Las cerezas del cementerio

Lately Spanish public television has been making a series of TV-movies and mini-series which adapt Blasco Ibáñez's most popular books into the small screen. Now, as it seems, they've started adapting other well known writers from the same region, in this case Gabriel Miró. Whereas "Arroz y tartana" and some others have turned out to be quite good, others have ended up being quite a disappointment.

Plot-wise, "Las cerezas del cementerio" is one of the most interesting books by Gabriel Miró, so the TV adaptation was, in principle, quite promising. First cast rumors said that Cecilia Roth was to play the role of Beatriz, the beautiful and captivating woman who romances the young Félix Valdivia. For any unexplained reason, Concha Velasco landed the role and completely ruined the movie for me.

To be fair, Concha Velasco is a legend in Spanish TV, cinema and theater and has been very good in a great variety of roles. But we should not forget that Beatriz is supposed to be a woman in her forties whose beauty can drive a young man crazy. Roth, at 48, would have been perfect for the role, while Velasco, at 65, is a blatant case of miscasting. Her love scenes with Félix Gómez were, to say the least, disturbing, and instead of his lover she looked more like his granny.

Miscasting aside, Velasco delivers an acceptable performance and seems to perfectly understand the character. Félix Gómez plays the young Félix Valdivia with enthusiasm, while supporting players like Elisa Matilla, Empar Ferrer or Álvaro de Luna constitute the best part of the film. As usual in this kind of adaptations, the technical aspects are brilliant.

This could have been really good, but it has turned to be a vanity project for Velasco. However, I still give it a 6/10.

I admit I never seen any movie where Concha Velasco plays but I have seen this movie las Cerezas del Cementerio and I stunned for an hour.It is so great and loving and beautiful and ..... I have no words to describe such a great work.I love it and when I saw Concha playing Beatriz I said to myself,that she is great ,not great absolutely perfect story and her acting.I love this movie and her playing Beatriz in it.For me it is great movie for double 10. I think that her role has great story and she is perfect when she plays Beatriz because she knows how to play a lady who seduce Felix in a positive way so I think that everybody likes different style of acting.My personal opinion is that she is great with this role because I didn't seen any of other roles she plays so I can't judge anything else.But I know that i must see this movie for about 100 times because I adore it. I think that Everybody has different aspects on movies and actors.

Good adaptation and good performances. I wish TV stations and independent producers will join forces to continue producing this kind of program. Although it's really expensive to go ahead with them, there are lots of great books and stories to be shot. The miniseries is based on a book by Spanish born writer Gabriel Miró. There's a mistake in other comment when it says that the series in based on a book by Blasco Ibáñez. Pubcaster TVE produces this kind of miniseries and most of them are based on Blasco Ibáñez's novels but not in this occasion. This is the second time that TVE produces a miniseries on Miro's. Last time it was in 1990 when it was shot the 6 hour miniseries "El obispo leproso".