CON EL CORAZÓN EN LA MANO

Director: Mauricio Walerstein
1988
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"Con el Corazón en la Mano", one of the highest grossing and controversial films in the history of Venezuelan cinema, celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2018, filmed in Ciudad Guayana in 1988.
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Made in the beautiful Venezuela of the 80`s with María Conchita Alonso and Daniel Alvarado.
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The film was shot in different locations in San Félix and Puerto Ordaz that included:  Sidor, Angosturita avenue, Malecón de San Félix, Main cinema, La Barraca Foundation, El Roble, La Llovizna and Cacmahay parks and El Trébol shopping center, among others.
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The production premiered in September 1988  and caused a great scandal at the time by the amount of risque scenes among the then star of soap operas,  María Conchita, who also began the projection of her career in Hollywood, and the gallant  Daniel Alvarado.
In the cast, the first actress Eva Moreno also stood out as "La Madama" from the El Tormento bar.
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Similarly, actors from  La Barraca Foundation  What  Federico Espina, Fernando Espinosa, Amanda Madero, Ismael Montilla and Ovidio Jiménez.
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Also in one of the final scenes of the film where there is a great Carnival parade and party, the talent of the group Cuatro y Bumbac y Berejú was counted on.
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A luxurious setting
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The modern Ciudad Guayana had been in the eyes of the whole country in 1985 for being one of the destinations of the visit of Pope John Paul II.
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For this reason, when a few years later there was talk of the filming of a movie, it caused great commotion among the residents of San Félix and Puerto Ordaz.
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Its wide avenues, natural monuments, the Orinoco and Caroní rivers, the industrial park  and even places like the San Félix Center, Principal Cinema and the old Alta Vista mechanical park are the settings where the plot unfolds.
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It's about a movie with a very strong plot and a shocking ending; truly a work of art, daring, sensual, sexual and controversial just as María Conchita Alonso was in the 80's (she was and is ...). That beautiful time where everything was better in Venezuela.
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This film has not been translated into the English language, so this great characterization of María Conchita of a woman with a rare sexual obsession, has not been seen around the world. The film also shows the tests that some Colombians went through to get to stay in Venezuela.
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The film begins with a scene where María Conchita Alonso is sexually assaulted in a women's bathroom. It is a violent scene, but at the same time controversial, since more than a rape it seems a consensual sexual act, one of the greatest performances of our beautiful María Conchita Alonso.
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María Conchita plays a high society woman who  cannot find happiness. She lives trapped in a false world of luxury, is unable to accept her humble origins and lives obsessed with a strange and disturbing love relationship, a consequence of that strange sexual attack.
            ...  inevitably more than one scene remains in the memory after seeing it ...
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Synopsis
 
«A woman in search of a better social position cannot find happiness. She lives trapped in a false world of luxury and finds that she will never accept her humble origins, ”suggests a synopsis of the film.
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The most surprising thing about the plot is that the  "Love story" begins with a rape scene that leads to a relationship of perversion and desire.
 
She is a low-income girl who has just entered high society thanks to her marriage to someone of renown. He is a worker, dirty, partying.
 
They cross paths a couple of times in the city (the crucial scene was in El Trébol) and then the story explodes.
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The plot also touches on the theme of social classes, friendship and xenophobia that can be seen in the dialogues of "El Colombiano", a friend of "Gato", the character of Daniel Alvarado.
For many, the film is way ahead of its time. It has a well-kept aesthetic and a well-managed color format.
 
Regards
 
«I was acting as a prostitute and in one scene I had to cry telling my unfortunate life to a drunk client. But the tears never came to me and the teacher Eva Moreno approached me and asked me if I wanted artificial tears, "explains the actress  Amanda Madero.
 
“It seemed to me that I shouldn't use them and I recorded the scene without crying, really, and without feelings, and that's why it never appeared in the film because it was cut and that has been one of my great frustrations. But I also got great learnings. You cannot give a character if you do not feel it and from that moment I learned it and put it into practice ", details who already has a career of more than 30 years in the tables and puppets.
 
The scene of the party where María Conchita dances the famous "Cumbia del logrero" was recorded in a bar called El Sandra, located near Buen Retiro in San Félix.
 
In another of the memories, he highlights that the Carnival sequence in the street was made in the street in front of Fundación La Barraca and Licorería El Roble, also in San Félix.
 
As a curious note, the Guyanese seen in the film will immediately identify calypses of  The Same People  like the classic  "Bandit"  of the teacher Isac Rojas, among others.