Mes chers voisins

I watched Alex de la Iglesia's 'La Comunidad' on a whim and was pleasantly surprised. This black comedy farce may bear some resemblance to films like 'Le Lòcataire' and 'Apartment Zero' but the only similarity is that all three films take place in an apartment building and the story involves the tenants. While the aforementioned examples are far darker in tone and disturbing to an extent, 'La Comunidad' is more satirical and comic.

To get the minuses out of the way, the first half is quite slow but I'd suggest that one be patient because what follows is both chilling and funny. The suspense is brilliantly maintained.

Jorge Guerricaechevarría and Álex de la Iglesia have penned a fine screenplay. The sometimes-subtle sometimes-not-subtle humour works on various levels. The laughably pathetic tenant characters are a delight and the protagonist Julia is easily recognizable. The score fits well and the lighting is exceptional. The art direction deserves special mention. The apartment building in itself is a character and the interiors look authentic.

Carmen Maura is remarkable as her performance is completely natural. Plus, she looks very hot too. The actors playing the neighbours do a terrific job too.

In the end, I'm pleased I saw this as I can always enjoy a good black comedy.

Julia(Carmen Maura)is a temp at real estate agency, her first job is to show some clients around a recently vacated apartment in an old district. The apartment is to Julia's surprise fully furnished with all mod cons and much more and with the former tenant being deceased, this gives her the idea of having a romantic meal there with her husband as its nice and bright and warm, their place is damp and cold. During a romantic liaison the ceiling falls in from the apartment above and hundreds of cockroaches fall on them, when the fire fighters arrive to check out the flat above they find the tenant deceased and decaying, Julia finds a map there and which she believes might lead her to some hidden treasure, as the deceased was a lottery millione, sure enough she finds 300 million pesetas in cash stashed under some floorboards. With all the neighbours acting curious and following her, she takes up temporary residence until she can escape with the loot.

Darkly comic thriller thats a mix between Shallow Grave and Polanski's The Tenant, with well rounded oddball characters set in a claustrophobically old apartment block. its refreshingly surprising at almost every turn, the only non surprising thing being, we the viewer know its going to be virtually impossible to escape easily with the money. As the film develops we learn the real dark truth being La Comunidad, as the pace simultaneously races, the deeds become ever more darker. Beautifully directed by the versatile Spanish director Alex de la Iglesia, it's a pleasure to watch, as he mixes comedy and horror to perfection.The film as a whole is not strictly horror, but there's plenty of bravura horror scenes here to keep horror fans like myself very happy indeed.

I saw this movie on Tv last night where it was called "Common wealth"

It is really a movie that has it all...Suspense,drama,action humor and a little bit of love. There is no movie even remotely comparable to this, but if movies were cars I would say that this would be a collision between the Matrix,Rosemary's baby, Clerks and in a way maybe Run Lola run. It is one of those headturner movies that proves once more that European filmmakers are brilliant at making films and having said that, I personally LUVED this movie.

Roaring and twisted film by the king of black comedy , Alex De La Iglesia . Outrageous movie with odd characters , surreal imagery and twisted plot . Alex De la Iglesia is an excellent and outlandish Spanish director , he had much success as "Accion Mutante" , " El Dia De la Bestia" , "Perlita Durango" and ¨Crimen Ferpecto¨ , among others . De la Iglesia is back with a tragical comedy about a middle-aged woman called Julia (Carmen Maura) finds 300 million pesetas hidden in a dead man's house while selling an apartment , then a community of next-door neighbours (Sancho Gracia , Terele Pavez , Kiti Manver , Paca Gabaldon , among others) headed by a nasty administrator (Emilio Gutierrez Caba) to be aware her plans . The hate between them grows as fast, and as much, as their strong facing off and there takes place murders . It all ends with a breathtaking and operatic duel in the heights . Black humor gives way to suspense, closely followed by embarrassing events that doesn't take long in coming to a head in undisguised pandemonium . Here Alex deals with a homage to dark humor and a typical Spanish story in which there are comedy, tongue-in-cheek , humor, killings, action, drama and results to be pretty entertaining . It's an exaggerated drama/comedy giving the perfect tone through the entire film , you can either follow it or just wander about the ridiculousness of every single minute . Some may regard this kind of dramatic comedy dull or dumb , but the truth is its the most simple , minimalistic, rawest, and pretentious comedy you will ever watch .

