Flying Down to Rio

I had trouble following the finer details of this film’s plot, and not simply because I tend tune out during musical moments. I counted three (maybe four or more) separate instances where exposition is given through letters with cursive that resembled calligraphy and made it difficult to read.  Subsequently, I am left without the finer bits of context.  It is a cinematic crouch to continually dump exposition on the viewer through letters.

In regards to the film’s gender politics, female agency is in peril. Certainly the whole idea of an arranged marriage threatens female agency, while it is usually depicted as benefiting the man.  While Julio claims that he will allow things to run their course in Rio, and let Belinha choose who she chooses, Belinha’s allegiance ultimately lies with her family.  She has a line in which she says, “musn’t we always please our fathers”  and therefore she will ultimately pick Julio as her husband. There is a scene where Belinha denies meeting with Julio, but she is then rebuked by her mother for doing so.

During the films climax, where the musical and aviation performance begins at the hotel’s opening, there was a moment where just before they begin to play their unwrapped instruments, the conductor asks, “are you ready boys?” and then it struck me, every musical performer was hilariously a man. All the women are up in the sky, chained to the planes.  A comic moment follows where Ginger Rogers is left chained to the plan while Julio runs off.  Julio is the only man up flying with the women, but he himself has become emasculated.  Sure he is made out to be gentlemanly, he states, “Her (Belinha) happiness is my happiness” but this is just after he catches Belinha kissing Roger.  So he may be able to marry Belinha, but he will never really have her love.  Instead, he gives up Belinha to Roger, like a commodity being traded.

On a side note, this musical romance comedy reminded me of Renoir’s romance comedy, The Rules of the Game. Both feature an event which brings two men together who share the same lover, and rather than fight for her, they agree to, “let things run their course.”  Both films also feature a voyeuristic  binocular moment.

Flying Down to Rio

John Parker July 12

Flying Down To Rio (1933). Jon suggests that this perspective of Latin America is different than that in the two previous films, and he’s right. Mariachi bands and dancing in the Acapulco sun give way to Latin rhythms in supper clubs that feature professional dance orchestras that were prevalent in the era leading up to World War 2. Distinct Latin rhythms prevail, meaning syncopated-African-originated Brazilian sambas and tangos. Camilo and Jon’s “conservative honour society” that we saw in Zorro is not constantly on the defensive but more fun pursuing in their tropical paradise. The female lead, herself a dark and very rich Brazilian, is so much fun that she needs to be chaperoned day and night by French-speaking relatives. Luckily for us she does get a few break-away scenes that include a dance, a silly ride in an airplane that incudes an even sillier being stranded on a deserted island, and a skin revealing beach outfit that might have been racy for the 1930s. Other Brazilians dance the Karioka in the supper club or on primitive airplanes and sing Brazilian love/folk songs without microphones. My favourite is the Brazilian band that knows this music so well that it is in full siesta mode right up until the moment it performs.

Rio, with its many famous sunny beaches and fun institutions, like soccer and Mardi Gras, even Portuguese language, is the perfect backdrop for Fred Astair’s and Ginger Rogers’ hapless band that plays when it can considering its success is constantly hampered by its leader’s short attention span. Fred and Ginger get ample dance time and adapt quite well to the new rhythms and surroundings. They eventually participate in the cause to save the lead’s father’s new hotel from floundering due to “Latin” shady business practices. Mayors and bankers all fall under the influence of corruption from the competition, giving a real “south of the border feel.” The lead’s wealthy father prevails thanks to the help of Fred Astaire and the band and, of course, the airborne dancers who do some truly amazing stunts for a 1930s film, albeit very little actual flying was involved. The lead has fallen for the ridiculous band leader, blond hair, youthfulness and all; they are married high in the sky as the original fiancée, well-mannered, bold and certainly more deserving after leading the airplane dance corps to help rescue dad’s hotel, parachutes back to earth. I’d change the title to Flying Dancers Over Rio.

