skygiants | (no subject)

I am extremely fortunate that several of my friends are a.) huge Dracula aficionados and b.) up on Spanish-language media, because otherwise I am unlikely to have heard of Y llegaron de noche [They Came At Night] and I ABSOLUTELY LOVED Y llegaron de noche [They Came At Night]. We binge-watched the first five episodes of seven last Saturday, convened an emergency hangout on Monday so that we could finish the rest, and all left swearing to buy the DVDs if/when they ever came available.

Y llegaron de noche is a sitcom set in 1930, shortly after the advent of the talkies had destroyed the easy option for internationally marketing Hollywood pictures. One of the ways that Hollywood decided to fix this was by shooting Spanish versions of English-language movies: in the case of Dracula, at least, literally on the same set, at night, after the English cast was done for the day, with the male actors trading off costumes. (The Spanish female actors got different costumes, because there was no Hayes Code in Latin America, so all their dresses could be a little sexier.)

Here's the trailer:

Watch on YouTube

Which is great but also quite misleading, in that it makes it look like Carlos Villarias, Shakespearian actor of great talent and enormous ego, is the main character. He is not. The thing about this show is that it's really, deeply, an ensemble piece, a huge celebration of the collective art of moviemaking.

But also if there is a main character it's not Carlos, but Cecilia -- the highly competent middle-aged translator who gets hauled off her serious political gig to interpret between the extremely stressed producer who's been assigned this project (he speaks six languages! Spanish is not among them!) and the rest of the cast, and increasingly finds herself taking artistic ownership of the film. Almost everyone else in the show gets a romance; the show is four romances in a trenchcoat, but Cecelia's romance is with The Movies, which is exactly the sort of arc I love the most. I told this to

genarti, and she said, 'yes, that's good, but what I love about Cecelia is THE BEST PROFESSIONAL REPRESENTATION FOR THE FIELD OF TRANSLATION AND INTERPRETATION I'VE SEEN IN A LONG TIME,' and it is true that is also a wonderful thing about Cecelia. I was happy every time she was on screen and fortunately this was quite a lot of the time, as most of the plots and half the romances can't move forward without her interpreting for them.

This is not to malign the four romances in a trenchcoat. They are also good and I did care about them! The most traditionally romantic is between anxious producer Kohner and his earnest and talented leading lady Lupita and it is a mark of how charming the cast is that I did not mind spending the time on this when the other romances are:

- aging star Carlos, despite constantly making passes at younger actresses, gradually starts to realize that his costar's grandmother is smoking hot
- Dr. Seward [English] and Dr. Seward [Spanish] pass romantical notes to each other through their shared suit jacket [note that in the 1930 film Dr. Seward is Mina's elderly father, so this is another real win for old man yaoi]
- vaudevillian and recovering alcoholic Pablo [playing Renfield] pines for Carmen [playing Lucia], who cannot reciprocate because she's never played a character who survived past page ten and she's determined to seduce SOMEBODY into letting doomed Lucia live until at LEAST page 15 ... which is also a plot that has strong potential to be boring on paper, but Pablo and Carmen are so unbelievably charming and the camera takes them seriously as real people with talent and ambitions. This is a great example of setting up sympathetic characters with opposing goals tbh. I also wanted Cecilia to have a plot for her movie that made sense, and I also wanted Carmen to get her fifteen more pages!

Other subplots include the lighting designer's constant attempts to make a film worthy of his German Expressionist inspirations; the director's constant attempts to flee from his creditors in the mob; the incredibly hard-working props manager's constant attempts to get enough bats, mice, and edible roaches to see them through filming; the whole cast's constant attempt to get their Argentinian romantic lead to stop paying attention to the football long enough to learn how to act; and, of course, Carlos' constant rivalry with his nemesis Bela Lugosi. Also there is a curse on the production and the costume manager is going to break it.

There are a couple things I didn't enjoy -- Carlos' attempts to seduce Lupita verge on harassment in the early episodes (though he knocks it off pretty soon) and we all sat there and grimaced through a deportation joke in the last episode -- but overall this may be my favorite show of the year. The first episode is available for free on YouTube if you feel inclined to check it out; if you do you should come back and talk to me about it!

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From:

sovay

- aging star Carlos, despite constantly making passes at younger actresses, gradually starts to realize that his costar's grandmother is smoking hot

That's brilliant.

- Dr. Seward [English] and Dr. Seward [Spanish] pass romantical notes to each other through their shared suit jacket [note that in the 1930 film Dr. Seward is Mina's elderly father, so this is another real win for old man yaoi]

That's also brilliant.

- vaudevillian and recovering alcoholic Pablo [playing Renfield] pines for Carmen [playing Lucia], who cannot reciprocate because she's never played a character who survived past page ten and she's determined to seduce SOMEBODY into letting doomed Lucia live until at LEAST page 15 ... which is also a plot that has strong potential to be boring on paper, but Pablo and Carmen are so unbelievably charming and the camera takes them seriously as real people with talent and ambitions.

So I had no idea this show existed until about ninety-five seconds ago, but the real-life Pablo Álvarez Rubio is one of my favorite Renfields and I am delighted that his fictional version gets a nice subplot. I shall hope the half-hour longer which the Spanish-language 1931 Dracula runs than its English-language counterpart means that Carmen got her extra five minutes.

