El cochecito (1960) User Reviews

Mixed feelings

[silverminstrel · 6/10 · 16 April 2023]

After the many praises here I honestly have to tell that this movie IMHO is somewhat a let down.

The first 45-50 minutes of the movie felt like it should have been 10 maybe 15 minutes. The second half is actually the movie itself for wich the preparation took too long.

I don't know the book it was based on, maybe it didn't offer enough material for a full movie or maybe it couldn't be interpreted well enough.

I'd say it's still worth watching but so far this is my least favourite of the Isbert movies. I'd much rather suggest Calabuch, Bienvenido Mister Marshall or Verdugo if you haven't seen those yet...

It is a black comedy with satirical observations of social conventions with masterful acting by the great José Isbert

[ma-cortes · 7/10 · 19 September 2020]

Classic Spanish Dramedy about an obstinate retired man , being full of satire , criticism and black comedy . Here Marco Ferreri realizes another excellent film - along with ¨El Pisito¨ and ¨Los Chicos¨- plenty of irony , habits , Spanish social life , deep feeling and social critical . Seventy-something Don Anselmo Proharan (José Isbert) , a retired state agent , finds himself sharing living space with his son (Pedro Porcel) , a bourgeoisie Procurador , his granddaughter (Chus Lampreave) and her boyfriend (José Luis López Vazquez) . But widower Don Anselmo is unhappy , the reason for being restricted to one room at home , and his social life has narrowed to his paralytic friends , attending funerals , and visiting the graveyard . Along the way he joins his paraplegic friends at motorized meeting . A good friend is Don Lucas (Lepe) who eventually gets a motorized wheelchair, then Proharan accompanies him to his spouse's grave to leave flowers . Don Anselmo soon becomes obsessed with getting his own "little coach" and joining the subculture of other "cochecito" owners . As his son doesn't like at buying it , but Anselmo steals him money , that's why the only way to keep his stubborn decision to enjoy with his friends .

This is an enjoyable story that contains drama , busy comedy , humor , adequate pace , amusing gags , rowdy satire , noisy hustle and results to becpretty entertaining . Being masterfully made by Marco Ferreri who was at times really criticised for his stridently bleak view of human nature . It is considered to be one of the best films from classy Spanish cinema history and has been voted as one of the best Spanish films by professionals and critics in cinema centenary . The main and support actors stand out under Ferreri's perfect direction , including sour criticism , as well as Marco carried out in his previous and subsequent works that include bitter , pessimistic descriptions of social classes . In ¨El Cochecito¨ we can find very fun and attractive characters , all of them caricatures of the "spanish way of life" and a mirror on the Spanish society by that time . A very good film which tended not to be very well received by the censor for its acidity and considered to be one of the best Spanish films of the history ; however, his strong portrait of Spanish society , plenty of sharpness and grisly ending , didn't please the pro-Franco authorities .¨El Cochecito¨ (1960) , one of the undisputed masterpieces and fundamental in filmography of Marco Ferreri where shows the miseries of an amoral society and shot at the beginning of his creativity , during his Spanish period , in a time cultural difficult , where the enormous censorship of the political regime, exacerbated the ingenuity and imagination of the scriptwriters , as the prestigious and prolific writer Rafael Azcona . Main and support cast are frankly magnificent . José Isbert is terrific as the retired septuagenarian man who becomes obsessed with owning a motorized wheelchair and when his penurious son refuses to buy a chair for him , the old man attempts several gambits to get one by faking infirmity. Top-notch secondaries actors ,such as : Pedro Porcel as his tight-fisted son , José Luis López Vázquez , Chus Lampreave , María Luisa Ponte , Ángel Álvarez, María Isbert, Antonio Jiménez Escribano , Antonio Riquelme , among others . It contains evocative cinematography in white and black by Julio Baena . Atmospheric and adequate musical score by Miguel Asins Arbo .

Another masterpiece by the notorious filmmaker Marco Ferreri who shows the lively as well as sad existence of an elderly man . It won several prizes : Sant Jordi Awards 1961 Winner Sant Jordi Best Film to Marco Ferreri , Best Spanish Actor : José Isbert and Venice Film Festival 1960 Winner FIPRESCI Prize Marco Ferreri , though the film was shown out of competition . Direction by Marco Ferreri is awesome , he shows his skill for edition , realizing long shots with crowd who moves easily , as he filmed three several polemic movies during the 50s , all of them written by Rafael Azcona and Ferreri himself : El Pisito (1958) , Los Chicos (1959) and El Cochecito (1960) , and all of them were beset by difficulties with the censors caused by thorny critical to social stratum .Ferreri's first foray into film work was filming commercials , and as promoter of a cinema magazine. Working in Spain from 1957, making his directorial debut there . Ferreri directed various notorious films , mainly outlandish and strange dramas with deep emotions . He made a lot of black comedies adding ironical observations of social conventions and middle-class sexual mores . He was at times criticised for his stridently bleak view of simple people and human nature . Ferreri was a prestigious writer and director, especially known for Harem (1967) ,The audience (1972), La grande bouffe (1973) , Yerma (1978) , Tales of ordinary madness (1981), Story of Piera (1983) , How Good the Whites Are The flesh (1988) , and The house of the smiles (1991). Rating 7.5/10 , pretty good . Essential and indispensable watching for Marco Ferreri aficionados . Better than average and well worth seeing .

