Manolete

Pretty disappointing. I came in knowing nothing of bullfighting or the life of Manolete and I left knowing a little more of Manolete and no more about bullfighting.

The film was slow and uncertain about its focus. Brody and Cruz who I think are exceptional actors in other works are flat and have zero chemistry. Brody in particular made the protagonist quite unlikeable and difficult to root for. It's beautifully shot but feels like it's missing crucial parts. It did succeed in peaking my interest though, the seeds of a fascinating world and a fascinating relationship were sown and I bought a book about Manolete.

Since, after all, a movie is meant to be seen by an audience, I don't get what the director Meyjes expected from his work "Manolete".

Indeed, the "aficionados" (i.e. corrida-lovers) can only feel outraged by the huge amount of falsities and distortions, concerned with both life and personality of the actual Manolete, that one finds in the movie. On the other hand, the large majority of people, being corrida-haters, will be uninterested, if not deeply bored, by a straightforward love story of a torero and his mistress, worth of a cheap XIXth century novel. (The actual love story of Manolete and Lupe Sino was much more psychologically intriguing than the stuff shown in the movie.)

Speaking of the movie, the photography is fine, and the costumes are beautiful. The jobs of Brody as the torero and Penelope Cruz as Lupe Sino are acceptable. There is some very short but interesting 1940s footage of the true Manolete fighting in the plaza de toros. However, the film badly fails in recreating the atmosphere of Spain in the years after the civil war.

Indeed, the inaccuracies of the movie are really dismaying. Lupe Sino is surprised seeing that a torero wears pink socks. C'mon! It's like showing a young American woman not knowing that football players wear helmets! Manolete enters a crowded hall, participates to parties, and everybody ignores him. C'mon! It's like seeing Michael Jordan unnoticed at a meeting of basketball fans! Manolete's popularity was literally unbelievable all over the world, among common people, as well as among big time politicians and major cinema stars, that fought to have him at their social events. A couple of instances. When Manolete died, Winston Churchill sent a personal message of condolence to his mother. The Mexican government was forced to cut some scheduled corridas, since people didn't buy food to save money for the tickets of Manolete's bullfights (source: "Time Magazine" year 1946).

The movie also contains a number of so obvious clichés, like the torero's greedy relatives, or the fatuous and hypocritical catholic priests, or the incompetent doctors (this latter a really dirty slander!), etc. Of course, to know something of the actual Manolete, you have to neglect the character shown in the movie, and rather read some of the dozens of books dedicated to him, even in very recent years. Indeed, I bet that in this very moment someone is writing a book on the legendary torero.

The portrait made of Lupe Sino is liable of aggravated defamation. Forget that Lupe was much younger and more beautiful than Cruz, and that, obviously, she was an aficionada, contrary to the character of the movie. Forget that Lupe was a smiling, sweet-tempered, cheerful girl, deeply in love with her man, contrary to the perpetual ferocious grudge against everybody and everything shown by Cruz's "Lupe". What is unacceptable is that the film- maker turns her into an unfaithful, spiteful, foul-mouthed bum.

As far as I know, the movie "Manolete" was badly unsuccessful, as predictable. I didn't like it.

"I'm just your mistress, Death is your wife." A true story about the love between Matador Manolete (Brody) and the woman he falls in love with Lupe Sino (Cruz). When aging bullfighter Manolete is told that a younger matador is as good or better then he is, he begins to try and cheat death even more. Will the love of Lupe help him in the ring, or endanger him? This is another very slow moving movie. The acting is very good and the scenery and bullfights are fun to watch and look at, but it just doesn't really seem to go anywhere sometimes. This movie is at its core a love story, mixed in with the action of the bullfight. There is actual footage of the real Manolete mixed in with the filmed scenes that is a very nice touch and adds to the experience. Not knowing anything about the real people or story I have no idea how accurate this is, but the love at times is tested to the limits. Overall I would say this is more of a movie that women will enjoy more then men, but it's not a horrible thing to have to sit through. I have sat through much, much worse. A very OK movie, nothing to special. I give it a B-.

Would I watch again? - I don't think I will.

