CINEMA: Mexican Screen Legend Makes Comeback

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Diego Cevallos

MEXICO CITY, Apr 14 1998 (IPS) - Who says 84 is too old to be working? Not Mexican actress Maria Felix, who first shot to fame on the silver screen in 1943 in the character of “Dona Barbara.”

“La Dona,” as she is known throughout Mexico, announced last week that, after a 30-years hiatus, she will appear with Mexican actress Veronica Castro in “The Criminal Loves of the Morales Vampires,” a TV movie series produced by the Televisa Corp.

Maria Felix became a living legend in the 1940’s and 50’s during the golden era of Mexican cinema and, with her notorious fiery temper, sarcasm and political opinions close to the ruling party line intact, announced her comeback at her 84th birthday party with family and admirers.

La Dona has lived in France six months of each year since the 70’s, where she was also a star in her era of splendour. She believes she can carry off a triumphal return in the company of Castro, a leading actress in TV soap operas who also hosts an interview.

Even her biographers aren’t sure that La Dona is “only” 84. While the year 1914 is given as the year she was born on old publicity material, the Diva refuses to her reveal her birthdate.

Maria Felix starred in 47 films, mostly classed as pretty minor by movie critics, and rose to fame as a result of her beauty, strong personality, intelligence and attitude of challenging social conventions.

She appeared to have remained marked by her role as “Dona Barbara,” the character in the title of a film based on the novel by the Venezuelan writer Romulo Gallegos.

In fact, the character traits of Dona Barbara in the movie coincided with her own: haughty, proud and extremely sarcastic, a domestic tyrant and sworn enemy of the “macho” man.

“Each time the camera comes close to the face of Maria, she dominates us with a disdain which perhaps has nothing to do with Dona Barbara herself, but which will always be part of the actress,” wrote one critic, Paco Ignacio Taibo.

“La Dona” came into movie-making in 1942, after leaving her first husband, actor Enrique Alvarez, and their son of the same name. With determination, she dominated a stutter which had plagud her in early years, pushing her way into the booming Mexican movie industry that rolled out new film every week.

Production time was about three weeks – sometimes only 14 days. Producers appeared to count more on their stars more than their stories” and any plot which grasped a large audience was repeated “with different titles,” said Taibo.

The boom was due to the shortage of films made in the United States during the World War II. Felix – along with Dolores del Rio, Pedro Armendariz, Jorge Negrete and Pedro Infante – then became international stars, renowned throughout Latin America.

“La Dona” stood out from other protagonists of the time, most of whom are now dead, because she was active outside the films as well as inside them, causing scandals of all sorts and awakening passions in Mexican society through the 1950’s.

Her fame swiftly spread to movie-makers in Hollywood and Europe, which both offered her contracts. Felix chose the latter arguing “there, they really make films.”

The penetrating eyes and long fingers of the actress continued to hypnotise cinema lovers until the early 1960’s, when she worked in Europe along with well-known actors like France’s Yves Montand and Spain’s Francisco Rabal.

Despite her efforts, she never acted in a film totally accepted by the critics, or considered a classic.

“Without doubt, Maria’s best film is that we have been unable to see, but perhaps one day it will be possible. It will be the film of the best moments of her films, because deep down the plots do not concern us,” rather we want to “see Maria Felix,” said Taibo.