Capitol Building. Exterior-night
A Canal+ team, including me, was on its way to the filming of The Day of the Beast. Setting: Carrion Building, over the Capitol cinema, emblematic corner of Madrid, crowned since 1972 by a huge and luminous Schweppes sign.
In the street we find the typical false chaos of a cinematographic crew. They are going to shoot one of the most famous sequences in the history of Spanish cinema, even though the most “dangerous” moments were taken in a reconstructed setting so that Alex Angulo and Santiago Segura were able to safely play with the void.
Nobody then, I bet that not even the director himself, Alex de la Iglesia, could imagine that the images were going to become an emblematic icon of the city, and nobody could imagine that behind the Kio Towers, end of the movie, were going to emerge four gigantic and imposing skyscrapers, creation of important architects such as Norman Foster, and together they have changed the skyline of the capital city (I said ending of the movie, but in fact the last scene is the statue of the Fallen Angel in Retiro. If you visit the city, especially in a snowy day, you must go there, it’s marvelous).
In this small guide of Cinema Madrid we are going to journey along a few enclaves, from non touristic places to cafés that simulated the north of Spain, when in fact they were in Lavapiés.
And to travel faster, no airplanes, subway, trains or taxis, since we are going to the movies, we will use the fade to black and begin the tour from this centenarian street…