Spanish/English co-production concerning about a brief biography of the known Torero Manolete (Adrien Brody) who rose to prominence shortly after the Spanish Civil War and is considered by some to be the greatest bullfighter of all time . The movie begins in the journey from Sevilla to Linares , and he remains in Córdoba to find his mother . There are , subsequently , various flashbacks remembering some passages of his life . As mainly focusing his relationship with a Fatal woman , Lupe Sino (Penélope Cruz) , a world-class lover who enters in his complicated world and with whom has an uncommitted romance . As Lupe Sino cannot be considered a "respectable" girl in 1940s Spain , though she she is willing to settle down and become a "respectable" woman he can marry . But Manolete's colleagues and best friends (Santiago Segura , Juan Echanove) disapprove of the relationship because they fear for their own status . And developing his Bullfighting skills , as his style was sober and serious , with few concessions to the gallery, and he excelled at the Suerte De Matar — the kill . Manolete's contribution to bullfighting included being able to stand very still while the bull passed close to his body and , rather than giving the passes separately, he was able to remain in one spot and link four or five consecutive passes together into a compact series . Manolete popularized a pass with the Muleta called the "Manoletina," which is normally given just before entering to kill with the sword . In addition to all of the major bullrings of Spain , he had very important triumphs in Plaza Mexico.

This "A Matador's Mistress" , also known as the title "The passion within" or ¨Blood and passion¨ in some countries deals with a love joined to the high stakes of the Bullfight ; it is the story of a winner bullfighter against a brave beast . And there are a lot of shots about bullfighting , especially in its final part , showing a spectacular Corrida , being technical consultants the notorious Toreros : Espartaco and Cayetano Martínez who has a brief cameo as Lupe's lover . It contains mediocre interpretations from a famous main cast : Adrien Brody and Penélope Cruz . And support cast is pretty good , such as Santiago Segura , Juan Echanove , Ann Mitchell , Enrique Arce , Pedro Casablanc , among others . The picture displays a colorful and evocative cinematography by Robert Yeoman . And a tragic , sensitive and sad music by Dan Jones and Gabriel Yared . The motion picture was middlingly directed by Menno Meyjes (Martian child , Het Diner , Max)

The movie gives a brief description about the culture of Spain surrounding the age old traditions of the Matador . As the ancient Toreo art-form is described with unflinching and fetching realism . As bullfighter Manolete , Adrien Brody , relentlessly flirting with death and along the way he has a turbulent love story with a woman of dark past . This was Lupe Sino , regularly played by Penélope Cruz with a basket-crown on her upper left incisor , who is depicted as enjoying the company of men, and frequently called a "prostitute" by Manolete's entourage . At the end Manolete died in August 1947 following a goring in the upper right leg as he killed the fifth bull of the day, the Miura bull Islero, an event that left Spain in a state of shock. Manolete received his fatal goring in the town of Linares where he appeared alongside the up-and-coming matador Luis Miguel Dominguín, who, after Manolete's death, proclaimed himself Number One . In response to Manolete's death , General Francisco Franco , then dictator of Spain , ordered three days of "national mourning" , during which only funeral dirges were heard on the radio .

Manolete fascinated me from the very beginning with a fantastic score and once I saw Adrien Brody I knew the movie would be good. This actor somehow never disappoints and here he hadn't either; in fact I can easily shout out to all of the actors who made their characters into living human beings. The story of a bull fighter called Manolete is told in the very eyes of Adrien Brody who, even when he's not speaking, gives more to the viewer than perhaps the director himself had intended to. In his sad eyes there's great sorrow and even greater love for a woman who he cannot give up but also cannot take in as his whole heart and soul is in the thing he does for a living and he doesn't imagine his life without it. There comes a time in everyone's lives when we have to choose what's more important to us - career or family and Manolete has made his choice long before he met Lupe, played stupendiously by Penelope Cruz. I wouldn't call this movie a great one though as it lacks proper pacing, has at times bad editing and continuation failures, some scenes are extremely long whereas others don't give enough and this contrast leads the movie to the end and leaves you with mixed emotions because the story itself, although as old as the world, is told from an unusual angle and is dramatically perfect but the way it was shown was far from it.