From big dreams to the big city and back
By Melanie Harris de Maycotte February 8, 2008 San Miguel de Allende

Fundraising Dinner
Eden, by Elise DuRant
Sat, Mar 12
The Restaurant
Sollano 16
edenthemovie@yahoo.com 

Filmmaker Elise DuRant will begin filming her script, Eden, in September, with support from the San Miguel community.

The stuff of which a good life story is made: ups and downs; fortunes and misfortunes; love, passion and heartbreak; betrayals, confessions, pardons; family, friends and loss; the bad without which the good could never be appreciated; and the courage to dream are some of the themes of San Miguel writer/director, Elise DuRant. After a few years working with prominent filmmakers in New York City, including Tim Burton, Spike Lee, and Woody Allen, Elise DuRant returned to her hometown, San Miguel de Allende, to pursue a dream—to write and direct films about this community.

DuRant has written a screenplay, Eden, using her past experiences and gift for narrative. This script has been very well-received: it was chosen as one of fifteen semi-finalists out of nearly 1800 submissions in the Bluecat Screenplay Competition. Gordy Hoffman, from Bluecat, said of Eden, “Every line of this script carries with it a heavy subtext and implies the secrecy and denial of each character. The subtlety of this work comes across in the style in which it is written.”

Eden was one of ten projects selected for Guanajuato’s Expresion en Corto Film Festival in 2007. DuRant’s script caught the attention of Graham Leader, producer of the independent film, In the Bedroom, Alex Orlovsky, the producer of the Academy Award-nominated independent film Half Nelson, as well as by the up and coming distribution company FiGa Films, who requested to be the first to screen the film.

A young DuRant at the Plaza de Torros in San Miguel.

The story of Eden is a story of San Miguel. A story of the expatriate community some 20 years ago, when frequent power-outages would lead to romantic candle-light evenings, Cuco Sanchez was on the radio, and San Miguel was a town of humble homes, humble people and a colorful expat community; an Eden of a young woman’s memory where the garden was bountiful with simplistic beauties and pleasures, seemingly perfect to a child’s eyes, but where a snake was also lurking. To tell her personal story of San Miguel, Elise explains her process: 

I looked to the film Chocolat (not the one with Johnny Depp, but an earlier film shot in Africa) by Claire Denis as a guide for the structure of the story, especially in the way it moves between past and present. I was very struck by Chocolat when I first saw it many years ago. I could relate to the main character, having been raised in a culture foreign to that of my parents’ culture. I had never seen a film that so closely resembled my experience.

In Chocolat, a semi-autobiographical account, a young French woman returns to the Cameroon in Africa where she was raised. Similarly, Eden explores the sexual, social, and class tensions that arise with the presence of a small group of expatriates in a traditional catholic community.

DuRant further explains the birth of Eden:

When I arrived from New York, I sat down and wrote what I knew best: the story of a young woman, Alma, who very abruptly and painfully discovers that her life in New York is not the life she really wants. She’s a displaced character who longs for family, a sense of belonging. Tired and run-down, she is incapable of continuing the life she leads. She basically has a breakdown. Because she has no family, she returns to the closest thing she knows as home, the town in Mexico where she was raised.

DuRant explains how she would direct it:

I’d like to treat the film like a western visually. Partially as a reference to my parents’ generation of foreigners who arrived 30, 40 years ago and how they perceived Mexico, but most especially I’d like to apply this idea in the use of landscape, where the landscape becomes a visual metaphor for the inner landscape of the characters.

An exquisitely crafted script has been written and now the next step for Elise is to find the funds to make this film. Her goal is to start filming in September and this will only happen with the support of the San Miguel community. DuRant wants to use local talent, not only to provide jobs but to also provide work outlets for the vast amount of talent that exists in San Miguel. There will be castings and job posts, investment opportunities and tax-exemption donation opportunities available through the new Hacienda Fiscal Stimulus Law which supports Mexican filmmaking. This will be a project for the town to be involved in. The first event to raise initial funds is a ticketed dinner hosted by Chef Donnie Masterton at his new, locally-sourced restaurant, The Restaurant, on March 12. A limited number of tickets will be sold at The Restaurant and at Galeria/Atelier at the Fábrica la Aurora. For more information on Eden and how you can participate, contact Elise DuRant at edenthemovie@yahoo.com. 

Melanie Harris de Maycotte has known Ms. DuRant for about four years and had the pleasure of casting her in her last short film as the lead. Previously, they had crossed paths numerous times as children growing-up in San Miguel, in New York and Florence, Italy.

