A story that cannot be shown – Newspaper Kommersant No. 39 (7484) dated 03/07/2023

The Spanish director Cesc Gay’s comedy Stories You Can’t Tell was released, which is shown on Russian screens in a truncated form. That’s what I found most interesting about her. Julia Shagelman.

The name “Stories that cannot be told” in the domestic box office acquired a double meaning, which was clearly not intended by the creators of the picture. Director Cesk Guy, who specializes in light comedies about relationships, along with his co-writer Tomas Aragay, in five novellas, talks about those little secrets related to love, sex, self-doubt and partner, which are, perhaps, in everyone’s life, and asks question: is it really worth striving for truth and frankness in any situation, or is it sometimes better to remain in blissful ignorance?

The distributors of “History” had to answer this question. One of them turned out to be really impossible to tell in Russia: in connection with the adoption of a law banning “propaganda of non-traditional attitudes and preferences”, the second short story was cut from the anthology. At the same time, those that have survived are not very consistent with the traditional ideals of family and marriage. Although the relationships within them develop exclusively heteronormative, in each one someone is deceiving someone, someone is cheating on someone, or – in the most innocent versions – is silent about something, otherwise those collisions on which Cesk Guy builds his humor, it just wouldn’t happen. However, this humor cannot be called particularly sparkling: “Stories …” are designed not so much for laughter as for an understanding smile, and it all depends on how close the emotional throwing of the windy Barcelona residents is to the viewer.

The first short story is a variation of a bearded anecdote about a husband who suddenly returned from a business trip. Laura (Anna Castillo) and Alex (Chino Darin) live in the same building and meet in the park while walking their pets. Laura obviously has more than a neighborly interest in Alex, but he does not seem to notice her glances and hints at all. But her dog hurt her paw, and the young man offers his help. Laura invites him home, the treatment is followed by coffee and pleasant conversation. And here, of course, the husband (Javier Rey) appears at the wrong time. Nothing worth hiding from him has happened, but Laura panics and hides Alex in the bathroom. And while the situation comedy with locked doors and overturned cacti develops, he comes to unexpected conclusions about his feelings for both her husband and her neighbor.

The heroines of the next episode – three not-too-lucky actresses Blanca (Maribel Verdu), Carolina (Alexandra Jimenez) and Angela (Nora Navas) – meet at the casting. As they go out to smoke, they spot a man they all know, but one is much closer than the others. While Angela talks about her affair with him, the others listen to her attentively, but as soon as she moves away, it turns out that they did not believe a single word she said. This game of spoiled phone gossip and (b)judgment behind the back, covered with hypocritical smiles and encouragement, continues on and on until the time comes for the women to disperse.

The third story, perhaps more witty than the previous ones, also beats a far from original plot, but the authors managed to fit not even one, but two twists into 15 minutes. An elderly professor (Jose Coronado) meets a young mistress (Alejandra Onieva) in a cafe to have a serious talk, but both have completely different plans for this meeting, which ends up going according to a scenario neither of them envisioned.

The composition is crowned by a short tragicomedy about infidelity, mutual suspicions, inadvertent confessions, jealousy and forgiveness. Eduardo (Kim Gutierrez) and Sofia (Veronica Echegui) have been living together for a long time, raising a child and expecting a second one. The idyll is broken by Eduardo’s suddenly emerging sense of guilt about his betrayal. He longs to remove this burden from his soul and confess everything to his girlfriend, despite the advice of an experienced friend (Bryce Efe) that in such cases it is better to keep quiet. To Eduardo’s surprise, it turns out that Sophia is not at all happy with his revelations and, even worse, she herself has a couple of skeletons in her closet, the discovery of which makes the hero look at many things differently.

These short stories are not connected with each other except for the theme of truth and lies in relationships, so in terms of the general logic of the narrative, Russian viewers have not lost anything. But in the sense, for example, of the ability to independently decide what to watch and what not, one can hardly count on an understanding audience smile.