''Unconscious'' ( es, Inconscientes, links=no) is a 2004 period

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...

directed by

Joaquín Oristrell Joaquín Oristrell Ventura (born 15 September 1953) is a Spanish film director and screenwriter. Biography Born in Barcelona on 15 September 1953, he is the cousin of actress Yolanda Ventura and nephew of trumpeter . He has written scripts ...

starring

Leonor Watling Leonor Elizabeth Ceballos Watling (born 28 July 1975) is a Spanish film actress and singer. Early life Leonor Ceballos Watling was born on 28 July 1975 in Madrid, to a Spanish father from Province of Cádiz, Cádiz and an English mother, the ...

and

Luis Tosar Luis López Tosar (born 13 October 1971) is a Spanish actor and musician from Galicia. He is one of the most recognizable and versatile actors in Spain, best known for performances in films such as ''Cell 211'', ''Take My Eyes'', '' Sleep Tigh ...

, also featuring

Mercedes Sampietro Mercedes Sampietro Marro (born 24 January 1947) is a Spanish actress. Biography Mercedes Sampietro Marro was born in Barcelona on 24 January 1947. She began her career as a stage actress in 1970. Having performed as a Voice acting, voice act ...

Juanjo Puigcorbé Juanjo Puigcorbé (born 22 July 1955) is a Spanish actor. He has appeared in over 100 films and television shows since 1977. He starred in the 1993 film '' The Window Over the Way'', which was entered into the 44th Berlin International Film Fes ...

, Núria Prims and

Alex Brendemühl Alex is a given name. It can refer to a shortened version of Alexander, Alexandra, Alexis. People Multiple *Alex Brown (disambiguation), multiple people * Alex Gordon (disambiguation), multiple people *Alex Harris (disambiguation), multiple pe ...

in supporting roles. Set in 1913

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

and displaying the popularization of the theories of

psychoanalysis PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: + . is a set of theories and therapeutic techniques"What is psychoanalysis? Of course, one is supposed to answer that it is many things — a theory, a research method, a therapy, a body of knowledge. In what might b ...

as a backdrop, the plot follows the pregnant wife of a renowned Freudian psychiatrist who enlists the help of her admiring brother-in-law to uncover the elaborate mystery of why her husband ran away from home. The more she digs for the truth about her husband, the more she discovers the unexpected lies surrounding her brother-in-law, her father, her sister, and herself. It is an international co-production by companies from Spain, Italy, Germany and Portugal.

Plot

In 1913

, Alma, who is nine-months pregnant, returns home one day to find her husband, Leon, an eminent psychiatrist, about to flee their home and his practice. He has come back from a session with Dr.

Freud Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies explained as originating in conflicts in ...

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

that has left him distraught. Left to have her baby alone, the witty and beautiful Alma enlists the help of her sister's husband – also a psychiatrist - the dispassionate, repressed Salvador, to help her solve the mystery of Leon's sudden departure. Ignoring his better judgment, Salvador agrees to help her, even though he sees it could be trouble for him with his prim, frigid wife, Olivia, Alma's sister. There is a sibling rivalry between Alma and Olivia that is shared by their husbands. Olivia is jealous of her feminist sister as the favorite of their father, Dr. Mira, the pompous chief of staff in the hospital where both Leon and Salvador have their practice. Helping her father, Alma serves as translator in a lecture by Dr.

Alois Alzheimer Alois Alzheimer ( , , ; 14 June 1864 – 19 December 1915) was a German psychiatrist and neuropathologist and a colleague of Emil Kraepelin. Alzheimer is credited with identifying the first published case of "presenile dementia", which Kraepel ...

– who is unable to remember anything. The beautiful Alma is as free-spirited as Salvador is uptight. Helping her, Salvador quickly runs into trouble. After an accidental self-hypnosis, he confesses that he is deeply in love with Alma, and that he married her sister, the ostensibly sexually inhibited Olivia, only to be near her. Still under hypnosis, traumatized by comments made by his wife regarding the size of his member, he exposes himself in a public place and his father-in-law fires him from his job. A trail of clues initially indicates that Leon's disappearance may be connected to the concealment of embarrassing revelations about the sex life of the King of Spain,

Alfonso XIII Alfonso XIII (17 May 1886 – 28 February 1941), also known as El Africano or the African, was King of Spain from 17 May 1886 to 14 April 1931, when the Second Spanish Republic was proclaimed. He was a monarch from birth as his father, Alfo ...

