hijos del coche...

TVChile's been showing the promo for their upcoming novela "Hijos del Monte" and it's gorgeous, in spite of looking a bit like a car commercial at the end. If anyone can tell me what music being used here is, please let me know. Take a look:

gotas de novelas...

Well, now that I've told Gina about this blog, perhaps I should post a bit more frequently. Even once a month would be a 400% improvement over my current posting rate...

My current novela project is combing the web and local record stores (yes, they still exist) for songs and albums that ended up with snippets as part of the "La Fiera" soundtrack. I'm having moderate success so far. So, in honor of Rosedrop, I'll see if I can embed a link for Nicole's "Noche" (a.k.a. Gotas de miel)...

It's winter in Dalcahue...

I finally finished La Fiera – it could turn out to be my all-time favorite telenovela. The locations (on the Isla Grande de Chiloe) were exquisite; the acting, top-notch. Mostly I fell in love with the characters. And what an interesting idea for a novela – take Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew as a jumping-off point, but break with the misogyny of the original and tell a more feminist love story, imbued with the local Chiloe culture and myths to create a novela that is distinctly Chilean.

La Fiera, like many of the novelas produced by TVN (Television Nacional de Chile) also has excellent music. However, I don’t think they’re in the habit of commissioning an original soundtrack. Instead, TVN seems to have mastered the art of putting together soundtracks using contemporary music and popular songs, as well as the art of recycling snippets of movie soundtracks to serve as scene background music. Morricone seems to be a favorite (there were most definitely selections from “The Mission” played during some critical scenes); I’m also now combing the racks of record stores (yes, they still exist) for a copy of “The Polish Wedding” soundtrack (composer is Luis Bacalov, who also wrote the soundtrack for Il Postino)…

Well, I can say I’m now hooked on Chilean novelas. I’m now finishing up TVN’s “Estupido Cupido” (1995) – and in real time I’m watching their “Viuda Alegre and “El Señor de la Querencia” on TV Chile. Add to that my continued group viewing of TV Caracol’s “Pecados Capitales” (Colombia, 2002) and I’d say my novela plate is full. Maybe it’s just as well that I can’t find any novelas on the “regular” Spanish-language broadcast channels that hold my interest these days…

Really... this novela blog is not dead.

I created this blog ages ago to post thoughts on telenovelas, and subsequently abandoned it – which by no means means that I have abandoned telenovelas – quite the opposite.

So to start: what on earth am I watching these days? I’ve given up on the Televisa offerings on Univision. Either my Spanish has greatly improved, or Televisa’s novelas have gotten worse and worse. I suspect it is a bit of both. Telemundo’s offerings don’t excite me much either, although I confess that I’m still recording Pecados Ajenos, mostly because of the cast, and Victoria, because as an experiment I’m thinking of one day doing a side-by-side viewing of Victoria and Mirada de Mujer. But to be honest, I think Telemundo’s morning rerun of an edited Gitanas is better than any of their current productions.

I still haven’t answered the question! What I’m watching:

Hasta Que La Plata Nos Separe: One of the latest offerings from RCN of Colombia to make it to our screens via Telefutura, this is currently my favorite! It’s a tragi-comedy brought to you by Fernando Gaitan, the writer responsible for the current worldwide Betty-mania. Now I have to confess, as much as I loved the writing of Betty La Fea and was pegada to the novela when I finally did get around to watching some of it, I just found too much of the workplace fashion industry drama as presented depressing, and couldn’t relate to quite a few of the characters. So sue me. But HQLPNS? Marcela Carvajal as Alejandra Maldonado is just wonderful – and so many of the characters are rather peculiar but charming – and supported by extremely strong writing, for which I am truly thankful.

Pecados Capitales – Another Colombian novela – not currently being broadcast, but I’m watching via DVD. Non-traditional and very funny: think RealWorld/BigBrother/Survivor etc., but without the bad music and boring pauses – and more surreal, with much better writing.

La Fiera – I’m finishing my viewing of the novela, thanks to DVDs being provided by a friend, because STUPID DISH NETWORK got rid of TVChile to supposedly make room for more HD channels. I must not be their target demographic, if they don’t get that I’d prefer low-resolution quality programming content to high resolution crappy TV. I just hope I can get Sure West cable hooked up in time for TVChile’s new offering in March – Viuda Alegre.

Pura Sangre – This one’s also on Telefutura, also Colombian. I started watching but got hopeless behind. I still have hopes of catching up….