The debut film from Spanish auteur Luis García Berlanga
Welcome Mr. Marshall! is made in the vein of Preston Sturges. An average small village in Spain prepares themselves for the arrival of American visitors—and comedy ensues
78-minutes that fly by, very low ASL- average shot length. It is like Capra’s It Happened One Night (1934) in that way- Berlanga doesn’t let any one shot or scene linger
Fernando Rey provides the hilarious voice-over narration. He even freezes the frame to stop time, changes the story and says “It’s easy- just like that”—Berlanga manipulating form – “I’ll introduce him later”. The narration introduces the inhabitants (Berlanga makes ensemble comedies about an entire community- so there are a lot of characters) and the setting – a dense, fast-moving opening nine minutes of narration.
Witty- “old men remembering the harvest they never had”, a great reoccurring joke where the broken tower clock in the center of town is moved by hand (by a guy who is drinking)
“Villar del Rio”- population 642”
Berlanga takes on hypocrisy, skepticism of politics, war
Back to back, three surrealism sequences of the leaders of the town “calm down” says Rey’s narration “it is only a dream”
@Drake Hi, Drake! longtime reader of your site (I think I found it last year, when was I looking for best Monty Clift or Burt Lancaster performances). I want to compliment you on the website it’s very interesting and informative.
Although, I think we have pretty different approaches regarding the evaluation of movies, I respect your system and your argumentaion. Keep up the good work.)
@Drake Hi, Drake! longtime reader of your site (I think I found it last year, when was I looking for best Monty Clift or Burt Lancaster performances). I want to compliment you on the website it’s very interesting and informative.
Although, I think we have pretty different approaches regarding the evaluation of movies, I respect your system and your argumentaion. Keep up the good work.)
@MadMike- thank you for coming to the site and for sharing this here. Much appreciated!