They say that shortly before his death, Granados wanted to surprise his suffering friend Albéniz and interpreted his barcarole ' Mallorca '. The work was composed on a trip that the two made long ago through the Balearic Islands and, as if the fate of the piece was to give surprises, these days of confinement have once again turned into a surprising film. Of exactly seven minutes and forty seconds, on the music of Albéniz and signed by María Forteza , ' Mallorca ', that's what it is titled, it took time for the first frame to appear to become the first Spanish sound film signed by a director.Indeed, the dating of the Filmoteca Española, between 1932 and 1934, places it right in front of 'El gato montés', by Rosario Pi , up to now proudly holding such high honor. But, surprise (and three go), it is not at all obvious. Nothing seems clear enough in everything surrounding the film in its very bumpy week of discovery.
"The first thing that should be said is that this is not a lost film, but a found one . Nobody knew that it existed," says protocol Josetxo Cerdán, director of the Filmoteca. The film, according to the almost mythological story that has emerged in the confined quarantine days, came in a batch from 1982 labeled ' The Secret of Pedriza' , a masterpiece of Balearic silent cinema dated 1926 and directed by Francesc Aguiló. And from there, as if from nothing, it emerged. Pure, clean, for the first time. The urgent thing was to find the identity of the person responsible. María Forteza occupied from this moment a place of honor and in the documentation and archive of the film library there was no one with such a name. "Unknown" therefore. Well, just a day after the presentation ' urbi et orbe' , the journalist Laura Jurado found her, with her grandson and from her article published on the 'Industries of the cinema' website, we learned that she was a variety theater artist, songwriter and, at the time, wife and regular collaborator of Ramón Úbeda, the producer of the film. From where the confusion then? "Her full name was María Mercè Forteza. Now, and thanks to this revelation, we know that she, like other silent film pioneers such as Helena Cortesina and Elena Jordi, came from the variety theater and gives an idea of the place that cinema used to occupy in the field of entertainment, "explains Cerdán at the same time.
And now the date, the big question. Is this really the first film with female voice and direction? And here, the interpretations, like the trails of Borges, fork. In all its exquisite footage there is nothing to indicate the time of filming. They are all signs. "For this reason," reads the entry poster for the film, as a fervent and simple tribute, we offer your imperishable memory these small cinematographic works inspired by the aesthetics of your music. "The text directly addresses Albéniz and each one of the inspired images that follow, the work of an experienced hand in the not-so-rudimentary tools of cinematographic language, it could be said that also. "The limits we set", continues Cerdán with a detective spirit, "are from the moment they begin to develop the sound systems that accompany the tape, which are not external discs, and the moment Ramón Úbeda patented Fono Palma, his own sound system. From that moment on, his works appear with the brand and logo of his invention. "'Mallorca' does not bear that distinctive. It bears another one:" Úbeda Sound Record (Spanish system) ". Conclusion: between 1932 (when the records ran out) and 1934 (when the new logo was born.) Second conclusion: we go back to the beginning and to the exclusive surprise she is the first.
The first doubt about as categorical as a broad statement came from the Balearic cinema researcher and attentive observer Magdalena Rubí . "It is not about polemicizing, but finding the documentary and undoubted truth," says something overwhelmed by the stir of innocent reflections that have turned the local press upside down. She was the first to notice that on the pedestals that support the effigies (or lionesses) on the Paseo del Borne one of the images reads: "Up Spain" . Very small, but you can read the inscription that remained as is in such a beautiful place beyond the 1960s. There are old photos that testify that the tiny squiggle is, in effect, a resounding "Up Spain". In the opinion of the historian and author of the book 'Els mallorquins de Franco. The Falange and the National Movement ' , Joan Mas Quetglas, this inscription, due to its detail, could only be the work of Falangists at a time when the Falangists were in charge. "The Falange was a minority in Mallorca and was very radicalized. In 1936 they even put a bomb. I imagine that if it were one of their graffiti it would not be so well done, it would be much more savage," he says, and then pronounces sentence: "That image it is after 1936 " . In such a case, Rosario Pi is still the first. Start again.
Another historian, Fernando del Rey Reguillo , coordinator, among an extensive bibliography on the subject, of 'Words as fists. Political intransigence in the Second Spanish Republic ' is more prudent and for this it goes back to the possible regenerationist origin (we are talking about 1898) of the expression that José Antonio Primo de Rivera's later appropriated for that of verticality and not being enough the simple "Viva". "I can imagine that that expression was already circulating. I don't think it's decisive. I can be before 1936," he says. In the ' Last Hour ' it was collected on Friday even the opinion of one of the descendants, the couple's grandson, Miguel Ángel Lozano , who maintains that his grandparents lived the Francoist coup in Barcelona and that they never returned to the island . In such a case, his family member (which is what matters to him, of course) would be the first. The smoke thickens.
And what about the uniforms of the soldiers who walk? "We have sent several frames to different institutions that can clarify them for us, but we still do not have a response," Cerdán replies. And the cars? "They are from the 20s," he continues. And could the ship seen sailing the Mediterranean throw a final clue? "It was active between the years 1932 and 1942," he ends. The Filmoteca director himself throws a final hypothesis: "Perhaps the images are old and do not correspond to the time in which they were edited. Perhaps the film was made with images from here and there in the 1940s when the Úbeda-Forteza couple I was already in Portugal. " Maybe.
What was said, ' Mallorca ' is all a surprise. Granados, the cinema and even advertising say so.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
Know more- movies
- culture
Culture Dafne Fernández's recommendations for quarantine: 'The Sisters Brothers', Emma Flint, 'Pajarico' ...
Clothes hangingClassics of contagious horror movies
CineGrand Corps Malade (the swimmer who reinvented himself as a poet and filmmaker after three months in a coma): "The crisis of public education is the crisis of democracy"