The El Escorial Conspiracy, by Antonio del Real
(Upgrade July 22 2008)
[You are listening an excerpt of the Original Soundtrack of The El Escorial Conspiracy, by Alejandro Vivas, courtesy of Máscara Films S.L. (© Alejandro Vivas). If you are watching a video and the music continues on, please play the "pause" button below]
- Introduction
- List of Credits
- Main Cast
- Synopsis
- Picture Gallery
- Videos
- One Day of Shooting
- Route for The El Escorial Conspiracy's Madrid (only in Spanish)
430 years separate us from the historical fact we are to narrate, but the shadows still hide from the public this great historic moment, and the significance of such event, that occurred on Easter Monday 1577 in King Phillip the Second’s renaissance court.
It is really important to highlight the huge significance that the Kingdom of Spain had back then. It was said that this well-known monarch governed in domains where the sun never set.
We should have the same intelligence as this monarch and take advantage of the power of this story and of its marvellous renaissance background, which illustrates Philip the Second’s era and existence. To show the art and the history from a cinematographic point of view.
We understand artistic cinematographic creation as the sum of a set of different arts: literature, arquitecture, history, paintings, music, etc.
We pretend that our movie is an ensemble of all these beautiful arts. This film could not be made without taking into account the aesthetic values and ethics of human history.
Film, like the other arts, has always narrated in some way the lights and shadows of the human kind. With a bigger purpose, “The El Escorial Conspiracy”, filled with those lights and shadows, gathers such a very important historical fact recreated in the artistic frame called “Renaissance”, characterized and inspired by the ideas of a reborn classical world. A new art, a new path of expression, communication of arts & sciences. Let’s not let this great historical moment pass, and let us be captured by the magic of film, for its great visual and artistic offers.
Let’s keep on telling well narrated stories; with content, emotion; stories that move us, capture us. Let us be carried to the place where the stories about the human genre can only take us, amusing us with its contradictions and the human capacity to do good and do bad. Movies will always exist, the audience is in constant demand for contents; it wants stories to be told, wants to be emotional, escape, have fun, and think. All this has sense if it’s at mercy of a good story and a good film story is full of many authors of the arts that make it possible with their own creativity.
Our film, “The El Escorial Conspiracy”, will contribute to historical, artistical and cultural memory of an era, with a look back to the past, from the present and offering us a peek at future Spanish film making.
TITLE: “The El Escorial Conspiracy ”
Director: Antonio del Real
Producers & Co-Producers: Máscara Films S.L. (Spain), Settima Luna (Italia) y Mgn Filmes (Portugal)
Script: Manuel Mir, Antonio del Real, Juan Antonio Porto & Marta Rivera de la Cruz
Executive producer: María José Muñoz
Line Producer: Daniel Vega
Art director: Luis Vallés “Koldo”
DOP: Carlos Suárez
Editor: Teresa Font
Live sound: Aitor Berenguer
Music: Alejandro Vivas
Make-up: José Quetglas
Hair dressing: Blanca Sánchez
Wardrobe: Javier Artiñano
First Assistant Director: Richard Walker
Special Effects: Telson
Press: DYP Comunicación S.L.
Dir. Public Relations: Juan Antonio Casado
Main Cast: Jasón Isaacs, Julia Ormond, Jürgen Prochnow, Jordi Mollá, Joaquim de Almeida, Juanjo Puigcorbé, Blanca Jara, Fabio Testi, Rosana Pastor, Pablo Puyol, Concha Cuetos and a special collaboration featuring Tony Peck.
Start date: 10/09/2007
Weeks of shooting: 12 weeks
Distribution: Sony Pictures Spain
Locations: Madrid, El Escorial, Talamanca del Jarama (Madrid), Toledo, Lupiana (Guadalajara), Viso del Marqués, Baeza, Úbeda, Jaén, Cazorla, Segovia (España), Baleeira (Portugal)
Format: 1:185 Super 35
Length: 130’ aprox.
Jason Isaacs as
Julia Ormond as
Espinosa
Blanca Jara as
Damiana
Fabio Testi as
Duque of Alba
Capitán Villena
Antonio Campos as
Enriquez
Tony Peck as
Tiépolo and Executive Producer U.S.A.
director
In the late 16th Century, in the Court of Philip II, the House of Alba is fighting to regain the King’s favour and displace the rival faction of the House of Mendoza, led by the Princess of Éboli.
