La calandria (1933 film)

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La calandria
Directed by Fernando de Fuentes
Release date
  • 1933 (1933)
CountryMexico
Language Spanish

La calandria (The Lark/The Canary [N 1] ) is a 1933 Mexican film. It was directed by Fernando de Fuentes. [1]

Contents

It is based on a novel by Rafael Delgado. [2]

Plot

Alberto, a rich landlord, is forcing his attention on Carmen (nicknamed La calandria), who recently lost her mother. But she is in love with Gabriel.

Cast

Production

The film was shot in the México Film studios from 8 July 1933 onwards. [3]

A "tragic love story", it is one of the films made by de Fuentes in an intense period of creativity in the early 1930s, [4] these films being called "all exceptional works of the early sound period." [5] The film has also been described as "a traditionalist and provincial melodrama." [6] [7] It is also one of the Mexican films "set in the time of the nineteenth-century hacienda system" and revolving around the character of a charro. [8]

Release

La calandria was produced by Bustillo Orillo through Hispano Mexicano Cinematográfica [9] [10] and released under the banner of Azteca Films. [11] The film premiered in the United States in San Antonio. [12]

Reception

The film, considered an "impeccable adaptation of a costumbrista novel by Rafael Delgado", [13] established the reputation of de Fuentes as a "good director of genre films". [14] A review in the New York Times noted the "dark beauty of Carmen Guerrero". [15]

Among his own production, it was one of the films that de Fuentes loved best. [16]

Notes

  1. The word technically refers to the Chalk-browed mockingbird but English sources give other translations.

References

  1. "The Lark". TVGuide.com. Retrieved 19 February 2025.
  2. Wilt, David E. (17 October 2024). The Mexican Filmography, 1916 through 2001. McFarland. ISBN   978-1-4766-0430-5.
  3. Riera, Emilio García (1992). Historia documental del cine mexicano (in Spanish). Universidad de Guadaljara. ISBN   978-968-895-343-3.
  4. Berg, Charles Ramírez (1 September 2015). The Classical Mexican Cinema: The Poetics of the Exceptional Golden Age Films. University of Texas Press. ISBN   978-1-4773-0805-9.
  5. Elena, Alberto; López, Marina Díaz (24 March 2004). The Cinema of Latin America. Columbia University Press. ISBN   978-0-231-50194-1.
  6. Hershfield, Joanne; Maciel, David R. (1 November 1999). Mexico's Cinema: A Century of Film and Filmmakers. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. ISBN   978-0-585-24110-4.
  7. Biltereyst, Daniel; Gennari, Daniela Treveri (20 November 2014). Moralizing Cinema: Film, Catholicism, and Power. Routledge. ISBN   978-1-134-66831-1.
  8. Avila, Jacqueline (2019). Cinesonidos: Film Music and National Identity During Mexico's Época de Oro. Oxford University Press. ISBN   978-0-19-067130-3.
  9. Alfaro, Eduardo de la Vega (9 April 2024). La Revolución traicionada: dos ensayos sobre literatura, cine y censura (in Spanish). UNAM, Escuela Nacional de Artes Cinematográficas. ISBN   978-607-30-5887-2.
  10. El Cine gráfico: semanario ilustrado (in Spanish). 1945.
  11. Singer, Michael (2002). Film Directors. Lone Eagle Pub. ISBN   978-1-58065-043-4.
  12. Agrasánchez, Rogelio (2006). Mexican Movies in the United States: A History of the Films, Theaters, and Audiences, 1920-1960. McFarland & Company. ISBN   978-0-7864-2545-7.
  13. Brunetta, Gian Piero (1999). Storia del cinema mondiale (in Italian). Einaudi. ISBN   978-88-06-14530-9.
  14. Paranaguá, Paulo Antonio; Artes (Mexico), Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las; Institute, British Film (1995). Mexican Cinema. British Film Institute. ISBN   978-0-85170-515-6.
  15. The New York Times Film Reviews. The New York Times. 1932.
  16. "Fernando de Fuentes Carrau - Director de cine". DDCM. Retrieved 19 February 2025.