Luis García Berlanga Movies
Spanish director Luis Garcia Berlanga played a key role in bringing international attention to his country's cinema with the release of Bienvenido, Mr. Marshall (1952). The award-winning film featured a screenplay written by Berlanga and his former classmate from the Spanish Institute of Cinema (class of 1949), Juan Bardem, who went on to become one of Spain's most important directors. Born into a wealthy family, Berlanga was 18 when he was forced into the military to fight Russians alongside German soldiers with Spain's Blue Division. Had he refused to enlist, Berlanga's father, imprisoned Republican politician José Garcia Berlanga Pardo, would have been executed. Upon his discharge from the military, Berlanga studied philosophy in Valencia and later enrolled in film school. After graduation, he and Juan Bardem founded their own production company, Altamira. The two co-wrote and co-directed Esa Pareja Feliz (1951). A comedy in the popular neorealist manner, the film was panned and bankrupted Altamira. Berlanga and Bardem's more successful sophomore effort was produced through the Communist-run Union Industrial Cinematografica company, which Berlanga helped establish in 1949. By the mid-'50s, Berlanga's increasingly iconoclastic efforts placed him in disfavor with the Franco regime and his films were often censored. Still, Berlanga continued making quality films such as Placido (1961), for which he received an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Film. Berlanga's most famous film, El Verdugo/The Executioner (1963), a black comedy about a reluctant executioner and his bride, was considered too political by censors and was heavily cut. His 1973 film Grandeur Nature/Life Size, a French-Spanish-Italian co-production, was banned in Spain until 1978. Life improved considerably for Berlanga after Franco's death. To celebrate, he created his popular "Nacional" trilogy (1978-1982), in which he satirized modern Spanish life; during this time, Berlanga also helmed the Filmoteca Española. In 1985, Berlanga took on the Spanish Civil War, offering a no-holds-barred look at what really occurred in La Vaquilla/The Cow. In the mid-'80s, Berlanga began editing a series of sexy novels. In 1994, after a seven-year absence from feature films, Berlanga returned with Todos a la Carcel. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide- 1999
Veteran Spanish director Luis Garcia Berlanga created this anarchic black comedy about sexual impotence and millennial anxiety. Though a Paris-based plastic surgeon spends much of his time and wealth on prostitutes, he is plagued by impotence. Despondent, he plans to commit suicide. After happening upon a bike with "Paris-Timbuktu" painted on it, he decides to bike from France to Africa and kill himself there on New Year's Eve. But when his plans are thwarted in Spain by a painful boil on his bottom, he is forced to room with a pair of sisters in a remote village. Through them, he finds himself increasingly immersed in the local community, populated by the likes of a clergyman suspected of murder, a nudist garage mechanic, and a bizarre champion cyclist. Paris-Timbuktu was screened at the 1999 Montreal Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michel Piccoli, Concha Velasco, (more)
- 1994
This Spanish comedy set in a Valencia prison, contains political overtones. A promoter decides to organize a gala dinner to pay tribute to the political prisoners. Naturally the media is invited to the event. Every one at the dinner comes with his or her own agenda and it isn't long before anything that can go wrong does go wrong. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jose Sazatornil, José M. Sacristán, (more)
- 1987
In this comedy, a manufacturer of turrón, a candy which resembles the honey-almond confection halvah, wants to promote it outside the regions of southern Spain where it is a traditional Christmas treat. It is particularly associated with a festival during which the wars between the Christians and the Moors are ritually reenacted. The manufacturer and his sons travel to a Madrid food festival to sell, sell, sell. The father also persuades his reluctant daughter, a woman with political ambitions, to use her connections to help promote their candy. With some difficulty, they garner a mention in a women's weekly magazine and on a television program. In a macabre comedy scene, having returned home, the manufacturer dies and is put in a coffin that is too small and is paraded down the street during the aforementioned festival in Alicante. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fernando Fernán Gómez, Andres Pajares, (more)
- 1985
This entertaining comedy is set in 1938 during the Spanish Civil War when a group of Republican soldiers sneak into a village in enemy territory to steal a bull with plans of butchering it to feed themselves. Fate and the bull itself, however, have other plans. One of the surreptitious bull-snatchers knows the village well -- he grew up there, but that advantage alone cannot guarantee their success, as it turns out. The group of five would-be thieves dress themselves in uniforms of the Nationalist troops in an attempt to dissimulate their true identity. But instead of a neat getaway with a bull in tow, they are caught up in the "correo" or running of the bull, they get involved in a religious procession, and in the end, watch as the bull breaks out of a flimsy ring in a bullfight and heads for the hills. Still hungry, the group of men now have to worry about getting back to their own battalion before they are found out. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Guillermo Montesinos, Alfredo Landa, (more)
- 1981
