Ana y los lobos

The young but traveled Ana (Geraldine Chaplin) arrives in a manor in the countryside of Spain to work as nanny of three girls and finds a dysfunctional family: the matriarch (Rafaela Aparicio) is a sick old woman obsessed by death and having constant nervous breakdown; her son José (José María Prada) was raised dressing girl's clothes until his First Communion and is obsessed by military clothes and stuffs; Juan (José Vivó), the father of the three girls, is a pervert since his childhood that writes pornographic letters to Ana; his wife Luchy (Charo Soriano) has suicidal tendencies; and the mystic and religious eremite Fernando(Fernando Fernán Gómez), who was inflicted to flagellation in his childhood, lives recluse in a cave. The presence of Ana disturbs the three brothers with tragic consequences.

In the 70's, "Ana y los Lobos" was very successful in Brazil and one of my favorite movies of my adolescence. This film is actually a political allegory of Franco's dictatorship in Spain, with the mother and the three brothers representing the Spanish society of those times. The omnipotent mother is the old Spain; the oppressive José represents the authoritarianism of the military government of Franco; Juan the repressed sexuality and Fernando the Catholic Church. The story is bizarre with a weird atmosphere and characters and top-notch performances, with Geraldine Chaplin extremely beautiful and sexy. The DVD released in Brazil by the Brazilian distributor Platina Filmes is actually a VHS converted to DVD, with low-quality of image. The worst is the unforgivable and shameful mistake in the subtitles in Portuguese that wrongly translates, for example, "seho" (seal, in English) as cello, misleading in a non-sense way the viewer that can not understand Spanish. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Ana e os Lobos" ("Ana and the Wolves")

Ana (Geraldine Chaplin) is the new foreign nanny for three girls of a troubled family in an isolated mansion in Spain. José (José María Prada) is an uncle who seems to maintain control of the household and trying to impose his will on Ana.

I did read some analysis of this film as an allegory of the Spanish fascist dictatorship. I'm out of my leagues with all that. I don't have the understanding of their domestic politics during that time. Without all that, this is still compelling as a psychological horror. It would however be missing its internal spirit and a lot of this is going over my head.

That's stay clear that Carlos Saura's picture is hard subject to savour, he puts several symbolism to attack Franco's dictatorship, sounds weird to some tastes, the beginning is slow pace, sometimes really boring, many excess on some sequences, a typical art movie, the most interesting characters are the old brother with his odd collection of the military uniform and the young brother that opt to living in a cave praying in full abstinence of food or sex, all others waive any additional comments, an overlong picture that bother me mostly, the final scene is incredible subjective and highly violent, anyway and nasty experience at first look, wasn't allow to all tastes indeed, still, totally restored Saura's Box-Set containing six pictures with original audio !!!

Resume:

First watch: 2019 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7

Another allegorical and surrealist tale typical of its director serves as a biting criticism of Franco-ruled Spain, at times irritating and disturbing and in the end devastating.

A sometimes powerful, sometimes silly (the levitation scene) and always heavy political allegory. And I do mean allegory. You literally cannot move without bumping into a character/symbol and as usually occurs when humans stand for abstractions like The Military, The Church, or Moral Squalor, they lose whatever quirks and contradictions make them interestingly human and instead, as happens here, become stiff, posturing caricatures.

I will say, however, that director Carlos Saura's idea of wrapping his condemnation of Francoist Spain in a feminist package, so to speak, where hatred of and desire to dominate women is the engine that drives the whole corrupt enterprise, is an inspired one and gives this film a force that cannot be denied, so that the ending is more shattering than simply over the top. And Geraldine Chaplin's alternately playful and scornful performance as the embodiment of Threatening Womanhood is, in my opinion, the best thing she's done. Give it a B.