A Matador's Mistress

nice costumes, great cast. and a lot of crumbs. the sin of film is the lost of story. nothing coherent, few poetic images, many good intentions and a fake result - too pink, too kitsch, too unrealistic. the solutions are many for save the story. but the great problem is the absence of a clear project. it is a film about corrida and a legendary matador, about love and infidelity, about the vulnerability of a hero but nothing profound - only a large collection of sketches without a real purpose. for Adrien Brody and Penelope Cruz the film is only occasion for another role. but that is the basic problem. why that actors for a confuse project ?a film like many others. not bad. only uninspired.

Since, after all, a movie is meant to be seen by an audience, I don't get what the director Meyjes expected from his work "Manolete".

Indeed, the "aficionados" (i.e. corrida-lovers) can only feel outraged by the huge amount of falsities and distortions, concerned with both life and personality of the actual Manolete, that one finds in the movie. On the other hand, the large majority of people, being corrida-haters, will be uninterested, if not deeply bored, by a straightforward love story of a torero and his mistress, worth of a cheap XIXth century novel. (The actual love story of Manolete and Lupe Sino was much more psychologically intriguing than the stuff shown in the movie.)

Speaking of the movie, the photography is fine, and the costumes are beautiful. The jobs of Brody as the torero and Penelope Cruz as Lupe Sino are acceptable. There is some very short but interesting 1940s footage of the true Manolete fighting in the plaza de toros. However, the film badly fails in recreating the atmosphere of Spain in the years after the civil war.

Indeed, the inaccuracies of the movie are really dismaying. Lupe Sino is surprised seeing that a torero wears pink socks. C'mon! It's like showing a young American woman not knowing that football players wear helmets! Manolete enters a crowded hall, participates to parties, and everybody ignores him. C'mon! It's like seeing Michael Jordan unnoticed at a meeting of basketball fans! Manolete's popularity was literally unbelievable all over the world, among common people, as well as among big time politicians and major cinema stars, that fought to have him at their social events. A couple of instances. When Manolete died, Winston Churchill sent a personal message of condolence to his mother. The Mexican government was forced to cut some scheduled corridas, since people didn't buy food to save money for the tickets of Manolete's bullfights (source: "Time Magazine" year 1946).

The movie also contains a number of so obvious clichés, like the torero's greedy relatives, or the fatuous and hypocritical catholic priests, or the incompetent doctors (this latter a really dirty slander!), etc. Of course, to know something of the actual Manolete, you have to neglect the character shown in the movie, and rather read some of the dozens of books dedicated to him, even in very recent years. Indeed, I bet that in this very moment someone is writing a book on the legendary torero.

The portrait made of Lupe Sino is liable of aggravated defamation. Forget that Lupe was much younger and more beautiful than Cruz, and that, obviously, she was an aficionada, contrary to the character of the movie. Forget that Lupe was a smiling, sweet-tempered, cheerful girl, deeply in love with her man, contrary to the perpetual ferocious grudge against everybody and everything shown by Cruz's "Lupe". What is unacceptable is that the film- maker turns her into an unfaithful, spiteful, foul-mouthed bum.

As far as I know, the movie "Manolete" was badly unsuccessful, as predictable. I didn't like it.

I don't understand the bad reviews. Perhaps its because A MATADOR'S MISTRESS taps into psychological sexual themes that are too close to home for some viewers? Penelope Cruises persona as the only person who truly understood Manolete (Adrian Brody) is a very deep concept. Too deep for most viewers I guess. Brilliantly played out and a must watch.

Pretty disappointing. I came in knowing nothing of bullfighting or the life of Manolete and I left knowing a little more of Manolete and no more about bullfighting.

The film was slow and uncertain about its focus. Brody and Cruz who I think are exceptional actors in other works are flat and have zero chemistry. Brody in particular made the protagonist quite unlikeable and difficult to root for. It's beautifully shot but feels like it's missing crucial parts. It did succeed in peaking my interest though, the seeds of a fascinating world and a fascinating relationship were sown and I bought a book about Manolete.

I'm not really into Spain or bullfighting. So if this this movie just appealed at first for the dynamic Penélope, finally, it totally hooks me.

The first great thing is the talent of Adrian Brody. It's true as Pené said that he the most beautiful ugly man but he exudes such humanity that he is also the most underrated actor! Here, he is totally convincing as a legendary sportsman and shy boyfriend.

Next, the director (a newcomer for me) is talented as well: he has a great "eye" and offers totally stunning and poetic visuals: I like how he plays with Spain flag, with the washing as the red cape for the bull. He does the same parallel with love and bullfight. At the end, the use of revolving doors enhances a lot the drama. His cinematography is vivid, full of colors and we can really appreciate the Spanish culture (thus, I realized that it keeps its Arabic history as well).

At last, the two big themes (passion, bullfight) are depicted like a mystic experience. It's not just a simple romance but a burning love and bullfight is beyond sport, it's a tradition. So, as our two lovers are passionate but also defective, the movie heads full speed at a tragedy and the editing is totally right as it ticks like a clock, balancing with the past and present.

It's true that my French DVD is only 88 minutes and the movie is dynamic without time-out.

In conclusion, it's a superb surprise and I urge even the anti bullfight to watch it because it's not a absurd slaughter!