La maldición, el milagro y el burro

a film by Ayoze O’Shanahan and Mafe Céspedes

The Colombian town of Gramalote was destroyed by a landslide in 2010. As Ayoze O’Shanahan explained before the screening, the filming of the documentary began exactly when the disaster struck. By the time of its release in 2012, there was little progress with resettlement or rebuilding: most Gramalote (ex-)residents still lived in tents. So the film ends on a bittersweet note that’s more bitter than sweet. I was happy to discover today that by October 2024 the construction of Nuevo Gramalote had been essentially completed.

The titular curse refers to the fate of the town (but of course, its destruction was prophesised before). The miracle was that there were no human casualties — naturally, thanks to the devoutness of Gramalote townfolk. Another explanation is that the slide was relatively slow-moving so the population had plenty of time to move out to safety. Unfortunately, one donkey died.

This film opens the third edition of the cycle Tiempo de memoria, memoria en el tiempo organised by Instituto Canario de Desarrollo Cultural (ICDC).

D.O.A.

a film by Rudolph Maté

“A picture as excitingly different as its title!”, said the theatrical release poster for D.O.A.

To me, this 1949 film noir was as exciting as a long joke told after you heard its punchline. But, apparently, it’s a “classic of the genre”, complete with all the clichés of the genre: femmes fatales, mobsters, nighttime driving, etc. etc. The movie has spawned at least six remakes and a musical, so probably I miss something. Or it could be that D.O.A. fell into public domain too early — to be precise, in 1978, due to a silly filing error — an easy prey for idea-starved Hollywood producers.

Edmond O’Brien stars as Frank Bigelow, a pretty dull accountant who, upon learning that he’s mortally poisoned, transforms himself into a hard-boiled detective. Halfway through I got confused with more and more characters and kind of lost interest because, well, the man was gonna die anyway. The jazz band at The Fisherman is good, shame that our accountant doesn’t appreciate live music.

The movie has its share of comic moments, most of them are unintentionally so. Like the one where Frank barges into a second hospital in search of a second opinion:

Frank: Doctor, I want you to examine me for luminous poison.
Doctor: Come right in here. (A few moments later.) Yeah, you’ve got it all right.

The doctor is so cocksure because he shows a test tube that glows in the dark. Great. (It’s puzzling why we don’t have a remake yet where Frank is an ex-KGB agent and “luminous poison” is identified as polonium-210.) Be careful what you drink.

Con las horas contadas closed the cycle Los márgenes de Hollywood en la postguerra.

Heavy Traffic

a film by Ralph Bakshi

The same checklist here as in Bakshi’s debut feature, plus some clumsy live action and pinball. Heavy Traffic mostly consists of zoomorphic humanoids, not too different from anthropomorphic beasts of Fritz the Cat but uglier. The only attractive character is Carole (Beverly Hope Atkinson). What did she find in Michael the pinball-not-exacty-wizard (Fritz 2.0? Future Bakshi?) is anyone’s guess. The soundtrack is really good, would be even better without Scarborough Fair.

High Tide

a film by John Reinhardt

Yet another obscure film noir. With pretty cool acting by Don Castle, Lee Tracy, Julie Bishop and Anabel Shaw and some great lines —

“He’s having a slight attack of rigor mortis right in the middle of my living room floor”

— this is my favourite of the bunch so far. But what’s with the title? High Tide is boring. No wonder the Spanish renamed it Ambición perversa — sure, it’s over the top but at least awakening one’s curiosity.

A fun fact: Reinhardt’s directorial debut was 1935 El día que me quieras featuring the tango of the same name as well as Volver and starring Carlos Gardel, Rosita Moreno, Tito Lusiardo and 14-year old Astor Piazzolla!

Symphonic Suites / Симфонические сюиты

by Edvard Grieg
performed by Grand Symphony Orchestra of All-Union Radio
conducted by Gennady Rozhdestvensky

This was another LP that my mum loved. DiscoGS lists 57 versions of this record, the earliest of them released in 1967. The orchestra is credited as Большой Симфонический Оркестр Всесоюзного Радио, which was its official name between 1966 and 1974. So let’s think Suites were recorded in 1966—1967. In our house, however, we had a 1971 pressing. I even remember the time (1971?) when it was squeaky new.

Since it was the only Grieg vinyl we had (Holberg Suite and Piano Concerto in A minor would come later), my mum referred to it just as a “Grieg”. “Put on a Grieg please.” My all-time favourite was «Шествие гномов» (March of the Trolls)^*. As it was the last track, I had to wait. But it was well worth it.

It still is.

Edvard Grieg Peer Gynt Suites Nos. 1 & 2, Lyric Suite

Эдвард Григ Пер Гюнт. Две сюиты из музыки к драме Г. Ибсена Лирическая сюита, соч. 54

Peer Gynt-suite nr. 1, op. 46 / Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, Op. 46 / Пер Гюнт. Сюита №1, соч. 46 (audio) Morgenstemning / Morning Mood / Утро Åses død / The Death of Åse / Смерть Озе Anitras dans / Anitra’s Dance / Танец Анитры I Dovregubbens hall / In the Hall of the Mountain King / В пещере горного короля Peer Gynt-suite nr. 2, op. 55 / Peer Gynt Suite No. 2, Op. 55 / Пер Гюнт. Сюита № 2, соч. 55 (audio) Ingrids klage / Ingrid’s Lament / Жалоба Ингрид Arabisk dans / Arabian Dance / Арабский танец Peer Gynts hjemfart / Peer Gynt’s Homecoming / Возвращение Пера Гюнта Solveigs sang / Solveig’s Song / Песня Сольвейг Lyrisk suite, op. 54 / Lyric Suite, Op. 54 / Лирическая сюита, соч. 54 (audio) Gjætergut / Shepherd Boy / Мальчик-пастух Gangar / Norwegian March / Норвежский крестьянский марш† Notturno / Nocturne / Ноктюрн Troldtog / March of the Dwarfs / Шествие гномов*

