Familia (1996)

Director:

Fernando León de Aranoa

Guionista:

Fernando León de Aranoa (writer)

Release Date:

24 enero 1997 (Spain)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Family

Plot:

Santiago wakes up like any other morning. He goes down to the kitchen and his whole family is waiting for him: it's his birthday...

Awards:

11 wins & 3 nominations

Comentarios de los usuarios:

The Surrealistic World of a Lonely and Rich Man, in a Very Metaphoric Comedy

Cast

Juan Luis Galiardo	...	Santiago
Amparo Muñoz	...	Carmen
Ágata Lys	...	Sole
Chete Lera	...	Ventura
Elena Anaya	...	Luna
Raquel Rodrigo	...	Rosa
Juan Querol	...	Carlos
Aníbal Carbonero	...	Nico
André Falcon	...	Martin
Béatrice Camurat	...	Alicia

También conocida como:

Family

Duración:

98 min | Canada:102 min

País:

Spain

Idioma:

Español

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Sonido:

Dolby Digital

Clasificación:

France:U | Spain:T

Filming Locations:

Madrid, Spain

Company:

Albares Production

Movie Connections:

References Bambi (1942)

The Surrealistic World of a Lonely and Rich Man, in a Very Metaphoric Comedy

On the day of his birthday, Santiago (Juan Luiz Galiardo) hires a team of actors and actresses to play as if they were members of his family. Along the day, the personality and sentiments of each member of his fake family is disclosed to the viewer, showing their true feelings. This weird and surrealistic story is a great metaphor with the real society. In a simple way, it can be understood as a powerful and lonely man, who somehow misses his family and hires a group of actors and actresses to perform, on the day of his birthday, as if they were his lost family, as a kind of weird celebration. This type of interpretation leads the viewer to a great review of the hypocrisy of the institution `family'. But if we extend this idea further and further, the lonely and rich man might be a government, a powerful dictator, an employer, a manager, trying to build his own perfect world, represented by his family. However, even though providing all the instructions, orders, good conditions and salaries for the participants, his world may not work the way he wants. Human beings are not machines: they may use masks, hiding their real feelings, following a social behavior ruled by the society or the system. But in the end, persons have free will and even flaws in their characters and behaviors and the system may not work perfectly as planned. In the end, Santiago applauds the great performance of the players and concludes that it is better off be part of an imperfect `family' (could be the world, the society etc.) than to live alone (or be dead…). My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): `Segredos em Família' (`Secrets in Family')