Sara Montiel
The amazing story of Cifesa, a mythical film production company founded in Valencia by the Casanova family that managed to dominate the box office during the turbulent times of the Second Spanish Republic, the carnage of the Civil War and the hardships of the long post-war period and Franco's dictatorship — and survive until the sixties, when Spain was timidly beginning to change.
Born in Campo de Criptana, a small village in the Spanish region of La Mancha, Sara Montiel (1928-2013) conquered Mexico, Hollywood, and the hearts of people. The recognition of an unparalleled professional career, an intimate dialogue with a tireless worker who took the stage at the age of twelve and never got off. A movie star who seduced millions of viewers around the world, a singer who reinvented a musical genre, a woman who broke the mold…
In the beautiful hills of the Copper Canyon in Chihuahua, Mexico, a young boy (Emilio) is adopted by the mailman (Teo). As part of their daily tasks, they not only deliver the mail but read letters to the villagers, as well as take dictation, since most are illiterate. Young Emilio quickly learns to read and write but feels saddened by the mostly difficult stories sent by relatives, that moved north to Denver, Colorado in pursuit of a better future. One day Teo becomes disabled and Emilio takes over the mail route and with great imagination, he changes the letters to happy and optimistic stories. Within days, the village is transformed. The elders, once hopeless, lonely and sad, are now happy and enthusiastic, enjoying the "supposed" success their loved ones write from the United States. But the enjoyment is short lived, as they realize that all the wonderful stories are the same...
The story of Enrique Herreros (1903-1977), cartoonist, advertiser, poster designer, talent manager, actor, producer and filmmaker, and the most daring of mountaineers; the man who, along with his companions from the so-called “other Generation of '27,” brought Hollywood to Madrid's Gran Vía, turning a grey and sinister post-war city into the capital of an incipient and ambitious cultural industry.
Two children, Ignacio and Enrique, know love, the movies and fear in a religious school at the beginning of the 1960s. Father Manolo, director of the school and its professor of literature, is witness to and part of these discoveries. The three are followed through the next few decades, their reunion marking life and death.
Ana, a girl who is about to get married, discovers in her boyfriend's house a photograph in which her mother, dead at birth, and her future father-in-law appear in a very affectionate way.
Spain 1930s. A troupe of performers travel from city to city entertaining audiences and earning a living. The cast includes a magician, a ventriloquist, muscle men, dancers, singers and a full orchestra. The star of the show is Carmen Soler (Trini Alonso) a celebrated singer, now way past her prime, who refuses to retire gracefully and defends her stardom ruthlessly. On her shadow lives and works Ana Marques (Sara Montiel) a younger singer who dreams of the big time and patiently waits for her break.
Barcelona 1967. The pop culture revolution. Jordi (Patrick Bauchau) is a rich playboy who runs around with a bunch of high-end hippies, smoking, drinking, dancing and daydreaming about Tuset Street, an effort to develop a popular street in the newer section of Barcelona after the models of Haight Ashbury Street in San Francisco and Carnaby Street in London. Jordi and his gang represent the new Barcelona, wealthy, artificial and striving for imported sophistication. On the older side of the city is El Paralelo, the theater district. At El Molino, one of its many music halls, performs Violeta (Sara Montiel), a showgirl in the old style tradition who supplements her singing income with prostitution. Somehow Violeta represents the old values, the "real world" living along side an artificial creation such as Tuset.
Sara is the daughter of a fisherman. She leaves her small village but she goes to Madrid to work as a flamenco singer in a club
Isabel is a beautiful aspiring singer with great aspirations but persistent bad luck convicted of a crime she did not commit. Serving time in prison she is released under parole and lands a singing gig at a dive in Barcelona where she meets Sandro "The Greek" and his partner lover Gloria. The couple is posing as entertainment promoters but they are really running a prostitution ring based in Beirut. They offer Isabel a two-year contract to perform in "night clubs" in the Near and Mideast even after they learn that she cannot travel abroad due to her legal status. Upon arrival in Beirut, Isabel and the other girls are sped away to a luxurious villa where they discover the real intentions of the pseudo-promoters. They are expected to sing and dance but also to engage in sexual activities with the rich clients that patronize the place. Isabel pretends to go along with the situation but she has a plan to get away
Singer Laura Monteiro (Montiel) is murdered by her old protector João Fernandes de Oliveira (Giachetti), who has found out her love affair with Assis (Carlos Alberto). Favela-girl Belén (also Montiel) is the look-alike who takes her place, unaware she is being used by a gang that smuggles precious stones sewn in Carnival costumes. Written by fabreu
Casablanca 1942. While French Police Chief Maurice Desjardins is busy having careless fun with some loose girls, members of the French Resistance kill a man at the harbor and steal his briefcase full of important documents from the Third Reich. At an apartment building in the distance, Andre Kuhn watches the whole operation through his powerful binoculars. He is posing as a businessman but actually working as a spy for the Germans a fact totally ignored by his live-in girlfriend Teresa Villar, a beautiful Spanish singer who works at El Dorado Night Club. Andre telephones Max von Stauffen, the head of German Intelligence in Casablanca, to inform him of what he has just witnessed. Max tells him to stay put until he arrives in order to get the information personally but, by the time he reaches Andres apartment, he finds him dead with a gun shot on his temple.
