Santa (1932)

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Movie
Original title Santa
Country of production Mexico
Publishing year 1932
length 81 minutes
Rod
Director Antonio Moreno
script Carlos Noriega Hope
production Juan de la Cruz Alarcon
music Agustin Lara
camera Alex Phillips
cut Aniceto Ortega
occupation

Santa was the first sound film in the history of Mexican cinema . It was the remake of the silent film basedon the novel by Federico Gamboa from 1918 and was shot by the Spanish director Antonio Moreno . The melodrama tells the story of Santa, played by Lupita Tovar , who is rejected by her family after a failed love affair and goes to Mexico City to work in a brothel. There it sinks deeper and deeper and ultimately dies of cancer. The film takes up widespread motifs of Mexican cinema, prostitutes play a role in many films, as well as such melodramatic acts.

action

The film tells the story of Santa, a country girl in Chimalistac in southern Mexico. She lives happily with her family until she is seduced by the army officer Marcelino and then abandoned. When her brother finds out about this, he casts her away because she has brought shame on the family. Santa comes to Mexico City, where she works in the brothel run by Doña Elvira , where the blind pianist Hipólito also works. Both Hipólito and the suitor Jarameño, who is a bullfighter, fall in love with Santa, who is already a well-known whore in town at the time. She leaves the brothel to live with Jarameño, but is cast out by him when he catches her with Marcelino one day. Santa then crashes and becomes ill with cancer . Hipólito allows her to have an operation, but Santa dies in the process. The blind pianist then arranges her funeral in Chimalistac.

production

Santa was the first sound film to be produced in Mexico and marked a rebirth of Mexican film , which was given a new chance to raise its profile because the Spanish-language productions from Hollywood could not assert themselves. For the production of this film, the ex-revolutionary and film distributor Juan de la Cruz Alarcón , the filmmaker Gustavo Sáenz de Sicilia and the journalist Carlos Noriega Hope founded the Compañía Nacional Productora de Películas studio . The director Antonio Moreno was a Spaniard who had come from Hollywood, while the leading actress Lupita Tovar was a Mexican who had also returned from Hollywood. Even though Moreno introduced technical aspects of American production into Mexican films, the Santa production had more in common with that of Spanish silent films. The sound system for the film was invented by Joselito Rodríguez and Roberto Rodríguez , the music was written by Agustín Lara and recorded under the direction of Miguel Lerdo de Tejada . Filming began on November 3, 1931, and the production cost was 45,000 pesos. The film was released on March 30, 1932 and was a financial success.

reception

The important Mexican film historian García Riera attests to the film Santa that it lacks the poetry typical of the Mexican cinema of that time, which was otherwise to be found in even the worst films. Salvador Elizondo explained that the film took up themes and forms typical of Mexican film, such as the moralization of prostitutes.

literature

  • Carl J. Mora, "Mexican Cinema: Reflections of a Society, 1896-2004." McFarland & Co Inc, Jefferson NC 2005. ISBN 978-0786420834 .
  • David R. Maciel, Joanne Hershfield: Mexico's Cinema: A Century of Film and Filmmakers. Sr Books, 1999. ISBN 978-0842026826 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Carl J. Mora: "Mexican Cinema: Reflections of a Society, 1896-2004." McFarland & Co Inc, Jefferson NC 2005. Page 33.
  2. ^ David R. Maciel, Joanne Hershfield: Mexico's Cinema: A Century of Film and Filmmakers. Sr Books, 1999. page 19.
  3. ^ A b Carl J. Mora: "Mexican Cinema: Reflections of a Society, 1896-2004." McFarland & Co Inc, Jefferson NC 2005. Page 34.
  4. ^ David R. Maciel, Joanne Hershfield: Mexico's Cinema: A Century of Film and Filmmakers. Sr Books, 1999. page 20.