 

Flying Down to Rio

John Parker July 12

Flying Down To Rio (1933). Jon suggests that this perspective of Latin America is different than that in the two previous films, and he’s right. Mariachi bands and dancing in the Acapulco sun give way to Latin rhythms in supper clubs that feature professional dance orchestras that were prevalent in the era leading up to World War 2. Distinct Latin rhythms prevail, meaning syncopated-African-originated Brazilian sambas and tangos. Camilo and Jon’s “conservative honour society” that we saw in Zorro is not constantly on the defensive but more fun pursuing in their tropical paradise. The female lead, herself a dark and very rich Brazilian, is so much fun that she needs to be chaperoned day and night by French-speaking relatives. Luckily for us she does get a few break-away scenes that include a dance, a silly ride in an airplane that incudes an even sillier being stranded on a deserted island, and a skin revealing beach outfit that might have been racy for the 1930s. Other Brazilians dance the Karioka in the supper club or on primitive airplanes and sing Brazilian love/folk songs without microphones. My favourite is the Brazilian band that knows this music so well that it is in full siesta mode right up until the moment it performs.

Rio, with its many famous sunny beaches and fun institutions, like soccer and Mardi Gras, even Portuguese language, is the perfect backdrop for Fred Astair’s and Ginger Rogers’ hapless band that plays when it can considering its success is constantly hampered by its leader’s short attention span. Fred and Ginger get ample dance time and adapt quite well to the new rhythms and surroundings. They eventually participate in the cause to save the lead’s father’s new hotel from floundering due to “Latin” shady business practices. Mayors and bankers all fall under the influence of corruption from the competition, giving a real “south of the border feel.” The lead’s wealthy father prevails thanks to the help of Fred Astaire and the band and, of course, the airborne dancers who do some truly amazing stunts for a 1930s film, albeit very little actual flying was involved. The lead has fallen for the ridiculous band leader, blond hair, youthfulness and all; they are married high in the sky as the original fiancée, well-mannered, bold and certainly more deserving after leading the airplane dance corps to help rescue dad’s hotel, parachutes back to earth. I’d change the title to Flying Dancers Over Rio.

 

The Mark of Zorro (1920): The fabrication of freedom and the cultural hero

 

 

 

 

One of the neat things about studying older films such as the Mark of Zorro (1920), a silent romantic film starting Douglas Fairbanks, is that it gives the attentive viewer an opportunity to travel back in time and see the origins of how adventure and heroic movies were made in a time when the movie industry in Hollywood was in its infancy. For instance, this movie allowed Fairbanks to become a much more popular and richer actor than what he already was since its production company, Douglas Fairbanks Picture Corporation, was created then to catapult him into an action figure adored by millions of his loyal audience. Hence, the script of the Mark of Zorro, which was originally published in the magazine “All-Story Weekly”, was based on the story, “The Curse of Capistrano” by Johnston McCulley and adapted into a movie script to suit Fairbank’s athletic skills. All of these background and historical information serves to point out that we as movie critics need to be aware of the purpose and intention when watching a movie.

I talk about intention in movie making just to bring up a subject which sometimes escapes our attention when watching a movie for the first time. Why are movies made and do they challenge the status quo or, on the contrary, reinforce it? In the case of the Mark of Zorro, directed by Fred Niblo, these questions are of great importance given that in 2005 the United States Library of Congress selected this film for preservation in the National Film Registry, giving it the status of “culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant” (Mike Barnes, 2015, The Hollywood Reporter). With this movie, the Mark of Zorro, the sword fighting devil-may-care adventure hero was born. Seeing the mistreatment of the peons by rich landowners and the oppressive colonial government, Don Diego Vega, son of a wealthy hacendado Don Alejandro, takes the identity of Zorro, a Robyn Hood-like character who makes life miserable for the rich and powerful rulers of old California in the early 19th century and fights off oppression. By definition, Oppression is a “prolonged cruel or unjust treatment or control” of people, and this is exactly one of the reasons why this movie was made. Audiences back in the 1920s needed new reasons to keep going to see movies and the Mark of Zorro played on the idea of “freedom for all” and “justice of all” type mentality which most Americans adhered to at the time and still do in the present.

