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.

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Malena Is a Name from a Tango
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Theatrical release poster
SpanishMalena es un nombre de tango
Directed byGerardo Herrero
Screenplay bySenel Paz
Based onMalena es un nombre de tango
by Almudena Grandes
Produced by
  • Gerardo Herrero
  • Javier López Blanco
Starring
CinematographyAlfredo Mayo
Edited byCarmen Frías
Music byAntoine 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]
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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

References

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