The Grandfather (El abuelo) is a 1998 film from Spain directed by Jose Luis Garci.
The story is set in the early 20th century. Don Rodrigo, Count of Albrit, comes back to Spain after spending years in Peru, mining for gold. As it happens, he lost his fortune in Peru and is nearly penniless. Don Rodrigo is the father of Don Jaime, who died of heartbreak after the collapse of his marriage to his younger bride Lucrezia. Don Rodrigo gets to know his granddaughters, Dolly and Nelly, but his relationship with Lucrezia is extremely frosty. In an extremely uncomfortable meeting, Rodrigo blames Lucrezia for his son's death, and he reveals an unpleasant surprise. Before his death, Don Jaime wrote a letter meant for Lucrezia, in which Jaime said he knows that one of his two daughters with Lucrezia is actually the product of Lucrezia's extramarital affair—but he doesn't say which one. Don Rodrigo confronts Lucrezia with this, and demands that Lucrezia reveal which of the two girls is his real grandchild.
Tropes:
- Dead Sparks: When Jaime pours champagne for a toast Lucrezia says, with heavy sarcasm "To eternal love—to the short time it lasts." Lucrezia says she knows Don Jaime married her for her money. Whatever happened in the past, Jaime seems to love Lucrezia now and tries to reach out, but she rebuffs him.
- Death by Despair: Apparently what happened to Don Jaime, as Rodrigo says to Lucrezia. He says that after Lucrezia cheated on Don Jaime and broke up with him, Don Jaime got sick and made no effort to get any care, just laying in bed until he died.
- Feet-First Introduction: Dolly and Nelly are in the forest playing games, trying to see if they can see or hear God. Nelly points and says "God!", and the camera reveals two nice shoes tromping through the leaves of the forest. It's their white-bearded grandfather Rodrigo, back in Spain after many years in the Americas.
- Grave-Marking Scene: Don Rodrigo visits the grave of his wife Adelaida, dead many years. He talks to her about his need to find out which of the granddaughters is actually his.
- Hey, You!: Dolly's talk of how she and her grandfather can live in the big house leads Venancio and Gregoria to point out that actually, they own the house. When Venancio says "Understand, Dolly?", Dolly says "Señorita Dolly", before she points out that while Venancio and Gregoria own the house, Lucrezia still owns the land around it, so Venancio and Gregoria had better do what they're told.
- I Cannot Self-Terminate: Pio Coronado wants to throw himself off the cliff, but he doesn't have the guts to jump, so he asks Don Rodrigo to push him. At the end Don Rodrigo almost does it, but Dolly shows up on the cliff in the nick of time.
- Impoverished Patrician: Don Rodrigo was a Count, and the biggest landowner in the area. Now he's flat broke. The people of the town still treat him with deference, but he's clearly a charity case.
- I Was Quite a Looker: The girls are looking at an old painting of their grandfather and talking about how much older he is now. Their caretaker Gregoria says it happens to everybody. Gregoria, now in late middle age, says "You should have seen me when I was 18!" and talks about how all the boys chased her.
- Leave the Camera Running: The opening scene, where Jaime and Lucrezia come back from the theater only to have a nasty argument, runs eight minutes without a cut.
- Let the Past Burn: The opening sequence ends with Lucrezia, who has decided that her marriage with Jaime is finished, throwing his old letters to her in the fireplace.
- Locked Away in a Monastery: Lucrezia attempts to do this with her inconvenient father-in-law, getting the town fathers to put Don Rodrigo in the monastery. Through sheer bluster and aggression, he gets the monks to open the door and let him out.
- Malicious Misnaming: Don Rodrigo, who dislikes the smarmy Don Senen, keeps calling him "Zenon", even after Senen repeatedly corrects him.
- Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: Apparently one of Lucrezia's daughters was the result of an extramarital affair. Don Rodrigo is consumed with the desire to find out which of the girls is his real granddaughter. A disgusted Lucrezia refuses to tell him.
- Nouveau Riche: Don Senen, who long ago was a servant to Don Rodrigo, but who since is enough of a Self-Made Man that he's earned the "Don" title. Rodrigo dislikes him, although that's partly out of jealousy and partly because Senen is an outrageous suck-up.
- Obsessive-Compulsive Barkeeping: Don Rodrigo barges into the local inn and tells the rich patrons gathered there, who include the mayor and the town priest, how much they suck. As he unleashes his volley of insults, the bartender can be seen busily wiping a glass while he listens closely.
- Perfumigation: Don Rodrigo, who dislikes Senan, tells Senan to keep his distance because "It's just that you're wearing a perfume that stinks." Later Lucrezia, who gets along with Senan much better, still tells him to keep his distance because of his smelly perfume.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Don Rodrigo finds the people who tried to lock him up in the monastery at an inn, and hurls an immensely satisfying one at them. He points out that the mayor used to steal his wine, the priest is a glutton, and the doctor is a quack (and his father was a rapist), and oh by the way, he, Don Rodrigo, paid for all their stuff along with everything else in town back when he was rich.
- Shout-Out: Don Rodrigo says he really likes William Shakespeare, and recites "To be or not to be, that is the question" from Hamlet, in English.
- Sword Cane: At the end Don Rodrigo asks Pio Coronado to kneel, and then pulls a short sword out of his cane. He uses it to "knight" Pio as his friend.
- Voiceover Letter: As Don Rodrigo burns the old letter from Lucrezia to her lover in the fireplace, it plays over the soundtrack. While she speaks of the child she and her lover had, she does not say a name.
