Alfredo Landa, who died last week, was iconic in the world of Spanish cinema as a comic Everyman, lending his name to a style of popular comedy - landismo. Like Norman Wisdom in the UK or Jerry Lewis in the US, Landa played the common man, who, for all his follies and petty obsessions, remains true to himself (and the leading lady). He rebels against authority not because he is a rebel by nature but because only by rebelling can he retain integrity, and he gets the girl in the final reel. However Landa, like Wisdom or Lewis, also showed his talents as a serious dramatic actor. In 1984 he was chosen by Mario Camus to play the lead role of Los santos inocentes, a peasant farmer whose innate … [Read more...] about The tragic struggle of the loser on the Vespa