AllMovie

A man who lost everything he held dear because of the movies discovers that only the movies can give him back his life in director Lorenzo Llobet Gracia's landmark drama. The time is the turn of the century. An expectant mother is watching a demonstration of a revolutionary motion pictures machine when she suddenly goes into labor and gives birth to her first child right on the spot. That child, named Carlos, grows up wanting to learn everything there is to know about the movies. Eventually, Carlos (Fernando Fernán Gómez) procures a camera and begins producing his very own films. Upon hearing news that the Spanish Civil War has erupted, the ambitious filmmaker sets out to capture the first images of combat. Later returning home to discover his wife dead, the unfortunate victim of a sniper's bullet, Carlos wonders whether there's any reason to go on living. Only the movies can save Carlos now, and after a life altering encounter with Hitchcock's Rebecca everything comes into focus for the grieving widower.