Pascual Duarte (1976)

Pascual Duarte: Directed by Ricardo Franco. With José Luis Gómez, Diana Pérez de Guzmán, Paca Ojea, Héctor Alterio. Early Spain of the 20th century. Bad luck, misery and tragedies are a trend in Pascual Duarte’s family. But when the weight of the things is too heavy too bear, this reckless man who follows only his impulses, will fall into a descent to madness that, little by little, will alter the course of his life and of others as well.

“These comments will reveal a few plot points that are essential to the film, but believe you me, a potential viewer might be interested in these before seeing the film. The screening I attended lost about 200 of its audience during the course of the movie. If you would rather be surprised, please read no further. The movie, to a fault, is extremely faithful to the action of the novel. During the course of the movie, of course, the psychological walls begin to close in on Pascual Duarte, and he becomes more and more demented until he finally cracks. In the course of this downward spiral, be warned…he blows away his dog on camera with a shotgun (no special effect here, itu0026#39;s real), and later on savagely stabs his horse to death (this is also a real event). This realism was enough to completely turn off many of the people in the theatre. Still, it is an extremely fascinating film.”