Malena es un nombre de tango (1996)

Calificación de los usuarios:

6.4/10   

Director:

Gerardo Herrero

Escritores:

Almudena Grandes (novel)
Senel Paz (writer)

Fecha de Lanzamiento:

12 abril 1996 (Spain)

Género:

Drama

Plot:

The life and times of Malena from adolescence into adulthood, as she distinguishes herself from her rival older sister...

Plot Keywords:

Human Relationship | Based On Novel

Premios:

2 wins

Comentarios de los usuarios:

Erotic Fantasies and self-destruction: confessions of a derailed feminist

Reparto

Ariadna Gil	...	Malena
Marta Belaustegui	...	Reina
Carlos López	...	Fernando
Luis Fernando Alvés	...	Santiago
Isabel Otero	...	Magda
Alicia Hermida	...	Paulina
Dafne Fernández	...	Malena niña
Rebeca Fernández	...	Reina niña
Alicia Agut	...	Mercedes
Marina Saura	...	Madre de Malena
Roman Luknár	...	Hristo
Jorge San José	...	Pedrito
Miguel Palenzuela	...	Abuelo Pedro
Jesús Ruyman	...	Agustín
Ana Otero	...	Mariana
Susi Sánchez	...	Jimena
Carmen Rossi	...	Teófila
Elena Escalera	...	Pacita
Txema Sandoval	...	Germán
José Conde	...	Padre de Malena
Joseba Apaolaza	...	Rodrigo
Antonio Carrasco	...	Miguel
Cruz Sánchez	...	Nené
Lola Manzano	...	Macu
Juan Carlos Vellido	...	Nacho
Pilar Ordóñez	...	Sandra
Consuelo Trujillo	...	Muchacha escuálida
Mariví Bilbao	...	Madre superiora
listado alfabético del resto del reparto:
Natalia Dicenta	...	Magda (voice: Spanish version)
Ana Milán
Montse G. Romeu	...	Comadrona (as Montse García Romeu)

Dirigida por
Gerardo Herrero

Créditos del guión (en orden alfabético)
Almudena Grandes		novel
Senel Paz		writer

Producida por
Mariela Besuievski	....	executive producer
Ulrich Felsberg	....	executive producer
Josean Gómez	....	line producer
Enrique González Macho	....	associate producer
Gerardo Herrero	....	producer
Christophe Jounent	....	executive producer
Gérard Jourd'hui	....	executive producer
Javier López Blanco	....	producer

Música original por
Antoine Duhamel

Fotografía por
Alfredo F. Mayo		(as Alfredo Mayo)

Montaje por
Carmen Frías

Casting
Paco Pino

Diseño de producción por
Alain Bainée
Luis Vallés

Diseño de vestuario por
Eva Arretxe

Departamento de maquillaje
Silvie Imbert	....	makeup artist

Ayudante de dirección
Anne Deluz	....	assistant director

Departamento de sonido
Jorge Ruiz	....	sound

Cámara y Departamento Eléctrico
Fernando Vázquez Gondar	....	video technician

Compañías Productores

• Alta Films
• Blue Dahlia Productions
• Road Movies Dritte Produktionen
• Tornasol Films

Distribuidores

• Alta Films (Spain)

Duración:

109 min

País:

Spain | France | Alemania

Color:

Color

Sonido:

Dolby Digital

Clasificación:

Spain:13

Locaciones de Filmación:

Mula, Murcia, Spain

Compañía:

Alta Films

Banda de Sonido:

No puedo mirar

Erotic Fantasies and self-destruction: confessions of a derailed feminist

It is arduously difficult to make a decent film starting from a novel by Almudena Grandes. Besides `Malena' we already have her novel `Las Edades de Lulú' (1990, Bigas Luna) turned into a film - one might say with more pain than glory. Grandes is one of those novelists coming up out of the post-Franco years, and though what she writes is clearly free of taboos, especially those of a sexual nature, her style and quality of writing is poor, to say the least. More or less bred on romantic rosy love-stories by Corín Tellado, Grandes simply puts in the spicy bits and adds her own sexual fantasies and frustrations for good measure. Thus we have both Lulú and Malena coming out of their innocent adolescency into being young women bent on satisfying their sexual desires at any cost, the price being their own self-destruction. And with no doubt, in both cases, Grandes seems equally bent on portraying rather cheaply her own would-have-been appetites. Her language is often crude, reaching extreme vulgarity, which in itself is not precisely appropriate for writing anything of a decent literary level. She is, of course, no D.H. Lawrence... Such that `Malena' might have been a considerably better film if it had started off from superior material. Ariadna Gil as Malena and Marta Belaustégui as her twin sister Reina are impeccable, though Gil was superb two years later in `Lágrimas Negras' (q.v.). However the story just seems to be a revamping of `Lulú' as the basic concepts of a highly sexually-awakened woman is the basic entwining thread. `Malena' wins by having better characterization and perhaps better directing, though this may just be a penchant of mine as I thoroughly dislike Óscar Ladoire in `Lulú' or any other film. And of course it has Ariadna Gil, perhaps the best actress in Spain today. In both `Malena' and `Lulú' one `smells' the inherent `antimachismo' displayed by Grandes; but peculiarly, it is herself who is inadvertently putting her own finger on her outdated concepts, probably due to the fact that a patriarchal masculinism governed her home in her infancy (see: Miguel A. Pérez Abad) which has led her to making men seem like `troglodytes' (ibid.). However, in neither of the two films does this convince, let alone succeed. Quote Almudena Grandes: <<The most important prize for a writer is his readers: it is the only thing that cannot be tampered with and never gets out of date.>> End quote. Yes, that may be so, but we must take into account that most readers in Spain do not have well-founded criteria with which to judge good, mediocre or bad literature. Hopefully Spanish film-makers will leave this writer in peace and not return to her for any further fantasious inspirations.