Life Marks

Set in industrial Spain, this subtle variation of the 'cuckoo in the nest' story is distinguished by a clever, observant script on the theme of sibling rivalry and by its smoothly confident direction. It's powered, too, by the gripping, controlled performance of José Coronado, as Pedro, with his mysterious past, who returns after 14 years to visit his now married brother Fito (Sanz). Fito can't keep up the payments on his lorry and is trying to keep secret from his wife his destructive downhill slide at the local gaming table. Meanwhile, the confident, fastidious, highly elegant Pedro (everything Fito is not) impresses Fito's wife with his considerate treatment of her son. Urbizu captures the manners and mores of his working class/criminal characters with something of Jacques Becker's easy élan, and shows he's learnt a trick from Buñuel in twisting the psychological knife.