Life Goes On (Spanish: El mundo sigue) is a 1965 Spanish melodrama film directed and written by Fernando Fernán Gómez based on the novel by Juan Antonio de Zunzunegui which stars Lina Canalejas and Gemma Cuervo.
Life Goes On | |
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Spanish | El mundo sigue |
Directed by | Fernando Fernán Gómez |
Screenplay by | Fernando Fernán Gómez |
Based on | El mundo sigue by Juan Antonio de Zunzunegui |
Produced by | Juan Estelrich |
Starring |
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Cinematography | Emilio Foriscot |
Edited by | Rosa M. Salgado |
Music by | Daniel J. White |
Production company | Ada Films |
Distributed by | Nueva Films |
Release date |
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Country | Spain |
Language | Spanish |
Plot
Set in post-War Madrid, primarily in Maravillas and Malasaña, the plot tracks the fratricidal feud between two sisters, Eloísa and Luisita.[1][2]
Cast
- Lina Canalejas[2][3] as Eloísa, "Elo"
- Gemma Cuervo as Luisita[2]
- Fernando Fernán-Gómez as Faustino[3]
- Milagros Leal as doña Eloísa, the mother[4][5]
- Agustín González as don Andrés[4]
- Francisco Pierrá[4][5] as don Agapito, the father
- José Morales as Rodolfo[1]
- María Luisa Ponte as La Alpujarreña[5]
- Fernando Guillén as Rafa[5]
- José María Caffarel as Julito[5]
- Pilar Bardem as Maruja[5]
- Marisa Paredes as Floren[5]
- José Calvo as don Francisco[5]
Production
Life Goes On is an adaptation of the 1960 novel El mundo sigue by Falangist author and RAE member Juan Antonio de Zunzunegui , which depicts a bleak vision of Madrilenian society, with Zunzunegui being, according to Fernán Gómez, "the writer who has best brought to narrative the enormous political failure of the Spanish post-war period".[6][7] Despite the original author's acquaintance with the Francoist regime, the screenplay was banned by State censorship, and had to wait to a ministerial reshuffle (from Gabriel Arias-Salgado to Manuel Fraga) to be brought back, after some modifications.[2][8] The film was produced by for Ada Films.[9] Shooting took place in 1963.[10] The film was nonetheless granted a negative C rating by the censorship board (on the basis of its purportedly poor aesthetics values), imperiling its commercial distribution.[2][8]
Release
Rather than an outright distribution ban, the film's release was restricted,[11] with the film premiering at Bilbao's Cine Buenos Aires on 10 July 1965 under Nueva Films.[6] The film was re-released on 15 July 2015 by A Contracorriente Films in 15 Spanish cities.[12]
Reception
Mirito Torreiro of Fotogramas rated the film 5 out of 5 stars, deeming it to be "one of the most terrifying and merciless moral portraits of Francoist Spain ever made by Spanish cinema".[13]