Cinema
Life Goes On
El mundo sigue
Fernando Fernán Gómez · 1965
Synopsis
Madrid, in the Maravillas and Malasaña districts, in the heart of the post-war years. A poor family lives there under the thumb of the father, a municipal guard more authoritarian at home than in the street, alongside a devoted mother. The son, who left the seminary shortly before becoming a priest, spends his days studying and praying for the sins of his family. The two daughters, Eloísa and Luisita, who are opposites in every respect, are jealous of each other and hate each other; money, luxury and envy drive their rivalry, in a world where almost no one prospers honestly.
Context
The film adapts a 1960 novel by Juan Antonio de Zunzunegui. The censors first banned the screenplay, which was admitted after changes thanks to a change of minister; shot in 1963, the film was placed in the lowest category, which jeopardised its distribution, and was released only on 10 July 1965, in a cinema in Bilbao. Long regarded as the cursed film of its author, who also acts in it, it was re-released in July 2015 in some fifteen Spanish cities. Lina Canalejas and Gemma Cuervo play the two sisters.
Who it is for
A two-hour black-and-white melodrama, very dark; the film takes the side of none of its characters.
Prizes and reception
Unseen for decades, it has been regarded since its 2015 revival as one of the most pitiless portraits of Francoist Spain.