Tormento

This is one film that seems more like a TV miniseries: based on a Benito Perez-Galdós work, it tells the story of a woman (a housemaid called Amparo - Ana Belén) working in the house of a very hypocritical woman (Concha Velasco), and who has two men in love with her, one priest that is in permanent sin because of her (or that is his view of the story), and a rich man who is visiting Madrid.

This is a very interesting work. Firstly because you realize how near are those rural dramas that are so typical in the Spanish literature to the noir novels: a femme fatale who does not know why has a terrible fate, and because of many facts that seem arbitrary and the morals of the society she is living with, she can't run from them. Other thing I liked is the humor the movie has (the story is too over-the-top to work without humor). Another, the great work of Concha Velasco as a really mean character. And most of all, the ending, which sums the many visual metaphors this "Tormento" has.

But there is a very rigid style that shows how Pedro Olea was still learning, like very abrupt editing (when someone begins to talk, there is always a close-up of their face) and tiring music. Anyway, a very amusing movie, very well acted, and ultimately satisfying that predicted the good things to come from Pedro Olea, and which is notably better than his first serious work, "El bosque del lobo".