Today, people hardly talk about Venezuelan telenovelas. While they were once the most popular all over the world (even more than the Mexican ones), today very few productions come out of that country. This is due to political factors, such as the 2007 closure of Radio Caracas Television (RCTV) when the Chavez government refused to renew its license, thereby removing it out of air. This reduced production levels by half, and many actors, writers and producers moved to other countries, robbing Venezuela of talent. The remaining stations like Venevision began producing only one telenovela per year with other channels opting to air foreign productions since they didn't have the resources to produce a whole novela.
Amor secreto, based on the 1990 telenovela "Ines Duarte, Secretaria" tells the story of Irene Gutierrez who works for Leonardo Ferrandiz, the widowed CEO of one of the biggest pharmaceutical companies in Venezuela. Irene is secretly in love with her boss, but he hardly notices her since he is engaged to Alejandra Altamirano, the beautiful, fashionable, blonde Human Resources Director at the company. Well, her luck changes when Leonardo uncovers Alejandra's past relationship with Rodrigo, his sworn enemy. At first, Leonardo sees Irene as the best person to take care of his home and his 5 kids since she knows him so well. But after getting to know her, he falls in love with her. But as usual, everyone is opposed to their relationship as Alejandra cannot accept that Leonardo left her to marry his secretary. At the mansion, Augustina, Leonardo's sister- in-law, controls the house and her sister's kids with a strict hand while also trying to preserve the memory of her dead sister. She sees the entrance of Irene as an intrusion on her sister's memory.
This show follows the usual telenovela rosa style to much success I say. The villains such as Alejandra and Augustina try everything possible to humiliate Irene and her family. Of course, the took liberties with the original version and modernized it.
This is the second telenovela Venevision produced in HD after "Los secretos de Lucia" showing a marked improvement in their production values because the attention to detail is well done and the way the camera shots are also framed, as compared to previous productions which appeared cheaply made with minimal investment. The economic situation that has affected Venezuela was also visible in their telenovelas and while other countries had moved to HD, stations such as Venevision began producing in HD a little bit late. But it is good to see that despite the obstacles, they still continue producing telenovelas in Venezuela.
One thing that stands out are the dialogues. The telenovela seems to have been playing on safe ground, and its clear in the scenes in order to avoid going against the "Ley de Resorte" which is simply a media law the government implemented as a form of censorship. So writers have to be careful not to show certain story lines, and this has also made Venezuelan telenovelas stop being daring as they used to. But the dialogues here are very witty, and it enabled the actors to play their characters well without resorting to exaggerations like it sometimes happens in Mexican telenovelas. The villains use sarcasm, well crafted insults and threats and wit and aren't over- the-top as would be expected in a telenovela. The acting is well done, especially for newbies like former Miss Earth Alexandra Braun whose first foray into telenovelas is playing the villain Alejandra to perfection. Then there is journalist and TV host Caterina Valentino who appears later in the story as Leonardo's deceased wife. These two I think stole the show with their scenes and villainy. Plus Leonardo's small kids always had something funny to say, I loved their scenes also.
In general, I found this entertaining, Augustina always conversing with her sister's photo and her crazy outbursts always cracked me up!I do hope that the political situation in Venezuela improves so that they can continue producing entertaining telenovelas such as this one.
Amor secreto, based on the 1990 telenovela "Ines Duarte, Secretaria" tells the story of Irene Gutierrez who works for Leonardo Ferrandiz, the widowed CEO of one of the biggest pharmaceutical companies in Venezuela. Irene is secretly in love with her boss, but he hardly notices her since he is engaged to Alejandra Altamirano, the beautiful, fashionable, blonde Human Resources Director at the company. Well, her luck changes when Leonardo uncovers Alejandra's past relationship with Rodrigo, his sworn enemy. At first, Leonardo sees Irene as the best person to take care of his home and his 5 kids since she knows him so well. But after getting to know her, he falls in love with her. But as usual, everyone is opposed to their relationship as Alejandra cannot accept that Leonardo left her to marry his secretary. At the mansion, Augustina, Leonardo's sister- in-law, controls the house and her sister's kids with a strict hand while also trying to preserve the memory of her dead sister. She sees the entrance of Irene as an intrusion on her sister's memory.
This show follows the usual telenovela rosa style to much success I say. The villains such as Alejandra and Augustina try everything possible to humiliate Irene and her family. Of course, the took liberties with the original version and modernized it.
This is the second telenovela Venevision produced in HD after "Los secretos de Lucia" showing a marked improvement in their production values because the attention to detail is well done and the way the camera shots are also framed, as compared to previous productions which appeared cheaply made with minimal investment. The economic situation that has affected Venezuela was also visible in their telenovelas and while other countries had moved to HD, stations such as Venevision began producing in HD a little bit late. But it is good to see that despite the obstacles, they still continue producing telenovelas in Venezuela.
One thing that stands out are the dialogues. The telenovela seems to have been playing on safe ground, and its clear in the scenes in order to avoid going against the "Ley de Resorte" which is simply a media law the government implemented as a form of censorship. So writers have to be careful not to show certain story lines, and this has also made Venezuelan telenovelas stop being daring as they used to. But the dialogues here are very witty, and it enabled the actors to play their characters well without resorting to exaggerations like it sometimes happens in Mexican telenovelas. The villains use sarcasm, well crafted insults and threats and wit and aren't over- the-top as would be expected in a telenovela. The acting is well done, especially for newbies like former Miss Earth Alexandra Braun whose first foray into telenovelas is playing the villain Alejandra to perfection. Then there is journalist and TV host Caterina Valentino who appears later in the story as Leonardo's deceased wife. These two I think stole the show with their scenes and villainy. Plus Leonardo's small kids always had something funny to say, I loved their scenes also.
In general, I found this entertaining, Augustina always conversing with her sister's photo and her crazy outbursts always cracked me up!I do hope that the political situation in Venezuela improves so that they can continue producing entertaining telenovelas such as this one.