Nevertheless, it is important to go further in the exploration of the plot and the main character of the Mark of Zorro and perhaps come to a better understanding of why action movies are so important in the present and the social and cultural implications that movies such as this one leaves in the minds of audiences around the world. The beginning of the movie starts with a screening sing which says, “Oppression by its very nature creates the power that crushes it”. Therefore, while this may have some truth to it, the movie hints directly to the need of the creation of a hero-like person such as Zorro, a within-the-system champion who is the only one who can rise to defend the oppressed of lower rank and status. Zorro, a high-born of Spanish decent and education, does not belong to the lower classes (being these Mexican or American Indians), nor can he be a mestizo (those of mixed Indian and Spanish blood or culture) but only by a Criollo (those of Spanish descend born in the New World) just like Don Diego Vega is.

Hence, the question of freedom from oppression becomes a question of class, culture and social justice which does not include all peoples. The Mark of Zorro (1920) hints first to the independence and then the annexation of California to the United States under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848), following the defeat of Mexico in the Mexican-American War. Additionally, this movie also points out to the Wars of Independence that many Latin American nations had at the beginning of the 19th century against Spain. One way or another, the newly republics from the very beginning abolished the formal system of radical classification and hierarchy (at least on paper), the Caste-System, the Inquisition and novel titles. Slavery, on the other hand, was not abolished immediately but ended in all the nations within a quarter century. After watching the Mark of Zorro, however, one cannot undeniably come to the conclusion that the movie contains a political message favoring the creation of new nations, as well as the separation of old California from Spanish ruling, were defenders of Oppression such as Don Diego Vega and his alter-ego Zorro, preserve the status-quo by belonging to the Criollo elite at the top of the social hierarchy system.

Within the movie itself, there are a few interesting observations which are important to expand. The main character, the young Don Diego Vega contrasts directly with his heroic alter-ego, Zorro in many ways. First, Diego appears to be a contrasting opposite to Zorro given his apparent disinterest in war, weapons, and sword-fighting. However, it is clear that the viewer would distinguished that this is a cover up by Don Diego to justify the plot. The idea of hombria or manhood is well-established in the movie by contrasting the sword-fighting abilities of Zorro against the soft-handed approach of Don Diego and his liberal education in Spain. The idea of fighting and defending one’s nation is directly linked in the film to virility (the sword is an extension of a man’s manhood’s; in other word his penis is his sword), agility, romance, freedom fighting, nobility of blood (in the case of Don Diego his lineage can be traced back to Spanish blood purity). Then, The Mark of Zorro is a sort of Scarlet Letter for the sinful oppressor and cruel rulers of old California. Hence, the marking of the ‘Z’ by the hand of Zorro on one’s body (or face) is the branding of injustice and the social exclusion and perhaps rejection by the rest of the population whom align with the freedom seeker of the movie. Only when Zorro proves his sword-fighting skills, his ability to get the girl (a returning theme within action movies), his unmatched athleticism, and most important of all, his purity of blood by demonstrating to all the other Caballeros his Spanish lineage, is only when Zorro is allowed to become the leader of the revolt against the Governor and gain independence against the colonial Spanish ruling.

As a side note, and not less important than the analysis of the main character Zorro, the character of Lolita Pulido (Marguerite de la Motte), a typical damsel in distress, does not challenge the stereotypical female role of the time and instead conforms to getting married to the rich guy and please her parents. In the movie, there is a scene in which Lolita seems to be waiting in the living room of Diego’s town house with a book in her hand, and she does not read it but only flips through the pages of the book while waiting patiently for her hero to appear. For this reason and many others, Lolita Pulido represents the typical female supporting role which only exists in these types of movies to fulfill the role of the principal male character and which is very important in the eyes of the audience. When Captain Ramon says, “Beauty should not be cruel”, he is saying, women should not be aggressive, nor fight for their rights or defend themselves against aggression. Hence, leaving the role of rescuer, hero and saviour to only Zorro.

Flying down to Rio (1933) screening 11th July

I was amazed by the development of the motion picture between 1920 (The Mark of Zorro) and 1933. And the creativity of Hollywood in movie making, I am just running out of words to express myself. Apart from all the music, singing and dancing, the airplane-wing-dance sequence at the end of the film was just astonishing, and according to Wikipedia, it’s made by special effects, but I actually believed that it was true airplane doing the trick when I was watching the movie. I don’t which would surprise me more, its being special effects or its being real.