Cinemateca, February 11–17, 2008
José Luís’s Pick’n’tip

The Pick

The Dead

A wonderful small film, so at odds with what most of us had come to expect from John Huston. The film encapsulates much about Irish history in the run-up to the Easter Uprising and captured qualities of Dublin that were evident 80 years after the story’s time. The film also captures the delicacy of friendship and family, as well as the obligations and sadness that come from those relationships. Anjelica Huston is wonderful in her closing speech. So much that had gone unsaid becomes real as the film ends. The singing is beautiful and the acting is first rate even in the parts that could easily have been reduced to one-dimensional stereotypes, like the drunk and his mother. I highly recommend this film; it is a must this week


The Tip: In order to provide the best viewing experience, the show times for some movies may be adjusted to accommodate their length. Be sure to check the schedule carefully. I also want to remind you of our new ticket price: 50 pesos and discount cards buy 12 shows for 450 pesos. Starting Monday, after 11am, buy your tickets in advance for any movie or show of the week. If you have a discount card, collect your pass to secure a seat; don’t take the risk of being locked out…Nos vemos en el Cine…Would you like to receive this info by email? Write to Jose Luis at alephamour@hotmail.com. Thank you.

The Movies

The Dead (1987)
Monday, February 11 at 5pm and 7pm
Romantic drama, English, 82 minutes.
Director: John Huston. Screenplay: Walter Anthony Huston.
Cinematography: Fred Murphy. Music: Alex North.
Cast: Anjelica Huston, Donal McCann, Dan O’Herlihy, Donal Donnelly, Helena Carroll.

In this final film, legendary director John Huston brings the magic of James Joyce to the screen with an evocative drama, a profound elegy to his cinematic career. Huston leads an award-winning production team, an acclaimed cast of Irish players, and directs his daughter Anjelica for the first time since their Academy Award-winning collaboration in Prizzi’s Honor. From an Academy Award-nominated screenplay by Tony Huston, The Dead takes place in turn-of-the-century Dublin, at a holiday feast vibrant with food and spirit. A young couple at the party, Gretta and Gabriel Conroy, seem to have everything to be grateful for. But that night, a tenor’s voice recalls poignant memories and Gabriel learns of his wife’s unforgotten young love. Her secret past is a shattering revelation as he finally sees himself, and indeed, the world of “all the living and the dead.”



Special Art Movie 
How to Draw a Bunny (2002)
2002 Sundance Film Festival: Jury Prize, Documentary
Wednesday, February 13 at 5pm
Thursday, February 14 at 6pm
Biographical art documentary, 90 minutes.
Director: John W. Walter. Cast: Ray Johnson, Chuck Close, Roy Lichtenstein.

The cartoon rabbit that was artist Ray Johnson’s signature inspired the title for this documentary about the man whose memorable life in the arts was often so creative that it befuddled even his closest friends. Johnson, once referred to as the “the most famous unknown artist in America,” took individuality to a new level with his art that inventively infused pop-culture images, collages and even rubber stamps.



Kids Movies: Cartoons
Saturday, February 16 at 12 noon



Sunday Piano Matinee
New Program “Romantic Classics”
Sparkling jewels in elegant interpretations
Pianist: Age Kristoffersen
Sunday, February 17, 2pm, Teatro Santa Ana, 50 pesos, limited seating.



Musical Saturdays
Opera: Aida 
Saturday, February 16 at 2:30pm, 158minutes

Aida is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni, based on a scenario written by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette (some scholars argue that the scenario was really written by Temistocle Solera). It was first performed at the Khedivial Opera House in Cairo on December 24, 1871 under the baton of Giovanni Bottesini.

Ismail Pasha, Khedive of Egypt, commissioned Verdi to write the opera for performance in January 1871, paying him 150,000 francs, but the Franco-Prussian War delayed the premiere. Contrary to popular belief, the opera was not written to celebrate the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, nor that of the Khedivial Opera House (which opened with Verdi’s Rigoletto) in the same year. Verdi had been asked to compose an ode for the opening of the Canal, but refused on the grounds that he did not write “occasional pieces.”

Aida met with great acclaim when it finally opened in December 1871, and it continues to be a staple of operatic repertoire. It ranks 16 on Opera America’s list of the 20 most-performed operas in North America. It is one of the most popular operas and there are many recordings,