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Photo copyright by Cinetica Producciones
VALLDEMOSSA - THE MOST BEAUTIFUL PLACE IN THE WORLD ?
Documentary, 52 minutes
Year of production: 2010
Director: Alix Francois Meier
Cameraman: Claus Langer
Production: Cinetica Producciones
Versions: English,
French, German
In the winter 1838-39, French composer Frédéric Chopin and his lady-friend Aurore Dupin (pen name: George Sand) went with her children to Valldemossa, Mallorca, looking for a suitable climate to improve the health of the musician. During their stay Chopin composed the 24 Préludes of his Opus 28, and George Sand wrote her famous book One winter in Mallorca. Of course the cultural differences, the cold and rain of a specially hard winter, their isolation and the illness of Chopin made of that stay a difficult period for all of them, who decided to leave Valldemossa much earlier than foreseen.
In spite of all these trouble, they fell in love with the country and the landscape around the village, as also happened with another famous couple, Michael Douglas and his actual wife Catherine Zeta-Jones. But they are not the only ones.
Things have deeply changed since the visit of Chopin and Sand, and now, in Valldemossa one finds people from all around the world. The integration is much easier than almost two centuries ago and the character of the locals is far more open.
After 170 years, and thanks to the stay of Chopin and Sand, Valldemossa is one of the most known villages in Spain. The producer Alix François Meyer, who knows Valldemossa since ten years, has followed during the last years the life of some of the inhabitants like the postman Sebastià Morey, the American Ruth Ells, the Mayor Jaume Vila or the young sales clerk Cecilia Vidal Bethencourt.
His documentary alternates intimate scenes with fictitious ones, which have been shot with actors and extras which we found in the village. These scenes illustrate the stay of George Sand and Fréderic Chopin and try to answer two questions: who are he valldemossins –as the locals are called- and how much has the village changed since 1839..
(c) by Cinetica Producciones, 2010
For licensing and more information please contact:
Björn Jensen
email: jensen(at)gingerfoot.de
Photo copyright by Cinetica Producciones
