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A movie about a somehow different Peruvian history

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inca=chinitial
User ID: 809301
11/3/2009 7:11 AM
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A movie about a somehow different Peruvian history

Quote

First watch the trailer about the Bridges of San Luis Rey:
[link to www.youtube.com]
Now read a bit of the novel:
[link to www.tcnj.edu]

In spite of the fact the falling of the bridge was invented, it’s true though the existence of such bridges made of ropes all over Incas’ land. About the film I ignore how was the director able to gather so many good actors and yet ruin the movie to such boredom level? It needs a good editing to say the least maybe starting with episodes of the second part of the film.

Thorton Wilder's novel of ruminations about the quality of love and the extremes to which it can be played out is more of a philosophical meditation than a story and this is probably the reason many people feel upended by Mary McGuckian's film, a project she both adapted for the screen and directed. If this film seems a bit on the static side there is a reason: the tale is a testimony before court by Brother Juniper (Gabriel Byrne) about his investigation into the deaths of 5 people when the rope bridge of San Luis Rey outside Lima, Peru collapsed. Brother Juniper stands before the Archbishop of Peru (Robert De Niro) and the Viceroy of Peru (the always excellent Lebanese actor, F. Murray Abraham) and poses the question as to whether the incident was an act of God or just a simple accident. Robert DeNiro’s Archbishop is a disastrous addition. The part is overblown and DeNiro overplays it with a vengeance. The movie would be infinitely better if every one of DeNiro’s long speeches was cut and the archbishop remained a bit player, as he is in the novel. DeNiro and Al Pacino lost the stamina decades ago and now overplay everything whether using that stupid smiling gesture or shouting. They became mimics of themselves. DeNiro is as bad as Sean Penn in All the King's Men or him and de Niro in that priest comedy, argh...in scenes with Keitel being it very N.Y. or Saturday Night Live-like. The script should’ve never being adapted by the director. They should’ve given it to somebody else. A movie is not a film for Christ’s sake!

In order to present his case he has researched the lives of the five who died (mentioning those five would ruin the suspense of the story). We learn about The Marquesa (Kathy Bates) whose daughter has departed for Spain to marry well (the Marquesa is starving for the love of her estranged daughter); the kindhearted Abbess (Geraldine Chaplin, Chaplin’s daughter who is fluent in Spanish as well) who gives refuge to the unwanted including identical twin men Manuel and Esteban (the mute Mark and Michael Polish) and Pepita (Adriana Domínguez). We also meet Uncle Pio (Harvey Keitel) who serves as a harlequin for the court and raises Camila Villegas AKA La Perichola (Pilar López de Ayala) who loves the stage and the accoutrements more than she loves Uncle Pio. Actually in Catalan accent somehow similar to French, the sound of that pet name is Perricholi and means half-breed bitch.

Through the kindness of the Abbess, Pepita is loaned to the Marquesa's household as a surrogate daughter, the twins share their devotion to the court until a tragedy separates them, La Perichola is impregnated by the Viceroy and banned from the city (she raises her little boy, hiding from the world because of her post-partum smallpox disfigurement), and Uncle Pio eventually assumes responsibility of the child out of fatherly love. Five of these people who are true to love's power cross the fateful bridge. Brother Juniper is condemned (and killed) by the Inquisition for his treason and the meaning of the story is revealed.

The cast is heavy on big names and while they make the most out of the stiff script, they never really touch us the way Wilder's novel characters did. But the trappings of the film are grand and accurately portrayed, the scenery is beautiful, and the costumes are some of the finest period costumes in many a film. This is one of those films that requires careful concentration from the audience, a willingness to not be disturbed by the at times static proscenium stage feeling of the setting, but the rewards of understanding the message are great. There are some fine performances here and the film is definitely worth seeing. It is more demanding than most films - and that is just fine! There are neither Spanish nor Peruvian actors (reminds me both the novel and the film Celestine Prophecy supposedly set in Peruvian landscape).

The movie we are dealing was filmed in Spain somewhere near Madrid and Málaga and since I know Peru very well I have to say it certainly looks like Peruvian territory. But the churches were different, the Peruvian Flamenco-Italian Baroque façades are more exquisite than the ones we watch in the film.

