This is the one and only movie directed by the catalonian Lorenzo Llobet Gracia. The plot is about the absolutely demential story of Carlos, a fervent cinema lover whose mind is seriously affected by a complex of guilt: while he is out filming the street riots during the 18 th of July (the beginnig of the Spanish Civil War) his wife is killed by the republicans (that means the comunists). The remorse only goes away when some years later Carlos watch "Rebecca" by Alfred Hitchcock, and becoming a new regenerated man, he decides to become a cinema director.
3 Reviews
Astonishing
rcolomam2 February 2006
This is one of the most astonishing films ever made. It has some scenes that it should be in the history of cinema. Like the filming by Fernando Fernan Gomez of the militias using a big roll of paper to win a positions. Or the begging of the film based on real events. The birth of the director inside the carp where the first cinematographer was showing "the train arriving to the station". Being shoot in really simple way it's amazing the proper use of the audiovisual language. The late Guillermo Cabrera Infante showed this film in a Canadian film festival in Spanish without subtitles when the projection finish the audience didn't move and they ask for seen the film again. The effect of this film in the audience is unbelievable. None a single person that has seen this rare Spanish movie could forget it. Except the main actor Fernando Fernan Gomez who never remember work on it.
Low resolution,still highly enjoyable
pv6126 September 2011
Warning: Spoilers
I don't know why Mr Fernando Fernán Gómez erased this time frame from his memory and said that he didn't remember working in this movie. Anyway... the movie is good, could have been better, but it is what it is.
Mrs. María Dolores Pradera does a very decent job here too.
This little know gem from Spain, tell the story of Carlos, a kid who grows up with the movie industry. As a kid he enjoyed the shorts he had access to, had his Chinese lamp and everything, then he got his camera. When he is old enough he becomes a reporter and meets his soul mate, Ana, a girl who also likes movies and posing for him. They date, get married and are now expecting their first child.
It is during the birth of the civil war in Spain that his drama begins, because one day, she decides to stay home while he goes to the movies and a terrible accident happens. He will never forgive himself not being there when that took place. From that moment on, he becomes a shadow of his former self, living like a zombie and suffering silently his great loss. He only lives for work, and that's his steam valve.
One day, one of his friends takes him to see REBECCA from Hitchcock, and during the movie, something triggers inside him, he goes home, takes out his projector and watches his wife in their home movies... start writing poetry. Maybe is it time to forgive himself for something he didn't cause in the first place?
Mrs. María Dolores Pradera does a very decent job here too.
This little know gem from Spain, tell the story of Carlos, a kid who grows up with the movie industry. As a kid he enjoyed the shorts he had access to, had his Chinese lamp and everything, then he got his camera. When he is old enough he becomes a reporter and meets his soul mate, Ana, a girl who also likes movies and posing for him. They date, get married and are now expecting their first child.
It is during the birth of the civil war in Spain that his drama begins, because one day, she decides to stay home while he goes to the movies and a terrible accident happens. He will never forgive himself not being there when that took place. From that moment on, he becomes a shadow of his former self, living like a zombie and suffering silently his great loss. He only lives for work, and that's his steam valve.
One day, one of his friends takes him to see REBECCA from Hitchcock, and during the movie, something triggers inside him, he goes home, takes out his projector and watches his wife in their home movies... start writing poetry. Maybe is it time to forgive himself for something he didn't cause in the first place?
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