Directed by Luis García Berlanga • 1963 • Italy, Spain
Starring Nino Manfredi, Emma Penella, José Isbert
This 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 executioner's daughter and reluctantly takes over her father's job so the family can keep their government-allotted apartment. As caustic today as it was in 1963, this early collaboration between Luis Garcia Berlanga and his longtime screenwriter Rafael Azcona is an unerring depiction of what Berlanga called "the invisible traps that society sets up for us." A furiously funny personal attack on capital punishment, THE EXECUTIONER evaded the state censors who sought to suppress it, and today is regarded as one of the greatest Spanish films of all time.
Up Next in Directed by Luis García Berlanga
-
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...
-
Long Live the Bride and Groom
Directed by Luis García Berlanga • 1970 • Spain
Starring José Luis López Vázquez, Laly Soldevila, José María PradaIn this black-comic sex farce, middle-aged bank clerk Leonardo (José Luis López Vázquez) travels to the Mediterranean tourist town of Sitges to marry his bride-to-be, Loli (Laly Sol...
-
Patrimonio nacional
Directed by Luis García Berlanga • 1981 • Spain
Starring Luis Escobar, Agustín González, Luis CigesLuis García Berlanga takes aim at the decadence of the Spanish ruling class in this irreverent ensemble comedy, the second of three popular comedies the director made about the noble Leguineche fa...
