Oscuros sueños de agosto (1967)

User Rating:

5.0/10   

Director:

Miguel Picazo

Writers:

Víctor Erice (screenplay)
Víctor Erice (story)

Plot Keywords:

Tragicomedy

Awards:

3 wins

Cast

Viveca Lindfors	...	Isabel
Sonia Bruno	...	Ana
Francisco Rabal	...	Julio
Julián Mateos	...	Mario
José María Prada
Cándida Losada
Laly Soldevila		(as Lali Soldevila)
Enriqueta Carballeira		(as Mª Enriqueta Carballeira)
Gisia Paradis
Eloísa Muro
María Vico
Juan Antonio Arévalo
Alfonso del Real
Valentín Tornos
José María Labernié

Also Known As:

Obscure August Dreams (International: English title) (informal literal title)
Oscuros sueños de agosto

Runtime:

105 min

Country:

Spain

Color:

Color

Certification:

Spain:18

Company:

Cesáreo González Producciones Cinematográficas

a middle-aged woman with depression meets her only daughter 18 yeas after she abandoned her husband

This is a rather depressing story about a woman who suffers depression and returns to Spain from Venezuela, where she has been living with her wealthy lover. This woman, well played by a dubbed Viveca Lindfors, seeks treatment in an asylum which appears to be located near Madrid. Although they hadn't meet since she was a 4 years old child, her daughter (a dull Sonia Bruno) is not resentful, and joins the mother in the asylum, where the patient will undergo a psychodrama treatment. The plot revolves around both women's difficult relationships with their respective lovers, and the rich patients who surround the middle-aged (Viveca and Francisco Rabal) and young (Sonia Bruno and Julian Mateos) couples. Some other small characters which are quite interesting are patients such as a highly neurotic blonde bombshell actress (played by lovely Gisia Paradis), a bipolar and gossipy woman (Laly Soldevilla)...both providing a few very welcome camp humour relax moments to an otherwise very gloomy story. I liked the psychodrama session scene with Viveka and Rabal reenacting the scene that triggered her depression, and I think that the film was well handled, had good production values, good development of characters. Maybe the young couple lacked charisma, and some scenes were a little bit slow-paced. Francisco Rabal played his usual strong male-voiced masculine self, and if effective, I don't find him interesting. Viveca Lindfors was very compelling, and with her use of body and facial expressions managed to bring to life her not very appealing part of a depressed bourgeois housewife. Julian Mateos had a nice body at the time, and was OK as the tortured alcoholic and violent patient who seduces the visiting sweet Sonia Braga. Overall, a curious example of the Spanish attempt at a sort of new wave in the 1960's by the prestigious Miguel Picazo (La Tia Tula, 1964), and mainly recommended to Miss Lindfors' fans.