Ana and the Wolves
| Anna and the Wolves | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Carlos Saura |
| Produced by | Elías Querejeta |
| Written by | Carlos Saura Rafael Azcona |
| Starring |
Geraldine Chaplin Fernando Fernán Gómez Rafaela Aparicio |
| Music by | Luis de Pablo |
| Cinematography | Luis Cuadrado |
| Edited by | Pablo González del Amo |
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Release date
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Running time
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102 minutes |
| Country | Spain |
| Language | Spanish |
Ana and the Wolves (Spanish: Ana y los lobos) is a 1973 Spanish drama film directed by Carlos Saura. Starring Geraldine Chaplin as a foreign governess who comes to an isolated house to take care of the children of a convoluted family. The film is encoded with political symbolism of Francisco Franco’s regime. Saura’s 1979 Mamá cumple cien años was a sequel of sorts. It was entered into the 1973 Cannes Film Festival.
Ana, a young foreign governess, arrives to an isolated country estate in arid region of Castile, near Madrid. She has come to take charge of three little girls whose mother, Luchy, greets Ana upon arrival. While Ana is unpacking, José, an uncle of the girls, introduces himself as the voice of order and authority in the family. In case Ana runs into any problem she must go to him, he explains.
A family dinner that evening allows Ana to meet her eccentric employers. The family consists of three middle age brothers (José, Juan and Fernando), their ailing mother, Mama; Luchy, Juan’s wife, and the couple’s three daughters: Carlota, Victoria and Natalia. At night, Natalia wakes up screaming after a nightmare. Juan, the father of the three girls, lusting over Ana, takes advantage of the situation to enter her bedroom. Firmly but politely, she rejects his sexual advances. Dominated by an uncontrollable sex drive, the rejected Juan looks for consolation with Amparo, one of the maids.
Surprisingly, Ana starts receiving erotic letters signed by a secret admirer who desires to be with her. They are delivered with rare postage from distance places each of them increasingly closer. José explains to Ana that he has not only opened and read those letters, but that he knows who has been sending them. Juan, he tells her, has been writing those letters using the family valuable collection of stamps to deceive her. José has set up a small museum of military dress in his study and he offers Ana his protection and some economical compensation if she takes care of the uniforms.
Fernando, the most subdued of the three brothers, has moved out of the main house to establish his residence in a nearby cave where he practices mystical incantations in an effort to levitate. Fernando intrigues Ana the most. She is both appalled by him and attracted to his way of life, as if understanding why he wants to escape from the world.
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Wikipedia