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El padrecito
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Wikipedia article
'El padrecito' ( "The Little Priest") is a 1964 Mexican comedy film directed by Miguel M. Delgado, starring Cantinflas, ngel Garasa and Rosa Mara Vzquez.Garca Riera, p. 35
Plot
When an elderly priest, Father Damin receives word that he will be replaced by a younger priest, he states his dread at leaving the parish refuses to accept his arrival, though he relents. Coming to replace him is the young priest Father Sebastin (played by Cantinflas) who is assigned to the parish in San Jernimo el Alto, where the town is indifferent to his arrival. Everyone around him gives him the cold shoulder, including Father Damin (played by ngel Garasa), and particularly Damin's sister, Sara. The only resident to instantly warm up to him is Sara's daughter Susana. Added to the woes are the forthcoming enmity from the town's 'cacique' Don Silvestre and his son Marcos.
Father Sebastin is at first struggling to adapt to the environment, but eventually his unconventional counsels begin to win over the townspeople, lecturing them on their duties in a modern society. Despite his unorthodox ways he manages to stay true to his Catholic ideals. Sometimes his actions are somewhat questionable, as when he refuses to baptize a child under a name that sounded too ugly, and by facing Marcos in a somewhat violent fashion. Still, other times his actions are noble, such as when he used the collection plate to redistribute the town's wealth more evenly. When accused of spreading communism, he quotes the 1891 socially conscious encyclical 'Rerum novarum'. He even ventures into politics, with a veiled attack on the municipal president couched into a sermon. Eventually, he brokers an irregular deal with Don Silvestre for some concessions for the poor of his parish.
When the overseeing bishop Juan Jos Romero arrives to confirm Father Sebastin's place in the parish, Father Sebastin pretends to have even more radical ideas for the church. Considering them too ludicrous Romero allows Father Damin to remain. In leaving, Father Sebastin gets the farewell crowd in a ten-fold, with the bishop revealing that Sebastin's tricks were not really what made him allow Father Damin to remain, but Father Sebastin's infuse of energy and determination.
Cast
*Cantinflas as Padre Sebastin
*ngel Garasa as Padre Damin
*Rosa Mara Vzquez as Susana
*Jos Elas Moreno as Don Silvestre
*Angelines Fernndez as Sara
*Rogelio Guerra as Marcos
*Florencio Castell as Don Nicanor
*Jorge Russek as Matas
*Arturo Castro as Nepomuceno
*Gerardo del Castillo as Womanizer
*Armando Gutirrez as Municipal President
*Jos Luis Moreno as Young Man (as Jose L. Moreno Lopez)
*Alfonso Torres as Don Felipe (as Alfonso Torres Macias)
*Mary Montiel as Young Man's Girlfriend
*Alberto Catal as Druggist
*Elodia Hernndez as Village Woman
*Alberto Galn as Padre Juan Jos Romero
*Cecilia Leger as Village Woman
*Ren Barrera as Villano
*Queta Carrasco as Neighbor
*Marcelo Lpez Linares (uncredited)
Reception
Critics generally viewed the film as typical of the later Cantinflas films, a moralizing feature slim on originality. However, some found the religious themes indicative of the spirit of Latin American Catholicism. Pope John XXIII called the Second Vatican Council only two years earlier, and Cantinflas seemed to be embracing the reforms it espoused as the remedy for Mexico's poverty.
Some accused Cantinflas of mocking the faith and the priesthood, but he assured his audience that his "message would be only positive, constructive, happy, human, Christian." The Latin American contingent of seminarians in Rome apparently shared his assessment, and wrote him a grateful letter.
Some Cantinflas biographers, however, saw political overtones in the film. The book 'Filmhistoria' claims that in the film Cantinflas implicitly helped Mexico's then-ruling party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), stating that when the PRI was "threatened by the growing numbers of impoverished Mexicans", Cantinflas "intervened in the current social debate through his film", noting that, while his character was initially presented "in the reformist spirit of the Second Vatican Council", in the end he "gives his approval to closed-door political machinations, winning concessions from the boss [Don Silvestre] by cutting a deck of cards, rather than by leading the people to liberate themselves."'Filmhistoria', p. 199200 In 'Looking for Mexico: Modern Visual Culture and National Identity', John Mraz stated that "under the guise of being nonideological", in the film Cantinflas "openly encouraged an antipolitical solution to Mexico's problems, suggesting [...] that entering into politics is a cardinal sin."Mraz, p. 128
References
Bibliography
*Garca Riera, Emilio. 'Historia documental del cine mexicano: 1964'. Ediciones Era, 1969.
*'Filmhistoria'. Volume 9. Promociones y Publicaciones Universitarias, 1999.
*Mraz, John. 'Looking for Mexico: Modern Visual Culture and National Identity'. Duke University Press, 2009.
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