I have to admit, I love them bloopers! When we see a sitcom or drama series we never know how hard it is to edit and get things right. Those actors work really hard to do it.
With Mexican telenovelas it isn’t any different. The actors crack up at their own mistakes and have to do the scene all over again. This is known as “ghosting” in the industry.
Here are the bloopers from Mexican telenovela La Madrastra (The Stepmother) with big names on TV César Évora and Victoria Rufo.
CQC (Caiga Quien Caiga) is a humorous and ironic weekly news roundup which reports current affairs, showbiz and sports. The reporters are known for asking politically incorrect questions to celebrities and one of the show’s trademarks is the editing that includes adding cartoons and sound effects to the interviews.
CQC has versions in Argentina, Chile, Brasil, Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Israel and rumor has it that an American version is under way.
Check out the format of the program in this video where the reporter talks about machismo in Argentina.
From time to time most of us like to sit back, relax and watch junk TV. But we can use it to improve our listening in Spanish. I just found these videos from the show Casos de Familia (Family Affairs) but I won’t tell you what the caso is about, you have to check it out. Have fun!
Las Telenovelas
Telenovelas are a big hit in Latin America and Brazil. Hundreds of them are produced every year, and stars go from telenovelas to Hollywood, like Mexican Salma Hayek and Brazilian heartthrob Rodrigo Santoro, who’s starred in Lost and some mainstream movies.
Watching soap operas in Spanish is a very good way to improve your Spanish and even keep updated with slang and expressions.
Carrusel was a very successful soap in the early 90s. It told the story of Maestra Jimena (Gabriela Rivero) and her students in a typical Mexican elementary school.
You can see the kids 15 years later on this video:
Verónica Castro is one of the most respected Mexican actresses and has participated in more than 15 soap operas and more than 20 movies, besides being a recording artist in Mexico. Her role in Los Ricos También Lloran was highly acclaimed in every country where the soap opera was broadcast. Here’s a video of her role in Rosa Salvaje, where she plays a tomboy who falls in love with the wrong man but, as it turns out, everything ends well.
Now, a teen soap that has been a huge success, even after it’s finished, is Rebelde. The main characters have a band off-screen and it’s a hit all over Latin America and the United States. The following video is very easy to understand and it is the first episode of this soap.
Let’s finish by showing the first telenovela trilogy: Maria Mercedes, MariMar and María la del Barrio, which tell basically the same story: a poor girl falls in love with a rich guy and after lots of distress, backstabbing, crying and shouting, the main characters (Mexican actress/singer Thalía and some leading man) live happily ever after.
Nos vemos prontito.
These days I was thinking about my teen years, in the 90’s, when I had to ask my friends in the US to send video tapes of the newest Beverly Hills 90210 that hadn’t been aired in Brazil yet.
Now Internet is here to help us all out with our learning in so many ways and one of my favorites is Youtube.
I was looking for Penélope Cruz’s acceptance speech at the Oscars and found a series of interviews from a Spanish program called El Reservado.
El Reservado brings actors, directors, writers, musicians and personalities from Spanish life in general in very interesting interviews. Its host is Luis Alegre, a professor at the University of Zaragoza and also a writer, journalist and movie director.
Here are two videos from El Reservado, with actors Penélope Cruz and Eduardo Noriega, my favorite Spanish actors. The interviews last around half an hour and their speech speed is not too fast, so intermediate and advanced students of Spanish will benefit a lot from them.
Aprovéchenlas. Nos vemos prontito.
