Sometimes considered the pinnacle of Luis Garcia Berlanga's work, The Executioner is a black comedy, a 'farce' and now an intriguing document recording aspects of Franco's Spain in the early 1960s – a period when Spain was beginning to slowly emerge from isolation and grapple with the modernising world of the rest of Western Europe as well as North America.
Carmen is the daughter of Amadeo, the Court of Madrid's executioner. She cannot find a boyfriend because they all run away when they find about her father's profession. Jose Luis is an employee in a funeral parlour who has similar problems with women. One day, their respective professions bring the two men together and Jose Luis end up marrying Carmen. Amadeo's profession entitles him to a subsidised flat, but as he is about to retire he will lose it. In order to avoid this, he convinces his son-in-law to accept the vacant post of executioner. But the boy has a problem: he wouldn't kill a fly...
Through a savagely black humorous tone, The Executioner is a vehement condemnation of the death penalty, which caused the Spanish government to try (unsuccessfully) to stop it being screened at the Venice Festival and later to make numerous cuts (most of them are now reinstated).
Read more / Download movie Originally published at MovieWorld.ws
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