
Miguel Picazo
Spain / 1964 / 107 mins. / Spanish with English subtitles
A widower finds himself falling for his sister-in-law. For his intelligently staged debut feature - a film about women making decisions of whom to marry at a time when other issues than love were to the fore - Picazo adapts Unamuno’s 1920 novel to the particular circumstances of modern Spain. A bank employee suffers a tremendous loss after his wife dies, calls on sister-in-law Tula to care for the children, then finds himself falling for her. Aunt Tula was cut by nearly five minutes, excising most references to matters such as virginity and the Civil War.
Born March 27, 1927 in Cazorla.His first feature was The Aunt Tula (1964), based on Unamuno's novel, was hailed as one of the best films of the New Spanish cinema, thanks to the detail that describes the provincial atmosphere and also by the interpretation of the protagonist Aurora Bautista. With the same quality shot Dark August (1967), although Picazo retracts into literary adaptations made for television. Then goes The man who could love (1976), a biography of San Juan de Dios, and Clear reasons for desire (1977).
San Sebastian Interntaional Film Festival (1964) - Best Spanish Language Film, Best Director
Spain National Syndicate of Spectacle (1964) - Best Actress
Quotes
"It is so sharply and truthfully etched, so intelligently staged by the director, who is 31 and whose first film this is, that it certainly bears sympathetic inspection." -Bosley Crowther, THE NEW YORK TIMES
"Director Miguel Picazo, in a first film blessed with faultless performances, heightens his effects with taste and economy and masterfully uncovers the cruelty buried under centuries-old layers of Spanish folkways." -TIME MAGAZINE U.S