Quick note re Q. Olin blog...

LK here. You might not have noticed, but both B and LK are contributors to Q-Olin. It just took B a little time to warm up to the idea. The Padre Amaro review is written by B. No, LK has not been reading fifteenth-century [Spanish] literature.

Movie: El crimen del padre Amaro

Gael García Bernal has again displayed his calm and powerful acting style portraying the title character of El crimen del padre Amaro (2000), a story that probes into some of the most shameful secrets of a church in a small Mexican town. On his journey to his new post, things take a bad turn for him and his travel companions, and a resulting act of kindness by Padre Amaro will contrast sharply with the rest of the events in the film. After getting established, we soon learn about the romantic, political, and spiritual lives of some of the characters that closely interact with each other: the young and appealing Amelia (Ana Claudia Talancón), the perhaps corrupt P. Benito Díaz (Sancho García), the renegade P. Natalio Pérez (Damián Alcázar), the idealistic journalist Rubén (Andrés Montiel), and the mysterious and creepy Dionisia (Luisa Huertas). Although from the beginning of his time in the new town, it is clear that P. Amaro's immediate superior, P. Benito, is corrupt in some ways, we are introduced soon enough to questionable choices made by each priest, and each has justified their choices to themselves as consistent with their faith. While the audience might initially expect to be faced with good versus bad and right against wrong, ultimately we are left with morally ambiguous characters in which both admirable and deplorable traits reside.

This highly controversial film (there were attempts to ban it in Mexico), is based on the Portuguese writer José María Eça de Queirós, O Crime do Padre Amaro (1875) novel and is certainly a must-see that will have you debating long after the final credits. Although there is no need to have a rudimentary knowledge of Catholicism to enjoy the film, some of the finer points might escape the uninitiated (or specific questions can be consulted here or you can find a more general overview here). And while the film is quite powerful and some of the scenes could be seen as sacrilegious by some, there is also a wonderful portrait of one of the most celebrated and studied female icons of Spanish literature: Celestina.

While watching the film I could not help but recall Pármeno's description of Celestina in Francisco de Rojas's Tragicomedia de Calixto y Melibea (1499) (which you can read here, by the way) and see how Eça de Queirós quite possibly was aware of Spain's famed alcahueta, a semi-witch, semi-procuress character of the above mentioned text who becomes more prominent than the title characters themselves.

Religious and political issues aside, this is a great film. The shots of the small town where most of the action takes place, Gael García's performance, and the characterization of one of Spanish literature's icons will give you enough to want to see it again. Ok, maybe that last reason only applies to Spanish Renaissance and Baroque literature nerds, but the film is worth seeing even if you don't pay attention to Dionisia or care to know where Eça de Queirós (or would that be an adaptation by the director?) got some inspiration to develop her character.

NM visitors - Maui, part one

On Sunday, July 30 we all flew to Maui. I was the lucky one—my bag went to Lihue (Kaui) instead of Kahului Airport (Maui). We were flying on the new Go airlines and apparently just two days later they would have their electronic baggage checking and tracking up and running. In the meantime, it seemed I was not alone in having a problem as there were quite a few other people in line filing their reports. Paranoid traveler that I am, I had the bare necessities, but by the time my bag arrived at the condo late morning the next day, I was getting a little tired of my outfit.

The most amazing thing about my luggage misadventure was that I’d (insanely) chosen to wear a white t-shirt to travel and…I made it 24 hours with nary a spill! The real nuisance was that we did have to wait until the next day to go snorkeling as all my gear was in my checked bag. That was all right though, as we had plenty to do finding the closest place to get a drink and dinner. We found a place with giant beers and decent “Mexican” food (Fred’s).
We watched the sunset from the patio (lanai!).
With our giant beers.
(I know, you want to see the giant beers, but we were faint with hunger and thirst and forgot our cameras for this outing.)

We stayed at a timeshare at Maui Hill in Kihei. Our friends have done this sort of thing before, but it was the first time for the Qs. It was amazing. We stayed for a whole week for what you could stay anywhere else for three nights. Two bedrooms, two baths, and a full kitchen. Our unit was spacious, nicely located so we could see the ocean from the lanai (that's the top photo), and very close to lots of very good restaurants and to a number of excellent beaches and snorkeling spots. The condos have a pool, which we did use, and a concierge service that books tours and whatnot. They had barbecues which we did not use (even though our friend, Burpy, is an accomplished grill-meister). The tennis courts were being resurfaced, but of course the Qs could not understand why anyone would play tennis if you are within spitting distance of the ocean (don’t ask how we know that) so it wasn’t too much of a letdown. There was shuffleboard as well, but there were no takers for this either.

The highlight of July 31 was that it was our friend’s birthday. He turned 36. We began the celebration by, you guessed it, going to the beach. (That is what you guessed, right?) Then, the resort had free mai tais at the pool (photo of B and LK with poolside mai tais above), and then we went tearing out to try to get in line at Sansei in time for the 50-percent-off dinners.

We’re talking sushi here (for everyone but barfy me), so half price is a big motivator. We got into a line that looked very long, but as we are all the optimistic sort, we thought we’d stick it out and see how it went. We wait and wait and the line is creeping toward the front door as folks get seated. A host comes out and says that the party in front of us is the last that will get seated. But, he tells us, there is a chance that seats will open up at the sushi bar, so we figure we might as well wait a little longer. I mean, 50 percent off! So, here we are, standing in line, expecting to get shined, and we get to the front of the line and here’s where our buddy’s birthday luck kicked in: We became the last table to be seated!! Dinner was ab fab, and we would have thought the same even if it wasn’t half off. Sansei in Kihei. We highly recommend it. Even my non-sushi veggie dinner was excellent. (Although I learned a valuable lesson—don’t eat fettuccine with chopsticks. It’s too heavy or something. And if you have a sauce it is kind of splashy when you drop the noodles...)

This seems like enough for one posting, I think. Maui, part two, coming soon.

Movie: Por la libre

Por la libre (2000) is the story of two cousins in Mexico City who swipe the ashes of their grandfather from their bickering family and take them to be scattered in Acapulco as he had requested. In the process, they not only learn about themselves and each other (which is, of course, always the case in road trip movies), but they also learn many surprising things about their grandfather.

The title is a reference to the choice in Mexico of taking the toll road or taking the free highway (la libre). The English title is Dust to Dust. Who decides these things? To be fair, the translators didn't have much to work with here. The original title is already a stretch--the highway itself is a very minor plot point and it takes a real effort to make the concept fit the movie as a whole.

Anyway. Shortly after seeing this movie, I heard Slate's Explainer podcast for "How much will my ashes weigh?" where they tell us that our "cremains" generally weigh

About 5 pounds for an adult. The weight can vary from 3 pounds all the way up to 10, depending on the size and density of the deceased's bones.

Having this new little factoid under my belt, I suddenly saw many of the plot points in the movie as extremely far-fetched. The most ridiculous, is that at one point the cousins discover that the ashes in the urn have been swapped out for fritos. Now, before they discover this, they have been carrying it around for a while. Surely they would have noticed a 5-lbs or more difference in the weight of the urn!

I don't mean to give the impression that this diminished my enjoyment of the movie. I still highly recommend it. The final verdict is that we recommend this to most anyone. A very good film.

GROMS

Regarding the link to this blog under the "GROMS" heading on friend Doc Mara's blog:
I feel it is necessary to clarify that I do not now, nor have I ever had any affiliation with the Global Register of Migratory Species, although I do support their work.