1 00:00:28,240 --> 00:00:30,680 Antonia. 2 00:00:37,000 --> 00:00:40,120 Who was Sara Montiel for me? 3 00:00:43,280 --> 00:00:44,920 She was everything. 4 00:00:45,000 --> 00:00:46,160 -Universal. -Singer. 5 00:00:46,240 --> 00:00:47,480 -Actress. -Sara. 6 00:00:47,560 --> 00:00:49,480 -Sara. Absolutely Sara. -Gorgeous. 7 00:00:49,560 --> 00:00:51,880 -Absolutely gorgeous. -Sara Montiel. 8 00:00:51,960 --> 00:00:55,040 Absolutely Montiel. 9 00:00:55,120 --> 00:00:58,240 Like Wonder Woman. She was a superheroine, a goddess. 10 00:00:58,320 --> 00:01:01,840 Sara is our first major international star. 11 00:01:01,920 --> 00:01:04,280 Giddy up! Giddy up, horsy! Giddy up! 12 00:01:04,360 --> 00:01:08,960 Icon. A perfect face. Committed. Ahead of her time. 13 00:01:09,039 --> 00:01:10,680 A real firecracker. 14 00:01:10,760 --> 00:01:12,680 Funny. Now it turns out that in Germany 15 00:01:12,760 --> 00:01:14,720 I've been crowned queen of German gays. 16 00:01:14,800 --> 00:01:19,440 Sara is Spain's first sex symbol. Was an erotic myth. 17 00:01:19,520 --> 00:01:21,920 I was 7 years old. She completely changed my life. 18 00:01:22,000 --> 00:01:26,320 She was sensuality, excess. She was eroticism. 19 00:01:26,400 --> 00:01:29,200 She was Sara Montiel, one of a kind. 20 00:01:29,280 --> 00:01:32,000 I guess she was a major influencer of the time. 21 00:01:32,080 --> 00:01:34,240 At a time when social networks didn't even exist. 22 00:01:34,320 --> 00:01:36,240 She was the forerunner of the filter. 23 00:01:36,320 --> 00:01:40,920 The stocking is to put it in on the camera to remove all the wrinkles. 24 00:01:41,000 --> 00:01:42,600 We couldn't understand many things about her. 25 00:01:42,680 --> 00:01:44,000 She was so ahead of her time. 26 00:01:44,080 --> 00:01:46,080 That pioneering spirit of freedom, 27 00:01:46,160 --> 00:01:49,200 that ability to connect with one and all. 28 00:01:49,280 --> 00:01:51,000 I believe she was one of the first feminists, 29 00:01:51,080 --> 00:01:53,160 and without even knowing it. 30 00:01:53,240 --> 00:01:57,840 At a time when it wasn't at all easy to be a woman and to be free. 31 00:01:59,840 --> 00:02:00,840 Simply marvelous. 32 00:02:00,920 --> 00:02:04,560 Don't move, Antonia. Don't move. Laugh a little. 33 00:02:04,640 --> 00:02:07,120 - I'm not going to laugh. - No, no. Don't move. 34 00:02:07,200 --> 00:02:09,400 She's always been Antonia. Always. 35 00:02:11,360 --> 00:02:12,920 That relationship was one of a kind. 36 00:02:13,000 --> 00:02:16,840 Everything two people can give each other, they gave to each other. 37 00:02:16,920 --> 00:02:21,360 The doors of her home were always open to many friends. 38 00:02:21,440 --> 00:02:23,280 Even to some who betrayed her. 39 00:02:24,400 --> 00:02:28,160 She started crying like a little girl, hugging me. 40 00:02:28,240 --> 00:02:32,040 She knew she was going to be very lost for a long time. 41 00:02:32,120 --> 00:02:35,680 She had a second, a third, and a fourth life, 42 00:02:35,760 --> 00:02:40,920 which I think is what eventually turns stars into stars. 43 00:02:41,000 --> 00:02:42,160 If you're feeling blue, 44 00:02:42,240 --> 00:02:45,600 just "Saratize" yourself and you'll have a blast. 45 00:03:24,720 --> 00:03:27,920 SUPER SARA 46 00:03:43,240 --> 00:03:47,240 Sara. How does it feel to have been a living legend 47 00:03:47,320 --> 00:03:51,360 and a beautiful woman, and then go on to become a lying buffoon? 48 00:03:51,440 --> 00:03:54,400 - No, no. - Yes, a liar! 49 00:03:54,480 --> 00:03:59,079 Sara Montiel's final years were very sad. 50 00:03:59,160 --> 00:04:02,200 Very sad for Sara herself. 51 00:04:02,280 --> 00:04:05,640 Sara had the courage to go out in public without wearing makeup. 52 00:04:05,720 --> 00:04:06,720 Don't be scared. 53 00:04:06,800 --> 00:04:10,160 Don't wear see-through clothes because you have love handles 54 00:04:10,240 --> 00:04:12,560 and if you wear them and people see through them, it looks dreadful. 55 00:04:12,640 --> 00:04:16,360 In the 2000s, the media had stopped being very sweet 56 00:04:16,440 --> 00:04:20,680 and went on to perhaps become overly aggressive. 57 00:04:20,760 --> 00:04:24,200 All the respect they had for her on the sets was completely lost. 58 00:04:24,280 --> 00:04:26,520 The best thing for her to do is lock herself away at home 59 00:04:26,600 --> 00:04:30,080 and stop going out and making a fool of herself at nightclubs. 60 00:04:30,160 --> 00:04:33,040 At the wedding. They attached Sara Montiel's wig with Velcro. 61 00:04:33,120 --> 00:04:35,320 She has to start by respecting herself. 62 00:04:36,920 --> 00:04:39,840 Sara didn't just undergo a sexist treatment, 63 00:04:39,920 --> 00:04:41,600 but also an ageist treatment. 64 00:04:41,680 --> 00:04:42,920 Are you seriously not aware 65 00:04:43,000 --> 00:04:45,320 that the public doesn't see you the way they used to? 66 00:04:45,400 --> 00:04:48,560 The fitting epitaph for a star in her final stage. 67 00:04:48,640 --> 00:04:51,000 Pre-rigor mortis, I would say. 68 00:04:51,080 --> 00:04:54,880 This mistreatment of a legend, of a very important figure 69 00:04:54,960 --> 00:04:58,360 in our culture, was unpleasant and disproportionate. 70 00:04:58,440 --> 00:05:01,280 So, what's this really about? About destroying others' self-esteem 71 00:05:01,360 --> 00:05:03,960 or are we going to talk about mental health? 72 00:05:04,040 --> 00:05:06,880 No, because if this woman had been even remotely weak, 73 00:05:06,960 --> 00:05:07,960 you would've crushed her. 74 00:05:08,040 --> 00:05:09,520 Is it true or false? 75 00:05:09,600 --> 00:05:11,440 I'm ashamed that I didn't bang my fist 76 00:05:11,520 --> 00:05:13,800 on the table and say, "Enough is enough." 77 00:05:13,880 --> 00:05:18,400 I've cried so much. And I've kept it to myself. 78 00:05:18,480 --> 00:05:20,800 She didn't kill, insult, or pick on anyone. 79 00:05:20,880 --> 00:05:22,680 It was her life. She could do whatever she wanted. 80 00:05:22,760 --> 00:05:26,280 How does a woman who's been a legend have to act when she gets older? 81 00:05:26,360 --> 00:05:28,120 What do we want, for her to disappear? 82 00:05:29,920 --> 00:05:31,040 It's Spain, 83 00:05:31,120 --> 00:05:36,960 a country where the pleasure of destruction exists and is practiced. 84 00:05:37,040 --> 00:05:38,800 Sara has gone insane. 85 00:05:38,880 --> 00:05:41,720 She's lost her marbles. A way of doing things. 86 00:05:41,800 --> 00:05:43,680 This made people of a certain generation 87 00:05:43,760 --> 00:05:46,880 see a distorted image of Sara Montiel, from more recent years, 88 00:05:46,960 --> 00:05:50,240 that had nothing to do with what Sara Montiel had been. 89 00:05:50,320 --> 00:05:53,440 I'm not a nobody, I'm Sara Montiel. 90 00:05:53,520 --> 00:05:55,880 Because I've brought Spain to the entire world. 91 00:05:55,960 --> 00:05:59,520 My films haven't only been released in Valladolid or Palencia. 92 00:05:59,600 --> 00:06:02,080 They've been released all over the world! 93 00:06:05,320 --> 00:06:09,840 It seems like only yesterday that I was 15 and now I'm 16. 94 00:06:09,920 --> 00:06:11,600 The mirror doesn't lie. 95 00:06:11,680 --> 00:06:16,360 You can buy off a minister, a referee, a politician, 96 00:06:16,440 --> 00:06:20,480 but not a mirror, a mirror says what it sees. 97 00:06:20,560 --> 00:06:24,080 And there are so few of us who talk to it one-to-one. 98 00:06:27,640 --> 00:06:31,000 I've only just arrived from overseas, no less. 99 00:06:31,080 --> 00:06:35,400 I came from Hollywood, directly from Hollywood. 