The Story of Ruth

a film by Henry Koster
screenplay by Norman Corwin

This was the third and the last feature of the cycle Cine canario: Cines Wood, Royal y Rosales by Asociación de Cine Vértigo. As I learned yesterday, the Cine Rosales of Arucas specialised in religious and war movies, so probably its owners thought La historia de Ruth was a fitting film to show at its inauguration on 22 March 1963.

Well, it is loosely based on the Book of Ruth of the Old Testament. To say that the authors of the film took liberties with the biblical text would be an understatement. The whole life of Ruth prior to her marriage to Mahlon — involving her stint as a Chemosh priestess — was invented. Then again, simple mention of the fact that she had a husband and then he died (Ruth 1:5) does’t make a good Hollywood movie. Lots of gold and human sacrifice parafernalia à la The Road to El Dorado, complete with a Mesoamerican-style pyramid, do. And, of course, romance. Mahlon (Tom Tryon) is cute, Ruth (Elana Eden) is beautiful indeed.

Ruth: Tell me more about your Jehovah of the many names.

Mmmm.

In the land of Judea, the arrival of Naomi (Peggy Wood) in a company of a young attractive widow does not go unnoticed. Two male relatives of Naomi, Boaz (Stuart Whitman) and, er, another one, promptly come sniffing around. More drama and, thankfully, a bit of comedy ensue. Don’t miss the guest appearance of an oldster (Eduard Franz) who calls himself, wait for it, Jehoam. God almighty.

Saying all that: it’s a fine movie. I only wish I could watch it without constant forward-referencing to Life of Brian in my head.

Mambar Pierrette

a film by Rosine Mbakam

Never underestimate the power of the label. Say you watch a drama, and all of it rings true, so you think it may be based on a true story. You are impressed with acting and generally like it. Or you watch a documentary and lots of things seem staged, so you feel cheated. But it could be the same film!

Yesterday, I went to see our traditional Documental del Mes. As long as the film was revolving around Mambar the seamstress and her clients, it was fine. Banter, bargaining, complaining about the absentee fathers of their children, this kind of stuff. But when a series of unfortunate events unfolded, I started to suspect the creators of tweaking the reality. By the time Mambar was mugged on-screen, the supposed documentary had lost all credibility. So disappointing.

Back home, I looked Mambar Pierrette up. Turns out, it is not a documentary but a narrative film, although most of the (amateur) actors portray themselves. Apart from the robbers, that is. Now I think it wasn’t bad at all.

Nada

by Claudio Stassi
based on a novel by Carmen Laforet
introduction by Estefanía Molina

This comic adaptation of the eponymous novel by Carmen Laforet is so good it made me wish to read the original. This doesn’t happen too often.

La hija del Mestre

a film by Francisco González González and Carlos Luis Monzón

This was the first feature film ever made on our island — and a commercial disaster. It was shown at the inauguration of Cine Royal (calle Venegas, 36) on 3 April of 1928. The introduction looks like a promotional reel for Las Palmas de Gran Canaria while the dramatic part of the movie, based on zarzuela by Santiago Tejera Osavarri, was filmed entirely in the barrio of San Cristóbal. Decorations by Néstor de la Torre who also appears in the movie. Favourite character: Cho Canuto (José Rodríguez Iglesias). Star word: concio.

Introduced by Elena Acosta Guerrero and featuring the music by Jonay Armas, La hija del Mestre was the second film of the cycle Cine canario: Cines Wood, Royal y Rosales by Asociación de Cine Vértigo.

Lola Massieu

a film by Dácil Manrique de Lara
written and presented by Orlando Britto

A documentary on the life and art of the Canarian painter Lola Massieu (1921—2007), based on the book of the same name by Orlando Britto. A part of the cycle Tiempo de memoria, memoria en el tiempo, organised by Instituto Canario de Desarrollo Cultural (ICDC).

The complete documentary is available here.

Majd holnap

a film by Judit Elek

Eszter (Judit Meszléry) and István (Andor Lukáts) are lovers. Both are married (not to each other) and have children. And it’s all right.

