Long Live the Bride and Groom

Leonardo, a mediocre and repressed bank clerk from Burgos, arrives in Sitges, together with his elderly mother, to marry Loli, the owner of a souvenir shop with whom he has had a formal relationship for a year. Once he is in the Catalan town, he tries to give free rein to his long-term erotic fantasies with young, blonde foreign women. So, on the eve of his wedding he decides to let his hair down and, leaving his mother in a small plastic pool, he escapes from the flat where they are staying to have a fling. However, his wish to spend his last hours as a single man with luxurious women is frustrated, because he is rejected by an attractive Swedish woman, is disappointed when he finds out that a provocative woman is, in fact, a transvestite, and suffers other problems.

When Leonardo returns to his flat he finds his mother’s body floating, face down, in the pool. Loli refuses to cancel the wedding despite his mother’s death, so against his wishes and on his brother-in-law’s insistence, Leonardo agrees to hide the deceased in a bath tub full of ice and celebrate his wedding and the reception pretending nothing has happened. Later, they decide to get rid of the body throwing it into the sea, but a fisherman accidentally harpoons it. After a night of mourning, they celebrate a majestic funeral, but Leonardo leaves the funeral procession to chase a foreign girl who is flying a kite.

Production: Cesáreo González Producciones Cinematográficas, S.A. (Madrid).

Director: Luis García Berlanga.

Story, screenplay and dialogues: Rafael Azcona and Luis García Berlanga.

Director of Photography: Aurelio G. Larraya (Eastmancolor).

Music: Antonio Pérez Olea.

Editor: José Luis Matesanz.

Set Decoration and Set Dressing: Antonio Cortés.

Executive Producer: Marciano de la Fuente.

Production Managers: Luis Berraquero and Francisco Molero.

Assistant Director: Carlos Aured. Continuity: Carmen Pageo. Second Cameraman: Ramón Sempere. Assistant Camera: José Cobos. Stillman: Julio Wizuete. Production Assistant: Manuel Amigo. Unit Production Manager: Rafael Soria. Make-up Artist: Cristóbal Criado. Hair Stylist: Antonio Nieto. Assistant Make-up Artist: Rafael Berraquero. Sound Engineers: Luis López and Federico de la Cuesta. Assistant Decorator: José Ramón Molina. Assistant Editor: María Luisa Ocaña. Second Assistant Editor: Ángel Salazar. Tailor: Carmen Hernández. Costume Design: Peris Hermanos. Models: Boutique Carmen (Sitges). Soundtrack: Fono-España, S.A. Sound System: Westrex. Laboratory: Fotofilm, S.A. (Madrid).

Cast

José Luis López Vázquez (Leonardo Pozas), Laly Soldevila (Loli), José María Prada (Pepito), Manuel Alexandre (Carlos), Xavier Vivé (Pedro Calonge), Teresa Gisbert (doña Trinidad), Gela Geisler (neighbour), Romy (Nadia), Luis Ciges (priest), Víctor Israel (Vicente, sacristan), Juan Torres, Francisco Jarque, Amalia Martínez de Campo.