100 00:06:35,480 --> 00:06:37,680 People cannot forget by any means that Sara Montiel 101 00:06:37,760 --> 00:06:40,920 was the first Spanish film star to really win over Hollywood. 102 00:06:41,000 --> 00:06:43,840 SARITA MONTIEL IN HOLLYWOOD, CALIF. 103 00:06:47,600 --> 00:06:50,360 Many people in this country understood 104 00:06:50,440 --> 00:06:52,280 that Sara could be Hollywood, 105 00:06:52,360 --> 00:06:55,040 that she could be the American dream, that she could be all of that. 106 00:06:55,120 --> 00:06:56,600 She placed herself in the category of: 107 00:06:56,680 --> 00:06:59,680 "I'm a Hollywood star, I'm on a par with Elizabeth Taylor." 108 00:07:02,600 --> 00:07:06,160 They would call me the Spaniard, from Spain, 109 00:07:06,240 --> 00:07:09,040 "From Spain, Sarita from Spain." 110 00:07:09,120 --> 00:07:11,040 The one who made the leap to Hollywood 111 00:07:11,120 --> 00:07:13,280 all said and done and everything, is Sara. 112 00:07:13,360 --> 00:07:15,640 Sara paved the way for all those who would come after her. 113 00:07:15,720 --> 00:07:21,800 Penélope Cruz, Banderas, Bardem, they are such wonderful actors. 114 00:07:22,880 --> 00:07:24,160 And from the beginning in Hollywood, 115 00:07:24,240 --> 00:07:27,320 she began to make world-class productions. 116 00:07:27,400 --> 00:07:32,440 SARITA MONTIEL THE VENUS OF "VERACRUZ" 117 00:07:37,680 --> 00:07:42,440 The making of Veracruz was a spectacular film shoot. 118 00:07:42,520 --> 00:07:46,159 With a huge international distribution. 119 00:07:46,240 --> 00:07:50,120 With wonderful co-stars. 120 00:07:50,200 --> 00:07:56,680 She worked directly with Gary Cooper, with Burt Lancaster. 121 00:07:56,760 --> 00:08:00,160 Gary Cooper loved her very much and he called her "Montielito". 122 00:08:00,240 --> 00:08:04,000 He would say: "Montielito, come here with me, with me, with me". 123 00:08:04,080 --> 00:08:07,520 And he protected her a little, because she didn't know English. 124 00:08:07,600 --> 00:08:10,440 Actually, I learned English phonetically 125 00:08:10,520 --> 00:08:12,360 when I made the movie Veracruz. 126 00:08:12,440 --> 00:08:16,640 She had a line where she had to say, "Do you want to fight with me?" 127 00:08:16,720 --> 00:08:20,680 And then, in the first take, she blurted out to Gary Cooper's face, 128 00:08:20,760 --> 00:08:22,320 imagine the shot, Gary Cooper right here... 129 00:08:22,400 --> 00:08:25,000 I start: "Do you want to fight? Do you want to fight?", 130 00:08:25,080 --> 00:08:27,320 and then I say to Gary Cooper: "Do you want to... 131 00:08:27,400 --> 00:08:28,880 "Do you want to fuck with me?" 132 00:08:28,960 --> 00:08:30,400 ...do the thing' with me?", and he said: 133 00:08:30,480 --> 00:08:32,120 "Oh, yes, of course, why not?" 134 00:08:35,640 --> 00:08:40,440 The first Latin bombshell was Sara Montiel. 135 00:08:40,520 --> 00:08:45,680 Not Sofia Vergara, not Salma Hayek, not Jennifer Lopez. 136 00:08:47,000 --> 00:08:49,720 Just imagine, in a country as puritanical as the U.S.A. 137 00:08:49,800 --> 00:08:52,000 suddenly this woman who was all sex. 138 00:08:52,080 --> 00:08:53,960 She was kind of like our Marilyn. 139 00:08:55,440 --> 00:08:58,520 Marilyn Monroe was seductive, and caused a certain morbid fascination. 140 00:08:58,600 --> 00:09:01,000 Sara Montiel didn't even need to cause morbid fascination. 141 00:09:01,080 --> 00:09:02,840 You fell over backwards just looking at her. 142 00:09:04,680 --> 00:09:06,960 George Cukor said it, 143 00:09:07,040 --> 00:09:09,200 the great director of actresses, Greta Garbo's director... 144 00:09:09,280 --> 00:09:12,800 He directed practically all of history's greatest actresses. 145 00:09:12,880 --> 00:09:17,080 "The three most beautiful women on the screen in the world are: 146 00:09:17,160 --> 00:09:21,720 Liz Taylor, Ava Gardner and Sara Montiel. 147 00:09:28,440 --> 00:09:31,040 Get a bit of the background in. 148 00:09:31,120 --> 00:09:34,720 You have something white on the right side of your nose. 149 00:09:34,800 --> 00:09:36,520 Cream. 150 00:09:38,960 --> 00:09:42,680 Just imagine, I'm all cream. 151 00:09:48,920 --> 00:09:52,920 I'm Pedro Víllora and I had the good fortune that in 1998 152 00:09:53,000 --> 00:09:56,280 I was commissioned to write Sara Montiel's official biography. 153 00:09:56,360 --> 00:09:58,480 Almost two years of working alongside her, 154 00:09:58,560 --> 00:10:01,240 getting to know her, listening to her. 155 00:10:01,320 --> 00:10:04,240 She had wanted to write her memoirs for a very long time. 156 00:10:04,320 --> 00:10:07,680 And Sara Montiel's book is how Antonia Abad becomes Sara Montiel. 157 00:10:07,760 --> 00:10:12,800 Sara Montiel's real name was, it's hard to say it in full, but it was... 158 00:10:12,880 --> 00:10:16,000 María Antonia Alejandra Vicenta Elpidia 159 00:10:16,080 --> 00:10:18,600 ...Isidora Abad Fernández. 160 00:10:20,120 --> 00:10:26,400 Sara Montiel's origins can be traced back to La Mancha. 161 00:10:26,480 --> 00:10:28,600 She was Manchegan, from Campo de Criptana, 162 00:10:28,680 --> 00:10:30,920 a dry land, a land of windmills. 163 00:10:31,000 --> 00:10:34,240 What mattered to her was to show how someone who came from nothing 164 00:10:34,320 --> 00:10:39,400 had achieved success, but thanks to a lot of hard work. 165 00:10:41,040 --> 00:10:46,960 She was a girl with a desire to be successful to escape from poverty, 166 00:10:47,040 --> 00:10:49,920 to be someone, to be something in life. 167 00:10:50,000 --> 00:10:52,640 It had been a dream of hers since she was a little girl. 168 00:10:52,720 --> 00:10:56,920 Just like Scarlett O'Hara, Sarah told herself, better dressed, 169 00:10:57,000 --> 00:10:59,680 "I will never go hungry again". 170 00:10:59,760 --> 00:11:02,360 An interest, of course, in getting ahead economically, 171 00:11:02,440 --> 00:11:04,920 in living better and in climbing that social ladder. 172 00:11:05,000 --> 00:11:11,120 But, above all, a drive to be a true star from a very early age. 173 00:11:13,640 --> 00:11:15,560 Approximately at the age of 5 or 6, 174 00:11:15,640 --> 00:11:18,400 her family left Campo de Criptana to move to Orihuela. 175 00:11:23,520 --> 00:11:27,040 I'm from Orihuela and I grew up hearing, first-hand, 176 00:11:27,120 --> 00:11:28,920 all the stories about Sara Montiel. 177 00:11:31,200 --> 00:11:33,440 In the past, I think it was a difficult place to grow up 178 00:11:33,520 --> 00:11:37,320 if you were different or had artistic aspirations 179 00:11:37,400 --> 00:11:41,240 that weren't common for the rest of the people there. 180 00:11:43,880 --> 00:11:46,480 When I was little, I was always a different person, 181 00:11:46,560 --> 00:11:49,320 I've always had different tastes 182 00:11:49,400 --> 00:11:52,520 and I've been bullied a lot because of that. 183 00:11:53,760 --> 00:11:56,360 Later, when I was older, as a teenager, 184 00:11:56,440 --> 00:11:59,720 all these stories that my grandmother used to tell me 185 00:11:59,800 --> 00:12:02,040 when I was little became interesting to me. 186 00:12:02,120 --> 00:12:03,880 I started to read about her. 187 00:12:03,960 --> 00:12:07,520 I began to listen to those stories in a different way. 188 00:12:09,760 --> 00:12:14,240 Once I was walking across the old bridge and a car appeared 189 00:12:14,320 --> 00:12:16,480 and I saw it like it was in slow motion 190 00:12:16,560 --> 00:12:19,000 and she was in the passenger seat. 191 00:12:19,080 --> 00:12:25,240 Seriously? This woman lived here and made it to Hollywood? 