1971-1980 Comedy Jaime de Armiñán Romance Spain Spanish cinema under Franco

Jaime de Armiñán – Mi querida señorita AKA My dearest senorita (1972)

adminJuly 2, 2019

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Synopsis
Miss Adela Castro (José Luis López Vázquez in a superb performance),a mature lady from the provincial Spanish bourgeoisie, has spent her life in solitude, sewing, playing the piano, attending charity meetings at the local church and meditating on her forced spinsterhood. Her partially unacknowledged attraction to females, together with her lack of desire for her fiance drives Adela to her confessor and then to a doctor. The diagnosis is unambiguous: she is a man. Adela, now Juan, is then forced to confront both a prejudiced society and himself. Jaime Armiñán directed My Dearest Señorita in a context of profound social transition in Spain. Miraculously evading censorship, the film constructed a delicious and grotesque parody of the falsities and deformations brought about by Francoist education. It attracted international attention and was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Foreign Film in 1973. José Luis López Vázquez gives a bravura performance with delicacy. The film never degenerates into a cheap, sensational comedy but is full of humor, pathos and humility. Jaime de Armiñán shows his own strong literary and theatrical influences with an originality not seen before in Spanish cinema.