The Borgia (2006)

Nice effects though.

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

impressive cast. honest story. and desire to present with great accuracy a very complicated tale. and the result is not bad. but it is too correct. the preoccupation of director to not make errors is first cage of its potential. so, the gestures are almost theatrical, the performance is limited, the story is prudent and action , in few moments, not credible.so, it is a good film but not more. too long and too short in same measure, not really profound but full of good intentions, it remains sketch of a fresco who can present essence of a powerful family.and its perfect ingredient is Angela Molina in a delicate - subtle role.is it enough ? I do not know. but I think than Lluis Homer can be more credible in this kind of role and the art of Paz Vegas is not indicated for a shadow - role.

'Los Borgias' is a nice film to look at. The sets, costumes and art direction are quite good and I think they fit with the time period. I also think director Antonio Hernandez has tried to make the film as historically accurate as possible. However, even though the film spans more than 2 hours, I felt that it was lacking in something. The characters aren't properly developed. The relationships between the characters are displayed quite well. It was rumoured that Rodrigo had an incestuous relationship with his daughter and the director too remains ambiguous in his depiction rather than 'taking sides'. I felt that the writer could have done more to delve into the psyche of Rodrigo and Cesar. Further on the technical side, the cinematography is inconsistent and the soundtrack is very standard. The performances at times appear theatrical. Lluís Homar is passable. Sergio Peris-Mencheta fits the part. The best performance comes from Angela Molina but her role is tiny and almost insignificant to the story. María Valverde performs decently. Paz Vega is wasted. As some have mentioned, 'Los Borgia' may have work better as a longer feature film (with adequate story and character development) or a TV series. Hernandez's film is a good enough one-time watch that attempts to provide some historical insight. At least it got me interested in reading about this dysfunctional family.

Once upon a time there was a lazy director who always lost his morning bus and arrived so late at the filming sessions that they had to be filmed without him. I can't imagine any other reason why the acting is so soft and unconvincing. In fact, most of the actors/actresses could have been removed from the scenes, and you wouldn't have noticed almost any changes. Any of them stands out amongst the others (with some respectable exceptions as Angela Molina, who is quite under-used in the cast).After seeing half of the picture (yes, you are correct: I won't stand the fully 140' runtime) I really can't say what is this movie about. Neither can say anything about the characters. I just remember a boring, boring, boring feeling during the past 1h10': There are just two or three different scenes, repeated and combined until you certainly know what's coming next. Music is exhaustingly dramatic and monotonic.The good thing: The epoch costumes and the sets, which is not still enough reason to watch this movie.I haven't seen any passion, power nor interest. And I don't care where the plot is going to the other half picture; It shall go without me.

The movie tells us the story of the Borgia family, how they were able to "conquer" the Vatican and become the most influent family in Italy, a sort of Godfather of the time. Rodolofe is Voto, César is Sonny and sorry, there's no Michael. The movie is quite good in some aspects, the costumes are very well designed and historically correct, the setting is also very good (I'm sure they filmed in the Vatican) and actors play good parts. However, the result is not a very good film. First of all, it is about 150min long, that is TOO much, the story could have been told in about 45minutes less!! Many times, when you expect the movie to end, it just turns to be a new marrying to Lucrecia, and continue! In addition to this, the movie has another problem, the main characters result not to be charismatic, though the actors are good, you don't get easily interested in the story, things happen and well most of the time you don't mind. I must admit that it is a good attempt to make a good historical film, much better than usual in Spain for these kind of films, but the result is not totally good, specially because of its lenght, the fact that you soon get fed up by the characters doesn't help too. With more speed, probably it would have been a good movie, but, now, it is just decent.