This is a full-on surreal Psychotronic black-comedy that blends thrills , suspense , tension as well as an intriguing script full of dark humor , drama and exciting situations . Packed with scenes of absurd nature, this story is a fantastic farce, as we follow the ridiculous situations of a varied group of quirky characters whose destination is dictated by an exaggerated ambition . Good acting by Carmen Maura as a 40-ish real estate agent now forced to face the wrath of a very peculiar community of selfish neighbors . The narration is so filled with colorful characters , nutty comedy, crazy violence mixed with comedy or with surreal elements and an underlying sense of tragicomedy, and it is so excessive and plenty of surprises, one can't help but keep watching, much as it is over the top in many an occasion. The film works on various levels and is constantly reconfigured , however contains some embarrassing , contriving moments and also certain excess . Alex De La Iglesia has created a picture here that in all honesty is very difficult to categorise in terms of genre , as there's a little bit of action , quite a lot of comedy, a good deal of suspense and a host of extreme gruesomeness ; but it does not fit into any one genre very well at all, in truth this is one of the things that makes it good . De La Iglesia reigns in his style this time around and delivers a utterly watchable takedown of ambition and obsession that certainly delivers a few madly inspired moments . ¨La Comunidad¨ captures the essence of the best Álex De La Iglesia, a film maker who, at this point in his own story, is respected and admired worldwide and has the most committed fans in the film universe . Acting personnel all do excellent work in bizarre roles . But special notice needs to be made for Emilio Gutierrez Caba as an unscrupulous administrator ; furthermore Terele Pavez also being quite ridiculously role throughout . Excellent plethora of secondaries as Sancho Gracia , Marta Fernandez Muro , Ramon Barea , Manuel Tejada , Antonio De La Torre , Marivi Bilbao , Enrique Villen , Jesus Bonilla , Luis Tosar and many others . Interesting screenplay Alex De La Iglesia and Javier Guerricaechevarria who usually work united . Atmospheric as well as glamorous cinematography by Kiko De La Rica with a good camera work . Suspenseful and thrilling musical score by Roque Baños , the soundtrack flows great with the film in every way, and creates fantastic atmospheres in every moment.

The motion picture was well directed by De La Iglesia . He's a cool director has got much success as ¨Accion Mutante¨ ,¨Dying of laughter¨ or ¨Muertos De Risa¨ , ¨Baby's room¨ , ¨Oxford murders¨ , ¨Balada Triste De Una Trompeta¨ and ¨Perdita Durango¨ is probably the weirdest Javier Bardem film ever made . Winner of several Goyas (Spanish Oscars), however his movies have not yet reached box office in USA, but he has strong followers , as his films have a kind of comic edge to them . Nonsense, ridicule , laughters , absurdity , disturbing scenes .. and many other issues ; you can find everything in this flick . 'La Comunidad' (2000) won several Goya prizes and a turning point in his meteoric career ; from then on he became his own producer, beginning with '800 bullets' (2002) through the Pánico Films company . 'La Comunidad' obtained the unanimous praise of both the critics and the public and results to be a lot of fun, especially for those who enjoy surrealist humor . This is without a doubt a thrilling and enjoyable movie to be enjoyed for dark humor buffs and Alex De Iglesia fans.

In Madrid, Julia (Carmen Maura) is a broker of fifty and something years trying to sell an old apartment without garage, but downtown and well located. When she visits the place with her clients, she realizes that the apartment is ready for living, having all furniture and outfits. She decides to stay in the apartment for a couple of days with her loser mate while performing the sale. There is a water infiltration through the ceiling from the upper apartment and the firemen are called. They find the neighbor, an old man, dead in a very dirty apartment. Julia finds by chance three hundred millions of pesetas in his apartment, but becomes trapped by the other weird neighbors that want to get the old man's money for themselves. This suspenseful tale of greed, with lots of black humor, is another great movie of Aléx de la Iglesia (of `Mutant Action', `The Day of the Beast' and `Perdita Durango' among others). Alternating crime and thriller with very dark comedy in bizarre situations, it is an excellent entertainment for fans of this genre. I liked it a lot. This movie was awarded with the Goya Award. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): `A Comunidade' (`The Community')