La mandriguera
Spain
Shown in 1969
CREDITS
- dir
-
Carlos Saura
- prod
-
Elias Querejeta
- scr
-
Carlos Saura
- cam
-
Luis Cuadrado
- cast
-
Geraldine Chaplin, Per Oscarsson, Teresa Del Rio
- source
-
Elias Querejeta
-
COMMENTS
Geraldine Chaplin in person.
OTHER
We are in the era of the dissection of marriages as far as world cinema is concerned. Perhaps it is Albee’s fault, because Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf really began the games-couples-play cycle of films and drama. For European filmmakers, the theme of conjugal warfare has many enticing levels of interpretation, and outstanding directors have, this year, each been concerned with describing the nuances of such disruption (Kawalerowicz’ The Game, Sjoman’s The Father and Susan Sontag’s Duet For Cannibals). Spain’s leading film director, Carlos Saura, has devised the most astonishing approach to this subject matter, and remembering the unflinching cruelty of his film, The Hunt (shown at this Festival three years ago), one must be warned about the suspenseful shocks of The Honeycomb. This is Mr. Saura’s first English-speaking film, though shot entirely in Spain, and it remains a marvelous showcase for the talents of Geraldine Chaplin and Sweden’s celebrated Per Oscarsson. In a lavish, modern house, Pedro and Teresa live in elegant surroundings—rich, childless and, after five years of marriage, a trifle bored with the order, the normality of everything. Between them is a feeling of cordial, perhaps cold compatibility, and they love one another within a comfortable emotional distance. Quite unexpectedly, a shipment of old furniture arrives, containing many pieces that evoke memories of Teresa’s early childhood. Soon afterward, she is peculiarly afflicted by bouts of sleepwalking, and spends many hours in the cellar, poking through the old objects and relics of her past. She begins to fantasize, and Pedro, fascinated by the novelty and joy of Teresa’s playacting decides to join her in these reveries. Suddenly, the couple experiences long-forgotten pleasure and excitement, the games become more and more permissive and their imaginations run wild. One is held by the danger that is ever present, and a sort of mad ballet of emotions is danced throughout this parable of marital disintegration. The intelligences are disrupted, and Saura leaves one stunned by this elegant case history, this purgatorial charade.
—Albert Johnson
FACTOID #44
Fred Astaire (alas without his top hat and tails) became the first actor honored with an in-person tribute at the Festival October 30, 1966. Astaire so enjoyed his interview with Festival programmer Albert Johnson, the balletic performer danced with his host onstage.
