''Main Street'' ( es, Calle Mayor) is a 1956 Spanish

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

directed by Juan Antonio Bardem starring

Betsy Blair Betsy Blair (born Elizabeth Winifred Boger; December 11, 1923March 13, 2009) was an American actress of film and stage, long based in London. Blair pursued a career in entertainment from the age of eight, and as a child worked as an amateur danc ...

and José Suárez. It is based on a

Carlos Arniches Carlos Arniches Barreda (11 October 1866 – 16 April 1943)"Arniches (y Barrera), Carlos" in ''The New Encyclopædia Britannica''. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 15th edn., 1992, Vol. 1, p. 577. was a Spanish playwright, born in Ali ...

play titled '' La señorita de Trévelez''. Shooting locations were

Palencia Palencia () 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 Palencia. Located in the Northwest of the Iberian Peninsula, in the northern half o ...

, Cuenca and

Logroño Logroño () is the capital of the province of La Rioja, situated in northern Spain. Traversed in its northern part by the Ebro River, Logroño has historically been a place of passage, such as the Camino de Santiago. Its borders were disputed b ...

. The film won the FIPRESCI Award at the

Venice Film Festival The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival ( it, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival h ...

Plot

Isabel is a good-natured and sensible unmarried woman who lives in a small town with her widowed mother. At the age of 35, she is losing all hope of getting married and having children. A group of bored middle-aged friends decides to play a trick on Isabel: Juan, the youngest and most handsome of them, will pretend to fall in love with her. As Isabel lives the courtship, full of hope and joy, Juan realizes too late the cruelty of the situation, but, pushed by his buddies, doesn't dare tell Isabel the truth. When the day of the gala dance at the town's club comes, Isabel is still living her dream of love. She expects her engagement to be publicly announced from the stage, but Juan, desperate, tries to do anything to shy away from the muddle.

Cast

(dubbed into Spanish by Elsa Fábregas) as Isabel * José Suárez as Juan * Yves Massard as Federico * Luis Peña as Luis *

Dora Doll Dora Doll (born Dorothea Hermina Feinberg; 19 May 1922 – 15 November 2015) was a French actress. Career One of her first screen appearances was as Juliette in Henri-Georges Clouzot's ''Manon'' (1949). She appeared as Lola in Jacques Becker's ...

as Toña * Alfonso Godá as José María, 'Pepe el Calvo' *

Manuel Alexandre Manuel Alexandre Abarca OAXS MML (11 November 1917 – 12 October 2010) was a Spanish film and television actor. Career He was a popular supporting actor. He won an Honorary Goya Award in 2003 for his career achievements. Filmography in c ...

as Luciano * José Calvo as Doctor * Matilde Muñoz Sampedro as Chacha *

René Blancard René Blancard (12 March 1897 – 5 November 1965) was a French film actor. He appeared in 80 films between 1922 and 1965. Selected filmography * '' The Mysteries of Paris'' (1922) - Bras-Rouge * ''Montmartre'' (1925) - Frédéric Charanç ...

as Editor

Background

Similarities between ''Calle Mayor'' story and environment and Federico Fellini's ''

I Vitelloni ''I vitelloni'' (, literally "The bullocks" - Romagnol slang for "The slackers" or "The layabouts") is a 1953 comedy-drama film directed by Federico Fellini from a screenplay written by himself, Ennio Flaiano and Tullio Pinelli. It stars Fran ...

'' have been pointed out. ''Calle Mayor'' was Blair's first performance outside the US. The name of the role played by Yves Massard was Bardem's homage to "Federico Sánchez", a

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...

under which

Jorge Semprún Jorge Semprún Maura (; 10 December 1923 – 7 June 2011) was a Spanish writer and politician who lived in France most of his life and wrote primarily in French. From 1953 to 1962, during the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, Semprún lived clande ...

managed the clandestine activities of the

Communist Party of Spain The Communist Party of Spain ( es, Partido Comunista de España; PCE) is a Marxist-Leninist party that, since 1986, has been part of the United Left coalition, which is part of Unidas Podemos. It currently has two of its politicians serving a ...

(PCE). Bardem was a well-known member of the PCE. The film was selected as the Spanish entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the

30th Academy Awards The 30th Academy Awards ceremony was held on March 26, 1958, to honor the best films of 1957. The Oscar for Best Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium was awarded to Pierre Boulle for ''The Bridge on the River Kwai'', despite the f ...

, but was not accepted as a nominee.Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

Sequel

Seven years after ''Calle Mayor'', Bardem wrote and directed '' Nunca pasa nada'' (''Nothing Ever Happens''), which depicts an environment and characters similar to those in ''Calle Mayor'', to the point that some critics nicknamed it disdainfully ''Calle Menor'' (''Minor street'').

References

External links