192 00:12:25,320 --> 00:12:27,480 How did she do it? That... 193 00:12:27,560 --> 00:12:31,760 I still get goosebumps, because it was like a sense of hope of: 194 00:12:31,840 --> 00:12:34,960 I can get out of here and I can be me. 195 00:12:35,040 --> 00:12:39,680 She's back, she's survived everything. I took it as a sign. 196 00:12:39,760 --> 00:12:42,680 And from then on, I carried that in my heart forever. 197 00:12:42,760 --> 00:12:46,480 And it was a very strong impulse to say: "Get out." 198 00:12:57,040 --> 00:13:02,400 Let's get moving, the wind's going to blow away the saint and everything! 199 00:13:03,600 --> 00:13:07,200 What else might it blow away? 200 00:13:07,280 --> 00:13:10,600 My wig is going to end up in town. 201 00:13:12,040 --> 00:13:14,240 Everyone in Orihuela knew her. 202 00:13:14,320 --> 00:13:17,760 She knocked on a door and they opened it, she went up and said: 203 00:13:17,840 --> 00:13:20,320 "Ma'am, can I sing a saeta on your balcony?" 204 00:13:20,400 --> 00:13:22,560 "Yes, Antoñita, yes, of course." 205 00:13:22,640 --> 00:13:26,240 So they gave her a cushion, she knelt down 206 00:13:26,320 --> 00:13:29,240 and when the Virgin passed by she sang her a saeta. 207 00:13:29,320 --> 00:13:32,000 Look at her 208 00:13:32,080 --> 00:13:37,600 Look at her coming I don't know. 209 00:13:37,680 --> 00:13:42,840 And singing saetas with a choir during Holy Week 210 00:13:42,920 --> 00:13:46,840 some people from a very important family, 211 00:13:46,920 --> 00:13:49,240 from the radio, and media world hear her. 212 00:13:49,320 --> 00:13:51,880 "Would you like to be an artist?" and she says, "'I have to be one." 213 00:13:51,960 --> 00:13:55,240 "But, what if your parents don't let you?" and she said, "I'll run away." 214 00:13:55,320 --> 00:13:59,880 "No, Mr. Isidoro, you have to take this girl and present her." 215 00:13:59,960 --> 00:14:02,080 "Where am I supposed to present her?" 216 00:14:06,880 --> 00:14:09,520 They were preparing her for a competition 217 00:14:09,600 --> 00:14:11,960 that took place in Madrid, in the Retiro. 218 00:14:12,040 --> 00:14:14,880 The most famous competition, it was Bobby Deglané's. 219 00:14:14,960 --> 00:14:17,680 Bobby Deglané was an outstanding radio announcer. 220 00:14:17,760 --> 00:14:19,400 So I sang "La morena de mi copla." 221 00:14:19,480 --> 00:14:21,720 I won the prize with that song. 222 00:14:21,800 --> 00:14:26,760 She was a complete unknown, all she had done was to sing at the Retiro, 223 00:14:26,840 --> 00:14:30,960 practically, but the brilliant photographer, Gyenes, loved it, 224 00:14:31,040 --> 00:14:32,680 he took some photos of her. 225 00:14:34,000 --> 00:14:36,880 And those photos appeared in Semana magazine. 226 00:14:36,960 --> 00:14:38,760 She's on the cover because she was gorgeous. 227 00:14:38,840 --> 00:14:43,440 The impact of that cover had been so great that some director said: 228 00:14:43,520 --> 00:14:45,880 "I'd like to give this girl a screen test." 229 00:14:45,960 --> 00:14:51,080 That's the moment when we can speak of the birth of Sara Montiel. 230 00:14:51,160 --> 00:14:53,360 Now, you just lie here nice and still and quiet. 231 00:14:53,440 --> 00:14:56,800 Your life will be in danger if you don't keep quiet and still. 232 00:14:56,880 --> 00:15:00,800 Sara Montiel took her first steps in film in Spain in the early 1940s, 233 00:15:00,880 --> 00:15:02,280 with very minor roles. 234 00:15:02,360 --> 00:15:06,480 That was how I worked, living from hand to mouth, 235 00:15:06,560 --> 00:15:10,360 finding one film, then another. It was very difficult. 236 00:15:10,440 --> 00:15:12,840 With Fernando Fernán Gómez she goes on to make several films. 237 00:15:12,920 --> 00:15:15,560 He is so important to her as the man who teaches her how to kiss, 238 00:15:15,640 --> 00:15:17,080 at least to kiss on screen. 239 00:15:17,160 --> 00:15:20,920 I didn't know the right way to kiss and so I would go like this... 240 00:15:21,000 --> 00:15:22,480 And I'd stay like this, looking stupid. 241 00:15:22,560 --> 00:15:24,400 Then they'd say, "Cut", because it was ridiculous. 242 00:15:24,480 --> 00:15:27,320 He told her, "Antonia, put your lips like this, do it this way," 243 00:15:27,400 --> 00:15:29,040 And without Fernando Fernán Gómez 244 00:15:29,120 --> 00:15:32,240 we might not have had a Sara Montiel who could kiss. 245 00:15:44,320 --> 00:15:46,120 The man she'd have a very deep relationship with 246 00:15:46,200 --> 00:15:47,760 is the great Miguel Mihura. 247 00:15:47,840 --> 00:15:51,800 He was one of the greatest writers of the 20th century, without a doubt. 248 00:15:51,880 --> 00:15:54,680 She would always like men who were older than her, 249 00:15:54,760 --> 00:15:56,480 men who could teach her things. 250 00:15:56,560 --> 00:15:59,080 I was platonically in love with him. 251 00:15:59,160 --> 00:16:00,480 And he didn't want to get married. 252 00:16:00,560 --> 00:16:05,000 And I imagine he didn't, because there was a huge age difference. 253 00:16:05,080 --> 00:16:10,320 Sara always spoke so openly about being in love with this man, 254 00:16:10,400 --> 00:16:11,480 who was highly intellectual, 255 00:16:11,560 --> 00:16:13,280 she explained everything so matter-of-factly. 256 00:16:13,360 --> 00:16:15,600 Someone who helped her 257 00:16:15,680 --> 00:16:18,720 to develop intellectually and artistically, but also humanly. 258 00:16:18,800 --> 00:16:22,200 Someone with whom she discovered love and even desire. 259 00:16:23,560 --> 00:16:26,600 She, still a minor, surrendered herself to Miguel 260 00:16:26,680 --> 00:16:29,320 and that, of course, wasn't at all usual in the 1940s. 261 00:16:29,400 --> 00:16:32,840 Of course she had relationships long before she got married. 262 00:16:32,920 --> 00:16:35,080 Despite the fact that it was a very prudish, very closed, 263 00:16:35,160 --> 00:16:37,680 very folkloric, very conservative society, 264 00:16:37,760 --> 00:16:39,680 Sara wasn't afraid of what people would say. 265 00:16:39,760 --> 00:16:42,760 But I hate you much more because you believe in Jesus 266 00:16:42,840 --> 00:16:46,000 and I in the prophet, because you are the daughter of Isabel 267 00:16:46,080 --> 00:16:47,600 and I am the daughter of King Zagal. 268 00:16:47,680 --> 00:16:50,200 Sara, at that time in Spain, wasn't very well-known at all. 269 00:16:50,280 --> 00:16:54,200 She was a second-rate actress, nobody knew who Sara Montiel was. 270 00:16:54,280 --> 00:16:56,400 -My blood is just as noble as yours. -You shut up! 271 00:16:56,480 --> 00:16:59,520 She was very frustrated about not receiving any kind of recognition. 272 00:16:59,600 --> 00:17:01,280 It's true that she was very young, 273 00:17:01,360 --> 00:17:03,080 but the thing is, she was very ambitious. 274 00:17:03,160 --> 00:17:05,160 She wanted to kill me! 275 00:17:05,240 --> 00:17:07,079 Given that in Spain she was practically ignored, 276 00:17:07,160 --> 00:17:08,920 it was Miguel Mihura who recommended 277 00:17:09,000 --> 00:17:10,920 that she go abroad to try to find success. 