CANICHE
(POODLE)
Dir. Bigas Luna, 1979.
Spain. 90 min.
In Spanish with English subtitles

Brother and sister Bernardo (Ángel Jové) and Eloisa (Consol Tura) lead a cloistered existence in a crumbling Catalan mansion where they subsist on the charity of their wealthy aunt as they await the inheritance they’ll receive from her death. They lavish their attention and affection on their pet poodle Dany, sublimating erotic desires onto their canine companion. Dany is the witness to and the victim of their downward spiral of debasement, which only accelerates as their financial fortunes grow.

Bigas Luna’s odyssey of the perverse continues in CANICHE, a provocative and perturbing dissection of the incestuous, cannibalistic and bestial bourgeoisie.

“…\\[CANICHE is\\] the spiritual sister of the John Waters films FEMALE TROUBLE (1974) and DESPERATE LIVING (1977). The first three Bigas Luna films are just as corrosive, free-spirited and punk as Waters’ films from the seventies; they seduce us with a dirty realism -very pop- which turns beautiful and causes Stendhal syndrome.”
—Xavi Sánchez Pons

Special thanks to Santiago Fouz-Hernández, Carolina Sanabria and Casilda García López.