It deals with a middle age dentist called Michel Barrel : Piccoli , who lives with his wife Isabelle : Rada Rassimov , his mother : Valentine Tessier and his nurse Nicole : Julieta Serrano , until one day receives from Japan a particular gift : a mannequin. He bears a troubled marriage and Michel carries out some unfaith occassions . Later on , the mysogin falls in love for the attractive doll and then things go wrong.
This is a bitter flick in which Berlanga proves his passion for erotic stories . A tragedy-comedy about a mature man who has been unfaithful to his spouse and feels lonely and then falls for a mannequin, dealing with a sad and desperate critique on the human condition . A sour reflexion about loneliness , egoism , mysoginy , eroticism , impossible desires and human evil , as most of the secondary actors turn out to be hateful people . The real starring is the gorgeous doll , it was made by the known designer Alexandre Trauner , cost : 10.000 Francos , it was more expensive than hire Bardot , first French actress . Weird screenplay from Berlanga himself, the ordinary Rafael Azcona and Jean Claude Carriere , Buñuel's regular. It is a strange, rare script into the fruitful and long collaboration between Rafael Azcona and Berlanga. Michel Piccoli gives a good interpretation and the support cast formed by habitual Berlanga secondaries are really wasted , such as Agustin Gonzalez, Manuel Alexandre, Julieta Serrano, Amparo Soler Leal , Queta Claver and Luis Cigues.
This outlandish motion picture was professional but slowly realized by Luis Garcia Berlanga , and it results to be tiring and boring . Berlanga had a contract with the great producer Cesareo Gonzalez when he broke it , then Luis was hired by French producer Christian Ferry and Spanish Alfredo Matas to make this film that was a flop at the Spaniard boxoffice , and it was panned by reviewers, nowadays is better considered than the past .The movie was prohibited in Spain and heavily censored along with : Last tango in Paris and La Gran Bouffe also starred by Michel Piccoli. This Grandeur nature is far from other masterpieces made by the great director Berlanga as Calabuch , El verdugo , Novio a la vista , Esa pareja feliz, Los jueves milagro, Placido , Vivan los novios , Escopeta Nacional, Patrimonio nacional , Nacional III , among others, and the best : Bienvenido Mister Marshall , of course.
