Cantinflas: A Magia da Comédia

This is a Mexican/Spanish co-production dealing with the untold story of Mexico's greatest and most beloved comedy film star of all time, Cantinflas (Oscar Jaenada) , from his poor origins on the small stage and his acting in Mexican cinema to the bright lights of Hollywood , being hired by a powerful US producer , Mike Todd (Michael Imperioli) .In his youth, he earned money as a prizefighter and worked as an acrobat in circus tent shows. As he acted in cabarets , theatres and varietee shows . He was married to Valentina Ivanova (Ilse Salas) from 1936 until her death. He appeared in more than 55 films, including as Passepartoute in his biggest hit : Around the world in 80 days (1956) . At the peak of his career in the late 1950s, Cantinflas was earning more than $1.5 million a year and was referred to in press releases as the world's highest-paid comedian. He once described as "the world's greatest comedian" by none other than Charles Chaplin (Sedgwick) .Despite the fact that Cantinflas died a millionaire several times over, and was one of the biggest stars ever in Spanish language films, he never forgot where he came from. Much of his money was given over to charitable work, including high-quality, low-income housing for Mexico City's poor. When he died, he was hailed as a national hero, and a protracted period of official mourning followed.

The picture describes various episodes about Cantinflas life from Mexico to around the world , many of them shown in flashbacks , his hard beginings , his relationship to his understanding wife Valentina Ivanova ( Ilse Salas) , the stubborn Mike Todd (who married Liz Taylor played Barbara Mori) to hire him , the Actors Unions strike led by Cantinflas himself with appearance of notorious Mexican actors as Dolores Del Rio (Jessica Gocha) , María Félix (Ximena Gonzalez-Rubio) , Jorge Negrete (Julio Bracho) , Miroslava , Gloria Marin (Giovanna Zacarias) , Ernesto Alonso , Lupita Tovar (Flor Payán) , Pedro Armendariz , Emilio Indio Fernández (Joaquin Cosio) , cameraman Gabriel Figueroa (Carlos Aragón) , among others . In addition , here shows up some prestigious Hollywood actors in brief appearances , such as : Kirk Douglas (Juan Castelazo) , Charlie Chaplin (Julian Sedgwick) , Marlene Dietrich (Karin Burnett) , Marlon Brando ,Yul Brynner , and Liz Taylor . Furthermore , showing the shooting in the Churubusco studios of some Cantinflas films as ¨Ahí esta el detalle¨, ¨Ni sangre ni arena¨, ¨El gendarme desconocido¨, ¨Un dia con el diablo¨ and , of course , ¨Around the world in 80 days¨ . Stars Oscar Jaenada who looks exactly him , he gives an acceptable acting as the famous showman . However , this film was not well received in México, due to the decission of giving the role to a spanish actor. The general sense is that even when the acting was good, Jaenada was not capable to be funny, because he couldn't understand the mexican sense of humor. There's no real consensus on how Mario Moreno Reyes adopted his more familiar professional name. One story goes that he did not want to shame his family, who thought of show business as a less than respectable profession, and so created his name. Another is that, at one of his first nightclub engagements, a heckler taunted him with, "¡En la cantina inflas!" ("You get drunk in the bar room!"). Other stories say the name came from phrases like "¡Cuanto inflas!", (you really get drunk!) "¿Cantas o le inflas?" (you sing or get drunk?), or "ya calláte cantinflas" (shut up, cheap singer) For some reason, this amused him, and he shortened the taunt into the professional name of Cantinflas. In 1936 Cantinflas made his first "film," a two-reel advertisement for a trucking company. A year later, he appeared in his first movie for the nascent Mexican film industry, "Asi Es Mi Tierra" ("That's My Country"). He scored his first international success in 1940 with what also was his first full-length feature, "Ahi Esta el Detalle" ("There Is the Detail"). In his second major film, "Ni Sangre, Ni Arena" ("Neither Blood Nor Sand"), Cantinflas plays dual roles - an arrogant matador and a humble, devoted fan. The comedy begins when, through a classic mix-up of identities, the lowly fan is mistaken for the vain bull fighter. Cantinflas was to perfect the bull-fight into one of his most famous routines, performed again and again in arenas in Mexico, Europe and the United States.

The movie has enough budget , including big production design , fastuous scenarios , and luxurious sets . As well as a colorful and brilliant cinematography by Carlos Hidalgo . It contains an evocative and atmospheric musical score by Roque Baños . The motion picture was professionally directed by Sebastian del Amo who plays a cameo as Yul Brynner . It had a great world wide premiere in Mexico D.F. and it was Official submission of Mexico to the best foreign language film category of the 87th Academy Awards 2015. In Spain was released in 2016, 2 years later, in 36 theaters and thanks to Óscar Jaenada who personally secured it a Spanish released trough his connections, which ended up happening on April the 15th 2016.