Florián Rey

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title: "Florián Rey" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1894-births", "1962-deaths", "people-from-valdejalón", "spanish-film-directors", "spanish-male-film-actors", "spanish-male-silent-film-actors", "20th-century-spanish-male-actors", "film-directors-from-aragon"] description: "Spanish film director" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florián_Rey" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Spanish film director ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox person"]

Field	Value
name	Florián Rey
image	Florián Rey.JPG
birth_name	Antonio Martínez del Castillo
birth_date
birth_place	La Almunia de Doña Godina (Zaragoza), Spain
death_date
death_place	Benidorm (Alicante), Spain
occupation	Film director, producer, screenwriter
years_active	1924–1956
spouse	Imperio Argentina (1934–1939)
::

| name = Florián Rey | image = Florián Rey.JPG | imagesize = | caption = | birth_name = Antonio Martínez del Castillo | birth_date = | birth_place = La Almunia de Doña Godina (Zaragoza), Spain | death_date = | death_place = Benidorm (Alicante), Spain | occupation = Film director, producer, screenwriter | years_active = 1924–1956 | spouse =Imperio Argentina (1934–1939)

Antonio Martínez del Castillo known professionally as Florián Rey was a Spanish director, actor, and screenwriter. He directed The Cursed Village, widely recognized as a seminal work in silent Spanish cinema, and helped launch the career of famed Argentinian–Spanish actress Imperio Argentina.

Early career

While in his teens, Rey began work as a journalist for multiple newspapers in his home province of Zaragoza and nearby Madrid. It was during this time that he assumed the name Florián Rey. He took work as an actor, first in the theater in Madrid and then film. His first film role was in La inaccessible in 1920.

Rey's directorial debut was with the film The Troublemaker in 1924. As with many of his early films, The Troublemaker was an adaptation of a zarzuela, a Spanish musical theater that was highly popular with the middle and lower classes of the late nineteenth century.

In 1926, Rey, with Spanish director Juan de Orduña, created the production company Goya Films. Rey continued directing zarzuela adaptations and other forms of melodramas through the 1920s for Goya Films as well as other production companies.

In 1927, Rey cast Argentinian–Spanish actress Imperio Argentina in Sister San Sulpicio. This marked her debut as an actress in Spain. The two would later collaborate on other films and eventually marry.

''{{lang|es|La aldea maldita}}''

Rey directed The Cursed Village in 1929. This would be his most successful film and is regarded by many critics as a masterpiece of silent Spanish cinema. Rey intended for La aldea maldita to be a silent film, but, after completing production, decided to include sound. This necessitated additional shooting and synchronization in Paris. The decision to move sound production to France stemmed from Rey's dissatisfaction with the quality of the sound in his first talkie, Football, Love, and Bullfighting, in 1929. No copy of the sound version of La aldea maldita exists today.

Many film historians claim Rey was inspired by Russian Expressionist films during the making of La aldea maldita, particularly The Village of Sin by Olga Prebajenskaia, although the influence of this specific film on Rey is not universally agreed. Rey incorporated such aspects of Russian Expressionism into his film as attention to shadow, camera "walk-throughs" (actors walk towards a camera followed by a shot of them moving away, as if they moved through it), and closeups on peasant faces.

Later work

After the success of La aldea maldita, Rey was retained as a director for CIFESA, though he traveled and filmed in other countries during the 1930s. While touring Mexico to promote and show Morena Clara, Rey and his wife Imperio Argentina were courted by German officials intending to hire him to direct movies for Hispano-Film Produktion. Upon their visit to Germany, Rey and Argentina were met by both Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goebbels to discuss film projects. Goebbels requested that Rey remake one of his earlier films based on a rewritten script that would be provided to him. Instead, Rey decided on an adaptation of Carmen. The resulting film, Carmen la de Triana, starred Argentina as the titular Carmen.

Rey remained in Germany and made additional films for Hispano-Film Produktion. His last film with Argentina was La cancion de Aixa (Aixa's Song) in 1939. Amidst rumors that Argentina had an affair with Hitler, the couple divorced and Rey returned to Spain. Rey and Argentina's relationship in Germany was the inspiration for the film The Girl of Your Dreams, directed by Fernando Trueba in 1998.

Upon his return to Spain, Rey continued working for CIFESA studios. He received success with several films, including a remake of La aldea maldita, but was never able to match the success of his films with Argentina.

Filmography

::data[format=table]

Year	Spanish Title	English Title	Notes
1921	La verbena de la paloma	The Fair of the Dove	Actor
1924	The Troublemaker
1925	La chavala
1925	Los chicos de la escuela
1925	Carnival Figures
1925	El Lazarillo de Tormes
1926	El cura de aldea
1926	El pilluelo de Madrid
1927	The Mysteries of Tangier
1927	Sister San Sulpicio		The debut of Imperio Argentina
1928	Agustina of Aragon
1928	Los claveles de la virgen
1929	Fútbol, amor y toros	Soccer, Love, and Bullfighting	Rey's first talkie
1929	La aldea maldita	The Cursed Village	Originally released in sound, but sound version presumed lost. Silent version survived.
1931	The Pure Truth
1931	Los buenos dias
1932	El cliente seductor
1933	Esperame
1933	Melodia de arrabal	Song of the Shantytown
1934	Sister San Sulpicio		Remake in sound of an earlier Rey film
1934	El novio de mamá	Mama's Suitor
1934	Romanza rusa
1934	Sierra de Ronda
1934	Soy un senorito
1935	Nobleza baturra	Aragonese Virtue or Rustic Chivalry
1936	Morena Clara	Clara, the Brunette or Dark and Bright
1938	Carmen, la de Triana
1939	The Song of Aixa		Rey's last film with Argentina
1940	La Dolores
1941	Polizón a bordo	Stowaway on Board
1942	La aldea maldita	The Cursed Village	Remake of an earlier Rey film
1942	Eramos siete a la mesa
1943	Ana Maria
1943	Idolas
1943	Orosia
1945	La luna vale un millon
1946	Audiencia publica
1947	La nao capitana
1948	Brindis a Manolete
1948	La cigarra
1950	Cuentos de La Alhambra
1953	La moza de cántaro
1954	La cruz de mayo
1954	La danza de los deseos
1954	Maleficio/Tres citas con el destino	Witchcraft/Three Dates with Destiny
1956	Polvorilla
::

Notes

References

Bibliography

• Sánchez Vidal, Agustín. El cine de Florián Rey, Zaragoza, Caja de Ahorros de la Inmaculada de Aragón, 1991;

References

1. {{harvp. Mira Nouselles. 2010
2. {{harvp. D'Lugo. 1997
3. {{harvp. Pavlovic. Alvarez. Blanco-Cano. Grisales. 2009
4. {{harvp. Goble. 1991
5. {{harvp. Triana-Toribio. 2003
6. {{harvp. Stone. 2002
7. {{harvp. Stone. 2002
8. {{harvp. Faulkner. 2013
9. {{harvp. Faulkner. 2013
10. {{harvp. Mira Nouselles. 2010
11. {{harvp. Faulkner. 2013
12. {{harvp. Pavlovic. Alvarez. Blanco-Cano. Grisales. 2009
13. {{harvp. Kinder. 1993
14. {{harvp. Stone. 2002
15. {{harvp. Mira Nouselles. 2010
16. {{harvp. Stone. 2002
17. {{harvp. Stone. 2002
18. {{harvp. Stone. 2002
19. {{harvp. D'Lugo. 1997
20. {{harvp. D'Lugo. 1997
21. {{harvp. Kinder. 1993
22. {{harvp. Mira Nouselles. 2010

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