Alton's Paradox

Nicolas Poppe

Description

Alton's Paradox builds upon extensive archival and primary research, but uses a single text as its point of departure—a 1934 article by the Hungarian American cinematographer John Alton in the Hollywood-published International Photographer. Writing from Argentina, Alton paradoxically argues of cine nacional, "The possibilities are enormous, but not until foreign technicians will take the matter in their hands and with foreign organization will there be local industry." Nicolas Poppe argues that Alton succinctly articulates a line of thought commonly held across Latin America during the early sound period but little explored by scholars: that foreign labor was pivotal to the rise of national film industries. In tracking this paradox from Hollywood to Mexico to Argentina and beyond, Poppe reconsiders a series of notions inextricably tied to traditional film historiography, including authorship, (dis)continuation, intermediality, labor, National Cinema, and transnationalism. Wide-angled views of national film industries complement close-up analyses of the work of José Mojica, Alex Phillips, Juan Orol, Ángel Mentasti, and Tito Davison.
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments

1. Alton's Paradox

2. Hollywood, City of Dreams: The First Spanish‑Language Film Industry

3. "The Biggest Revelation of Hispanic Cinema": José Mojica's Transnational Stardom

4. Mexico City Dreams: The Emergence of Latin America's Most Important Film Industry

5. "The Best We Have in This Forsaken Place": Cinematography and Collaboration in Alex Phillips's Films with Arcady Boytler and Fernando de Fuentes

6. "But only one, Juan Orol, is fundamentally different from the rest": Orolian Melodrama and cursilería in the 1930s

7. In the Studios of Buenos Aires: The Rise and Fall of Argentina's Film Industry

8. "The Primary Champion of National Film": Ángel Mentasti and the Invention of Argentina Sono Film

9. "A Man Expert in the Needs of the Set": Tito Davison, an Éminence grise in the Argentine Film Industry of the Late 1930s and Early 1940s

10. Foreign Film Workers and the Emergence of Industrial Sound Film in Latin America

Notes
Bibliography
Index

Sujets

• Film
• Electronic
• Caribbean
• Mexico
• History of the Americas
• Latin America
• South America
• Visual culture
• América del Sur
• Película fotográfica
• Latin American

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 01 septembre 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781438485058
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

