The marzipan representative Manolo (Sacristan), the dentist Román (Rafael Alonso) and the antiques dealer Serafín (Vazquez) who suffers from a serious problem as a result of an infantile trauma: in his imagination, he always sees beards on beautiful women. In order to try to cure him, a couple of friends take Serafín to Biarritz (France) but their actual intention is to cross the Pyrenees to see the erotic films that are prohibited in Spain. That is why the protagonists of the movie, as a result of the repression they suffer in their own country, must go to the south of France to see "Last Tango in Paris" , ¨Clockwork Orange¨and other productions banned in Spain because of its high erotic content. All of them arrive in Biarritz to see the famous films banned by General Franco's censorship and to flirt with the French women. After being attracted to the owner of the hotel (Trini Alonso) where they stay, Serafín awakens the sympathies of the maid Paula (Nadiuska), a very decent Spanish woman who works in France to save money and be able to open a haberdashery in Segovia.
A silly, mischievous and disconcerting comedy with the best Spanish performers at the time. Director Vicente Escrivá provides an amusing and entertaining film about three mature and lively men who try to watch nude movies, flirt, have fun, even though two of them are married, but of course things go wrong for them . They are the following ones: a shy, single, somewhat-repressed antiquarian, a womanizer representative and an obsessed dentist .It is a justly underrated and anodyne choral comedy of entanglements, adulteries, messes and deceptions with multiple crazy characters particularly represented on the main characters played by José Sacristán, Rafael Alonso and special mention for José Luís López Vázquez who has the essential role as the timid single who falls in love for the good maid sympatically played by Nadiuska. The large number of movies banned in Spain during the last years of General Franco makes travel agencies organize collective excursions, the so-called "cinematic Weekends". That's why during Franco's dictatorship everything related to sex, especially in movies, magazines, or books was strongly censored. To see them first in the French border cities and later after the "Claveles Revolution" also in the Portuguese ones. This curious phenomenon reaches such popularity that its advertising is prohibited in the Spanish press, but it is the origin of this production, written in collaboration, produced and directed by Vicente Escrivá with its usual ups and downs, but it becomes one of the most successful Spanish comedies previously to the Transition. In Lo verde empieza en los Pirineos(1973) we watch the posters and frames from Last tango in Paris by Bernardo Bertolucci, Inga by Joseph W. Sarno , La Masseuse Perverse (Clinic exclusive) by Don Chaffey, Clockwork Orange by Stanley Kubrick. Despite being a short-term film, it has become a minor classic of seventies comedy, thanks to showing the sexual repression of that era and showing the situation, thoughts and experiences of the men at that time. It has even been referenced in films such as: Torremolinos 73 (2003), Azuloscurocasinegro (2006),"Aída" in the episode: We Are a Happy Family (Episodio de TV 2007).
The motion picture was regular but amusingly directed by Vicente Escrivá. The film was winner Prize 1973 of the National Syndicate of Spectacle Best Film , rank: 4th place. Vicente Escrivá was a writer , producer and director , known for successful films throughout a long career with hits as Balarrasa (1951) , Sor Intrépida (1952) , Un Traje Blanco (1956) , Montoyas and Tarantos (1989) , 2 films starred by Rafael : El Angel , El Golfo , and 3 starred by Maria Rosario Omaggio : Visanteta Estáte Quieta , El Virgo De Visanteta and La Lozana Andaluza . He also made some TV series such as : Lleno Por Favor , Manos a La Obra , Farmacia De Guardia , and Réquiem En Granada at his best . Rating : 5.5/10 . The pic will appeal to José Luís López Vázquez , José Sacristán and Nadiuska fans.
