FLOR DE DURAZNO (Patria Film, 1917)
Que tal: For years I have been able to read about lots and lots of films, some of them in restorations attempts. Films which are a mistery for me since they are never going to reach Argentina because they end in archival shelf simply because nobady has imagination to market them around the world. While less and less people care for silent films, this movies are getting hard to locate, even in pirate video versions. I always believe that with inteligence, rather with money (although it IS important to have funds!), a comercial strategy could be developed in order to have audiences demanding for old films again in movie theaters. Because no matter what kind digital television standard we will have to face in some future, the experience of watching a film in a movie theater will never be replaced. Those digital things are developed with one goal in mind, to reduce costs... read to cause unemployment. And with no jobs I think that we will be able to watch and listen analogical TV and radio broadcastings. Yet, many films (some of them very good) despite the technological changeovers will continue to be unavailable for viewing, if they are not lost, simply because the industry believes that they wont make any money with them. If James Cameron's TITANIC was a big box office success it was simply because they obviously put more money in advertising and pseudo journalistic research rather than in the film itself. What could happen if they follow the same politics for a reissue of, for instance, THE WHITE SISTER? All this just came to my mind because I was able to watch, in a five dollar VHS, a silent film that nobady of you will ever find in your nearer video store: FLOR DE DURAZNO, an Argentinean 1917 production. It is considered by some ignorants as an unremarkable film except for the fact that it marked the film debut of Carlos Gardel, even for his best historian (Miguel Angel Morena). The version I was able to watch is not the original print but rather a later reissue. The visual quality is frankly horrible but the biggest flaw is that it does has no titles which makes almost uncomprehensible. While the quality of the images is virtually impossible to restore, the titles problem should be something easier to solve. But this is not going to happen. And you end forced to insult people for actually act with incompetence (the video also features two logos in both sides of the upper part of the screen). Their first crime, however, was they decided not to spend U$S 500 for an hour of a good telecine in order to give it a better look. This is the major mistake of the Argentinean Film Industry. Yet FLOR DE DURAZNO is not a bad film. It's a heavy melodramatic version of the novel of the same title written by Gustavo Martínez Zuviría (as Hugo Wast). The acting is quite good for 1917, it was very well produced and, while most of it is hard to follow without the titles, it features lots of interesting flashbacks and a handful of interesting optical tricks. Most of it was filmed on location exactly on the same places of the novel. Thanks to Gardel the film exists and is available. On its time it was a major box office success, well received by the few critics who were here at the time (film journalism as we know it today began around 1924). When the movie reached its 500 exhibition, the filmakers made a festival with important artist of the time. Too bad that no film festival will ever screen it. If I prove wrong, at least demand titles! In order to end this post in an appropiate manner here are the credits for this film, which you will not find them in the Internet Movie Database or anywhere else:
And, yes, reinstate Carlos Gardel scenes and song in THE BIG BROADCAST OF 1936 (Paramount, 1936). Without him, since the scenes exits, the film is worthless. Saludos desde Peludópolis JORGE FINKIELMAN
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