According to IMDb, this film was submitted for contention for the Best Foreign Language Oscar...an odd one since this is a silent film with intertitle cards. My assumption is that they tried making a movie like this because of the success the year before of "The Artist" (which too the Best Picture Oscar).
The story is essentially "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" re- imagined. It begins in Spain in the early 20th century. Don Antonio is a famous matador but he's doing something very dangerous- -taking on seven bulls, one after the other. With the seventh, his attention wavers and he's badly mauled. This causes his wife to go into labor...and she dies in the process. The baby is raised by her grandmother and Don Antonio marries his nurse. However, when grandma dies, the child, Carmen, is sent to live with her father. But the new wife is evil and won't let anyone see Don Antonio and forbids the girl from going to that portion of the house. Instead, she lives in squalor and is a servant in her own home. Eventually, the step-mother tires of the girl and orders her evil chauffeur to kill her. Inexplicably, she survives the attempt but loses all her memory. She's rescued by some bullfighting dwarfs and is befriended by them. Eventually, she becomes a famous matador herself...and her step-mom returns to destroy her with a poisoned apple.
The film is lovely to look at and interesting...but not a whole lot more than that. Interesting but not exactly a must-see because it is too close to the old story...too close except for the inexplicably strange downbeat ending that is.
The story is essentially "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" re- imagined. It begins in Spain in the early 20th century. Don Antonio is a famous matador but he's doing something very dangerous- -taking on seven bulls, one after the other. With the seventh, his attention wavers and he's badly mauled. This causes his wife to go into labor...and she dies in the process. The baby is raised by her grandmother and Don Antonio marries his nurse. However, when grandma dies, the child, Carmen, is sent to live with her father. But the new wife is evil and won't let anyone see Don Antonio and forbids the girl from going to that portion of the house. Instead, she lives in squalor and is a servant in her own home. Eventually, the step-mother tires of the girl and orders her evil chauffeur to kill her. Inexplicably, she survives the attempt but loses all her memory. She's rescued by some bullfighting dwarfs and is befriended by them. Eventually, she becomes a famous matador herself...and her step-mom returns to destroy her with a poisoned apple.
The film is lovely to look at and interesting...but not a whole lot more than that. Interesting but not exactly a must-see because it is too close to the old story...too close except for the inexplicably strange downbeat ending that is.