''The Lost Paradise'' ( es, Los paraísos perdidos, links=no) is a 1985 Spanish film directed by

Basilio Martín Patino Basilio Martín Patino (29 October 1930, in Lumbrales, Salamanca Province – 13 August 2017, in Madrid) was a Spanish film director, specializing in a creative approach to documentary works. Patino produced pieces on the Spanish Civil War (''Ca ...

. It stars

Charo López María del Rosario López Piñuelas (born 28 October 1943) better known as Charo López, is a Spanish actress. Filmography *Plan Jack cero tres (1967) *El hueso (1967) *La vida sigue igual (1969) *Ditirambo (1969) * El extraño caso del docto ...

alongside

Alfredo Landa Alfredo Landa Areta MML (3 March 19339 May 2013) was a Spanish actor. Biography He was born in Pamplona, Navarre, Spain. He finished his pre-university studies in San Sebastián. He then began university studies on Law, where he began to wo ...

Juan Diego Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, also known as Juan Diego (; 1474–1548), was a Chichimec peasant and Marian visionary. He is said to have been granted apparitions of the Virgin Mary on four occasions in December 1531: three at the hill of Tepeyac a ...

, Miguel Narros,

Ana Torrent Ana Torrent Bertrán de Lis (born 12 July 1966) is a Spanish film actress. Early life and career Her debut came in 1973 with the starring role as "Ana" in the film ''El espíritu de la colmena'' (''The Spirit of the Beehive''), directed by V ...

and

Paco Rabal Francisco Rabal Valera (8 March 1926 – 29 August 2001), better known as Paco Rabal, was a Spanish actor, director, and screenwriter born in Águilas, a town in the south-western part of the province of Murcia, Spain. Throughout his career, Raba ...

Plot

A unnamed mature woman, daughter of a Spanish Republican exiled lecturer, returns to her parents' country, where she meets a number of people from her past, including Miguel, Benito, Lorenzo and an unnamed Socialist politician. She translates Hölderlin's '' Hyperion'' in the family house. The film, an expression of the disenchantment experienced after the

Spanish transition Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries ** Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Ca ...

, underpins a criticism to the transition itself and the so-called '' pacto del olvido''.

Cast

Production

Shooting locations included

Ávila Ávila (, , ) is a city of Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is the capital and most populated municipality of the Province of Ávila. It lies on the right bank of the Adaja river. Located more than 1,130 m abov ...

, Toro,

Salamanca Salamanca () is a city in western Spain and is the capital of the Province of Salamanca in the autonomous community of Castile and León. The city lies on several rolling hills by the Tormes River. Its Old City was declared a UNESCO World Heritag ...

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

and Zamora.

Release

The film screened at the 42nd Venice International Film Festival in August 1985. It was theatrically released on 17 October 1985.

Reception

Ángel Fernández-Santos Ángel Fernández-Santos (1934–2004) was a Spanish film critic and screenwriter. Born in Los Cerralbos, province of Toledo, in 1934, he was the younger brother of Marxist philosopher . He studied for a brief spell at the in the early 1960s. As ...

of ''

El País ''El País'' (; ) is a Spanish-language daily newspaper in Spain. ''El País'' is based in the capital city of Madrid and it is owned by the Spanish media conglomerate PRISA. It is the second most circulated daily newspaper in Spain . ''El Pa ...

'', considered ''The Lost Paradise'' to be a "prodigiously assembled" film, to which the camera of Alcaine "bordering on the sublime" and the musical score's intensity and coupling add up, filling it "with rare beauty", while noting that it featured a couple of events (two additions of "foreign coarseness") totally out of place.

Informational notes

References

Bibliography

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lost Paradise 1980s Spanish-language films 1985 drama films Spanish drama films Films shot in Madrid Films shot in the province of Ávila Films shot in the province of Salamanca Films shot in the province of Zamora Films set in the 1980s