I had never heard of the play. I found this film to powerful for some of the same reasons the other people criticize it, particularly the claustrophobic feel. I wasn't sure I would watch the whole thing because it was such a disturbing/depressing story, but I ended appreciating the film very much by the end. Excellent casting, performances, and set design. This movie evoked real anger from me. Projection and denial are nasty human afflictions, and this film conveys that superbly. I don't know if that was the goal of the original play, maybe the film maker took liberties.

Especially if you've read the play, a lot of what the play does is explicitly gone against in the movie. For example, one key thing about the play is the absence of men, especially the absence of Pepe el Romano, yet throughout, there are silhouettes etc.. Also, ***SPOILER HERE*** at the end, as Adela is crying and thinking and going all slow-mo before killing herself, ALSO goes against the nature of the play. We're not supposed to know what's happening until we hear the loud noise offstage.Those are two key points. There are other stuff that's in the movie that wasn't in the play and vice versa, and it kind of takes away from the symbolism that Lorca utilizes in his play. Lorca is VERY symbolic and poetic, and by changing those parts, it ruins the movie.

Federico Garcia Lorca's play "La casa de Bernarda Alba" was one of his best theatrical creations. Mario Camus, a Spanish director, seemed to be a natural to bring the play to the screen. Unfortunately, what comes out on the movie is not exactly what one envisioned of a Garcia Lorca work.First of all, this is a film devoid of the poetry Garcia Lorca gave to the play. The somber atmosphere Mr. Camus insisted in giving the movie doesn't help things either. The tension between the mother and her daughters doesn't appear to be as deeply rooted. The basic fault of the film is that even though one realizes it is filmed theater, the movie feels more claustrophobic than it should be. To make matters worse, the DVD we saw recently, has one of the poorest translations of any foreign film, as only the beginning of a speech is seen subtitled, then, nothing more is added, leaving non Spanish speakers in limbo, trying to guess what was a character saying.There was a production of this play in Spain in the years that followed Franco's death in which the Bernarda Alba character was played by a man, Ismael Merlo, who made a sensational Bernarda by playing her straight. That production was done in a white set with everyone dressed also in white. That vision of the play is still vivid in our mind and this film pales in comparison.

A theater/film full of the obsessions of Garcia Lorca. The martial/marital order established into a female's family in the '900. Ana Belen is wonderful, and her mother... go to see her, but thinking you are at the early century... in Spain...