. Hints also led them to the back room of a barn that serves as a hide-out for making pornographic films. They also visit a deranged woman in a mad-house, a cross-dressing club and a high-class bordello, led all the while by clues contained in Leon's thesis: a detailed journal of his psychoanalytic sessions with four women he is treating for “hysteria”: a psychotic woman who tried to murder her husband; an actress with a persecution complex; a woman with a serious crisis concerning her sexual identity; and a stranger who has discovered a terrible secret about her past. Salvador and Alma's investigation reveals a series of outrageous secrets. These include that Olivia has been living a secret life, going to a transvestite club. She has a lesbian lover and plans to leave her husband. Alma's alcoholic housekeeper, the unsympathetic Senora Mingarro, turns out to be Leo's biological mother, the result of a torrid affair with Dr. Mira, which makes Alma and Leon's marriage an incestuous union. The sudden reappearance of Leon only complicates things further. Eventually they all attend a distinguished gathering in honor of Dr. Freud, who has come to Barcelona to discourse on his new book, “Totem and Taboo.” Since Leon attributes all of his problems to Dr. Freud's theories on sexuality, he plans to kill him. However, the fall of a big chandelier aborts the assassination attempt. Leon and Dr. Mira die as a result of the accident with the chandelier. Olivia leaves for Paris where she wants to have a freer life with her lesbian lover. Alma gives birth to a baby boy. She realizes that she has fallen in love with Salvador and they become a happy couple.

Cast

Production

A joint Spanish/Italian/German/Portuguese co-production, the film was produced by Tornasol Films and Messidor Films in co-production with EMC Asset Management, and Classic, with the participation of TVE,

Canal+ Canal+ (Canal Plus, , meaning 'Channel Plus'; sometimes abbreviated C+ or Canal) is a French premium television channel launched in 1984. It is 100% owned by the Groupe Canal+, which in turn is owned by Vivendi. The channel broadcasts several ki ...

Eurimages Eurimages is a cultural support fund of the Council of Europe, established in 1989. Eurimages promotes independent filmmaking by providing financial support to feature-length fiction, animation, and documentary films. In doing so, it encourages c ...

Televisió de Catalunya Televisió de Catalunya (, known by the acronym TVC) is the public broadcasting network of Catalonia, one of the seventeen autonomous communities of Spain. It is part of the Corporació Catalana de Mitjans Audiovisuals, a public corporation cre ...

, ICEC and ICAA.

Gerardo Herrero Gerardo Herrero Pérez-Gamir (born 28 January 1953) is a Spanish film director, screenwriter and producer. He is a prolific promoter of international coproductions and collaborations between Spain and Hispanic American countries. From 1993 to ...

is credited as producer whereas Mariela Besuievski and Marta Esteban are credited as executive producers. The screenplay was penned by Oristrell alongside and .

Release

Distributed by Alta Classics, the film was theatrically released in Spain on 27 August 2004. The film was released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

in the United States under the title ''Unconscious''.

Accolades

, - , rowspan = "5" align = "center" , 2005 , , rowspan = "5" , 19th Goya Awards , ,

Best Original Screenplay The Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay is the Academy Award for the best screenplay not based upon previously published material. It was created in 1940 as a separate writing award from the Academy Award for Best Story. Beginning with the ...

, , Joaquín Oristrell, Teresa de Pelegrín, Dominic Harari , , , , rowspan = "5" , , - , Best Supporting Actress , , Mercedes Sampietro , , , - , Best Original Score , , Sergio Moure , , , - , Best Costume Design , , Sabine Daigeler , , , - , Best Makeup and Hairstyles , , Karmele Soler, Paco Rodríguez , ,

References

;Citations ;Bibliography *

External links

''Inconscientes''
at ICAA's ''Catálogo de Cinespañol'' * {{DEFAULTSORT:Inconscientes 2004 films Spanish comedy films 2000s Spanish-language films 2004 drama films Films set in Barcelona Films set in 1913 Films about psychoanalysis 2000s Spanish films 2000s Italian films Tornasol Films films