Los jueves, milagro

Beautiful movie about the story of how a silly lie to take advantage of others can end up in a distressful nightmare. The prominent men of a small Spanish town decide to fake a miracle to increase the affluence of tourists to this town, long time back famous for its spa. Brilliant treatment of a well spread social reality in Spain as it is the reduction of population of small rural villages. The lack of communication of the town is shown by a daily train that passes by making a lot of noise but without even decreasing slightly the speed. Great treatment of characters. On one side the prominent, arrogant, greedy men of town daring to do anything to get a little more of money and on the other side the innocent, forgotten and needy people daring to believe anything to make their life more liveable. Food for thoughts and feelings. Enjoy!

Berlenga is a unique figure in Spanish cinema, in whose work his criticism of Francoism and servile devotism appears in a subtle way, capable of deceiving the censorship itself. A bit like the director himself, son of a leftist deputy, arrested by Franco, who joined the Falange and fought in Russia, integrated in the blue division, before returning to Spain, leaving the Falange and starting to make films, critical of the regime .

This Los Jueves, Milagros, is an excellent allegory against the shameless exploitation of the faith (the example of Fatima is even exposed in an article, which served as an inspiration to the conspirators), although catechized by the opportune appearance of the saint, still in the human form of a swindler, a blackmailer, pursued by the police.

A clear message, appearances are deceiving, which did not go unnoticed by the censors and brought numerous obstacles to the release of the film, clearly ambiguous in its ironic praise of the dominant morality.

Good film that was beset by difficulties with the censors caused by a relentless critical to Catholic religion and miracles . The movie deals upon a bunch of motley people , the Mayor , the teacher , the pharmaceutic , the doctor who set up a caper about a miracle for profits the village where a spa doesn't work. They persuade to Jose Isbert feigning to have seen a Saint : ¨Dimas¨. Dimas will appear in the person of Richard Basehart who will find the village's dumb played by Manuel Alexandre .

In the flick there are especially comedy , humor , joy , satire and social critical which tended not to be very well received by the censor . The movie displays a Spanish star-studded such as : Jose Luis Lopez Vazquez ,Juan Calvo , Manuel Alexandre, Jose Isbert , Alberto Romea ; Italians : Paolo Stoppa and one American , Richard Basehart , married to Italian Valentina Cortese who starred ¨Calabuch¨ along with Edmund Gwenn and equally directed by Berlanga .

Direction by Luis Garcia Berlanga is pretty good , assistant direction is Jesus Franco . Franco Ferrara's music is excellent . Fine cinematography in white and black by Francisco Sempere . Berlanga's conceptual and political audacity, so evident in this film , ¨Los Jueves, Milagro¨ (1957), was modified by the censors and was delayed for several years before its eventual release . He filmed other polemic movies during the 50s as ¨Bienvenido Mister Marshall¨ (1953) and considered to be one of the best Spanish films of the history . Their next joint venture was ¨Plácido¨ (1961), which received an Oscar nomination in 1963. That same year, Berlanga made one of his best films: ¨El Verdugo¨ (1963); however, his strong portrait of Spanish society didn't please the pro-Franco authorities, although the film was well-received at the Venice Festival. He continued filming other interesting pictures as in 1973 he went to Paris to begin filming ¨Grandeur nature¨ , another problematic film , focusing this time on the fetishism of a man who falls in love with a doll . Several years later, after Franco's death, he filmed a trilogy comprising ¨La Escopeta Nacional¨ (1978), ¨Patrimonio Nacional¨ (1981) and ¨Nacional III¨ (1982), where he clarified the disorders evident in the Spanish upper middle-class upon being confronted with a new political status quo . Following the same theme he filmed a peculiar comedy titled La Vaquilla (1985), set in the Spanish Civil War .

Rating : 6,5 above average . Well worth watching .