Customer Reviews

Deseada

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This is one of the more representative works from screen legend, Dolores Del Rio. It is based on an old warhorse play, so you have to put the whole thing into both cultural and historical perspectives. In this opus, Ms Del Rio plays the older Mexican sister of a young maiden promised to marry handsome Spanish leading man, Jorge Mistral. Of, course, as you might suspect, Del Rio and Mistral fall hard for one another with dire consequences. The story is stunningly photographed in black and white by the gifted cinematographer, Alex Phillips and has the sure directorial hand from master, Roberto Gavaldon. The film deals a lot with coming to grips with European and native customs, with long sequences of rituals and folkloric music. Unfortunately, there are no subtitles and there is another problem: the idea of abject self-sacrifice may be hard to accept to some members of a contemporary audience used to the self-centered behavior of reality show contestants, so beware. Otherwise, this is indeed a classic that has endured and belongs in the collection of serious film buffs.

The story is based in a mayan legend from Yucatan State, Mexico. Dolores del Rio's performance is superb, as always. We find love, magic, tragedy, music and folklore in this film.
The natural set and landscape in ancient Chichén-Itzá, are beautiful.
In these days (2007) Chichén-Iztá is included in a list, among other places, in order to find the New Wonders of the World. Good idea !