While posting on Facebook, a friend of mine mentioned a new Netflix LGBQ+ acquisition he was watching, “The Dance of the 41” that featured majolica. Of course I immediately signed onto Netflix to see what he was talking about.
Named “El Baile de los 41” in the original Spanish, the name is a gentrification derived from the turn of the century Mexican scandal "los 41 maricones" which euphemistically translates to “the 41 homosexuals” in English. The movie is a 2020 film from Mexico about a 1901 police raid of a high society private party that involved an all male formal ball. Some attendees were transvestites, which was unheard of in polite society, and the details of the raid had Mexican media and society aflame for months. It led to the arrest of 42 men and conviction of 41 for violating Mexican morality laws. They were all publicly shamed and beaten. Of those 41, 12 were punished by being sentenced to military service in the Yukatán with the rest buying their freedom through Mexico’s corrupt legal system. One with high connections was released.
The cruelty of the incident transformed attitudes towards homosexuality in that country. Directed by David Pablos and written by Monika Revilla, the movie is a heartbreaking fictionalized tale of several of the men in attendance including the main character, the son-in-law of the President of Mexico Porfirio Diaz, Ignacio de la Torre, and his lover.
Amid all this is a scene in which one of the main characters, Ignacio de la Torre's wife, Amada sits on an elegant settee in her father's palace in full finery with two huge majolica urns on pedestals on either side.
The urns are monumental French Sarreguemines majolica. The stands are also cobalt majolica but of unknown manufacture.
One of the urns make a second appearance towards the end of the movie in a scene also set in the palace where a policeman reports the raid to President Diaz. The urns are certainly appropriate to the movie's setting as the entire story takes place in the early 1900s.
If you have any interest in seeing the film be aware that there is extensive male nudity and human cruelty in the film as it's unrelentingly realistic in recreating the hidden gay society that led to the ball, a love affair between two of the characters, and ultimately the raid that led to the destruction of characters' lives. The movie is in Spanish with English subtitles.
To view the trailer go here.
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