Gabriela Mistral and María Luisa Bombal. Two Chilean writers who have left magnificent and expansive literary legacies, providing bodies of work that have transcended with readers around the world. Both had to face difficulties and injustices as creative and transgressive women during the 20th century, and the misrepresentation of their public image is something that continues to be discussed and reconfigured to this day. In this edition of Thursdays of Chilean Cinema, we take a look at two films that bring complexity to the lives and the poetic vision of each of them, through the documentary Mad Women, by María Elena Wood and the fiction feature film Bombal, by Marcelo Ferrari.
Gabriela Mistral: from the Nobel Prize to love and activism
In Chile, Gabriela Mistral's face covers the 5,000 peso bill. At school, students have to learn her best-known poems by heart. As the first Latin American to receive the first Nobel Prize in Literature, and the only Ibero-American woman to have won it so far, she is a symbol of national identity. However, there are facets of her life that have been systematically hidden from the mainstream narrative, such as her role as a feminist and avant-garde activist, constantly defending public education. In Mad Women, Wood puts front and center the less explored sides of Mistral through one particular vantage point: her relationship with the American writer Doris Dana.
In the film we learn that before Mistral meets Dana, she thinks the only thing left for her is death. The artist has already won the Nobel Prize, but she cannot overcome the great tragedy of her life: the suicide of her only son Yin Yin. In Dana, she finds what has always eluded her: loving and feeling loved, forming a family and a home together in Roslyn, Long Island. Aware that her partner will soon be gone, Dana records the conversations with Mistral and their friends. These recordings give us access to the emotional universe of a woman who lives in permanent tension with her internal demons and whose sensitivity and ambition make her the protagonist of her time. Winner of Best Documentary and Best Music at the Pedro Sienna Awards 2012 and the Audience Award at SANFIC 2011, Locas mujeres is an essential film to explore the nuances of one of the most important figures in Latin America.
María Luisa Bombal: Talent and passion
María Luisa Bombal met Mistral in Argentina, but established a deep friendship with her when they were both based in the United States. This piece of historical information connects the films that make up this week's program, but in Bombal (2012), Ferrari does not attempt to reconstruct all of the factual elements of her life. Instead he offers a clear and directed focus, narrating the days before she attempted murdering her lover Eulogio Sánchez. This unfolds a tale of the brilliant and emotional intensity that led the Bombal to her extraordinary writing, interpreted through the powerful and dazzling performance of Blanca Lewin.
Throughout the film, Ferrari composes a dynamic portrait of a talented and complex character, a woman passionate about life, literature and love in all its senses. Masterfully scored by Francisca Valenzuela, it won two Pedro Sienna Awards for Best Art Direction and Best Supporting Actor (Alejandro Goic), and was also part of the Havana International Film Festival and the Valdivia International Film Festival.
We invite you to see these powerful works on two transcendent Chilean writers by clicking on the following links:
CLICK TO WATCH MAD WOMEN
CLICK TO WATCH BOMBAL