278 00:17:11,000 --> 00:17:13,440 And Sara said: "Me, stay here to be a supporting actress?" 279 00:17:13,520 --> 00:17:16,800 "Antonia, this place is too little for you." 280 00:17:20,359 --> 00:17:23,359 MEXICO 281 00:17:24,960 --> 00:17:28,840 The Mexican film industry in the 1950s was the most advanced one 282 00:17:28,920 --> 00:17:30,240 within the Spanish-speaking world. 283 00:17:30,320 --> 00:17:34,280 There was a star system like Hollywood's, but Mexican-style, 284 00:17:34,360 --> 00:17:38,000 with those tremendously strong and powerful women. 285 00:17:41,200 --> 00:17:45,720 When she arrives in Mexico, she arrives as a young Spanish star. 286 00:17:45,800 --> 00:17:48,480 Which she wasn't in Spain, at that level. 287 00:17:52,440 --> 00:17:54,560 The thing is that she will very quickly win 288 00:17:54,640 --> 00:17:58,320 over all audiences and become number one. 289 00:17:59,200 --> 00:18:01,400 SARITA MONTIEL PRETTY, TALENTED AND TEMPERAMENTAL 290 00:18:01,480 --> 00:18:03,440 I mean, I'm from Mexico. 291 00:18:03,520 --> 00:18:06,680 And Sara in Mexico was very important. 292 00:18:07,640 --> 00:18:10,240 She would work with the biggest actors, 293 00:18:10,320 --> 00:18:13,200 with very good directors and she would sing in many of the films. 294 00:18:16,240 --> 00:18:18,120 I think that's where she had her most interesting career, 295 00:18:18,200 --> 00:18:19,600 artistically-speaking, 296 00:18:19,680 --> 00:18:24,280 because that's where she explored different aspects of acting. 297 00:18:28,200 --> 00:18:32,000 Mexico at that time was a paradise for the Spanish intelligentsia. 298 00:18:32,080 --> 00:18:33,240 Buñuel was there, 299 00:18:33,320 --> 00:18:35,880 León Felipe was there, a whole series of exiles were there. 300 00:18:35,960 --> 00:18:39,640 I met some people who were wonderful, just wonderful. 301 00:18:39,720 --> 00:18:43,400 Where did this girl come from? Who brought her here? 302 00:18:43,480 --> 00:18:44,960 How is it possible that she's just arrived 303 00:18:45,040 --> 00:18:46,520 and already settled in so quickly? 304 00:18:47,760 --> 00:18:49,920 She goes to a café, the Café París, 305 00:18:50,000 --> 00:18:52,760 where some of the Spanish intellectuals meet. 306 00:18:52,840 --> 00:18:57,120 And the rumor spreads that she's a spy. 307 00:18:57,200 --> 00:18:59,000 She's a spy for Franco's Spain. 308 00:19:00,480 --> 00:19:04,360 She not only meets León Felipe, but many other people as well. 309 00:19:04,440 --> 00:19:06,040 She also meets a certain Juan Plaza. 310 00:19:08,880 --> 00:19:13,760 I was about to marry the head of the Spanish Communist Party in Mexico. 311 00:19:13,840 --> 00:19:15,840 He was from Murcia and had gone into exile in Mexico. 312 00:19:15,920 --> 00:19:16,960 He was a communist. 313 00:19:17,040 --> 00:19:19,120 It was a very stormy relationship 314 00:19:19,200 --> 00:19:21,720 because Juan Plaza fell madly in love with her. 315 00:19:22,960 --> 00:19:25,400 There are several testimonies from the time 316 00:19:25,480 --> 00:19:27,000 that describe it as a toxic relationship. 317 00:19:27,080 --> 00:19:29,840 A very intense relationship. 318 00:19:29,920 --> 00:19:33,240 But it was also a somewhat tempestuous love. 319 00:19:33,320 --> 00:19:36,600 There are things she told me about Juan Plaza that I can't repeat. 320 00:19:36,680 --> 00:19:38,680 Something happened that she didn't like 321 00:19:38,760 --> 00:19:43,280 and she decided to call it not a break, but a definitive end. 322 00:19:43,360 --> 00:19:44,960 But there was something there. 323 00:19:45,040 --> 00:19:47,520 It seems she had a daughter with him, 324 00:19:47,600 --> 00:19:49,760 two months premature, who was stillborn. 325 00:20:19,760 --> 00:20:22,680 But I think she was a woman with an empowered soul. 326 00:20:22,760 --> 00:20:24,760 I think she always possessed that strength. 327 00:20:24,840 --> 00:20:26,520 She was born that way. 328 00:20:26,600 --> 00:20:28,040 That's something you either have or you don't. 329 00:20:28,120 --> 00:20:32,480 She knew perfectly well where she was at all times. 330 00:20:32,560 --> 00:20:38,520 Her professional career led her to become something special. 331 00:20:38,600 --> 00:20:41,200 Sara's life is full of legends. 332 00:20:41,280 --> 00:20:42,840 And one is how she made it to Hollywood. 333 00:20:42,920 --> 00:20:44,480 And it's thanks to Piel Canela. 334 00:20:44,560 --> 00:20:47,680 It was the story of a very poor Cuban girl, 335 00:20:47,760 --> 00:20:52,800 whose face was eaten away by rats when she was a little girl. 336 00:20:52,880 --> 00:20:55,760 Some say that, thanks to the success of Piel Canela, 337 00:20:55,840 --> 00:20:57,480 Warner Bros. spotted her. 338 00:20:57,560 --> 00:21:02,080 And others say that thanks to Piel Canela, the person who spotted her 339 00:21:02,160 --> 00:21:04,960 was Gary Cooper's daughter and she recommended her for Veracruz. 340 00:21:06,520 --> 00:21:10,480 Sara became an idol in Mexico. An idol. 341 00:21:10,560 --> 00:21:13,560 And obviously the logical step was to go to Hollywood. 342 00:21:13,640 --> 00:21:17,040 Hollywood feeds off of and needs people, talent and beauty. 343 00:21:20,240 --> 00:21:22,720 HOLLYWOOD 344 00:21:22,800 --> 00:21:26,680 Her relationship with Anthony Mann began professionally. 345 00:21:26,760 --> 00:21:29,560 I did several screen tests for the film, Serenade, 346 00:21:29,640 --> 00:21:33,920 I really liked him as a director, I was a big fan of him. 347 00:21:34,000 --> 00:21:38,160 For me, he's one of the greatest directors in film history. 348 00:21:38,240 --> 00:21:41,240 Some of his westerns are breathtaking. 349 00:21:41,320 --> 00:21:46,600 Anthony Mann couldn't resist that beauty and that personality. 350 00:21:47,800 --> 00:21:50,920 He was getting on in years and splitting up with his wife. 351 00:21:51,000 --> 00:21:53,720 We had a romance that lasted just over a year, 352 00:21:53,800 --> 00:21:56,360 because we got married in 1957. 353 00:21:56,440 --> 00:21:58,120 Marrying someone from Hollywood, 354 00:21:58,200 --> 00:22:00,440 for a Spanish woman, wasn't very common. 355 00:22:01,960 --> 00:22:05,320 He was 29 years older than me but he was a man, frankly, 356 00:22:05,400 --> 00:22:09,680 one of the few I've ever met, who was wonderful. 357 00:22:18,480 --> 00:22:21,600 Where is Sara Montiel's house in Hollywood? 358 00:22:21,680 --> 00:22:22,800 Well, it's on a street, 359 00:22:22,880 --> 00:22:26,000 where a little further down are Audrey Hepburn, Joan Collins. 360 00:22:26,080 --> 00:22:28,480 Everyone lives on that same street. 361 00:22:28,560 --> 00:22:32,160 My husband came up to me and said: "Honey, Antonia, come over here". 362 00:22:33,840 --> 00:22:36,080 "Look, I'm going to introduce you to Greta Garbo ". 363 00:22:37,360 --> 00:22:39,720 I was so scared I almost fell over backwards. 364 00:22:39,800 --> 00:22:41,000 She rubbed shoulders with everyone. 365 00:22:41,080 --> 00:22:45,720 With James Dean, with Elizabeth Taylor, with Joan Fontaine. 366 00:22:45,800 --> 00:22:48,560 In other words, she knew the Hollywood bigwigs. 367 00:22:48,640 --> 00:22:51,600 In her memoirs, she includes a picture of Alfred Hitchcock 368 00:22:51,680 --> 00:22:57,120 and decides to caption it: "With Alfred Hitchcock, a fan of mine". 369 00:22:57,200 --> 00:22:59,680 That's just mind-blowing. 