Mallorca

1934 Documentary 7 minutes 40 seconds Directed by María Forteza

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About Mallorca

A short travel film moves through Mallorca: the gate into Palma, streets of the old Jewish quarter, the Almudaina, the cathedral of Santa María, a palm promenade, the port, courtyards, then the coast, coves, and mountains, with fishermen at work. A spoken prologue says the pictures are meant to match the music of Isaac Albéniz. María Forteza directed. Ramón Úbeda Perelló produced, and the sound is credited to his system, billed on the film as 'Úbeda, sistema español.'

Cast & crew

More about Mallorca

Forteza, a cupletista whose name was María Mercé Forteza, directed. Úbeda produced and supplied the sound process. Filmoteca Española dates the short between 1932 and 1934. It reached the archive in 1982 inside a lot filed, wrongly, as a silent, and was scanned in 2020. Running time is 7 minutes 40 seconds.

Themes

  • Palma street by street
  • The coast after the city
  • Albéniz as the reason for the pictures
  • Mallorca
  • Palma cathedral
  • Almudaina
  • fishermen
  • Isaac Albéniz
  • María Forteza

Background

Made while Spanish sound-on-film gear was still new, in the 1932–33 season and just after, and used as both an Albéniz tribute and a demonstration of Úbeda's recorder.

In film history

If the archive's date is right, it precedes Rosario Pi as a sound film directed by a woman in Spain. The claim is the Filmoteca's, and it depends on the short being finished before 1935.

Making

The nitrate sat at Filmoteca Española from 1982 under another title, El secreto de la Pedriza, credited to Francisco Aguiló. Staff watching the scan in 2020 found Forteza's name on the titles.

Technique

An early Spanish sound short, recorded on a process invented by its producer rather than on a foreign system.

Music

Music by Isaac Albéniz, played under the views of the island, with a spoken prologue. The sound system advertised on the film is Úbeda's.

Preservation

Nitrate held at Filmoteca Española since 1982, misidentified until a 2020 scan. A digital copy is on Wikimedia Commons.

Notes

  • La Vanguardia and the Spanish Wikipedia give the length as 7 minutes 40 seconds.
  • Filmoteca Española has called it possibly the first sound film directed by a woman in Spain, earlier than Rosario Pi's El gato montés (1935), if the 1932–1934 dating holds.
  • Úbeda registered a sound brand, Fono Palma, in Barcelona in 1935. The film does not carry that name, which is one reason the archive dates it earlier.
  • A copy is on Wikimedia Commons as Mallorca de Maria Forteza.webm.

Scenes

  • The camera comes through Palma's gate and past the cathedral and the port.
  • The coast and the mountains follow the city views, still cut to Albéniz.

Influenced by

  • Music of Isaac Albéniz

Also available

  • Wikimedia Commons (Mallorca de Maria Forteza.webm)