Directed by Luis García Berlanga • 1957 • Spain
Starring Richard Basehart, José Isbert, Paola Stoppa
Looking for ways to boost the local economy, leaders in the village of Fuentecilla set their hopes on a medicinal spa that was once a popular destination but has since fallen on hard times. With makeshift lighting and costuming, the men fabricate the apparition of Saint Dismas, whose appearance every Thursday night drums up publicity for the spa’s purportedly healing waters. But as the news spreads and tourism begins to spike, a mysterious outsider arrives in town, threatening to reveal the miracle as a hoax. Before its release, Luis García Berlanga’s cunning attack on the commercial exploitation of religion raised the ire of the censors, who forced the director to rewrite the film under the supervision of the Catholic Church.
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Plácido
Directed by Luis García Berlanga • 1961 • Spain
Starring Cassen, José Luis López Vázquez, Elvira QuintilláWidely considered one of the greatest works of Spanish cinema, this relentlessly paced satire chronicles an ill-advised charity campaign sweeping across a small industrial town on Christmas...
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The Executioner
Directed by Luis García Berlanga • 1963 • Italy, Spain
Starring Nino Manfredi, Emma Penella, José IsbertThis masterpiece of black humor, beloved in Spain but too little seen elsewhere, threads a scathing critique of Franco-era values through a macabre farce about an undertaker who marries an ex...
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La boutique
Directed by Luis García Berlanga • 1967 • Spain
Starring Sonia Bruno, Rodolfo Bebán, Osvaldo MirandaLuis García Berlanga’s follow-up to his masterpiece THE EXECUTIONER is a dark marital satire in which ignored housewife Carmen (Sonia Bruno) follows her mother’s advice and takes drastic action i...
