ROMA - More Like a Poem than a Movie

When the Academy Award Nominations were announced today, my favorite film for 2018, Roma, garnered 10 nominations. Actually, Roma may be one of those films that will stick with me for a long time and becomes a yardstick for other films.

Natalia Green in her article in Mexico News Daily writes, "More like a poem than a movie -- in the Hollywood sense at least -- Roma is not for those who crave plot, elaborate dialogue or choreographed action sequences. Shot almost in docudrama style, its subject matter is daily life in all its mundaneness."

Not everyone I know who has seen Roma likes the movie but they have not put it aside. They are still talking about it and trying to understand why the director did this or included that. I loved the film and I've already watched it twice and plan to watch it again. I think it is a beautiful film shot in 1970s black and white format with the wide-angle camera moving through the house and the streets taking in life as it is occurring around the main characters. The way it captured the chaos of the street was as if one were actually walking in a Mexico City street. It was masterful the way the scenes were choreographed to also include symbolism of the current events in the 1970s.

Having been in Colonia Roma in Mexico City a number of times, I feel like I know the street where the house is located. The street sounds of bands, car motors, the whistle of the knife sharpener as well as the sound of mops being rung out and dishes clinking in the kitchen are substitutes for a musical soundtrack. The cars getting in and out of the portico was a mundane event for the family but are hysterical for the viewer. There isn't a lot of dialogue but the acting is superb.

Have you seen Roma?  What did you think? What was your favorite scene?

Weekend Getaway

 

Me:   I'd like to go see this Annie Leibovitz exhibition in Mexico City. You interested?

My Friends: You bet. Let's go!

 

And so 12 days later we were in Casa Gonzalez which is just a couple of blocks from the US Embassy and the Paseo de la Reforma in the heart of Mexico City. It had been about 25 years since I had stayed in the Casa Gonzalez guest house so it was such a treat to go back and see how it had changed. There are more rooms, wifi, better, much better mattresses, more gardens and outdoor tables and chairs but still the same charm and intimacy. The breakfast is fabulous although now you pay for it separately, the cost is quite reasonable. In fact the cost per night is more than 25 years ago but still unbelievable reasonable.

 

We dumped our luggage and went off to find something to eat but finding something to eat in the area around Casa Gonzalez is not difficult. There must be at least three restaurants in every block. Everything from a taco stand to an elegant restaurant.

 

In addition to the Annie Leibovitz exhibition we had made reservations for the Jessica Lang Dance Performance at Palacio de Bellas Artes on Friday night. We had great seats in about the third row center. The production was beautiful and the performance was amazing. Lithe, beautiful bodies that seemed to hang in the air or carry another person across the stage as if they were light as a feather.

 

Saturday morning we walked across the Reforma and into the Colonia Juarez to the building housing Leibovitz's exhibition, Women: New Portraits. The exhibition wasn't hung on the wall but was more of an installation on big banks of LCD screens showing one portrait at a time. This reminded me of a recent talk with a Gallery Owner who told me that she expected to see more and more photographs shown as an installation. Hard for me to believe because I still want to see a print but maybe that is just my age showing.

 

A nice comida and then back to Casa Gonzalez just before the afternoon rain.

 

I always want to try new restaurants and this time we headed out in the rain and back across Reforma to Havre 77 that has been open for about six months. The food was delicious and we got to talk to the chef-in-charge Gerado Ramos who previously worked here in San Miguel.

 

The next morning after another wonderful breakfast we were in the van and headed back to San Miguel. It seems like I always leave Mexico City before I'm ready to leave. So I'll go back again soon, even if only for a quick weekend getaway.  

My Latest Obsession

 

You may not have picked up on my latest obsession but I'm afraid that I am becoming addicted to Orchids. I've messed with them before but that was many years ago and I thought that the move to Mexico's high desert with low humidity had cured me. But alas, there is a gang here in San Miguel called the Orchid Club and it looks like they have lured me back. Last Fall, I was invited to their annual dinner so that I felt obligated to go to the Orchid show the next day. Between their kindness and generosity and the beauty of the orchids, I was forced to buy two. And that turned me on. I had to have more. Now I'm afraid that more is never enough.

