Vera, un cuento cruel (1973)

Calificación de los usuarios:

2.4/10   

Director:

Josefina Molina

Escritores:

Auguste Villiers de l'Isle Adam (story)
Josefina Molina (screenplay) ...

Género:

Drama

Plot Keywords:

Insanity | Crypt | Butler | Dead Wife | Nineteenth Century

Comentarios de los usuarios:

Vera, a Boring Story

Reparto

Fernando Fernán Gómez	...	Roger
Mel Humphreys	...	Vera
Víctor Valverde	...	Alfredo Quiroga
Julieta Serrano	...	Maria
Alfredo Mayo	...	D. Juan Manuel
José Vivó	...	Notario (Don Carlos)
Lucía Bosé	...	Cecilia
Miguel Bosé	...	Enrique
Luis Ciges	...	Cura
Silvia Vivó	...	Criada
Antonio Orengo	...	Caballero francés
José Antonio Gallego	...	Niño (as José A. Gallego)

También conocida como:

Vera
Vera, a Cruel Story (International: English title) (informal literal title)

Duración:

Spain:90 min

País:

Spain

Idioma:

Español

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Sonido:

Mono

Clasificación:

Spain:18

Compañía:

Etnos Films

Vera, a Boring Story

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

(WARNING: Might contain some SPOILERS)

The title is kind of misleading. It's not a particularly cruel story, nor it's about cruelty. It's more about madness and descent into it. And while the theme is interesting, the execution is terribly poor, not to mention that absolutely nothing happens in it until the last 10 minutes (when, alas, it's too late).

It's 1841. A Spanish nobleman, Alfredo (Valverde) can't pass over the fact that his wife Vera (Humphreys) has died, and acts like she's still alive, while he decides to lock himself inside his house with the sole company of his French butler Roger (Fernán Gómez). The thing is that while Alfredo seems to recover his sanity, Roger reveals himself as a maniac, but that's not really clear until the very end. Till that, we're exposed to a couple of flashbacks of Vera (Mel Humphreys in her only movie role), who, despite being third billed in the opening credits and second in the closing credits, has a very minor role and is a plot device, not a character (Wrong decision! If you are going to have two pivotal characters obsessed with a woman, better make her someone worth obsessing with); a romance scene involving another woman who's in love with Alfredo; a visit from some family friends who include the late Alfredo Mayo and a very young and somewhat effeminate-looking Miguel Bosé; and nothing to make the plot advance. All of this is shot in a way that resembles a bad attempt of Gothic romance/Bronté sisters ripoff, complete with foggy camera filters, white horses in slow motion, and a trashy Francis Lai-type score.

You'll be yawning all the way to the last ten minutes, where finally something mildly interesting happens, but it is not really worth enduring the previous hour and twenty minutes. This film might have been a great short, but the sluggish pace and the lack of plot development shot it dead. Too bad, as Fernando Fernán Gómez is great as usual (as a Frenchman with no traces of a French accent!). He and some occasionally interesting dark cinematography are the only reasons to catch this. 3/10.