From a female perspective, the representations of female sexuality have become the highlight of film festivals this year for instance, the Dublin film festival kickstarted with the lackluster reimagining of Emmanuelle touting a more feminist message about P in the B. Of its aggressively sleazy title, the rather plodding mass produced lafayette Sexology highly likely the 2002 type directed by Paula Ortiz The Red Virgin (La virgen roja), works on a very different level which is worlds apart. It tells the story of two remarkable real women teenage sexual revolutionary hildegart rodriguez carballeira, who was offered to Havelock Ellis, the sexologist and social reformer, as well as Ellis’s brilliant and twisted mother aurora who ascertained to create her by blending science with eugenics to achieve an ideal female.
Also, the film has her iconic Spanish Fisherman friends who come to help her through song in fascinating camerawork, quite a unique touch. Ortiz feels like reaching a zenith point with this film. She had previously gained some fame in Spain for two films, called ‘Chrysalis’ and ‘The Bride’ and now, has taken her career to the next level with an international coproduction called ‘Across the River and Into the Trees’, based on Hemingway’s unfinished novel by the same name. The lowbrow humor can be savored all the more because of the scope of the project. It really creates such a great art piece, and yes the humor is toned down in some parts, but the experience of witnessing the chaotic events unfold is something else. This Spanish American amazon co production has smoothly shifted towards its main goal of displaying the film at various festivals around the world and in America after its warm welcome in San Sebastand torture young human life in a test or experiment that is bound to go wrong and in this situation ends in disaster. For out of control, non only in consciousness but in attitude, the so called ‘mother’ of the daughter, actress and singer Najwca Neemyri, really does find her resources, like icy electricity, to be stunningly surrealistic. I naively hoped their sorrowing figure would become a trope of a new mothers terror in the genre. The first act of the picture shows Aora’s voice combined with bodily images as a calm “looking forward” voice, justifying having contempt for all men and permitting herself to create a “private baby.” She States, “the best way to achieve this goal was to seduce the priest.” Very understandable: this is the only male who will never ever be possessive of any philandering offsprings. The more astonishing aspect is this is Galicia in the year of 1914.
Upbringing under Aurora’s strict regimen is so well planned that by age 2 baby Hildegart has read books, by age 3 she has begun writing, and by age 8 she has mastered six languages. She is also amplified by her peculiarity of submission and readiness to trust her mother master. One day, Aurora displays her enormous scissors and cuts off braids. Now, enter a sixteen year old (fresh, although very charismatic Alba Planas), who is much smarter than her mother and who has an equally commanding intellect as herself and sports a thick bob haircut. She is still set on her mother’s busy hourly timetable which includes reading books on philosophy of politics and women’s issues and social justice, doing physical exercises and writing essays on a large size manual typewriter even whilst having food at the dinner table.
Eduard de Guzman, a true progressive of the left, happens to publish one of her early works, which tries to shed light on female love and sexuality, which brings out all the astonished disbelief of Aurora. Her suspicion about his writing, concerns how a girl of such a young age who presumably cannot possibly know much about women or sex authored such a strong and controversial piece, was unfounded. 1931 is the year of Halcyon’s. In the background, the monarchy falls, and the Spanish revolution is underway. As the crowds of revolutionaries start to pour out to the streets, more and more common people eagerly jump into the fight, passionate exclamations are uttered everywhere. This moment is crucial: it gives rise to the difference between two mentalities. For many in the hour of socialist break Aurora sits on the fence and assembles heroes who change empires and fortunes. For Hildegart this is an opportunity for action.
As fate would have it, it is a young writer named Abel Vilella (Patrick Criado) that propels her career forward as he seeks her out and brings her to a Socialist party meeting. It is at least admirable that Aurora is there, constantly telling her what she should say and what she should do, and possibly what she should not do. But there does arise a problem when Hildegart comes to the podium standing in front of numerous male representatives and starts her speech this one, a complaint regarding the other female members’ absence, is incredibly emotional and her way of delivering it is simply stunning. Aurora is uneasy.
But most importantly, in this very case, for her mother, there is undeniable chemistry between Hildegart and Abel Augustus. Of course, one perceives this image of the ill bread housewife as a girl with a loving heart, not only trying to protect the girl from her mother who is hurting the child, but who also tells the girl love is for fools and an absolute waste of time. Macarena, the girl’s maidservant wife, is one of the best known women in the city and can’t help but conceivably fit her stereotype perfectly. A stereotypical mother figure who tells children what to do, who even in her most intimate moments exudes pure class as a muffled sound of Hildegart reading can be heard while she smokes in a sheltered area. It appears that looking at the blinding content for children that Hildegart has seen since her childhood, there still lies that aggressive spirit in that body of hers, more than what this poor wife herself possesses.
Even from the beginning, where the murderer of the story, a woman named Ortiz, is seen in the first scene calmly talking about death she has caused, the conclusion has in a way been revealed. Still, there is something sickening about the way Ortiz, a filmmaker, makes her actors act on the death scene rather slowly and very carefully. Of course, there are also no visible regrets from her at the trial, instead she remains faithful to her models till the end, saying “Sculptor destroys his any work upon finding even its minimal imperfection.”
The humanising last part of the scene is remarkable because it captures images from 1933 of the funeral procession of Hildegart and the countless zealots who came for this girl’s last burial known, among other things, for her outraged women’s rights, included in 16 books published and over 150 newspaper articles written in the last three years of her life.
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