Santa (1943)
Santa is a beautiful and very humble young girl living in Chimalistac, a small and quiet spot south of the 1930's Mexico City. After Santa is cheated by arrogant soldier Marcelino, she's rejected by her family and friends and expelled of Chimalistac. Santa finds shelter in a whorehouse and becomes a cinic and bitter woman, mistreated by bullfighter "Jarameno" and silently loved by blind pianist Hipolito
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A Masterpiece!
The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.
A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.
This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.
I'm surprised no-one has reviewed this film to date, as it is sill available on an excellent Excalibur DVD. Admittedly, the dialogue is wholly in Spanish, and the film has no sub-titles, but it is brilliantly directed by Norman Foster right up to the very last segment, most of which was obviously directed by a different hand (I suspect Alfredo Gomez de la Vega for most its length). Fortunately, the film suddenly regains form for the concluding episode. Although the prominently featured Ricardo Montalban (looking much more handsome here than in his Hollywood films) has not what you would call a very large role (although it is important and he does have a whole bull-fight sequence to himself - supported by a large amount of stock footage), he is not the main protagonist. Santa herself is brilliantly played by Esther Fernandez, a young woman who is seduced and then forced to work in a brothel. Stella Inda (also known as Estella Inda) also has an important role in the house, although we know little about her background. The movie runs for nearly two hours but rigidly holds the attention for all but ten minutes or so in the final segment.