Cielo Negro

This film is certainly a masterpiece, and it is presumably one of the finest achievements in Spanish cinema history. This was only the second film (of 17) directed by Manuel Mur Oti, and already he was a master of his craft; he also jointly wrote the script. The story is from a novel entitled MIOPIA by Antonio Zozaya, the title referring to the extreme myopic condition of the heroine who can barely see without her spectacles, which are crushed in a crowd without her having the money to replace them. The film is overwhelmingly tragic, and the fact that at one point the lead actor quotes Euripides gives the clue that it is meant to be a Greek tragedy set in 1951 Spain. The female lead is played with sheer brilliance by Susana Canales, who within a few weeks of her life passes from girlish innocence and romantic dreaming to desperation, betrayal, loss and hopelessness, and onwards. Her ability to portray intensity at all levels of the emotional scale is astounding; she is like ten actresses in one. Fernando Rey enters the story rather late, but is brilliant as well. Who has not seen Fernando Rey in something? He made 247 films in the course of his long career. The cinematography by Manuel Berenguer is innovative and spectacular in the extreme. He went on to become internationally famous. The film features one of the longest travelling shots in cinema history, and certainly one of the most intense. Although this film deals with desperation and tragedy at the personal level, waves of implications abound. The character Lola is a heartless sadist, perhaps suggestive of the fascist regime. The naivete and extended innocence of the young woman Emilia, played by Canales, is almost beyond belief. But people like that did still exist in 1951, especially young women who had always lived with their mothers and, as Emilia confesses, had never known joy. It would be impossible to discuss the events of this film without giving away too much of the steadily unfolding storyline. You have to watch the whole thing, but you have to be strong, because there is so much to cope with emotionally and emphathetically.

A woman called Emilia (Susana Canales) works as an employee in a fashion store has to care for her sick mother . At the same time she falls in love with Ricardo Fortuny (Luis Prendes) . She blossoms as she finds herself in love with Ricardo , and seemingly loved by the handsome young man , but he has to leave her to go to Valencia . Several of the bored , envious and unscrupulous coworkers of the store decide to have a good time and play a trick on spinster Emilia , as they play a cruel practical joke , to write fictious lettters from Ricardo when they are really written by a bohemian man : Angel (Fernando Rey) pretendingt to fall in love with her . The inappropriate joke made by various unscrupulous prankster women at the expense of a spinster developing a conflicting way and ends in a deep drama . Things go wrong when the hoax is revealed at the last minute and her mother falls in serious illness.

This is a splendid melodrama with religious message , retaining social criticism and it intensifies the dramatic facet by developing a peculiar romance , plenty of sadness and melancholy , as the ending is proof of that. . Based on on the short novel "Miopita" by Antonio Zozaya , being well adapted by filmmaker Manuel Mur Oti himself , but he completely overrides any vestige of humor . The film operates on multiple levels. The most obvious is the neorealist level . Here is also another level, beyond the neorealist drama , I would name it existential level , it is not only about that particular place in that particular time in the fifties , it's about loneliness and hopelessness . This is a 'rara avis' film of the 50s because dealing with a strong portrait of Spanish society and without a doubt, the best movie of Manuel Mur Oti , but it didn't please the pro-Franco authorities and was strongly censored . It's incredibly effective, and quite brutal too . It's about a universal experience of the social situation of the Madrid life , some years later the Spanish Civil War . Links both with the best tradition of Hollywood melodrama and with the Spanish literature about life in towns (Leopoldo Alas Clarin, Benito Perez Galdos and other authors) . Manuel Mur Oti knows what his intention is and what he's trying to achieve , and I think he achieves it perfectly to the point that it becomes unpredictable and you seriously have no idea how it's going to end . As the exciting final is really haunting and pretty memorable , getting redemption thanks to religious faith . Conceptual and political audacity as well as the social criticism result to be so evident in this film who he had to fight the censorship which didn't admit the some engaging scenes and obligated a determined ending .

The acting is pretty fantastic , but the directing is so on point and concise that it becomes the biggest star of the film . Fine performances from Susana Campos as a lonely , hopeless , hapless woman , she steals the show , she gives a sensitive and unforgettable acting . She is an extraordinary actress, and she is able to give us a portrait of a woman who is capable of great romantic love, although she's been deprived by circumstances of any opportunity to express this emotion. Perhaps the film excels thanks to the excellent support from the competent Spanish Ballesteros studio , displaying a Spanish secondary star-studded , such as : Rafael Bardem , Manuel Arbó , Casimiro Hurtado, Antonio Riquelme , Nicolas Perchicot and Julia Caba Alba who plays her ordinary role as a maid or Chacha. The motion picture was compellingly directed by Manuel Mur Oti . Very much recommended.

Vicious people under Franco's regime are part of a singular parade in this Spanish film. Cruelty is the word to define actions against a naive young woman who can be hopeless anxious searching for a marrying candidate. The final travelling -around three hundred meters of Emilia running under the rain- is a long shot very well resisted by actress Susana Canales. Trouble with the censorship is that everything, including what the actress is giving the audience, indicates a tragic end. However,at the last minute, the bells of churches explode in the soundtrack and Emilia decides to shelter in one of them. Despite this unexpected and phony end,the movie deserves to be seen

abel posadas