Cine > Parejas de baile > Representación y exceso > Alejandro Melero Parejas de baile ESPAÑOL ENGLISH FRANÇAIS REPRESENTATION AND EXCESS DIFERENTE (LUIS M. DELGADO, 1961) AND MARISOL RUMBO A RÍO (FERNANDO PALACIOS, 1963) BY ALEJANDRO MELERO «And forget the “little girl”, I’ve grown up and I’m a woman now. You know, I’m a young woman». These were the opening words Marisol used in Muchachita, the musical number in Marisol rumbo a Río (Fernando Palacios, 1963), her third film after the massive box office success of Ha llegado un ángel (1961) and Tómbola (1962), both directed by that star talent spotter, Luis Lucia. Similar words seem to want to float from the lips of the hero of Diferente (Luis María Delgado, 1961), a musical from the same era that tells the story of a young homosexual who finds, like innocent Marisol, that nobody will grant him the seal of approval that is reserved for adults. Both films are examples of cinema at a time when the musical genre was restricted by the two straitjackets holding back the genre in Spain: folklore and films with a child star. Both move around a similar neurotic terrain that encourages them to escape from the very conventions they are simultaneously compelled to embrace. The following analysis focuses on these films in order to examine a part of Spanish film musical scene in the early 60s and their representation of the conflicts that came with the new concept of maturity new generations of Spaniards were delineating, in opposition to the mania for the infantile that belonged to the past. The film Diferente, by Luis M. Delgado a director versatile in all manner of films for the mass public (and co-directed in the musical sequences by the hero and scriptwriter, the dancer Alfredo Alaria), was a commercial failure and attracted a mere 52,825 spectators on its release. The passage of time led to interest in this oddity, that was brought back to the screen in the Spanish Transition in double bills with another film with a homosexual theme, El diputado (Eloy de la Iglesia, 1978). Even so, there are few studies of this film and what there is comes from critics and academics more interested in issues of censorship than in queer studies. For example, the TVE series Imágenes prohibidas (Miquel Romero, 1994), on censorship and the cinema under Franco, points to it as «an exceptional case, incomprehensible from any point of view, a unique case in the context of the repression and cuts experienced by films at the time». Astonishment at the fact that any film with a homosexual theme could have survived the censors’ filter has dominated the debate around Diferente, thus deferring any analysis of the actual film. Each of the scant studies of the film offers a rationale to explain this strange phenomenon. For example, Juan Carlos Alfeo en «El sentimiento de culpa y la idea de pecado» opines that «the censors was taken aback, left speechless and didn’t know what to do, so they did nothing and let the bold images pass» (in Dossiers Feministes, 1998, p. 144). Alberto Mira develops his analysis and concludes that «although the censors perceive CVC. Parejas de baile. Representación y exceso, por Alejandro Melero. http://cvc.cervantes.es/artes/cine/parejas/melero.htm?en 1 de 4 19/05/2014 10:04