The Ancines Woods

The Ancines Woods (Spanish: El Bosque del Lobo, lit. 'The Forest of the Wolf' also known as The Wolf's Forest) is a 1970 Spanish drama/horror film co-written, produced, and directed by Pedro Olea. It is based on the novel by Carlos Martínez-Barbeito, and is partially based on the life of Manuel Blanco Romasanta and his alleged lycanthropy.

The Ancines Woods
Original Spanish release poster
Spanish	El bosque del lobo
Directed by	Pedro Olea
Written by	Pedro Olea Juan Antonio Porto
Based on	El bosque de Ancines by Carlos Martínez-Barbeito
Produced by	Pedro Olea (uncredited)
Starring	José Luis López Vázquez Amparo Soler Leal Antonio Casas John Steiner Nuria Torray
Cinematography	Aurelio G. Larraya
Edited by	José Antonio Rojo
Music by	Antonio Pérez Olea
Production company	Amboto Producciones Cinematográficas
Distributed by	Universal Films Española
Release date	19 April 1970 (1970-04-19)
Running time	87 minutes
Country	Spain
Language	Spanish

Plot

The film focuses on Benito Freire, a lonely and miserable peddler whose world is dominated by ignorance and superstition. Wandering through various Galicia towns, he regularly suffers from severe attacks of epilepsy. Rumors about him begin to spread throughout the region, rumors that claim that Benito is both a werewolf and possessed by a demonic spirit. As the rumors about him continue to spread, Benito slowly descends into madness.

Cast

• José Luis López Vázquez as Benito Freire
• Amparo Soler Leal as Pacucha
• Antonio Casas as Abad
• John Steiner as Robert
• Nuria Torray as Avelina
• María Fernanda Ladrón de Guevara as Gabriela
• Alfredo Mayo as Don Nicolás de Valcárcel
• Víctor Israel as Lameiro
• María Vico as Queiruga
• Fernando Sánchez Polack as Vilairo
• Pedro Luis León as Minguiños
• María Arias as Mujer de Nicolás
• Porfiria Sanchíz as Vigaira
• Pilar Vela as Sabina

Production

El Bosque del Lobo is based on Carlos Martínez-Barbeito's 1947 novella El bosque de Ancines. The novella itself was partially based upon the life of Spanish serial killer Manuel Blanco Romasanta, who claimed to have suffered from lycanthropy. Development for the film began in 1969 when producer/director Pedro Olea was searching for his next project after directing his first film Días de viejo color (1968). Dissatisfied with the potential projects he was offered, Olea decided to produce and direct an adaption of Martínez-Barbeito's novella. Actor José Luis López Vázquez was cast to portray the film's main protagonist Benito. López Vázquez, who with the exception of Peppermint Frappé (1967) had mainly starred in comedy of manners films before being cast in the film, would later star in non comedic roles in films such as horror thriller La Cabina (1972).

Censorship

While writing the screenplay for El Bosque del Lobo, writer/director Olea was forced to tone down the novel's more explicit violence and negative portrayal of religion in order to avoid possible censorship, stating in an interview with Nuestro cine that, criticism had to be 'more indirect, subterranean, more through the tone of the films than the concrete situations they reflect'. In spite of this, the film was subject to censorship and was denounced by Spanish critics for its perceived anti-religious message and its denouncement of Spanish society of the time. It also received minor controversy when Admiral Carrero Blanco tried to prohibit the film from being released, after viewing the film in a private screening.

Film historian Román Gubern stated that "while the censors allowed the screening of graphic 'bloodsheds performed by British and Spanish Draculas', El Bosque del Lobo was made more palatable by severely softening the depiction of violence and brutality, therefore neutralizing the critique contained in the novel's 'study of criminal anthropology'".

Release

Theatrical release

El Bosque del Lobo premiered at the Valladolid International Film Festival in April 1970. The film was later screened in the United States at the Chicago International Film Festival in November 1971. It was later released theatrically in Spain on April 22, 1971. It was a critical and commercial success upon its initial release. The film was later screened on August 10, 2012; as a part of a tribute to writer/director Olea organized by the Concello de A Bola and the Vicente Risco Foundation.

Critical response and legacy

Modern reassessment of El bosque del lobo has been mostly positive, with critics now praising López Vázquez's performance and Olea's direction. In their book Performance and Spanish Film; authors Dean Allbritton, Alejandro Flórez Melero, and Tom Whittaker praised Vázquez's performance, writing, "In dramatically reshaping his usual intonation and diction for the role, López Vázquez's voice becomes snarling and inarticulate. His ramshackle appearance was as much of a radical departure as his vocal performance".

The film was not without its detractors. Antonio Méndez from AlohaCriticón.com gave the film a negative review, writing, "It could be interesting, but the plot is poor, it lacks strength, it has a love subframe and it sins of a scarce psychological treatment that focuses more on superfluous facts than on the sickly and interior emphasis of its characters."

The critical and commercial success of El bosque del lobo, brought widespread attention to director Olea, who would later go on to direct a series of films which included the 1992 adaption El maestro de esgrima (The Fencing Master) which received and Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Film.

Accolades

Award	Date of ceremony	Category	Recipient(s) and nominee(s)	Result	Ref.
Chicago International Film Festival	November 25, 1971	Best Actor	José Luis López Vázquez	Won
Valladolid International Film Festival	April 19, 1970	San Gregorio Prize	El Bosque del Lobo	Won

References

Bibliography

• Allbritton, Dean; Melero, Alejandro Flórez; Whittaker, Tom (2016). Performance and Spanish Film. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-7190-9772-0.
• Bentley, Bernard P. E. (2008). A Companion to Spanish Cinema. Boydell & Brewer Ltd. ISBN 978-1-85566-176-9.
• D'Lugo, Marvin (1997). Guide to the Cinema of Spain. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 88. ISBN 978-0-313-29474-7.
• Dyer, Richard (29 November 2015). Lethal Repetition: Serial Killing in European Cinema. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84457-926-6.
• Hammer, Tad Bentley (1991). International film prizes: an encyclopedia. Garland. ISBN 978-0-8240-7099-1.
• Hopewell, John (1986). Out of the past: Spanish cinema after Franco. BFI Books. ISBN 978-0-85170-188-2.
• Lazaro-Reboll, Antonio (20 November 2012). Spanish Horror Film. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-0-7486-3640-2.
• Perez, Jorge (16 June 2017). Confessional Cinema: Religion, Film, and Modernity in Spain's Development Years, 1960–1975. University of Toronto Press. ISBN 978-1-4875-1245-3.
• Schlegel, Nicholas G. (11 June 2015). Sex, Sadism, Spain, and Cinema: The Spanish Horror Film. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. ISBN 978-1-4422-5116-8.
• Senn, Bryan (6 February 2017). The Werewolf Filmography: 300+ Movies. McFarland. ISBN 978-1-4766-2691-8.
• St-Georges, Charles (20 April 2018). Haunted Families and Temporal Normativity in Hispanic Horror Films: Troubling Timelines. Lexington Books. ISBN 978-1-4985-6336-9.
• Vronsky, Peter (14 August 2018). Sons of Cain: A History of Serial Killers from the Stone Age to the Present. Penguin Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-698-17614-0.

External links

• El Bosque del Lobo at AllMovie
• El Bosque del Lobo at IMDb
• El Bosque del Lobo at Rotten Tomatoes