Ay, Carmela!

Ay, Carmela! (1990)

¡Ay, Carmela!

Across the battlefields of Spain, she won the heart of every man.

During the Spanish Civil War, a group of comics lightens the days of the Republican troops. Tired of life in the front lines, they make their way to Valencia, accidentally entering enemy land and falling prisoner.

Date of release
1990-03-16
TMDB
6.7 / 10 (92)
Runtime
1h 42m
Genres
Comedy, Drama, War
Director
Carlos Saura

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Based on: Ay Carmela
  • Filmed in: Madrid
  • Awards: 1 · Nominations: 4. Including: European Film Award for Best Actress

¡Ay, Carmela! is a 1990 comedy-drama film directed by Carlos Saura and co-written by Rafael Azcona based on the eponymous play by José Sanchís Sinisterra. The film stars Carmen Maura, Andrés Pajares, and Gabino Diego as travelling players performing for the Spanish Republic, who inadvertently find themselves on the Nationalist side during the closing months of the Civil War. The film was selected as the Spanish entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 63rd Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.

Production

The film is a Spanish-Italian co-production.

Principal photography began from 26 September 1989 to 25 November 1989.

Made in 1990, ¡Ay Carmela! was director Carlos Saura's twenty-third feature-length film. In Saura's earlier films, allusions to the war and to its consequences were characterized by violence and brutality, and if there was any humour at all it was grim and ironic.

The film is based on the play of the same name by the Valencian dramatist, José Sanchís Sinisterra. The play was a success in Spain and was translated to English and staged in London. The play focuses entirely on the two principal characters, Carmela and Paulino, and tells their story largely in flashback.

Saura opened up the story and presented it not in flashback but in a linear manner. This allowed him to follow the journey of Carmela and Paulino during the two days in which they travel from Republican to Nationalist territory, performing their act in both camps. It also allowed much more scope for the relationship and the characters of Carmela and Paulino to evolve and in relation to the events in which they find themselves caught up.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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