Skip navigation

Music in Spanish cinema

Musical films

Rocio Fernández El otro lado de la cama Licencia youtube

This is a scene from the 2002 film El otro lado de la cama, which was one of the first musical films made in Spain in quite a few years. Directed by Emilio Martínez-Lázaro and starring new actors who would later be famous  (Paz Vega, Ernesto Alterio, Willy Toledo, Alberto San Juan, etc), it was hugely successful and revived the interest in Spain for the genre. The music was basically covers (new recordings of already existing songs) of famous Spanish pop hits. 

A bit of history

Wikipedia Cartel anunciador dunha película de Imperio Argentina Dominio público

Musicals in Spain generally followed the fashions of each period of time: for example, "zarzuelas", "cuplé", "copla", "flamenco", "revista", pop music from the 1950s onwards, etc. They have been very important in Spanish cinema (although not so much in recent years). We can say that recently there have been two major successes in the Spanish cinema as far as musicals go: El otro lado de la cama (which was followed a few years later by Los dos lados de la cama, made and acted by many members of the original team); and La niña de tus ojos, 1998, directed by Fernando Trueba and starring Penélope Cruz, which was inspired by the story of one of the most famous musical stars of Spanish cinema, Imperio Argentina, and set in Nazi Germany.  

QUICK QUESTION: WHAT NAMES DO YOU KNOW FROM THE HISTORY OF SPANISH MUSICAL CINEMA? Make a quick list with a friend and see how many names you come up with as a whole class. 

Hint: take into account all sorts of areas, such as folkloric singers, child stars, singers with a cinema career, etc. 

Flamenco in the cinema

Flamenco in films dates back to the very beginning of the cinema, at the beginning of the twentieth century. It was played in cafés and theatres as accompaniment to silent films. In 1905 Ricardo de Baños taped the Flamenco singer Antonio Pozo "El Mochuelo" (that was his nickname) on a gramophone to accompany a film (as you know, there weren't any movies with sound yet). 

CARLOS SAURA 

Carlos Saura is one of Spain's most famous film directors and in the 1980s he became famous worldwide because of three Flamenco films that he made: Bodas de Sangre, Carmen and El Amor Brujo. 

Watch this clip from his 1983 film Carmen.

Natacha Oiartzun Velásquez Carmen Licencia cedida a YouTube

EXTRA READING

Read the following article about Carlos Saura.