Gloria

Gloria goes to an audition at fifteen. The man across from her is a famous producer. Sergio Andrade forms groups, writes songs and decides who goes on stage and when. Gloria is chosen. Over the years she becomes Mexico's best known pop star; on stage she wrecks her hair, tears her tights and resembles nobody. But off stage the person running her life is Andrade. There are other young girls in the group and they all live in the same house. Years later a case is brought and Gloria is arrested abroad. Christian Keller directs. Sofía Espinosa plays Gloria and Marco Pérez plays Sergio Andrade; Tatiana del Real and Ximena Romo are in the cast. It is a Mexican production. The film screened at the Morelia Film Festival on 20 October 2014 and reached Mexican cinemas on 1 January 2015; it runs two hours and six minutes. Its ground is real; Gloria Trevi's life and the Andrade case were talked about in Mexico for years. The film follows Trevi's point of view and does not go into the legal side of the case in detail. The matter it treats is a relation of dependence; the film does not show fame as a rescue. Sofía Espinosa sings on stage and the concert scenes carry much of the narrative. The narrative leaves the other girls in the group in the background and that choice was criticised. Its ending builds an account of exoneration and rests on one side's version. Its limit is its side; the narrative has one source, the chronology is compressed, and the ending defensive. Who it is for: viewers who like Mexican cinema and music biographies. Who it is not for: it is one sided, the subject heavy, and the ending contested.