Mediocre adaptation. I'm a fan of Josep Maria de Segarra's novel. Very well chosen Pablo Derqui, Pedro Casablanc and Aida Folch. Miscasting total of Maria Molins as Rosa Trenor (who is a good actress but she wasn't well directed) and Francesc Garrido (seriously Sílvia Munt says that he is the best actor in Spain, if he only has a single record?). Good things: knowing that the budget was ridiculous, the locations were very good (although they are in Lleida, not in Barcelona because was impossible to get them for the high rental prices); the mentioned Derqui, Casablanc and Folch. The worst: the cinematography and the direction of Miss Sílvia Munt (you are not William Wyler, Luchino Visconti or Joseph L. Manckiewickz, sorry, dear). Did someone really believe the aristocracy party sequence??? Can you shoot something more ridiculous and with less grace? One thing is not having a budget, the other is having no imagination or cinematographic culture. You had references to watch, Sílvia, my dear: "El Gran Gatsby" (Jack Clayton's version, 1974), "The Way We Were" (Sydney Pollack, 1973), "Dowton Abbey", if you want ... The female character who snorts coca (I know it's coca for the novel, not for the series) seemed to snort rapé or I don't know what. The character of Leocàdia de Lloberola (Empar Ferrer) looked more a housekeeper than a marquesa. In fact, watching the series, everything that I had imagined reading the novel disappeared, and it's because a text so rich in descriptions of characters, situations and locations is very difficult to put in images with a bad director and with an actor's group, where nobody, and I say NOBODY, does not look like a true aristocrat. If this novel was adapted by the brittish, it would be awesome and amazing . Sorry, it's my opinion.
The same happened in 1987, with Francesc Betriu and TVE. The series had 4 chapters and was starred by Josep M. Pou, Héctor Alterio, Amparo Muñoz, Analía Gadé, Julieta Serrano, Anna Lizarán and Maribel Verdú. Betriu was not Manckiewickz either and the production was a bit bark, although the casting was attractive. I say this because I am very fan of this novel and because I thought that this time it would be a great adaptations. It was as if "The Great Gatsby" or "Gone With The Wind" was shooted with a low budget and with an inadequate actors with a so so acting. Even so, it had some good moments, such as the Casablanc-Derqui duel, or Derqui-Folch chemistry, the locations, the costumes (Mercè Paloma is a good costume designer) and little else (maybe, Míriam Iscla, as Dorotea, a sort of a young Rosa M. Sardà). Bad things: No outdoors, Francesc Garrido (no very good actor), Maria Molins (not a good ROSA TRENOR) and the Lloberola family looked like a fishermen family than an aristocratic family. Ah, one last thing. The carpet was very ugly. Did really Sílvia Munt know that the carpet or tapestry was a "McGuffin" and put that kind of sack on the wall???
