FREE ON YOUTUBE El Cid

FREE ON YOUTUBE  Sophia Loren, dark-haired and not blonde, Catholic and not American - but she is still a Hollywood story. At a time when sex was taboo, lush blondes clumsily bumped into furniture instead of seducing men - at a time when Hollywood producers must have believed that an Italian like Loren was closest to America's chastity code. Despite her figure! Loren was discovered by the much older Carlo Ponti during a beauty contest she didn't win. In 1962 she received an Oscar for a non-English language film! Although Loren is Italian, she embodies the American dream. Born as an illegitimate daughter in poverty - equipped with an impossibly well-formed body! She developed into a talented actress who also happens to be amazingly beautiful. By chance, because she doesn't seem to know that herself! Or is it? Well, maybe she knows about her seductive attributes, but she never admits to being impressed by them. And she was exactly the right cast for the Hollywood spectacle around Rodrigo Diaz alias El Cid, a Spanish nobleman from the 11th century. In 1080, the area we now call Spain was divided between Christians and Muslims. In this conflict it is Rodrigo Díaz (Charlton Heston) who achieves greatness by giving freedom to the prisoner Emir Yusuf al-Mutamin of Zaragoza (Douglas Wilmer). This part should be historically documented, but not that of Diaz Liebe. Her name is Jimena (Sophia Loren) and she is mad at him because he killed her father. At the same time she loves El Cid. A terrible story? But Anthony Mann has turned it into a sublime Hollywood classic. But if you read any more about Diaz, you'll find out that he was only a brutal looter. Let's stick to his beautiful girlfriend, the great Sophia Loren!