Cinema
Vocation?
¿Vocación?
Rina Massardi · 1938
Synopsis
Eva Lauri, the daughter of a foreman in a marble quarry, is a young woman of modest background who dreams of becoming an opera singer. She leaves her family to study singing, sustained by her faith in her vocation. The story partly retraces the life of its author, herself the daughter of a marble worker, who plays Eva and lets her soprano voice be heard on screen.
Context
Shot in 1936 and 1937 and released in Montevideo in August 1938, the film is Rina Massardi's only feature: she wrote, directed and produced it and played the lead, and also took charge of the sets, costumes and editing. The idea came to her after a trip to the United States in 1934. For lack of equipment in the country, she brought in technicians from abroad, including an Italian cameraman, and shot partly in a studio disturbed by the noise of trams. The film runs sixty-three minutes; she sold it to the Uruguayan state in 1977.
Who it is for
For a rare film, led from start to finish by an opera singer, in the early days of Uruguayan sound cinema.
Prizes and reception
Released without great public success, it was presented in 1939 at the Venice Film Festival and shown in Argentina, Chile and Venezuela.