Esperando la carroza (Waiting for the Hearse in Spanish) is a 1985 Argentine comedy film directed by Alejandro Doria. Now considered a Cult Classic, it originally opened on 6 May 1985 to lukewarm reviews.
The story belongs to the criollo grotesque (costumbrismo) genre of black comedy. It's based on the play of the same name by Jacobo Langsner, premiered by the Comedia Nacional company in 1962. It stars some well-known Argentine and Uruguayan actors such as Antonio Gasalla, China Zorrilla, Luis Brandoni and Betiana Blum. It's considered a classic in Argentina, and its reruns on TV still draw large audiences. A sequel came out on April 2, 2009, 23 years after the original film's release, but it failed to achieve the success of the original and it's suffered Fanon Discontinuity.
The plot, set during a typical Argentine Sunday family lunch, revolves around the Musicardi clan having to deal with their mother, Mamá Cora. The four siblings, Nouveau Riche Antonio, middle-class Sergio, Jorge and Emilia don't know what to do with their aging, meddling mother, so they shuffle her around until Jorge and his wife Susana get stuck with her. One day, Susana decides she's had enough of her mother-in-law screwing up her cooking and interfering with her newborn baby, so she storms into Sergio and Elvira's house. They are rather busy getting ready to meet Antonio and Nora; none of them really tolerates each other, but Sergio and Elvia enjoy sucking up to Antonio and Nora to stay in their good graces (and maybe get some money from them.)
Meanwhile, after getting screamed at by Susana, Mamá Cora decides to leave the house for a while till things cool down. She happens to run into a neighbour, Dominga (whose house is right in front of Sergio's), who asks her to look after her child because she has to visit her mother-in-law at the hospital. Once the family realises Mamá Cora is gone, they realise their mistake and start to desperately search for her. Some time later, one of Antonio's "contacts" calls them to inform that they have found the body of an elderly woman who just threw herself under the train. Guilt-ridden, they go to the morgue and recognise their alleged mother's corpse by her shoes, since her face is unrecognisable. They notify the rest of the family, friends and neighbours and proceed to have a wake at Sergio's home. Looking from the terrace of Dominga's house, Mamá Cora realises there's a hullaballoo at Sergio's and decides to check out what's going on...
A masterclass in Black Comedy and a biting Satire of family relationships, it's become one of the most quoted and beloved comedies in Argentina and Latin America, even spanning a Portuguese TV series titled Querida mãe ("Beloved mom") and a Brazilian remake called A Guerra Dos Rochas ("The War of the Rochas").
This film provides examples of:
- '80s Hair: Especially Elvira, Dominga and Matilde's friend Pocha.
- Adaptation Expansion: The movie's Mamá Cora has more dialogue compared to her stage counterpart.
- A Family Affair: There are subtle hints of Unresolved Sexual Tension between Sergio and Nora, and towards the climax of the film, Susana tells Nora she's seen them leave a Love Hotel together, and has kept the secret since. Susana also alludes to Elvira cheating on Sergio, but this is never proven true.
- Age-Gap Romance: We never find out Jorge's exact age, but Susana is 32 years old, and her husband is the oldest of three middle-aged brothers.
- An Aesop: The caption of the Freeze-Frame Ending that shows Mamá Cora and the other old people from the neighbourhood hurrying to the Hungarian lady's funeral reads A nuestros viejos queridos ("Dedicated to our elderly loved ones/dear old folks"), implying that the moral of the story is that we should take good care of our aging relatives. We never know when they'll be gone.
- The Alcoholic: Renowed comedian Enrique Pinti plays Felipe, the family drunkard, usually seem stumbling around in a drunken stupor and hiding booze around Sergio's house during the wake, until he sees the supposedly dead Mamá Cora and gets scared straight. Furthermore, Cora's late husband apparently couldn't hold his liquor and beat her up when he got drunk.
- Attending Your Own Funeral: Mamá Cora thinks there's a family reunion at Sergio's, but it turns out to be her own funeral. Hilarity Ensues when the family tries to keep her from finding out.
- Big, Screwed-Up Family: Overlapping with Dysfunctional Family, the strained relationships between the richer and poorer siblings, the unwillingess to care for Mamá Cora, the implied ties of Antonio to the last dictatorship and the reveal of Nora and Sergio's affair turn the family reunion into something rather dark.
- Big "WHAT?!": Sergio lets out a loud "WHAT" when Elvira reveals Mama Cora is alive and well in Matilde's bedroom.