On the night of Easter Monday, 1578, paid assassins ambush Juan de Escobedo, secretary of Don Juan de Austria, and kill him. Mateo Vázquez, a priest and official in the King’s service, is charged with the investigation of his murder.
The Duke of Alba, who, despite his 71 years, has not lost a whit of his legendary energy and vigour, has for some time been relegated to a lesser role in the Court, due to the growing power of the King’s most influential secretary, Antonio Pérez.
The situation in Flanders, under the command of the King’s charismatic illegitimate half-brother, is extremely delicate. On one hand, William of Orange, and, on the other, England and the still dormant Protestant heresy make the Low Countries an inhospitable place which is in constant conflict and where those who possess privileged information can acquire immense fortunes.
John of Austria has sent his personal secretary, Juan de Escobedo, to intercede before the King, Philip II.
As chance would have it, Escobedo witnesses the murky and passionate romance between Antonio Pérez and Ana de Mendoza, Princess of Éboli, whose extraordinary beauty is as dangerous as her ambition and difficult to resist.
From that moment on, Juan de Escobedo becomes the target of a series of failed attempts on his life...
And what if the whole affair were a cunning plot drawn up by the Duke of Alba?
Through these shoals of intrigue, where steel is always flashing in the enemy’s hand… or his friend’s… wends the route that Mateo Vázquez must navigate, following the faint trail of a police investigation that points inexorably to the top.
A just man, an innocent moorish girl, an unscrupulous woman, a corrupt minister, a Machiavellian duke… And hovering over all of them, the figure of a King.
The murder of Escobedo, the first of several, sets in motion a period full of dangers in which it is said that barely an inch separates the King’s smile from his sword.The El Escorial Conspiracy narrates a historical fact not well known within the general audience (the betrayal of the Princess of Eboli to the King of Spain, Philip II) and the fights for power within Court.
It awakens curiosity and cultural interest not only due to the historical fact itself, but for it being a film of intrigue which happenings occur in the inside of the palace.
The El Escorial Conspiracy, is an ambitious production. Some of the best professionals of the Spanish and European industry are behind us, working with an international cast in order to deliver a historic film with huge doses of political and inside-palace intrigues, of love and hate, of friends and enemies…a breath-taking thriller in which power and death conspire in the Court of Felipe II.
Courtesy of Antonio del Real and Máscara Films S.L.
Ana de Mendoza, princess of Eboli (Julia Ormond).
Ana de Mendoza, princess of Éboli (Julia Ormond).
Philip II (Juanjo Puigcorbé) and the Court.
Juan de Escobedo (Joaquim de Almeida).
Philip II (Juanjo Puigcorbé) with Antonio Pérez on the left (Jason Isaacs) and the duque of Alba (Fabio Testi).
Antonio Pérez (Jason Isaacs).
The duque of Alba (Fabio Testi).
Damiana (Blanca Jara) and Espinosa (Jürgen Prochnow).
Damiana (Blanca Jara).
Insausti (Pablo Puyol).
Espinosa (Jürgen Prochnow).
Courtesy of Antonio del Real and Máscara Films S.L.
Two more videos aired on TV of the shootings in Toledo (© VNEWS 2007) and Jaén (© LOCALIA 2007).
In addition, two videos of the shooting in the last week of work taken on Algarve (Portugal). You can watch the first one (top) on the RTP's web (Rádio e Televisão de Portugal). The second one (bottom) is courtesy of Máscara Films and reproduce the last moments of the shooting in Portugal with the music of the movie, by Alejandro Vivas.
(Toledo 19 de octubre de 2007)
Antonio del Real behind the camara.
Dozens of extras prepared for the next scene.
Philip II (Juanjo Puigcorbé) before the Media.
Julia Ormond (the Princess of Eboli) with the hairdressers before shooting.
Jürgen Prochnow (Espinosa) waiting the moment of the next scene.
Julia Ormond (the Princess of Eboli) and Jason Isaacs (Antonio Pérez) together at the location set.
Blanca Jara (Damiana) with an extra, during the shooting.
© Nacho Ares 2007