*	This piece, Troldtog (literally, “troll procession”), is known in English as either March of the Trolls or March of the Dwarves. I prefer the former translation, while the Russian «Шествие гномов» means “procession of the gnomes”.
†	I suppose Soviet bureaucrats couldn’t leave «Норвежский марш» (“Norwegian march”) as such, they needed to insert peasants somewhere, as in “Workers and Peasants”. Thus «Норвежский крестьянский марш» (“Norwegian peasant march”). The original title, Gangar, is simply “march”, not even “Norwegian”.

Fritz the Cat

a film by Ralph Bakshi

Sex, drugs, rock’n’roll, profanity, graphic violence, politically incorrect jokes — in other words, “something to offend just about everyone”. I must say Fritz the Cat didn’t offend me that much. Perhaps it haven’t aged that well then. The thing is, at 78 munutes, the film is way too long for the message, if there was any. I don’t mind sex between anthropomorphic barnyard animals, I’d appreciate (proportionally) more rock’n’roll, and I really could live with less violence. Cut it to 20 minutes, I say, and we’ll talk. Of course, Billie Holiday and Bo Diddley are great. Some of them jokes still work —

We interrupt the Israeli–Arab war for this special announcement. The President, after conferring with Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, has agreed to send more arms to Israel, based on the return of New York City and Los Angeles to the United States.

— and some of them don’t. “Radical left”, what radical left? By now, there’s no left left in the US.

Even bigger problem for me is that I didn’t find the protagonist lovable, or charismatic, or interesting in any way. The only character I sympathised with was Harriet the horse, maybe because she reminded me of the donkey from The Bremen Town Musicians.

Fritz the Cat opens the cycle Ralph Bakshi: Urban Noir organised by Filmoteca Canaria and Tenerife Noir.

Hollow Triumph (The Scar)

a film by Steve Sekely

Even less convincing — although significantly better produced and, IMHO, simply better — than Detour, this forgotten 1948 thriller stars Paul Henreid, Joan Bennett and Leslie Brooks.

How come that even the observant dentist Dr. Swangron (John Qualen) failed to notice that the titular scar migrated to the wrong cheek? Never mind that. The girls are beautiful. Henreid is pretty good in a double role of a chain-smoking baddie and, er, another guy, both of them psychoanalysts. Watch out for that orchid scene.

La cicatriz continues the cycle Los márgenes de Hollywood en la postguerra.

El París de los Dragones

by Tony Sandoval and Joann Sfar
translated by Lorenzo Díaz Buendía

Confused plot and too many dead or wounded dragons for my liking. It’s the romance between a Hawaiian strongwoman princess and a pansexual mermaid, coupled with a wicked sense of humour, that makes this comic worth checking out.

Detour

a film by Edgar G. Ulmer
based on a novel by Martin Goldsmith

There is no particular reason why this 1945 B-movie acquired a cult following while scores of superior films were forgotten. An unconvincing story with a few loose ends left untied, perhaps because the film creators ran out of little money they had, it is nevertheless worth watching if only for Ann Savage as Vera.

As I have learned, Vera was placed as a number 6 on Richard Corliss’ list of Top 25 Greatest Movie Villains, one position below Phyllis Dietrichson of Double Indemnity. Why? According to Corliss,

Picked up on a trip out west by a man (Tom Neal) fleeing from a death scene, she instantly and spectacularly gets on his and the audience’s nerves.

Wow. That calls for redefinition of what “villain” is. To me, Vera is a female version of Ostap Bender who, just like the Great Combinator in The Twelve Chairs, effortlessly takes control of a texbook patsy, in this case, Al. If anybody was getting on my nerves, it was this latter, on account of his incurable stupidity and repetitive voice-over narration. Against all odds, I kept hoping that Vera’s machinations would eventually succeed.

Detour was the opening film of the cycle Los márgenes de Hollywood en la postguerra organised by Asociación de Cine Vértigo.

Free live music and stuff in Las Palmas, January 2025

Happy New Years, we’ve celebrated several of them. Here are some things that we’ve seen in January:

• 18 January: «Este mar mío» @ Auditorio José Antonio Ramos, Parque Doramas, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
  Canarian singer-songwriter José Manuel Pérez “El Patillas” opened the new season of Musicando in the company of Gonzalo Macías (guitar), Carlos Meneses (double bass) and Néstor Ramos (drums).

• 17 September 2024 — 2 February 2025: «Juan de Miranda lo Pintó» @ Casa de Colón, Calle Colón, 1
  Works by Juan de Miranda (1723—1805); guided visit with Ramón Gil Romero and Francisco Javier Pueyo Abril on 30 January.

  

• 14 November 2024 — 15 February 2025: «Pérez Siquier» @ Fundación MAPFRE Canarias, Calle Juan de Quesada, 10
  Photography by Carlos Pérez Siquier (1930—2021); see the catalogue of his works here.

  

• 16 January — 14 February: «Welcome (An ironic view of us)» @ Centro de Artes Plásticas (CAP), Calle Colón, 8
  Photography by Angharad Rojo Martín.

  

And that was it for January. Looking forward to the Carnival already.