Opening Titles of John Huston's Under The Volcano Movie

Continuing with posts relating to The Day of The Dead - one of the best things about the Under The Volcano movie are the opening credits directed by actor/filmmaker Danny Huston, John Huston’s son.

From the dvd insert:

“Gripping imagery consisting of…chiariscuro in the style of Goya. [Director of Photography Gabriel] Figueroa…would use color to create, from the early images of Firmin’s [played by Albert Finney] nocturnal wanderings, an allegorical universe that mixes death (sugar-candy skulls and banes, laughing masks) and celebration (garish lanterns, garlands)…a night peopled by wild illusions…suffocating qualities…[the] poetic frenzy of an alcoholic.”

Lennon Sisters Dry Bones

Continuing with the Day of The Dead references- here's a pretty bizarre performance from the Lennon Sisters! I think it would have had Malc reaching for another drink! From a 1965 performance on the Lawrence Welk Show:



Here are the girls later in their careers:

Ozomatli Extended Remix: Cumbia de los Muertos

El Rebel X remix with Dia de los Muertos Paintings

Audio Track:

Ozomatli's Cumbia de los Muertos live mixed and mashed with their studio version and with "Carta de Che" read by Fidel Castro

Visual:

Art by Victor M. Montañez
Oils and acrylics on canvas.

VIVA CALACA!!

Dir: Ritxi Ostáriz / Spain / 2008

Animation based on the Mexican Day of the Dead. Original music by the American Goth artist Voltaire (http://www.voltaire.net).

Director Ritxi Ostáriz is a freelance Art Director and Designer currently living and working in Sopelana, Bizkaia.

Que viva México! - Eisenstein

One of the greatest filmed sequences depicting the Mexican Day of The Dead was made by Eisenstein.

You can read the influence that Eisenstein may have had on Lowry at my good friend Chris Ackerley's Companion to Under The Volcano

Qué viva México! (Russian: Да здравствует Мексика!) is a film project begun by the Russian avant-garde director Sergei Eisenstein. It would have been an episodic portrayal of Mexican culture and politics from pre-Conquest civilization to the Mexican revolution. Production was beset by difficulties and was eventually abandoned. Jay Leyda and Zina Voynow call it his "greatest film plan and his greatest personal tragedy".

Eisenstein left for Mexico in December 1930—after various projects proposed by Charles Chaplin and Paramount Pictures fell through, and Paramount released him from his contract. The Mexican film was produced by Upton Sinclair and a small group of financiers recruited by his wife Mary Craig Kimbrough Sinclair, under a legal corporation these investors formed, the Mexican Film Trust. Their contract with Eisenstein called for a short, apolitical feature film about or involving Mexico, in a scenario to be designed and filmed by Eisenstein and his two compatriots, Grigori Alexandrov and Eduard Tisse. Other provisos of the contract, which Eisenstein signed on 24 November 1930, included that the film would be completed (including all post-production work) by April, 1931, and would show or imply nothing that could be construed as insulting to or critical of post-Revolution Mexico (a condition imposed by the Mexican government before it would allow the three Soviets entry into their country). Filmed material was also to be subject to censorship by the Mexican government, at first after it was filmed and printed, later in 1931 during shooting via an on-site censor.

Eisenstein shot somewhere between 175,000 and 250,000 lineal feet of film (30 to 50 hours) before, for a variety of reasons, the Mexican Film Trust stopped production, and still was not completed as planned by Eisenstein. Again for several reasons, Eisenstein was not allowed to return to the United States to construct a finished film, nor could the footage be sent to the USSR for completion by him there. The Mexican Film Trust had two short features and a short subject culled from the footage and in release during 1934. (Thunder Over Mexico, Eisenstein in Mexico, Death Day) and others, with the Trust's permission, have attempted different versions (e.g. Marie Seton's Time in the Sun). The title ¡Qué viva México!, originally was proposed by Eisenstein in correspondence with Upton Sinclair during the last months of shooting, but was first used for a version made by Grigori Alexandrov., released in 1979, about a decade after the footage was sent to the USSR by the Museum of Modern Art in exchange for several Soviet films from the Gosfilmofond archive. At least one other version followed Alexandrov's, and another has been proposed during the first years of the 21st century. Read more on Wikipedia



The BBC also used the Day Of The Dead sequences out Que viva México! for their little seen documentary on Lowry called Rough Passage made in the late 60's. The documentary was shown at the Lowry Lounge last night and a report on the evening will be posted in the near future.

