Monday, April 15, 2013
Qué Bonito Amor #1 (Mex 1-2.1) Monday 4/15/13
Mariachi Music and Bands
Here is Wikipedia's article on mariachi music with a brief history of the form and the evolution of the modern mariachi band. Former President George W. Bush has had mariachis perform at the White House more than once: Pablo Montero was once in former Mexican President Vicente Fox's entourage on a state visit. Methinks the Bush daughters appreciated that.
Labels: QBA
Just had to get this out now: I was a bartender for several years during college and endured some pretty awful stuff from customers.... and Don Chucho's attitude about it. I hope Maria can deliver some payback for this later.
I usually do not watch telenovelas that aren't comedies because most of the dramas I have begun have become terribly violent and sordid. If they maintain the tone of this first episode, this might turn out to be fun.
Jarifa
I know this won't be everyone's cup of tea, but I'm ready for a cliche-ridden, florid, predictable meller drama of the old style. I also see many cast members from past times.
La Paloma
Thank you so very much for this marvelous, detailed recap. Loved the whole thing. Because of you, I have been listening to mariachi music on Youtube, and I am really liking it. It is truly wonderful. I never knew there was such a range, and Pablo, sigh, I really like the way he sings.
Such familiar faces in this TN. I didn't know that Roberto Paleuzus (sp) could speak Italian. All he really said was understand.
I am liking Maria, she has a lot of spunk. The tarot lady was funny. I like Altagracia. The sister is truly a beyotch.
The bad guys must be mobbed up. When was the last time a TN had an Italian mob in it?
The scenery here is very beautiful, and you're right about they should have been speaking English in L.A. and the accents were bad, lol. But all in all this is a great start. I already can't stand the bar owner and Oscar is a bit pushy too. I like Maria's family dynamic. I think I will stick with this one too : ) The music really makes it worth it.
Italian is probably easy to learn for a native speaker of Spanish. Roberto Palazuelos wouldn't have a hard time of it.
As to Italian mob + telenovelas, there is an excellent Argentine one called Hombres de Honor which has been shown on Latele Novela Network. I wish they would show it again because it was excellent. A period piece with beautiful detail on 1940s fashion, props, cars, furniture, etc. Excellent actors -- mostly of Italian descent -- and a leading man who resembles Chris Noth in his prime. The accents in that series are also interesting.
One of the interesting things about the casting of this series is that Danna Garcia was one of the Elizondo sisters in Pasion de Gavilanes and the two guys who are competing for her are from FELS.
Alegria
To the rest of the team for QBA: Last night was episode 1 and the first half of episode 2. Let's number them this way in the blog in case we need to catch up "offline."
It does sound like it's the typical cliched stories that I do dislike so much. How many were there so far? 7? Anyway, I'll keep reading this week and see if I want to continue with this.
Unfortunately, I can't record El Senor either, and there are no recaps for that one. I'm going to try to watch them online.
BTW, the actress who plays Wendy was Nathy in TdA. I almost didn't recognize her.
when Santos jumped in the river to cross it, he was crossing from US to Mexico, so the cops did not really shoot at him since they thought 'well, seems he changed his mind [about crossing the border illegally into the US]'. I thought that was pretty comical.
now it is going to be interesting why Santos' dad told the police that the body was indeed his son Santos... from his facial expression i can see he knew the truth and was just leading the police into believing Santos is dead.
In the original, Rosario (Maria) only has the one very young sister, not two, so the new couple they have here (middle sis and boyfriend) is new to this version.
I found the geography a little puzzling. Maybe someone from California can help with this. Where did Santo's plane crash and which river did he swim across to end up near Tijuana?
Carlos
One of Mejia's trademarks is exaggeration, so he is increasing Maria's financial responsibilities by giving her another younger sister.
As to the issue of why Justo lied to the police, that's a good question. Considering the casting I am wondering whether he has an evil or selfish reason for this. We'll see.
Roberto Palazuelos is running true to form; he made the Sexual Predator list in our villains gallery.
The little I read about this series implied that Pablo Montero is a villain in this. As talented as he is I can't see him in that light although it would probably benefit his career for him to develop a dark side in a character at least once.
BTW, what I found comical about the river scene was that the police didn't recognize Santos. They should have, in view of him being a suspect in such a large money-laundering scheme that appeared to be ongoing.
