Oscuros sueños de agosto

This is a slow drama concerning some unhappy roles become involved in tumultuous relationships . After spending several years in Caracas, Isabel (Viveca Lindfors) , a depressed bourgeois woman goes back Spain to heal from a neurosis by means of a psychodrama session . Her daughter Ana (Sonia Bruno) was left by his mummy she was a four-year-old girl , then she joins her mother in the asylum , where the patient will undergo a psychodrama treatment and there are other highly neurotic characters . There , Ana meets the unsettling and drunk young Mario (Julian Mateos) , while Isabel meets again her old flame , the mature Julio (Francisco Rabal) . Things go wrong , and events lead to tragic consequences.

Agreeable but sad film with some dramatic elements including brief character studio who hold special peculiarities , regarding a few unfortunate roles with wrong conception of life and prejudices , but all of them need for love , and adding a heart-breaking ending . Some particular characters are attractive enough , while others result to be absurd and ridiculous . It contains intense drama , sadness and sensitive relation among main roles . This is an interesting film , dealing with the lives of the people in a repressed society , set during Francisco Franco period , and its consequences . Main cast is pretty good . Sonia Bruno gives a passable acting as the daughter who decides to accompany and help her mother at the hospital ; Sonia was doubtlessly one of the most famous Spanish movie star of the sixties , though eventually left cinema business for marrying footballer Pirri . Viveca Lindfors is nice as the disturbing mother who returns the location she abandoned long time ago to find his beloved relatives . Top-drawer Julián Mateos as the handsome and tormented alcoholic who bears a past sentimental conflict and resulting in fateful consequences . Francisco Rabal is magnificent , as always , as the middle-age man finding his old wealthy lover. Support cast is frankly excellent , such as ; José María Prada , Cándida Losada , Charly Bravo, Laly Soldevila , Enriqueta Carballeira , Gisia Paradís , Francisco Vidal , María Elena Flores , Ángel Menéndez , Lola Lemos , Valentín Tornos, Perla Cristal , Alfonso del Real, among others .

Adecuate and evocative cinematography in Eastmancolor by Juan Amorós . Shot on Rascafría, Guadarrama, Carretera de La Coruña,Los Molinos, and other places located near Madrid. Atmospheric and appropriate musical score by Antonio Pérez Olea .The motion picture was professionally directed by Miguel Picazo , though it results to be slow-moving , tiring and dull. The movie won some nominations and prizes as : Cinema Writers Circle Awards, Spain 1968 Winner CEC Award Best Actress : Sonia Bruno , Best Director Miguel Picazo; Fotogramas de Plata 1969 Winner Fotogramas de Plata Best Spanish Movie Performer Sonia Bruno ; Mar del Plata Film Festival 1968 Nominee Best Film International Competition. Filmmaker Miguel Picazo was born 1927 in Cazorla, Jaén and died in 2016 . He was a director and actor , especially known for ¨La Tía Tula¨ (1964), ¨Extramuros¨ (1985) and ¨Oscuros Sueños Agosto¨ (1968). He even directed to Timothy Dalton in ¨El Hombre Que Supo Amar¨ (1978) . And Picazo made a lot of of TV programmes as ¨Novela¨, ¨Los Libros¨, ¨Cronicas De Un Pueblo¨ and ¨Cuentos Y Leyendas¨ . Rating : 5.5/10.

This is a rather depressing story about a woman who suffers depression and returns to Spain from Venezuela, where she has been living with her wealthy lover. This woman, well played by a dubbed Viveca Lindfors, seeks treatment in an asylum which appears to be located near Madrid. Although they hadn't meet since she was a 4 years old child, her daughter (a dull Sonia Bruno) is not resentful, and joins the mother in the asylum, where the patient will undergo a psychodrama treatment. The plot revolves around both women's difficult relationships with their respective lovers, and the rich patients who surround the middle-aged (Viveca and Francisco Rabal) and young (Sonia Bruno and Julian Mateos) couples. Some other small characters which are quite interesting are patients such as a highly neurotic blonde bombshell actress (played by lovely Gisia Paradis), a bipolar and gossipy woman (Laly Soldevilla)...both providing a few very welcome camp humour relax moments to an otherwise very gloomy story. I liked the psychodrama session scene with Viveka and Rabal reenacting the scene that triggered her depression, and I think that the film was well handled, had good production values, good development of characters. Maybe the young couple lacked charisma, and some scenes were a little bit slow-paced. Francisco Rabal played his usual strong male-voiced masculine self, and if effective, I don't find him interesting. Viveca Lindfors was very compelling, and with her use of body and facial expressions managed to bring to life her not very appealing part of a depressed bourgeois housewife. Julian Mateos had a nice body at the time, and was OK as the tortured alcoholic and violent patient who seduces the visiting sweet Sonia Braga. Overall, a curious example of the Spanish attempt at a sort of new wave in the 1960's by the prestigious Miguel Picazo (La Tia Tula, 1964), and mainly recommended to Miss Lindfors' fans.