El automóvil gris (The Grey Automobile)

Between May 2002 and March 2003, I worked with Mexican director Claudio Valdés Kuri to translate the script and design subtitles for his theatrical production El automóvil gris/The Grey Automobile, which currently is on tour. The protagonist of the play is the 1919 Mexican silent film of the same name. This film is perhaps the most important silent film in Mexico. It is also decidedly “postmodern” insofar as it resists the distinction between fact and fiction. Many of the actors/actresses play themselves and the final footage of the film documents the actual execution of the band of robbers “The Grey Automobile Gang.” Relying upon Japanese Benshi-style narrators and a musician for interpretation, the Spanish version of the play oscillates between two turn-of-the-century Mexico Cities. Valdés Kuri insisted that I take “poetic liberties” throughout the translation process. His attitude firmly established my position as the fourth Benshi of the production. Walter Benjamin has written, “The task of the translator consists in finding that intended effect upon the language into which s/he is translating which produces in it the echo of the original.” Consistently, I searched for visual and aural echoes in the forms and contents of my translation. Perhaps the most challenging and rewarding moment of the process occurred for me in the conflation of the task of the translator and the task of the spectator/poet. For the climatic scene of the film, Valdés Kuri suggested that I write a visual poem that would “translate” the emotions the characters felt in the final hours before their execution. I chose to create a motion-based poem, which not only is choreographed by the scene, but codeswitches between Spanish and English. Graphic designer Dmitry Kmelnitsky animated my efforts. Valdés Kuri and I plotted out the poem’s trajectory, even as Kmelnitsky added his own poetic flourishes in terms of the text’s visuality. The result exemplifies collaboration, approximating the spirit that propelled the production. Click here for more on the context of El automóvil gris/The Grey Automobile.

THE LAST SUPPER/LA ULTIMA CENA

COUP DE GRACE: COUP DE THE-ATRE-vi-mien-to. 
FLASH(alimenta al desaliento)BACK, “the real” OF
A LIFE (SUDDEN, SODDEN). Out, out(POURING)—
THICK POLLING OF SHADOW, BLACK/WHITE
(enter GREY). Ni RELOJ de ARENA, ni AGUAcero.
Una especie se casa con un espíe. “I DO” imbricating “TE JURO…”
FI-NA-LE: SEPA/repa-ra-tion. The BAROQUE, anti-
dotal EN-TRO-PY, the RANGE OF e-MOTION,
PASSION at PLAY… “(el resto es incomprensible).” 
 
 

Click here for a film excerpt.
Click here for still shots from the film.