LA BARRACA [DVD] [1945]

After serving his apprenticeship as a screenwriter and assistant director, Gavaldón took on his first fully realized project as a director with this adaptation of an 1895 novel by the popular Spanish writer Vicente Blasco Ibánez (Blood and Sand). Though set in Spain, this story of an immigrant family’s struggles to establish their own small farm was close enough to the concerns of Mexico’s tradition of rural melodramas to become an immediate popular and critical success.

In recent years, as part of a collaborative project, the Film Library of the UNAM and the AMACC (Mexican Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences) have joined efforts to restore and preserve Mexico´s national film collection. La barraca is one of five films that have been restored so far. (MOMA article)

#21 on the List of “The 100 best movies of Mexican cinema” (SOMOS)

The Mexican Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in conjunction with TV UNAM presented to the public the film La Barraca, completely restored and which was filmed in 1944 and stands out for having been the first to receive several Ariel Awards in our country in 1947.

The film features the performances of the first actor Domingo Soler and Anita Blanch and after a process of preservation through its digital restoration it was possible to have a quality product, free of cuts, errors in sound and most importantly, a clarity and sharpness as if the tape had been filmed with the most advanced modern systems. A real gem.

The Cineteca Nacional opened its doors to welcome this era to a story filmed in black and white and that despite not being a Mexican story, it had a national cast that managed to make this film directed by Roberto Gavaldón the most successful of 1 946, but it was until the following year that the respective awards and recognitions could be awarded to this production.

Ernesto Contreras, director of the Mexican Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMAC), commented for this newspaper that next year it is expected to have a list of other important films that are in the process of its recovery and restoration.

“We already have three films that for their importance have been restored and are The Woman of the Port, The Ghost Train and The Iron Fist, which, next to La Barraca will join a list that next year will be re-released in the National Cinemateca within a special cycle so that the audience can admire again as if it were their premiere, these tapes,” he said.

Finally, personalities of this melodrama were present, among them the actor Jaime Calpet, only survivor of the original cast, because when he participated in this film he was only five years old, reason as he explained, does not remember practically no details of the production or anecdotes about the actors.

“I have the film in my house and I know I worked on this film because my parents told me several times, but unfortunately at 77 years old I have no memories of my own,” he confessed. (El Sol de Mexico article)

Format  DVD

Language  English

Aspect Ratio  1.33:1

Year  1945

Color  B/W

UPC  089859800023