From:

skygiants

The show absolutely knows how good Pablo Álvarez Rubio was and is determined to do him honor. We all adored him, and wailed "PABLO NO!" in unison any time he got within the same film frame as a glass of wine. He also got the moment that made me laugh harder than maybe anything else in the show --

Pablo, finishing up Renfield's big asylum scene: too much?
Cecelia: no ... he wants you to go bigger ....
Pablo, gripping the prison bars, terrifying smile on his face and manic gleam in his eye: I've waited my whole life to hear those words.

From:

sovay

Pablo, gripping the prison bars, terrifying smile on his face and manic gleam in his eye: I've waited my whole life to hear those words.

Sold.

From:

skygiants

From:

sovay

(Also, they play it pretty lightly, but it did not surprise me at all to look the real-life Kohner up afterwards and learn he was a Czech Jew who was friends with William Wyler and founded the European Relief Fund.)

That entire family is something. His niece was/is Kathy Kohner-Zuckerman, the real-life surf legend who served as the inspiration for her father's Gidget (1957), which original novel—I have never felt impelled to try the by all accounts cutesy-conservative, goyified films—is totally worth reading.

Edited Date: 2025-03-13 12:39 am (UTC)

From:

alias_sqbr

This sounds great, definitely checking it out!

From:

skygiants

I hope you dig it if you do!!

From:

mific

I loved the free first episode, but sadly Vix isn't available in NZ or I'd watch it for sure. Cecilia's initial ennui with it all was great, and it was fun to see the romances you described kicking off.

From:

skygiants

I really hope it becomes more broadly available at some point, I would love for everybody to be able to see it!

From:

marginaliana

This sounds absolutely marvelous.

From:

skygiants

They made it in a lab for me it feels like! (Although they made it even MORE in a lab for my Spanish-speaking friend who recently wrote a radio theater adaptation of Dracula.)

From:

sovay

(Although they made it even MORE in a lab for my Spanish-speaking friend who recently wrote a radio theater adaptation of Dracula.)

Whoa whoa whoa whoa details.

From:

spiralsheep

Y llegaron de noche probably won't make it over here but I loved that intro episode. Thank you for the heartfelt rec and your intro to their intro. :-)

From:

skygiants

I'm so glad you enjoyed the intro episode, I hope you get a chance to see the rest someday!! (If I ever figure out how to better share it I will absolutely be alerting the internet.)

From:

lirazel

Oh my gosh this sounds amazing!!! I'm so excited!!! Wow!!!

(I can't remember--did you ever watch Los Espookys? Because I think you would like Los Espookys.)

From:

larryhammer

I don't know about the show itself but I'm laughing my ass off at the title.

From:

lirazel

Listen, if you like the title you MUST watch the show. It's so weird and lovable!!! It's a group of queer goth friends who love horror and try to make a business out of creating horror scenes, mostly tricking people into think they're real (staging hauntings, etc.). I adore it.

From:

skygiants

YES I loved Los Espookys! Also an incredible gem of a show, I am going to think about the water spirit who just wants to watch The King's Man until the end of my days.

From:

lirazel

Okay, good, I thought you were one of the three people I know who have actually seen it, but I couldn't quite remember!

From:

brownbetty

How much Spanish do you have? The title is so dramatical in Spanish it's funny almost by itself!

From:

brownbetty

oh no, I watched the first episode only to learn the rest are not available in Canada. Do you know of other paths?

From:

skygiants

I DON'T but I am CONSTANTLY INVESTIGATING and will alert you if I discover any!

From:

skygiants

Very little, though I'm trying to pick up more! But we watched it with a friend who's reasonably fluent so she was able to pass on many of the jokes we would have missed.

From:

brownbetty

Having only watched the first episode, I don't know if they continue to be quite so ambitious, but you can tell whoever is doing costumes loves their jobs, and was very excited to get to do those back lot scenes.

From:

chestnut_pod

Lovely that you got your archivist representation and genarti got interpreter representation in such a close timespan!

And, okay, you've convinced me! Can one pay YouTube to keep watching the rest of the episodes?

From:

skygiants

yessss (and I believe so! You have to get the ViX add-on or something, but I think there are one-month trial options available for it through a couple different services, of which YouTube is one.)

From:

genarti

I swear it was made in a lab for everybody in that room, in overlapping but distinct ways; it was hilarious.

From:

osprey_archer

This sounds so delightful! Where are the non-free non-Youtube episodes available?

From:

skygiants

It is SO delightful. You can get them as add-ons through a bunch of different streaming services if you sign up for a month of ViX as an add-on -- much like our adventures in A Spy Among Friends, you just have to find where it's teamed up with today. I think YouTube is an option, as is the Roku Channel, as is the cursed Amazon Prime, etc etc ....

From:

delphi

Oh man, this sounds great!

From:

hokuton_punch

Oh, this sounds AMAZING. :D I definitely have to check it out when possible!

From:

scribe

Okay you're right, episode one was fantastic, I must figure out how Vix works now :D

From:

marianas

Thank you for this enticement post! I ended up watching the whole thing in one day and had a great time

(I did the 1-week free trial ViX add-on thru youtube, which only had Spanish subtitles for some reason (my Spanish was ok 20 years ago and has been entirely unused since, so I know I missed a lot). But if I manage to find English subs for the whole thing I guess I will just have to watch it again, oh no)