Demonios en el jardín (1982) User Reviews (4)

Provoking drama dealing with a family enriched by the black market and full of love triangles , jealousies and treason

[ma-cortes · 6/10 · 30 May 2017]

The film starts in 1942 , in the village of Torre Del Valle in which the stubborn grandmother Gloria (Encarna Paso) runs the family's black-market business at the bustling grocery called ¨El Jardín¨. There an open-air dance celebration takes place , Gloria prepares a noisy wedding of her older son , Oscar (Eusebio Lázaro), to the beautiful Ana (Ana Belén and Juan's lover) , while her another youngest son Juan (Imanol Arias) has a baby with his cousin Angela (Angela Molina) . Later on , Juan heads for Madrid to work for Franco . Juan also leaves behind his impoverished cousin , Ángela , pregnant with his son. Several years later , Angela and her child Juanito live at a far home from the village . Juanito is grown-up but the doctor (Eduardo McGregor) diagnoses rheumatic fever and he says to pamper the child . Grandmother Gloria convinces Angela to bring Juanito to live at the grocery . Shortly after , Franco comes to inaugurate a reservoir , there appears the strange Juan and Juanito wants to meet him . As Juanito recovers , he wishes eagerly to see his daddy who , subsequently , to be returned for economic problems . Then , Juanito witnesses a theft that results to be blamed on his innocent mother . This is an exciting journey to the Francoist period .

This is first part of an ambitious trilogy in which screenwriter and director Manuel Gutiérrez gives a sour analysis of the last decades of the Spanish society , along with : ¨Mitad Del Cielo¨(84) regarding the raising of a woman in the 60s thanks to a successful restaurant in Madrid , and ¨El Rey Del Rio¨ about a young becomes an important figure during the Socialist government . ¨Demons in the Garden¨ turns out to be other of the innumerable stories to deal with dramatic deeds concerning the post-Civil War background and Francisco Franco epoch . It results to be slow and confuse , but contains brief touches of humor and some fascinating , attractive images . It packs a narrative with complex structure , slowly paced and under sight point of a child . In the late seventies Manuel Gutiérrez directed four very personal films , -being produced by Luis Megino- , that were well considered by critics but indifferent reception by public , these are : the political ¨Camada Negra¨ , the uneven ¨Sonambulos¨ , this ¨Demonios En El Jardín¨ and their first mutual collaboration ¨El Corazón Del Bosque¨ , the strangest of his filmography . Luis Megino also produced him the following ones : ¨Maravillas¨, ¨Demonios En Jardín¨, ¨Malaventura¨ , ¨La Noche Más Hermosa¨ and ¨Mitad Del Cielo¨ , some of them starred by his fetish actress , Angela Molina .

¨Demons in the garden¨ is an acceptable but slowly developing film , because the story needs a vibration more real than the one offered in this tiring and sometimes boring yarn . But anyway , its is compensated with the decent performances from main and support cast . As the splendid cast is pretty well , such as : Encarna Paso as the steel-willed grandmother , Imanol Arias as the handsome , irresponsible, best-loved second son who goes back in desperate need of money , Angela Molina as the pregnant cousin , among others. This ¨Demonios En Jardín¨ has enjoyable scenes as Franco inaugurating a reservoir and as the little boy meets his father and suddenly discovering an unexpected surprise or when Juanito goes to the cinema to see dancing Silvana Mangano in the mythical ¨Bayon¨ in the film Anna (1952) by Alberto Lattuada . ¨Demonios En Jardín¨ displays a colorful , though dark cinematography by the great cameraman Jose Luis Alcaine , Aragon's regular . Being shot on location in El Escorial, Navacerrada, Lozoya, Madrid . It has an atmospheric musical score by Javier Iturralde, including some popular songs by the time .