 

Two weeks ago I was in Mexico City for the Orchid Expo....and I bought two more. I decided if I'm going to grow orchids I needed some help so I ordered a beautiful book, Understanding Orchids by William Cullina.  Today I talked friends into going to Celaya, can you believe it...on a Saturday....to the Celaya Expo de Flor. I bought three more orchids, a violet and a gorgeous white hydrangea. See, an orchid addiction just leads to other flowers. Now I have two violets because I bought one sad looking little violet at Home Depot earlier in the week.

 

The hydrangea? I don't know why I bought it. I've tried growing them here before but the soil isn't right for them so it is a battle to keep them nourished. But a white hydrangea is such an elegant flower and makes me think of lovely old southern homes with porches where you sat in a white wicker rocking chair wearing a pale blue linen dress in the late afternoon and drank tea, I really, really do have to try to get this hydrangea to grow so it can paint lovely pictures for me.

 

I do not know what kind of orchids I bought today. The one you see above is in a pot, one is on a piece of a tree and the other is mounted on a board. At least the ones I bought in Mexico City came with pedigrees.    

Mexico City Metro

Last weekend I was in Mexico City. What a great city. I took the bus there for a birthday party but as long as I was going to be there I stayed a few extra days. Margo from San Miguel also went for the party and we were staying at the same place, The Red Tree House in Condesa. Margo goes to Mexico City often so she became my guide to the public transportation system. While I don't have it all figured out, I've got a few of the basics so at least I can get from the Condesa/Roma area to the Zocalo or Bellas Artes or the Saturday Market.

I really like the Metrobus because you can see what the neighborhoods are like. The bus passed a huge Liverpool. For those of you who don't know, Liverpool is a department store like a Macy's. The one we have here in San Miguel is very small with a nice but limited selection. So, if I need to do some serious shopping, I can always just run over to Mexico City. Just kidding. In Queretaro about an hour away, a new shopping center has opened. Oops....it isn't a shopping center it is Antea Life Style Center. And it is said to be the largest shopping center or Life Style Center or mall or whatever you prefer, in Mexico and the second largest in Latin America. There is a Liverpool in it with about 100 other world name brand stores that you would recognize like Calvin Klein or Crate and Barrel. I haven't been there yet but hope to go this week.

Back to Mexico City. I had a fabulous time. I went to the Bellas Artes and saw Picasso Revealed by David Douglas Duncan. Duncan, an American war photographer, lived with Picasso many times while he was in Europe. He photographed Picasso at work and at play. The show was a juxtaposition of his photographs along with Picasso's drawings, ceramics and sculptures. One thing that really interested me was the many drawings that Picasso made of his studio especially the end of the studio that had three windows. They were the same studio but all different. It made me think of two artists who have focused on the same thing over and over. For example, Monet and the haystacks and of Josef Sudek and the many photographs he made of the window in his studio.

In a video of Duncan talking about Picasso, he tells that after he had made 1,000s of photographs of Picasso, he asked him if there were any that he would not want published. Picasso said something like, I paint. You photograph. You do what you want with the images.

Also at the Bellas Artes was a small exhibition of the photographs of Robert Doisneau, who was a contemporary of Henri Cartier Bresson.

What a thrill for me to see two wonderful exhibitions. But wait, there is more! I walked a couple of blocks from Bellas Artes to Palacio de Cultura Banamex on Madero and saw a fabulous exhibition of the Architecture of Mexico, 1900-2010.

Then my great accomplishment of the day....I found my way to the big Metro Station by Bellas Artes, found the line I needed going in the direction I needed to go, changed trains at the right station and got off at the right stop. The hardest part of all of this was figuring out which way I needed to go once I came up from the subway to walk back to the Red Tree House. I was confused but then I remembered my iPhone. No problems, the little GPS guided me right to Culiacan #6.

