Malena Is a Name from a Tango

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Malena Is a Name from a Tango
Malena Is a Name from a Tango poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
SpanishMalena es un nombre de tango
Directed by Gerardo Herrero
Screenplay by Senel Paz
Based onMalena es un nombre de tango
by Almudena Grandes
Produced by
  • Gerardo Herrero
  • Javier López Blanco
Starring
Cinematography Alfredo Mayo
Edited byCarmen Frías
Music by Antoine Duhamel
Production
companies
  • Tornasol Films
  • Alta Films
  • Blue Dahlia Production
  • La Sept Cinema
  • Road Movies Dritte Produktionen
Distributed byAlta Films
Release date
  • 12 April 1996 (1996-04-12)(Spain)
Countries
  • Spain
  • France
  • Germany
LanguageSpanish
Box office188 million (Spain) [1]

Malena Is a Name from a Tango (Spanish: Malena es un nombre de tango) is a 1996 drama film directed by Gerardo Herrero from a screenplay by Senel Paz based on the novel by Almudena Grandes. It stars Ariadna Gil.

Contents

Plot

The plot concerns about the romantic and sexual endeavours of Malena, a victimised and rebellious woman contrasting to her twin sister Reina (who always was the model girl in the family), and then about the mother-son relationship of Malena with her son. Malena was gifted however a talisman by her grandfather back when she was 10. [2] [3]

Cast

Production

An adaptation of the novel by Almudena Grandes, the screenplay was penned by Senel Paz. It is a Spanish-French-German co-production by Alta Films, Tornasol Films, Blue Dahlia Production, La Sept Cinema, and Road Movies Produktionen. [8] [3] Shooting locations included the San Julián estate (La Hoya  [ es ], Lorca), Mula, Águilas, and Madrid. [9]

Release

Distributed by Alta Films, the film was theatrically released in Spain on 12 April 1996. [8] [5]

The film was the fifth highest grossing Spanish film of the year with a gross of 188 million Spanish Pesetas ($1.31 million). [1]

Reception

Jonathan Holland of Variety deemed the film to be a "well-intentioned, provocatively moralizing women's pic that ends up as second-rate melodrama". [3]

Luis Martínez of El País deemed that, efforts from a "magnetic" Ariadna Gil notwithstanding, the films "ends up as an uneven and quite chatty journey into the interiors of this disease called life". [10]

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 Boletín informativo. Anexo cultura en cifras. Datos de 1996 (PDF). ICAA. 1997. p. 135. Retrieved 28 December 2023.
  2. Cine y literatura española. Guía de largometrajes (PDF). Comunidad de Madrid. Consejería de Cultura y Deportes. 2005. p. 136.
  3. 1 2 3 Holland, Jonathan (19 August 1996). "Malena Is a Name from a Tango". Variety .
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Cerón Gómez & Martínez González 1999, p. 110.
  5. 1 2 García, Rocío (11 April 1996). "La perfecta y la imperfecta". El País .
  6. Cerón Gómez, Juan Francisco; Martínez González, Jesús (1999). Cien años de cine en Lorca. Secretariado de Publicaciones Universidad de Murcia; Primavera CInematográfica de Lorca. p. 110. ISBN   84-8371-069-2.
  7. "A Dafne le gustan altos, morenos y con barbita". Divinity . 28 September 2011.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 "Malena no es un nombre de tango". Adaptaciones de la literatura española en el cine español. Referencias y bibliografía. Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes . Retrieved 14 November 2022.
  9. Cerón Gómez & Martínez González 1999, p. 107.
  10. Martínez, Luis (15 June 1999). "Malena es un nombre de tango". El País .

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