La Paloma
So who *was* the crispy critter?
I think my telenovela beanie is a bit overloaded right now with AV, so I don't think this show will be a regular one for me. But I will read the fabulous recaps!
I laughed when Coloso appeared, stroking a cock. LOL!
Funny to see Danna/Maria and Renata/Paloma playing sisters, when a few years ago in Gancho Danna was playing Renata's adopted mom. Also, I think Renata played a 16 year old in that, and she played an 18 year old recently in Amorcito Corazon. Now she's regressed in age and is playing a 15 year old. Is she becoming the next Sherlyn? The eternal teenager.
if this one follows the original in that aspect, yes Maria and mom were discussing selling the dad's charro suit and the silver hardware for it.
I too think Jorge Salinas is a bit old for the character, but as far as their matchup to role, i still have the jury out for the Maria and Santos characters... although i will always prefer Mark and Carolina in LHDM.
But i am really intrigued how Arturo Peniche will do in the role that combines two characters in the original (Sigi and Molina). Peniche certainly will look older than 'Molina' but about same as 'Sigi', so i am looking forward to that. I LOVE Arturo Peniche... since his earlier days of 'Monte Calvario' with Edith G.
Pablo M has big shoes to fill with Pernia's portrayal of 'Coloso'. I thought that was one of the highlights of LHDM.
Juan Ferrara... sort of stroke me as 'so so' when i think of Guillermo Murray in original, but JF could pull it off... i hope they do change some things in the character and not make it a copy. Curious to see what they show as his reasons for lying at morgue.
We are way too early in the novela (1 ep or 1 and half ep) to make any strong judgements.
I do like some of the updates Televisa made to the Pura Sangre story into Manana es para siempre, so Televisa does sometimes make good improvements.
What I can promise is i will avoid giving any spoilers and will avoid making that many negative comments.
It doesn't make sense to me to display a charro suit when the fabric would fade from sunlight exposure. Those have to be almost as expensive as a matador's traje de luces so wouldn't they want to preserve it?
Vivi, I once had to explain to a young colleague how the child labor laws impact the entertainment business. Renata is 18 now but if she is still playing teens at 28 (like Sherlyn) she may not be happy about it. I certainly wouldn't have been too happy about that kind of typecasting.
AV is almost over, so a little overdose can't hurt...
besides, chances are those are border cops and it would take a while for any new 'wanted' reports to get to them.
Carlos, I wouldn't worry a bit about geography in this show. I don't think that's been a consideration at all. It's not surprising to me that they didn't shoot the L.A. scenes in L.A. (though they did shoot the Chicago scenes in Chicago for PEAM), but what really did it for me was that they FAKED the HOLLYWOOD SIGN!!! LOL! They just found a hill and put "H O L L Y W O O D" on it. Anyone who is familiar with the area around the real Hollywood sign knows it doesn't look like that. How bizarre that they tried to create a makeshift one anyway and pass it off as real. Plus all the scenes of "Los Angeles" were waaaaay too green.
Anyway, about a river, I have no idea which river supposedly Santos crossed over, if any river exists. It's just beanie tightening time.
Yes, Jorge Salinas is too old for this part, but who cares! He's Jorge Salinas! I like the actress who plays Maria. And Pablo Montero is fab. His singing is wonderful.
I have assumed all along that Maria's mom has diabetes. No, working should not make her go blind. And por favor, working by cooking? So silly.
I'm IN for this show! It'll generate a lot of snark I am sure. I only "previewed" about a dozen or so episodes, but from what I saw, it goes completely campy with lots of color and singing (some of it dubbed). The singing I really grew to enjoy, though.
Is Mike Johnson supposed to be America and speak "American" like Steven Norton/MEPS did? LOL
Monica Agudelo-Tenorio was the writer, and RCN bought the rights to use ANY AND ALL songs written by Jose Alfredo Jimenez (Funny the similarity to the names Santos will pick, shown in previews) so they could use any of his original songs at any point, PLUS they bought rights to other individual songs by other authors.
Fernando Gaitan (who wrote Cafe and Betty la Fea, and served as consultant/guidance for Monica in LHDM said that she would write the script of an episode AFTER she had picked the JAJ song she wanted to write the episode around. So the music is a very integral part of the novela, even a character on itself.
