Daniel Dicenta

In Josefina Molina’s ”Evening Performance,” two people whose long marriage is being annulled meet to discuss the situation and then proceed to talk it to death. She says: ”The children have become a burden to me – a wonderful burden, but a burden.” He says: ”I say that love can exist at first sight.” She says: ”I’ve done nothing for myself. I’ve done it all for others.” And a fortune teller, who also figures briefly in the proceedings, declares: ”Marriage always leaves its mark on the children.”Read More »

The Crime of Cuenca is a Spanish drama film, directed by Pilar Miró and based on historical facts from the early 20th century in the Spanish province of Cuenca. On 21 August 1910, in the small town of Osa de la Vega, in the province of Cuenca, Jose Maria Grimaldos, known as «El Cepa», is seen on the road to the nearby village of Tresjuncos and then disappears. His family fears foul play and reports it to the Guardia Civil (rural police). In the subsequent judicial investigation the family and others express their suspicions that two men, Gregorio Valero and Leon Sanchez had killed him for his money. This first case was closed in September 1911 with no convictions.Read More »

The Cuenca Crime (79) became a cause celebre for critics of the limitation on freedom of expression in Spain (the film is set in 1912 and is about an innocent peasant tortured by two members of the Civil Guard in order to extract a murder confession). The film was briefly suppressed and Miro was tried unsuccessfully for defamation. When released in 1981, it became the highest grossing film in Spanish box office history.Read More »