After the deposition of Isabella II, Amadeo (Ŕlex Brendemühl) of the
House of Savoy and second son of the King of Italy, is elected King of
Spain in 1870. He comes with high hopes and progressive ideas - only to
learn nobody's much interested in him. There is no coronation ceremony,
most of the officials shun him, parliament doesn't even report to him, and
it becomes clearer and clearer that he was just installed as a puppet
monarch. He thus spends most of the days at his castle (where everybody
thinks him best kept anyways), looking for amusement with his personnel
(which includes shagging the cook (Lola Duenas)). Eventually, his wife
(Bárbara Lennie) arrives from Italy, and she tries to reignite Amadeo's
vigor he was once known for, but seeing him running against closed doors
all the time soon takes the vigor out of her as well, and eventually, she
makes an escape back to Italy, not without writing her husband a note
urging him to follow - which he soon does. With his departure, Spain
becomes a democracy for the very first time ... for less than two years
... What Stella Cadente is not is a historic epic that
takes history by the letter and loses itself in facts and its own
seriousness. Instead, Stella Cadente puts an satirical spin on
facts, interprets facts rather than presenting them, tells its story with
lots of humour, even includes contemporary pop tunes and dance scenes to
brighten things up ... but unfortunately this all doesn't make it a good
film, it's just too slow-moving to really get anywhere, features a few too
many fillers to actually get its story across, and too often is just a
little too boring in its approach. One can't shake the feeling that this
could have been really good - but unfortunately it's just so-so.
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