Three
films I've recently come across: this one is Argentine, with one Argentine and one
German/Argentine to follow.
Contursi
is a big name in tango lyrics: it was Pascual Contursi who met up
with a young singer called Carlos Gardel in Violettas in 1917 in
Buenos Aires, and sang him his latest song, Mi Noche Triste. Gardel
recorded it, and it made him famous. It's regarded as as the first
tango song. (These days you might not be allowed into Violettas with
a guitar, and almost certainly you wouldn't be welcome to work
through your latest song with a friend, but you can get the best
chocolate mousse in town and a pot of green tea to go with it. &
you can enjoy a wonderful Art Deco interior.)
Pascual
Contursi's
son, José
María Contursi,
was
a
prolific tango lyricist who
wrote the
song called Gricel.
The
lyrics
and a translation
are here,
and this is
probably
the
best-known
version,
Troilo with Fiorentino.
It's a tortured song: the poet has seduced a woman, regrets it and
can't forget her. According to his daughter and friends, Contursi
always maintained that Gricel was a fictional character, and
the
story behind
the song was imagined.
But
after his wife's death in the early 1960s Contursi
asked his daughter's permission to bring someone into his house...
and it was Gricel.
The
song quite definitely was not a fiction. Contursi
had
met Gricel when he was in his mid-twenties and she was a beautiful
16-year old on a visit to Buenos Aires, around
1936.
There
is a photo of them from around this time. She returned home to the
hills around Córdoba, and he returned to his wife, but they kept in
touch, and he visited Córdoba
a
few times.
Then in 1942 he sent her the song, Gricel. It's
a
sad outpouring of love and regret, and as
he titled
it
with
the name of the woman herself it
was personal,
and
also
a
message. She married in 1949 and had a daughter, but her husband
abandoned her. In 1962 Contursi's wife passed away, and
in
1967 he and Gricel married. He
died
just
five
years later.
The
trailer for Gricel: un amor en tiempo de tango (2012:
dir. Jorge Leandro Colás)
is on YouTube,
and it
includes
extracts from interviews
with Contursi's daughter and with one
of his
friends.
However, instead of being just a remarkable documentary of an era
of tango history, the film uses a framing device: Pablo
Basualdo,
a lead
singer
with the Teatro Colon company, wants to make an opera around the
story of Gricel,
a
story which
might well
have
inspired a Puccini or a Busoni.
The film follows him as he researches the story and interviews people who knew Contursi, and as he sings
extracts of the opera. He's
a great singer, but the music doesn't come from a tango background
which I thought is
a pity, as a tango opera on the story of Gricel could be a really
interesting project. Perhaps
the entire opera is in the full film: it's impossible to tell from
the trailer. However, the cast list on IMDb
shows
that a lot of people talked to camera, so I hope the film is more
documentary than opera, and I certainly look forward to seeing it. It
doesn't appear to have a DVD release yet.
Gricel
herself passed away in 1994. This must be a photo of her late in
life, as it's said the dog survived her.
(Information
and photos from Todotango.)
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