★ 7 / 10
Tragic and sensitive love story , stunningly danced , dealing with a woman is cursed by a bewitched love
ma-cortes
This is the story of an Andalusian gypsy woman called Candela (Cristina Hoyos) living in Cadiz slums . It regards a haunted young girl being mysteriously…
This is the story of an Andalusian gypsy woman called Candela (Cristina Hoyos) living in Cadiz slums . It regards a haunted young girl being mysteriously harassed by his ex-husband Jose (Juan Antonio Jiménez) and every night she goes to the place where his old lover died to dance with his ghost . It starts with a bloody confrontation between a violent man and a passionate gypsy , both of whom are dueling for the heart of a pretty young girl , Lucia (Laura Del Sol) , Jose's lover . As Jose has dead in a razor fighting , although Candela affection goes on . The Jose's ghost is still obsessed with Candela's soul . Carmelo (Antonio Gades) is accused of killing , subsequently imprisoned and years later he is released and then declares his love for Candela. However, the woman goes on cursed by the bewitched love and every night she goes to the place where José died to dance with his ghost.This is the exciting story about two men confront for the heart of the same woman . Having been based on a ballet, the movie does use dance extensively , particularly in some rather striking and eerie dream sequences . The movie version appears partially to modify this plot, largely removing the ghost angle and turning the story into two lovers, one good and one evil, competing for the same woman. Movie is based on a ballet and music by prestigious Manuel De Falla concerning a woman in an arranged marriage who loves another man . When her husband dies , she thinks she's free to pursue her true love, but the husband's ghost refuses to let her go, and she must find a way to get rid of him to win her true love . However, the ghost angle does not appear to have been jettisoned completely ; at the beginning of the movie, she thinks her husband is dead and that his reappearance is that of a ghost. There are other two versions about this play : 1949 Bewitched Love by Antonio Roman with Ana Esmeralda, Manuel Aguilera , Miguel Albaicín , Elena Barrios and 1967 by Francisco Rovira Veleta with Antonio Gades , La Polaca , Rafael de Córdoba.It is directed with a striking visual sense and very well acted. So it's definitely a more cultured affair than most of the Spanish movies. It is fundamentally a tragic melodrama with ballet scenes , that's why it is musically riveting , it is almost, also , perfect and laced with glimmer photography , particularly shown on the spectacular and sensitive dancing set pieces . I was able to enjoy many of the visual elements, in fact this one results to be the quintaessential Dance film , featuring brilliant and frenetic choreography and embellished thanks to its chromatic aesthetic and a high-caliber Flamenco score , including songs sung by the greatest : Rocio Jurado , adding sensual re-creations of love , passion , betrayal , and jealousy . Freely based on ¨El amor brujo¨ , as the film filled out the story with spoken dialogue , but nevertheless used the entire score of the ballet , along with additional songs and dances performed by characters in the film. El Amor Brujo (Love, the Magician, literally, Spell-bound Love or The Bewitched Love, sometimes translated as Wedded by Witchcraft) is a ballet composed in 1914-15 by Manuel de Falla to a libretto by Gregorio Martínez Sierra . In 1916, Falla arranged a rendition of the work for sextet and small orchestra and the following year he made a concert version, also for small orchestra . Later, he fashioned a piano suite from it and finally , a second ballet version (1925) that features expanded orchestration, elimination of the narration, small cuts and plot changes, and a different order to the numbers . The work is distinctively Andalusian in character with the songs in the Andalusian Spanish dialect of the Gypsies. The music contains moments of remarkable beauty and originality ; it includes the celebrated "Danza ritual del fuego" (Ritual Fire Dance), "Canción del fuego fatuo" (Song of Wildfire), and the "Danza del terror" (Dance of Terror) . As the entire location knows about the haunting , but still brands Candela as crazy because she dances every night with her husband's ghost ("Danza del terror") . Candela, now a widow, is free to establish a relationship with Carmelo, but continues to be haunted by her husband's ghost . As Candela gets advice that a ritual dance is necessary to cast the ghost off ("Danza ritual del fuego"), but it does not work . The great quartet starring formed by four splendid dancers : Antonio Gades , Cristina Hoyos ,Juan Antonio Jiménez , and Laura del Sol are really fabulous .This splendid motion picture was compellingly directed by Carlos Saura.
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★ 8 / 10
Fine musical with great dancing.
rmax304823
I'm kind of surprised at the number of mostly negative reviews this film has generated. Of course this is nothing more than a ghost story with an essentially…
I'm kind of surprised at the number of mostly negative reviews this film has generated. Of course this is nothing more than a ghost story with an essentially silly plot. (So was Hamlet.) That served as no impediment to the success of "Dona Flor and her Husbands", although in that case Sonya Braga's beauty was a big help. And it didn't stop "Ghost," a shameless ripoff, from being a huge hit either.
The performers here are admittedly overage for their parts. It's disgraceful that they couldn't look like Brad Depp or Angelina Roberts. I hid my eyes when their faces appeared on screen.
What gall the producers had, presenting these splendid artists/athletes in their middle years. I only say that in the certainty that I will never know the meaning of the word "wrinkle." And the sets! Revolting. Clearly a stylized stage setting. The chutzpah! Why couldn't they have made the movie in San Francisco or sunny Miami where everyone has a suntan? No play with so many bare bones as a background can possibly be any good, as "Waiting for Godot" and "Our Town" proved long ago.
Still I find myself enjoying the music and the dancing, even to the point of being swept up in it. A lot of people seem to think that enduring music began in Europe with Bach and ended here with Charles Ives. We don't hear a lot about De Falla, who is much better known in Hispanic America. "El Amor Brujo" contains what I think of, at least, as his most entrancing tunes. Some of them are kind of naughty. (I rather like that.) And I am thrilled when I see people with outstanding, almost unearthly psychomotor skills exercise them, whether on the football field or the dance floor. I understand that what we see here is not "pure" flamenco, whatever that adjective means, but there is a basic difference between, say, Sonny Rollin's or Gene Kelly's or Paul Taylor's approach to music, on the one hand, and that of a flamenco musician or dancer on the other. The former would be tickled pink to be able to play an instrument or move his body in a way that nobody ever had in the history of humankind. A traditional flamenco artist would be perfectly satisfied to play, sing, or dance exactly the way his grandfather had. The singing, yes, sometimes sounds like the wailing of a cat in heat. It's supposed to, I would guess. All that Moorish repression of female sexuality.
I once saw Sugar Ray Leonard at his peak, shadow boxing for a few minutes, and the grace and perfection of his movements gave me goose pimples. So do some of these performances. I wouldn't have missed them.
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