Umbracle is an experimental

Experimental film

Experimental film or experimental cinema is a type of cinema. Experimental film is an artistic practice relieving both of visual arts and cinema. Its origins can be found in European avant-garde movements of the twenties. Experimental cinema has built its history through the texts of theoreticians...

 feature film by Catalan

Catalan people

The Catalans or Catalonians are the people from, or with origins in, Catalonia that form a historical nationality in Spain. The inhabitants of the adjacent portion of southern France are sometimes included in this definition...

 filmmaker Pere Portabella

Pere Portabella

Pere Portabella i Ràfols is a Catalan experimental filmmaker, artist and politician.-Career as a Filmmaker:...

. It is often seen as a companion piece to his Cuadecuc, vampir

Cuadecuc, vampir

Vampir-Cuadecuc is a 1970 experimental feature film by Catalan filmmaker Pere Portabella.The entire film is photographed on high contrast black & white film stock, which gives it the appearance of a degraded film print, evoking early Expressionist horror films such as F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu or...

, also starring Christopher Lee

Christopher Lee

Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee, CBE, CStJ is an English actor and musician. Lee initially portrayed villains and became famous for his role as Count Dracula in a string of Hammer Horror films...

. Both films were completed in 1970, though Umbracle was not shown until 1972.

Like Cuadeuc, the entire film is photographed on different kinds of high contrast black & white film stock and features a sound track by frequent Portabella collaborator Carles Santos

Carles Santos

Carles Santos is an unclassifiable spanish artist who began his career as a pianist and later worked in many other creative disciplines, including musical composition, filmmaking, screenwriting, acting, scenic musical shows, graphics, montage, sculpture, photography, poetry, and...

. Unlike Cuadecuc, Umbracle features several scenes of synchronized sound, including a notable scene where Christopher Lee recites Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...

's "The Raven

The Raven

"The Raven" is a narrative poem by American writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in January 1845. It is often noted for its musicality, stylized language, and supernatural atmosphere. It tells of a talking raven's mysterious visit to a distraught lover, tracing the man's slow descent into madness...

" and sings opera in an empty theatre, and a lengthy sequence of Spanish filmmakers discussing censorship

Censorship

thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...

 in their country very frankly, their statements later reinforced by a nearly 15-minute segment from a pro-Franco

Francisco Franco

Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...

film.