Les amants de Teruel

This is definitely the most powerful experiences on screen that I have had in decades of film watching, and I am certain it is one of the greatest film ever made. I am saying this although almost forty years have passed since the week in which I saw it twice, in two consecutive days. Its superb use of visual (including mastery of semantically loaded colour photography), musical (including highly structured and meaningful manipulation of sound) and choreographic motifs, its multi-layered art/life embeddings, its overall truly cinematic nature, integratve and absolutely irreducible to any of its components -- all of these and much more are only part of the reasons why this is an unjustifiably forgotten milestone in film history. I am dismayed, frustrated and disappointed that it cannot be purchased in any accessible form -- video cassette or DVD. Will anyone rise to the challenge of correcting this miserable state of affairs? I have been searching for this film for decades, in vain.

There is hardly anything I can add to the already effusive comments by others at this site. This film is a painting in motion. Theodorakis' music beats in one's heart and the Dali-like dream sequence is unforgettable.

I first saw this film in Chicago in 1962 and again in New York the following year. A whole group of us sat through the film twice, and became obsessed with it.

For forty years, I have tried in vain to find the music, and later the tape of this film, but to no avail. It is never shown on TV and I have not been able to find it even in a New York art house for many years.

What a pity that a gem such as this should be unavailable. All I have of it is a 45-rpm recording of two of the films songs, but not the ballet.

There was another movie made, "Honeymoon," or "Luna de miel" in 1959 starring Ludmilla Tcherina and Anthony Steel which featured the ballet in a different setting, but, alas, that is also unavailable on tape or DVD.

I would be happy to spearhead any attempts to make the original film available on DVD if I knew who to contact. I once wrote to the French Film Office, but they never answered me.

this is one of the most memorable films I have ever seen, it is a dance film with all the elements of art that make a film impossible to forget. The ballerina who plays the lead, Ludmila Tcherina, is at the top of her form in her performance as both dramatic actress and dancer. The french culture, its art and its language, create a world that is breathtaking and moving, a backdrop for the most incredible story of tragic love. This film was recommended to me by my distinguished dance teacher who proclaimed it as his favorite dance film. I agree completely and only wish the film were still available in the U.S.

Quite simply one of the most beautiful and effective fusions of different arts I have ever seen. I was at the University of Minnesota when it was programmed by the Film Society there, while its faculty adviser was Al Milgrom. The film simply flabbergasted me . Widescreen color love story with little dialogue and perhaps the finest music Mikis Theodorakis ever wrote. In his classical vein, not his Zorba mode. Simple and universal story and why it went nowhere in the USA is far beyond my power to even imagine. The dream sequence in ballet is not your standard tutu fest, and develops shockingly powerful emotions. I viewed it once and have never forgotten either it or certain images and have spent over 30 years searching, not obsessively but with reasonable regularity for its music or a copy of the film in any possible format.

Caught this gem at an art house in San Francisco, end of the N-Judah, in the fog-swept avenues. Which was so perfect for watching this film, about 1969. I was mesmerized, fell in love with Ludmilla Tcherina (who I already adored from The Red Shoes), and, like others here commenting, have been searching for it since I joined the internet in 1995! For a long time I, too, thought I had the title wrong (but knew I didn't).

I remember very little after all these years, except dark and beautiful and other-worldly. I so wish a theater-worthy copy would appear, so I could ask my local art film house to screen it. I will keep looking. And until I see it again to disprove my memory, I will continue to call this the greatest dance film I've ever seen.