This 1958 film may be (considered) a classic and an epic but it didn’t age well. Maybe it wasn’t that good to start with. Marlon Brando as a blonde German officer speaking (even to other Germans) in English with fake German accent is an embarrassment. Ditto the other protagonists. The only believable character, in my view, is cool and cynical Frau Hardenberg portrayed by May Britt.
Turned out that I remembered this movie pretty well. The difference is, now I don’t need English subtitles to understand the dialogue. The great late Marisa Paredes is as elegant as she is in the role of Leo. The comic relief is provided by Chus Lampreave and Rossy de Palma as Leo’s mother and sister, respectively.
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I’ve found the issue of Leeds Student with screening times for this film. To my surprise, the first page of the newspaper sports a photo of “the rare cloud phenomenon that ... is unlikely to be repeated during our lifetime” which I had a pleasure to observe with my own eyes on 16 February 1996.
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It was shown as part of the cycle Historia de nuestro cine, to mark the anniversary of the death of Marisa Paredes.
I never understood the Hollywood’s obsession with remakes. That includes self-remakes. What’s the point? In 1939, McCarey directed Love Affair starring Charles Boyer and Irene Dunne. According to Wikipedia, it was Cary Grant who convinced McCarey to remake it starring himself in Boyer’s role. Why did McCarey agree, is anyone’s guess. The result “was almost identical to the original on a scene-to-scene basis” — quite a change for a director known for his improvisational approach.
Back in 1957, Bosley Crowther wrote in The New York Times that “something goes wrong with the picture, after the couple get off the ship”. And he was right, if too polite: practically everything goes wrong after that point. Which is a shame, because I quite liked Cary Grant — Deborah Kerr interaction onboard the liner. Considering that the titular affair wasn’t really an affair, even though the rest of the passengers were convinced otherwise (it would be so much nicer if it was the other way around, but c’est la vie, et cetera), the authors could have developed the comedy of errors further or, better still, concluded it right after disembarkment. That would spare the viewers, who might have remembered how the original Love Affair ended anyway, one full hour of sheer embarrassment.
The last funny scene in the movie which I think better should have been simply the last.
For a really good McCarey film starring Grant, I recommend The Awful Truth.
A concert of La Banda Sinfónica Municipal de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria conducted by Teresa Hernández Vega. The programme included works by Alfred Reed, Satoshi Yagisawa, Giancarlo Castro D’Addona, Jesús Agomar and Moisés Moleiro.
8 November: «Calles con Arte» @ Calle Taliarte and Calle Guaires, La Isleta
A Saturday full of cultural activities, all just a block away from us. We went to see pole dance by No Limits Pole Dance Studios; tango dance by Abrazos en movimiento accompanied by Atorrantes Tango Club; Bollywood dance workshop with Lavina Saradangani; and «El coro de La Luz» by Chelys Odalis.
11 November: Taller de danzas folklóricas venezolanas @ Casa de Colón, Calle Colón, 1
The first event from the cycle «Américas» organised by Casa de Colón and produced by Tájara producciones: a Venezuelan dance workshop by the Asociación Cultural Cambur Pintón.
Mestizo feauturing Marcel Montcourt (cuatro venezolano), Danny Martínez (guitar), Óscar Sánchez (flute), Kiko González (percussion), Winter Sánchez (double bass) and Adrián Brito (vocals), plus a special guest Claudia Álamo (vocals).
14 November: «Américas» @ Plaza del Pilar Nuevo
With crowd-pleasers such as Libertango, Oblivion and Tico Tico, La Banda Sinfónica Municipal de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria conducted by Juan Roda Sapiña closed the cycle «Américas».
Featuring Guada Márquez, Ángel Ravelo, Luis Quintana, Sixto Armas, Esther Rodríguez, Helena González, Sylvie Hernández, Daniel Lamb, Cinzia Mare, Marta Bolaños, Cira Rodríguez, Tite Fernández, Misael Jordán and others. Presented by Tonono González and Nanda Santana.
27 November: «Una noche vieja» @ Biblioteca Pública Municipal Josefina de la Torre, Paseo de las Canteras
A very amateur comedy performed by Teatro Mínimo XXI. The audience was full of Rabbit’s friends-and-relations. Everybody was given a cup with twelve grapes, which was nice.
