This is a delightful and entertaining film about two script-writers sent to a monastery by their producer to complete their script without distractions. But as they work on their film for a Sean Connery melodrama set in nineteenth-century Scotland, their own lives follow the plot they are inventing. The script is engaging and very witty (I do not normally burst out laughing when watching a film on television), the cinematography is impressive, the music based on variations of the Mexican popular song "La llorona" is both suggestive and meaningful. I would appreciate reading reactions to this film from viewers who know little of Spanish cinema, unable to recognise the endearing monks trying to save their monastery by exploiting the tourist industry, or who know nothing of Luis Buñuel and his working relationship with Jean-Claude Carrière and his casting of Fernando Rey since "Viridiana" in 1961, especially his last Cet Obscur Objet du désir -by coincidence this film was Fernando Rey's last film as well. All these references turn the script and story into a real jewel and a brilliant homage to both Spanish popular comedies and to Luis Buñuel. The acting is also superb in its understatement of extravagant characters. P.S. The locations in Aragón are as beautiful as those of the proposed Scotland (I should know, my heart is Scottish).
Review of Al otro lado del túnel
