Early Spain of the 20th century , Pascual Duarte's family is stricken with grief , fear , poornes , severe life conditions and fatalism. As the father : Héctor Alterio is a real drunk , the mother : Paca Ojea is a bitter and illiterate woman , and Pascual Duarte : Jose Luis Gómez himself is a violent young who only get along with his sister : Diana Guzman . Along the way , Pascual falls into a deep of madness and terror with sudden bursting of violence in tragic results .
This is a depressing and austere but acceptable movie based on Camilo Jose Cela's novel , though the film is set in the Thirties and the famous book is in the Twenties .This Pascual Duarte 1976 turns out to be an extremely slow-moving and minimalist tale , containing some really shocking images about animal slaughter as a dog and a mule , as both of them were actually killed in cold blod . As the yarn results to be cold and concise with stern narration and various brooding , piercing flashbacks . It shows misery , poverty , and desperation of the countryside people in the 20s and 30s with subsequent proclamation of the Spanish Republic . The picture pays tribute to silent classic movie "Seven Chances" by Buster Keaton when Pascual and his sister go to the cinema and watching this hilarious film. Main and support cast are frankly excellent. Stars Jose Luis Gómez in his film debut as a desperado man who follows his own impulses through a descent to craziness until a tragic finale . He won Cannes Award to Best actor , competing nothing less against Robert De Niro who was nominated for Taxi Driver . Being accompanied by a good cast as Héctor Alterio , Paca Ojea , Joaquin Hinojosa , Eduardo Bea , Francisco Casares and Eduardo Calvo .
Well produced by prestigious producer Elías Querejera , though it was heavily censored by the strict Spanish censorship . And special mention for the realistic and evocative cinematography by cameraman Luis Cuadrado , in spite of at the time he was blind . As well as sad and stinging musical score by Luis De Pablo. The motion picture was competently made by Ricardo Franco. This was his second one , his first independient film was El Desastre of Annual (1970) . Subsequently , directing several decent , interesting and provoking films as Restos Del Naufragio, San Judas de Frontera , Sueño de Tanger , Berlín Blues , Después Tantos Años, La Buena Estrella and Lágrimas Negras . Rating 6.5/10. The yarn will appeal to Spanish cinema aficionados .
