Familia

Santiago, stars Juan Luis Galiardo, is a lonely man in this world. He decides to hire a complete crew of actors on his birthday in order to make them act as his family. Under this unbeliavable and original idea, director Fernando León makes us go inside the feelings of every character, and all the things that happen on this particular birthday... What a great opera prima from León...!!

An interesting and committed film with fine actors giving good performances. Santiago (Juan Luís Galiardo) is going to celebrate his 55th birthday with his wife Carmen (Amparo Muñoz) and their family. When he gets out of bed, the entire clan gathers to sing him Happy Birthday and to ingratiate him with kisses, gifts, and jokes. But when he opens the present of his youngest son, he gets angry and says he doesn't like it. They form an allegedly happy family and everything seems very nice, but then things take a turn for the worse. And to make matters worse, a final surprise takes place. A man organize the perfect birthday for his perfect family...but no one is who they say they are !.

The members of the family protagonists of this surprising story are played by a group of solid Spanish actors: the main character, Juan Luís Galiardo, is the paterfamilias Santiago; Amparo Muñoz is his wife; Agata Lys is Sole, Santiago's sister-in-law; Chete Lara plays Ventura, his brother and Sole's husband; Elena Anaya plays Luna, the unstable teenager daughter ; Juan Querol is the son who bears no resemblance to him. And being final film of Raquel Rodrigo playing the grandmother.

A short film ¨Sirenas¨ and three feature films ¨Familia¨, Barrio¨ and the multi-award-winning ¨Los Lunes al Sol¨, made director Fernando León de Aranoa one of the most prominent and respected figures on the Spanish film scene. In this his first film, ¨Familia¨ of which he is also the screenwriter, Fernando León de Aranoa proposes a story about a 'sui generis' family that in order to no create a spoiler has an extaordinary twist. The director creates a kind of Spanish neorealism by addressing the way of life of a lonely man who wishes family companion . In ¨Familia¨ the main characters are accurately portrayed. His style is quite natural and realistic both in the atmosphere and in the fresh dialogues; all this despite the fantasy world full of lies in which they live.

¨Family¨(1996) was the subject of an Italian remake, also with a script by Fernando León de Aranoa titled ¨Una famiglia perfetta¨(2012) by Paolo Genovese with Sergio Castellitto, Marco Giallini, Claudia Gerini

¨Family¨ displays an evocative photography by great cameraman Alfredo Mayo , shot on location in Madrid surroundings. As well as atmospheric and lively music with songs as ¨Sweet Chorus¨ by Stéphane Grappelli and Django Reinhardt; ¨Tears¨ by Stéphane Grappelli and Django Reinhardt; ¨Are You in the Mood?¨ by Stéphane Grappelli and Django Reinhardt; ¨Amanda¨; ¨Bossa Pour Dider¨ by Stéphane Grappelli and Marc Fosset; ¨Pent-up House¨ by Sonny Rollins and Stéphane Grappelli.

The film was original and professionally directed by Fernando León De Aranoa. This writer/filmaker often tries to position himself in favor of the marginalized people. Fernando León De Aranoa was born on May 26, 1968 in Madrid, where he usually shoots his films. Fernando began working in cinema in the 90s, shooting short films and writing scripts, and has made some films, usually dramas. He is a good writer and director, known for ¨Familia¨ (1996), ¨Barrio¨ (1998) about youngsters in the low-class neighboorhoods; ¨Princesas¨ (2005) in which deals with the daily life of women dedicated to the oldest profession in the world, depicting two prostitutes in the so-called popular neighborhoods and from a sociological point of view, in this movie director and his cast members spent some time at HIV clinics to research; ¨Amador¨ (2010), ¨Sabina¨ (2011) and his best film ¨Los Lunes al Sol¨ (2002) about stressed unemployed people . Rating Familia: 6.5/10.

This astonishing story of a lonely man who organizes a family birthday with professional actors is a successful comedy. This film is funny and fast. I wonder why it is less known than "4 Weddings and 1 funeral". Maybe because it is not starring Hughes Grant or Andy McDowell.

A watched this film for the first time a couple of years ago, in a film festival and a liked very much. A year ago I've the opportunity to buy it very chip in the supermarket. I enjoyed it again. At this time Elena Anaya has developed her career a lot, I've seen her in Rewind, Bendito Infierno, Blue room, Lucía and the sex and one or two more. Particularly in this film I liked her very natural performance, as well to the mayor part of the cast. She is a very beautiful and talented woman.

But what I really loved of the film was the actor who acts that acting. In art and literature, an of course in cinema, this issue has a long tradition. In painting is almost a genre, the studio of the painter. And of course there are lots of examples of the writer who is actually writing the story we are capable to see, thanks to his very actual writing. So, I believe the way the film approaches to the subject is very clever, and soft, I mean it doesn't need lot of "intellectual" dialogs like Allen's films. This one has many funny moments and significant ones. And the similarities that you can find with real life, and the acting world are really well presented.

Almost I enjoyed the performance of the "brother", I expect to see more of his acting.

I'd the opportunity to know a pair of films of this same director, and he is a really good one in the treating of people matters.

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')