En échange d'un appartement, un employé des pompes funèbres accepte l'emploi de bourreau en se jurant de ne jamais exécuter une sentence en démissionnant sur le champ. Un jour, une condamnat... Tout lireEn échange d'un appartement, un employé des pompes funèbres accepte l'emploi de bourreau en se jurant de ne jamais exécuter une sentence en démissionnant sur le champ. Un jour, une condamnation arrive et Jose Luis s'acquitte de sa tâche.En échange d'un appartement, un employé des pompes funèbres accepte l'emploi de bourreau en se jurant de ne jamais exécuter une sentence en démissionnant sur le champ. Un jour, une condamnation arrive et Jose Luis s'acquitte de sa tâche.
- Réalisation
- Scénario
- Casting principal
- Récompenses
- 4 victoires et 2 nominations au total
- Amadeo, el verdugo
- (as Jose Isbert)
- Antonio Rodríguez, el hermano mayor de José Luis
- (as Jose Luis Lopez Vazquez)
- Álvarez, el enterrador
- (as Angel Alvarez)
- Estefanía, esposa de Antonio
- (as Maria Luisa Ponte)
- Ignacia, esposa de Álvarez
- (as Maria Isbert)
- Marqués
- (as Jose Orjas)
- Vigilante con botella de champán
- (as Jose Maria Prada)
- Organista
- (as Felix Fernandez)
- Mujer visitante de la obra nº 3
- (as Dolores Gaos)
- Sr. Corcuera, el académico
- (as Santiago Ontañon)
Avis à la une
What we got here is a satirical view on the middle class situation with anti-death penalty as it's theme throughout the runtime. The guy in the film is literally out of luck and after having to marry the executioner's daughter things begin to change for him for no good. Nino Manfredi's performance as Jose Luis is superb, Jose Ibert is just as splendid.
The screenplay is crammed in Kafka-esque tone to expose the bureaucratic horror with one of the grotesquely funny and Powerful final scene. The ending is easily one of the most memorable ever, it's just so heartwrenching and profound.
On the horns of a dilemma, José's predicament is wittily delineated through Berlanga's delightful verve, exerts a realistic spin on the irony of life, how one's ideal having been gradually crushed by the twist of fate. Manfredi's interpretation of José affects in earnest, he is spontaneously sympathetic to establish José as a nobody, stuck in the line of work which he doesn't like, exhibits his own foibles through his marriage, and lives by his blind faith that he could still opt out against the worst-case scenario, until his melt-down when the bubble is burst.
Veteran Spanish actor José Isbert plays Amadeo enthusiastically, who is decidedly persevering in tricking José to take over his mantle, so as to secure the marriage and an apartment assigned from the government, he is manipulative on top of his goody-goody persona, but we cannot blame him for his simple-mined selfishness, plainly because that's the widespread mindset among most people in the world. As for Emma Fenella, her Carmen is an uncomplicated sort, maternal, down- to-earth and forges strong protection to the men in her life.
The satirical connotation of morbidness seeps through the debate over the variations of death penalty (garrotte seems to be the most civilised choice), and a unanimous bias towards a now obsolete vocation. A vignette of José and Carmen's frugal wedding right after a fancier one, and the tour in Palma de Mallorca, where the lovey-dovey luxuriates in a string concert on the creek inside a large cave, exactly in that moment, José's duty call arrives, these are brilliant instances where realism meets cinematic creation, whether they are bittersweet, heartfelt or intriguing, together they bring about vigour and pleasure to the audience and it is a telling testimony of a director's faculty.
This movie is stronger, deeper and funnier than any recent comedies by the likes of Pedro Almodóvar and other Berlanga-influenced Spanish directors, due to the bleaker political reality against which it was made. There is more directorial talent involved and the performances are stronger, with the glorious José Isbert stealing the show as always.
Times have improved in Spain, and filmmakers may have more freedom, but nothing as corrosive as this has been made since.
Watching this made me think on how, if this film had been made at the same time outside of Europe, the British would have probably made it as a crass Carry On movie, and the Americans would most likely have turned it into a Jerry Lewis vehicle, without any subtlety, thoughtfulness, sensuality, societal commentary or beauty, and yet this is funnier than any of those put together, too.
The wedding scene is hilarious, with so much going on at every moment outside of the dialogue, and the "wave to daddy" line on the docks is priceless.
It's always a comedy, and yet one in which the viewer is never allowed to escape the oppressive moral weight of taking another's life, and the inability to look away from this increases as it goes along, until the ending borders on harrowing.
It's a film that really should be as well known as some of those by Fellini, and I'm eager now to see more by its mischevious writer and director, Luis Garcia Berlanga.
Filled with memorable gags, the story starts with Jose Luís (Nino Manfredi), an undertaker who is thinking of moving to Germany to become a good mechanic. In love with Carmen, daughter of Amadeo (José Isbert), an executioner, he is one day discovered by her father during there moment of intimacy and is forced to marry her the undertaker marries an executioner's daughter. Jose Luís is faced with economic difficulties and the urgent need to create a new home for his new wife. The only way of solving this problem, it seems, would be accepting his father in law's offer (Amadeo): to take the vacant place of executioner Amadeo is leaving due to retirement. Only this way will he get a home. Under pressure from his surrounding, Jose Luís accepts the job convinced that he will never have to put it into practise. Life goes on pleasantly in his new home until one day he receives the feared telegram: he must execute a convicted man.
The story, filmed in a black and white photography that feels so fresh, sounds serious because below the comical surface, lies not only the serious subject matter of death penalty but also the wide spread pessimism caused by Franco's regime. Director Berlange could have chosen to tell the story as sad drama but he doesn't: in a way, he is laughing at the absurd logic and inhumanity he feels the death sentence is. The film's true brilliance lies not in the wonderful all around performances, but in its screenplay that takes on a comic tone that is apparently inoffensive to condemn an action that is just as inhuman as those committed by the executed. And the great irony is that the executioner goes through much worse emotionally than the executed in a great sequence. The movie looks with amusement at the idea of how those who execute can go on there days with a calm conscience. But don't get the wrong idea, El Verdugo does not portray the condemned as victims it is not interested in there guilt or innocence. The only victims, it suggests, are those that accept to practise inhumanity under the name of justice. There are so many brilliant comical sequences that have nothing to admire from the exhausted and cheap comedies we get from many of the films nowadays.
This is a film that will certainly be less appealing to those in favour of the death penalty. For those who do not which to dwell on such a subject can look at it on its simplest level, which is that of a first rate comical masterpiece.
Le saviez-vous
- AnecdotesJosé Luis López Vázquez improvised the moment when measuring the child's head.
- Citations
Chica en feria del libro: [subtitled version] Excuse me, do you have anything on Bergman or Antonioni?
Sr. Corcuera, el académico: Bergman? The actress?
Chica en feria del libro: No, not the actress. Thanks.
- ConnexionsFeatured in Berlanga, plano personal (2011)
Meilleurs choix
- How long is The Executioner?Alimenté par Alexa
Détails
- Durée1 heure 27 minutes
- Couleur
- Rapport de forme
- 1.85 : 1