Since we are here to talk about the border, in this movie, there is actually a two-way of crossing the border, as in the first part, the young Brazilian lady has crossed the border north to US, and in the second part it’s Roger Bond crossing border to the South. The film is focusing more on the second crossing, which is understandable, as it’s a Hollywood movie, and moreover, it’s male dominant at the time.

However, I find that the female protagonista’s crossing the border to the north doesn’t seem to change too much her usual behaviour, only that she is more flirtatious at the first scene, and Roger does fall for that, and of course for her beauty.

And the leave of Roger in the end was not expected at all, because from the first class we’ve been focusing on how people can change after cross the border, either imaginarily or physically, and usually they free themselves more when they cross the southern border, but Roger’s leave makes him more like a northerner, abiding by the moral protocols and being a gentleman. In the end it is Julio who acts more freely although he doesn’t cross any physical border.

Another interesting thing about crossing the border is when Roger’s small plane mis-lands on what they believe is a desert island, and both of them are talking to their true self and get persuaded and kiss one another. I think this kind of fighting between the true self and the social self (I don’t know if it’s called id and ego in Freud’s work?) is very popular among the audience even to the actual date, since people in the society always have to act apropriately, but in fact many social rules are not very natural and humane, and this kind of inner fight does happen a lot, but we don’t talk about it too often in our daily life, like it’s something that we only talk to a shrink, our best friends, or only in our diary. And now we can see it on the big screen. It makes me feel somehow that I myself is there on the screen and let go some depression and anxiety. So to me, walking into a cinema is kind of like crossing a border.

Last but not least, I really don’t like the scene when the woman shouted cannibals when she sees some indigenous on the “desert” island. It brings back all the memory of the cruel colonial history, and yet the director is trying to make fun out of it.

Hello world!

Hi there,

I’m Nayid and this semester I will try to give my personal and academic opinion about the different movies that our class, “Hollywood South of the Border”, has for us this semester.

I will be focusing on exploring how these movies were made: contextualization, the director’s intention: message and the way the main characters are portrait in them: representation and stereotypes.

I’m also excited about reading  everyone’s blogs and made some diligent contributions by writing  reviews which perhaps would help expand the conversation much further.

As a side note, Latin American Cine, just like its people and its territory, is very varied so this in itself will give me a lot material to work with. so, I’m ready to get cracking.

See you in class guys.

Nayid

 

Week 2 – The Mark of Zorro / Kevin Starr’s Inventing the Dream

The 1920 film The Mark of Zorro is actually the first silent film and also beleive it or not the first Zorro film out of the many I have ever watched. In all honesty this film was super hard for me to watch due the fact that it was a black and white silent film. Not knowing what I was coming into was a new experience and when I saw the first couple of words pop up on The screen I actually just thought it was going to be a little introduction to open up the movie. Little did I know that I would be reading throughout the whole movie. This was probably the hardest part for me due to the fact that my attention span when it comes to reading on any type of elecetronical device is just very limited.

My first reaction to this film is that it remined me of Le Magnifique in the sense that both protagonists have these somewhat alter egos. The only difference for myself personally was that I actually enjoyed the alter ego of Bob Saint-Clair because I thoguht of the over exaggeration in the character as a form of hilarity. Whereas, Zorro I just saw him as somewhat of a loser. However, now that I am typing this out I don’t know if it’s truly Zorro who I find to be the loser or Don Diego. When you have the girl right in front of you just go for it buddy! This could be debated about both Merlin and Diego though but I think I just grew founder to Merlin because I saw his character develop more simply because there was audio in the film (perhaps I would dislike him just as much if it were a silent film too).

What did catch my attention while watching The Mark of Zorro was the way Zorro moved with such skillfull quickness. I couldn’t help but think “PARKOUR!” which then made me lose my complete attention and led me to think of The Office episode where the charactes “perform” parkour (please watch the link provided, it’s a good laugh https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Kvw2BPKjz0). The whole parkour takes of the movie left me wondering if this could be said to be the first parkour to ever be seen on screen. It also left me curious as to how exactly it was filmed, asking myself how many shots did it to take? How was this whole thing edited, was it even edited? How exactly did the process of cinematography work in the past during an era with such limited technology as today?

