BELMONTE is generally recognized as the world's most famous (and perhaps
best) bullfighter. Hemingway always said (or so the film's promotional
taglines say) that he had only met two geniuses : Einstein and Belmonte.
This filmed biography uses two actors as Juan Belmonte, as he ages. During
Belmonte's era, bullfighting (tauromaquia) was elevated to an art form by
European intellectuals mostly as a result of what Belmonte injected into
it:
bravery, tragedy, fatalism, salvagery, passion, and rivalry with the other
bullfighters, not forgetting his notorious love life. This film, if nothing
else, is a good period piece which lavishly and (arguably) faithfully
reproduces Belmonte's myth.