There are a few things that did strike me in this 1980 movie as unusual. At least, unusual for the Eastern Bloc cinema of the time. First of them is the aforementioned all-rightedness of an extramarital affair. The film doesn’t judge István and Eszter (or, for that matter, anyone else). While “don’t ask, don’t tell” arrangements with their spouses seem to be working, none of the protagonists is eager to change the status quo. Maybe tomorrow. Or maybe never. There are scenes of rare tenderness between Eszter and her husband Gábor (István Szőke) as well as between István and his wife Olga (Eszter Szakács) which make the latter scenario much more plausible^*. At the same time, István’s extended family in a small village simply accept Eszter as István’s lover.

Secondly, there’s no plot in a classical sense of exposition-climax-resolution, no flashbacks and no character arcs. The narrative is as linear as a Roman road. It’s just a few days in life of Eszter and István from the time point A to the time point B. The time points are cleverly chosen though.

Finally, there’s no film score, in fact no music at all (unlike the trailer below), which I find refreshing. That’s what I call true realism, as opposed to socialist realism. In real life you don’t go around accompanied by a specially composed soundtrack, do you?

Watch it — if you can find it.

Majd holnap closes the cycle of “lost and found” pictures of Filmoteca Canaria.

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*	I find it curious that the first names of the actors playing Eszter’s and István’s spouses are István and Eszter, respectively. I don’t think it has any deep meaning, probably just an in-joke.

Dishonored

a film by Josef von Sternberg

A 1933 pre-Code spy film, starring the great Marlene Dietrich as Marie/Agent X-27 and Victor McLaglen as Colonel Kranau, an arrogant Russian à la Lord Flashheart. Unbelievably, this is the first ever film with Dietrich I’ve seen. As per usual, the Spanish title, Fatalidad, has nothing to do with the original Dishonored but probably is the better choice: according to Wikipedia, the director objected to the English title saying that “the lady spy was not dishonored, but killed by firing squad”.

This film opened the cycle Cine canario: Cines Wood, Royal y Rosales by Asociación de Cine Vértigo dedicated to the historic movie theatres of Gran Canaria. Fatalidad happened to be the film shown at the inauguration of Cine Wood of Tafira Alta on 26 August 1933. Before the projection, Enrique Wood gave a short presentation on the history of the Wood Cinema.

The complete feature is available in Internet Archive.

Solo quería bailar

by Greta García

Скучно вам, серые? Щас я накапаю Правду на смирные ваши мозги! Юрий Шевчук, «Террорист»

How come that just after watching Darling I went to the library and randomly picked up the book whose protagonist is, once again, a classical ballet dancer? Really, I am not that interested in ballet. Good news: turns out, the novel is not about ballet at all. It is about a classical ballet dancer turned terrorist — not a very successful one, much to her and my regret.

A little spoiler here.

Gush

by Yo Hemmi
translated by Giles Murray

Many years ago I watched a film by Shōhei Imamura called Warm Water Under a Red Bridge and enjoyed it a lot. It turns out that the movie was based on the title novella, which was the reason I took this book from the library in the first place. I have to say that there are many differences between the film and the original story. That’s only natural but, imprinting and stuff, I prefer the film. Also, the first-person protagonist of Gush (all three novellas are narrated in the first person) is quite annoying.

Night Caravan is the shortest story of the three which would greatly benefit from being even shorter.

My favourite novella is the final one. Piano Wire portrays a family of slobs falling under the influence of a mysterious compulsive declutterrer^*. I always suspected there was a sinister side to tidying up; still, the ending comes as a shock.

*	All three novellas were first published in 1992. Imagine that by then Marie Kondo had been decluttering for three years already. 22 years later, she has “kind of given up” on it. Good for her.

Den tid på året

a film by Paprika Steen

Yeah, it’s that time of year again: the annual family get-at-each-other’s-throats-together. Now, who brings what?

This hilarious and poignant tragicomedy brings a fitting finale to the Cine danés en femenino cycle. Bravo, Asociación de Cine Vértigo!

