Life Goes On (1965 film) explained

Native Name:
Nolink:yes
Director:Fernando Fernán Gómez
Producer:Juan Estelrich
Screenplay:Fernando Fernán Gómez
Cinematography:Emilio Foriscot
Editing:Rosa M. Salgado
Music:Daniel J. White
Language:Spanish
Country:Spain
Studio:Ada Films
Distributor:Nueva Films

Life Goes On (Spanish; Castilian: '''El mundo sigue'''|links=no) is a 1965 Spanish melodrama film directed and written by Fernando Fernán Gómez, which stars Lina Canalejas and Gemma Cuervo. It is based on the 1960 novel by Juan Antonio de Zunzunegui.

Plot

Set in post-War Madrid, primarily in Maravillas and Malasaña, the plot tracks the fratricidal feud between two sisters, Eloísa and Luisita.

Production

Life Goes On is an adaptation of the 1960 novel El mundo sigue by Falangist author and RAE member, which depicts a bleak vision of Madrilenian society, with Zunzunegui being, according to Fernán Gómez, "the writer who has best brought to narrative the enormous political failure of the Spanish post-war period".[1] Despite the original author's acquaintance with the Francoist regime, the screenplay was banned by State censorship, and had to wait to a ministerial reshuffle (from Gabriel Arias-Salgado to Manuel Fraga) to be brought back, after some modifications. The film was produced by for Ada Films.[2] Shooting took place in 1963.[3] The film was nonetheless granted a negative C rating by the censorship board (on the basis of its purportedly poor aesthetics values), imperiling its commercial distribution.[4]

Release

Rather than an outright distribution ban, the film's release was restricted,[5] with the film premiering at Bilbao's Cine Buenos Aires on 10 July 1965 under Nueva Films.[6] The film was re-released on 15 July 2015 by A Contracorriente Films in 15 Spanish cities.

Reception

Mirito Torreiro of Fotogramas rated the film 5 out of 5 stars, deeming it to be "one of the most terrifying and merciless moral portraits of Francoist Spain ever made by Spanish cinema".[7]

See also

Notes and References

  1. Book: Fernández-Cebrián, Ana. Fables of Development: Capitalism and Social Imaginaries in Spain (1950-1967). 123. 2023. Liverpool University Press. Liverpool. 978-1-802-07805-3.
  2. Book: Faulkner, Sally. A History of Spanish Film: Cinema and Society 1910-2010. 2013. Bloomsbury Publishing.
  3. Web site: Negra, negrísima España. Diario de Sevilla. 17 July 2015. Manuel J.. Lombardo. Grupo Joly.
  4. Web site: 'El mundo sigue', de Fernán Gómez, resucita 50 años después. El Periódico de Aragón. Prensa Ibérica. 7 July 2015. Magdalena. Tsanis.
  5. Sally. Faulkner. 2017. Delayed Cinema and Feminist Discourse in Fernando Fernán-Gómez's El mundo sigue (1963/1965/2015). 833. Bulletin of Hispanic Studies. 94. 8. 10.3828/bhs.2017.51. 10871/30347. free.
  6. Web site: El Madrid de los cincuenta en 'El mundo sigue', de Zunzunegui. El País. Marina. Casado. 10 July 2021.
  7. Web site: Fotogramas. 22 June 2015. El mundo sigue (50 aniversario). Mirito. Torreiro.