Column of Josep Maria Baget Herms (Barcelona, 1944-2004) a The Vanguard (11-IV-1980). Own translation. This month marks twenty years since the death of Baget, and today marks two months since the death of the model, businesswoman and actress Teresa Gimpera (Igualada, 1936-Barcelona, 2024). He was the protagonist of the film The Morgana girl directed by Vicente Aranda in 1965, but not programmed in Spain until 1967. The television critic Baget Herms reviewed it in this pre-broadcast commentary that TVE’s Second Program announced for Sunday, April 13, 1980. Baget’s article exudes a certain nostalgia for the years when the so-called “gauche divine” was revealed, in which the personality of Teresa Gimpera stood out, an actress to whom that journalist and university professor attributed a “disturbing beauty” in this piece.
At the time -1965- The Morgana girl it caused a considerable impact on the country’s cinematographic class and can be considered in some way as the “manifesto” of what was called the “school of Barcelona”. Vicente Aranda – who had co-directed Bright future with Romà Gubern – departed from the “nuevo cine español” of a more or less social-testimonial nature to present a cold, distant and not easy-to-read story that directly opposed the Madrid cinema -or “mesetario”- of the Saura , Patino, etc. The Morgana girl it offered the alternative of a European, intellectualized cinema, which did not criticize the social reality of the country but did without it Olympicly. The world of The Morgana girl it is that of advertising models (Teresa Gimpera), the new sculptural forms (Corberó) and of an unspecific time and place. A vague hope hangs over a famous model in a city whose inhabitants are fleeing in droves for unexplained reasons. There is no beginning to the story and practically no denouement either. Interesting to review today The Morgana girla fascinating and enigmatic film in which the haunting beauty of Teresa Gimpera and the excellent photography of Aurelio Larraya stand out. Professor Romà Gubern wrote in the magazine Our cinema that “it is not, in any way, the classic film with a hidden key, but an open film (…). Affective intuition, and not reason, is what leads the viewer along this hermetic journey through the realm of death and chaos, and the only thing that can be admitted at an interpretive level is a psychoanalysis of the author through his work”. Today that the “school of Barcelona” is a pale memory – even denied by some of its protagonists – it will be curious to recover the images of Girl Morgana…
Source: www.ara.cat
