Lovers: A True Story (1991) on Netflix
Fresh from the army in 1950s Madrid, Paco looks for work so he can marry Trini, the major's maid. He rents a room from Luisa, a widow who seduces him.
- Netflix4.2/5
- IMDb6.9/103,719 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes100%
Plot summary
In mid-1950s Madrid, Paco, a young man from the provinces, is in the last days of his military service and has a factory job waiting. He is engaged to Trini, the major's maid, who has saved money through years of frugal work, and he needs somewhere to live until the wedding. Trini points him to Luisa, a widow who takes in boarders and who also runs swindles in the underworld, skimming money from her partners. Luisa is taken with her new tenant and seduces him. Frustrated by his stalled job hunt and by Trini's refusal to sleep with him before the wedding, Paco gives in, and the affair pulls him away from his fiancée for long stretches.
Cast
- Enrique Cerroas Comandante
- José Cerroas Minuta
- Lucas Martínas Javier
- Jorge Juan Garcíaas Ignacio
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Lovers: A True Story (1991)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The film is based on a real crime: a widow, Francisca Sánchez Morales, who blackmailed people, persuaded a young man, José García San Juan, to kill his wife, Dominga del Pino Rodríguez; the couple were caught three days later and condemned to death before their sentences were commuted to ten to twelve years.
- Victoria Abril was thought of from the beginning for Trini, the virginal maid, while Concha Velasco was offered the widow Luisa. When Velasco declined, Vicente Aranda moved Abril to Luisa; she was reluctant, and pregnant, but agreed by the time she gave birth.
- Vicente Aranda felt something was lacking and wanted something more explicit, so he opened a kind of contest among the actors for ideas; Jorge Sanz came out with the idea of the handkerchief.
- Antonio Banderas was Vicente Aranda's first thought for the role of Paco, but he had already undertaken work on The Mambo Kings; the part went to Jorge Sanz, who later became best known to English-speaking audiences for the young soldier in the Oscar-winning Belle Époque.
- A snowstorm that was not scheduled at all for the shooting benefited the film's intense and tragic climax, filmed in front of the famous Burgos Cathedral.
