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.

---

*	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.