Glass Ceiling

1971 [SPANISH]

Drama / Horror / Mystery / Thriller

IMDb Rating 6.3/10 10 407 407

neighbor psychological thriller voyeur

Director

Eloy de la Iglesia Photo
Eloy de la Iglesia

Top cast

Carmen Sevilla Photo
Carmen Sevilla as Marta
Rafael Hernández Photo
Rafael Hernández as Empleado
Fernando Cebrián Photo
Fernando Cebrián as Carlos
Javier De Campos Photo
Javier De Campos as Repartidor

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by thalassafischer 6 / 10

Ambiguous Spanish Giallo

The Glass Ceiling is not among my favorite giallos but it is a decent film. A middle aged couple with no children live in an apartment building in Spain, and the husband often travels for work while the wife stays at home with her cat. At first it appears she is bored and overly imaginative - suspicious of her attractive landlord who is also a talented sculptor and owner of two pit bull dogs, as well as her strikingly beautiful upstairs neighbor who keeps insisting her husband is out of town, too, and that her fridge is broken.There is a pretty good mystery here with twists and turns but I found the ending overly ambiguous.
Reviewed by ma-cortes 6 / 10

Disturbing thriller/drama by Eloy De La Iglesia , in which a woman becomes involved into strange happenings in his apartment building

The film takes place in a country building , where various tenants live . After her hubby (Fernando Cebrián) leaves the house for business issues , Marta (Carmen Sevilla) remains alone . She then hears rare noises above her and thinks about the woman called Julie (Patty Shepard) who lives there -also alone- has killed her own husband . Weird events happen and Marta begins investigating . There shows up Richard (Dean Selmier) , the bachelor landlord who dedicates himself his sculpture hobbies . There is also the ordinary depraved delivery young (Hugo Blanco) who delivers supermarket supplies for the tenants living there and the beautiful young girl Rosa (Emma Cohen) who falls for the allegedly down-to-earth Richard . ¨Glass ceiling¨ contains locked-room mysteries , eerie atmosphere , emotional thrills , suspense , brief nudism , and a little bit of gore . This is a highly mysterious and cerebral thriller , filled with plot twists , morbidity , disturbing scenes , including an unexpected denouement in its final part . Psychological mystery-thriller with Giallo and morbid elements , being surprisingly good and compellingly directed . It includes an enjoyable description about rural life including several farm animals , such as : Pigs, cows , dogs and horses , all of them are part of the background of this thrilling movie . The original as well entertaining premise , -in which Marta is left alone in the house and start occurring strange incidents- , is overspread across the movie adding some brief conventional pitfalls . This picture belongs to a quartet of peculiar thriller films by Eloy De La Iglesia dealing with ¨Love and Death¨ , they are the followings : ¨Semana Del Asesino or Cannibal Man¨ , ¨Una Gota Sangre Para Seguir Amando or Clockwork terror¨ and ¨Nadie Oyo Gritar or No One Heard the Scream ¨ , being written by Antonio Fos and Eloy De La Iglesia himself . The cast is frankly good formed by notorious Spanish actors playing characters who will become entangled in a complex spider's cobweb . Stars Carmen Sevilla as the solitary , anxious woman whose husband is out and while her imagination begins to work creating a dark and corrupt world , Carmen gives one of the best interpretations of her long career ; her neighbor who lives in the apartment above her is well played by Patty Shepard , and the sculptor who spends most of his time in his studio working on his sculptures was nicely performed by Dean Selmier . And a very nice support cast such as Fernando Cebrián , Encarna Paso , Rafael Hernández , Emma Cohen and Hugo Blanco as the perverted deliverer . Evocative cinematography by Francisco Fraile who creates an ugly environment and restless atmosphere . Fraile was a fine cameraman , working for the best filmmakers as Vicente Aranda , Leon Klimovsky and Eloy De La Iglesia . Being shot on location in Cubas de la Sagra, Madrid, and Piedralaves, Ávila, Castilla y León, Spain. The motion picture was professional and strangely directed by Eloy De La Iglesia in his fourth film , though containing some flaws and gaps . The movie achieved some prizes such as : Cinema Writers Circle Awards, Spain 1971 Won CEC Award Best Actress : Carmen Sevilla , and Fotogramas de Plata 1972 Best Spanish Movie Performer : Carmen Sevilla . Eloy Iglesia studied cinema in Paris at the IDHEC . He began working in cinema in 1966 , though he became famous in the years of the Spanish transition to the democracy with provoking films . Drugs, delinquency , terrorism and generational problems are the common subjects in his films . Iglesia was a prolific writer/filmmaker , after directing 21 films in 20 years (1966/1986) he stopped due to drug addiction , a problem that he seemed to control it until his early death at 62 . De La Iglesia is a good Spanish movies director , he began working in cinema in 1966 , though he became notorious in the years of the Spanish transition to democracy with shocking and polemic films as ¨El Pico 1 and 2¨ , ¨El Diputado¨, ¨The priest , ¨Clockwork terror¨ , ¨Los Placeres Ocultos¨ , ¨The other bedroom¨, ¨La Semana Del Asesino¨ , and finally ¨Bulgarian lovers¨ , among others . And ¨Turn of a Screw¨ in which Eloy Iglesia gives an unexpected academic and charming version , abandoning his ordinary provocation . Homosexuality , perversion , classes differences are the habitual subjects in his films , and specially dedicated to the underworld of heroin ; as well as the gay world . Passing of time hasn't had no mercy with most of Eloy's movies , but they represent a time and a way of life in the history of Spain ; and now they may seem a little bit ingenious . Eloy De La Iglesia chose young and natural actors to play his films , such as Jose Luis Manzano , Antonio Flores , Pirri , or Quique San Francisco were the usual ones . Most of them early deceased by drugging , including the filmmaker himself . ¨Glass Ceiling¨ Rating : 6.5/10 . Well worth watching .
Reviewed by Bezenby 6 / 10