As I read through Kevin Starr’s chapters in his novel Inventing the Dream I found myself turning away from completely disliking the silent film of Zorro to being more appreciative of it. Ever since I was a kid I’ve always been captivied by the city of Hollywood due to the fact of my interest in film. I’m no movie critic but I’ve always enjoyed the whole movie theatre experience. As I read through Kevin’s Starr’s chapters I found myself laughing in amusement as to how Hollywood came to be. What made me laugh first was that the founders of the city of Hollywood, hoped for the city to be a Christian community, a place with no saloons or liqour, offering freeland to Protestant churches. Now, I’ve walked along Hollywood Boulevard and it’s no Vegas strip but it also isn’t a wholesome church community. In fact, I think one of the largest “churches” you see in Hollywood is the Church of Scientology. Another thing I found interesting was that the first ever motion picture was of a man named Fred Ott sneezing (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PaJ1r0udvQ). It’s funny to read these things and imagine that something that seems so small to us in present day was looked at in the past as entertainment. The reading’s for this week definitely made me appreciate the process that Hollywood and cinematography has gone through.

Zorro (1920)

Perhaps no other country has produced as many heroic movies as the United States. The Mark of Zorro (1920) directed by Fred Niblo with a wonderful acting of Douglas Fairbanks is one of the very first of such movies at the very birth of Hollywood. For me, the best thing about this movie was that, for the first time, I could enjoy watching a silent movie photographed in Sepia! This may be the result of its fast-paced story and the magnificent dual role of Fairbanks as Don Diego and Zorro. He was genuinely attached to the two characters. His ambivalence character of easygoing and fatigued persona, who enjoys handkerchief tricks and shadow playing, artistically contradicts with the athletic Zorro with all those climbing scenes and super romantic persona.

One of the main themes of this film is oppression. This movie well depicts the oppression and exploitation of the natives and the poor people of California. The movie starts with a man with a wounded face who had beat a native Californian and got revenged by Zorro. Here, natives mostly play an observer role, hidden in the background of the battle between Zorro and Capitán Juan Ramon or Sgt. Pedro Gonzales.  Unfortunately “The Mark of Zorro” never depicts the obvious political conflicts between the Californians -sons of the Spanish who colonised California- and the authorities. It also missed mentioning the theme of corruption in politics and the role of the natives. It is just a symbolic showoff of a Spanish hero.

Lolita, Zorro’s love, matches the women stereotypes of its era. Lolita was in constant sorrow, longing for love, and waiting for the perfect wealthy man to arrive and conquer her heart. Although the high pace of the story suited my taste and grabbed my attention, it took away the required suspension for the viewers to feel connected with the main characters of the story. The lack of suspense makes the scene, in which Zorro won Lolita’s heart, superficial, and winning a woman’s heart a piece of cake. The lack of suspension also caused the final scene, which should have been the peak of the story, to pass quickly with no excitement. Besides, the sword battle scenes were very amateur and, at the same time, family friendly not to let anyone die to get injured.

To wrap it up, “The Mark of Zorro” had the same characteristics of Hollywood action movies. Full of shallow action scenes, pursuits and escape scenes, superficial love story, white and black, angel and evil characters. However what interests me the most is that all these ingredients have not changed over the past hundred years.

 

Mask Off: Señor Zorro

A pencil moustache, the long cape, a black mask and hat. In the hundred years that his image has inspired movie goers, Zorro has changed very little. Along with that, the messages and themes have stayed consistent with each new Zorro film and TV show.  

It all started in 1920 with the Douglas Fairbanks film The Mark of Zorro. Spanish for ‘fox,’ Zorro, the swashbuckling hero slies his way around his village making fools out of ill-willed noblemen and the unjust authority. Zorro’s objective is simple: do good for the people who need help. But what role does the Zorro’s other half Don Diego Vega play?

