Pasionaria

1915 Drama 25 minutes (surviving fragments) Directed by Juan María Codina

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About Pasionaria

Adriana says goodnight to her boyfriend, Ángel Montes, and goes to the chemist for her mother's medicine. The Marquess del Olmo and two men seize her and take her to a brothel, where a model named Nitta helps them assault her. Her father demands a marriage. The marquess offers money and says she went there by choice. The father throws Adriana out. She hides with her old dance teacher, trains, and leaves for America. Under the name Tórtola Valencia she becomes a successful dancer, then grows homesick. Ángel arranges her father's forgiveness, and she comes back.

Cast & crew

More about Pasionaria

Joan Maria Codina directed and wrote it for the new Barcelona company Condal Film. The dancer Tórtola Valencia plays Adriana, and Gerardo Peña is in the cast. It opened in Barcelona on September 4, 1915. The same year she made one other Condal film for Codina, Pacto de lágrimas. Those two pictures are her only film roles.

Themes

  • A father's idea of honour
  • A dancer's name taken in exile
  • Return and forgiveness
  • Marquess del Olmo
  • brothel
  • dance teacher
  • Tórtola Valencia
  • Barcelona
  • America
  • Ángel Montes

Background

Spain was not a belligerent in 1914–18. Valencia had been teaching dance in Germany when the war started, and the Barcelona company put her on screen the year she returned.

Making

Condal Film hired her when she was back in neutral Spain during the war. Codina was the company's artistic director.

Audiences

The September 4, 1915 Barcelona opening was reported as a popular success.

Preservation

Not a complete film. IVAC in Valencia keeps three fragments: the beginning, the end, and a badly decomposed section of the dances. The Cinémathèque-style recovery was shown through the EFG1914 project.

Notes

  • The European Film Gateway timing for the IVAC material is 24 minutes 37 seconds.
  • IVAC holds the opening, the ending, and a badly decomposed reel of the American success, including one of her dances.
  • The assault itself is missing with the absent second reel.
  • A Spanish synopsis from the same recovery project adds that the father collapses after the confrontation and is left bedridden.
  • Tórtola Valencia, born in 1882 and died in 1955, was known for exotic dances in Europe and Latin America.
  • EFG1914 catalogued the film under keywords of honour, rape, dance, and emigration.

Scenes

  • The marquess offers money instead of marriage, and Adriana's father puts her out.
  • A surviving fragment shows her dancing as Tórtola Valencia.
  • Ángel brings her back to her father.