One-actor theater Lola Gaos for Spanish cinema is an iconic figure. The master of the episode, which created a huge number of memorable images, was not spoiled by the main roles. In this, her cinematic fate resembles the fate of the wonderful Russian actress Faina Ranevskaya, who was also deprived of the number of screen minutes, but could make every moment of her appearance in front of the camera so bright that entire generations of viewers were unable to throw them out of their memory. And when Faina Georgievna managed to play a big role - it turned out "The Foundling". The film, which is watched with unrelenting enthusiasm for more than 75 years.
Lola Gaos, who had a surprisingly similar voice to Ranevskaya’s low timbre and just as far from the canons of photogenic appearance, also had a film that became a true national classic – “Braconiers” (Furtivos) by Jose Luis Borau. But it is one thing to shine in the picture, where you are supported by a beautiful acting ensemble, which is perfectly disposed of by the director. And quite another - to save a passing film with a slurred script and sluggish direction, where your partner is an actress who is used to simple operational productions, in which bust size is much more important than dramatic talent. Namely, this was the second (and last) picture in which Senora Gaos played the main role. And she played it in such a way that “Peace to this house” directed by Chumi Chumez, better known at home as a cartoonist, I want to watch and revise it. Only and exclusively for the sake of being in the company of an actress for another hour and a half, the like of which in the world can be counted on the fingers of one hand.
At the same time, the story of the maid Sagrario, who faithfully served her masters for forty years, after which she believed that she herself had the right to dispose of the lives of some family members, as if she had been specially written for Lola Gaos, although it is a free translation of the novel by the classic of Portuguese literature Esa de Queiroz. However, the transfer of the action in the 70s of the XXth century and giving it a tangible taste characteristic of that time sex work, to the benefit of the tape did not go. But it's certainly not Mrs. Gaos' fault. Rather, it was the era in which the puritanism that reigned under Franco was replaced by complete sexual emancipation, which in its excess sometimes turns into vulgarity. And the choice for the second main role - the antagonist Sagrario, the young wife of her owner Lucia, Blanca Estrada, remembered for the most part for her roles in the unpretentious erotic comedies "Classifacades C", fully corresponded to the trends of her time. But even the talent of Lola Gaos sometimes was not easy to distract the audience from the naked charms of the erotic model, which she willingly demonstrated on occasion and without.
Of course, no equal duet in such a scenario could not go. And yet, the great actress even such circumstances were able to turn in their favor. Of course, the film at the same time turned into a theater of one actor, but in this play Lola could do anything she wanted. And she wanted (I don’t know what the director-cartoonist thought) that the viewer laughed and cried with her character. Deciding to put in place the ignorance that the upstart, Sagrario gradually turns into her caricature, and the righteous anger of the keeper of the hearth ultimately boils down to an attempt to take the place of the “traitor”. The one who has spent his whole life serving, can not invent to punish the wife of his beloved “senorito” for adultery, nothing else but to make her serve herself.
Senora Gaos does not hesitate to portray the wretchedness of her heroine. Poorness is not even physical, but spiritual. He is no less (if not more) than his opponent. And this wretchedness and disappointment in the initially pretty heroine, which deserved the sympathy of the viewer for its difficult fate, seems to have played a role in the rejection of the film by the Spanish public. In the end, it seems that you have been deceived. They made you laugh and empathize, but it turned out that they laughed at you, and no one deserved sympathy. But the ability to laugh at yourself - it is much more important than senseless tearing of the stomach. Genius Lola Gaos laughs here at himself, at his not too skillful partner, at the director trying to make a sexy classic. And for the benefit of an outstanding actress, whose name, unfortunately, is not known outside of Spain, you can spend a little of your time.