Jose Guadalupe Posada: Famed Artist Gets a New Museum

Swinging open the museum doors, the visitor was in for a shock. Inside the spacious building, gutted walls, protruding wires and a dug-up floor were seemingly all that remained of the Posada Museum in Aguascalientes, Mexico.

Springing from the back, a friendly Guillermo Saucedo Ruiz, the museum's director, quickly set the record straight: the "home" of iconic Mexican artist Jose Guadalupe Posada was getting a makeover.

Guiding the reporter through rooms of hammering workmen and rising dust, Saucedo outlined the renovation that is planned to be ready for the opening of Aguascalientes' annual San Marcos Fair later this month.

Carrying an estimated price tag of $1.2 million, the new Posada museum will feature a research center, library, cafe, Internet connections and graphics classes once it is completed.

Supported by state and federal funds, the 1,000 square meter facility will exhibit 200 original Posada works including La Catrina and El Quijote, Saucedo said, adding that Posada's new home will open as part of the national celebrations for the twin anniversaries of the 1810 War of Independence and 1910 Mexican Revolution.

"Posada is known as the father of popular graphics, not only in Mexico but at the Latin American level," he said. Dubbing Posada the "graphic chronicler" of his times, Saucedo described how the prolific artist depicted the legendary political leaders of the strife-torn years of the early 20th century—Madero, Zapata, Villa, and others.

The Posada collection on hand in Aguascalientes will also include surrealistic pictures, crime scene drawings and comical works like the old cartoon character Chepito Marihuano. Read more at Banderas News

Calaveras: Mexican Prints for the Day of the Dead (Postcards)

Buy at Amazon

Semana de Muertos

While searching for material for posts on the Mexican Day of The Dead, I came across the above Second Life page.

I am particularly interested in working with Second Life as an artist. I am currently collaborating with a group of artists creating a virtual arcadia called Shang-Pool Arcadia.

The blogger Our Virtual Trilogy says:
A friend of mine, knowing that I have an interest in art, suggested that I visit the Instituto Espanol sim which had been decorated for the Semana de Muertos. The Instituto Espanol is a sim where avatars can take Spanish language classes. It has been constructed so that visitors can also learn about the culture of Mexico and includes a pyramid, a church, school rooms and market place. Some of the buildings can be used to display art, so during the Semana de Muertos artworks that are related to the Dia de Muertos (Day of the Dead) were being exhibited. As well, information on the Day of the Dead was provided.

Here are screenshots from the virtual exhibition:






The Semana de Muertos has ended now and all the decorations have been taken down. However,this is a lovely , colourful sim and an excellent place to be introduced to Mexican culture and the Spanish language. More information at Our Virtual Trilogy.

Mexican Day of the Dead: An Anthology by Chloë Sayer

On November 2nd, All Souls' Day, the dead are granted celestial permission to visit friends and relatives on Earth, and the entire country of Mexico is given over to fiesta. This charming anthology celebrates this unique Mexican holiday with poems and prose, photographs and art, including 16 pages in full color.

Chloë Sayer includes Lowry's poem:

For the love of dying

The tortures of hell are stern, their fires burn fiercely.
Yet vultures turn against the air more beautifully
Than seagulls float downwind in cool sunlight,
Or fans in asylums spin a loom of fate
For hope which never ventured up so high
As life's deception, astride the vulture's flight.

