La cabina (1972) (TV)

User Rating:

8.2/10   

Director:

Antonio Mercero

Writers:

Antonio Mercero (story)
José Luis Garci (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

13 December 1972 (Spain)

Genre:

Comedy | Horror | Short

Plot:

A man gets trapped inside a telephone box and nobody is able to free him.

Plot Keywords:

Trapped | Telephone Box | Funeral | Laughing Audience | Desperation

Awards:

4 wins

Cast

José Luis López Vázquez	...	Hombre de la cabina (Man in Phone Box)
Agustín González	...	Hombre segunda cabina (Man in Second Phone Booth)
Goyo Lebrero	...	Jefe de bomberos (Lead Fireman)
Tito García	...	Señor corpulento (Beefy Man)
Carmen Martínez Sierra	...	Señora 1ª (Lady 1)
Carmen Luján	...	Señora 2º (Lady 2)
María Vico
Felipe Martín Puertas	...	Trabajador 1 (Worker 1) (as Felipe Martín Puerta)
José Montijano	...	Trabajador 2 (Worker 2)
Blaki	...	Guardia (Guard)
Mariano Banderas		(as Mariano Barderas)
Antonio Moreno	...	Cristalero
José Miguel Aguado	...	Kid
José Manuel Hoyos	...	Kid

Also Known As:

The Phone Box (International: English title)
The Telephone Box (UK)

Runtime:

35 min

Country:

Spain

Language:

Spanish

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Filming Locations:

Madrid, Spain

Company:

Televisión Española (TVE)

From folks' analysis to Kafka's horror in half an hour

I'm shocked. Not only because I have just watched this wonderful and sick film. Also because almost all commentators are English. And they saw the film only once! I guess that's just because comments here have to be written in English.

So let me add my Spaniard's point of view: I don't see symbols of modern world alienation, "incommunication" or anything such. Not in the 1st part of the film, at least. And, yes, you don't need to understand Spanish to get it right (though it helps). But maybe you need to know Spain.

Let me talk about the 1st part of the film (until the truck takes the poor guy away). That's a depiction of a man that falls in the misfortune of having bad luck in public. So he becomes *automatically* the district's laughing stock. People gather around him amused but mostly not helping. They don't even call for help. What's worst, they discourage attempts of help (i.e., the big man) and sharply bash the one who tried helping and failed at it. And there is also the cynicism in random comments of viewers.

See the circus people, which are often regarded as freaks, different ones: they are the only ones not laughing.

All that would have been all the same in a small village. I don't think it's about the big city and it's alienation. And the phone booth is just the means to develop the story, but I don't think it's a symbol of lack of communication.

When the police show up (by chance) they come showing their manners and attitude. Which perfectly fits in, given the historical period in Spain. You might find such manners in public forces in many other places, but this is all too normal in places under of after a dictatorship (of course, not only Spain). But the image of people is so right "in place", their aggressive attitude and lack of solidarity ... I don't know if you English speakers get what I mean. Or maybe Spain is not so "different" after all?