La Celestina (1996)

The young nobleman Calisto falls in love with Melibea, the daughter of a rich merchant. Calisto's servant Sempronio suggests they get the sorceress Celestina to further the romance. However... See full summary »

Director:

Gerardo Vera

Writers:

Fernando de Rojas (novel), Rafael Azcona (adaptation)

Stars:

Penélope Cruz, Terele Pávez, Juan Diego Botto

5 wins & 8 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Penélope Cruz	...	Melibea (as Penelope Cruz)
Terele Pávez	...	Celestina (as Terele Pavez)
Juan Diego Botto	...	Calisto
Maribel Verdú	...	Areusa (as Maribel Verdu)
Jordi Mollà	...	Pármeno (as Jordi Molla)
Nancho Novo	...	Sempronio
Nathalie Seseña	...	Lucrecia
Carlos Fuentes	...	Sosia
Candela Peña	...	Elicia
Anna Lizaran	...	Alisa (as Ana Lizaran)
Sergio Villanueva	...	Tristán
Ángel de Andrés López	...	Centurio (as Angel de Andres Lopez)
Lluís Homar	...	Pleberio (as Lluis Homar)
Ana Risueño	...	Poncia
Rodrigo García	...	Crito (as Rodrigo Garcia)

Storyline

The young nobleman Calisto falls in love with Melibea, the daughter of a rich merchant. Calisto's servant Sempronio suggests they get the sorceress Celestina to further the romance. However Calisto's other servant Parmeno is suspicious of Celestina, as he knows about her tricks. After Celestina convinces Melibea of Calisto's love and arranges a brief clandestine meeting between them, Calisto gives Celestina a valuable chain of gold. Both servants are not satisfied with the whores supplied by Celestina and demand more from her, thus setting off a dramatic sequence of events.

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Plot Keywords:

male full frontal nudity | pubic hair | male pubic hair | nudity | lesbian subtext | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Did You Know?

Trivia

Carmen Maura was the first choice for the title role of Celestina

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Connections

Version of Los libros: La Celestina (1974)

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Soundtracks

Fantasies pavanes & gallardes: Gallarda 6 y Fantasía 1
By Lluís del Milà
Version of Jordi Savall
Performed by Jordi Savall, Andrew Lawrence King (as A. Lawrence-King), Sergi Casademunt (as S. Casademunt),
E. Brandao, L. Duftschmid
Permission by Audivis

User Reviews

Good performances in a speedy, period piece tragedy with a fair amount of skin

Interesting movie to look at, but failed to make me really care about the characters. The dialogue and manner of speaking was rather artificial and overly-theatrical; as if it were trying to go for a Shakespeare-lite effect. The characters' actions sometimes seemed to be nonsensical and in service to the plot rather than being the way people in such a situation would really behave; they would often act against their own obvious best interests with little to gain. If there was any kind of theme here I'm not sure what it was: Greed is bad? Let love take a natural course, without resorting to supernatural means to advance it? And I'm not even sure that Celestina really did any "magic" to get the two lovers together; she was just more of a persuasive facilitator than potion-brewing sorceress. I myself didn't have any problem with the sex/nudity; there's nothing wrong with looking at beautiful bodies and people enjoying each other. In the DVD I saw, however, some of the full-frontal nudity was blurred out, and some--a scene of Mr. Botto arising out of a bathtub--was not, so I guess someone somewhere DID have a problem with it.

Details

Country:

Spain

Language:

Spanish

Release Date:

8 November 1996 (Spain)

Also Known As:

Селестина

Filming Locations:

Cáceres, Cáceres, Extremadura, Spain

Box Office

Budget:

ESP250,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Lolafilms, Sociedad General de Televisión (Sogetel), Canal+ España

Technical Specs

Runtime:

92 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1