I live right on the Texas-Mexico border, so I see the border action all the time :).
If they dub Jorge Salinas' singing I hope they choose someone who can sound like him. Back in the 50s and 60s there was a singer named Marni Nixon who dubbed Audrey Hepburn and Deborah Kerr flawlessly.
On that note, I think a Latin music discussion is in order for the upcoming weekend.
Jarifa
Of course, they should have been speaking English in the L.A. scenes.
Does anyone know if Jorge Salinas can speak any English?
Some of my favs:
petting a rather splendid rooster [This clearly means he is the cock of the walk.] LOL!--
"[Por favor, wouldn't he be speaking English in L.A.?] My thoughts exactly"
"snazzy red speeding-ticket magnet" --I will have to check with the hubster, but I believe it is a Lamborghini Gallardo from what I remember. (Or otherwise it may have been a Ferrari. but not from what I thought I saw.)
=======
I watched the first half of TM's El Cielos and didn't like it at all!! Taped this and missed the first couple of minutes so glad you captured it all.
This one looks to be fun and, yup, it has the uber-melodramatic signature of Mejia complete with baroque visuals in its religious symbolism and excessive musical flourishes.
The Garza's mariachi band was excellent, as was the audio, AND the hoochi-koochi Mexican Mariachi act made to look 2nd rate was actually really excellent also! It does take some real talent to make something well done look appropriately and believably tacky like that IMHO.
There will definitely be serious conflict between Santos and Oscar.
Which -- for anyone who doesn't know -- is the name Pablo was born with. However, IMNSHO, he doesn't look like an Oscar Daniel Hernandez-Rodriguez and that would not fit on a marquee.
In my opinion, JS's singing voice sounds like it's dubbed. You can tell me if you think they chose well in the type of voice for him! I thought he had a good voice in FELS (sort of a "whiskey" quality). We will invariably discuss the singing in QBA in more depth when we hear examples of it! One thing is certain: Pablo Montero's voice is NOT dubbed! LOL.
Yes, the police would have spoken English amongst themselves. Los Angeles has a very diverse population and the police must serve them all. I'm sure some of the LAPD speak Spanish, but I doubt that all of them are fluent. Plus they have to have officers who speak other languages too, so it's not like they can all focus on becoming fluent in Spanish. (I say this as a native of the Los Angeles area but not as someone who is all that familiar with the LAPD, however!)
I'm puttin' on the Ritzy white dress, pulling my hair back, adding a rose and gettin' ready for tonight. Wish me luck everybody---the scene changes last night gave me heartburn, especially as they cut whatever music had started to play.
I don't have a large library of tn references and am not that familiar with mariachi music, so I will depend on everyone to fill in.
We don't know exactly where Santos' plane went down, so he might have been heading SE from LA and landed in some field not too far from the Rio Grande, but lets not require too much exactness from the writers and filmers when it comes to US geography. We're just glad Santos made it over the border (the other way).
Ciao tutti.
Someone who flees the country will never have any chance to have 'suspension de orden de aprehension' like Giuliano said he was going to negotiate. I think the nail that sealed it was the possibility of the arrest costing his dad the diplomat/embassador assignment in Paris.j
On another note, i LOVED the way they contrasted the great relationship each (Santos and Maria) have with their corresponding mother... good way to show the things these two have IN COMMON (deep love for family) so they connect even when the rest of their worlds are SOOOO different.
About voice. I think only Jorge is dubbed. And with different voices.
And I cant say, that it's a remake. It's a new story. Really new.
Alegria
" she seem sincere but we should doubt him, he wears a goatee and a leather jacket." That is too funny. We all need something to laugh about after yesterday. Thanks again friend.
Olive
and El Coloso comparisons will certainly be unavoidable. Pernia did such a marvelous job but Pablo might surprise and rise up to the test..who knows. i have not been impressed with his prior roles but i am holding up my judgement.
Not sure Roberto Ballesteros can measure up to our Daniel Lugo (PR).
Then again, if Alegria is right and they change the story considerably, we might be positively surprised.
Could be the Tiajuana River
I'm not watching this, just wanted to stop by to see how it's going.
