calle mayor (w&d juan antonio bardem, w. carlos arniches)

Franco era cinema is a fascinating topic. Reading around Calle Mayor, one learns that the director was arrested during filming and was only able to complete the movie after an international campaign to get him released, a campaign which included the film’s Amercian leading actress, Betsy Blair. In addition, the film was deliberately set up as a Spanish-French co-production to assure that it could be presented in festivals and get around Spanish censorship. As a result it premiered to great acclaim at Venice and became a massive hit in Spain when the authorities subsequently permitted its release.

These notes are relevant, not just because of the personal risk that Bardem was taking in making the film, but also to contextualise how radical Calle Mayor was at the time. In a world of Titane and Infinity Pool it’s hard to perhaps contemplate how a relatively low key drama might have resonated with such potency. Nevertheless, the narrative is quietly brutal. In a small Spanish town, a well-heeled group of amigos decide to play a practical joke on ageing but still attractive thirty something, Isabel, setting her up with Juan, a personable banker from out-of-town. Isabel falls head over heels with Juan, who realises he is being a bastard but can’t find a way out. He seeks the help of his friend, Federico, who advises him to fess up, but when Juan runs away, Federico takes it on himself to tell Isabel the truth. The film ends without any redemptive ending: Isabel and Juan will remain trapped, shackled by the realities of small town life.

Bardem’s script includes some lovely throwaway lines about the joys of US cinema and its pristine kitchens. The sound mix, particularly in the scene where Federico tells Isabel the truth about Juan, is remarkable and the cinematography is always considered. The film creates a compelling vision of the fecklessness of small town life, where the pampered sans and daughters of the middle class indulge their wayward games and fancies and no-one emerges with any great credit.