370 00:23:04,480 --> 00:23:07,000 By the way, something very funny happened to me 371 00:23:07,080 --> 00:23:08,680 with Marlon Brando in Hollywood. 372 00:23:10,120 --> 00:23:12,520 We can't talk about Sara Montiel in Hollywood 373 00:23:12,600 --> 00:23:15,480 without remembering those delicious fried eggs for Marlon Brando. 374 00:23:15,560 --> 00:23:18,320 I think we can almost smell them when we talk about Sara. 375 00:23:18,400 --> 00:23:20,960 She said: "Come over one day and I'll make you 376 00:23:21,040 --> 00:23:23,880 La Mancha eggs, from my homeland." She'd say: "From my homeland." 377 00:23:23,960 --> 00:23:27,160 One morning, at 7:00 Margaret comes, 378 00:23:27,240 --> 00:23:28,920 the housekeeper I had at home, and she says to me: 379 00:23:29,000 --> 00:23:32,560 "Ms. Montiel, Ms. Montiel, Marlon Brando is in the kitchen." 380 00:23:32,640 --> 00:23:35,280 "Oh, how funny, and why is that? 381 00:23:35,360 --> 00:23:37,760 Well, tell him to come and have some eggs. 382 00:23:37,840 --> 00:23:40,160 So I went and I made him some eggs with crispy edges, 383 00:23:40,240 --> 00:23:43,040 with some garlic cloves, they're delicious. 384 00:23:43,120 --> 00:23:44,880 And I think he, with a buzz on, must have said: 385 00:23:44,960 --> 00:23:47,440 "I'm going to Sarita's house so she can make me some eggs." 386 00:23:47,520 --> 00:23:51,040 I've tried Sara Montiel's fried eggs with crunchy edges. 387 00:23:51,120 --> 00:23:54,960 All fried eggs. So tasty. 388 00:23:55,040 --> 00:23:57,440 The question is the same for all of you: 389 00:23:57,520 --> 00:24:00,360 "Have you ever seen a UFO?" 390 00:24:00,440 --> 00:24:03,920 -Rosalía Dans, actress. -No. 391 00:24:04,000 --> 00:24:06,560 Don Carlos García Rodrigo, who is a pilot. 392 00:24:06,640 --> 00:24:08,280 No, I've never seen one. 393 00:24:08,360 --> 00:24:10,000 Sara. Sara Montiel. 394 00:24:10,080 --> 00:24:12,440 Well, I've seen, and I haven't seen one. 395 00:24:12,520 --> 00:24:15,040 THE FANTASTIC SARITA 396 00:24:15,120 --> 00:24:17,520 Sara's life was straight out of a movie. 397 00:24:17,600 --> 00:24:18,680 And if it wasn't really like that, 398 00:24:18,760 --> 00:24:21,680 she'd make sure she created the movie. 399 00:24:21,760 --> 00:24:25,920 You could almost make a fiction series with Sara's stories. 400 00:24:26,000 --> 00:24:29,680 One very important one is with James Dean. 401 00:24:29,760 --> 00:24:31,520 She was at the Warner Bros. studios. 402 00:24:31,600 --> 00:24:34,560 "Sara, Sara, my new car's just arrived. 403 00:24:34,640 --> 00:24:37,080 Come on, please, let's take it for a spin." 404 00:24:37,160 --> 00:24:41,120 "But Jimmy, I'm still filming. I'm in between takes right now." 405 00:24:41,200 --> 00:24:43,040 Then she would finish by describing the situation, 406 00:24:43,120 --> 00:24:44,200 an incredible long pause. 407 00:24:44,280 --> 00:24:48,120 "That same afternoon, the terrible news arrived on set 408 00:24:48,200 --> 00:24:51,720 that he had died immediately after crashing his new car." 409 00:24:51,800 --> 00:24:55,880 LITTLE BASTARD 410 00:24:55,960 --> 00:24:59,000 Sara Montiel is there for this historic 20th century moment, 411 00:24:59,080 --> 00:25:00,320 which is the death of James Dean. 412 00:25:00,400 --> 00:25:03,320 If I had been in that car, I probably would have died as well. 413 00:25:03,400 --> 00:25:07,160 JAMES DEAN SOUGHT DEATH AND FOUND IT 414 00:25:08,560 --> 00:25:09,800 My favorite is 415 00:25:09,880 --> 00:25:12,760 one only Boris Izaguirre could tell and you wet yourself laughing. 416 00:25:12,840 --> 00:25:14,560 Sara, as Mrs. Mann, 417 00:25:14,640 --> 00:25:17,280 had a fabulous house in Beverly Hills, 418 00:25:17,360 --> 00:25:18,600 with an incredible staircase. 419 00:25:18,680 --> 00:25:24,120 And then she heard a woman singing and she had a marvelous voice. 420 00:25:25,280 --> 00:25:26,520 At the bottom of the stairs, 421 00:25:26,600 --> 00:25:29,680 a lady was mopping the steps of the staircase 422 00:25:29,760 --> 00:25:31,280 with a very prominent nose 423 00:25:31,360 --> 00:25:33,640 and suddenly Sara from the top of the stairs asked her: 424 00:25:33,720 --> 00:25:37,080 "Hebrew, what song is that you're singing?" 425 00:25:37,160 --> 00:25:40,120 And she said: "People". 426 00:25:41,480 --> 00:25:43,880 And she asked: "Hebrew, what ́s your name?" 427 00:25:43,960 --> 00:25:46,520 Then she said: "Barbra, Barbra Streisand." 428 00:25:46,600 --> 00:25:47,880 It was Barbra Streisand. 429 00:25:50,160 --> 00:25:51,880 The plane starts to go... 430 00:25:53,840 --> 00:25:55,680 And it's going to take off, 431 00:25:55,760 --> 00:25:59,640 the runway ends and the sea appears, and the plane goes... 432 00:25:59,720 --> 00:26:04,080 I think my favorite stories are the ones that have to do with air travel. 433 00:26:04,160 --> 00:26:07,960 For some reason she had a fixation with airplane stories. 434 00:26:08,040 --> 00:26:10,280 It crashed in the middle of the Caribbean Sea. 435 00:26:10,360 --> 00:26:12,800 She was able to break the window and got out going 436 00:26:12,880 --> 00:26:15,240 "glug, glug, glug" through the window. 437 00:26:15,320 --> 00:26:17,800 And they break them with a... 438 00:26:17,880 --> 00:26:21,480 -But they're really tiny, Sara. -No, no, no. These were big. 439 00:26:21,560 --> 00:26:23,880 Nobody has the guts to contradict that lady 440 00:26:23,960 --> 00:26:26,960 even when you know that what she's saying is impossible. 441 00:26:27,040 --> 00:26:28,520 We had to swim out of the plane. 442 00:26:28,600 --> 00:26:32,520 I mean, swimming underwater. 443 00:26:32,600 --> 00:26:35,280 At that point, the interviewer was stunned and said: 444 00:26:35,360 --> 00:26:38,440 "But Sara, if you didn't know how to swim, how did you manage to do it? 445 00:26:38,520 --> 00:26:41,080 And she says something that is the epitome of a diva. 446 00:26:41,160 --> 00:26:43,680 I had to learn, because the will to live, 447 00:26:43,760 --> 00:26:46,200 I said: "Antonia, you have to swim to the surface." 448 00:26:46,280 --> 00:26:47,960 She motivates herself. 449 00:26:48,040 --> 00:26:50,760 Sara Montiel, as well as self-marketing, did self-coaching. 450 00:26:50,840 --> 00:26:53,800 "Antonia, you have to get out." And she swims out. 451 00:26:53,880 --> 00:26:56,520 And I said, ''I believe all of them." They don't... 452 00:26:56,600 --> 00:26:59,200 But I said, "It's true." 453 00:26:59,280 --> 00:27:02,720 Sara Montiel is at an important event in Washington 454 00:27:02,800 --> 00:27:05,200 and, suddenly, on the plane that's departing from Washington, 455 00:27:05,280 --> 00:27:08,680 she realizes that Mrs. Kennedy is sitting in the window seat 456 00:27:08,760 --> 00:27:11,640 next to Sara's, and the plane takes off. 457 00:27:15,240 --> 00:27:17,240 There's this huge storm. 458 00:27:17,320 --> 00:27:18,880 Then the plane starts to wobble 459 00:27:18,960 --> 00:27:22,040 and to really start to feel like a disaster movie. 460 00:27:23,400 --> 00:27:25,320 In the middle of this fierce storm, 461 00:27:25,400 --> 00:27:30,080 the window on Jacqueline Kennedy's side explodes and bursts into pieces. 462 00:27:32,800 --> 00:27:35,120 And she says to her, "Don't worry, Jackie". 463 00:27:35,200 --> 00:27:37,200 She grabs her handbag, goes like this, 464 00:27:37,280 --> 00:27:40,160 throws it at the window and plugs up the window. 465 00:27:40,240 --> 00:27:42,400 Please. That was pure fantasy. 