LIFE AHEAD

18 December Sunday 16:00 23 December Friday 17:00

Director: Fernando Fernán Gómez
Cast: Analía Gadé, Fernando Fernán-Gómez, José Isbert, Félix de Pomés, Manuel Alexandre, Rafael Bardem
Spain, 1958, 90', black & white
Spanish with Turkish subtitles

Told largely in first-person, the film begins as Antonio recounts the beginning of his love affair with Josefina. Ambitious, the couple continues with their studies, he becoming a lawyer, she getting a medical degree-but somehow even those impressive credentials are not enough to make it in a rapidly changing Spain, so the two are forced to improvise a wide variety of jobs calling on some unexpected skills. Like much of the very fine Spanish social comedy of the era, the film asks whether it's the world or its protagonists who are acting crazy, since what passes for normalcy looks more and more suspicious. The director's rock-solid composure works beautifully to underscore all the indignities his character must learn to suffer.