LA ENFERMEDADA DEL DOMINGO/ SUNDAY’S ILLNESS

Spain, 2018, 113 minutes, Colour.
Susi Sanchez, Barbara Lennie, Richard Bohringer, Miguel Angel Sola.
Directed by Ramon Salazar.

This is a very strong character study.

The film opens in the Spanish countryside, the camera still, no musical background. In fact, throughout the film there is very little musical background, occasionally with the drive into the country, some countryside scenery. Otherwise, there is soft music in a restaurant, music at a fair, the use of the song, Dream a Little Dream and its impact on Anabel.

Anabel is one of the central characters. She is in her 60s. She moves in significant and wealthy circles. Her husband is an economist, businessman and was a professor. She dresses very fashionably. She also hosts society dinners, giving orders to her servants, wanting them to be exact, no earings or piercings… She has one daughter.

The other central character is Chiara. She is in her early 40s, seen initially visiting the forest where she grew up, a significant tree contemplated. Then she appears as one of the servants at the Society dinner. She upsets Anabel by pouring her red wine instead of white wine. There is a confrontation between the two women after the meal and the emerging of a significant secret.

Anabel had been previously married, had Chiara as her daughter, left husband and daughter when the little girl was eight. She wanted more in life, studied, married, became something of a celebrity hostess. In the meantime, Chiara had had a difficult life, some rebellion, drug addiction, and the need to reconnect with her mother. She proposes now that the two women spend 10 days together.

The two actresses are most convincing. Susi Sanchez has great bearing as Anabel, a woman of style, who has created herself but finds her creation now challenged by the appearance of her daughter. Barbara Lennie is also most convincing as Clara.

The 10 days together are episodic. They talk. There are long silences. Anabel goes to town to visit her husband’s grave at the cemetery. Chiara recovers her dog from a friend who is minding the dog and invents a story about discovering it down a well, covered in mud, encouraging Anabel to hose the dog and then Chiara turning it on Anabel. There is a gradual change in the mother. This is typified when she puts on a recording of Dream a Little Dream, begins to sway and then to dance, Chiara observing her.

There is a very significant sequence at a fair, Chiara riding the carousel that she remembers from the past. Then her drinking (when she denied that she was a drinker), some outrageous flirting, dancing with a man in the square with Anabel stepping in to discipline her daughter, take her home, care for her when she is sick.

The audience may come to guess why Chiara wants the two women to spend the time together, a certain urgency and, as the title indicates, illness. Significantly, and a challenge to the audience in principles and in emotions, the issue of assisted suicide. Whether one agrees with assisted suicide or not, this is a story that brings home the reality, testing principles and emotions.

Often very impressive drama, and two performances well worth watching.

1. The title? Chiara? Anabel? Illness, reconciliation, death?

2. Spain, the opening of the stillness in the forest, the tone, the symbolic tree? Evocative? The countryside, the town’s, homes, the woods, the cemetery, the contrast with the city mansion, the dinner, the restaurant? The contrast with Paris, the restaurant?

3. The spotless musical score, few scenes with musical background? But the soft music in the restaurant, at the fair, can dream a Little Dream, the dancing?

4. The introduction to Kian, in the woods, the tree, her contemplation? Memories? The dinner, one of the servants, pouring red wine instead of white, confronting her mother?

5. Anabel, elegant dress, long walk, 40, her stumble, recovering? Who orders to the servants? The guests, high society, the meal, talk, her being upset by the red wine?

6. The confrontation between the two women, the silences, the explanation, planning the meeting, Chiara smoking in the hotel, Anabel and her fashion? Talking, the background of the story, Anabel deserting her family when Chiara was eight? Her wanting more, studies, marrying the economist lecture, her importance, place in society?

7. The request to spend 10 days together? The discussion with her husband, the lawyer, the restaurant and her daughter? The contract? Chiara agreeing?

8. Travelling to the house, talking, the father being dead? The meal, the cooking, Anabel uncomfortable? Chiara going to see her friend, is minding the dog, the plan with the dog, returning, her fabricated story for Anabel, giving a name to the dog, hosing it, wetting Anabel? The lies about not drinking?

9. Anabel going to town, going to the cemetery, meeting Chiara’s friend, finding that her former husband was alive and living in Paris with his wife? Her phoning her husband?

10. The fair, the carousel of the ride, the memories? Chiara drinking, dancing, flirting, kissing the man? Anabel taking her home, being sick, looking after her, two days in bed, her illness, going to the hospital, Anabel learning the truth?

11. Anabel, Dream a Little Dream, swaying, dancing, Chiara watching? Anabel reconsidering her life? What she had missed?

12. The decision to go to Paris, meeting her former husband, the discussions, his new life, remembering the past, Chiara’s request about her death? The father refusing?

13. Chiara asking Anabel to kill her, Anabel’s return, carousel ill, Anabel naked, taking car into the river, holding her, letting her go? The sound of her drowning?

14. Anabel, the prospects for future after this experience? Chiara’s experience of some kind of redemption and reconciliation after not achieving much in life, her resentments, drugs for her boyfriend, addiction, coming clean?

15. The impact for the audience, family, children abandoned, mothers and careers, recovering the past, reconciliation? The issue of assisted suicide?