Tony Manero (2008)

A man is obsessed with John Travolta's disco dancing character from Saturday Night Fever (1977).

Director:

Pablo Larraín

Writers:

Alfredo Castro, Mateo Iribarren

Stars:

Alfredo Castro, Amparo Noguera, Héctor Morales

13 wins & 8 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Alfredo Castro	...	Raúl Peralta
Amparo Noguera	...	Cony
Héctor Morales	...	Goyo
Paola Lattus	...	Pauli
Elsa Poblete	...	Wilma
Nicolás Mosso	...	Tomás
Enrique Maluenda	...	TV host
Marcelo Alonso	...	The Rumanian
Antonia Zegers	...	TV producer
Diego Medina	...	TV producer
Cristián Ordoñez	...	TV security guard
Greta Nilsson	...	Cinema cashier
Marta Fernández	...	Assaulted old lady
Marcial Tagle	...	Glass seller
Freddy Huerta	...	Man with flyers

Storyline

Raúl, a middle-aged, unemployed man, is obsessed by the character Tony Manero, who John Travolta plays in the film "Saturday Night Fever". He tries to imitate Travolta's impersonation in every detail, to be able to perform the most perfect Tony Manero himself. Raúl lives in a shabby house in Santiago. In a spacious room the landlady Wilma has a simple stage, where Raúl and some other tenants rehearse a show in Tony Moreno style. The young performers Goyo and Pauli are involved in underground activities against the Pinochet regime. Goyo gives some political flyers to a man. Raúl tails the man, and happens to see the secret police shooting him. After a while Raúl returns to the corpse, and steals the man's wristwatch. He goes to a junk dealer, where he swaps the watch for some thick glass bricks. He needs these for the stage floor, to be able to light up the show from beneath, just as in the film. In need of more glass bricks, he kills the junk dealer and steals the bricks. In his new ...

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Plot Keywords:

sex | murder | mother daughter relationship | depravity | brutality | 

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Genres:

Drama | Music

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Certificate:

TV-MA

Did You Know?

Trivia

Though the central character, Raul, is obsessed with John Travolta's Tony Manero character from Saturday Night Fever (1977), his look actually more resembles Tony Montana than Tony Manero. Tony Montana was Al Pacino's character in Scarface (1983).

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Goofs

The "Members Only" jacket worn by Raul wasn't introduced until 1981, and the film takes place in 1978.

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Quotes

Title Card: [first lines]
Don Enrique: [subtitled version] And now we present our look-alike contest: 'The One O'clock Festival'
Security Guard: Wait here, please.

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Connections

Featured in Sin maquillaje: Alfredo Castro (2011)

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Soundtracks

Era solo un chiquillo
Performed by José Alfredo Fuentes
Written by Oscar Caceres and José Alfredo Fuentes

User Reviews

Thumbs down

Tony Manero is without a doubt the worst film I have ever had the misfortune of viewing. What appears at first to be a funny movie about a man obsessed with a disco dancing character from Saturday Night Fever quickly becomes a horrible film about a man who appears to be a serial killer. The main character repeatedly commits crimes that he is never punished for and there are multiple scenes portraying terribly uncomfortable sexual acts between unattractive people. It is not often that the main character in a movie is difficult to like, but in Tony Manero he goes beyond unlikeable. There is not one redeeming quality about him, his actions or even the film as a whole.

Details

Official Sites:

Bazuca Films [Chile] Sophie Dulac Distribution [France]

Country:

Chile Brazil

Language:

Spanish English

Release Date:

28 August 2008 (Chile)

Also Known As:

Tony Manero

Filming Locations:

Santiago, Chile

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$3,305, 5 July 2009

Gross USA:

$20,677

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$687,406

Company Credits

Production Co:

Fabula Productions, Fabula, Latina Estudio Prodigital

Technical Specs

Runtime:

97 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1