Why not bring local star Margaretha Deysel to our screens?
I REFER to the article by Oscar-nominated Cape Town film-maker Rafiq Samsodien which appeared on page 9 of your Friday, September 22 edition.
Samsodien goes on to highlight some of the excellent locations and other world-class facilities that Cape Town has to offer film-makers, and which are, indeed, being taken advantage of by film-makers from other parts of the world.
Samsodien says: “I don’t just want Cape Town to be a (filming destination)… I want to find a way of getting our own stories on to the global stage.”
About 50 years ago I saw a truly excellent Hollywood film called Interrupted Melody, starring Glenn Ford and Eleanor Parker.
It was the real life story of the Australian opera singer Marjorie Lawrence, who was born on a small farm in Australia and had to ride on horseback across the Outback to attend her singing lessons, waving to Aboriginal tribesmen as she galloped past.
When she had completed her singing lessons she went to Europe, and eventually sang leading roles in many European opera houses.
However, she contracted polio and used a wheelchair, but was employed entertaining the Allied troops in the Far East jungles during World War II, from her wheelchair.
On one occasion she fell out of her wheelchair and couldn’t get back in.
She pleaded with her husband (played by Glenn Ford), to help her back, but he refused, insisting that she get back under her own steam. After numerous failed attempts, and many tears, she eventually made it back into the wheelchair, an emotional wreck. Whereupon he rushed to her, threw his arms around her, hugging and smothering her with kisses, both sobbing emotionally.
I burst into tears myself, but felt so silly in doing so. However, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.
I have recently read the autobiography, From Largo To Larmenier, by Margaretha Deysel Stemmet, who is a South African, born on a small farm in the Free State. She went to Europe and eventually sang leading roles in many of Europe’s leading opera houses. She is presently living in Cape Town, I believe.
There are enough feel-good, and feel-sad anecdotes in Deysel’s autobiography to make a film of general interest to all film-goers, especially opera lovers.
I should imagine that Deysel would have sufficient recorded material of herself singing enough items to allow her to dub herself. If not, I’m sure Mimi Coertse could supply enough material of her own already recorded stuff to do the job.
I think that Deysel’s story would be an excellent vehicle in which to tell one of the many stories of South Africans who have made a splash on the world stage. What are you waiting for, Mr Samsodien? Ernie Gay Milnerton