Florián Rey

Antonio Martínez del Castillo known professionally as Florián Rey was a Spanish director, actor, and screenwriter. He directed The Cursed Village, widely recognized as a seminal work in silent Spanish cinema, and helped launch the career of famed Argentinian–Spanish actress Imperio Argentina.[1]

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Martínez and the second or maternal family name is del Castillo.
Florián Rey
Born
Antonio Martínez del Castillo

(1894-01-25)25 January 1894
La Almunia de Doña Godina (Zaragoza), Spain[1]
Died11 April 1962(1962-04-11) (aged 68)
Benidorm (Alicante), Spain
Occupation(s)Film director, producer, screenwriter
Years active1924–1956[2]
SpouseImperio Argentina (1934–1939)

Early career

While in his teens, Rey began work as a journalist for multiple newspapers in his home province of Zaragoza and nearby Madrid. It was during this time that he assumed the name Florián Rey.[3] He took work as an actor, first in the theater in Madrid and then film. His first film role was in La inaccessible in 1920.[3]

Rey's directorial debut was with the film The Troublemaker in 1924.[4] As with many of his early films, The Troublemaker was an adaptation of a zarzuela, a Spanish musical theater that was highly popular with the middle and lower classes of the late nineteenth century.[5]

In 1926, Rey, with Spanish director Juan de Orduña, created the production company Goya Films. Rey continued directing zarzuela adaptations and other forms of melodramas through the 1920s for Goya Films as well as other production companies.[6]

In 1927, Rey cast Argentinian–Spanish actress Imperio Argentina in Sister San Sulpicio. This marked her debut as an actress in Spain.[7] The two would later collaborate on other films and eventually marry.[8]

La aldea maldita

Rey directed The Cursed Village in 1929. This would be his most successful film and is regarded by many critics as a masterpiece of silent Spanish cinema.[9] Rey intended for La aldea maldita to be a silent film, but, after completing production, decided to include sound. This necessitated additional shooting and synchronization in Paris.[10] The decision to move sound production to France stemmed from Rey's dissatisfaction with the quality of the sound in his first talkie, Football, Love, and Bullfighting, in 1929.[1] No copy of the sound version of La aldea maldita exists today.[9]

Many film historians claim Rey was inspired by Russian Expressionist films during the making of La aldea maldita, particularly The Village of Sin by Olga Prebajenskaia, although the influence of this specific film on Rey is not universally agreed.[11][12] Rey incorporated such aspects of Russian Expressionism into his film as attention to shadow, camera "walk-throughs" (actors walk towards a camera followed by a shot of them moving away, as if they moved through it),[9] and closeups on peasant faces.[12]

Later work

After the success of La aldea maldita, Rey was retained as a director for CIFESA, though he traveled and filmed in other countries during the 1930s.[6] While touring Mexico to promote and show Morena Clara, Rey and his wife Imperio Argentina were courted by German officials intending to hire him to direct movies for Hispano-Film Produktion.[1] Upon their visit to Germany, Rey and Argentina were met by both Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goebbels to discuss film projects. Goebbels requested that Rey remake one of his earlier films based on a rewritten script that would be provided to him. Instead, Rey decided on an adaptation of Carmen. The resulting film, Carmen la de Triana, starred Argentina as the titular Carmen.[13]

Rey remained in Germany and made additional films for Hispano-Film Produktion. His last film with Argentina was La cancion de Aixa (Aixa's Song) in 1939. Amidst rumors that Argentina had an affair with Hitler, the couple divorced and Rey returned to Spain.[14] Rey and Argentina's relationship in Germany was the inspiration for the film The Girl of Your Dreams, directed by Fernando Trueba in 1998.[15]

Upon his return to Spain, Rey continued working for CIFESA studios. He received success with several films, including a remake of La aldea maldita, but was never able to match the success of his films with Argentina.[16]

