Ninette y un Señor de Murcia

"Ninette" is a classic Spanish movie by Goya-winning director Fernando Fernán Gómez (for 1986's "Viaje a Ninguna Parte"). It is a timeless story with commendable acting and humor at every turn. It was also one of the first films for legendary actor Alfredo Landa, who, along with several other cast members, was in the original theater version which debuted in Madrid in 1964, a year before the film.

Ninette has two themes: a ridiculous love and the simply ridiculous. A nondescript man from Murcia (Andres), bored with his desk job, goes to Paris to make the most of his fleeting youth. He takes a room in a boarding house run by a Spanish expatriate couple (Pierre and Bernarda). Wanting to immediately embrace the Paris night scene but unable to convince his friend (Armando; Alfredo Landa) to join him, he stays in the boarding house his first night and is seduced by the owners' young daughter, the attractive Ninette.

The result is a non-quite-wholehearted tryst of comedic proportions. Ninette is controlling, manipulative, and whimsical. "Remember, I am French!" she often explains. The docile Andres does not seem to care for her on more than a physical level but he allows her to dictate his every move. She does not want him to leave the apartment so he invents various illnesses and injuries to the point where the landlords question his sexuality and Armando becomes totally exasperated.

This movie must have made even Franco laugh. Andres remains in Paris for two months and never leaves the apartment. Ninette's father Pierre, a caricature of the Spanish pastoral macho intellectual, becomes his antagonist. In one sensational sequence, Pierre plays the bagpipes and then grills Andres and Armando on the meaning of socialism. "¿Cómo que no hay un problema agrario? Vamos a discutirlo...despacio." (What do you mean, there's no agrarian problem? We are going to discuss this...slowly.)

The fun ends when Ninette announces to Andrés - and then to her parents - that she is pregant and that they are going to get married. After negating to impose his will for so long, Andres has reached the point of no return. But then, it is difficult to pity him since he is responsible for his own demise.

I found out about this movie through a friend who was in a class taught by Alfredo Landa's biographer, Marcos Ordóñez. If you can get your hands on this film you're in for a wild ride.