Carlos Saura - El Jardín de las Delicias (1970)

Surreal look at a family's attempts to shock, bully, frighten, coach, and cajole Antonio Cano into regaining his memory and his management powers after an auto accident. He's middle-aged, wealthy, the leader of a family corporation. After the accident he can't remember his Swiss bank account numbers, can't sign documents, and can't lead his board of directors. His father needs Antonio's recovery to keep family control of the corporation, and Antonio's wife, children, and mistress want access to Antonio's money. They stage elaborate recreations of traumas in his childhood that mix with his own memories and hallucinations. Will they succeed? Will he come out of it?

Antonio Cano es un constructor de mediana edad de gran éxito. Un accidente de tráfico en compañía de su amante le ata a una silla de ruedas, además de provocarle amnesia. Sólo él conoce las claves del negocio, la combinación de la caja fuerte y el número de la cuenta corriente que posee en Suiza. Así que su familia intenta que recuerde representando escenas de su vida. Esto, junto a los recuerdos dispersos que guarda el propio Antonio, arrastra a la familia y hace flotar los fantasmas que llevan dentro.




Antonio Cano, 45 years old, is an important businessman who was severely injured in a car accident. Because of this, he is temporarily paralyzed and suffers memory loss. His family, friends and business associates all try to recreate scenes from his life in order to revive his memory which, little by little, does begin to return. Each day Antonio is placed in his beautiful garden where he relives many memories, both real and imagined.




All of the striking scene changes and radical imagery are metaphors for the suppression and suffering of Spanish people under the Franco regime, who could only speak out about their plight by means of allegorical films/stories such as El jardín de las delicias.
The film was censured by contemporary Spanish Censorship because of its Franco bourgeois satire and Spanish Civil War references.




New York 1970: Quality prize. Chicago Film Festival: Best Actor (José Luis López Vázquez).

English subs by scalisto and myself.

En una época de abierto enfrentamiento contra el franquismo, ya en sus últimos años, Saura rueda El jardín de las delicias. Como en sus últimos filmes, denuncia un tipo de sociedad con la que no comulga en absoluto; pero ahora incluye, sutil aunque rotundamente, una doble lectura política contra el moribundo Régimen.



Corresponde a un momento de gran agitación social, animada de una parte por los movimientos que se desarrollaban en todo el mundo (mayo francés, primavera de Praga, guerra de Vietnam, etc.), y por otro lado, más evidente y doméstico, la vejez del general Franco, con su correspondiente deterioro físico y mental que dejaba entrever el final de la interminable y penosa -no para todos- dictadura.

Script/Guión: Carlos Saura & Rafael Azcona
Music/Sonido: Luis de Pablo
Cinematography/Fotografía: Luis Cuadrado
Cast/Reparto: José Luis López Vázquez, Francisco Pierrá, Luchy Soto, Lina Canalejas, Julia Peña, Alberto Alonso, Charo Soriano, Esperanza Roy, Mayrata O'Wisiedo, Antonio Acebal