Peppermint Frappé

Jose Luis Lopez Vazquez plays the doctor who takes a shine to his school chum's new young wife. Bit more than a shine, he becomes obsessed a la Bunuel and decides his young assistant could be moulded in her fashion a la Vertigo. And there you have it with Geraldine Chaplin in the performances of her life. The film's date will give you a good idea as to the tone that this freewheeling film will take even if the good doctor's obsession never wavers. The direction could have been more steely, more assured and not given the viewer a chance for their thoughts to wander but Carlos Saura does well enough and there are some wonderful moments and great scenes, the seduction of the doctor's assistant, the wondrous bike ride and of course both dance sequences (but then Mr Saura is no stranger to dance). Very good indeed.

A very proper, very religious and very conservative doctor is obsessed with his long-time friend's wife, and because the events happen during the Franco repression , he acts according to the dictates of time and place :Extermination! the film is dedicated to Luis Bunuel.A very political, expressionist film.

(1967) Peppermint Frappé (In Spanish with English subtitles) PSYCHOLOGICAL DRAMA

The general premise is, middle age and single X-ray technician male doctor becomes infatuated with his best friend's young hot blond wife. 'Peppermint' is the delicious drink the doctor as well as his best friend always like to drink. Although, the director of this movie by the name of Carlos Saura dedicated this film to surrealist director Luis Buñuel, this movie has zero surrealistic imaging, for I feel that viewers can pretty much predict the result of this movie way before it's even over, just because there are many movies that are similar to the center theme of what this film is about. This is the first of nine movies Geraldine Chaplin collaborated with writer/ director Carlos Saura.

I enjoyed the film, although I never took Saura to be a great director (as the film's dedicatee Bunuel was sometimes). Geraldine Chaplin is an actress I haven't noticed much in the past: she's very fluent here in her two roles, one staid and one swinging. The real revelation for me is Lopez Vasquez in a stunning performance as the obsessed doctor. I thought of other sad, obsessed characters: Trintignant as the fascist in The Conformist, and Bogart as the scriptwriter in In A Lonely Place. Just to watch him as Chaplin dances around the room with her husband, so free and easy, and he cannot respond to the gaiety in any way, it's awful.

Alfredo Mayo returns from Africa with.a new bride, Geraldine Chaplin (in a blonde wig). His old friend, Doctor José Luis López Vázquez lusts for her, but she loves her husband. So Vázquez begins to transmute his adoring, previously unnoticed assistant into her. Good thing she's played by Miss Chaplin (in a brunette wig). As she begins to become more like the woman he wants, he continues to try to seduce Miss Chaplin (in a blonde wig).

Carlos Saura's gloss on VERTIGO (albeit one based on an idea by Saura) is, like Hitchcock's, a meditation on sexual obsession. Saura's movies are inherently mannered in a way that is still not clear to me, and filled with symbolism that is likewise obscure. So the unconsidered trappings of wealth that Vázquez ignores, as well as the sickly-sweet creme-de-menthe drinks he plies the objects of his desire have some meaning. Perhaps it is simply a matter of noting that the movie is dedicated to Bunuel to label it a contemptuous satire of the rich.