José Luis de Vilallonga
Birth : 1920-01-29, Madrid, Madrid, Spain
Death : 2007-08-30
History
José Luis de Vilallonga y Cabeza de Vaca, 9th Marquess of Castellbell, (29 January 1920 – 30 August 2007) was a Spanish nobleman, actor and author.
He was born in Madrid to an important Catalan noble family, son of Salvador de Vilallonga y Cárcer, 8th Marquess of Castellbell amongst other titles, and María del Carmen Cabeza de Vaca y Carvajal, daughter of the 9th Marquess of Portago. On his paternal side, he was descended from viceroy Amat, whereas on his maternal side, some of Vilallonga's ancestors were Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, Pedro Téllez-Girón, Ferrante Gonzaga II and Christopher Columbus. Both Alfonso de Portago and Vicente Sartorius were his first cousins.[2]
Growing up, he spent the first two years of his life at a clinic in Munich, to recover from an intestinal condition with which he was born. He studied at the Jesuits of Barcelona and in other schools from which he was often expelled for misbehaviour. When the Second Spanish Republic was proclaimed in 1931, he went into exile with his parents to Biarritz for six months but eventually returned. Her grandmother had a powerful influence on his education, which was very broad and advanced for the time. The Spanish Civil War broke out while Vilallonga was studying at École Saint-Elme, a Dominican school in Arcachon. He immediately returned to Spain and entered the ranks of the rebel faction as a provisional second lieutenant of Requetés; he recounted that he was part of a firing squad as young as 16 years old.
After pursuing a four-year long career in diplomacy, he married his first wife Esyylt Priscilla Scott-Ellis, a daughter of Thomas Scott-Ellis, 8th Baron Howard de Walden, while he was working as an attaché in London. He then became interested in journalism and literature, his first works being at Diario de Barcelona. Vilallonga also worked for foreign magazines including Paris Match, as he was banned from returning to Spain following the Francoist regime's censoreship of a few of his articles. His actor career came through as a result of his good connections with many prominent figures of the artistic world, landing roles in The Lovers (1958), Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962) and Darling (1965). In Spain, he was noted for his performance in the second and third films of Berlanga's "Nacional" trilogy, namely Patrimonio Nacional (1981) and Nacional III (1982).
After a brief step through politics that included toying with the Socialist Party of Spain, Vilallonga wrote the first ever and only authorised biography of king Juan Carlos I, titled El Rey and published in 1993.
His peculiar character, described as "a mixture of aristocratic arrogance, self-confidence and unconcern", brought him frequent enmities with other public figures. He was known to be a multifaceted, charming, elegant and playboy-like figure. At his death in 2007, Vilallonga was referred to by several newspapers as "the last dandy". ...
Source: Article "José Luis de Vilallonga, 9th Marquess of Castellbell" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
Novel
1936. Rafael, son of a Spanish nobleman, leaves the French Catholic institution where he was resident, recalled in his country by his father. Senior officer in Franco's army, it is that his son is involved in the civil war that tore Spain. Before joining the front, Rafael is assigned to a unit whose main mission is to take care of prisoners and execute subversive elements. The garrison was commanded by Colonel Masagual, a friend's father Rafael. Very old regime , the colonel who lives openly with his homosexuality Casado, his aide, is an ambiguous character, melancholy and cynical lucidity.
Conde de Santbenet
In 1939, Ramón was a young man, caught up in his Barcelona family's involvement on the Republic side in the brutal Spanish Civil War. He and his family fled into exile ahead of Franco's troops. Now it is many years later, and he has come back to see how his old homestead fared in the intervening years. The only person he can find who is able to remember those years clearly is his family's old butler Claudio.
Federico
Dr. Warton
Based on the adventures of the hero Tex from the comic strip by Bonelli. An interesting spaghetti-western/fantasy movie that blends magic and mythology with six-guns and stagecoaches.
Max
A guy named Santos is released from prison after having killed his best friend. The dead friends father then organizes a manhunt to kill Santos. Santos escapes and then turns things around as he starts hunting the hunters.
Presidente frances
Satanic Nazis gather to perform ancient rites for evil Egyptian gods in hopes of bringing one back from the dead. Actually, the revivified body belongs to a slain Nazi. Unfortunately, the soul is that of the vengeful diety. Terror ensues.
(uncredited)
Helmut is fed up traveling around he world. Coming back from Asia, he decides to stay some time in Alexandra's house, a long time friend. She is living on a beautiful island where she is doing art. From his travels, Helmut brought back some old manuscript about secret rites that he decides to share with Alexandra after restarting a sexual relationship with her
Álvaro
In order to solve economic problems, "Leguineche" family decide to move to France with their limited belongings.
Juanjo's Father
Lord James Cook
A young heiress leads a life of excess and wants to marry a man her rich father despises. When her father suspiciously dies, and someone tries to kill her, she surrounds herself with her cousins, friends and lovers, all possible suspects.
Álvaro
The monarchy has returned. The Leguineche, too.
The film begins when Eugenio, a 14 year old child, is conduced from his grandparents home outside Rome, to Giancarlo (his father) in the city, by Giancarlo's friend (called "Moustache"). As Eugenio is bothering Moustache, he threatens Eugenio with leaving him in the middle of the country. He finally does it. When Giancarlo finds out, they return for Eugenio, but he is now lost. Meanwhile we're told the story of the child and his relation with the family, and why he feels unwanted.