Hmmmm cliche # 7 already
Added to my confusion was the statue of Christ that Santos saw when he reached land. That went completely over my head. What was that about?
copied this from wiki
The Tijuana River rises in the Sierra de Juárez of northern Baja California, approximately 45 mi (70 km) ENE of Ensenada. It flows WNW through Tijuana, crossing the border approximately 5 mi (8 km) from the Pacific. It flows west, just skirting the international border south of the San Ysidro section of San Diego.
Well considering that El Paso is 800 miles from Los Angeles, across 2 other states and a continental divide, we're talking hours and hours in a small plane. The writers just decided to put a border river in there for some reason.
I see - there's a short section where it comes north to cross the US border a few times. Well, that must have been it then :) .
'cliches' are pretty much 'standard' subplots used in many telenovelas (either leading lady or leading man loses memory for a while, the couple has relations and zas! she is pregnant!, someone goes blind and/or loses memory for a while, giving villains another window of time to continue creating havoc, etc etc... the list is quite long.
as far as the Jesus Christ on the other guy's shirt back, or the crucifix with Jesus buried near edge of the river/water stream, if this is supposed to be a very popular spot to cross into the US, those are crosses for peole who have not quite made it accross, and the crosses are put there by relatives, friends or other people who did or did not make it accross in the group but were not killed in the process. Very much like the crosses you see at the edges of roads where people died by getting run over by cars or trucks.
does that help?
So you can watch QBA & Cielos.
Or maybe it's for the eggs.
Carlos
As Alegria has noted, this is not going to be a beanie-free story, so just tighten those screws and join us for a bumpy ride.
The big indications (aside from Wendy's most excellent dramaturgical display of melodrama) that this was so was 1) Comm. Derecho didn't fire when he had a chance to keep the plane from taking off; 2) both Maria and Paloma are going to meet their Principes Azul; 3) after the plance crash, the body was brought back to L.A. while Santos was lying there next to the disintigrated plane the whole time; 4) he was looking sharp in his royal blue shirt, suit and tie and only a slight smudge on his face after what looked to be a horrific crash--and he WAS belted in.
Justo is currently the consul in L.A. from Mexico. His new post is to be Ambassador to France from Mexico. In other words, he's moving up the ladder.
Anita, i totally agree, we need to either tighten the beanie hats or throw them out the window. this novela is not to dig deep into the details, it is to enjoy the music and emotional drama and comedy here and there...(can't wait until Chachita comes in the scene, will leave Carmen Salinas character in PEAM lost in the dust...)
¿Que?
Carlos
Can we also refrain from comparison to LHDM until much later on? I get irritated when I see comments elsewhere from people who dismiss all remakes out of hand.
As with FELS this is likely to be a different story with a similar premise and ending to the original. There are probably going to be some changes to some characters' personalities and any violence is likely to be escalated. From what I've seen in comparing Mexican novelas to Colombian ones the Mexican ones are more violent (This comparison excludes drug stories).
Beanie tightening is probably mandatory with this show, and I intend to fully enjoy that! LOL. I'm sure I'll squawk and complain sometimes, but that's part of the fun too!
Martaivette, check our discussion on primeres actores for a retrospective on Salvador Pineda; he did once play a priest.
Word to everyone who commented on the name "Bruno." Mr. 5ft and I will be testing out our new theory on the correlation of bad tans and evil.
Love, love, love the traje under glass. All it needs is a sign in front that says "Break glass in case of mariachi emergency." I SO need one :D
GRACIAS, UA! and great job starting this one off!
-- Most of the characters in it are identified by name
-- The key relationships are identified
-- We're given some background info on Wendy
-- We know what's important to the lead characters and what they have in common.
'no puede ser' moments. To wit: the age of our galan hero Santos relative to his mother and sister, the fact that the 'police' arrived in cars at the dealership but had to go up on the roof and come down by ropes in truly wacky fashion, and our hero, after having been nearly killed in the airplane crash with wounds all over his face, jumps in the river, and by the time he is at the motel (perhaps not far from Tijuana) not a scratch!! The person responsible for continuity must have taken a break when they were editing this segment. All in all, quite funny.
I think I'm going to give this one a miss, as I am pretty deeply into Manda and traveling quite a bit again (although Hulu is treating me very well.) It was a stunning debut, though -- SIX bingo squares in one night!
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