Berlanga’s 12th film – a satire on the aristocracy
It has a slow start, after a flat opening twenty minutes, highlighted with a flatulence joke—it seems like Berlanga was a shadow of his former early 1960’s self, but there are enough traits here to recognize this as the auteur behind Placido (1961)
Longer takes – just like Placido (nothing five minutes or more, but still a higher ASL- average shot length) loaded with Berlanga’s dialogue (not half as witty as it was in the 1950’s or 1960’s). Characters walk and talk in the frame- often moving out completely, Berlanga frames and reframes
Half the time the scene is completed in one take (like the golf course setting from 28-31 minutes) and the other half it is completed in two takes — again often 3-4 minutes at a time, pivoting, walking, multiple people talking at the same time, ensemble (Berlanga was doing this before Altman)
A nice sequence at the 60-minute mark at the flea market with José Luis López Vázquez as Groucho Marx
Like Placido the film is really about a futile pursuit— many of Berlanga’s films are set up like this. This is goofier, more overtly political, far less subtext. This is about the buffoonish idiotic rich, Bunuel would be proud (The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie)
At the 77-minute mark the bed front-left of the frame, chair in the center with a character facing away from the camera, the servant is coming in and out and there are eight people in the frame. Choral/ensemble
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