Victorino -- Fantasia con un poquito de salsa

rupert

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A new soap opera (telenovela) titled "Victorino" has begun on the Spanish language station, Telemundo, and I wish I had written it. If you have interest, here is a plot summary.

In the opening scene, Victorino, a mentalist, has arrived at the airport, and a flock of reporters are interviewing him. He is a man of perhaps 45 years with intense, piercing gray eyes. He has thick dark shoulder length hair, and is handsome, but in a strange way. He has an upcoming show that he is plugging, and he is commenting on how great this city, on his tour, is.

A man walks by in the airport, and Victorino stops mid-sentence to watch him walk by. After he passes, Victorino goes back to answering questions, but then a second man walks by, and again Victorino halts talking to watch the man pass. Victorino begins commenting again on how friendly this city is, and a third man walks past, and again Victorino stops to stare at the man as he passes. Each time, he watches with these intense eyes.

Victorino goes back to the questioning session, but a fourth man walks by, catches Victorino's eye, and Victorino abandons the interview, runs across the airport and grabs the man to plead with him to not get on the plane. The man shakes him off as a crazy (un loco), but Victorino insists, "Sera una tragedia." (There will be a tragedy).

Victorino goes back to the interview, the journalists did not hear what he said to the fourth man, and so they demand to know, but Victorino wants to stay on topic and answer questions about his show. Behind him, a plane crashes during take-off, and its huge fuel reserves burst into flames.

We see the "fourth man" zipped up in a body bag; he was on the plane. We learn everyone was lost, except for three survivors -- the three men who affected Victorino when he saw them pass in the airport, but whom he did not feel an impluse to stop.

(How's that for a hook? It took perhaps 10 minutes.)

The story then shows us four couples who are going to see Victorino's show that evening. They are very different, and their relationships are characterized; some we love already, some we hate already. One of the couples includes a man who has won the lottery; he is throwing money around and his plan for the future is to win the lottery again.

At the show, Victorino has a "David Copperfield" like opening -- lights, music, amazing stunts -- the crowd seems to know him and already love him. But the lottery winner man stands up and demands that Victorino stop his "tricks" and tell him what the next winning lottery number will be. Some faceless authority on the loudspeaker tries to shut up this boor, but the lottery winner won't stop. Victorino is standing silent with those intense eyes, while the lottery winner/heckler is making a fool of himself. Finally, Victorino addresses him.

"Is it not enough that you have already won one lottery, Mr. Perez?"

Mr. Perez is frightened that Victorino knows these things, and the crowd oohs. Victorino tells Perez that he will give him the winning number at the end of the show; the crowd really oohs at that. But Victorino asks Perez to sit down so others can enjoy the show. But Perez is relentless, and so Victorino agrees to give him the winning number right now. Perez wants him to write it down, so that the rest of the crowd won't know, but Victorino announces it to the crowd: 1-1-1-1-1-1.

Perez is incredulous; the number cannot be six 1's. He walks up to the stage and asks Victorino to write down the "real" number, and hands him paper and a pencil. Victorino becomes very intense, and collapses to the ground. He appears to be dieing, but he uses lottery-man's paper and pencil to write out a poem (this is my best, on the spur translation):

In November will be born, Victorino, Victorino and another Victorino will be born,
When the three Victorinos meet, one of the Victorinos will die.

The show is over; many people pronounce Victorino dead (se murio), but Victorino is rushed off in an ambulance, unconscious, but with his head uncovered.

The 4 disappointed couples go home. That evening, one couple learns that the wife is 8 weeks pregnant. Two others make love. The last couple is not together. The woman sees Victorino at her door (a vision?). Victorino tells her: No vaya la cita! (Don't go on the date!). Her boyfriend shows up drunk and date-rapes her. (Why there are four couples instead of three, I don't know).

And that's the end of Episode 2 tonight. It airs at 10 eastern, 9 central. I think the telenovelas are fabulous, and so if you haven't tried them, you might want to think about it.

The format of a telenovela is that it airs for one hour a night, five nights a week for about 80 to 120 episodes, and then it's over and a new one starts. Victorino started on Tuesday (June 23). You don't have to be fluent, if you have a little Spanish (and that's all I have) just flip on the subtitles, they come in Spanish, but together with voices and context, you can get it.

I understand this is not a real SYW post, but I thought it was in the spirit of the board. My apologies if I have offended; I have not meant to.

Rupert
 

Pthom

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Rupert, this is interesting but not quite in the right spot. I'm sending this to the TV/Movies forum.