Two Stories

[boblipton · 6/10 · 12 July 2023]

José Isbert is a widower and disregarded by his family. He has his friends, all of whom have wheelchairs of various sorts, and Isbert can't keep up with them. He takes it into his head that he wants a wheelchair himself, and not just any wheelchair, but a motorized one that will let him get around easily.

It has two stories to tell: one is the lack of regard people hold their elders in, and that is heartrending. The other is Isbert's child-like and childish insistence on getting his own way no matter the consequences. Isbert's performance is very real, and very telling, but the two stories are in conflict; to sympathize with him is to make the social commentary telling, but Isbert's performance reduces that impact; and so the performance of Pedro Porcel as his son and financial mainstay of the family remains emotionally uncaring but practical.

The perfect trio

[Gagut · 30 September 1999]

Only the fusion of two genius -the director Marco Ferreri and the script writer Rafael Azcona- could have created this magnificent movie. If we add to this duet the acting of Pepe Isbert (possibly one of the best Spanish actors ever) the combination could not have been better. This is a dark movie about characters usually scorned by the society. Characters normally separated by the rest just because they are old or handicapped. All this tension developed between this two poles of the society ends in a brutal and nonsense murder. This chapter of the movie was censored by the Franco´s regime who could not bear such brutality. In any case the result is a dark movie who lets us see how were the darker years of the Spanish recent history.

Marco Ferreri debuts for me

[lee_eisenberg · 7/10 · 26 October 2008]

"El cochecito" ("The Little Coach" in English) is the first Marco Ferreri movie that I've ever seen. And it's certainly a good one. Ferreri was Italian, but this black comedy is Spanish-made, focusing on an elderly handicapped Madrilenian and his acquaintances. This is one of the only looks that I've had directly into Franco-era Spain (although little if anything focuses on Franco's rule). The protagonist feels ostracized by society, but has some surprises in store for everyone.

So, I don't know if I would call this a great movie. I got the feeling that the content, which did in fact have trouble with the censors, may have influenced Pedro Almodovar. But that's just conjecture, so don't quote me. Either way, a pretty good movie.

On Golden Wheelchair

[duke1029 · 9/10 · 30 June 2014]

Despite a long and prolific career, Marco Ferreri is not as well known outside his native Italy as contemporaries like Fellini and Antonioni. His anarchic, iconoclastic vision of the world and bizarre, often surreal humor may be the reason. Although on the surface this early film initially seems grounded in the Neo-Realist tradition of DeSica's "Umberto D," it carries a bittersweet subversive theme that would become increasingly apparent in Ferreri's later work.

Jose Isbert plays septuagenarian Don Anselmo Proharan, a retired government minister who has reluctantly ceded his home to son Carlos, an officious, condescending solicitor, his bourgeoisie wife, and Yolanda, their homely daughter. Carlos' law offices, which he shares with his daughter's ambitious fiancé, are also located on the premises, so Don Anselmo is limited to a single stifling and confining room in his own home. As he also has to share space with Yolanda, the old man has no sense of peace and quiet or privacy. In addition, Carlos has control of his father's pension, which he parsimoniously doles out as a parent would to a child, further restricting the old man's freedom. Ferreri emphasizes the situation with very effective traveling shots that follow the old man around the house's constrictive, almost claustrophobic, corridors.

Don Anselmo's only escape seems to be attending funerals, and when his paraplegic friend Don Lucas gets a motorized wheelchair, known as a "cochetito," Proharan accompanies him to his wife's grave to leave flowers. Don Anselmo soon becomes obsessed with getting his own "little coach" and joining the subculture of other "cochetito" owners that Don Lucas belongs to which congregates and interacts daily. These physically challenged people have achieved an exhilarating sense of independence and freedom, and the old man views joining them as an escape from his restricted life with his tyrannical family. However, to join them, he needs his own "little coach."