Vega stands in the middle of the moral spectrum. This contrast forces Zorro to fight not only Juan Ramon but also Don Diego. Vega’s personal agenda does not push for moral goodness. He is no romantic and not physically or emotionally driven. It is too simple to just assume that the nature of Vega’s character is a disguise so that the other characters do not believe that he is Zorro. Vega represents the contempt that everyone feels with themself. Zorro fights injustice, greed, and as the opening credits say, “Oppression.” But he also fights the people in society who take no action at all. Zorro’s character is much more appealing and exciting because he wants action and want to protect people. He even desires the girl. Behind all of this is the fact that Zorro wants what is morally right. Vega’s indolence is not just unappealing; it is morally wrong. In the end, what appears to be Vega the victor, is really Zorro without the cape.

While watching the film I struggled to place a date on when the story took place. The characters wore old clothes and lived in old homes. Even in 1920, Zorro was a ‘time period’ film. It took place one hundred years in the past. However, the time is not the focus of the film.  And just like the irrelevance of the period when the film takes place, when it comes to the role of Mexico, New Spain, or Latin America, the physical setting of Zorro is secondary to the importance of its message. It is less about the ‘exoticism’ that America views toward Latin America. More important are social messages about equality and injustice, greed and oppression. The issues that Zorro faces are timeless social problems. 1920’s America saw a great divide in social and economic classes. Zorro was fighting these problems then, and he still is now.  

The Mask of Zorro (1920)

The Mark of Zorro (1920) is a movie based in the serialized novel The Curse of Capistrano wrote by John McCulley in 1919, that tells the adventures of “Zorro”, a masked hero who protects the poor, and oppressed in the name of justice, in the Spanish California of the 19th Century.

Although the character Zorro, belongs to popular culture and can be seen superficially as an innocent representation of heroism and courage, the development of the narrative, the plot tensions and the resolution, reveal latent conflicts in the perception of the Hispanic World in the early 20th Century, from the US as well as indicate the role of man as an agent of change in the historical socio-political contexts.

Of the possible lectures of the film I want to draw attention to the following relations:

 

1) Hispanic American politics – injustice – oppression

2) Manliness – heroism

3) Aristocracy – liberation – indigenous people

 

It’s important to understand the deploy of the narrative in the movie, to notice that the historical time of the film is set previous to the Mexican-American war, in this way the situation of oppression, injustice corruption represented in the film are linked to a supposedly intrinsic form of seeing the political life in the Hispanic American world (military hierarchies, lawless governments, corrupt governors, etc.) that are similar to the representation made in Occident of the despotism in Asian territories.

The way of seeing the socio-political life in Hispanic America in the film is linked historically to the Manifest Destiny doctrine, this fact leads us to a conclusion implicit in the film: “If the people could not rule themselves according to the law in this land, they needed some kind of saviour” Historically, this saviour, from the historical context in which the film was produced, is the United States, so the movie and the narrative, from this point, serves as a form of justification of the occupation of the Mexican territories in the previous war.

Now, let’s put our attention to the character of Zorro (Don Diego Vega), he is a man, not an indigenous or a poor man of California, but a wealthy and educated heir with a recognized social status in the community. This fact tells us two important things about the perception of freedom from the popular culture at the moment: the first one is that liberation is a male issue, the role of women represented in Lolita is to be a “damsel in distress” that ultimately will be conquered by the hero; from this perspective the political implications of woman are hidden in the narrative of the film.

Something similar happens with the poor and indigenous people, they don’t have a voice, let’s notice for example that Bernardo, the close servant of Diego Vega that knows his double identity is mute; without a voice their possibilities of changing their circumstances are cancelled in the film and their destiny rely in the benevolence of the aristocracy represented in Zorro. It’s not casual that the chevaliers that support Zorro at the end of the movie are all members of a privileged class: “blood” “honour” and “tradition” (and we can easily include “church”) are the terms that they use to follow the enterprise. This fact shows us another perspective over Hispanic America indicated at the moment, that social justice was conceived as an aristocratic issue. From this point, to the acceptation of a new government seen as “just” with the Mexican-American war, we are just a few steps away.

 

¿Do you think that The Mask of Zorro serves in implicit way to justify the role of the United States in their previous war with Mexico, and ahead, with the Manifest Destiny doctrine over Latin America in the future?