El embrujo de Sevilla: A dusty relic with some bite

Is this for you?

If you have a soft spot for grainy, high-drama black and white pictures from the early days, you’ll probably find something to love here. If you need pacing that moves faster than a snail in a blizzard, you’re going to be checking your watch every five minutes. Seriously, it's a slow burn that sometimes just… stops burning.

The vibe is thick. It’s got that specific, heavy atmosphere that reminds me a bit of the suffocating tension in Castigo de Dios, but with way more shawls and dramatic stares.

Notes from the couch

The cinematography has this weird habit of lingering on doorways. Like, someone walks out, the door stays open, and we just stare at the empty hallway for a solid ten seconds. Maybe it’s art? Maybe the camera operator just fell asleep. I don't know, but it happened enough that I started counting.

Joaquín Carrasco is doing a lot of heavy lifting with his eyebrows. There’s a scene near the middle where he’s supposed to be heartbroken, but he mostly looks like he’s trying to remember if he left the stove on. It’s endearing in a way, I guess? 🤷‍♂️

• The music swells at the exact moment you expect it to.
• The background extras in the street scenes seem to be having a much better time than the actual leads.
• I swear there's a cat in the background of the market scene that stays in frame for three minutes too long.

It’s not as snappy as The Last of Mrs. Cheyney, that's for sure. It feels less like a polished product and more like a stage play that got lost on its way to the theater. Sometimes the dialogue feels like it’s being shouted from the back row.

I found myself thinking about Eight Days of Happiness during the second act. Both movies have this weird way of pretending that everything is fine while the characters are clearly falling apart. It’s a specific kind of tension that works when it wants to, but fails when it’s trying too hard.

Ultimately, it’s a relic. It’s not going to change your life, and it’s definitely not going to replace your favorite modern drama. But if you’re into the history of how these things were put together, it’s a perfectly fine way to spend an afternoon where you don't feel like thinking too hard.

Just don't expect the world. It’s just a movie. A very old, very dramatic, slightly clunky movie. 🎞️