The Bride

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Paula Ortiz directs. Migue Amoedo behind the camera. Shigeru Umebayashi scores. Javier García cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in Germany, Spain. Dialogue in Spanish.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

• 1Released 11 years ago.
• 2International production across 2 countries: Germany, Spain.
• 3Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.
• 4Directed by Paula Ortiz, shot by Migue Amoedo. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
• 5Original score by Shigeru Umebayashi. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
• 6Editor Javier García shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
• 7Inma Cuesta and Álex García and Asier Etxeandia carry the top of the cast.
• 8IMDB entry: tt2734566 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

The technical file

Cinematography

Migue Amoedo

Original score

Shigeru Umebayashi

Editing

Javier García

Production design

Jesús Bosqued

Runtime

93 min · 1h 33m

Status

Released

Original language

ES

IMDB

The Bride (2015) ↗

IMDB rating

6.6/10 · 3,630 votes

MPAA

Not Rated

Also by

Paula Ortiz

• 
  Teresa

  2023 · ★ 7.1
• 
  The Red Virgin

  2024 · ★ 7.1
• 
  Across the River and into the Trees

  2023 · ★ 6.9
• 
  At Home - Spain

  2020 · ★ 6.9
• 
  Chrysalis

  2011 · ★ 6.8
• 
  Stories to Stay Awake

  2021 · ★ 5.4

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

• 

  ▶
  IFFR Live: La novia

  Trailer

Community reviews

What people are saying

• Reno2016-05-04
  ★ 6.5/10

  What we choose against what fate chooses for us. Based on the old Spanish play about a wedding tragedy. It all sets in the rural Spain and tells the story of a bride who involved in a love triangle. It takes us back to her childhood day to reveal us her crush on one of two friends, but feudal between the friends families puts her in a tight spot. Especially as growing up knowing she has to choose one of them to marry. Finally the time comes to that, the day is set for the big occasion, but an unexpected twist brings a chaos during the celebration and the old rivalry awakens among the young generation. It was a little dull narrative, mostly because of the quietness and lack of depth in both the character explorations and the story. I might say it is only a finishing touch work, we can't get any details we want for a better understanding, especially the past events remains slightly mysterious like how it all began. That's fine, because they thought they chopped away the boring stuffs, and yes they did, yet that did not bring any good result either. Anyway, this film's focus was the three friends who grew up together, so this story is only about what happens around them. Beside them, the old woman who often appears is a puzzle that's need to be explained. But I assumed she's kind of witch who manipulating the peoples mind to go against each other. Since it revolves on a wedding event, I was desperately looking forward the ceremony to begin. That's the other reason I felt letdown for it to delay. Until then the pace was too slow to keep myself engaged with this, but once the celebration began, it lit up my mood and followed by the conclusion that came with a light speed. So I kind liked the third act in the entire narration and according to me, that's the best part of the film. "Bitterness is the worst punishment of all." There's nothing much happens in the story section, we can easily know what's coming up next after the each scene. Because like I said, there's no great developments, everything was about getting ready for the marriage and during the marriage. It is like learning everything about it prior to the watch, yet the final scene, the solution was stronger than I expected. For an end like that I expected tearjerker atmosphere. The emotions showed between the characters, but for the viewers those are ineffective. Shot in the cool places, I mean it looked like a semi-desert that did not bring the Spanish atmosphere of my knowledge, but blended well with the story. The character executions were fine, even the direction was good, but the writing was a disappointment. This 80 year old story needed a serious update, because the presentation was very stylish, but the tale was so simple. Yes, it looks so simple to follow, but complicated to fully understand it. Just keep in mind that it is not a romance nor a revenge film, but a slice of equal both. About other things as well like love, life, family, culture, especially the three main characters linked with, such as the bride's choice, the groom's fate and the their friend's deception. This is definitely not an entertaining film, not for people like me, but what I call it is a story to decode. Like in the line of 'Enemy', 'Upstream Color', 'Borgman' et cetera. There're lot more about it than what actually the story tells, but only discussing with others who had watched it will bring the details out. Honestly, I was not very impressed with this, certainly not a bad film to ignore it completely. 6½/10

  Read full review ↓

Production companies

Who made it

• GE

  Get In The Picture Productions

• MA

  Mantar Film

• 

  TVE

  ES

Key crew

• Theatre PlayFederico García Lorca
• Production DesignJesús Bosqued
• Production DesignPilar Quintana
• EditorJavier García
• ProducerUfuk Genc
• ProducerJanosch Benz
• ProducerRosana Tomás
• ProducerAlex LaFuente
• AuthorFederico García Lorca

Themes & keywords

What it's about, really

• love triangle
• based on play or musical
• love affair
• family feud
• woman director

Release history · US

When it landed

• Theatrical2016-08-05

Also known as

International titles

• Blood WeddingUS
• BloedbruiloftNL
• The BrideUS
• The BrideGR
• MladaRS
• БулкатаBG