[HorrorScience] The Community (2000)

Reading time: 8 minutes

YEAR

2000

DIRECTOR

Alex de la Iglesia

SCRIPT

Alex de la Iglesia, Jorge Guerricaechevarría

DURATION

107 minutes

DISTRIBUTION

Carmen Maura, Eduardo Antuña, María Asquerino, Jesús Bonilla, Marta Fernández Muro, Paca Gabaldón, Ane Gabarain, Sancho Gracia, Emilio Gutiérrez Caba, Kiti Mánver, Terele Pávez, Roberto Perdomo, Manuel Tejada, Enrique Villén, Eduardo Gómez, Antonio de la Torre, Gorka Aguinagalde, Mariví Bilbao, Silvia Casanova, Rodolfo Sancho, Luis Tosar, Ramón Barea, Manuel Tallafé, Andrés de la Cruz

Alex de la Iglesia is a somewhat particular figure within Spanish cinema, since he tends to deviate from the usual norm when it comes to most of his works, whichThey usually mix the obligatory comedy with more hooligan or transgressive themes.. movies likeMutant Action(1993) andThe day of the Beast(1995) are good proof of this.

Although I enjoyed those aforementioned films, I have not seen all of this director's filmography and little by little I am remedying this, as demonstrated by the article that you will see below, where I comment on one of his most famous films:The community.A film that I remember hearing a lot about at the time, but that until recently (just 26 years after its release) I did not decide to see.

The communityIt begins by showing us the sad life ofJulia, a woman who works as a real estate agent without much luck and whose husband (Ricardo) is also having a very bad time at work., accepting precarious and poorly paid jobs, from which they are fired after a few weeks.

Julia's life changes completely when she shows a modern apartment located in an old building in Madrid. Although she fails to make the sale, Julia decides to stay that night at the luxurious place and have a romantic moment with Ricardo, who will arrive frustrated from his job, as always, and end up leaving the place after an argument.

That same night it is discovered that an upstairs neighbor has died. Apparently, he had been dead for some time and had no one to claim him. According to the words of the rest of the neighbors, he was a solitary, reserved man who never left the house.

By chance,Julia finds a hole in the deceased's apartment where he had stored a lot of money.(about 300 million pesetas), which she decides to keep for herself, without mentioning anything to anyone. From that moment on,all the neighbors are starting to be interested in Julia, they ask her personal questions and constantly watch her while pretending to be friendly with her.

Initially Julia does not suspect anything, but heThe controlling attitude of the neighbors is becoming less and less hidden and becomes aggressive,Well, not only do they know of the existence of the money, but they spied on and controlled the neighbor who won it, with the intention of distributing it among them equally when he died. Julia is now controlled and persecuted by the entire community (as happened to the deceased), but she is not willing to lose the opportunity that has been presented to her, so she decides that she is going to do everything possible to keep the 300 million.

The communityIt has the personal stamp of Alex de la Iglesia by playing between genres such as comedy and horror. It is a suspense film, with a disturbing atmosphere and a premise that, despite being crazy, is not so far from reality, since in many buildings there are idle neighbors who monitor the movements of others as if their lives depended on it, which usually generates envy and bad coexistence.

The building in which everything happens is certainly disturbing, and at the same time, familiar, since it is a type of construction of which there are still quite a few spread throughout Spain. Aesthetically, it fits perfectly with the terrifying plot of harassment and attempted murder that the film maintains during its first part. In the ending we will see typical exteriors of Madrid, which is a breath of fresh air compared to the rest of the film and prepares us for a rather curious climax.

The neighbors are an important part of the film,and I think some are so realistic that they are scary (the gossipy neighbor, the mother who doesn't let her son speak, the geek, the one who is good but deep down is the worst, the one who cajoles you to get what he wants and the one who would solve everything by force). It's a shame that not all of them have the time they deserve, but I think that for the most part a good job has been done.

MaybeThe one that seems most forced to me is the one played by Eduardo Antuña(Charly), who is the geek dressed as Darth Vader. Initially it fits the role that there has to be a geek in every building, but some scenes of the character noticeably break the tense moments of the film. Furthermore, it is curious that being such a ridiculous character, he turns out to be one of the sanest in the film (in his own way, of course).

Of all the neighbors,there are two that stand out from the rest, and I think they deserve a separate mention. The first would be Emilio Gutiérrez Caba, who plays the administrator of the community, the glue that holds that building together and the creator of the plan to take over the neighbor's money, because according to his words, it was he who gave him the result of the pool that made him a millionaire and therefore, that money should be his.

And then we have Terele Pavez playing Ramona, the “security camera” of the building, the typical older lady who is constantly judging and controlling the movements of others. Both actors will have enough time on screen to show off and show why they are there.

As for the protagonist, Julia, I can only say that the awards that Carmen Maura won for this film are fair. Initially, he is a normal person, without luck in life, but he works hard to try to get out of the bad moment; As soon as he finds the money, he undergoes a slow but incessant change.Greed and madness go hand in hand in this film and Julia begins to undergo a transformation that makes her look more and more like the rest of the neighbors.of the community.

It's a shame that Julia's husband isn't more important, as Jesús Bonilla is an actor I like, but in this case, his appearance is brief and his character isn't particularly interesting, so I think it was a wasted opportunity. I would also like to comment that some actors who later had notable success (such as Luis Tosar or Antonio de la Torre) play small roles in this film and that actors such as Mariví Bilbao and Eduardo Gómez even appear, who a few years laterwould achieve great fame withThere is no one who lives hereandThe one that is coming, two series that curiously resemble this film more in concept than they should, because they deal with a dysfunctional community of neighbors.

In summary, if you wantuna comedia de suspense con humor negro(y también una dosis de humor absurdo) ambientada en una comunidad de vecinos, creo que La comunidad puede satisfaceros notablemente. No es una película perfecta, pero tiene muchos más aciertos que fallos y se mantiene intensa durante la mayor parte del metraje.

Curiosities

Pepón Nieto iba a protagonizar la película, pero cuando empezaron a escribir el guion decidieron cambiar el personaje por una mujer. Carmen Maura fue la elegida y se decidió que la película se haría cuando ella estuviese disponible.
Es imposible meter 300 millones de pesetas en billetes de 5000 en una maleta como la de la película, el propio director explicó la situación con la frase “así es el cine”.
El traje de Carmen Maura se inspiró en el que llevaba Jackie Kennedy el día que asesinaron a su marido.
El interior del edificio es una casa en la calle Desengaño (Madrid) y es el mismo que se usó para la pensión de Rosario en “El día de la Bestia”.
La premisa inicial de la película está basada en un hecho real, pues Alex de la iglesia comentó lo siguiente en una entrevista: “Debajo de casa de mi madre, en Bilbao, vivía una mujer, la viuda de Peral, que tenía síndrome de Diógenes. La casa estaba llena de basura y excrementos acumulados durante décadas. Tuve que bajar a ver una gotera y me encontré con el fucking infierno, salí de allí temblando y me di cuenta, además, de que habían cucarachas”.
En ningún momento se pidió permiso a George Lucas o Lucasfilm para usar un personaje disfrazado de Darth Vader.