Fiesta: Days of the Dead & other Mexican Festivals by Chloë Sayer

Mexico has a vast range of festivals, several commemorating national events but mostly religious or spiritual in inspiration. After the Spanish Conquest of 1521, Roman Catholic teachings fused with the beliefs of native civilizations, and even today the popular arts and crafts draw upon the Church as a rich source of imagery. Fiestas are often lavish and extremely costly. With extensive preparations, they commemorate local saints days and religious holidays such as Christmas, Carnival and Holy Week. Many festivals are dominated by masked dances, and the Devil, Death, angels and the Deadly Sins still do battle at fiesta time in countless village squares. During the Days of the Dead (All Saints and All Souls days, 1st and 2nd November), the deceased are thought to visit friends and relatives on earth. Families welcome the returning souls with flowers, incense, candles and feasting. On 12th December, Mexicans everywhere honour Our Lady of Guadalupe, the patron saint of Mexico and an important symbol of national identity. Drawing on her extensive travels in Mexico and the collections she has helped create in the British Museum, Chloe Sayer provides a living context to show what makes these festivities so attractive and also uniquely Mexican. Amazon

José Guadalupe Posada

Jose Guadalupe Posada: (1852–1913) was a Mexican cartoonist illustrator and artist whose work has influenced many Latin American artists and cartoonists because of its satirical acuteness and political engagement.

Posada was born in Aguascalientes, on February 2, 1852. His education in his early years was drawn from his older brother Cirilo, a country schoolteacher, who taught him reading, writing, as well as drawing. As a young teenager he went to work in the workshop of Trinidad Pedroso, who taught him lithography and engraving. In 1871, before he was out of his teens, his career began with a job as the political cartoonist for a local newspaper in Aguascalientes, El Jicote ("The Bumblebee"). After 11 issues the newspaper closed, reputedly because one of Posada's cartoons had offended a powerful local politician.[1] He then moved to the nearby city of León, Guanajuato. There he was married to Maria de Jesús Vela on September 20, 1875. In Leon, a former associate of his from Aguascalientes assisted him in starting a printing and commercial illustration shop. They focused on commercial and advertising work, book illustrations, and the printing of posters and other representations of historical and religious figures. Included among these figures were the Virgin of Guadalupe, the Virgin, the Holy Child of Atocha and Saint Sebastian. In 1883, following his success, he was hired as a teacher of lithography at the local Preparatory School. The shop flourished until 1888 when a disastrous flood hit the city . He subsequently moved to Mexico City. His first regular employment in the capital was with La Patria Ilustrada, whose editor was Ireneo Paz, the grandfather of the later famed writer Octavio Paz. He later joined the staff of a publishing firm owned by Antonio Vanegas Arroyo and while at this firm he created a prolific number of book covers and illustrations. Much of his work was also published in sensationalistic broadsides depicting various current events.

Posada's best known works are his calaveras, which often assume various costumes, such as the Calavera de la Catrina, the "Calavera of the Female Dandy", which was meant to satirize the life of the upper classes during the reign of Porfirio Díaz. Most of his imagery was meant to make a religious or satirical point. Since his death, however, his images have become associated with the Mexican holiday Día de los Muertos, the "Day of the Dead". Read more on Wikipedia

Here are two parts of a documentary in Spanish about José Guadalupe Posada:

Day of Dead Altars October 20 – November 5, 2010 Sonoma County Museum@

Over the next couple of days , I will be posting several items relating to the Day Of The Dead - the famous day that Malc's Under The Volcano is set on.

Every year, the Sonoma County Museum collaborates with local artists and community leaders to install Day of the Dead altars in the galleries. El Dia de los Muertos is a Mexican festival celebrating the lives of family and friends who have passed away. During these days, it is said, the dead joyously return to visit their living relatives. This year’s altars will reflect the theme of Mexican Independence Day, acknowledging the celebration’s 200th anniversary. In addition, Bay Area artist Ruben Guzman will be displaying some of his vibrant cartoneria (papier mache) sculptures.