© 2026 The Couch Critic
One of Spanish cinema’s great auteurs, Carlos Saura brought international audiences closer to the art of his country’s dance than any other filmmaker, before or since. In his Flamenco Trilogy—Blood Wedding, Carmen, and El amor brujo—Saura merged his passion for music with his exploration of national identity. All starring and choreographed by legendary dancer Antonio Gades, the films feature thrilling physicality and electrifying cinematography and editing—colorful paeans to bodies in motion as well as to cinema itself.
A dance troupe prepares for and completes a dress rehearsal of Federico García Lorca's tragic play "Blood Wedding," which is about a bride who runs away from her wedding with a former boyfriend.
While rehearsing a flamenco ballet adaptation of Bizet's opera “Carmen”, Antonio, the choreographer, falls in love with the main dancer, Carmen, a fiercely independent woman. Antonio is slowly consumed by jealousy and possessiveness towards Carmen, just like Don José in the original opera, blurring the lines between fiction and reality.
In a Gypsy village, the fathers of Candela and José promise their children to each other. Years later, the unfaithful José marries Candela but while defending his lover Lucía in a brawl, he is stabbed to death. Carmelo, who secretly loves Candela since he was a boy, is arrested while helping José and unfairly sent to prison. Four years later he is released and declares his love for Candela. However, the woman is cursed by a bewitched love and every night she goes to the place where José died to dance with his ghost.