The end of an era for Santa Cruz de Tenerife
The definitive closure of the Cine Víctor this past February was a hard blow to the cultural life of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Yet, its legacy endures thanks to Charo Valentí, the artist behind the hand-painted posters for the films that premiered at this legendary cinema.
Preserving a cinematic heritage
For almost two decades, Valentí illustrated the premieres of major cinematic hits such as Rocky, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Braveheart, Batman Forever, 101 Dalmatians, The Parent Trap, Lilo & Stitch, Stepmom, and Pedro Almodóvar’s Talk to Her. This artistic heritage is something her nephew, Santiago, is determined not to let fade into oblivion. He hopes it will help mitigate the pain of a double loss: that of the Cine Víctor after 70 years of operation—during which it transitioned from commercial to art-house films and back, surviving one previous closure—and that of his aunt, who passed away in 2022.
The secret artist
In an interview with EFE, Santiago explained that Charo, born in A Coruña in 1954, was not allowed to paint by her father and had to do it in secret. It was only when she traveled and settled in Tenerife that she could fully unleash her artistic drive, making a living as a poster artist between 1996 and 2003. Her nephew recounts that it took her approximately a week to paint the two posters displayed at the entrance of the iconic Cine Víctor on premiere days. On one occasion, however, she was given a mere thirteen hours due to a delay in authorization.
Crafting the iconic posters
Since she worked in the offices of Multicines Óscar, owned by the same company that managed Cine Víctor, she had contact with film distributors. They would provide her with a promotional poster or a still from a movie sequence, which she would then enlarge up to 34 times onto her massive 2.40×1.50 meter canvases.
A passion for animation and a fear of horror
Charo Valentí had a special fondness for Walt Disney. “She was a huge fan and was at her most excited when she got to paint posters for animated films,” her nephew recalls. In contrast, she found it difficult when she had to illustrate horror films during her solitary creative process. She had no qualms about admitting that, as a self-taught artist, she made “dreadful errors” that she learned to overcome. Over the years, she acquired new techniques and refined her style across the more than one hundred posters she painted.
A collaborative family effort
Santiago remembers that his mother also played a leading role in the posters, as she “did a lot of the broad-brush work” for the backgrounds. “But the artistry,” he clarifies, “was all his aunt Charo’s.”
A legacy carefully preserved
After her death, this entire artistic legacy was stored in her house in the Tenerife town of El Sauzal. Santiago then took it on his journey back to her native A Coruña, where she lived her last ten years. There, he has stored it meticulously, protecting it from extreme temperatures and humidity.
A promise for the future
Her nephew recalls that during her life, he always encouraged her to mount an exhibition off the island, even suggesting a trip to the United States since most of the actors she portrayed were from there. But she never dared to take the step, telling him that when she died, the collection would pass into his hands for him to do with as he wished. Now that he has inherited it, he is “ready to travel with it, to guard and accompany it, and for it to go wherever it needs to go,” Santiago affirms after exhibiting one of his aunt’s most iconic posters, for the film Hook, in which Robin Williams plays Peter Pan.
A poignant coincidence
In a strange twist of fate, Robin Williams was posthumously diagnosed with Lewy body dementia (LBD), the same neurodegenerative disease that Charo Valentí suffered from.
