Placido (1961)
"Plácido" (original title)

In a small spanish town, a group of old ladies decide to celebrate Christmas Eve with a "Sit a poor man at your table" dinner: each wealthy household of the town will have a homeless person... See full summary »

Director:

Luis García Berlanga

Writers:

Rafael Azcona (screenplay), Rafael Azcona (story),

Stars:

Cassen, José Luis López Vázquez, Elvira Quintillá

Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 6 wins & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Cassen	...	Plácido Alonso (as Casto Sendra 'Cassen')
José Luis López Vázquez	...	Gabino Quintanilla
Elvira Quintillá	...	Emilia
Manuel Alexandre	...	Julián Alonso
Mario Bustos	...	(as Mario de Bustos)
María Francés	...	(as Mari Francés)
Mari Carmen Yepes	...	Martita (as Carmen Yepes)
Jesús Puche	...	Don Arturo
Roberto Llamas
Amelia de la Torre	...	Doña Encarna de Galán
Juan G. Medina
José María Caffarel	...	Zapater
Xan das Bolas	...	Rivas
Fernando Delgado	...	Representante de los artistas
Laura Granados	...	Erika

Storyline

In a small spanish town, a group of old ladies decide to celebrate Christmas Eve with a "Sit a poor man at your table" dinner: each wealthy household of the town will have a homeless person dining with them that night. The celebrations also include a parade, and in it we find Plácido, the humble owner of a three-wheeler, whose family is forced to live in a public lavatory because of the lack of money to pay the rent, and who has to pay the second bill of his vehicle before midnight or else he will lose it.

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Plot Keywords:

christmas | tragicomedy

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Genres:

Comedy

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Details

Country:

Spain

Language:

Spanish

Release Date:

20 October 1961 (Spain)

Also Known As:

Placido

Filming Locations:

Manresa, Barcelona, Cataluña, Spain

Box Office

Gross:

ESP 2,068,867 (Spain)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Jet Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

87 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Voted fourth best Spanish film by professionals and critics in 1996 spanish cinema centenary.

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Connections

Featured in Berlanga, plano personal (2011)

User Reviews

Masterpiece of essential viewing.

In a small town of Spain, on the eve of Christmas, some ladies are invented the Christmas campaign "dine with a poor", so that the poorest people, enjoyment by a night of warmth and affection that do not have, sitting at the table of the rich families. In the middle of the preparations is "Plácido", (Cassen), which is hired to participate with his motorcar in the cavalcade organized for the campaign, but there is a small detail which prevented him from devoted solely to his task: the same day of Christmas Eve, defeats him the first invoice of motorcar, his sole means of livelihood.

It is one of the masterpieces undisputed and fundamental filmography of Luis Garcia Berlanga. Filmed at the time summit of their creativity, in a period cultural difficult, where the enormous censorship of the political regime, exacerbated the ingenuity and imagination of the scriptwriters. A script, with malevolent intent, of own Berlanga and Rafael Azcona and under the direction of Berlanga very far from the tenderness that taught in previous work, make a comedy coral with a bitter, pessimistic reflection on the Spanish society of the time.

It is a acquired late, both in the form as in the fund and a portrait heartless and merciless of a society hypocritical, petty with double standards, where the most important are the appearance, and that preaches charity but not the practice, which is bothering him poverty but that does nothing to eradicate and that it needs to launch a cruel farce, in the form of Christmas campaign.

The movie has breakdown unrepeatable major players in their best performances, which would have to be stressed in all. It's full of memorable sequences, grotesque, surreal and the time dramatic It's especially unforgettable which develops in the public toilet. And the long scene, genial sequence in which the sudden deterioration of the state of health of one of the poor, seriously ill, triggers a situation comic-pathetic which shows all the miseries of that society amoral

The film has a indent brilliant, and the dialogs never ebb, are kept in a high level of ingenious humor . It has nothing to envy Italian masters such as De Sica or Fellini and that in movies such as "Placido", is even better.

I think it is my favorite movie.