“Boris” (1966) and “A Dog Called Vengeance” (“El perro”, 1977). Study of two screenplays of Juan Antonio Porto

Abstract

Juan Antonio Porto is a key figure in film writing in the history of Spanish cinema. He was a college lecturer of the subjet “Narrativa Fílmica” (“Screenplay”) and he has taught for more than thirty years in the most prestigious academies and universities in Spain. He has written more than twenty Spanish movies. In this paper we analyze two screenplays: “Boris” (1966) is his final project in the Escuela Oficial de Cine (E.O.C.) and “A Dog Called Vengeance” (“El perro”, 1977), film of Antonio Isasi-Isasmendi. Both movies are key points in his career as a creative artist.

“Boris” was his thesis in the E.O.C. A “Dog Called Vengeance” was his first commercial success. In both films, the protagonist is a dog. The cynophbia –fear of dogs– is a metaphor of terror to the military dictatorships and Francoism.