Filmography[4]
Year Spanish Title English Title Notes
1921 La verbena de la paloma The Fair of the Dove[17] Actor
1924 The Troublemaker
1925 La chavala
1925 Los chicos de la escuela
1925 Carnival Figures
1925 El Lazarillo de Tormes
1926 El cura de aldea
1926 El pilluelo de Madrid
1927 The Mysteries of Tangier
1927 Sister San Sulpicio The debut of Imperio Argentina[18]
1928 Agustina of Aragon
1928 Los claveles de la virgen
1929 Fútbol, amor y toros Soccer, Love, and Bullfighting Rey's first talkie[15]
1929 La aldea maldita The Cursed Village Originally released in sound, but sound version presumed lost. Silent version survived.[3]
1931 The Pure Truth
1931 Los buenos dias
1932 El cliente seductor
1933 Esperame
1933 Melodia de arrabal Song of the Shantytown[19]
1934 Sister San Sulpicio Remake in sound of an earlier Rey film[6]
1934 El novio de mamá Mama's Suitor[20]
1934 Romanza rusa
1934 Sierra de Ronda
1934 Soy un senorito
1935 Nobleza baturra Aragonese Virtue or Rustic Chivalry[8]
1936 Morena Clara Clara, the Brunette[21] or Dark and Bright[8]
1938 Carmen, la de Triana
1939 The Song of Aixa Rey's last film with Argentina[14]
1940 La Dolores
1941 Polizón a bordo Stowaway on Board[22]
1942 La aldea maldita The Cursed Village Remake of an earlier Rey film[16]
1942 Eramos siete a la mesa
1943 Ana Maria
1943 Idolas
1943 Orosia
1945 La luna vale un millon
1946 Audiencia publica
1947 La nao capitana
1948 Brindis a Manolete
1948 La cigarra
1950 Cuentos de La Alhambra
1953 La moza de cántaro
1954 La cruz de mayo
1954 La danza de los deseos
1954 Maleficio/Tres citas con el destino Witchcraft/Three Dates with Destiny
1956 Polvorilla

Notes
  1. Mira Nouselles (2010), p. 261
  2. D'Lugo (1997), p. 194
  3. Pavlovic et al. (2009), p. 19
  4. Goble (1991), p. 1456
  5. Triana-Toribio (2003), p. 20
  6. Stone (2002), p. 28
  7. Stone (2002), p. 31
  8. Faulkner (2013), p. 35
  9. Faulkner (2013), p. 30
  10. Mira Nouselles (2010), pp. 11–12
  11. Faulkner (2013), p. 40
  12. Pavlovic et al. (2009), p. 16
  13. Kinder (1993), pp. 460–61
  14. Stone (2002), pp. 33–34
  15. Mira Nouselles (2010), p. 262
  16. Stone (2002), p. 36
  17. Stone (2002), p. 21
  18. Stone (2002), p. 31
  19. D'Lugo (1997), p. 5
  20. D'Lugo (1997), p. 6
  21. Kinder (1993), p. 70
  22. Mira Nouselles (2010), p. 287

References
  • D'Lugo, Marvin (1997). Guide to the Cinema of Spain. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0313294747.
  • Faulkner, Sally (2013). A History of Spanish Film, Cinema and Society 1910–2010. New York: Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 978-0826416674.
  • Goble, Alan (1991). Directors' Filmography and Indexes. The International Film Index, 1895–1990. Vol. 2. London: Bowker-Saur. ISBN 0862916232.
  • Kinder, Marsha (1993). Blood Cinema: The Reconstruction of National Identity in Spain. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. ISBN 0520081579.
  • Mira Nouselles, Alberto (2010). Historical Dictionary of Spanish Cinema. Plymouth, UK: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-0810859579.
  • Pavlovic, Tatjana; Alvarez, Inmaculada; Blanco-Cano, Rosana; Grisales, Anitra; Osorio, Alejandra; Sanchez, Alejandra (2009). 100 Years of Spanish Cinema. West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 978-1405184199.
  • Stone, Rob (2002). Spanish Cinema. Essex, UK: Pearson Education Limited. ISBN 0582437156.
  • Triana-Toribio, Núria (2003). Spanish National Cinema. London: Routledge. ISBN 0415220602.

Bibliography
  • Sánchez Vidal, Agustín. El cine de Florián Rey, Zaragoza, Caja de Ahorros de la Inmaculada de Aragón, 1991; ISBN 84-606-0526-4
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