Main street (film)
| Movie | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| German title | Main road | ||
| Original title | Calle Mayor | ||
| Country of production | Spain | ||
| original language | Spanish | ||
| Publishing year | 1956 | ||
| length | 98 minutes | ||
| Age rating | FSK 16 | ||
| Rod | |||
| Director | Juan Antonio Bardem | ||
| script | Juan Antonio Bardem based on the play La señorita de Trévelez by Carlos Arniches |
||
| production |
Cesáreo González Manuel J. Goyanes Georges de Beauregard |
||
| music |
Joseph Kosma Isidro Maiztegui |
||
| camera | Michel Kelber | ||
| cut | Margarita de Ochoa | ||
| occupation | |||
| |||
| chronology | |||
| |||
Hauptstrasse is a 1956 Spanish film directed by Juan Antonio Bardem and starring Hollywood actress Betsy Blair .
action
The main street of a small town, somewhere in the Spanish province, is the setting. Isabella is what is commonly called a "late girl," a, as they say, a "dried up old maid". She comes from a good family where, of course, young women in Franco Spain in the 1950s do not go to work, but rather, as they say, "good custom" to wait for the man of their life to be married. Now Isabella is already 35 years old and the man of her dreams just doesn't want and doesn't want to appear on the scene. The once young woman has become a deeply frustrated "gray mouse". One day a young beau named Juan turns up. He is handsome and recently transferred to this town as a civil servant. Isabella immediately falls in love with him and says she realizes that he reciprocates her feelings. In this belief she blossoms more and more from day to day.
But their guesses are based on a deception. Juan just plays with her. A nasty game that the young men of this city, to whom Juan has also joined, have come up with. At the annual "Big Ball", the bomb should burst and Isabella was mercilessly demonstrated. The young people think their bad idea is a lot of fun. One day, Federico Rivas visits his friend Juan, learns of the inhuman plan - and is horrified. He presses Juan heavily and makes it clear to him that he has to tell Isabella the truth. But this is too cowardly for that. To make matters worse, Juan is actually beginning to feel something for this woman. But he neither dares to face Isabella because of this fact, nor to continue hanging out with his buddies on the main street, because he fears their razor-sharp ridicule.
On the eve of the big festival, at which Isabella is supposed to be exposed to ridicule, he leaves to avoid any responsibility in advance. While Isabella is eagerly helping to decorate the ballroom, Federico decides to take over Juan's job and tells her the truth about the evil game Juan and his buddies. Isabella goes into shock and collapses. Federico selflessly offers her to accompany him to Madrid in order to rearrange her life there, but the deeply disappointed person simply lacks the strength for that.
production
Filming on Hauptstrasse started in Palencia . When suddenly Bardem, who was regarded as critical of the regime, was arrested in the middle of the filming and locked away for 15 days, work on the film had to be interrupted. After Bardem's release they moved to Cuenca and Logroño , where the film was finished. The main street that gives the film its title is actually Calle Portales Logroños with the adjoining market square.
The film premiered in Madrid on December 5, 1956. The German premiere took place on October 4, 1957 in the GDR. The film opened in the Federal Republic of Germany on November 14, 1958.
Awards
- 1956: FIPRESCI Prize for Bardem, who was also nominated for the Golden Lion . Bardem's production received the New Cinema Award, and Betsy Blair an honorable mention at the same film festival.
- 1957: Sant Jordi Prize to Bardem for the best Spanish film and the special prize for the director.
Reviews
Reclam's film guide wrote about “Hauptstraße”: “After Bardem had critically described life in the big city in Muerte de un ciclista , he gives an inventory of the small town here. (...) Calle mayor has two points of reference, as it were: In Isabella's fate, Bardem criticizes the must of old traditions that deny women their own life; the cruel game of the young people, who are comparable to Fellini's Vitelloni , reveals the hopeless social and economic backwardness of the Spanish province. All of this becomes unobtrusive but unmistakably clear in the style of a realistic chamber play, whereby in addition to the play by Betsy Blair, the casual observations in the small pubs and on the streets, during the monotonous conversations of the young men, are particularly convincing. "
Kay Wenigers Das Großes Personenlexikon des Film wrote in Bardem's biography: “In the mid-50s he landed two international successes that established the rénommé of Spanish film and Bardems fame:" The death of a cyclist "was one for these (Franco) times daring, biting inventory of the metropolitan Spanish bourgeoisie, which in Bardem's film is characterized by hypocrisy and cowardice; "Hauptstraße", in turn, reflected similar human characteristics in the small town environment. Since then, Bardem has been considered a cool, analytically sharp chronicler of contemporary Spanish society. "
Handbook V of the Catholic Film Critics stated: “Young idlers in a small Spanish town are playing a cruel trick on an elderly lady. The love intrigue they hatched serves the internationally award-winning film in an indirect way to reinforce the commandment of Christian charity. "
Halliwell's Film Guide characterized the film as follows: "Interesting but unattractive and certainly unconvincing little comedy-drama, rather too obviously styled for its American star after her success in Marty ."
The lexicon of international films judged: "The film impressively treats both psychological problems of the individual and the problems of Spanish society during the Franco regime, whereby it becomes, more indirectly, an impressive plea for charity."
Individual evidence
- ↑ Reclams Filmführer, by Dieter Krusche, collaboration: Jürgen Labenski. P. 249. Stuttgart 1973.
- ↑ Kay Less : The film's great personal dictionary . The actors, directors, cameramen, producers, composers, screenwriters, film architects, outfitters, costume designers, editors, sound engineers, make-up artists and special effects designers of the 20th century. Volume 1: A - C. Erik Aaes - Jack Carson. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , p. 245.
- ↑ 6000 films. Critical notes from the cinema years 1945/58, 4th edition, Düsseldorf 1980, p. 179
- ^ Leslie Halliwell : Halliwell's Film Guide, Seventh Edition, New York 1989, p. 165
- ↑ Translation: "Interesting but unattractive and definitely not convincing little comedy drama that was overly geared towards its American star after his success in Marty ".
- ^ Hauptstrasse in the Lexicon of International Films , accessed on February 17, 2014.
Web links
- Main Street in the Internet Movie Database (English)