La cabina is an Emmy award-winning, 1972

1972 in film

The year 1972 in film involved some significant events.-Top grossing films :- Awards :Academy Awards:*Avanti!, directed by Billy Wilder, starring Jack Lemmon and Juliet MillsB...

 film directed by Spanish

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 director Antonio Mercero

Antonio Mercero

Antonio Mercero is a Spanish director of the series Verano azul and later Farmacia de guardia. He is best known as the director of a 1972 surrealist short horror film titled La cabina, that won an Emmy Award...

, and written by him and José Luis Garci

José Luis Garci

José Luis Garci is a producer, critic, TV presenter, writer, screenwriter and film director in Spanish cinema. He earned worldwide acclaim and his country's first Best Foreign Language Film Oscar for Begin the Beguine...

. The film starred José Luis López Vázquez

José Luis López Vázquez

José Luis López Vázquez de la Torre was a Spanish actor. -Career:López Vázquez was born in Madrid. He originally worked in theater as a costume designer, a scenic designer, and as an assistant director to Pío Ballesteros and Enrique Herreros. In 1946, he switched over to film, with a small role in...

.

In the 35-minute film, a man becomes trapped in a telephone booth, while passersby seem unable to help him.

Plot

The film opens with an unnamed company installing a phone booth in the middle of a square. Later, a man takes his son to the school bus. He enters the phone booth to make a call and the door slowly closes behind him. The man realizes that the phone doesn't work, so he tries to leave only to discover that the door is stuck. He tries desperately to get it open, but nothing works. Eventually two business men come by and try to help him out, but to no avail. This gathers the attention of many passer-bys who begin to congregate and watch the action. Several people (including a strong man, a repair man and a police officer) try to open the door but it remains stuck. Eventually a firefighter tries to break open the glass roof of the phone booth when the phone booth company appears. They unbolt the booth and take the booth (with the man inside it) away on their truck. The crowd cheers and gladly waves the man away. The man watches frantically as he is carted across town. He tries to scream for help from people, but everyone just smiles and waves. Eventually the truck stops next to another truck also carrying a man stuck in a phone booth. The two men try to communicate but cannot. After many hours the truck arrives at a massive underground warehouse. The phone booth is lifted up in the air by a giant magnet and the truck drives away. The phone booth is carried by a forklift through the warehouse, which is full of phone booths containing mummified remains of other trapped citizens. The man struggles in fear but cannot escape. The forklift drops him and leaves. The man looks to his right and sees the trapped man he saw on his way to the warehouse who has strangled himself with the fake telephone cord. The man collapses out of frame in despair. The film ends with the phone booth company setting up a similar booth in the same park.

Trivia

In recent years, a Spanish TV advert parodied the film with the same actor in a telephone box on an isolated moor, but this time managing to escape. It was an advert for Retevision

Retevisión

Retevisión is a Spanish telecommunications company and a subsidiary of Abertis.- History :Retevision was born in 1989 as a public company, a division of the national public Radiotelevisión Española...

, a newly created company that meant the end of monopoly for former state agency Telefonica

Telefónica

Telefónica, S.A. is a Spanish broadband and telecommunications provider in Europe and Latin America. Operating globally, it is the third largest provider in the world...

, and liberalisation of the telecom market in Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

.

External links

• Chaotic Cinema - Summary and lots of still images