This is a Spanish average budget production and didn't obtain enough success in the box-office . The motion picture perfectly produced by a magnificent producer , Luis Megino (also screenwriter) , was compellingly written and heavily directed by Manuel Gutierrez Aragon , a good Spanish movies director and here including some autobiographic remarks . Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón was born on January 2 , 1942 in Torrelavega , Cantabria, where uses to set most of films , including Valley Pas . He is a writer and director, known for ¨Habla, Mudita¨ (1973) , ¨Camada Negra¨ (1977) , ¨Maravillas¨ (1981) , ¨Demonios en el Jardín¨ (1982) , ¨Feroz¨ (1984) , ¨Visionarios¨ (2001) , ¨Todos Estamos Invitados¨ (2008) . He began working in cinema in 1973 when he filmed ¨Habla Mudita¨ with José Luis López Vazquez , this debut feature by acclaimed Spanish director deals with a strange relationship between a mature men and a mute villager and also set in rural country from Valley Pas . Manuel Gutierrez is a well recognized filmmaker both nationally and internationally, and in proof of it he won many prizes among which there are the following ones : David di Donatello Awards , Moscow International Film Festival , and San Sebastian International Festival award to ¨Demonios en Jardin¨ , Goya Awards 1987 to ¨La Mitad del Cielo¨ , Cinema Writers Circle Awards, Spain and Berlin Internation Festival 1996 to ¨Rey del Rio¨ , Biarritz International Festival awards and Goyas 2003 to ¨Caballero Don Quijote¨ , among others.

dreadfully dull

[photomac · 18 July 1999]

This film is, for the most part, melodramatic and uninteresting; the characters didn't interest me; the few scenes that might have been good suffered from (I'm assuming) such a constricted budget that the closeups that would have been necessary to give the scenes weight were not filmed. And usually the number of closeups in a movie is not anything that you think of, except that here there's such a conspicuous lack of them that instead of watching the movie you start wondering exactly _how_ small the budget was.

Long takes from one angle are not always a problem; both Ingmar Bergman and Abbas Kiarostami use them to great effect. But for my money, this film ended up looking like a documentary of something possibly not worth documenting.

Pack a lunch & crossword puzzles for this one

[Mitch-38 · 3/10 · 17 February 2001]

MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS***Very long, creaking film about dysfunctional, merchant class family, circa 1930's Spain. Two sons, el torro and Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice...okay, just kidding on the last four. A couple of scenes saved this one from the lowest rating available. The prideful, glowing display of "El Caudillo's" dessert during the motorcade, being one of them.

Two rival sons, one stays on, while the other goes to Madrid to seek his glory as part of the Franco Government. He sires a son, which now becomes the responsibility of his mother, brother, sister-in-law and the biological mother, as well. The films goes on like a soap opera from there, and with so many subplots running at once, the whole story goes nowhere. The slow speed evolution of mundane bits, which add so little to the story, simply crushes the pace of the film into paste. Not recommended.

A twisted film noir that captures life in post-war, Franco's ruled Spain.

[crismabrey · 8/10 · 5 March 2003]

The film recaptures life in rural Spain during the first years of Franco's dictatorship, around 1942. It represents the difficult relations between those victorious and those who have been vanquished. Furthermore, the movie unveils the black-market economy prevalent during the first decade of the regime, and how the Right-Wing ideologists control the underground economy. They also maintain a repressive society enforcing a set of strict, Catholic morals that they themselves do not practice. Gutiérrez uncovers their hypocrisy and double moral standards through the watchful eyes of the boy-protagonist. Gutiérrez also defeats those values by having the two female protagonists unite and expose the archaic macho culture as repressive and immoral. Juanito, the hope for a tolerant Spain, in the end ascribes a role of power to Angela and Ana. Juan, his father, a devastated Casanova, loses their respect bt trapping himself in gambling and womanizing, and becomes an outlaw. To fully understand this film the viewer must know early Twentieth-Century Spanish history and the two fighting factions in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). In this way one can understand Gutiérrez's ironical treatment of post-war relations and how he compels a divided society to look forward to a desired unity.