Más allá del jardín (1996)

Director:

Pedro Olea

Writers:

Mario Camus (writer)
Antonio Gala (novel)

Release Date:

20 December 1996 (Spain)

Genre:

Drama

Plot Keywords:

Based On Novel

Awards:

3 wins & 4 nominations

Cast

Concha Velasco	...	Palmira
Fernando Guillén	...	Willy
Manuel Bandera	...	Tario
Andrea Occhipinti	...	Ugo
Ingrid Rubio	...	Helena
Miguel Hermoso Arnao	...	Alex (as Miguel Hermoso)
Martirio	...	Mencia
Mary Carrillo	...	Ama
Claudia Gravy	...	Doctora Dubois (as Claudia Gravi)
Mercedes Alonso	...	Isa Bustos
Giancarlo Giannini	...	Bernardo
Goya Toledo	...	Teresa
María Galiana	...	Ramona
Germán Cobos	...	Alvaro Larra
Carmen de la Maza	...	Soledad

Also Known As:

Beyond the Garden

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

Spain

Language:

Spanish

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Certification:

Finland:K-15 | Spain:13

Filming Locations:

Casamance, Senegal

Company:

Canal+ España

Soundtrack:

Derroche

Somewhat unconvincing after the novel

A wealthy Sevillan woman finds her world crumbling around her, and with it all the social values her supposed high-ranking position had imbued in her. Concha Velasco does a fair job of throwing out her unfaithful husband who indulges in adventures, and forthwith has her own fling, holding her dying mother's hand, weeping over her son's body on the freeway and getting used to the idea of her daughter being pregnant.....all in the space of what seems to be just a few days. Any try at reducing a novel to barely 90 minutes screen time can be a risky matter: in this case the film just does not totally convince - it is not coherent enough.

But what if.....Mario Camus had been the director instead of the scriptwriter, albeit with Antonio Gala's approval, clutching, as always, his gold-ferruled walking stick? What if Valcárcel or even Rafael Azcona had done the script? The result as it stands is a film which falls back on the ever-useful trick of using tremendism, when such ingredient is totally missing in the novel. The ubiquitous fatalism is present, though it tends to be somewhat ephimeral in the film, which was probably a good idea given the condensing imposed in its making.

Anyway, the film is quite provoking and has some excellent scenes. Probably Concha Velasco's best performance since she played Santa Teresa in a Spanish TV series around 1984. I just cannot fathom out what all those poor people in Rwanda made of a whole film-crew working in the middle of their dreadful war....