Email a FriendShare on Facebook

The Great Vasquez (El gran Vázquez)

Óscar Aibar
Spain / 2010 / 106 min. / Spanish with English subtitles

This madcap and amorally funny biopic dramatizes the life of the influential Spanish cartoonist Manuel Vazquez Gallego. 1960s Barcelona: it’s springtime and Vázquez is having a ball by himself. His characters (the Gilda Sisters, Anacleto, the Cebolleta Family...) are a huge success in the comics published by Bruguera. Meanwhile, Spain’s top cartoonist gets what he wants when he wants and pays nothing for it .He artfully dodges anyone he owes money to, tricks and cheats his bosses, and marries gaily, collecting one family after another. But then a dull accountant at his publishing house decides it’s time for him to toe the line like everyone else. With a cigarette permanently dangling from his lip, Santiago Segura—better known for being the director and star of the successful Torrente saga—plays the artist with rascally energy as both a compulsive bigamist and a con man who steals from one wife to give to another, who repeatedly fakes his father’s death, and who refuses to pay for furniture out of principle.

Aibar was a comic scriptwriter for magazines like Tótem, El víbora and Makoki between 1986 and 1994. In 1990, he directed the short Lo que vio el jardinero, followed by El Chihuahua (1991), and in 1995 made the leap to features with Atolladero, starring rockstar Iggy Pop. His next feature (co-written with Jorge Guerricaechevarría of Cell 211 fame) was Platillos volantes (2003). In 2006, he wrote and directed Dance Machine (La máquina de bailar), also starring Santiago Segura, and the TV-movie Rumors (Rumores). He has published several books of short stories and the novels Los comedores de tizas and Making of.