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Chapter 6 - Todos me llaman Gato, Animals of the Periphery

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2022

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Summary

Prefiero los gatos a los perros, porque no hay gatos policía.

Jean Cocteau

[I prefer cats to dogs, because there are no police cats.]

One of the most idiosyncratic aspects of cinema is undoubtedly the unfairness that exists when rewarding certain jobs and that is why, in the case of Todos me llaman Gato (Everybody Calls Me “The Cat”), it is not trivial to bring up the people who go unnoticed when a movie is released to the general public. The film, released in 1981, did not enjoy the success that its director and producer, Raúl Peña, would have wanted, especially when the profitability of similar products, see Navajeros (Eloy de la Iglesia, 1980) or the famous trilogy of Perros callejeros by José Antonio de la Loma, ensured a greater performance at the box office. Qualified as sensationalist at the time of its release, as it happened to many of its peers, its commercial failure would justify the fact that Eduardo Bartrina De Caso and Fernando Villanueva never claimed their work on the soundtrack of the film.

Raúl Peña was born in Madrid, but he spent his youth in Bilbao, where he acquired his fondness for cinema thanks to his mother's work at a box office. In 1960 he entered the Institute of Investigations and Cinematographic Experiences (IIEC), where he became a filmmaker making short documentaries. It would be in 1966 when he makes his first feature film, Los amores dificiles, followed by Prana in 1969 and a year later Fray Dólar (1970). During the following decade, he made numerous documentaries until 1980, the year in which he directed Todos me llaman Gato, which would also be his last film work. Although within its filmography it seems to be out of tune and could be described as an opportunistic movement on the part of the director, it is not a good reason to10 belittle a film that contains much more than it seems at first sight, revealing itself in the end as one of the most interesting films that were made at the time.

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'Quinqui' Film in Spain
Peripheries of Society and Myths on the Margins
, pp. 109 - 124
Publisher: Anthem Press
Print publication year: 2020

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