Antonio Gades Movies

El Amor Brujo is a filmed record of the little-known Spanish ballet by Manuel de Falla. The plot involves two gypsies, male and female, who are united in an arranged marriage. Each loves someone else, a circumstance that results in a fatal knife duel. The climax of the ballet involves the girl's torn loyalties between the ghost of her dead husband and her living lover. Antonio Gades, Cristina Hoyos, Laura del Sol and Juan Antonio Jimenez are the principal dancers in this well-photographed oddity. El Amor Brujo was the third in director Carlos Saura's flamenco trilogy, preceded by his far more successful Blood Wedding (1981) and Carmen (1983). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Director Carlos Saura's Carmen develops a fictional story revolving around the rehearsals of Georges Bizet's opera about the brash and colorful cigarette factory woman and her dalliance with the soldier Don José, and eventual love for Escamillo, the bullfighter. Saura introduces exciting flamenco dance scenes and a love story between Antonio (Antonio Gades), the choreographer of the opera, and the actress playing Carmen, Laura del Sol. Joan Sutherland and Paco de Lucía also perform segments from Bizet's 1875 opera. The mix of magical choreography, rousing flamenco dances, and operatic insertions as well as the tongue-in-cheek parodies of the French opera and foreign stereotypes of Spaniards keeps most viewers well entertained throughout. Saura's Carmen won an award for "Artistic Contribution" and for "Technical Achievement" at the Cannes Film Festival in 1983, another award for "Technical Achievement" at the 1983 Venice Film Festival, and the "Best Foreign Language Film" award at the 1984 British Academy Awards. It was the second in a trilogy of films choreographed in a similar style by Antonio Gades. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

At the end of the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), there was still some resistance from small groups hiding in Spain's numerous small rural mountain regions. In this story, Juana is a schoolteacher who misses her lover, one of those hold-out guerillas who is hiding in the hills to continue fighting the Guardia Civil. She takes a school-teaching job in a remote area of the Santander Province in order to have a chance to see him once more. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

This tragic drama is based on the ballet by famed composer Manuel De Falla. A young woman is caught between the violent struggle of two rival suitors who love her passionately. Candelas (La Polaca) is pursued by kind-hearted Antonio (Antonio Gades) and the evil diablo Diego (Rafael Cordova). Lucia (Morucha) is the cryptic gypsy fortune teller, with Fernando Sanchez Polack as Caldelas' beloved father. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

20th Century-Fox gussied up its 1954 hit Three Coins in the Fountain for the 1960s, and the result was The Pleasure Seekers. Three American girls in search of wealthy husbands head to Madrid. Ann-Margaret is an aspiring performer, Carol Lynley is a secretary, and Pamela Tiffin is an art student. Ann-Margaret ends up with a Spanish doctor (Andre Lawrence), Carol with an American journalist (Gardner McKay), and Pamela with a man of noble birth (Anthony Franciosca). Gene Tierney, once a leading lady at 20th Century-Fox, takes a back seat to the studio's new starlet crop in a glorified "guest star" stint. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi