Resumen de Sara Montiel: entre dos mitos
Few cinematic icons have been associated as closely to the Spanish gay community as Francoist superstar Sara Montiel. Such association needs to be looked into: Montiel´s star image was explicitly constructed in terms of a heterosexual object of desire, and homosexuality could not be represented or discussed at the time. At most, homosexuals could read between the lines, but this seems to have happened consistently, and even today Sara Montiel is the closest the Spanish gay community has to a historical star icon.
Professor Perriam analyzes the particular appeal of Montiel to Spanish gay audiences, which is linked to camp as a central category of homosexual film reception, paying particular attention to such Montiel vehicles Noches de Casablanca, El último cuplé and the Montiel version of the Carmen myth, Carmen la de Ronda. In their use of an excessive body on display, show business and some conventions of the woman’s picture, Montiel films can be linked to an international camp tradition
