Made in 1969, The residence was the logical consequence of the career of its director Narciso Ibáñez Serrador, dragging a fruitful career in television apasionarte (English television), which was giving glory days with programs and series a formal and artistic quality.
Let's ignore speak of their entertainment programs as One two three, or teaching as Waku Waku , since the ultimate aim is to stop a little in his debut in the big screen under his proven ability to lead in television stories, especially those of terror.
Ibáñez Serrador In 1966 he undertook the making of the series not to sleep Stories based on the Extraordinary Stories of Edgar Allan Poe. Its success was such that the series had an impact not only is Spain, but called attention in many European countries where it was greeted with the same expectation in Spain.
producers gave him carte blanche to direct his first film was sung. The only condition is asked to be a horror film, with ambitions to conquer the market outside our borders. Ibáñez Serrador was, of course, delighted.
The result was The residence, an impeccable exercise in style that had its own series as a reference on Poe, but also the Gothic films of the Hammer, the famous British producer of horror films.
However, the script The residence has other connotations of a more ambitious and not merely to recreate a movie "genre" as it is imbued with references and allusions that refer to other works and authors prestige.
Thus, we can detect in The residence influences as a writer Daphne du Maurier or filmmakers like Alfred Hitchcock. Not surprisingly, writer and filmmaker responsible for movies like Jamaica Posada or Rebecca. The influence of these two masterpieces are evident in the residence.
In Hitchcock we can detect other influences. Perhaps the most crucial is that of Psycho (1960), with whose story is great overlap. Ibáñez Serrador But beyond suggesting when subplots and The residence, a film really daring to Spain in the late sixties, issues such as lesbianism, incest, sado masochism and necrophilia are very present.
One of its virtues is that, despite the gruesome of his argument, we find style visual excess, for example, Dario and Mario Bava Aregento (the giallo in general) than in those years was in full swing yen every horror film worth his salt had to run the bloodletting. These excesses, in The residence is avoided. Ibáñez Serrador want (and get) to make a more ambitious kind of film. His goal is to conquer the international market not only in box office but wants to be recognized even outside of Spain as an author.
Hence the film has a vague atmosphere and not be detected where the plot goes, that could happen and anywhere in Europe. Clear evidence that international calling is the cast, led by the great Lilli Palmer and the young boy (very fashionable then films like Ludwig , Luchino Visconti, among others) John Moulder Brown.
For many years, The residence was the highest grossing film in English cinema. Narciso Ibáñez Serrador surprisingly did not have a continuing career in film and, after shooting his next film, the no less extraordinary Who can kill a child? , never again to direct movies.
Ibáñez Serrador's film had the honor of being parodied: undeniable proof of its popularity.
then reproduce the text of program notes that on the occasion of the release of the residence, was delivered in the future box office viewer. Practice, unfortunately, no longer in use.
" After fifteen years of directing television make my first film. Everything was put into my hands: choice of subject, cast, a superb team of professionals that, if I continue making films, I would like to roll always-week shoot, means of production. Everything. All I was given. But a slogan: "Make a movie that can be sold abroad." That's nothing! I know that, on the grounds that my TV deviate slightly from normal, many expect in The residence new forms, nonconformity, breaks old patterns ... Sorry to disappoint, nothing like that in my film. My purpose was that, over three thousand odd feet, the audience forget that behind the camera is a director. I wanted to narrate the subject properly, to classical, in the sense pejorative with which today is spoken of classicism in the cinema. In short: with this, my first film, attempt to win the honor of professional qualification. As for the script, my faithful and eternal partner Luis Peñafiel, based on a story by Juan Tebar, decided this time that the terror and suspense serve only as backdrop to a series of psychological approaches, with the intention that The residence were more than a scary movie. I know that I put into play fifteen years of television. I have fear and doubts and nerves. You can continue making films, I do not know. Depends on many factors. Whatever happens, I want to thank Anabel Films, SA, all the confidence placed in me, the opportunity to work with Gomez and Mahnahen Velasco have finished discovering Cristina Galba, Maribel Martin, Teresa Hurtado, Conchita Paredes and all other English girls, of being responsible for Maude and Mary Pauline Challenor, the two English girls, debuted in films, and especially today to have the friendship of Lilli Palmer, the great lady who always professed an immense admiration "
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