- Bird-Poop Gag: A case of
Throw It In!, the pet parrot Elvira has craps on her hand:Elvira: You'll see, she's gonna bring her home.Nora: [rubbing her aching head] Who?Elvira: Susana.Nora: Who?Elvira: What do you mean, who? The hag! You just wait, she'll bring the corpse here.Nora: Do you think she'll dare do that?Elvira: Don't you know her?? But you don't know what I'm capable of, either! I swear I'll throw the corpse and Susana out the window! Nobody laughs at me![the parrot cackles]Elvira: [upset] God I'm so... what a disgrace! I'm mortified. It's so horrible, living around such brute and uncultured people! [puts her hand underneath the parrot]*splat*Elvira: [serious] The parrot shat on me. [Nora gasps] - Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Both Nora and Elvira qualify, being nosy and critical of everyone around them, including each other.
- Black Comedy: And how! From Antonio cracking jokes about torture methods, to Cora fondly reminiscing her abusive late husband, to the farcical slapstick comedy with the casket, the humor in this movie is as dark as it gets.
- The Brute: Emilia's son Cacho (played by
a young Darío Grandinetti) is seen playing football with some children when Sergio and Antonio visit them in the slums to ask about Mamá Cora. Dimwitted, gross (he's picking his nose) and slurring his words, he can barely recognise his uncles. When the children annoy him with the ball, he takes out a switchblade knife and stabs their leather ball, deflating it. - Business Trip Adultery: Dominga claims having to visit her ill mother-in-law at the hospital... while wearing a strapless top without a bra and dousing her cleavage with perfume.
- Christianity is Catholic: Latin America is mostly Catholic, and so Mamá Cora's "funeral" is full of people praying and reciting Hail Mary.
- Compromising Call: Elvira calls her neighbour in order to ask her to save some water for her ravioli, since their water supply is cut. When she calls back to say they can go fetch the pan with water, Matilde picks up ("Its the annoying hag from next door!!!") and leaves. Elvira thinks the phone's hung up properly, so she proceeds to criticise her neighbour for always copying her Sunday meals while she's still on the line, eliciting an Oh, Crap! moment when Sergio informs her she hasn't hung up. When Elvira picks up the phone...Elvira: [flustered] Did she hear that? Oh God, I hope she didn't...
[picks up the phone, looks shocked and hangs up]Elvira: [disgruntled] She did. - Contrived Coincidence: When Mamá Cora is told that they're attending the funeral of a dead Hungarian woman (while sneaking the casket away from Sergio's home), she thinks it might have been an acquaintance of hers.Mamá Cora: [as she's leaving the house] Wait... do you think she's the same Hungarian woman I knew?Elvira: But Mamá Cora... IS THERE ANY DOUBT!?
- Creepy Uncle: Antonio is seen checking out his niece Matilde more than once. Nora also playfully fondles her breasts and says "You've grown up!". In the sequel, his incestuous leering is directed towards Matilde's daughter, his great niece.
- Death Notification: When one of Antonio's police contacts calls the family to inform they found the body of an elderly woman who threw herself under the nearby train.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: From Mamá Cora justifying her alcoholic husband's Domestic Abuse and abusive childhood treatment of her offspring, to the pathetic treatment of Mamá Cora; to Sergio's absolute laziness (he doesn't even bother to pick up the phone, ordering Elvira to do it), the affair between Sergio and Nora and the hush-hush surrounding Antonio's shady past, modern Argentinians are probably embarrassed by the manners of the Musicardis.
- Digging Yourself Deeper: When Susana tells Nora that two years ago, she saw her leave a Love Hotel with Sergio, she describes her clothes. When Nora repeats what she said...Nora: Just because two years ago you saw a woman wearing black sunglasses, a black handkerchief and a black cape...Susana: I didn't mention a black cape...Nora: [realising her mistake] Yes, you did...Susana: No, I didn't... [wide-eyed] Yes, now I remember! You were wearing a black cape!Nora: [remorseful] B-but, it's over now!
- Dirty Cop: Antonio is implied to be one. Elvira and Sergio's daughter Matilde openly says at one point that "Everyone knows Uncle Antonio got rich helping the pesada!" note
- Dirty Old Woman: While the Musicardis decide what to do with the ongoing funeral, Mamá Cora is seen ogling at Sergio's dirty magazine Matilde was checking out before.
- Domestic Abuse: The patriarch of the Musicardi family got drunk and beat Mamá Cora and the children up.