This is the third film in a sequence that started in 1978, about the Marquis de Leguineches, his hopeless son Luis José, his mistress/servant Viti, and in this instance, a Catholic priest. The Marquis has been living in Madrid since he lost his villa, and when his father-in-law dies, the family gets together and that becomes a catalyst for thinking more directly about their future. This leads to the Marquis' decision to leave Spain with the family's money, yet it will be difficult to cross the border without having their wealth confiscated by the authorities. So the Marquis fakes a broken leg and stashes the wealth inside his cast on a journey to Lourdes to seek a miracle. Unfortunately, France is no more amenable than Spain to the wealthy aristocracy since Mitterand's socialist government has just been elected into power. Between his unwieldy cast, the crazy family members, and the problem of where to go next to keep his fortune intact, the Marquis has a rough time of it. The repartée among the Marquis' family members and friends will entertain most audiences, but the originality of the 1978 family has worn thin by now and will be difficult to stretch into yet another episode in the future. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Luis Escobar, Amparo Soler Leal, (more)
- 1980
A Marquis (Luis Escobar) suddenly becomes inspired to reclaim his palace, now gone to seed, right in the heart of Madrid. He and his son head for the city, without taking into account that his wife, the aged Marquesa is thoroughly ensconsed in the palace, has been for more than 40 years, and has no intention of leaving. In order to settle the issue, the Marquis decides to get his wife committed - not an unreasonable proposition given the fact that she has preferred to stay in bed all these years. Variously eccentric characters pop in and out of the palace as the Marquis tries to implement his plan, without much success. The Marquesa, in turn, manages to force him and her former lover into a duel in the garden and pulls out a shotgun to put them out of their misery and her life. Things backfire, so to speak, and the Spanish State comes into the picture, perhaps it will have more success where its old - very old - aristocracy has failed to measure up. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Luis Escobar, José Luis Lopez Vasquez, (more)
- 1978
Few sacred cows go un-gored in this satirical Spanish movie. In Spain, as in England, instead of getting together over a round of golf, it is customary for the power elite to gather at a country estate for a long weekend of "hunting," which basically consists of standing in one spot shooting at game which is being driven toward the hunters. Between shots, the elite converse. In the story, a Catalan businessman pays an impoverished nobleman for the use of his country estate and its game. He is hosting this party to win the goodwill of a group of investors whom he hopes will back one of his schemes. Sprinkled among the businessmen are some more twisted types, every one of them a genuine aristocrat or the member of some government or other -- even a dictator in exile from his Latin American country. A powerful but disapproving priest surveys the scene with outspoken scorn. When the businessman learns that he has backed the wrong horse, and that a new government is being formed, he scrambles to curry favor with those few of his guests who are part of the next group to come to power. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jose Sazatornil, Antonio Ferrandis, (more)
- 1974
When Michel (Michel Piccoli) gets the life-sized sex doll he ordered, shipped directly from Japan, he is only intrigued by it at first. Then the silent unresponsiveness of the thing begins to haunt him, and he finds himself reacting to it as if it were an equally unresponsive living woman. As time passes, more and more of his life is spent trying to satisfy or placate its relentless silence, and he goes somewhat mad. He dresses the doll and takes it with him wherever he goes. When his usually very tolerant wife discovers what is going on, her jealousy knows no bounds and she attempts to imitate this threatening love-object. The light-hearted quality of this addle-pated fantasy darkens quickly when various neighborhood men attempt to put the doll to its originally intended use. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michel Piccoli, Valentine Tessier, (more)
- 1969
A bank clerk and his mother visit the beach the day before his wedding to a beautiful Spanish woman. He leaves his mother alone to talk to some nude female sunbathers, and returns to find she had drowned. Not wanting to delay his wedding with the standard period of mourning, mommy dearest is packed in ice in the resort hotel managed by his fiance. Jose Luis Lopes Vasquez plays the eager groom who won't delay the marriage for his mother's funeral in this offbeat comedy. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- José Luis Lopez Vasquez, Jose Maria Prada, (more)
- 1967
Ricardo (Rodolfo Beban) steps out on his wife Carmen (Sonia Bruno) after less than two years of marriage to taste the forbidden fruit of extramarital sex in this offbeat comedy. He returns to his wife after learning from his mother-in-law that Carmen has only a few months to live. Ricardo quits racing cars, dumps his model girlfriend, and neglects his business dealings to attend to the needs of the dying Carmen who demands sex, lavish luxuries, and forgiveness for her infidelity for sleeping with Ricardo's friend. When Ricardo learns that the illness is a ruse, he makes plans to murder his conniving wife. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rodolfo Beban
- 1965
The business of death provides the framework for this black comedy about a mortician's assistant who wants to marry an executioner's daughter. Her father really wants to change professions, but cannot, as he will lose his new government-sponsored apartment. The young man is persuaded to take over the job, but he swears he will quit before he must kill someone. Unfortunately, an execution is scheduled shortly before the beginning of a major carnival, a time when many executions are halted. The bride and groom travel there, hoping the victim will be pardoned, but he is not and the groom must fulfill his duty. Although he swears he will never do another, his face tells another story, and the old executioner knows that many more state-sanctioned deaths will follow. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nino Manfredi, Emma Penella, (more)