Like Toad in Kenneth Grahame's "The Wind in the Willows," Don Anselmo becomes obsessed with owning one and regaining his lost dignity. When his tight-fisted son dismisses his requests for his own chair, the old man tries several gambits in which he feigns physical infirmity to get one. Frustrated, Don Anselmo sells his dead wife's jewelry in order to buy a cochetito outright, but the son, who has already earmarked the jewelry for his daughter, humiliates the old man by forcing him to return the "cochetito" and reclaimimg his mother's jewels.

After further humiliating him, the son threatens to institutionalize the old man, to the delight of granddaughter Yolande, who is only too eager to co-opt the bedroom for herself. His self-esteem shattered, a desperate Don Anselmo poisons his family's food and runs away from home like a disaffected teenager. The film ends ambiguously with many issues left unresolved.

Ferreri directed his early films in Spain, and Don Anselmo's repression by his bourgeoisie family could be interpreted as a quietly subversive allegorical criticism of Spanish dictator's Francisco Franco's repressive fascist state. The whimsical early scene when Don Anselmo sees a surreal line of men marching in military fashion armed with mop handles for guns and wearing toilet bowls for helmets is in stark contrast to the film's more sober conclusion when the fugitive old man is arrested by the iconic uniformed actual Guardia Civil.

In any case, Ferreri left Spain for his native Italy after the release of "El Cochecito" and although this minor masterpiece is relatively obscure, he soon received some international critical acclaim for trenchantly scathing social satires like "The Ape Woman," "The Conjugal Bed," "La Grand Bouffe," and Felliniesque burlesques like "Don't Touch the White Woman," a wild send-up of Custer's Last Stand set in Paris.

Ferreri would return to the theme of aging with dignity in the poignantly sobering realism of "The House of Smiles" nearly three decades later. The director has been quoted as saying that his job is to give the audience a "punch in the stomach." "El Cochecito" is a punch, albeit a gentle one.

Azcona + Isbert = masterpiece

[rainking_es · 9/10 · 14 January 2006]

All of the friends of Anselmo (Pepe Isbert, a genius) have their own disabled-adapted little cars, they go anywhere they want: to the main square, to the country... Anselmo's on his own, and he feels lonely. No way! He decides he also wants one of those cars (doesn't matter if he's not a disabled person) and he'll do ANYTHING to get one: to pretend he's been left paralyzed, to steal... WHATEVER it takes.

"El cochecito" is nothing but a classic of Spanish cinema (or of cinema in general) and such a referent of European realism. It is a so funny comedy written by Rafael Azcona (maybe the best Spanish scriptwriter ever) and placed on the impoverished streets of Madrid (late 50's).

You MUSTN'T miss this one (not if you love cinema).

*My rate: 9/10

Dark comedy

[exigente · 5 September 1999]

If you like dark comedies, this is a fine film to watch. Some of the nuances may be lost to those that , have not experienced Spanish society/culture first hand, specifically during the Franco regime. The element of selfishness runs through very clearly - the young(er) treating the old as necessary nuisances, the old trying to squeeze the last few drops from life. Funny but dark.

Brings a radically matter-of-fact and quasi-aspirational perspective

[philosopherjack · 3 November 2023]

Marco Ferreri's El cochecito lives up to its reputation, its perspective on the community of the differently-abled still seeming radically matter-of-fact and quasi-aspirational. A retired bureaucrat, Don Anselmo, visits an old friend who now gets around in a motorized wheelchair, and who gives him a ride on it when Anselmo can't find a taxi; it leads to other get-togethers and contacts and diversions (presented in enjoyably garrulous, lived-in manner) and to Anselmo desiring such an item for himself, regardless that it's beyond his means, and that he doesn't actually need it. The desire becomes a near-fixation, and yet appears more rational than his family's strident opposition to it (this aspect of the film aligns well with modern Uber-aligned notions of choice and autonomy), in particular as he actually wants to get out and experience people and places, an ambition seemingly beyond the scope of his relatives' closeted thinking. Threatened with being committed to an asylum, Anselmo takes a desperate step to get what he wants, his awareness of his transgression made clear in a startling, long-held close-up, in which Ferreri temporarily seems to yield to the evocative powers of his lead actor, Jose Isbert. The final scene (in the full original version that is; the film was reportedly available for years only in bowdlerized form) allows him a final taste of freedom, and although it's clear that a severe reckoning lies ahead, Anselmo's final remark has a resigned lightness to it, suggesting that from his hemmed-in point of view, his liberation, however brief, was worth it at almost any logistical and moral price. The film allows occasional glimpses of the later more expansive Ferreri (for example, Anselmo enjoys an indulgent lunch that presages La Grande Bouffe), but on the whole occupies its own stylistic and tonal space within his oeuvre, no less enjoyably for that.