Juan Estelrich - El Anacoreta aka The Anchorite (1976)

In this tragicomedy, loosely based on a tale by Anatole France, Fernando Fernan Gomez plays a man who has locked himself away in the bathroom of his apartment in Madrid after furnishing it with various necessities. In a feeble attempt to communicate with the far-distant world, he flushes aspirin bottles filled with messages down the toilet, reasoning that they will reach the sea eventually. After almost a dozen years, one of his messages reaches someone who finds the idea of responding somewhat amusing. The "kept" mistress of a millionaire looks him up, and decides to seduce him...







A middle-aged man, Fernando Tobajas, decides one day to live the rest of his life in the bathroom, which has been modified so that it feels like a small apartment. He is a man who has renounced everything and his contacts with the world are reduced to the visits of family and friends and sending messages in bottles flushed on the toilet with the hope that someone will find them and know he exists. Arabel Lee, a beautiful girl, finds one of these messages, one in which this modern hermit reflects on San Antonio and the Queen of Sheba. Arabel decides to visit and play at being the Queen of Sheba, and get Fernando to leave the bathroom. The girl’s rich and elderly lover, who refuses to lose her, plots his own strategy...









Fernando Fernán Gómez interpreta a un "anacoreta laico", escéptico y socarrón en esta tragicomedia de Rafael Azcona, que logra redactar un sólido manifiesto visual de costumbrismo mágico y libertario. Un cuarto de baño es convertido en recinto poético de las utopías fracasadas (hay referencias al fracaso del marxismo) en el que Fernando Tobajas se aísla del mundo exterior, a medio camino entre el anacoreta clásico y el hikikomori de la era electrónica. Además del desencanto ante la posibilidad de una revolución política, el desenlace del film quizás también quiere representar el destino del artista y la imposibilidad de redención por el amor. Martine Audo (Arabel lee), una intérprete prácticamente inédita, viene a ser aquí algo así como la sombra moderna de Beatriz y proporciona las inevitables referencias al destape.






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