Thursday, December 18, 2014

Weekend Discussion: Photo Gallery; Family Album, Volume 1


Don't you just love it when casting directors get it right?  I love how novela producers often match up actors who look like they could share DNA as family members.  This can't pretend to be a whole archive, but merely a first installment.



Mothers and Daughters

When we have mother-and-daughter stories we often get good matches whether or not the two characters get along.  What is particularly interesting is how this plays out in remakes of the same story.  Two stunning examples:

El Privilegio de Amar (1998) / Triunfo del Amor (2010)

Helena Rojo and Adela Noriega (where has she been lately?) looked like a real mother and daughter here:

 

Victoria Ruffo looked very much like she was the mother of both Maite Perroni and Livia Brito:

 


Bodas de Odio (1983) / Amor Real (2003) / Lo Que La Vida Me Robo (2013)

Rosario Gálvez and Christian Bach in Bodas de Odio:


Helena Rojo and Adela Noriega together again in Amor Real:



Daniela Castro and Angelique Boyer in Lo Que La Vida Me Robo:


From the same series, we have Isabella Camil and Illithya Manzanilla as Amelia and Angelica:

 

I'm predicting that these two pairs will be paired up again in some future series.


Families

Las Aguas Mansas (1994) / Pasion de Gavilanes (2003) / 
Fuego en la Sangre (2008) / Gavilanes (2010) / Tierra de Reyes (2014)

Four different networks in four countries did this basic story five times over a 20-year period.  RTI of Columbia (who did the original) partnered with Telemundo (USA) in 2003, Televisa (Mexico) took up the story in 2008, Antena 3 (Spain) did the short version (26 weekly episodes in two sets of 13) in 2010, and Telemundo does it again in 2014.  There is an evolutionary process in the story and some interesting changes in casting practice.

In the first four versions of this story, it appears that the most straight-laced daughter most strongly resembles her mother.  The brothers' tragic younger sister varies in resemblance to the oldest brother, who is her most intense protector.

Las Aguas Mansas:

Los Elizondos (L to R:  Bernardo, Gabriela, Fernando, Martin, Sofia, Jimena, Sara)


 
     Los Reyes (L to R:  Oscar, Franco, Juan)                           Damien, Ruth*

 
     Oscar & Jimena                                   Sofia & Juan

Pasion de Gavilanes:

L to R:  Oscar, Juan, Franco

L to R:  Ximena, Norma, Sara

Gabriela & Ximena

Libia

Fuego en la Sangre

L to R:  Sofia, Ximena, Sara, Gabriela, Franco, Oscar, Juan

Libia

Gavilanes:

L to R:  Oscar, Juan, Frank

L to R:  Sara, Norma, Lucia


Seated at right is the girls' mother (named Sofia in this version); 2nd man from left is Fernando

Tierra de Reyes (character names were all changed):

L to R top:  Irina (Ximena), Sofia, Cayetana (Gabriela), Andrea (Sara)

L to R:  Alma (Libia), Samuel (Franco), Arturo (Juan), Flavio (Oscar)

Just for the eye candy, at left is Leonardo (Fernando); Samuel (Franco) at right.

Telemundo made an interesting casting decision in their remake to have the youngest, most rebellious daughter resemble her mother, who will be as much of a bitch as she was in Fuego en la Sangre. The most recent two actors in the Franco character do not measure up in looks to Pablo Montero and the latest one doesn't look at all as though he is related to either of his two brothers.

I've only seen the opening episodes of both the Spanish miniseries version (DVD set currently unavailable) and the new Telemundo one so I have no idea whether there will be a Ruth who will resemble Libia, as there was in the first two versions of this story.  I can tell you that the mother in Gavilanes is also evil, her husband is not as old as his three predecessors (also in TdR), and I will provide no further spoilers.  BTW, the Columbian actor who was the original Oscar came to PdG as Armando, a casting tradition borrowed from Televisa.


Late Addition:  La Malquerida (2014)

Victoria Ruffo and Ariadne Diaz:

 


Finally, I've predicted this before but here is the proof that Karla Farfan will ultimately be cast with Diana Bracho (or as her younger version in a prologue):



More to come on this subject in the new year!

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Comments:
Thanks for this, Urban. Very interesting photos. The only one I've seen is Fuego en la Sangre. I decided against Tierra de Reyes.
 

Very interesting idea, Urban, but you always come up with new perspectives on this genre. Thank you for what you have posted and what will come.

Jarifa
 

Of course we currently have Jorge Salinas and Pablo Montero as brothers in MCET, which will be discussed when we get to the next installment. That will also talk about matching child actors to the adults they either become or the adults who play their parents.
 

Urban:
Great comparison! I saw FELS and liked it, probaby because I like all things EY.

