Retrato de Familia

Retrato de Familia

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Antonio Giménez-Rico
Produced by José Sámano
Written by Antonio Giménez-Rico
José Sámano
Starring Antonio Ferrandis
Amparo Soler Leal
Miguel Bosé
Music by Carmelo A. Bernaola
Cinematography José Luis Alcaine
Edited by Rosa Salgado
Production
company
Sabre Films , C. B. Films S. A
Release dates
  • 17 September 1976 (1976-09-17)
Running time
 97 minutes
Country Spain
Language Spanish

Retrato de Familia (English: Family Portrait) is a 1976 Spanish film directed by Antonio Giménez-Rico. It stars Antonio Ferrandis, Amparo Soler Leal and Miguel Bosé, making his film debut. This is Giménez-Rico ’s best known film.[1] The script was written by him, based on the novel Mi idolatrado hijo Sisi (My Beloved Son Sisi), by Miguel Delibes. The film was shot in Burgos, the director’s birthplace, although the novel takes place in Cáceres.[2]

Plot

Spain in the 1930s. The Rubes clan is headed by the aristocratic father Cecilio, a roué in love with another woman, Paulina, although he lives with his wife and his teenage son, Sisi. His wife hates the thought and practice of normal sexuality in their marriage. Their son notes his parent’s sexual frustrations but must experience his own initiation into the mysteries of love and sex. We watch Sisi grows, mature, and compete with his father for the attentions and sexual favors of the local actresses in Burgos.

One day, quite by chance, Sisi meets Paulina, his father’s more or less discarded lover, and they begin a tumultuous affair. Sisi is then inducted into the army and goes off to war. News of his death arrives quickly. Apparently, Sisi was killed by a land mine while driving his army truck. His father wants his wife to bear him another son, but she refuses. The old man, broken hearted by Sisi’s death, returns to his former mistress Paulina, who tells him she is pregnant by his own son. With no other legal heirs, the elder Cecilio Rubes, desperate, jumps off his mistress’s balcony and commits suicide. Paulina had always wanted the elder Rubes’s child but is now content with having one sired by his son.

Cast

References

  1. ↑ Schwartz, The Great Spanish Films, p. 34
  2. ↑ Schwartz, The Great Spanish Films, p. 35
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