- Dramatic Irony: The Musicardis believe Mamá Cora jumped under a train, but the audience knows she just went out for a walk and ended up in Dominga's house, right in front of Sergio's.
- Driven to Suicide: What the Musicardis think happened to Mamá Cora after they're told the body of an old woman was found in the train tracks.
- Elder Abuse: While Mamá Cora isn't physically abused, she's definitely mistreated by Susana when she reaches her Rage Breaking Point, and usually yelled at by most people. The plot does make a case for the elderly who (in Latin America as well as in Spain and Italy) are usually cared for by their families rather than being sent to a nursing home; but the overall neglect and mistreatment Cora receives is telling.
- Failed a Spot Check: If Nora, Elvira and Matilde had just looked up at the 'annoying old lady' trying to call their attention from a neighbouring terrace, no one would have assumed Mamá Cora was dead.
- Faint in Shock: Emilia faints when the police call to tell the family the old lady they're mourning is actually a Hungarian woman who committed suicide and left a note.
- Freeze-Frame Ending: The film ends with Mamá Cora and the elderly people of the neighbourhood hurrying to attend the Hungarian woman's funeral, while a children's song plays in the background. See An Aesop.
- Friend on the Force: Antonio's shady "contacts" in the police inform him of the dead old lady found in the tracks. One of the men he asks for is in jail, probably due to being involved in the last dictatorship. Then, he has a friendly exchange with Benigno note :Antonio: Benigno! They let you out of prison!? Good to know! Justice has been served.
- Foreshadowing: as soon as Nora sees Sergio they flirt back and forth; she gives him a generous look at her cleavage and then she even calls him "My unforgettable lover!" right in front of everyone. Later, their affair is confirmed by Susana, who tells her sister-in-law she saw them leave a Love Hotel together two years ago.
- Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: Or rather, woman, as Susana hysterically screams her complaints about Mamá Cora to the whole family, the men (including her husband) have to remind her it's their mother she's talking about. Of course, they haven't had to deal with her... problems like Susana has, while also looking after her baby girl.
- Gratuitous French: Whenever the neighbourhood's French teacher Doña Gertrudis is around, you'll hear her say something in French. Even if it's completely out of place like saying Voilá! when Antonio calls his friend asking about the dead Hungarian woman, but nobody has heard of her at the police station.
- Hilariously Abusive Childhood: When Cora is fondly reminiscing her late husband, she mentions: Antonio getting beat up, Jorge being starved, and Sergio being locked in a room as punishment. But according to her, that was good childrearing and they all turned out fine!
- Hypocritical Humor: One of the most quoted parts of the film. When Antonio comes back from talking with some relatives he says the following to Sergio:Antonio: [while wolfing down an empanada] What misery, man, what misery! Do you know what they had for lunch?Sergio: [looking at him eat] Empanadas.Antonio: [making the number 3 with his fingers] Three. It broke my heart. Three empanadas leftover from yesterday for two people. My God, you can't do much to help people... The only thing you can do is not think about it. Fortunately my siblings have enough to get by.Sergio: I don't think so...Antonio: But yours is a dignified poverty!Sergio: What about Jorge? And Emilia? They do know what poverty is.Antonio: Yeah, yeah... but theirs is a dignified poverty![camera pans out to show a sticker on Antonio's windshield: an Argentinian flag and the phrase "You have the right to live free." note ]
- Innocently Insensitive: Mama Cora might have Susana and her child's best interest at heart, but telling a harried mother who can't get her child to stop crying that the problem might be her breast milk is not a good move.
- Large Ham: Everyone chews the scenery to their heart's content. Susana and her hysterical screaming take the cake.
- Law of Inverse Fertility: Antonio and Nora can't have children, although she claims to adore them. Sergio and Elvira have teenage Matilde, whereas Jorge and Susana have recently had a baby. Matilde snidely remarks that Antonio might be the problem...Nora: I love children. Maybe that's why God made me infertile... [Susana and Jorge roll their eyes]Matilde: But have you seen a doctor? Sometimes the man is the faulty one... [gives a sideways glance to Antonio]Sergio: [outraged] Where did you get that from?Antonio: [threateningly] I'm not faulty, darling...Matilde: And how can you be sure? Just because you can ejaculate doesn't mea-Sergio: What are you talking about? You sound like a hooker!
- Lazy Husband: Both Sergio and Jorge are shown lounging around while Elvira and Susana work around the house. Sergio barks at Elvira to pick up the phone; Jorge is more of a Henpecked Husband, but doesn't lift a finger to look after his newborn daughter.