I definitely will pass up TdR, don't like AD at all! I prefer to wait a few months and watch PdG, which has been censored by RTI Telemundo because of the airing of TdR.

I think you are totally right about Karla Farfan!

I wonder if studios make it a practice to mold a newer actor into a successful older one?
 

Censored? In what way?
 

Just meant to say that RTI and Telemundo have taken down all the episodes of PdG from YouTube and other online novela sites.

Although in the past two weeks, someone has been re-uploading the episodes of PdG on DailyMotion. I think about 35 episodes have been uploaded as of this past Wednesday; and so far they were still there last night.

I just don't know yet if this person is uploading the full, original TV version or the condensed, CD version available on the market which is said to be very choppy and somewhat lacking in the original passion shown between the guys and girls.

I've been trying to save these episodes to my laptop, a few at a time, so I can watch them (only if they are the uncut version) in case RTI Telemundo takes them down again.

I know RTI Telemundo just recently took them down from YouTube and Daily Motion, because I had added the Novela to my Playlist about a month ago and when I went back to watch the Novela last week, puff the episodes had been deleted#!#
 

And only chopped up clips or portions of episodes are available, as far as I can tell.
I've heard that the networks sometimes claim copyright infringement for one Novela if they are producing and are ready to air a remake.
 

Telemundo has reshown this novela several times since its original run. The original run had been extended and the last chapter ran about twice as long as it should have because it was the best ratings Telemundo had ever had in the 7PM time slot.

On the first replay they cut that part down to something a bit more realistic, but they censored the love scenes. There were two subsequent airings that I know of and those could have been edited in a different way.

What is concerning me now is TM's remake cycle, which appears to be 10 years on their own productions; for Televisa it's been more like 16 years. TdR is ten years after PdG; En Otro Piel was only 9 years after El Cuerpo del Deseo.

But what's worse is that the age difference between actors playing parents and children is shrinking. Sonya Smith is only 18 years older than the oldest of the actresses who play her daughters in TdR. That doesn't happen among wealthy and educated people in the US.

Back to the main point of this article: I find it interesting that the youngest and most rebellious daughter is the one who looks like their control freak mother in the new production. It's like they looked at the two previous examples and thought that fate could really stick it to her with that.
 

Urban:
Yes it is a shame that the networks seem to be shortening their remake cycle and making the parent/child age difference somewhat unbelievable.

DC and AB were perfectly matched and believable as mother/daughter in LQLVMR. Not to mention your keen comparisons of HR and AN.

I just find it so hard to believe that these very profitable networks can't come up with new, original stories instead of regurgitating the same old stuff.

It wouldn't be so bad if they would wait a decent amount of time in order to reproduce a story so that a viewer probably would not be exposed to watching the same novela more than once or twice in their lifetime.

Just how is it be possible that there aren't enough writers out there producing splendid works for telenovelas ???

Since YouTube and online novela websites are relatively new in terms of telenovelaland, who knows if this practice of claiming copyright infringement and 'knocking down' the 'original' version in favor of the remake will happen more often.

It just seems such a waste that with the great acting talent available to the studios that more original novelas aren't produced.

I hope you keep the comparisons and picture gallery going!
 

Victoria, there are earlier examples of the parent/child age difference being too small:

1998: Abrazame Muy Fuerte, had Cesar Evora as the father of Fernando Colunga and Pablo Montero. He is only 7 and 15 years older than they are, but Cesar's basso profundo voice dictated that, as it would if he were an opera singer instead.

2003: Rebeca had Victor Camara as the father of Ricardo Alamo when he was only 11 years older. This is commonplace at Venevision, where both of them came from.

Ridiculous. But I don't think this will change until and unless the public starts objecting very strongly and voting with their remotes.
 

Urban, what an excellent topic and perfect examples. I don't think there was ever a better casting than Isabella Camil and Illithya Manzanilla who were totally believable as mother/daughter.

I agree with everything you wrote but might I make a suggestion? Victoria Ruffo and Ariadne Díaz are picture perfect for their current mother/daughter roles in La Malquerida.

I'm with Victoria in that I've only seen FELS because EY is the ultimate for me.

Thanks so much.

Diana
 

Yes, the black hair and green eyes makes VR and AD a really good mother/daughter pairing in La Malquerida.
 

Isabella Camil and Ilithya Manzanilla were indeed perfect. They both have such a unique facial shape, and to find two women who share it was a stroke of luck and great casting for Robo.
 

To a previous point, I am wondering whether the internet will ultimately lead new viewers to investigate older series such as the ones we talk about.
 

Ariadne Diaz: http://tinyurl.com/o298glm

Young Victoria Ruffo: http://tinyurl.com/jwwuq9z

 

Thanks for those links, Vivi. I added them to this article.

Due to the holidays coming up, Weekend Discussions will take a hiatus until after the new year.
 





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