Florián Rey
| Florián Rey | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Antonio Martínez del Castillo 25 January 1894 La Almunia de Doña Godina, Zaragoza Province, Spain |
| Died | 11 April 1962 (aged 68) Benidorm, Alicante, Spain |
| Occupation | Film director, producer, screenwriter |
| Years active | 1924–1956 |
| Spouse(s) | Imperio Argentina (1934–1939) |
Florián Rey (born Antonio Martínez del Castillo) was a Spanish director, actor, and screenwriter. He directed La aldea maldita (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.
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 La revoltosa (The Mischief-Maker) in 1924. As with many of his early films, La revoltosa 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 La hermana San Sulpicio (Sister San Sulpicio). This marked her debut as an actress in Spain. The two would later collaborate on other films and eventually marry.
Rey directed La aldea maldita (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|Fútbol, amor, y toros]], in 1929. No copy of the sound version of La aldea maldita exists today.
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