466 00:27:42,480 --> 00:27:45,640 With a pair of ovaries because she was Super Sara! 467 00:27:45,720 --> 00:27:49,920 I speak the truth. And nothing but the truth. 468 00:27:50,000 --> 00:27:55,280 Many things don't add up , but that's the magic of Sara Montiel's stories. 469 00:27:55,360 --> 00:27:58,800 Some say there was a great deal of fantasy in all of that, 470 00:27:58,880 --> 00:28:01,160 but it was so believable because it was possible. 471 00:28:01,240 --> 00:28:02,520 And there are photos. 472 00:28:02,600 --> 00:28:05,120 She has photos with Alfred Hitchcock, with Elizabeth Taylor with Dalí, 473 00:28:05,200 --> 00:28:07,280 with James Dean. How do you try to refute it? 474 00:28:07,360 --> 00:28:08,520 You can't, it's too complicated. 475 00:28:08,600 --> 00:28:13,160 Who cares if they are 99 percent accurate 476 00:28:13,240 --> 00:28:14,440 or if there's some fantasy in them? 477 00:28:15,440 --> 00:28:17,440 Because Sara is fantasy. 478 00:28:17,520 --> 00:28:19,720 What she brought to those Spaniards who watched her 479 00:28:19,800 --> 00:28:23,240 was the fantasy of what didn't exist in their homes. 480 00:28:23,320 --> 00:28:25,680 Are we going to ask for proof? 481 00:28:25,760 --> 00:28:28,680 This isn't CSI, get it? This is Sara Montiel. 482 00:28:39,560 --> 00:28:46,440 Although she appeared to be strong, deep down she was actually fragile. 483 00:28:47,560 --> 00:28:52,080 I think that also explains her fantasy. 484 00:28:53,920 --> 00:28:57,040 That she built a shell for herself 485 00:28:57,120 --> 00:29:00,400 and that the real Antonia was protected. 486 00:29:00,480 --> 00:29:03,320 To a large extent, creating that fiction for others 487 00:29:03,400 --> 00:29:05,800 was also a way of protecting herself. 488 00:29:09,240 --> 00:29:13,000 In her life with Anthony Mann, she longed to be a mother. 489 00:29:13,080 --> 00:29:16,680 She lost her baby and it was a traumatic moment. 490 00:29:16,760 --> 00:29:18,800 It was something that hurt her greatly. 491 00:29:18,880 --> 00:29:21,680 He died. 492 00:29:21,760 --> 00:29:25,200 I fell down a flight of stairs and they had to remove it. 493 00:29:25,280 --> 00:29:26,400 He died inside me. 494 00:29:26,480 --> 00:29:28,320 Sara, ever since she had the miscarriage, 495 00:29:28,400 --> 00:29:30,840 when she fell down the stairs at her home in Beverly Hills 496 00:29:30,920 --> 00:29:35,200 when she was married to Anthony Mann, I think it left its mark on her. 497 00:29:35,280 --> 00:29:36,560 She suffered terribly. 498 00:29:44,520 --> 00:29:47,760 Sara is a very intelligent woman 499 00:29:47,840 --> 00:29:49,800 and knows what she needs to do at every moment of her life. 500 00:29:49,880 --> 00:29:52,240 I don't know if she does it consciously, 501 00:29:52,320 --> 00:29:55,360 but she certainly does it fearlessly. 502 00:29:57,920 --> 00:30:02,600 You don't need to think back, you need to move forward, 503 00:30:02,680 --> 00:30:09,200 see the future and adapt to the moment that exists, that we exist in. 504 00:30:09,280 --> 00:30:12,320 After five years without setting foot in Spain, 505 00:30:12,400 --> 00:30:16,680 she receives an offer from Juan de Orduña to star in a film. 506 00:30:16,760 --> 00:30:19,080 That film was El último cuplé. 507 00:30:19,160 --> 00:30:22,960 In memory of those women who one day 508 00:30:23,040 --> 00:30:27,200 were able to move us with the brief magic of the cuplé... 509 00:30:27,280 --> 00:30:29,800 Anthony Mann tells her: "This is going to be a disaster. 510 00:30:29,880 --> 00:30:31,640 Can't you see that there's no money here?" 511 00:30:31,720 --> 00:30:33,440 He considers it to be an outdated film, 512 00:30:33,520 --> 00:30:35,560 the cuplé was extremely old-fashioned. 513 00:30:35,640 --> 00:30:37,240 Did you know I was performing here? 514 00:30:37,320 --> 00:30:41,000 No, we came by chance. 515 00:30:41,080 --> 00:30:43,040 "Well, I already know that I'm back home, 516 00:30:43,120 --> 00:30:45,720 I'm in a shabbier, smaller place. I'll adapt and adjust." 517 00:30:49,720 --> 00:30:52,080 Then I told him: "Okay, Juan, but I want to sing." 518 00:30:52,160 --> 00:30:54,480 He says: "Well, the singing part is going to be trickier, 519 00:30:54,560 --> 00:30:56,760 but the story is written for you." 520 00:30:56,840 --> 00:31:00,760 They didn't want her to sing because they didn't trust her singing skills. 521 00:31:02,320 --> 00:31:06,080 But, out of the blue, she receives an urgent call. 522 00:31:06,160 --> 00:31:07,240 "What do you want?" 523 00:31:07,320 --> 00:31:11,280 "Darling, come down to the set, immediately, to the studio, 524 00:31:11,360 --> 00:31:13,360 because you're going to record the songs for El último cuplé". 525 00:31:13,440 --> 00:31:15,040 The person who was going to record them 526 00:31:15,120 --> 00:31:16,800 wants more money and isn't going to come. 527 00:31:16,880 --> 00:31:19,080 And I went straight 528 00:31:19,160 --> 00:31:21,960 to the studio to sing, which was exactly what I desired. 529 00:31:22,040 --> 00:31:24,200 So she starts and she tells the maestro: 530 00:31:24,280 --> 00:31:25,520 "Please, lower my pitch a semitone." 531 00:31:25,600 --> 00:31:27,280 "Could you lower my pitch, please, 532 00:31:27,360 --> 00:31:29,520 because I don't want to sing that high." 533 00:31:29,600 --> 00:31:32,080 And she had just been out partying with Lola Flores 534 00:31:32,160 --> 00:31:34,120 and her voice wasn't at its best and he said to her: 535 00:31:34,200 --> 00:31:37,360 "Sara, if we go any lower we'll wind up under the piano." 536 00:31:37,440 --> 00:31:40,040 -"Then we'll sing under the piano." -There's that temper. 537 00:31:40,120 --> 00:31:41,960 You have to give me the right tone for my voice. 538 00:31:42,040 --> 00:31:45,560 Back then they were songs that everyone sang in a raspy voice. 539 00:31:48,480 --> 00:31:52,960 And she arrives and introduces a sensual voice. 540 00:31:53,040 --> 00:31:58,680 Smoking is a great pleasure 541 00:31:58,760 --> 00:32:02,360 Sensual 542 00:32:02,440 --> 00:32:06,360 Smoking I wait for the man I love 543 00:32:06,440 --> 00:32:09,160 A song that has been sung by millions of people. 544 00:32:09,240 --> 00:32:11,000 It's a symbol of sensuality. 545 00:32:11,080 --> 00:32:15,520 That sensuality and that way of acting had never been seen here. 546 00:32:15,600 --> 00:32:18,400 It's more impressive to see Sara Montiel 547 00:32:18,480 --> 00:32:20,880 doing this with her eyes and with her S's, 548 00:32:20,960 --> 00:32:23,080 than listening to a Mariah Carey scream. 549 00:32:25,720 --> 00:32:28,320 That way of singing back in those days 550 00:32:28,400 --> 00:32:30,200 wasn't understood as a correct way for a woman to sing. 551 00:32:30,280 --> 00:32:33,200 Sara found her place and knew how to assert it. 552 00:32:33,280 --> 00:32:36,560 I remember that my mother, who was a big fan, would always say: 553 00:32:36,640 --> 00:32:39,080 "Sara sings that way because she's got no voice," and I'd say: 554 00:32:39,160 --> 00:32:42,600 "No, Mom, Sara sings that way because she has lots of character, dear'. 555 00:32:42,680 --> 00:32:49,240 When I see your eyes Thirsty for pleasure 556 00:32:49,320 --> 00:32:53,400 But she shoots the film thinking that she hasn't made a great film, 557 00:32:53,480 --> 00:32:56,040 with the idea of resuming her Hollywood career. 