Dolores del Rio
dal 15/1/2002 al 30/1/2002
Segnalato da
15/1/2002
Dolores del Rio
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis
Illuminating the silver screen: Film/Video. A star was born when Mexican beauty Dolores del Rio moved to Hollywood in 1925 and made her breakthrough performance in Raoul Walsh's What Price Glory? (1926). She was molded as a starlet of varied roles and optimum glamour; as with Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich, Hollywood capitalized on del Rio's exotic origins to construct a mysterious aura around her beauty.
A star was born when Mexican beauty Dolores del Rio moved to Hollywood in 1925 and made her breakthrough
performance in Raoul Walsh's What Price Glory? (1926). She was molded as a starlet of varied roles and optimum
glamour; as with Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich, Hollywood capitalized on del Rio's exotic origins to construct a
mysterious aura around her beauty. She made the transition from silent films to the talkies gracefully, although her slight
accent--that of an aristocratic Mexican class--identified her as a foreign, if refined, siren. Photoplay magazine voted her
"the most perfect feminine figure in Hollywood" in 1933, the year that she introduced the two-piece bathing suit in Flying
Down to Rio.
Although fair-skinned and of European descent, del Rio never escaped her typecasting as a dark enchantress during the
heyday of Westerns and foreign adventure/musicals set in generically south-of-the-border locales. After a scandalous affair
with Orson Welles (who left her for Rita Hayworth), del Rio returned to Mexico in 1942 and embarked on a distinguished
career in the film industry there, becoming the first lady of Mexican cinema and only occasionally accepting roles for
Hollywood productions.
Del Rio's persona and career provide a fascinating example of the ways in which Hollywood fetishized and stereotyped
feminine and racially marked stars. Her credits span decades and genres--she worked with such varied artists as King
Vidor on Bird of Paradise (1932) and Elvis Presley on Flaming Star (1960)--but the faint glow that lingers from her
stardom of yesteryear (her costars, including Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Henry Fonda, and Al Jolson, eclipsed her
glittering marquée name) is a testament to the tenuous state of celebrity and the international economics at work in the
movie industry.
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