Before Raúl de la Torre began his collaboration with Graciela Borges, who starred in eight of his eleven feature films, he made _Juan Lamaglia y Sra._, which portrays a loveless marriage.
Juan Lamaglia (Pepe Soriano) and his wife Ana (Julia von Grolman) appear to have very little in common. He is dedicated to his neighborhood store and to horse racing, while she is a good-looking housewife who would obviously like more excitement in her life. Juan's aimless brother, Tito, hangs out with friends and borrows money. At several points in the film, the characters comment on how wonderful Europe and the US are.
_Juan Lamaglia y Sra._ is, above all, a study of ennui. Not much happens in the film in terms of plot, so that the viewer can easily share the characters' sense of purposelessness and dissatisfaction. The film is of particular interest in the light of De la Torre's later work. Once he "discovered" Graciela Borges, the director focused on the depiction of women, so that it is not in Juan Lamaglia but in the "señora" (Ana) that the viewer should look for the point of departure of De la Torre's cinema. The title of the film is purposely misleading: in the movie's poster one can see that the word "Sra." is underlined, and in red. De la Torre's next film, his first important work, was _Crónica de una señora_, and one particular thread of _Juan Lamaglia y Sra._ (a scene involving Ana and a man played by the director himself) actually finds its way, almost without alteration, into the next film. There is much of _A Doll's House_ in both films.
While this is not Raúl de la Torre's best film, it marks the beginning of a brilliant career. The performances are excellent, and both script and cinematography do a great job in conveying the appropriate mood. I was especially struck by the last fifteen minutes of the film, which are unexpected, unusual, and daringly anti-realistic.