"La Bella Lola" is a struggling singer trying to make a living for herself and her sister Ana in late 19th Century Spain. Lola is having an affair with Gabriel, a rich and influential older man who gives her jewelry and supports her singing career. Things change rapidly when Lola meets and falls in love with young playboy Javier, although the romance is doomed from the start. Javier belongs to an aristocratic family and has a bright future as a politician.
A Spanish music hall performer gets caught up in espionage during the First World War.
Nun Belen works as a spiritual guide in a women's prison. Is a very understanding woman, possibly due to her past. At the past she was Magda, the star of the cabaret "The Mill of Twenty." She was attractive, young and admired by the public, she had it all, but three very different men end up marking her destination. A fate that is inexorably opposed to her happiness.
A young woman working as a maid for a big time stage performer is mistaken for the star in Buenos Aires and becomes a great success in the land of the tango.
Antonio is the leader of an underground armed group fighting in the village of Ronda against Napoleon's troops which have imposed French rule in 1808 Spain. Micaela is madly in love with Antonio but he is devoted to Carmen, the region's most beautiful gypsy who lives and sings at a local inn.
On New Year's Eve 1899, Soledad is peddling violets in a Madrid busy street when she meets aristocrat Fernando. The couple falls in love but their different social backgrounds threatens the relationship. Fernando is under constant pressure from his older brother Alfonso who reminds him of his duties including his engagement to Magdalena, a countess. Disregarding all social conventions and scandalizing high society, Fernando sets up Soledad in a plush apartment and announces their marriage plans.
When the South loses the war, Confederate veteran O'Meara goes West, joins the Sioux, takes a wife and refuses to be an American but he must choose a side when the Sioux go to war against the U.S. Army.
A musical drama featuring a tragic love story. Relates a singer's rise to fame and her subsequent downfall because of the death of her lover. She manages to return to the stage only to die after her first public performance.
A woman murders her lover. Her husband and his mistress are also having murder-shaped thoughts, and their three counterplots all get tangled together. Everybody loses.
After the American Civil War, mercenaries travel to Mexico to fight in their revolution for money. The former soldier and gentleman Benjamin Trane meets the gunman and killer Joe Erin and his men, and together they are hired by the Emperor Maximillian and the Marquis Henri de Labordere to escort the Countess Marie Duvarre to the harbor of Vera Cruz.
In this Mexican comedy, Mr. Lazaro's fashion house is on the brink of bankruptcy and in desperate need of a new model to replace his current business partner's wife, whose appearance is driving customers away. Lazaro's son, Raul, realizes what a diffucult dilemma his father faces and sets out to restore the integrity of the family-owned business by teaming up with his lovely fiancée to put on a fashion show. Domingo Soler and Sara Montiel star.
Mary Ellen travels abroad and ends up marrying a Count while she is intoxicated. The Count disappears and with the aid of her father, George, she tracks down his address in the Casbah, only to discover he was an impostor. The real count is Henri, a nondescript man with a shrewd business sense. Mary Ellen pays him to carry on the masquerade of being her husband so she can get a divorce.
Young man returns to his home town from USA to reclaim his inherited properties.
Martin Corona, player and womanizer, defends the underprivileged, the poor and the needy. He will have to defend a Spanish girl and her servant from the clutches of the villainous of the town. Not only will he have to fight the bad guy, but against the pride of the girl who initially believes that he is the bad character and distrusts him. She was very proud to put him at her feet, but there was a problem, Martin Corona was due more to his people than anyone and she was not willing to risk losing it, so before marrying him, made him swear he would not intervene In other problems.
Martin retired from his job as a hero because of his marriage to Rosario, a beautiful and ambitious girl who passed through the workshop where he works. However, Martin has to return in principle to help a friend from robbers.
Mother and daughter return to Mexico to escape the US Civil War... and get caught up in the conflict between the French army and the fighters for independence.
In Madrid, under Queen Isabel II reign, rebellions are frequent events. During one of them Captain Jorge de Córdoba, nicknamed Veneno (poison) for his quarrelsome disposition, bad temper and outright misogyny, is hurt and taken to a house where two women, a widow and her daughter, are to take care of him.
The passion that Joan of Castile, daughter of the Catholic Kings and heir to the throne, feels for her husband, Philip the Handsome, sovereign of the Netherlands and son of Maximilian of Austria and Mary of Burgundy, is not reciprocated. Her temperament, her jealousy and an unexpected tragedy will throw Joan into the dark realm of madness and obsession with death, the only realm where she will be a true queen…
The Spanish missionary reaches Kattinga Santiago Hernandez, India, to succeed Father Daniel, seriously ill and died several days later. Sandem, dealer and usurer lends money to the Indians, who are forced to work as slaves in a mine when they can not pay their debts. To end this situation, Father James is responsible for the debts of the whole tribe. But when due on promissory note signed, Sandem demands money. In these circumstances, begin to reach the Indian village suffering from plague.
The old nobleman Alonso Quijano, maddened by the reading of books by chivalry, decides to make himself a knight and leave his village in search of adventure accompanied by Sancho Panza, who becomes his faithful squire. After a series of unfortunate events, his friends are going to try to make him return home so that he can see reason.
Barcelona: the late nineteenth century. The textile businessman Joaquín Rius falls in love with a young woman named Mariona Rebull. Happiness seems to fill the life of married Rius, until Ernesto Villar, a friend of Joaquín and an old boyfriend of her, enters on the scene becoming Mariana's lover.
In-laws and relatives begin to settle in the house of two newlyweds. Even though their intention is to contribute to marital peace, they actually complicate their lives.
