79 Springs

A mood of light melancholy on another grey Scottish winter's day found me thinking on my long-gone young manhood and on films from it that have particularly stood in my mind for 35 years or so. One such is 79 Springs by the Cuban director Santiago Alvarez (1919-1998) to which I was introduced by an older woman who had loved me and taken me in at the time. I was 19 or so and she 10 years older. And to her I'd like now to say thanks for much of making the best parts of the person I am today. I've always been a lucky lad. And on that note a quote from Senor Alvarez:



"The advertisements of capitalism are, in fact, much better than the product. The Jesuits were their precursors. Remember that saying about giving them a child? Remember too the famous old-style Coca-Cola bottle? Why do you think it was designed like that? Feel it and you will find out. It is in the shape of a woman wearing the long dresses of teatime. When a woman has a good body, we say in Cuba that she is Coca-Cola."



Footnote: Whilst blogging on this came across news from ELF on the DVD of his work due for imminent realease.