Free live music and stuff in Las Palmas, April 2024

This is what I’ve seen in April:

• 3 April: Grupo coral @ Palacete Rodríguez Quegles, Calle Benito Pérez Galdós, 4
  The programme included: Wiegenlied and Das Heimliche Lied by Louis Spohr, performed by Andrea Quintana Mesa (soprano), Simón Martín (clarinet) and Cristina Díaz Álamo (piano); Yesterday and Can’t Help Falling in Love performed by Paula Herrera Hernández (mezzo-soprano), Nira Vera Almeida (harp) and Laura Urbín López (harp); and Bastien und Bastienne (Bastián y Bastiana) by Mozart, with Teresa Rodríguez Vázquez (Bastiana), Daniel Marrero González (Bastian), Francesco Pisapia (Colas), Marta López Falcón (flute) and Riccardo Vignaga (piano).

  

• 7 April: Happy Piano Day 2024 in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, various locations (11:30—22:00)
  This year, the 6^th edition of Happy Piano Day was postponed because of rain, and I was afraid it would be cancelled again because, well, it was raining in the morning. But it stopped in the afternoon and in the evening I headed straight to the Parque San Telmo to watch Levi Keyb & Kisandra Pujol (19:00), Sergio Alonso & Magdalena Padilla (20:00) and two Charlie Chaplin films accompanied by Federico Lechner (21:00).

  

• 11 April: Luismi Segurado @ Teatro Guiniguada, Plaza F. Mesa de León
  A masterclass organised by Mousikê La Laguna.

• 13 April: «Étnico» @ Auditorio José Antonio Ramos, Parque Doramas
  Another great Musicando concert with José Manuel Ramos (guitar, vocals) and Benito Cabrera (timple).

  

• 14 April: Zumba @ Parque de El Rincón
  As a part of the Tour Universo Mujer, Jessica Expósito gave two free classes of Zumba Fitness; I joined in for twenty minutes or so.
• 17 April: Grupos de cámara @ Palacete Rodríguez Quegles
  The complete programme of this evening of classical chamber musi is available here. My favourite part was Pagan Dances for Saxophone Quartet (Pagan Ballad and Pagan Fugue) by Steve Winstead performed by José Manuel Falcón, Gabriel Climent, Gabriel Santana and Alberto Medina.

  

• 25 April: Alba Rodríguez and Víctor Lemes @ Museo Castillo de Mata, Calle Domingo Guerra del Río, 147
  A double bill of Gran Canarian singers-songwriters in one evening, the fourth concert from the cycle «12 Noches de autor».
• 27 April: Maratón de Jazz @ Auditorio José Antonio Ramos
  The LPA International Jazz Day concert organised by Fabrica La Isleta.
  • 18:00: Maracujazz Trio featuring Ernesto Rossger (electric guitar), Jonay Mesa (acoustic guitar) and Nelson Saavedra (double bass), plus a guest vocalist Melania Piñeiro.
  • 19:00: Manu Sija, an Argentine multiinstrumentalist (electric bass, guitars, keyboards, drums, percussion, accordion, violin, vocals and loops) — a true discovery for me!
  • 20:00: Gary Willis Trio featuring Gary Willis (electric bass), Gergo Borlai (drums) and Zsolt Kaltenecker (keyboards). Unfortunately, this last set was interrupted by rain.

  

And two exhibitions:

• 14 March — 5 May: «Deshilar la Colección. Urdimbres de lo sagrado: tramas que des(a)nudan amarres» @ Casa de Colón, Calle Colón, 1
  An exhibition of works by Canarian artist Macarena Nieves Cáceres.

• 18 April — 17 May: «Poéticas del Deseo» @ Centro de Artes Plásticas (CAP), Calle Colón, 8
  The works by José Luis Luzardo revolve around sex, gender violence, religion and disease. Naturally, they generate controversy: the Abogados Cristianos, the foundation known for being prodigious litigators in “defense of religious feelings”, were not exactly happy with images of Virgin Mary, saints or Pope John Paul II within glass dildos and (so far unsuccessfully) demanded to suspend the exhibition.

And that was it for April.