Thursday 8 September 2016

GRAND HOTEL 5 (SECOND HALF OF S3, FRENCH REGION 2 DVD)

Spain in the early 20th century. The idyllic luxury of the prestigious Grand Hotel, located just outside the (fictional) town of Cantaloa, conceals secrets, lies, intrigue, and danger.

Grand Hotel (Gran Hotel, 2011-2013), the acclaimed Spanish mystery drama, is availaible on DVD in France thanks to Koba Films. 


Produced by Bambu Producciones, the company of Ramón Campos and Teresa Fernández-Valdés, for private channel Antena 3, Gran Hotel was sold to more than 60 territories, including France (groupe M6), the UK (Sky Arts) and the United States. Series three of Grand Hotel initially consisted of 14 X 70-minute episodes. However, when Antena 3 reduced by half the second series to preserve ratings the channel added 8 of its 16 episodes (already filmed) to the third (1). Released in January 2016, the "Grand Hotel - Saison 5" DVD set from Koba contains the second half of the third and final series (7 x 70-minute) plus a bonus featurette.

Andrés (Llorenç González) is arrested for the murder of Belén (Marta Larralde). Julio (Yon González), Alicia (Amaia Salamanca) and Maite (Megan Montaner) try to prove his innocence with the help of Inspector Ayala (Pep Anton Muñoz) and Agent Hernando (Antonio Reyes). The suspiciously obtuse Chief Inspector Bazán (Daniel Pérez Prada) strives to slow them down. Don Diego (Pedro Alonso) faces an invisible and powerful adversary from his past, who stops at nothing for revenge. Jesús Cisneros (Lluis Homar), the empathic maitre d'hotel, prevents Doña Teresa (Adriana Ozores) from doing something irreparable. Javier (Eloy Azorin) tries to adjust to the personality of his wife Laura (Martha Hazas).

Known internationally as "the Spanish Downton Abbey", Grand Hotel was actually born from the passion of its creators Ramón Campos and Gema R. Neira (Gran Reserva) for mystery stories and the work of Agatha Christie (2). This last series of Gran Hotel is packed with suspense, mystery and romance. Rare are the things which doesn't work, mainly the story arc with Doña Sofia (Luz Valdenebro), Don Alfredo (Fele Martinez) and Father Grau (Roger Coma). The riveting twists and turns reach the heights of the first series. The cast is amazing, the music of Lucio Godoy is magnificent and the settings are gorgeous (3). The ultimate episode is one of the most beautiful and elegant conclusions ever made for a television series.

Gran Hotel has been remade twice, in 2015 for Italian pubcaster RAI as Grand Hotel and in 2016 for American Spanish-language network Univision as El Hotel de los Secretos. Yon González, Lluís Homar, Pedro Alonso and later Concha Velasco worked together again on Bajo Sospecha (2015-2016), a crime/mystery drama produced by Bambu for Antena 3. González has joined Bambu's Las Chicas del cable, due to air on Netflix in 2017. Amaia Salamanca is another of the prodco's familiar faces, with Velvet (2014) and La embajada (2016). The 7 episodes of this DVD set from Koba Films are on 4 discs in French only (the featurette is subbed). French subtitles for the hearing impaired are available.

(1) http://blogs.formulatv.com/aldia/antena-3-corta-la-segunda-temporada-gran-hotel-para-emitirla-mas-adela/
(2)  http://nachomedivas.es/secretos-gran-hotel-creador-ramon-campos/
(3) Grand Hotel was primarily filmed at the Palacio de la Magadalena, an early 20th-century palace on the Magdalena Peninsula of the city of Santander (http://palaciomagdalena.com/en/).


http://www.kobafilms.fr/series-tv/401-grand-hotel-s5-5051889561897.html

See also:


http://tattard2.blogspot.fr/2015/08/grand-hotel-4-first-half-of-s3-french_18.html (First half of Series3 DVD review)
http://tattard2.blogspot.fr/2015/06/grand-hotel-3-second-half-of-s2-french.html (Second half of Series 2 DVD review)
http://tattard2.blogspot.fr/2014/08/grand-hotel-series-two-french-region-2.html (First half of Series 2 DVD review)
http://tattard2.blogspot.fr/2014/05/grand-hotel-french-region-2-dvd_10.html (Series 1 DVD review)
 

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