558 00:32:56,120 --> 00:32:58,920 Nobody could have foreseen that. Not her, not anyone. 559 00:33:00,120 --> 00:33:04,000 I finished the film and left for Los Angeles, which is where I lived. 560 00:33:04,080 --> 00:33:07,320 The premiere of El último cuplé was on May 6th, 1957. 561 00:33:07,400 --> 00:33:11,160 Then they sent me a telegram from here, from Spain. 562 00:33:11,240 --> 00:33:13,800 "Sara, something tremendous has happened. 563 00:33:13,880 --> 00:33:15,400 You have to come immediately." 564 00:33:15,480 --> 00:33:16,520 And they started to tell her 565 00:33:16,600 --> 00:33:19,760 that there were lines and lines and more lines. 566 00:33:19,840 --> 00:33:22,920 The same people who had seen it in the afternoon 567 00:33:23,000 --> 00:33:24,920 were lining up to get tickets to see it that night. 568 00:33:26,320 --> 00:33:30,080 Tickets were being scalped like it was a Madonna concert. 569 00:33:32,440 --> 00:33:35,440 They were being scalped on Gran Vía and in Callao Square. 570 00:33:35,520 --> 00:33:40,480 It was probably the biggest boom in the history of Spanish film. 571 00:33:40,560 --> 00:33:42,800 The first one to bring a country to a standstill. 572 00:33:42,880 --> 00:33:46,520 Windows were broken on Gran Vía and all that was capitalized on, 573 00:33:46,600 --> 00:33:49,000 feeding back into the film's popularity. 574 00:33:49,080 --> 00:33:52,320 And that's how the commotion, the mayhem, the success, 575 00:33:52,400 --> 00:33:55,960 the goal, the boom of El último cuplé was formed. 576 00:33:56,040 --> 00:34:00,920 -Can it be relived? -No, María, it's too late. 577 00:34:01,000 --> 00:34:05,240 Juan, you live among artists, but you can't feel like them. 578 00:34:05,320 --> 00:34:07,760 We are like a flame that must be fed so it doesn't go out. 579 00:34:07,840 --> 00:34:11,400 Curiously, in Hollywood she saw how far she could go. 580 00:34:11,480 --> 00:34:13,880 Playing a Hispanic, playing an Indian, 581 00:34:13,960 --> 00:34:16,800 playing those roles was difficult. 582 00:34:16,880 --> 00:34:19,080 She didn't want to spend her whole life playing a stereotype, 583 00:34:19,159 --> 00:34:20,719 which is what they offered her. 584 00:34:20,800 --> 00:34:24,520 In fact, I'd say that it was the film that contributed to her deciding 585 00:34:24,600 --> 00:34:26,880 to return to Spain for a while and leave Hollywood. 586 00:34:26,960 --> 00:34:30,000 Because I think she truly missed her homeland. 587 00:34:30,080 --> 00:34:32,520 Buy this posy from me 588 00:34:32,600 --> 00:34:36,080 Buy this posy from me 589 00:34:36,159 --> 00:34:42,840 To wear in your buttonhole. 590 00:34:42,920 --> 00:34:45,880 The success of El último cuplé had been unexpected, 591 00:34:45,960 --> 00:34:49,239 but the success of La Violetera is her confirmation. 592 00:34:49,320 --> 00:34:54,920 She is a new global star, so she can start choosing what she wants to do. 593 00:34:55,000 --> 00:34:57,760 It was Sara's big break. 594 00:34:57,840 --> 00:35:00,840 But I'm willing to do anything just so I never lose you again. 595 00:35:00,920 --> 00:35:03,400 She has illicit love affairs, 596 00:35:03,480 --> 00:35:05,480 she has a vibrant sensuality 597 00:35:05,560 --> 00:35:09,040 and what's more she makes the elite look particularly bad. 598 00:35:09,120 --> 00:35:11,160 But showing up here with that woman. 599 00:35:11,240 --> 00:35:13,400 She'll always look like nothing but a maid. 600 00:35:14,400 --> 00:35:16,720 With La Violetera, I became even more famous. 601 00:35:16,800 --> 00:35:21,120 Because La Violetera reached every corner of the world. That's right. 602 00:35:22,280 --> 00:35:26,120 La Violetera was the film that made her famous outside of Spain. 603 00:35:26,200 --> 00:35:29,640 It was successful in places where, without a doubt, 604 00:35:29,720 --> 00:35:32,520 it wasn't at all common for Spanish films to reach. 605 00:35:32,600 --> 00:35:34,640 Number one at the box office in Italy, 606 00:35:34,720 --> 00:35:36,960 in Germany, in Mexico and in Argentina 607 00:35:37,040 --> 00:35:38,600 and everywhere around the world. 608 00:35:38,680 --> 00:35:41,280 It was a huge sensation, La Violetera. 609 00:35:44,200 --> 00:35:47,280 From that point on, she was the best paid actress in Spain 610 00:35:47,360 --> 00:35:49,600 and one of the best paid in the world. 611 00:35:52,480 --> 00:35:55,240 Sara Montiel, hounded by autograph collectors. 612 00:35:58,360 --> 00:36:02,240 Sara Montiel was a national monument. 613 00:36:04,440 --> 00:36:06,480 The film star Sarita Montiel poses 614 00:36:06,560 --> 00:36:08,880 at the San Fernando School of Fine Arts in Madrid. 615 00:36:08,960 --> 00:36:10,280 Sara Montiel had the misfortune 616 00:36:10,360 --> 00:36:14,680 that so many Spaniards had of living part of our life, 617 00:36:14,760 --> 00:36:17,360 she a little more than me, under a dictatorship. 618 00:36:19,680 --> 00:36:22,280 That gray Spain, you can't imagine what it was like. 619 00:36:22,360 --> 00:36:24,360 Ours was a very sad country. 620 00:36:27,160 --> 00:36:32,000 Everything was very demure and very prudish and everything was like that. 621 00:36:32,080 --> 00:36:36,280 And she arrived and spread her eroticism par excellence. 622 00:36:36,360 --> 00:36:37,800 It's a real victory. 623 00:36:37,880 --> 00:36:40,440 In spite of everything, Sara showed 624 00:36:40,520 --> 00:36:45,000 that Spain also had joy, it also had sparkle, it had color. 625 00:36:45,080 --> 00:36:47,920 Sara Montiel was out of her time. 626 00:36:48,000 --> 00:36:50,680 And I think Sara is the great announcement 627 00:36:50,760 --> 00:36:52,600 that the world was changing. 628 00:36:53,680 --> 00:36:56,040 She is perfectly aware of her importance 629 00:36:56,120 --> 00:36:59,880 within the country that she is destined to transform. 630 00:36:59,960 --> 00:37:04,240 I have a world here where I'm the undisputed queen 631 00:37:04,320 --> 00:37:05,920 and in Hollywood I wouldn't be." 632 00:37:06,000 --> 00:37:09,760 Because she suddenly realized that she was an industry of a genre 633 00:37:09,840 --> 00:37:12,040 called Sara Montiel 634 00:37:12,120 --> 00:37:15,800 and that she was the pinnacle in Spanish entertainment for centuries. 635 00:37:25,080 --> 00:37:27,120 The storyline? The storyline was Sara Montiel. 636 00:37:27,200 --> 00:37:30,160 Her songs, her naughtiness, her way of doing things. 637 00:37:30,240 --> 00:37:32,960 She was a prototype of characters 638 00:37:33,040 --> 00:37:38,600 that obviously required a certain personality to play them. 639 00:37:38,680 --> 00:37:42,360 They are always women bordering on the femme fatale stereotype. 640 00:37:42,440 --> 00:37:45,240 What do we like? The ones with a godly life. No. 641 00:37:45,320 --> 00:37:47,200 We like the other ones. 642 00:37:47,280 --> 00:37:51,880 It's a blend of melodrama, insanity and a certain surrealism. 643 00:37:51,960 --> 00:37:55,280 Suddenly, a nun was raped 644 00:37:55,360 --> 00:37:59,000 and then there was no other option, now she was a prostitute. 645 00:37:59,080 --> 00:38:02,440 We jumped from one thing to another and it was fantastic. 646 00:38:05,240 --> 00:38:08,160 Sara Montiel's close-ups are legendary. 647 00:38:08,240 --> 00:38:09,720 They're almost like music videos. 