- Lethal Chef: Mamá Cora ruins the mayonnaise Susana was making because she thinks she's making flan for the baby. This drives Susana over the edge.
- Little Miss Snarker: Matilde. Also the little boy who delivers a funeral wreath.
- Madwoman in the Attic: the made-up relative Dominga claims to be visiting (she's actually going to meet her lover):Dominga: I gotta go see my mother-in-law, she's in hospital.Mamá Cora: Isn't she dead?? Your mother-in-law??Dominga: [putting on a sexy strapless top] I meant... her sister.Mamá Cora: Porota?? Porota's in hospital??Dominga: [exasperated] No, it's a sister you haven't met.Mamá Cora: The one I haven't met is Dolores. She's in hospital?Dominga: No, Mamá Cora... [whispers] It's a feeble-minded one they've kept hidden for twenty years.
- Mirthless Laughter: After all is said and done, and Elvira and Nora hypocritically claim to always have great fun together so they should meet again next Sunday, the movie ends with Susana staring at nothing and hysterically laughing to herself, because she knows things will never be the same for the Musicardi family:Elvira: And what are you laughing at!?Susana: [laughing and sobbing at the same time] I'm laughing at you... [looks back at them] I'm laughing at all of us.[cut to Mamá Cora leading the rest of the elderly neighbours to the funeral]
- N-Word Privileges: A rather metafictional example; Elvira says at one point, "They kicked out the old woman, as if she were a rabid dog! What are we, blacks? To be so savage? Or Jews? To have no religion?" While Elvira seems to be an average Argentinian of mainly Spanish and Italian ancestry, Jacobo Langser, one of the screenwriters, was Jewish.
- National Reorganization Process: There are plenty of allusions to Antonio being connected to the last dicatorship.
- Obnoxious In-Laws: The Musicardis straight up hate each other.
- Of Course I'm Not a Virgin: Matilde tells her father Sergio "Don't tell me you think I'm still a virgin!" after she snarks to Antonio that he might be infertile, even if he does ejaculate. Sergio asks Elvira: "Did you hear that!?" and she replies from the other room: "SHE JUST MEANS SHE'S NOT DUMB!! RIGHT??". Matilde mockingly says "Yeah, sure mum..."
- Old Maid: A rare male example with Jorge, who was the last to get married and have children out of the three brothers, despite him being the eldest. In his own words, he "married old" to a younger woman and is still getting used to living with his wife and child instead of just his mother.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Well, Elvira's not 100% a villain, but she makes... less than savoury comments.Elvira: [eating icecream with Nora and Matilde] They kicked out the old woman, as if she were a rabid dog! What are we, blacks? To be so savage? Or Jews? To have no religion?[referring to the dead Hungarian old woman] Elvira: Damn Communist, she should have stayed in her country!
- Porn Stash: Matilde snarks to Sergio that she learnt about sex from "those magazines you keep in your nightstand!" Later she's seen with her friend Pocha reading that same magazine, and finally Mamá Cora is reading it with interest too!
- Potty Failure: One of Mamá Cora's issues that pushes Susana over the edge.Susana: [hysterical] What's worse, lately she's been soiling herself!Sergio: Soils herself?Elvira: Soils herself how?Susana: She shits herself![Elvira and Sergio grimace]
- Rambunctious Italian: Taking into account the fact that millions of Italians emigrated to Argentina during the early 20th century, and that the family is called Musicardi, this is a given. Expect lots of yelling and dramatic reactions from everyone.
- Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: Mamá Cora isn't dead at all; her grief-stricken children mistook a Hungarian woman's corpse for hers, since the poor woman had jumped under a train and her face wasn't recognisable.
- Scatterbrained Senior: Mamá Cora, of course.
- Sinister Shades: Antonio sports a pair of Ray Ban glasses usually associated with the police and military forces.
- Stop Copying Me: Invoked by Elvira, who accuses her neighbor of always cooking the same lunches she does, in one of the most famous lines of the movie.Elvira: I make stew, she makes stew. I make ravioli, she makes ravioli!
- Suddenly Shouting: Used very frequently in the movie.
- The "Fun" in "Funeral": The Musicardis have no peace during Mamá Cora's funeral, first being told it's actually a Hungarian woman, then being told it's not, and then having Mamá Cora show up alive and well.
- Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: Absolutely nobody in the film is a nice person, with the exception of Mamá Cora.
- World of Jerkass: Again, very typical of the sainete brand of Rioplatense black comedy, none of the characters are pleasant.