Meyer
Undercover cop Fabio Testi infiltrates the world of motocross racing.
Louis
Film in five episodes on the female universe. Among the women portrayed, neglected wives who become prostitutes, a worker who improvises a sexy bomb and a priestess who gives herself as wife to an emigrant.
L'homme du couple dévalisé
The film follows the exploits of Jacques, a car-mechanic turned pro-thief, and his Jewish co-conspirator Simon as their robberies, beginning well before the Second World War, take on a political coloration under the occupation.
Le photographe
Alphonse van Worden
An epic six-hour adaptation of Potocki's The Manuscript Found in Saragossa. Most famously filmed by Wojciech Has, this four part adaptation has the advantage of a vastly expanded running time, allowing for more of the novel to be incorporated >> shot on film, it was clearly a very expensive production and is equally spectacular in its own way.
Mr. Tasco
In Athens a collection of emeralds is successfully stolen by a team of robbers, led by safe-cracker Azad. Things go smoothly until they miss the ship by which they planned their escape; a police chief pursues Azad while he waits for the next ship to set off.
Maurice
Françoise Legrand, better known as "Sappho", attractive young woman of the Parisian bourgeoisie, flits from man to man with the consent of Maurice Duran-Vior, his rich protector, a renowned financier. At a social gathering, she meets Lionel de Lancey, younger than she, a cool diplomat, and, as usual, she spends the night with him.
Mario Vérona
When an oily attorney dies at the hands of the mafia, a dedicated French detective investigates the man's murder. He soon uncovers a drug-smuggling operation and lets his sawed-off shotgun do the talking to the toughs in this Gallic gangster feature.
Dr. Goldstein / Frank Secchy
Hit-man Clint Harris has one more job to do before he can retire. The corporation which hires him demands that Harris "erase" an ex-employee who has become a snitch for the police. At first Harris refuses but when his own brother is assassinated he accepts the job.
Francesco De' Medici
Young Prince Vincenzo Gonzaga, rejects his first wife Margherita Farnese, obtaining the annulment of the union and, at the same time, raising strong doubts about her virginity
Giorgio's friend
Middle-aged Giulietta grows suspicious of her husband, Giorgio, when his behavior grows increasingly questionable. One night when Giorgio initiates a seance amongst his friends, Giulietta gets in touch with spirits and learns more about herself and her painful past. Slightly skeptical, but intrigued, she visits a mystic who gives her more information -- and nudges her toward the realization that her husband is indeed a philanderer.
Prince Cesare della Romita
The swinging London, early sixties. Beautiful but shallow, Diana Scott is a professional advertising model, a failed actress, a vocationally bored woman, who toys with the affections of several men while gaining fame and fortune.
Rodolph (segment "Gli amanti celebri")
Italian comedy film made of three segments directed by Michelangelo Antonioni, Mauro Bolognini and Franco Indovina. First segment: Il Provino; second segment: Gli amanti celebri; third segment: Latin Lover.
Presidente
The Magnificent Cuckold is about a hat tycoon who is ecstatically, if not hungrily, in love with his youthful wife. It is all blissful, that is, until our man, middle-aged and somewhat of a square among his blasé, upper-class friends to whom cuckoldry is a common practice, is seduced by one of them. At this point doubts and suspicions, like conscience, begin to plague him. If he could succumb to extramarital confections, why not his gorgeous mate? Quickly his love for his spouse degenerates beyond obsessive, into the realm of maniacal. He becomes madly concerned that his wife is cheating on him --even though she is not being unfaithful. When he looks at her it becomes obvious to him that she is a very attractive woman. And, all the men around her must be dying to be with her. Gnawed by jealously, he will imagine variations on nabbing her and her lover in flagrante delicto.
Horse Dealer
Manuel Artiguez, a famous bandit during the Spanish civil war, has lived in French exile for 20 years. When his mother is dying he considers visiting her secretly in his Spanish home town. But his biggest enemy, the Spanish police officer Vinolas, prepared a trap at the hospital as a chance to finally catch Artiguez.
M. Grimp
Charles, fresh out of jail, rejects his wife's plan for a quiet life of bourgeois respectability. He enlists a former cell mate, Francis, to assist him in pulling off one final score, a carefully planned assault on the vault of a Cannes casino.
The priest
José, Cléo's Lover
Agnès Varda eloquently captures Paris in the sixties with this real-time portrait of a singer set adrift in the city as she awaits test results of a biopsy. A chronicle of the minutes of one woman’s life, Cléo from 5 to 7 is a spirited mix of vivid vérité and melodrama, featuring a score by Michel Legrand and cameos by Jean-Luc Godard and Anna Karina.
Louis (segment "Sophie")
José da Silva Pereira
Holly Golightly is an eccentric New York City playgirl determined to marry a Brazilian millionaire. But when young writer Paul Varjak moves into her apartment building, her past threatens to get in their way.
Prévieux
Milan is an ex Formula One driver and now he lives with his wife Roberte in a small country town. But Milan is not satisfied, so Roberte encourages a love-story between Milan and Helene, a young woman. Milan can't decide and at last the tragedy comes. Then Milan returns to drive in Formula One.
Georges Dandieu
Raoul Flores
A shallow, provincial wife finds her relationship with her preoccupied husband strained by romantic notions of love, leading her further towards Paris and the country wilderness.
