La herida luminosa (1997)

User Rating:

5.6/10   

Director:

José Luis Garci

Writers:

José Luis Garci (writer)
Horacio Valcárcel (writer)

Genre:

Drama

Plot Keywords:

1950s

Awards:

2 nominations

Cast

Fernando Guillén	...	Doctor Molinos
Mercedes Sampietro	...	Doña Isabel
Julia Gutiérrez Caba	...	Sor Benedicta
María Massip	...	Escolástica
Beatriz Santana	...	Julia
Neus Asensi	...	Jovita
Cayetana Guillén Cuervo	...	Sor María
Juan Calot	...	Gálvez
Concha Gómez Conde	...	Florista
Norma Garci
María Elena Flores	...	Jugadora
Alicia Rozas	...	Niña
José Luis Merino
Maria De Los Reyes Martinez
Lourdes De Orduña

Runtime:

100 min

Country:

Spain

Language:

Spanish

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Certification:

Spain:18 | Argentina:16

Filming Locations:

Gijón, Asturias, Spain

Company:

Enrique Cerezo Producciones Cinematográficas S.A.

Soundtrack:

Concierto nº 2 para piano en C menor Opus 18

Intimist story in classical <custombrista> style

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Whereas `La Herida Luminosa' is by no means a great masterpiece, as is Garci's following film `El Abuelo', it is a delicate stage piece in more than one sense. Firstly it is based on a play by the Catalonian poet Josep María Sagarra which was probably written in the late 1950s; secondly Garci sought to maintain the playwriter style of interaction between the actors. For this reason the main actors basically come from an ample background of live theatre - Fernando Guillén, Mercedes Sampietro and Julia Gutiérrez Caba especially. Neus Asensi is really good, and this is probably the film in which Cayetana Guillén-Cuervo (daughter of Fernando) plays her best rôle. As usual the careful hand of the artisan director is evident, notwithstanding a few glimpses of things which did not exist in that decade.

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SPOILERS IN THIS PARAGRAPH: a nun becomes ill and is taken to see the doctor, who happens to be her father and repudiates her. Dr. Molino's hate for his daughter ends in her dying (of a broken heart?) when she goes to visit him. END SPOILERS

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Although some tangencial religious inferences are clear, in no way are they sanctimonious, there is no preaching. Garcí is very much of the new Spanish cinema who does tend to look back in his stories - again here aided by his favourite scriptwriter Horacio Valcárcel - but by no means can he be considered a latter-day franquista. His stories, as here in `La Herida Luminosa', are clean characteriological studies on human values and feelings. Very much a dialogue-driven piece, befitting perfectly the times in question and proper to its origins as a stage play.

Manuel Balboa once again strikes the right ambiental note with his music, though I sometimes could not tell where his original score stopped and where music from other composers began. Definitely recognised some Tchaickovsky, but interspersed with pieces which sounded almost like Beethoven and Chopin, as well as a rather nice chorus of nuns at the end, which may well have been Balboa's own.