Milky!

Despite being almost devoid of action this Spanish giallo keeps you wondering right up until the end just what the hell is going on. Plus, it's not about how women only get so far in their careers in the world of cigar chomping fat businessmen, but rather what happens when housewives get bored while their husbands are away working. And what do bored housewives do? That's right - they suspect each other of murdering their husbands.Marta is that very woman. She lives in an apartment complex with her husband and cat, but mainly the cat as the husband is off working. Above her lives Patty Shepherd and her husband Viktor, and while bored Marta speculates what is going on above her, listening to Patty's footsteps, then her husband's. Strangely, Patty states the next day that her husband has been away working, so who was upstairs. And who is taking pictures of both Patty, Marta, and Rosa, the girl who delivers milk to the milfs?Not only do we have a few suspects kicking about (the moody sculptor/landlord, the horn dog supermarket guy...err...that's it really) but we also have a huge number of ways to dispose of a body about the place too. So if Patty did murder her husband, as Marta quickly suspects, then the body could have either been fed to the pigs out back, or fed to those dogs who are strangely off their regular food, or even thrown into the furnace that the sculptor has. Or maybe even stashed in Marta's own fridge, seeing that Patty's always asking to store meat in there!I suppose the fun lies in wondering if Marta should maybe take up some sort of hobby instead of wondering what her neighbours are up to, or whether she's right and Patty has killed her husband, or even if the sculptor is up to something. The plot only gets more complex as it goes on as nothing is really revealed until the last few minutes, and even then you might be left wondering what happened after the film. Not bad at all.Patty Shepherd (also known as the Barbara Steele of Spanish horror) is rather good as the chirpy and possibly sinister neighbour (Shepherd stalkers take note: she does a bit of nude sunbathing). The most sickening bit for me was when Rosa the milk maid drank milk directly from a cow's teat - blech!
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