glass of milk in one go in a toast to him and his works. “

(…)

READ MORE at B Movie Man.

More info about Carlos Atanes films at

www.carlosatanes.com

Dale Pierce reviews “PROXIMA” and “CODEX ATANICUS”

Dale Pierce reviews “PROXIMA” and “CODEX ATANICUS” for Search my Trash. Read HERE and HERE.

More info about Carlos Atanes films at

www.carlosatanes.com