Ocho apellidos vascos

Ocho apellidos vascos
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Emilio Martínez-Lázaro
Written by	Borja Cobeaga Diego San José
Starring	Dani Rovira Clara Lago Carmen Machi Karra Elejalde
Cinematography	Gonzalo F. Berridi Juan Molina
Production companies	LaZonaFilms Kowalski Films Telecinco Cinema
Distributed by	Universal Studios
Release dates	14 March 2014
Running time	98 minutes
Country	Spain
Language	Spanish
Budget	US$3 million
Box office	US$78.7 million

Ocho apellidos vascos (English: Eight Basque Surnames), known as Spanish Affair in English, is a 2014 Spanish comedy film directed by Emilio Martínez-Lázaro.^[1] It premiered in Spain on March 14, 2014. Six weeks after its release, it became the second biggest box office hit ever in Spain, behind Avatar.^[2]

Plot

Rafa (Dani Rovira) has never left his native Seville, Andalusia, until he meets a Basque girl named Amaia (Clara Lago), who resists his seduction techniques. Against his friends' advice, he follows her to Euskadi after she stays the night in his house and forgets her purse. A series of misunderstandings forces Rafa to impersonate a full-blooded Basque with eight surnames (Gabilondo, Urdangarín, Zubizarreta, Arguiñano from the father and Igartiburu, Erentxun, Otegi and Clemente from the mother.), and he gets more and more entangled in that character in order to get his way.

Cast

• Dani Rovira as Rafael "Rafa" Quirós/Antxon
• Clara Lago as Amaia
• Karra Elejalde as Koldo
• Carmen Machi as Merche/Anne
• Alberto López as Joaquín
• Alfonso Sánchez as Curro
• Lander Otaola as Borroka
• Abel Mora as Pedro
• Aitor Mazo as Father Inaxio
• Aitziber Garmendia as Iratxe
• Miriam Cabeza as Edurne
• Santi Ugalde as Kepa
• Los del Río as themselves

Box office

The weekend of its premiere, the film gathered an audience of 404,020 which resulted in box office grossing of 2.72 million euros.^[3] On its second weekend its grossing increased by 56%, third best behind The Impossible and Avatar in its first ten days with a total 4.4 million euros.^[4] By April it became the most watched Spanish film in Spain with more than 6.5 million viewers and the second film with the greatest box office grossing in Spain, only behind Avatar, with a box-office of more than 45 million euros (more than 62 millon dollars).^[5] It has grossed US$77 million in Spain^[6] and a total of US$78.7 million internationally.^[7]

Critical reception

The critics were divided about the film, but were mostly positive. For magazine Cinemanía, Carlos Marañón stressed that the movie was "extremely funny ".^[8] This comment was repeated in many reviews that highlighted the film is "funny",^[9] and for some, "inspired and bright".^[10] Federico Marin Bellon journalist of ABC, spoke of a "brave and timely movie",^[9] highlighting another aspect, the opportunity of its theme, which has also been emphasized by most critics who often compared it to the French film Welcome to the Sticks. For El País, Borja Valero even predicted it could be the movie of the year.^[11]

Regarding the actors, in general, the work of the cast has been well received by critics .

On the negative side, Luis Martínez from El Mundo, said that the film is "a bad comedy "^[12] while Jordi Costa, from daily newspaper El País, said the development was irregular and ended catastrophically. Fausto Fernandez, in the magazine Fotogramas, labeled it as impersonal and described its development as flat.^[13]

The film has a 6.2 average in FilmAffinity and 6.9 on IMDb.

Awards and nominations

Awards	Category	Nominated	Result
II Premios Feroz[14]	Best Comedy		Nominated
	Best Supporting Actor	Karra Elejalde	Nominated
	Best Supporting Actress	Carmen Machi	Nominated
	Best Trailer		Nominated
29th Goya Awards[15]	Best Supporting Actor	Karra Elejalde	Won
	Best Supporting Actress	Carmen Machi	Won
	Best New Actor	Dani Rovira	Won
	Best Cinematography	Kalo Berridi	Nominated
	Best Original Song	"No te marches jamás" by Fernando Velázquez	Nominated

Sequel

A sequel, Ocho apellidos catalanes (English: Eight Catalan Surnames) was released on 20 November 2015. Emilio Martínez-Lázaro repeated as director and Borja Cobeaga and Diego San José repeated as screenwriters. The original cast was joined by Berto Romero, Rosa Maria Sardà and Belén Cuesta. ^[16]

References

1. Holland, Jonathan. "Spanish Affair (Ocho apellidos vascos): Film Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 17 November 2014.
2. "A ‘Ocho apellidos vascos’ solo le queda por delante ‘Avatar’; EL PAÍS". Cultura.elpais.com. 2014-04-28. Retrieved 2015-01-10.
3. por José A. Romero. "‘Ocho apellidos vascos’ coge la ola de ‘lo posible’ - El Corso". Elcorso.es. Retrieved 2014-04-27.
4. elcorreo.com. "'Ocho apellidos vascos' revienta la taquilla. El Correo". Elcorreo.com. Retrieved 2014-04-27.
5. "‘Ocho apellidos vascos’ duplica su taquilla en su segundo fin de semana | Cultura | EL PAÍS". Cultura.elpais.com. 2014-03-24. Retrieved 2014-04-27.
6. Scott Roxborough (2014-12-22). "Box Office: 8 International Hits That Challenged the Studio Tentpoles". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2014-12-22.
7. Nancy Tartaglione and David Bloom (January 10, 2015). "‘Transformers 4′ Tops 2014’s 100 Highest-Grossing International Films – Chart". deadline.com. Retrieved January 10, 2015.
8. Cinemanía. "Ocho apellidos vascos". Retrieved 12 May 2014.
9. Diario ABC. "Crítica de "Ocho apellidos vascos" (***): Euskadi tiene un sabor especial". Retrieved 12 May 2014.
10. La Vanguardia. ""8 apellidos vascos": Bienvenidos al norte". Retrieved 12 May 2014.
11. El País. "España/Euskadi: la película". Retrieved 12 May 2014.
12. El Mundo. "Por fin unas risas con el País Vasco".
13. Fotogramas. "Ocho apellidos vascos". Retrieved 6 June 2014.
14. "Lista de nominados a los Premios Feroz 2015". Premios Feroz (in Spanish). 17 December 2014. Retrieved 8 January 2014.
15. "Candidaturas - Ocho apellidos vascos". Premios Goya (in Spanish). Retrieved 8 January 2014.
16. El País. "‘Ocho apellidos catalanes’ se estrenará el 20 de noviembre".