Mama Turns 100 (Mamá cumple cien años) is a 1979 film from Spain directed by Carlos Saura.
It is a sequel to 1973 film Ana and the Wolves, with most of the cast of that film reprising their roles. Ana (Geraldine Chaplin), now married to Antonio, returns to the family estate where she worked as a governess for a rich family some years ago. Mama, the matriarch, has turned 100, and Ana has been invited to the party.
One of Mama's three sons, Jose the army officer, has died in the years that Ana has been away. Another son, Fernando, still lives with his mother; Fernando the idiot is trying to learn how to hang glide. The third son, Juan, is absent because he has abandoned his wife Luchy. Luchy still lives in the family home and is unofficial manager of Mama's estate, although she seems to have ulterior motives. Those ulterior motives have to do with the mansion and the family hilltop estate. The family wants to sell the house and the land to developers, but Mama, who actually owns the property, refuses to cooperate.
Tropes:
- Big, Screwed-Up Family: Luchy has been dumped by her husband Juan, who has taken a mistress. Fernando is a nitwit who still lives with his mom. Natalia (Luchy and Juan's daughter) is a Shameless Fanservice Girl who seduces Antonio. And oh by the way, Luchy, Juan, Fernando, and Luchy and Juan's daughter Carlotta are conspiring to murder Mama, so they can sell off the house and estate.
- Canon Discontinuity: The extremely dark ending to Ana and the Wolves has the three brothers (the wolves) rape and murder Ana. This film opens with Ana still alive.
- Foreshadowing: An early scene demonstrates that there are bear traps scattered around the hilltop. Later, Ana steps into one, an incident that triggers a reconciliation between her and Antonio.
- Flashback: Ana remembers Jose, in a scene that is illustrated with a clip from Ana and the Wolves.
- Gratuitous English: The weird telepathic conversation between Mama and Ana is made even weirder when, for no reason at all, Ana starts replying to Mama in English. Mama telepathically tells Ana "Te quiere" ("He loves you", referring to Antonio), only for Ana to answer "He doesn't show it" in English.
- Love Triangle: Ana's marriage is put to the test when Antonio embarks on a passionate affair with Mama's gorgeous granddaughter Natalia (played by Miss Universe Amparo Munoz).
- Magical Realism: It's mostly a realistic setting—but Mama appears to be a telepath, as shown when she has telepathic conversations with both Ana and Fernando. She also has an omniscient knowledge of everything that happens in the house, as shown when she somehow knows every detail about the plot to murder her.
- Self-Harm: Victoria, the youngest of Luchy and Juan's three daughters, harms herself by smashing her finger in a door. It's not really explained why she does this.
- Sequel: To Ana and the Wolves, with Ana coming back to the estate where she used to work.
- Shameless Fanservice Girl: The family has found some old trunks filled with clothes. Natalia discovers a see-through mesh top. She strips off from the waist up to put the lingerie on, which no one notices. But when Luchy does notice Natalia in the mesh top and yells at her, Natalia angrily whips it off, leaving her topless in front of the whole family and making Luchy yell at her even more.
- Stealing from the Till: Juan, Luchy, and Fernando have a reason to murder Mama that goes beyond sheer greed. They have been embezzling from the family fortune, which is now gone, and worse, they face imminent exposure. One scene shows Luchy and Carlotta cooperating to forge Mama's signature on a document.
- A Storm Is Coming: Mama relates a dream in which a terrible storm came through the mansion and wrecked everything. At the climax when Mama dies, just such a storm blows up out of absolutely nowhere.
- Tableau: A very weird, surrealistic scene at the climax. Mama goes into a seizure at her birthday party, and this time she dies. Then all the lights go dark. The actors freeze in place. The actors remain frozen in the dark as a clap of thunder is heard, followed by, for whatever reason, the sound of a helicopter. Then the noise goes away, the lights come up, the actors start moving again, and Mama comes back to life.
- This Is What the Building Will Look Like: Luchy has a model of what looks like a large housing development, planned to be built on the land that Mama stubbornly refuses to sell.
- Title Drop: An early scene has Ana asking Luchy "Mother is turning 100?"
