Cinema
The Executioner
El verdugo
Luis García Berlanga · 1963
Synopsis
Madrid, in the early sixties. José Luis, an undertaker's employee, sees girls run from him as soon as they learn his trade; Carmen sees suitors run from her because her father, Amadeo, is an executioner. The two young people meet, fall in love, and Carmen is expecting a child. They must marry and find somewhere to live; but the official flat promised to old Amadeo, close to retirement, slips away from him. Father and daughter persuade José Luis to take over the post to keep the flat, assuring him that he will never have to kill anyone.
Context
The screenplay, written by Rafael Azcona, the director and Ennio Flaiano, grew out of an account that a lawyer friend gave Berlanga: in 1959, in Valencia, the executioner charged with executing a woman poisoner refused to do so and had to be forced to. Shot in the spring of 1963 at the C.E.A. studios in Madrid, as a coproduction with Italy, the film was presented at Venice a few weeks after the execution of Julián Grimau and two anarchists, and the Spanish ambassador to Italy saw in it a defamation of an entire society. It was released in Spain in February 1964.
Who it is for
A black comedy in black and white, with long shots full of characters; it helps to know that Spain then executed by garrotte.
Prizes and reception
International Critics' Prize at the Venice Film Festival in 1963; regarded as a classic of Spanish cinema.