“The mythical Musidora (Jeanne Roques 1889 – 1957) entered the pantheon of the French silent films where she is remembered as Irma Vep of the Vampires or the Diana Monti of Judex. Not a lot is known about her activities on the other side of the cine camera, and which seems was in no way inferior to her contemporary Germaine Dulac, the latter being the only one to be defined as the metteuse-en-scène of the silent period.

In 1916 Musidora had already directed a Jacques de Baroncelli’s adaptation of Minne from the novel The Naive Libertine by Colette. The film was never released due to economic difficulties which had obstructed its completion. She did not however give up, she improved her qualities as a film director producing the following on her own: Le Maillot noir (1917), La flamme cachée (1918) and Vicenta (1919), and the even more binding Pour Don Carlos (1920), filmed for the most part in Spain.

Due to being sentimentally attached to the toreador Antonio Cañero, she willingly accepted the offers which reached her from the Iberian peninsula to appear on stage. She stayed in Spain, as she herself said ‘in golden exile’ until 1926, that is until the relationship with Cañero finished and directed and acted in another three films: Una aventura de Musidora en España and Sol y Sombra (both 1923), La tierra de los toros (1924).

The latter is a sports documentary filmed in Andalusia and in the “plaza de toros” of San Sebastian for the bullfighting scenes. The film came out at the Teatro de la Comedia di Madrid in the presence of a sprightly Musidora along with an imposing Cañero. At that time this work was divided into five parts: La vida de un ganadero; La vispera de una corrida; La corrida, El rejoneador; La Fea; Metamorfosis, plus an epilogue” (Vittorio Martinelli)