Word: matador
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...hero of the film, Miguelin, played by an actual matador named Miguelin, rises from poverty to become a famous bullfighter. Although the outward circumstances of his life seem to change for the better, Rosi continually insinuates that they don't. The impressario who grabs a fat chunk of Miguelin's salary as a matador closely resembles the labor contractor he worked for in the slums of Barcelona. Similarly, whores with diamond earrings are no different from the 100 pesatas per night girls he met while still a dock worker. Rosi carries these parallels to extremes; even the jet-set types...
Miguelin himself does change, however, as fear sets in. Hemingway once remarked that the true test of a bull-fighter comes after his first major wound. The natural matador will concentrate harder when he returns to the circuit, while the man out for money alone will lose his nerve. Once wounded, Miguelin begins to suffer from dreams and fantasies of death. The camera, which before had recorded the full spectacle of the bull-fight from a discreet distance, focuses directly on Miguelin and the bull as, for the first time, he realizes that he and the beast are alone...
Rosi's contrasts between the actual and the staged shots parallels the central contrast of the film, that between the public image of a matador and the man who fights bulls for a living. This device is largely responsible for the effectiveness of the scenes in the ring; because so much of the film is not staged, you can never be sure that Miguelin will not be actually gored at any moment...
...foremost a social critic, and I believe that modern bullfighting for him serves as one example of a malaise which he observes in present-day society. The thrust of his film is directed not against bullfighting per se, as evidenced by his highly sympathetic portrayal of an idealistic old matador, but against the kind of professionalism which Miguelin represents...
...MOMENT OF TRUTH. A rigorous but eloquent ritual drama about the short, tragic life of a great bullfighter, played by Spanish Matador Miguel Mateo...