Frida in The Big Enchilada

This is just too, too good to leave as a comment or even an update at the end of the blog entry about The Big Enchilada. My fellow blogger and friend Cristina Potter made a comment on my blog entry and told me she had written about the exhibition, Appearances Can Deceive,  at Frida's Blue House. I read Cristina's blog, Mexico Cooks, but somehow I missed this.

Cristina was invited to a private showing of the exhibition and then she wrote the best review of the show I have seen and she has some great photographs from the show. You must read this review NOW! Click Here.

The Big Enchilada

 

The Big Enchilada, also known as Mexico City. Home to 22,000,000 Mexicans. That is where I was this past weekend. I love to go to Mexico City and my dream is that one of these days I'll rent an apartment there for a few weeks so I can get to know the city better, buy in the mercados, visit more of the amazing museums and walk the neighborhoods. This time I went with a group of eleven friends and we stayed at The Red Tree House, which was Tripadvisor's Winner of Traveler's Choice award for 2013. I've stayed there several times before and I love it but for the rest of our group it was a first time.  It is in Colonia Condesa, just a half block from Avenida Amsterdam and another block away from Parque Mexico. The neighborhood is full of art deco houses, small restaurants, coffee houses and shops.  I love walking there and in Colonia Roma which is adjacent to Condesa.

One of the things we did while we were there was go see Frida Kahlo's Blue House. I had been there before but I wanted to go again because Diego Rivera had put all of Frida's personal belongings away under lock and key after her death and it was only recently that the personal items were retrieved. The exhibition is called "Appearances Can Be Deceiving."

The exhibition was amazing. I've long admired her work and saw the huge exhibition of her work in Bellas Artes in Mexico City about five or six years ago. I saw the movie Frida. I've read books about her and about Diego Rivera. But seeing her clothing and personal items brought a different prospective to what I knew about her. I think the exhibition will be up until November and if you are in Mexico City it is a must see.

We also ate at some great restaurants. One of them was the San Angel Inn that was constructed in 1692 for a carmelite monastery. It had a most interesting history before becoming a restaurant but it has been a restaurant for many, many years. Still it is top-notch. There isn't a thing about the decor or the service that looks time worn. One of the things that I remember from years ago was the way they serve Margaritas. They deliver the salted glass and a silver decanter sitting in a small silver bucket with ice. I was so glad to see that the ritual has not changed.

Another restaurant that was quite fun was Nueve Nueve in Casa Lamm. Casa Lamm is a old mansion that now houses an art school, bookstore, galleries and the glassed-paneled restaurant is nestled into the garden so that it feels like you are sitting in the garden having a great meal.

I  also ate at MeroToro and Contramar both of which I would highly recommend and they are in walking distance of The Red Tree House. It was a great weekend. Now I just need to figure out when I can get reservations at The Red Tree House again and go back. And you, dear reader, this could be the starting point for your itinerary for a trip to The Big Enchilada.

Island of the Dolls

I went on a photography workshop with Jo Brenzo to Mexico City. Jo has been photographing in Xochimilco at the Island of the Dolls for many years. She and Eva Hunter published a book about the dolls and the man who collected them. The book, Lord of the Dolls, Voyage in Xochimilco, is now a collectible and can be found on Amazon.

A small part of the canals and islands that covered the lake bed of Mexico City at the time of the conquistadors still exists. On one small island way back on the canals where tourists do not usually go an old man collected dolls that he found and hung them in trees or stuck them up with stakes. It is a weird place. The dolls are in various states of decay. I elected to make portraits of some of the dolls because it is so chaotic that it is hard to make a coherent image of the over all environment.

It is a spooky place. I would not like to be left on the island at night.

If you would like to see the rest of the dolls I photographed, click here.