User Reviews

Barely seen in Spain, "Pájaros de ciudad" (a.k.a. "Supermarket", as it was shown in Italy and Mexico) is a strange and powerful first movie. Nicely filmed, it deals with themes as the tight control States are using against citizens and human relationships. It has a shocking ending that gives sense to the story. This is an almost unknown movie that deserved a better luck.

Giuliano Gemma stars an economist who becomes involved into killing and a relentless pursuit . Set in a dystopian future for a movie ahead of its time. After committing a murder at a mysterious big city (actually the Chamartín station , Madrid) , we have already witnessed a frantic chase on foot where the protagonist is shot and kills a police inspector, in addition to coinciding with what was his wife and from now on his companion on the run. From now on, everything is an attempt to escape from the city and from the controls arranged by state security forces , so they will run into , on many occasions, citizens who seem taken from that confusing in this pre-apocalyptic metropolis . As an ordinary man escapes from the police with the help of his ex-wife (Helena Rojo) , daughter of a powerful General (Eduardo Fajardo) . Meanwhile , a high autoritity (José Luis López Vázquez) uses state-of-art means as modern computers to control the submitted population and he assigns a tough henchman : Falcon (Gastone Moschin) , to hunt him at the great Supermarket . The futuristic city is run by an electronic brain computer that submits the citizens , being used against population and control their human relationships .A vigilante state will not allow them to relive their love story .

"Pájaros de ciudad", whose original title was "Supermarket" (the title was used at its premiere in Mexico, the country of its co-star: Helena Rojo), is one of the strangest and most fascinating debuts in Spanish cinema . The picture is full of cinematic and literary references . ¨Pajaros de ciudad¨ mingles the genres of Dystopian genre with thriller and mystery . Although set in the future , there are no special effects or elaborate sets ; in spite of , the movie was filmed in real locations in Madrid . Writer/director Sánchez started his career as a screenwriter and for his first film he wrote this love story in a dystopian future/present.

The film is pleasantly surprised by how well it is shot , adding its originality and an impressive ending which I won't reveal . With very good performances by Giuliano Gemma and the Mexican Elena (Helena) Rojo, as well as López Vázquez (in an unusual and bizarre role) , adding known secondaries as Eduardo Fajardo as a stiff-upper-lip general , Gastone Moschin and the very brief appearance of Assumpta Serna , Emilio Rodríguez, Fernando Hilbeck and Antonella Lualdi. "Pájaros de ciudad" is irregular but in many moments riveting .

The film is full of pursuits with crossfire , thrills , hidden messages , ironic humor with a certain influence from Patrick McGoohan's The Prisoner or Alphaville by Jean Luc Godard , director Elio Petri and including some surrealist suggestions , some of them perhaps the result of the director, Sánchez's fondness for Luis Buñuel . Unfortunately , the Italian co-producer (Primex Italiana) went bankrupt during filming, irreparably dooming the commercial career of the film shown at the San Sebastian Festival) and has been virtually unwatchable for decades.

As a curious fact, the film was actually shot between 1979 and 1980 and failed at the box office , being an extremely obscure film. Fortunately, time has given us back this film that can now be seen legally in Spain and that has also been finally distributed in Italy under the title "Senza un attimo de respiro". Decent debut feature by the Spanish José María Sánchez who developed most of his career in Italy , before his premature death that would prevent him from filming "Los Borgia" (2006) . Financed in medium budget by the Spanish Lotus Films Internacional run by Luis Méndez, while the Italian co production company Primex Cinematografica went bankrupt , seriously affecting filming and later the movie's sales. Shown on the 29th Edition of San Sebastián International Film Festival (September 1981) among the new filmmakers Selection. After this one, his movie debut, director José Sánchez Álvaro (the actual on screen credit) signed all of his subsequent TV and movie productions as José María Sánchez . Very shortly after making this film, José María Sánchez would achieve great success with an impeccable mini-series, "La bella Otero" (1983) with Angela Molina, Harvey Keitel and Mimsy Farmer, which would be followed by many other series , such as : Il tesoro di Damasco (1998) Scoop , Le ragazze di Piazza di Spagna (1998) , La quindicesima epistola (1998) , Il maresciallo Rocca (1996-2005), La tassista (2004) , Il veterinario (2005), all of them in Italy.

What a fascinating debut from a former screenwriter, José María Sánchez, who later on directed "La bella Otero" with Ángela Molina and Harvey Keitel. Sánchez shows an unusual taste with this story of a distopic society not to far away from reality.

Giuliano Gemma and mexican Helena Rojo star in this true cult movie so rare and unusual that not even Sánchez dared to emulate it later on his career. The ending is a sight to behold, be advised. Watch it if you find it (not an easy task)!.