Alton’s Paradox
SUNY series in Latin American Cinema

Ignacio M. Sánchez Prado and Leslie L. Marsh, editors
Alton’s Paradox
Foreign Film Workers and the Emergence of Industrial Cinema in Latin America
Nicolas Poppe
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2021 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY
www.sunypress.edu
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Name: Poppe, Nicolas, author.
Title: Alton’s paradox : foreign film workers and the emergence of industrial cinema in Latin America / Nicolas Poppe.
Description: Albany : State University of New York, [2021] | Series: SUNY series in Latin American cinema | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021016712 (print) | LCCN 2021016713 (ebook) | ISBN 9781438485034 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781438485058 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Motion picture industry—Latin America—History—20th century. | Foreign workers—Latin America—History—20th century.
Classification: LCC PN1993.5.L3 P67 2021 (print) | LCC PN1993.5.L3 (ebook) | DDC 791.4309809/04—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021016712
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021016713
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For Erin
Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
1 Alton’s Paradox
2 Hollywood, City of Dreams: The First Spanish-Language Film Industry
3 “The Biggest Revelation of Hispanic Cinema”: José Mojica’s Transnational Stardom
4 Mexico City Dreams: The Emergence of Latin America’s Most Important Film Industry
5 “The Best We Have in This Forsaken Place”: Cinematography and Collaboration in Alex Phillips’s Films with Arcady Boytler and Fernando de Fuentes
6 “But only one, Juan Orol, is fundamentally different from the rest”: Orolian Melodrama and cursilería in the 1930s
7 In the Studios of Buenos Aires: The Rise and Fall of Argentina’s Film Industry
8 “The Primary Champion of National Film”: Ángel Mentasti and the Invention of Argentina Sono Film
9 “A Man Expert in the Needs of the Set”: Tito Davison, an Éminence grise in the Argentine Film Industry of the Late 1930s and Early 1940s
10 Foreign Film Workers and the Emergence of Industrial Sound Film in Latin America
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Illustrations 1.1 John Alton shooting a scene for Los tres berretines . Luis Arata, one of the film’s stars, sits upon a ladder. 1.2 Alton supervises the makeup of Miguel Ángel Lauri during the filming of Los tres berretines . 1.3 From the American Society of Cinematographers collection of the Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. 1.4 Opening sequence of Madreselva . 1.5 Between scenes on the set of Loco lindo . From left: Agustín Irusta, Luis Sandrini, John Alton, Anita Jordán, Miguel Paulino Tato (Néstor), Gumer Barreiros, and Arturo S. Mom. Mentasti might not be in the photograph, but his presence would have been undeniable. 2.1 Ramón Novarro, center, directing Conchita Montenegro and Leonor de Samaniego, dressed in nun’s habit, in Sevilla de mis amores (vers. Call of the Flesh , 1930). Actress Rosita Ballesteros, director’s assistant Carlos Borcosque, and cinematographer Merritt B. Gerstad look on. 2.2 Cast and crew of Cuesta abajo , including Carlos Gardel, with Franciso J. Ariza, chief editor of Cine-Mundial , August 1934. 3.1 José Mojica, front center, undated. Others unidentified. 3.2 Mojica in front of a painting of his mother. 3.3 Caricature of Mojica by Alberto Carreño. 3.4 Fox Film Corp. Spanish-language department (ca. 1932). 3.5 News of the premiere of El rey de los gitanos . 3.6 Gabriel Navarro heralds La cruz y la espada as the beginning of a new era. 3.7 Advertisement in Rio de Janeiro for La cruz y la espada , Correio da Manhã , March 25, 1934. 3.8 One of Mojica’s most iconic scenes as a movie star. 3.9 Mojica’s new habit. 4.1 Mapy Cortés dancing with Cuban musician and choreographer Sergio Orta. 5.1 The cast and crew of La mujer del puerto , perhaps Phillips’s most well-known film. 5.2 Boytler and Phillips talk with film journalist Roberto Cantú Robert on the set of La mujer del puerto . 5.3 La mujer del puerto makes possible a new school of Mexican cinema. 5.4 One of the most iconic images of Mexican cinema: Rosario (Andrea Palma) smoking a cigarette on the street in La mujer del puerto . 5.5 Rosario (Andrea Palma) and Alberto (Domingo Soler) before they become conscious of their misfortune in La mujer del puerto . 5.6 Phillips’s suggestive lighting in Celos . 5.7 Phillips’s lighting in El capitán aventurero directed attention to the historical melodrama’s mise-en-scène and its star, José Mojica. 5.8 Alex Phillips filming with Fernando de Fuentes directing El tigre de Yautepec . Published in Revista de Revistas , the photograph was taken by Gabriel Figueroa. 5.9 Contrastive lighting is used selectively in El tigre de Yautepec , especially interiors. 5.10 Promotional still showing Phillips’s highly adaptive and expressive lighting in Cruz Diablo . 5.11 Lupe Vélez’s Lupe about to be kissed by Arturo de Córdova’s Juancho in La Zandunga . Even though it is a foto fija, the bright, high-key lighting is typical of the film. 5.12 Doña Bárbara (María Félix) discusses machinations with Melquiades (Miguel Inclán). 6.1 Juan Orol (Roberto Sosa) and his wife Dinorah Judith (Fernanda Romero) on the Lago de Chapultepec in El mundo fantástico de Juan Orol (dir. Sebastián del Amo, 2012). 6.2 Father and son gather around the radio in Madre querida , listening to an announcement reminding children tomorrow is Mother’s Day. 6.3 Surrounded by male loved ones, Juanito (Antonio Liceaga) heals from the loss of his mother in Madre querida . 6.4 Advertisement for Madre querida . 6.5 Juan Orol’s edifying introduction to El calvario de una esposa. 6.6 Orol preparing to bullfight on the set of El calvario de una esposa . 6.7 Advertisement for El calvario de una esposa . 6.8 Promotional photograph from El derecho y el deber showing Chucho (Juan Orol) and Pancho (Leopoldo Ortín), his trusted righthand man. 6.9 Even though Orol draws from Allá en el Rancho Grande in sequences such as this, El derecho y el deber is a distinctly Orolian melodrama. 6.10 Susana (Mercedes Moreno), Griselda (Consuelo Moreno), and Fernando (Juan José Martínez Casado) gather around the crib in Eterna mártir . 6.11 As Jaime (Manuel Noriega) stands, Griselda (Consuelo Moreno) shares a moment with her unknowing son, Carlitos (Antonio Liceaga). Soon, their truth emerges. 6.12 Juan Orol (Roberto Sosa) passes out handkerchiefs at Madre querida ’s premiere in El mundo fantástico de Juan Orol (dir. Sebastián del Amo, 2012). 8.1 Portrait of Ángel Mentasti. 8.2 Advertisement insert for Tango! 8.3 Portrait of Ángel Mentasti. 8.4 Profile of Mentasti. 8.5 Advertisement promoting Argentina Sono Film’s releases in 1936. 8.6 Scenes from the premiere of Puerto Nuevo . 8.7 Argentina Sono Film advertises its upcoming 1937 film season. 8.8 John Alton, Luis César Amadori, and others during production of El pobre Pérez . 8.9 Pepe Arias gives a speech in honor of Ángel Mentasti at the cornerstone-laying ceremony for Argentina Sono Film’s new studios in San Isidro. 9.1 Portrait of Tito Davison taken by Annemarie Heinrich, a German-born naturalized Argentine photographer. 9.2 Davison’s Kent Marlowe being processed into the prison system in El presidio . 9.3 On the set of the feature Sons of the Desert (dir. William A. Seiter, 1933), Davison joins its comic stars for a promotional photograph. 9.4 Davison among other figures of Argentina’s film industry, some more important than others. In foreground from left: Tito Davison (first, with hand in light overcoat) and his wife, the actress June Marlowe (second, with dark hat); the singer and actress Dora Davis (third, with fur coat and geometric hat); the actor Vicente Padula (fifth, with mustache); the director Carlos Borcosque (sixth, with hand in dark overcoat); and the actress Anita Lang (eighth, with fur coat and thin hat). 9.5 Pages of the libro cinematográfico of En el viejo Buenos Aires belonging to assistant director Alicia Miguez Saavedra. 9.6 On the set of Las de Barranco . Seated with his hand on his chin, Davison directs Olinda Bozán and Tulia Ciámpoli. Many of the film’s technicians surround them. 9.7 Tito Davison, as well as many others, in the background. In the foreground, Libertad Lamarque is being interviewed by Carmelo Santiago.
Acknowledgments
As I grew into my teens, I eventually realized that the only time of the day I could be by myself at home was late into the night. Growing up without cable in San Antonio, Texas, my minimal options for entertainment forced me to be creative. During the school year, this was less of a worry, as I would usually watch the Late Show with David Letterman or Saturday Night Live . Or, maybe, reruns of Cheers or a syndicated show such as Xena: Warrior Princess . In the summer, I was dulled not only by the oppressive summer heat, but also an excess of free time. Reading proved difficult; I fell asleep. Playing video games eventually bored me a