Black sardonic humour abounds in this tale about the farce of capital punishment when a man is forced to marry an executioner’s daughter and has to become one himself in order to keep the apartment allotted by the state.
Review #2,642
Dir. Luis Garcia Berlanga
1963 | Spain | Drama, Comedy | 92 min | 1.85:1 | Spanish
Not rated – likely to be NC16 for some sexual references
Cast: Nino Manfredi, Emma Penella, Jose Isbert, Jose Luis Lopez Vázquez, Angel Alvarez
Plot: An undertaker gets married to an old executioner’s daughter and, although he doesn’t like it, must continue the profession of his father-in-law after his retirement.
Awards: Won FIPRESCI Prize & Nom. for Golden Lion (Venice)
Distributor: Video Mercury Films
Accessibility Index
Subject Matter: Moderate – Capital Punishment; Family
Narrative Style: Straightforward
Pace: Slightly Slow
Audience Type: Slightly Arthouse
Viewed: Criterion Blu-ray
Spoilers: No
Would you execute someone if the state asks you to? Sure, if you have a job as an executioner who must carry out death sentences professionally.
I often wonder if those pesky lawmakers who are so pro-capital punishment would ever pull the lever themselves, or in this case in 1960s Franco-ruled Spain, tighten the garrote on the condemned’s neck.
In The Executioner, which won the FIPRESCI Prize at the 1963 Venice Film Festival, the subject of capital punishment pervades and torments a man’s psyche as he must come to terms with being the next executioner.
Forced to marry the daughter of an old executioner who will soon retire, Jose has to take over his father-in-law’s job or forfeit the apartment allotted to them by the state. In other words, do your job or live like beggars in the streets, or so Jose is told.
“But if the law imposes a sentence, someone has to carry it out.”
For much of Luis Garcia Berlanga’s black comedy, one that is generously sprinkled with sardonic humour, Jose refuses to comply—he much rather live poorly than kill a man; old Amadeo, the expert in this morbid matter, continues to guilt-trip Jose.
While not always riveting, The Executioner nevertheless goes to great lengths to express what a farcical thing capital punishment is. What’s worse than being executed… well, waiting to be executed.
Berlanga pushes this line of humour to its logical extreme, as Jose attempts to delay the proceedings for as long as possible, in hopes of a last-minute reprieve.
In Singapore, where I live, we have a more solemn film called Apprentice (2016) by Boo Junfeng, which follows a young correctional officer who is earmarked to be the next executioner.
Both films have convinced me that executions, if they aren’t already outlawed, ought to be public spectacles just like in old times. Well, the aim is to scare the masses, ain’t it?
Grade: B+
Trailer:
Eternality Tan 