Movie of the Week: “Cantinflas”
Movie of the Week: “Cantinflas”
Before the spread of television, cinema reigned absolute as “the best fun,” and after World War II, Hollywood’s hegemony was unbeatable around the world.This also fueled a fratricidal war between the big studios and United Artists, an association of actors headed by Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford and other comrades.
It was in 1955, when overproductions were heralded, and viewers eagerly awaited the premieres of “The Ten Commandments,” by Paramount, “Thus Walks Mankind” by Warner, and “The King and I” by Fox. United Artists was in serious troubles, unable to launch Mike Todd’s ambitious “Around the World in Eighty Days”, based on Jules Verne’s famous book.
The biggest problem was that Todd, in addition to having little money available, still wanted to include big international names playing small roles in the film. Of course, in an extremely capitalist world, no famous Hollywood actor had any interest in this.
One of the people considered by Todd was the Mexican comedian Mario Moreno, known as Cantinflas.Like most Americans, accustomed to navel-gazing, Todd knew little about him, apart being a famous man in his own country. As he had no other options, he decided to travel to Mexico to present his project personally and invite him to participate in it.
At knowing that he would have only a small role, of a cacique of an American tribe, and that the scene would be filmed in the United States, Moreno refused immediately. Defeated, Todd returned to Hollywood believing that his project would end before it begin.
Throughout the film, through countless flashbacks, the viewer learns the story of Moreno, a man of humble origin who dreamed of being a boxer, and when working in a small theater of varieties, revealed a remarkable talent for comedy and improvisation.
From there, Moreno began his career with the character “El Peladito”, the poor and smart Mexican, who always managed to escape the worst situations in a comic way, and who had easy identification with most poor people in the world. It is easy to see that the inspiration came from Chaplin’s tramp.
The origin of the name Cantinflas has several theories, none of them totally proven, but one is shown in the film, when a drunk spectator shouted “en qué cantina inflas?”(In which bar you get drunk?). Despite the interruption, Moreno liked the sound, and adopted the stage name of Cantinflas. A reflection of his fame is the existence of the verb “cantinflear” in spanish, which means to speak a lot and say nothing.
Fighting against the difficulties of the profession, and against the corporatism of the entertainment industry in his country, he managed to create an independent association of actors, free of the corruption reigning in the middle.
When Todd looked for him, Moreno was already a millionaire man, extremely successful in the profession, having already made dozens of films, not only acting as a comedian but also producing, writing and singing in many of them.
The film also shows the complicated relationship with the actor’s only wife, Valentina Ivanova, and the difficulty of reconciling a married life with fanfare and the eternal struggle with corporations.
Cantinflas’s entry into the cast of “Around the World in Eighty Days” not only guaranteed the film’s funding, but also became one of the greatest attractions to the Latin American public who loved him. But even after the success of the film, Hollywood would not accept Cantinflas, who returned to his faithful audience in Mexico.
The film, starred by David Niven, Cantinflas and Shirley MacLaine, has won five Oscars (Best Picture, Adapted Screenplay, Photography, Editing and Song) and was also nominated for Director, Art Direction and Costume Design.The film would still yield the Golden Globe of Best Actor, for Cantinflas, besides Best Film in the genre Drama.
A curiosity for us Brazilians is that “Around the World in Eighty Days” was the first superproduction exhibited after the inauguration of the color television broadcast in Brazil.
Mario Moreno died in 1993, at the age of 81, leaving as legacy not only more than fifty titles in the cinema, but also a great charitable work, and a dedication to his homeland as few did.
“Cantinflas”, in addition to rescuing this character of great importance for Mexican and world cinema, is a very well made production, with an intelligent script that leads two lines of history until its convergence.
The film brings a good re-creation of the time, and it reunites a cast with remarkable similarity with the original personages, emphasizing the actor Óscar Jaenada, that in addition to the physical, reproduces with fidelity the grimaces and speeches of the unforgettable Peladito.
I recommend this film to everyone, because in addition to rescuing a notable character, it also brings back to our affective memories a time when humor was made with innocent malice, experienced by other great comedians such as Chaplin, the Marx Brothers, Harold Lloyd, and, in Brazil, Mazzaropi and Renato Aragão.
And one last reminder: do not turn off immediately after the end, during the credits is shown a hilarious ballet with Jaenada and Aranzta Muñoz to the sound of Ravel’s Bolero!