The bullfighter Juan Ortega was going to marry his long-time girlfriend on Saturday in Jerez de la Frontera, but he blew the whistle, canceled the wedding at the last minute and left the five hundred guests stranded, some of whom were in favor of carry him on his shoulders and throw him into the Guadalquivir.
Is it brave or cowardly, honest or shameless, to cancel the wedding an hour before its celebration? Did you see it clearly or were you blinded by fear?
Naturally, and with no more knowledge of the facts than the facts, the bad guy of the film is Juan Ortega, a bullfighter from Triana and fine cinnamon, an expert in fear because every announced afternoon – and there are no exceptions – fear visits him, without which he cannot his profession would exist.
Chances of fate, on Friday, some fans had dinner in Barcelona with two bullfighters, Maxime Solera and Borja Jiménez, and their partners, very modern women, aware of the harshness of an anachronistic and singular profession because in this function, unlike from the theater, you really die. With Alicia and Maxime Solera, French and resident in Castelldefels (always when training in a park the Mossos appear to ask for documentation and explanations), I have had the privilege of dining on two occasions – at the house of the painter Lluís Ventós in El Port de la Selva – on the eve of their performances in Ceret, a very Catalan square and, above all, with horned noses. A drink…
As it is, it has its joke: Juan Ortega has given the scare of his life, he who walks before the fierce bull relaxed and graceful, artist and Trianero. Ironies of life.
Although many men deny it, a wedding imposes hesitation, respect and anxiety. A complicated bull lasts fifteen minutes – then the third warning sounds and he is returned to the corrals; a marriage, for life (no one who gets married usually considers the alternative of divorce). Juan Ortega has been burdened with responsibility or who knows what, and the man has not married, much to the pain of the bride, to whom everyone will agree and give some advice.
There was no wedding of the century in Jerez. Things of life, heartbreak and the clarions of fear.
