‘La casa’, the exciting phenomenon of Spanish cinema that drives word of mouth | Culture

One of the three brothers carries the burden of conscience of having hardly been with his father in his last days because he went away to live his life; The eldest, the one who ends up looking more like the parent, looks at the previous one with a mixture of pride and resentment; and the sister, who endures to a limit, disarms with her naturalness the masculine artifice of the others. The three, and their partners, meet at the family country house to finalize its sale after the father’s death. They stopped going when they started going out at night in the city, but the memories of childhood and their parents linked to it are indelible and emerge for any reason: an old straw hat, a corkscrew that can never be found now or before. …The three star Home, which has become a phenomenon in Spanish cinema, ranking among the most viewed and valued by the public (also by critics) since its premiere on May 1.

Until last Thursday, more than 60,000 spectators had seen the film directed by Álex Montoya, which adapts the award-winning comic of the same title by Paco Roca from 2015. It started in 100 cinemas and in its third week it is shown in 144. An unusual behavior in a medium to small Spanish production, with an intimate theme and a very limited budget for promotion. Word of mouth is driving it.

Identification with the characters and the sense of truth conveyed by the situations narrated generate intense emotion in the audience, as can be seen by observing the stalls or reading the numerous comments on social networks. In this sense, the feature won the Audience Award at the last Malaga festival, in addition to the silver biznagas for best script and best music, as well as the critics’ distinction (Feroz Puerta Oscura Award). The Valencian production has been the second best film of 2024 for several days in the popular vote of the Filmaffinity specialized website with a 7.2 rating, after Dune (Part two).

“The truth is that we are surprised, especially by the young people who are connecting with it,” says Montoya, director of features such as Luke and Assembly or the short How I met your father, distinguished at the Sundance festival. Very fond of comics, this trained architect bought the rights to the graphic novel in 2017, but until last year he was not able to film in the same house that the Valencian cartoonist inherited from his father in the foothills of the Serra Calderona, about 30 kilometers from Valencia. In the choice of actors, David Verdaguer, Óscar de la Fuente, Lorena López (as the brothers) and Luis Callejo (the father), in the main roles, have been taken into account in some cases (such as that of Verdaguer) even the physical similarities with the comic book character.

The film’s poster itself is a drawing from the graphic novel, but the film flies on its own and changes some characters and situations. The teenager played by María Romanillos is a find, with her gaze loyal to her sullen father, complicit with her uncle. cool. The director suggests that Roca’s work is closer to the cinema of Japanese director Yasujirō Ozu and his film, shot with many sequence shots and careful photography (by Guillem Oliver), is more indebted to his American training. He did not show the film to the artist until it had been definitively edited. “He got excited too,” says the filmmaker, accompanied by his wife and co-producer of the film with Raw (along with Nakamura Films), Sofía López, in a cafeteria in the Valencian neighborhood of Benimaclet.

“I started watching it with fear, I wasn’t very aware of the filming; After five minutes I forgot and was enjoying the movie without taking into account that it is an adaptation. It puts you in the story, it is faithful to the spirit of the comic. There are many sequences that are like vignettes and other things that are Álex’s creation. It is complementary. It works very well,” says Roca, National Comic Award winner for another of his comics, Wrinkles. He has overcome his initial fears, because he was not very clear that the more literary language of that very personal graphic novel could work in the cinema.

Montoya defends a cinema that “is not experimental”, but tries to be “different.” “I look for empathy with the character,” she says, while his daughter Tosca, who plays the girl in the film, has a snack. stealing plans to professionals. The 50-year-old director from Rioja, who has lived in Valencia since he was a child, claims to make films outside the center of the industry in Madrid and expresses his wish that the film contributes to promoting Valencian audiovisual production, which has “excellent professionals.”

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