WithCarlos Semprún, Loleh Bellon and Antoine Chao
The director sets out to find all the paintings by El Greco held in private collections (Urquijo and Marañón families) or in religious buildings (churches in Illescas and El Bonillo). In doing so, he makes a critical portrait of Spain, under the burden of religion and social convention, with a few lines by Juan Del Encina said once and again: ‘Miserable, hopeless Spain,/they must all grieve over you./Deprived of happiness,/to never come back’.
'A film where loyalty to a devastated landscape turns into poetry and bitter love. Professor Torres Martín, the Marquis of Lozoya, Belén Marañón, Iñigo Álvarez de Toledo and painter Antonio Saura feature in this story where El Greco is the pretext and the purpose. A man from El Bonillo, José María Ordóñez, suddenly utters his magic words to trigger the purifying laughter.' – José-Miguel Ullán, Destino, 1973.