The love of Captain Brando

The Love of Captain Brando is a film released in Madrid, where it ran for at least forty-four weeks on November 15, 1974., directed by Jaime de Armiñán, with a script by Juan Tébar (Madrid, 1941) and the director himself, in accordance with the approaches of the so-called "third way" of Spanish cinema, "where the ghosts of the Civil War and the exile are allied to a certain disclosure, sexual initiation, the love of an adolescent and a teacher or the generational conflict", most remembered today "because Ana Belén showed her breasts and Ferrandis uttered the first curse of Spanish cinema that for its cinematographic virtues, not excessive".

A large part of it was filmed in the last months of 1973 (in the middle of filming, the assassination of Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco took place) on location in Segovia and Pedraza de la Sierra, where Armiñán owned a house and It was interpreted in its main roles by Fernando Fernán Gómez (Fernando), Ana Belén (Aurora), "whom he elevated to the category of a symbol of the Transition" and the child Jaime Gamboa (Juan).

Considered by the General Directorate for the Promotion of Books and Cinematography as one of the ten highest-grossing films of the six-year period 1970-1975, it was seen at the time by 2,061,000 viewers. According to other sources, this figure would rise to 2,089,475.

Regarding the awards received, it should be noted that at the beginning of July 1974, that is, more than four months before its official premiere in the country, it represented Spain at the Berlin International Film Festival, in which won the Favorit des Publikams Prize, awarded by the German newspaper Berliner Morgenpost:

The award for this Spanish film directed by Jaime de Armiñán has been awarded by a jury composed of twenty-five members chosen between the various social sites of Berlin and the audience attending the festival sessions. On the other hand, "The love of Captain Brando" has been the most applauded film by the public in the history of this contest and has deserved the unanimous praises of German criticism.

For their part, other well-known newspapers in the country such as Der Tagesspiegel or Die Welt coincide in highlighting the notable degree of "liberalism" achieved by Spanish society, evident in tape:

The important rotary Der Tagesspiegel, from West Berlin, praises the film as a demonstration of Spanish cultural liberalism. Both the subject, by its narration imbued with humanism and generosity, as well as the modern of some sexual pedagogical scenes by the teacher – which is symbolic figure between the ex-combatants repatriated and the adolescent in love– deserve unconditional praise of the diary that makes note of the "fascinator of the photographs".
The film of Armiñán, [...] represents, in the opinion of observers of the festival, an aesthetic Spanish cinema, which performs its experiments without stumbling through censorship or state slogans. In that same sense, the reflections of the journal critic are aligned Die Welt (Berlin Edition) in making it clear that The love of Captain Brando brings to Berlin an "extraordinary liberalism".

Efe (28 June 1974). «Next of the Spanish film at the Berlin Festival». Mediterranean. Press and Radio of the Movement. From around the world (Castellón de la Plana) (11 084): 15.

Synopsis

Aurora (Ana Belén) is a young and attractive schoolteacher recently arrived in the small Castilian town of Trescabañas (in reality, "a Pedraza that sometimes appears with qualities of oil"), whose modern teaching methods are seen by the "living forces" of the town, led by its mayor (Antonio Ferrandis), as a dangerous source of corruption for his disciples.

Thus, only Juan Doinel (Jaime Gamboa), "a dreamy, imaginative, sensitive, introverted child", in love with the teacher and Fernando (Fernando Fernán Gómez), a republican of a certain age who after more than thirty years of exile "has returned to his old home in the small town", they side with him.

Among the protagonists, a "ménage à trois" is established that does not become such. forced to share a room for one night.

Cast

Other awards

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Hemerography