Mallorca in the movies, frame by frame

PalmThe culture produced in the Balearic Islands over the last hundred years has often addressed the transformation of the territory. This has frequently been a conscious endeavor, as in the case of numerous authors and musicians, from Guillem Frontera to Joana Gomila, including some of the artists who gathered around the Taller Llunàtic. For others, however, establishing this conversation about the changes the islands' landscape has undergone requires the intervention of attentive and engaged observers, as has been the case with researchers and professors at the University of the Balearic Islands, Magdalena Brotons and Maria Sebastián. Since 2020, they have dedicated themselves to uncovering the Mallorcan locations that served as film sets throughout the 20th century, a task that has culminated in the publication of the digital book Mallorca filmed, the transformation of the territory through cinema (Leonario Muntaner, Editor).

"It was during the summer of 2020 that a new call for research grants was issued by the Institute of Balearic Studies, and Magdalena suggested I apply for this research project. It was right after the pandemic; we still couldn't travel, and we felt it was a good time. We stopped: first, watching the films, and then, searching for all the locations," Sebastián recalls. The first thing they did, in fact, was to narrow down their scope: their research would focus on fiction films shot in Mallorca during the 20th century, which meant excluding documentaries, short films, and series, and also that their work had a beginning and an end. It would begin with Hawthorn Flower, filmed in 1925 and directed by Jaime Ferrer, and would end in 2000 with The seaby Agustí Villaronga. In between, some thirty films with dozens of locations that both researchers planned to visit and photograph in order to establish a comparative analysis between film stills and the present day.

The physiognomy of Ciudad

On the same Born promenade where, in 1985, one of the performers ofOne, two, three, ensaimadas each timeIn the film directed by Lluís Solivellas, the chairs and tables of a bar's terrace now reign supreme. Most of the shops that appear in this film, located on Jaume II Street, in the Plaça Major, and on Jaume III, have either been replaced by franchises and chains or, worse, are premises where Sebastián and Brotons found the barrier down or the 'Es lloga' sign. Nor is there any trace of the window display of Llibres Mallorca, in operation from 1948 until 2015, and past which one of the protagonists of the film passed. Bert (Lluís Casasayas, 1998), who also visited another now-defunct establishment in Ciutat, Es Refugi.

"The other day I was walking through the Creu neighborhood, where my parents live, and I was thinking what a shame we haven't found any films shot there," shares Magdalena Brotons, "because now it's all art galleries and shops catering to tourists. It's true we have photographs, but with film footage, the camera moves in a way that lets you explore the places, and it's interesting. But the shops also give you a sense of the places and the times.

Brutal Transformations

These are just a few recent examples of the changes Palma has undergone, the municipality that hosted most of the film shoots documented in the book, which also includes stills from much older films where the contrast with the present is even more striking. This is the case, for example, with a scene from the film The Star of ValenciaAlfred Zeisler's photograph, taken on Riera Street in 1933, shows the Teatro Principal, but no trace of the steps leading to the Plaza Mayor, which wouldn't be built until the implementation of the Alomar Plan. Also striking are the selected frames fromThe secret of the hailstormDirected by Francisco Aguiló in 1926, this film shows the tram passing in front of Cort and the impressive changes that the areas around La Rambla and Plaça d'Espanya, among others, have undergone.

However, numerous scenes from films of all genres were also shot outside of Palma during the 20th century – the diversity of themes in films shot in Mallorca ranges from adventure films of Sinbad and the Princess and Black Jack to dramas like The time of happiness...and numerous comedies. One of the most striking locations, in fact, is the change that can be seen today compared to the films shot between the 1920s and 1930s, such as The smuggler's girlfriendIt's Cala de Sant Vicenç, in Pollença. "You see the images from the 1930s and it breaks your heart," Brotons admits, while her colleague describes it as "one of the most brutal transformations we've been able to document." "In any case, we were surprised that, while there are numerous films shot in coastal areas, there are few in tourist centers, which is where these exaggerated changes would probably be more noticeable," Maria Sebastián continues. "Whereas, in films shot in other locations, what's striking is noticing changes that might go unnoticed in everyday life and that, for me, are symptomatic of the times we live in, where everything changes so quickly." In fact, the two art history professors photographed the area around the Hotel Mediterráneo in Palma in 2021 to compare it with stills from films like Holidays in Mallorca, from 1959, and Find me that girlFrom 1964, directed by Giorgio Bianchi and by Fernando Palacios and George Sherman, respectively. Four years later, after the last renovation of the seafront promenade, the photographs by Brotons and Sebastián are also part of the past.

The publication, edited by Lleonard Muntaner exclusively as a digital book, contains more than five hundred photographs. "It's not the first time we've done it this way," replies editor Maria Muntaner, "because we had a first experience with an exclusively digital book at the beginning of the year, also with a project by Maria Sebastián, in this case with Júlia Roman." Paths of modernityThese are books where the visual aspect plays a significant role, and in this one... Mallorca filmed Not only were there many images, but it's also very extensive; it would have been about 600 pages if we had printed it, so we decided to go with a digital version only. Digital books are a very small part of our catalog, but in the end, they allow us to release these kinds of projects. Among others, there's a comparison between the dance scenes that appear in the film version of Bearn directed by Jaime Chávarri, filmed in the early eighties in the building that housed the Círculo Mallorquín, now the Parliament, and a shooting schedule and fragments of the censorship report ofThe Executioner, by Luis García Berlanga. Another film that occupies numerous pages of the work, and deservedly so, is The Magician, directed by Guy Green in 1968.

The Wizard's chalet

"To realize this, you'd have to go looking for exactly that, and even then, you'd have to look very closely," explains Magdalena Brotons, "because there's not a trace left. But on what's known as Playa del Mago (Magician's Beach), which we all know gets its name precisely from the film that was going to be built there, it was later demolished." And what's more, the researchers managed to locate the file and reproduce its plans in the book. It was 1967 when the permit was requested for the construction of a 260-square-meter chalet, designed by the architect Carlos Sobrón, which had no other purpose than to serve as a set for the film, as the authors point out. "It's the most striking alteration of all those we've found, and probably the one that carries the most weight in the collective memory, but it's by no means the only one," Sebastián recounts. In the same film, there is at least one other: a small chapel that attempts to emulate traditional Greek architecture in the Port of Andratx, transformed into the port of the Greek island of Phraxos for the film, although they have been unable to locate any further information about this other structure.

They also haven't been able to access all the locations they had planned after identifying the most significant ones from the thirty or so films included in the analysis. "Some of them were filmed in so many places that one would have been enough for the entire book," the authors explain, "so we decided to use them to compare with those locations that didn't appear in any other film. However, we were unable to access the Hotel Formentor, for example, because at that time the devi." Another location they were unable to visit is Marivent Palace, where they did not obtain permission from the Royal Household to document the current state of the building's exterior. It is one of the film's settings. Mortal anguishFilmed in 1968 and starring Michael Caine. "Actually, you see him climb a wall, which is the one belonging to the Little Sisters of the Poor, in General Riera," explains Maria Sebastian, "and when he jumps he doesn't land there but in Marivent. It's the magic of cinema!"