Baffled?
Some of our staunch reviewers seem lost, perhaps because they are not used to Spain, to the use of surrealism for conveying things that could not be said outright or to the very specific setting of this film among the rich in the year 1970.
Antonio, the protagonist, has grown up since the Civil War and under Franco's régime has made a lot of money. Among the props this had brought him are a big Mercedes and a glamorous mistress. So, at a basic level, we have a satire of the wealthy bourgeoisie. The father wants the number of the Swiss bank account Antonio has forgotten, his wife wants the combination of the wall safe he can't remember and his mistress wants the cheques he is unable to sign. There is even a sly homage to Charlie Chaplin's « Monsieur Verdoux » when Antonio tries to drown his wife.
Other levels of meaning are however on offer. Antonio's immobility and silence symbolise the deadly inertia of the dictatorship, going nowhere and having nothing to say. Or, to put it another way, not going where most Spaniards wanted to go and not letting their voices be heard. The terrible feeling of stasis, of a country without dialogue or any credible future, is enacted in the final shot of the beautiful garden where we see the whole family imprisoned like Antonio in separate wheelchairs, unable to communicate with each other.