Patrimonio nacional (1981)

The action begins in Madrid in the spring of 1977. With the end of Franco’s regime, the Marquis of Leguineche ends his voluntary exile and returns to his Madrid palace, hoping to revive the splendid courtly life of days gone by... The trouble is that his lawful wife, Eugenia, Countess of Santagón, lives in the palace. A staunch Francoist, she lives in a bed on wheels (even though she can walk perfectly well) and observes the most extravagant customs. Although at first she does not want them there, she agrees out of consideration for her daughter-in-law, Chus, on three conditions: they must not set foot on the floor where she lives because “it is Nationalist territory”; Leguineche and his son, Luis José, must take care of the tax debt; and, finally, they must obtain a Knight of Malta or Holy Sepulchre title for Goyo, Eugenia’s servant and current lover. In fact, Eugenia has ended her relationship with Nacho, her official lover and a good friend of Leguineche, who does not seem to care much about the situation. Don José de Leguineche decides to have his wife legally declared incompetent so he can take control of her assets and finance the reconstruction of his dilapidated palace, for which he manages to secure only a loan of half a million pesetas. Luis José, for his part, tries to bribe the tax inspectors with a thousand duros. Álvaro, one of Eugenia’s nephews, shows up after being summoned by Don José to join the family council. To win him over to the division of the estate, the marquis offers him the villa in Biarritz that his wife owns. Eugenia learns of her husband’s plans from Nacho, her former lover, and demands that Nacho challenge him to a duel. Leguineche faces him in a duel, in which the unexpected victim is Eugenia, who dies when the shotgun she is aiming at the two of them explodes. And events take a very different turn...