Details

Release year: 1999

Storyline

The frustration and vital weariness of Michel des Assantes, a prestigious plastic surgeon in Paris, is unbearable: he has a wife whom he does not love, a son who is foreign to him and friends whom he despises but, at the same time, he is incapable of taking his own life. One day, he buys a bike from a bizarre cyclist who was to make the Paris-Timbuktu route and sets out to make the journey: then, Timbuktu becomes for him the Promised Land.

Top credits

Directors

Luis García Berlanga

Writers

Cast

Michel Piccoli — Michel des Assantes
Concha Velasco — Trini
Amparo Soler Leal — Encarna
Juan Diego — Boronat

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Did you know

• Final movie of Luis García Berlanga.

• During a conversation, Gaby, the character played by Javier Gurruchaga, asks Michel if he has ever heard of Luis Buñuel and he answers that he has not. In real life, Michel Piccoli worked with Buñuel on several films.

• When Concha Velasco found out that Luis García Berlanga was preparing this film, she knew that she was facing her last chance to work with him. She spoke to his wife, Maria Jesus [Manrique] and, following her advice, she went to the audition with all her body hair dyed fuchsia, including her pubic hair. First, she tried to convince and seduce the director by showing him her breasts, as the script demanded. "Berlanga didn't like people who had surgery, so I stripped and told him, 'Touch, touch (my tits), they're hard as a rock!'" - Velasco recalled. It wasn't enough, so the actress took off the rest of her clothes. When the director saw her all fuchsia and naked in front of him, he said: "You're chosen, daughter, one day it had to happen." So Velasco got the role and Berlanga canceled the commitment he had already made with Stefania Sandrelli for the role of Trini.