"La gata" = "The (Female) Cat", La gata = female, El gato = male), a super glossy soap opera, Argentinian style (1947) with a walking/talking fashion sketch (Zully Moreno) as the "Gata" in this story, an incredibly elegant actress, presented here with the utmost care from her splendiferous ice blonde mane, done to perfection for every scene to her make up, impeccable in the longest close ups in the history of the cinema, to her clothes, fitting her runway model body --18 inch waist!-- like a glove.
Her acting ability a bit impaired by so much perfection and glossy lipstick, but her camera angles always perfect.
She even played --passionately!-- the piano without ever looking at the keyboard and every so often arranged a curl that came out of place (slightly so) while the piano continued playing -surprisingly- by itself, and at the same time was able to talk to Alberto Closas (her Catalan Beau in the story) and took care of the light beam falling exactly on her cheeks, all these feats without missing a note or making mistakes!! (Can you imagine? not even Liberace when he was at the top of his career as a pianist was so accomplished!!!)
The story is a bit far-fetched (but who cares as long as Zully is most of the time in close-close close-ups with her radiantly glossy ice blond tresses, sparkling lips and diamond bracelets): An obsessed woman (Zully) with this gorgeous mansion that she lost, unable to pay the mortgage (I think she spent too many Pesos in clothes and hairdressers, something very risky and thoughtless of her, considering the chronic devaluation of the Argentinian currency) and now an architect called by another female that hates her (the new owner of the house, equally elegant if that's possible) to value the property that is coming down in pieces suggests that it may be better to torn it down and construct a new house in its place, something that will derange Zully out of her latest hairdo (although in her case that was unheard of in all her cinematographic career), because she will loose all her memories with the destruction of the old mansion (who seems to be her only object of desire, besides clothes, jewels, foulards, mascara, tons of "Ash Ice Blonde" hair-color and hairdressers).
The playing and interacting of the actors are standard soap opera, and so are the camera moves, perfected to a sort of theatrical wooden art, like the pages of a glossy fashion magazine, but with movement and sound.
It's a quite enjoyable movie if you care for soap operas, in Spanish spoken with strong Argentinian accents.
Her acting ability a bit impaired by so much perfection and glossy lipstick, but her camera angles always perfect.
She even played --passionately!-- the piano without ever looking at the keyboard and every so often arranged a curl that came out of place (slightly so) while the piano continued playing -surprisingly- by itself, and at the same time was able to talk to Alberto Closas (her Catalan Beau in the story) and took care of the light beam falling exactly on her cheeks, all these feats without missing a note or making mistakes!! (Can you imagine? not even Liberace when he was at the top of his career as a pianist was so accomplished!!!)
The story is a bit far-fetched (but who cares as long as Zully is most of the time in close-close close-ups with her radiantly glossy ice blond tresses, sparkling lips and diamond bracelets): An obsessed woman (Zully) with this gorgeous mansion that she lost, unable to pay the mortgage (I think she spent too many Pesos in clothes and hairdressers, something very risky and thoughtless of her, considering the chronic devaluation of the Argentinian currency) and now an architect called by another female that hates her (the new owner of the house, equally elegant if that's possible) to value the property that is coming down in pieces suggests that it may be better to torn it down and construct a new house in its place, something that will derange Zully out of her latest hairdo (although in her case that was unheard of in all her cinematographic career), because she will loose all her memories with the destruction of the old mansion (who seems to be her only object of desire, besides clothes, jewels, foulards, mascara, tons of "Ash Ice Blonde" hair-color and hairdressers).
The playing and interacting of the actors are standard soap opera, and so are the camera moves, perfected to a sort of theatrical wooden art, like the pages of a glossy fashion magazine, but with movement and sound.
It's a quite enjoyable movie if you care for soap operas, in Spanish spoken with strong Argentinian accents.