- 1962
The four "truths" are in this instance, four different romantic or dramatic vignettes in a slightly uneven compilation film. All four segments are loosely related to fables by the 17th-century French poet Jean de la Fontaine. In the first fable "Death and the Woodcutter" directed by Luis Berlanga, a well-adjusted, normal organ grinder runs up against the obstacles of torpidity and bureaucracy combined, driving him to the brink of despair. In the second story "The Crow and the Fox" directed by Hervé Bromberger, an insecure husband keeps his beautiful wife locked up, though an amorous neighbor is determined to outsmart him and get to her. In the third fable "The Tortoise and the Hare" directed by Allesandro Blasetti, a wife is unwilling to share her husband with a mistress. In the last fable "Two Pigeons" by René Clair, a fashion model (Leslie Caron) and a lowly worker (Charles Aznavour) are thrown together by unexpected circumstances. The American release of this film cut the first segment, reducing the fable parodies to three. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Aznavour, Leslie Caron, (more)
- 1961
This is an effective satire directed by Luis Berlanga that pans charity from the head -- the cold, calculated or unthinking kind -- as versus charity from the heart. The focus is on Placido (Casto Sendra-Cassen), a truckdriver who has little money and so making regular payments on his truck can be difficult, so much so that he gets behind and is in danger of having his vehicle repossessed. Meanwhile, he gets involved in a local, annual charity drive that opens up his eyes to the problems and foibles of other impoverished people. After those experiences, Placido has a different attitude toward his monthly payments. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- José Luis Lopez Vasquez
- 1958
Spain's contribution to the 1958 Brussels Film Festival was Los Jueves Milagro (Miracles of Thursday). The story is faintly reminiscent of such 1930s Hollywood films as Olsen and Johnson's Country Gentlemen. A group of clever businessman seek out a method to improve the tourist trade in a sleepy Spanish village. This they do by faking a Lourdes-style "miracle" at a local watering place. The scheme is bollixed up by a gangster who threatens to expose the fraud if he isn't given a piece of the action. The gangster's ultimate change of heart proves not so surprising when his true identity is revealed. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Basehart, Paolo Stoppa, (more)
- 1956
The Spanish/Italian Rocket From Calabuch is significant only as the last film of beloved character actor Edmund Gwenn. The 78-year-old star plays a retired atomic scientist who settles in a peaceful Spanish village. But he can't remain sedentary for long, and soon he's off and about developing a new kind of rocket. So much for his retirement, and so much for the peace and quiet in his village, which is soon overrun with reporters and spies. Rocket From Calabuch was originally released in Spain as simply Calabuch; the film didn't make it to the states until after Edmund Gwenn's death in 1959. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edmund Gwenn
- 1952
Bienvenido Mr. Marshall (Welcome Mr. Marshall) is a comedy predicated on the Marshall Plan, which provided American financial aid to deserving European communities. When two Marshall-Plan representatives announce plans to drive through a small Spanish town on the Iberian peninsula, the mayor, in cahoots with a publicity agent, intends to make as good an impression as possible. As a result, all signs of Western culture are hidden, and the town is transformed into a picture-postcard version of Old Iberia. As the townsfolk await the arrival of the Americans, each citizen conjures up visions (mostly inaccurate) of what life might be like in the good old USA. The satirical thrust of Bienvenido Mr. Marshall was misinterpreted as "leftist" by some observers when the film opened at the Cannes Film Festival. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lolita Sevilla, Alberto Romea, (more)
- 1951
After the success of the political satire Bienvenido Mister Marshall (co-written by Juan Antonio Bardem, uncle of actor Javier Bardem, and Luis García Berlanga), That Happy Couple -- written and directed by Bardem and Berlanga in 1951, and starring the legendary Spanish actor/director Fernando Fernán Gómez -- was released in Spain in 1953. Gómez stars as Juan, who struggles to make a living working as a technician at the local film studio and is always on the lookout for some moneymaking scheme. He has a bunch of correspondence school diplomas on his wall, but he still can't fix his radio. His wife, Carmen (Elvira Quintillá), meanwhile, is obsessed with contests and sweepstakes, for example buying more soap than the pair will ever need in hopes of winning some prize. A shady character working in the local theater convinces Juan to "borrow" some film from the studio and invest his money and equipment in a photography business. Juan loses his job, and then learns that his business partner has run off. The tension that has been simmering between him and Carmen, rooted in their financial woes, reaches a boil. Just then, a gentleman enters their apartment with important news. Carmen has won a contest sponsored by a soap company, and she and Juan have been selected as "That Happy Couple," and are expected to spend the day visiting fancy shops and restaurants in Madrid, and promoting Florit Soap. Juan impulsively decides to use the Florit car to track down his shady partner, but when he joins Carmen later, they find that the high life is not all it's cracked up to be. That Happy Couple was shown at the Walter Reade Theater as part of a tribute to Gómez during the Film Society of Lincoln Center's 2004 edition of Spanish Cinema Now. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
