El Hogar de Alaska

In my favorite Almodovar movie, Pepi, Lucy, Bom y las otras chicas del monton, Spain's new wave sensation, Alaska appears aged 16 as a punk rock teen who seduces a downtrodden housewife from Murcia, the video is of her singing a love song called "Murciana" - the lyrics are priceless. She is still performing, now with Fangoria, and is remarkable for supporting gay rights and for dressing in a fabulous 1980s way even today. In the most camp article ever to appear in HOLA and there is a lot to choose from, Alaka and her husband Mario (who is also her manager and looks a bit like Marilyn Manson with less make up) were featured in the home decoration section of the magazine. Every issue opens with a spread revealing the posh estate of some petty aristocrat, international celeb, fashion designer, former supermodel, millionaire and the like. People like Donald Trump, Isabel Preysler, Oscar de la Renta, Tita Thyssen, lady Di's brother, the owner of the Freixenet champagne company, etc.

Usually the homes are either Swiss style ski chalets, French Louis something style palaces, preppy chintz-laden type, something conventionally officially "tasteful" and expensive and usually very very tacky. Sometimes you get over the top campy like the home of Dolce & Gabanna. But most of the time, it's aristocratic-aspirational style. So it was truly fabulous to open my HOLA and see the Madrid home of Alaska and Mario. Somebody at HOLA must have a sense of humor and got the couple's campy parodic take on the pretentious and hackneyed section. The home's silver kitchen which looks like a morgue was described by Alaska in the accompanying interview, she said it was inspired by Warhol's Factory.





We also saw his and her bathrooms: hers in a neo-Keane big-eyed painting and Barbie theme all in red, and her husband's, wallpapered with photos of Elvis.





But the best of all was the paradigmatic living room shot. Alaska totally worked the traditional HOLA lady pose. But she is reading, and the coffee table is full of, vintage Spanish porno magazines from the period after Franco died, when porno proliferated with the end of censorship. The best part is that one of them has the fabulous Bibiana Fernandez on the cover - Bibi formerly known as Bibi Andersen, has appeared in several of Almodovar's films and is Spain's most famous transgendered person. Alaska's TV set features a video of the famous series "El Coraje de Vivir" which was like a telenovela featuring a cancer-riddled Lola Flores telling her own life story, complete with VERY dramatic re-enactments. She had been accused of tax evasion, so the story is that she made the series for Spanish government TV to pay it off.

At the far left you can see Lola Flores' face on the TV screen.

Here are clips from Coraje de Vivir:




from there on You Tube you can see more (you will want to, there is NOTHING better than Lola Flores)

Morena Clara

Aside from the fact that the late Lola Flores was the greatest singer and dancer in Spanish history, I would love her just for her role in the deeply camp, ironic and subtext-heavy Morena Clara. So many of the movies made under Franco found ways to undermine and work against the draconian censorship, but to me the ways in which this movie deals with gender, class and race politics is astounding. Lola plays an insouciant gypsy girl who is taken from her slovenly and lazy gypsy relations and adopted by a dandyish andalusian aristocrat in order to "re-educate" her in his lovely Orientalist style country estate. The opening sequence gives a surreal survey of Spanish history with the two leads - Lola and Fernando Fernan Gomez - cast in various historical guises: for example, Lola as a Moorish temptress and he as a victorious Christian conqueror.

You get the picture. The subjugated others are translated into a fiery female. It's so obvious that it's priceless. The whole concept of "reeducation" is also ironic because this is during a time when the regime was literally trying to reeducate those unfortunate enough to have been Republicans still living in the country. The title is also telling a dark light woman- she is not quite Gypsy/not quite Spanish (ie. White) a native informant who moves between the big house and the slave quarters, mediating between her marginalized family members and friends who are usually shown lounging in the fields or breaking into flamenco song and dance - the Spanish version of minstrels. Black skin/white masks - she is supposed to be lucky because she can "pass" and the white aristocrat welcomes her into his home in order to redeem her.

In this scene, Lola performs the title song, and in none-too-subtle foreshadowing, we see how the white aristocratic and rational male is overwhelmed by her sultry passion. It's hilarious.