Princesas

To my recollection, I have only seen one other movie about the lives of prostitutes. Sure there was Pretty Woman, but that really didn't get into the actual work. This film is different and really does a great job showing the less glamorous side.

Fernando León de Aranoa wrote and directed the film and it moves along well. It certainly keeps your interest. The soundtrack is also a big plus.

Candela Peña (All About My Mother) is Caye, who rarely smiles as she deals with her mother, who seems to be losing it, and tries to establish a real relationship that keeps bumping up against her occupation.

A new actress, Micaela Nevárez is Zulema, who is consumed with the child she left in the Dominican Republic. She is trying to get papers to get out of Spain, and is taken advantage of by a sleazy public official. She gets revenge in an unusual way.

Together Caye and Zulema are friends and they try to survive in spite of their occupation. It is a times funny, and certainly sad as they try to find that opening to a better life.

We can say that Fernando León De Aranoa is a demagogue because he tells the truth and denounces the injustices of our society. We can say that he usually makes up such forced situations, but fiction will never be as rude and hard as reality. You may hate all that "social realism" stuff, the "Costumbrism" and so.. but still they are the base of many of the masterpieces in the history of European cinema.

After the kids of "Barrio", after the unemployed of "Los Lunes Al Sol", now it's the prostitutes' turn: their "day by day", their dreams and their hopes, the racism some of them have to suffer, and lots of urban philosophy (at the end of the day that's the most valuable philosophy, 'cause it comes right from people's guts). Is it too obvious to say that Fernando León is one of the best Ken Loach's pupils? Well, if it's obvious then it's true too...

Candela Peña said he was looking forward to work with F. León, that it was her dream, and I'm sure that Fernando have always dreamed of finding an actress like Candella: she's so real.

I don't know if this is the end of a "social trilogy", and maybe FLA will go back to comedy (as in "Familia") for his next movie... Whatever, I'm sure it will be such a great work.

PS: "Si La Vida Te Da" ("If life gives you..."), what a beautiful song. I don't like Manu Chao that much, but I love that tune...

*My rate: 8/10

Fernando León De Aranoa's film Princesas, is a touching and emotional journey about two young women who work the streets of Madrid, out of pure desperation. They are in hopes of starting a new life. It isn't the typical Hollywood prostitute movie; it is much more than that. It is a very agonizing movie that puts you in these intense characters shoes, and you try to understand how they deal with their day to day struggles. Aranoa gives perspective and creates this underlying sympathy that continuously tugs at your heart strings.

I felt for Caye the minute the movie started and she was walking into that hospital room to show the young boy a good time. How humiliating I thought to myself, but she had no choice. Again you feel for her when you realize that she is living a double life. She tries to enjoy a quite lunch with her family but her phone is constantly antagonizing and bringing her back to her reality, which for me seems like a living hell. I have seen movies before about prostitutes like "Pretty Woman," a typical American Hollywood film. It is sad and then it has a typical happy ending. Princesas is raw and real, it doesn't turn Caye and Zulema's lives into a fairy tale. It is refreshing to see an original and genuine film about an issue that is prevalent in the world today. There are women all over the world that have no other choice. I feel like Aranoa's film is giving these women a voice. Prostitutes are people, and they do what they can to survive.

I watched this movie in the cinemas in Madrid, and I was pleasantly surprised. Not haven seen or heard anything about the movie, except for the posters, I did not know what to expect.

This movie is about the lives of prostitutes, and is not groundbreaking in selection of topic. The manner, in which it is portrayed, however, is perfect. Not being caught up in the American standards, Fernando León de Aranoa has gone his own way, making Princesas a great, original movie. When that has been said, it does contain a few clichés that keeps this movie from reaching it's full potential.

Candela Peña fits perfectly in the role of Caye, and she does an amazing job conveying the emotions of her character to the audience. Even more so this time than she did in 'Todo sobre mi madre'. In one of the last scenes, she is on a date with a guy she hit it off with (that does not know what she do for a living), and the feelings she displays... It makes you wonder how the crappy Hollywood actresses (of course not all of them) got their jobs, considering there are others out there, who just leave them in the dust.

If you're looking for a realistic movie about prostitution, or just a story to live yourself into - take a look at this.

"Princesas" is one of them. After seeing Fernando León de Aranoa's wonderful film "Los Lunes al Sol" (qv), I was hungry for more. I am a great lover of cinema which has either been taken from live theatre or which delve into the realness of the human condition, of human feelings, which explore the depths of what makes people tick, of what makes people think, feel, love, hate, of what makes people on celluloid be real live living people with character and personality and deep feelings. In this aspect "Princesas" is a beautiful, moving, thoughtful piece which deserves great accolade. I left the cinema with very very deep feelings running through my heart and mind, such that I missed the bus-stop, and in the end walked all the way home - about three kilometres!

Without any doubt, the young Spanish directors Amenábar and León de Aranoa are now well above the more famous Almodóvar. "Princesas" is about prostitutes. Well, forget that: it is about two beautiful people who find themselves working the streets - and the mobile (cell) phone - to get clients. But it is also about friendship, love between two women who have had to drop out into the seamier world of the big cities - in this case, Madrid.

León de Aranoa treats the subject matter with such poignant delicacy, with such understanding sensitivity, with such superb and tasteful exquisiteness, that towards the end of the film more than one little tear dropped from my eyes. And that does not often happen.

Candela Peña, (Todo sobre mi madre, qv) (Te doy mis ojos, qv), and Micaela Nevárez in her first film, offer us superb readings of their characters; both are superb; both won my heart. The chemistry between these two young women - Spanish and Dominican - was so magnificent, you would swear they had lived all their lives together. They had me feeling for them, for their situation, for their loves, and desires, and hopes, and Zulema wanting to get back to her child in the Dominican Republic.

The music by Manu Chao and Gato Pérez was at times a little over strident, but befitting the telling of the story. (There are also other pieces of music not yet mentioned in IMDb).

Ramiro Civita's photography, especially in the facial close-ups is astounding, bringing out the best of the actresses feelings, anguish, torments. Superb work, though some scenes with hand-held camera were at times chaotic. Nevertheless, I pass over this.

The same as in "Te doy Mis Ojos"(qv) we have here an important sociological document in the form of a film with a story to tell. Women find themselves in bad situations directly due to men's vain and stupid attempts at being superior over them. Men fail miserably; as I have said in "Te doy mis ojos": this film makes me feel ashamed of being a man. So does "Princesas". A beautiful, warm, tender, hard story, so wonderfully told.

I shall see this film again before it is taken off from the local multi -cinemas, and will buy the DVD as soon as it is in the shops.

Here is another film to add to the best six Spanish films of all times:

El Sur

Los Santos Inocentes

Mar Adentro

Princesas

Te doy Mis Ojos

A los que Aman (all commented on in IMDb)