The third and final film in Berlanga’s National Trilogy (The National Shotgun, National Heritage)
Like almost all of Berlanga’s work, it is a political satire- I see some Altman but probably more Armando Iannucci. “No one in our family has ever worked and it was worked out great” in a long take that goes from the 5-minute to the 9-minute mark
Berlanga does not like to cut, the camera will sit in a medium shot for 3-4 minutes at a time, some characters will usher others back and forth, rapid-firing dialogue (again, not as witty as it was in the 1960’s). This is the director of Placido (1961) though plainly. Placido had a longer camera distance- and Berlanga would’ve been better suited throughout his career to do this, more extras, longer camera distance.
Never a shot/reverse shot—almost always the actors are in a three quarters profile shot
At the 17-minute mark there are six actors in an 8 by 8 room, all of them talking
The comic ineptitude of the bourgeoisie (Bunuel- but without the anger or acidity) “how will I manage without a servant?”- with six characters in a sort of dance as they walk around talking at the 28-minute mark in the room with the hams
The 2am scene from 39-minutes to 45-minutes, again the actors are like ushering each other in and out, Berlanga doesn’t zoom to eavesdrop like Altman, or lyrically track like Renoir, it is more about the actors blocking
Political coup jokes next to pornography jokes – the topless shoeshine idea made me laugh
At the 73-76 minute mark there is a great sequence at the train station going on the escalator with the camera and asking the priest to make change
José Luis López Vázquez is great as a high-maintenance, constantly complaining scoundrel
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