There was an old black and white 1944 version with Ukrainian actress Alla Nazimova:
[link to www.youtube.com]

inca=chinitial
User ID: 809301 (OP)
11/3/2009 8:07 AM

Re: A movie about a somehow different Peruvian history	Quote
[link to www.newline.com] [link to cusack.norumbega.co.uk] [link to cusack.norumbega.co.uk] [link to images.allmoviephoto.com] [link to images.allmoviephoto.com] [link to images.allmoviephoto.com] [link to ci.i.uol.com.br]

inca=chinitial
User ID: 809414
11/3/2009 10:08 AM

Re: A movie about a somehow different Peruvian history	Quote
The cast out actress with smallpox... let's remember the story of that disease: [link to dermatology.about.com] The priest condemned by Catholic Church to write his thoughts about natural causes or God's acts.....

inca=chinitial
User ID: 809414
11/3/2009 10:11 AM

Re: A movie about a somehow different Peruvian history	Quote
Forget the idea about Maya civilization leaving their ruins in Peru ... [link to en.wikipedia.org] .... interesting they associate vegetarianism with the idea of connection with divine....

inca=chinitial
User ID: 809414
11/3/2009 5:29 PM

Re: A movie about a somehow different Peruvian history

Quote

In real life it was Manuel Cayetano de Amat y Junient, Viceroy of Perú from 1761 to 1766, was born in Barcelona in 1700. As Viceroy in Perú he met a famous actress named Micaela Villegas Hurtado, called Miquita.

They began an open and long-lasting affair and a man believed to be their child, Manuel d'Amat y Villegas, signed the Declaration of Peruvian Independence on 28 July 1820.

The Viceroys pet name for Micaela was Perichola. No one is certain of the origin of the name but according to legend, the Viceroy, during one of their many quarrels, called her perra-chola (literally half-breed bitch) which, in his Catalan accent (which resembles French) sounded like perrichola.

The affair ended when the Viceroy returned to Spain. La Perichola entered the convent of the Carmelite nuns in Lima, where she died on 16 May 1819. The life of Micaela Villegas has been the subject of several works including the opera La Perichole by Jacques Offenbach and the film Le carrosse dor (The Golden Carriage) de J. Renoir.

BTW, Murray Abraham is American but his parents are Italian/Syrian.

Dances Subscriber

User ID: 809713
11/3/2009 5:38 PM

Re: A movie about a somehow different Peruvian history	Quote
Thankyou inca=chinitial - will watch "I am a emancipated octave of Creation that has expressed itself in holy and unholy ways." Create your own Craft.

inca=chinitial
User ID: 809414
11/3/2009 6:03 PM

Re: A movie about a somehow different Peruvian history

Quote

A short bullfighting scene reminded me the Plazo de Acho in Lima. Though I’ve been there in the arena I never wanted to see the bloodthirsty spectacle which happens every October in Lima at the same time the Catholic Church created the procession of the Purple Christ Lord of Miracles idol and thousands carry the icon wearing purple clothing:

[link to en.wikipedia.org]

[link to upload.wikimedia.org]

[link to www.nancarrow-webdesk.com]

[link to 3.bp.blogspot.com]

[link to en.wikipedia.org]

[link to farm1.static.flickr.com]

inca=chinitial
User ID: 818960
11/15/2009 10:54 AM

Re: A movie about a somehow different Peruvian history	Quote
[link to www.youtube.com] [link to www.youtube.com]

inca=chinitial
User ID: 823704
11/21/2009 5:33 PM

Re: A movie about a somehow different Peruvian history	Quote
[link to www.youtube.com]

inca=chinitial
User ID: 823704
11/21/2009 11:59 PM

Re: A movie about a somehow different Peruvian history	Quote

Anonymous Coward
User ID: 765783
11/22/2009 12:35 AM

Re: A movie about a somehow different Peruvian history	Quote
Interesting

inca=chinitial
User ID: 824413
11/22/2009 6:47 AM

Re: A movie about a somehow different Peruvian history	Quote

inca=chinitial
User ID: 824413
11/22/2009 6:59 AM

Re: A movie about a somehow different Peruvian history	Quote
Decades B4 Mel Gibson did his Braveheart version of William Wallace, Peruvians showed something similar in their Tupac Amaru story (the punishment done by English people was similar to the one executed by Spaniards and Portuguese leaders with Brazilian hero, Tiradentes):

inca=chinitial
User ID: 824413
11/22/2009 7:06 AM

Re: A movie about a somehow different Peruvian history	Quote
And, of course, the REAL inspiration behind Spielberg's Raiders of the Lost Ark was Charlton Heston wearing a Fedora hat and using a similar light trick with a golden medallion (just like Indiana Jones in Peruvian jungle at the beginning of the movie and the mimic in Egyptian chamber):

inca=chinitial
User ID: 824413
11/22/2009 7:07 AM

Re: A movie about a somehow different Peruvian history	Quote

inca=chinitial
User ID: 824413
11/22/2009 8:47 AM

Re: A movie about a somehow different Peruvian history	Quote
[link to www.godlikeproductions.com]

Anonymous Coward
User ID: 519348
11/22/2009 9:33 AM

Re: A movie about a somehow different Peruvian history	Quote
. . . wake me when it's over.

inca=chinitial
User ID: 824413
11/23/2009 9:23 AM

Re: A movie about a somehow different Peruvian history	Quote
It's over. WAKE UP!

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