THE GARDEN OF DELIGHTS Movie Review

When a millionaire industrialist (J.L López Vásquez) is wheelchair-bound and afflicted with amnesia after an auto accident, his greedy family turns all of their attention to him, hoping to find a way to get him to reveal the number of his Swiss bank account. They're not exactly gentle in their methods; at one point they put him in a room with a large pig, and tell him he's about to be eaten. In another, they make him relive his first communion, which turned out to be nightmarishly traumatic. Carlos Saura's pitch-black comedy is cynical but surprisingly touching. It can be seen as a multi-leveled commentary on fascism, greed, and overall family values, and it ultimately succeeds by never losing sight of the protagonist's humanity. It's often overlooked, possibly because of similarly toned films by Luis Buñuel, but it's a fine, haunting piece of work.

NEXT STOP… Tristana, Simon of the Desert, Cria

1970 95m/C SP Jose Luis Lopez Vasquez, Lina Canelajas, Luchy Soto, Francisco Pierra, Charo Soriano; D: Carlos Saura. VHS HMV, CVC, FCT