The films of Isabel Mulà, yes. All two of 'em! A Catalan, born in 1944, she seems to have started out as an onset dogsbody on Pasolini's Accattone, and embarked on a sixties and seventies career as a script supervisor, working on several productions by Bergonzelli, Miguel Iglesias Bonns, Rafael Romero Marchent, Castellari, Lenzi, the Balcázars, Brescia, Larraz, Christian-Jaque and Berlanga, among others.

As a director, she remains a footnote in the history of Spanish cinema, but she has been distinguished as a producer, working in the various outfits created by her husband José María Cunilés. Producing Hell of the Living Dead for Cunillés's Films D'Ara company may or may not be a mark of distinction, but the pair were responsible for numerous prominent Spanish films of the 80s, including Vicente Aranda's El Lute films.

Her output as director is something of an enigma to me. She made a short and two features. The first was the softcore film Depravación, written by Cunillés, and the second a very obscure comedy called Los nuevos curanderos. Why she directed these I don't know: either she genuinely wanted to have a go at it, or maybe perhaps, she simply wanted to save on a director's fees. Whatever the case, her directorial career was brief and she resumed her vocation as a businesswoman. Apparently, she and Cunillés now divide their time between Spain and the UA, working as distributors.

For my comment on Depravación, see:

http://www.cinemadrome.yuku.com/topic/590

Here's my review of her second film:

Los nuevos curanderos (1983), produced and directed by Isabel Mulá

Literal translation of title: The new healers.

Written by Isabel Mulá and Josele Román

Photography by José Antonio del Álamo

Editing by Emilio Ortiz

Music from the S.A. Sintonía catalogue

· Cast: Carlos Velat (Luis), Alicia Orozco (Isabel), "Pipper" (Avelino), María Isbert (Luisa), Silvia Marsó (Andresa), Josele Román (Matilde), Emy Matías (Maruja), Víctor Israel (Ramón), Francisco Jarque (Manolo), Raquel Evans (Brigida), Goyito Fernández, Pedro Fontana (Marido de Brigida), Òscar Mas (Favi), Manuel Bronchud (Chatarrero), Óscar Ranea, Asunción Vitoria (Carmela), Quico Alberola (Quico).

Approximate running time: 88 minutes


We are tipped off from the very start that shadow of Berlanga is being cast on this deliberately old-fashioned comedy, when the lead actors are being credited in alphabetical order, and our suppositions are later confirmed by the abundance of long shots, the small town setting and a premise reminiscent of Los jueves, milagro (1957). The last straw comes at one point when the dialogue mentions the Austrohungarian Empire, the lucky charm word of the Valencian's films, as associated (in Spain, at any rate) with Berlanga as Monument Valley is with the cinema of John Ford or Hitchcock's cameos with that director's output.

Well, so much for the shadow of Berlanga, but it's just a shadow. The veteran script girl and film producer Isabel Mulá collaborated with the Valencian comedy actress Josele Román (likewise present in the cast) on a script that obviously takes Berlanga's less-acerbic fifties work as its model. The story is about a jobless young couple (Carles Velat and Alicia Orozco) who move from the city to an unspecified town to try their luck as faith healers. There, after an initial period of scepticism, the villagers unexpectedly come to take the pair seriously, especially after the appearance - unexpected by the young couple themselves - of a real supernatural apparition.

This is the second and last of Mulá's directorial efforts, and it must be said that, as may be expected from somebody as experienced on set as her, that she does not direct badly, as was shown, in fact, by her previous film as director, the softcore film Depravación. The locations, both urban and rural, are very well captured by her and her DP José Antonio del Álamo (Iquino's regular camera operator in his later films). Otherwise, the script lacks invention and genuine humour, the occasional swearing in the dialogue sounds grating, and, when it comes to the business of the Marquis (Conrado Tortosa "Pipper") and his mad wife (María Isbert), one gets the feeling, as with so many Spanish comedies, that indiscriminate energy and noise are being mistaken for comic business. On the whole, one can well understand the film's limited distribution, at least to judge from its very low attendance of 17,014 viewers.

The overall tone of desperation and frenzy proves especially harmful to the performance of veteran actress María Isbert, but otherwise, the cast (an ensemble cast, of course) partially makes up for the film's poverty. Velat is good, Orozco is excellent, and there are fine supporting performances by, among others, Román herself, Asunción Vitoria, Emy Matías and Francisco Jarque. Finally, one should mention out how odd it is to see the decidedly un-aristocratic "Pipper" playing a Marquis, another cameo by Víctor Israel (as Asunción Vitoria's lecherous husband), a brief early role by Silvia Marsó (who even gets to do an Aragonese dance and was seemingly less attractive in her twenties than she is now in her forties) and that an almost unrecognisable Raquel Evans looks rather cute in a peasant woman's costume.