648 00:38:09,800 --> 00:38:11,360 That shot like this... 649 00:38:11,440 --> 00:38:14,120 Very few people could get through that shot. 650 00:38:14,200 --> 00:38:17,600 It broke the fourth wall. Sara looks straight at the camera 651 00:38:17,680 --> 00:38:21,400 and that's something completely unique in film history. 652 00:38:23,320 --> 00:38:24,960 And, of course, one thing that happens 653 00:38:25,040 --> 00:38:26,600 in all of Sara Montiel's films 654 00:38:26,680 --> 00:38:29,080 is that she sings a lot and suffers a lot. 655 00:38:30,600 --> 00:38:33,040 That's the Sara Montiel genre. 656 00:38:33,120 --> 00:38:38,040 I'm Sara Montiel, like it or not. Nobody can ever take that from me. 657 00:38:41,840 --> 00:38:46,040 The fact that Sara's films were successful has much to do 658 00:38:46,120 --> 00:38:50,880 with the economic returns they produced 659 00:38:50,960 --> 00:38:53,360 and, above all, in a political context 660 00:38:53,440 --> 00:38:57,520 where Franco's regime was also interested in this image makeover, 661 00:38:57,640 --> 00:39:00,240 to show a certain degree of openness, especially to the outside world. 662 00:39:00,320 --> 00:39:03,120 It was even used as a bargaining chip. 663 00:39:03,200 --> 00:39:05,960 They would sell my films to Russia, 664 00:39:06,040 --> 00:39:07,960 and then, in exchange for Sara Montiel, 665 00:39:08,040 --> 00:39:09,880 they would bring oil to Spain. 666 00:39:09,960 --> 00:39:16,480 Even so, Sara Montiel was very much a black sheep, in a Francoist Spain. 667 00:39:16,560 --> 00:39:20,240 When many bowed down, she stood tall. 668 00:39:20,320 --> 00:39:26,280 When many accepted the morality of the moment, she rebelled. 669 00:39:27,680 --> 00:39:30,240 During the years of Franco's rule, 670 00:39:30,320 --> 00:39:34,720 there were a couple of days when actors and actresses and starlets 671 00:39:34,800 --> 00:39:37,400 and so-called "stars" were called upon to go and perform. 672 00:39:38,800 --> 00:39:41,600 She, for example, refused to participate 673 00:39:41,680 --> 00:39:44,000 because she asked for her uncle, 674 00:39:44,080 --> 00:39:47,120 in prison in Cartagena for political reasons. 675 00:39:47,200 --> 00:39:50,040 Franco said: "No, if he's there, it must be for a good reason" 676 00:39:50,120 --> 00:39:53,200 and she refused to go to that gala. 677 00:39:53,280 --> 00:39:57,000 But she told me that one time she couldn't escape it. 678 00:39:58,680 --> 00:40:03,160 So she said that she wanted to do something naughty. 679 00:40:03,240 --> 00:40:06,200 Franco asked her to sing "La Violetera" 680 00:40:06,280 --> 00:40:08,520 and she said: "Very well, now wait and see". 681 00:40:08,600 --> 00:40:12,680 From the stage 682 00:40:12,760 --> 00:40:17,280 She handed out violets. 683 00:40:17,360 --> 00:40:22,160 She said very clearly to Franco: "Buy one from me, your excellence." 684 00:40:22,240 --> 00:40:26,360 You take it, young sir 685 00:40:26,440 --> 00:40:33,360 And then Franco got up to go and get that posy of violets. 686 00:40:33,440 --> 00:40:38,640 And when Franco stood up, everyone in the stalls had to stand up. 687 00:40:42,160 --> 00:40:47,040 She did something that in Spain at that time wasn't only uncommon, 688 00:40:47,120 --> 00:40:50,600 but more than one was imprisoned for doing what she did. 689 00:40:50,680 --> 00:40:53,520 And that was her tiny revenge. 690 00:40:55,520 --> 00:40:58,600 She was the freest woman this country has produced, 691 00:40:58,680 --> 00:41:00,840 from a generation that wasn't free. 692 00:41:00,920 --> 00:41:04,880 And not even Franco could stop her. Not even Franco could stop her. 693 00:41:16,080 --> 00:41:21,080 My name is Luis Fernando Carrasco. I met Sara when I was very young. 694 00:41:21,160 --> 00:41:23,560 Well, yes, her best friend, her brother. 695 00:41:27,720 --> 00:41:32,440 She called me almost every day. She knew I was very discreet. 696 00:41:32,520 --> 00:41:35,000 The things they told me I never... 697 00:41:35,080 --> 00:41:39,040 The first time I'm being interviewed for television is right now. 698 00:41:39,120 --> 00:41:42,400 They're so good! 699 00:41:44,000 --> 00:41:47,400 Luis Fernando Carrasco appears in Sara's life 700 00:41:47,480 --> 00:41:51,920 like the little brother she had never been able to have. 701 00:41:52,000 --> 00:41:54,160 Sara could never be alone. 702 00:41:54,240 --> 00:41:56,880 If I had to accompany her somewhere, I would accompany her. 703 00:41:56,960 --> 00:41:59,800 Our relationship was strictly human. 704 00:41:59,880 --> 00:42:02,040 I'd never sought anything from her. 705 00:42:02,120 --> 00:42:05,640 And that's what's important, because it's wonderful to have by your side 706 00:42:05,720 --> 00:42:07,360 someone you don't expect anything from 707 00:42:07,440 --> 00:42:10,480 and with whom you cry when you need to cry. 708 00:42:12,880 --> 00:42:15,560 She had houses in Madrid, that nobody knew about, 709 00:42:15,640 --> 00:42:18,160 where she would take refuge and stay for 10 or 12 days. 710 00:42:18,240 --> 00:42:22,000 Her mother, her niece Toñi and I would go there. Period. 711 00:42:24,160 --> 00:42:27,840 The 60s and 70s, which were enormously successful 712 00:42:27,920 --> 00:42:29,520 from a professional point of view, 713 00:42:29,600 --> 00:42:31,680 were a bit difficult for her personally. 714 00:42:31,760 --> 00:42:34,160 She often felt very lonely. 715 00:42:34,240 --> 00:42:36,160 And someone like her, 716 00:42:36,240 --> 00:42:39,480 who had important emotional needs, maternal needs, 717 00:42:39,560 --> 00:42:41,560 the abortions had really affected her. 718 00:42:44,080 --> 00:42:46,160 MY HAPPINESS WILL NOT BE COMPLETE IF I DON'T HAVE CHILDREN 719 00:42:47,480 --> 00:42:49,400 I HAVEN'T CONSIDERED ADOPTING A CHILD BECAUSE I'LL HAVE ONE 720 00:42:49,480 --> 00:42:51,160 She could see that there were others 721 00:42:51,240 --> 00:42:55,520 who had difficult lives and they had children, and she didn't. 722 00:42:57,160 --> 00:43:00,080 I HAD A CHILD AND HE DIED SOON AFTER BIRTH. 723 00:43:01,760 --> 00:43:03,600 It's been frustrating, 724 00:43:03,680 --> 00:43:06,920 because I could have lived without having children, 725 00:43:07,000 --> 00:43:09,440 but not with losing them. 726 00:43:09,520 --> 00:43:12,520 I don't know if you understand me. But the fact is that I lost them. 727 00:43:15,280 --> 00:43:19,680 IN THE NEXT EPISODE 728 00:43:22,440 --> 00:43:25,240 Sara was at a point in her life 729 00:43:25,320 --> 00:43:29,000 where she needed to find someone who knew how to handle her. 730 00:43:30,000 --> 00:43:32,320 They were a couple who, wherever they went, 731 00:43:32,400 --> 00:43:35,440 everyone would turn to stare at them. 732 00:43:36,360 --> 00:43:39,160 She said to me, "Please don't tell anyone anything." 733 00:43:39,240 --> 00:43:44,240 I kept the secret, but she was going through hell. 734 00:43:44,320 --> 00:43:49,880 I want to show you this again, and it's so lovely. 735 00:43:49,960 --> 00:43:54,400 Look at that. Madrid, Autumn 1992. 736 00:43:55,680 --> 00:43:58,520 - Look at Daddy. Are you filming? - Yes. 737 00:43:58,600 --> 00:44:02,000 - But, have you opened it? - Yes, I have. 738 00:44:05,120 --> 00:44:07,320 I've felt other people's fondness 739 00:44:07,400 --> 00:44:08,840 and love for having that family name, Montiel. 740 00:44:08,920 --> 00:44:10,040 Feeling proud to say: 741 00:44:10,120 --> 00:44:11,880 "I'm Zeus Montiel, son of Sara Montiel, 742 00:44:11,960 --> 00:44:13,520 and here I'm for you to listen to me."