The Movie Teller (La contadora de películas)

I grew up in the driest part of the world.

Our village was built in the desert where they found the Salitre.

My father worked for the mining company.

All the men did it.

We, the children, were eagerly waiting for something to happen.

But when it happened, some got scared.

I didn't.

What are you doing?

Nobody?

No, it's a mess.

I'm worried about you.

I'm coming.

No.

Nica?

No, not there.

THE MOVIE TELLER

ATACAMA DESERT, CHILI, 1966

Please, don't do it.

Let me pay half an hour and I'll pay the rest next week.

No, you can't, sir.

I'll put up with it.

We'll find a solution for you.

Do you remember what I said?

Mm-hmm.

When you know...

How nice.

Thank you.

...your son will come to you.

I know he'll never leave you.

I know.

Even if you suffer for me and leave me, you won't want to see me again.

But that's what you're saying.

I know it won't be like that.

I'm sure my great love for you is real.

Juan Pablo asked me to divorce the Emerald.

I'm her father.

I don't know, Juan Pablo.

I don't know.

Onions?

Yes.

The flowers you gave me,

when you loved me,

were blinded by your inconstancy.

And all my life, all my life,

you are the hope in my soul.

The promise you made,

to love me forever,

I will tell you when I die.

And all my life, all my life,

you are the hope

in my soul.

We're going to watch a movie by John Wayne.

The best judge in history.

It's good.

Yeah, it's good.

Hey, would you like to have a drink?

No.

Let's go to the house.

I'm with a tremendous woman waiting for me in the house.

I love it.

Go to work.

And they start going out together again.

To luxurious food, dance halls.

But she is much younger than him.

Like you and my father.

No, even more.

Carrie Cooper was about fifty years old.

And she wasn't even twenty-five.

Sally?

Are you busy in the bathroom?

Good night, dad.

Good night, my baby.

So they meet again at the opera.

But he doesn't trust her.

Because she is famous for having many lovers.

Why did you marry my dad?

Didn't you like him at all?

In those years, he didn't look as big as me.

I hit him in the face and he didn't look like that.

I don't like scared children either.

Every day was exactly the same.

Except Sundays.

My dad was given the name Medardo from Perillas.

He had a fixation with the names that started with M.

Since he fell in love with his mom, Martina, and his dad, Magno.

Maria Magnolia, I'm waiting for you.

Mariano, the eldest, loved westerns.

Myrto, the middle-aged, preferred comedies.

Football and women.

Myrto!

I'm coming!

Marcelino, the third of my siblings, loved everything in black and white.

Marcelino?

Hurry up!

Hurry up!

I was almost baptized as Marilina.

In honor of Mari Limon.

Who was nobody when she was called Norma Jean, according to my dad.

My mom threatened to break up.

Hurry up, kid! I'm going to be late!

So in the end, they named me Maria Margarita.

Are you going to hit me again?

Why conform with your sister Lucia?

Being able to be a star.

And her name was Maria Magnolia.

12 months.

If it hadn't been for that, my dad would have married her anyway.

Because she was mysterious and loved movies like him.

Although they always made her sad.

Nobody ever knew where she was from.

Some said she was from the other side of the mountain range.

And God opened the sea with his powerful breath.

It's not that my dad was very poor.

He was reciting a scene from the Ten Commandments.

Sundays were my dad's happiest moment.

Like when Moisés opened the Red Sea.

Here, daughter.

I have dust on my face.

Here you go.

It's broken.

It's the only one I have.

A bottle of pololeum and some palomino eggs, please.

Yes, of course.

And some chocolates for me, please.

Yes, sir.

Allow me to invite you, Mrs. Castillo.

No, no.

I insist.

The blue one looks great on you.

One for you and one for me.

Here you go.

Thank you.

Did you buy them, Mr. Hauser?

We're in line four.

Let's go.

Hurry up.

Good afternoon.

Marion Michael Morrison.

Three of them.

How are you going to do a movie with John Wayne?

How? Obviously.

Obviously.

John Wayne, he...

He's the fastest in the world.

I don't know if he's that good.

I knew it from the beginning.

He was a great actor.

He was the one who made fun of everyone.

You don't know what I'm glad to have had

such an avid son.

But would it be possible that

out of every five words you said,

at least two wouldn't be two?

And what does the journalist tell the protagonist

when he's about to tell the truth?

They tell him.

When the legend becomes a fact,

isn't that right?

Then he writes about the legend.

And what does he mean by that?

He means that although sometimes

reality isn't as interesting as

the lie,

as the movie says,

the lie always has a price.

1860,

by the miner José Santos Sosa.

Salitre is one of the main riches

in our country.

Has it always been like that?

Yes.

After the Pacific War,

Bolivia was defeated

and the Atacama Desert became Chile.

Does anyone know why

the salitre is used?

For fertilizers.

Exactly.

Anything else?

Sausage.

Correct.

Anything else?

Powder.

Someone said we're made

of the same material as dreams.

I think we're made

of the same material as movies.

And sometimes

movies have that magical power,

just like the dreams

of predicting the future.

Medardo.

What are you doing?

Medardo.

The wheel, Luis.

There, there, it's fine.

There?

Here's the wheel.

Sign it down there.

And no, Mirta, please.