French novelist and literary critic, Marcel Proust once wrote, “Love is space and time measured by the heart.” For me, this sentiment persisted throughout El secreto del orfebre (The Goldsmith’s Secret in English), the Spanish adaptation of Elia Barceló’s acclaimed novel of the same name. But there’s more here. What Galician director, Olga Osorio captures in this project goes beyond an epic romance, weaving together themes of feminism, patriarchy, and resoluteness.
It is Barcelona, 1999.
The opening scene offers a glimpse of the immense regret that skilled craft jeweler, 40ish-year-old Juan Pablo (played by Mario Casas) carries. Late in the evening in his workshop – as he adds the finishing touches to a piece that will be part of an upcoming exhibition in New York City – his uncle invites him to go out. But he can’t because the following day, he has to “handle business in his grandparents’ hometown” before leaving for the U.S. His tío asks if he will stop over at Vila Santa on the trip and Juan Pablo’s face fills with melancholy.
So begins the almost impossible love story of the goldsmith and Celia (Michelle Jenner), a feisty, talented seamstress, 20 years his senior with big dreams of leaving behind Vila Santa, the small town stifling her spirit.
Once aboard the train, the time travel begins. As Juan Pablo gazes wistfully out the window, we are transported 25 years earlier to when our protagonist was in early twenties, spending a summer with his grandparents. There, at an outdoor party in Vila Santa, he’s immediately captivated by Celia’s free spirit. She’s vivaciously dancing, moving about the crowd with a confidence unlike what is expected of her.
After a few chance meetings in town, a forbidden romance unfolds. After all, Celia is considered a “marked woman” by the character’s patriarchal culture. So it seems obvious that their verano de aventura would be nothing more than an intense summer fling. But for him, the feelings run deep. He is smitten and their secret rendezvous soon begins to take a toll on the naive young man. One night, exasperated by a society that will never accept their union, Juan Pablo confronts Celia. In her resentment, she throws venom at him, declaring she never wants to see him again.
As The Goldsmith’s Secret flips back and forth between parallel times (at one point, he’s in a hotel catching a newspaper headline from 1953), I found myself desperately cheering Juan Pablo on as he remained resolute in rewriting their story.
I was particularly struck by a moment when still in the town of Vila Santo, a young, 20-ish Celia enters a local restaurant with her fiancé and a group of friends. When a waiter asks Juan Pablo, who is seated at a big table, alone, to switch to a smaller table, he obliges. His jacket gets snagged on the hook and Celia offers to sew it for him.
The chemistry between them is fire – she, fascinated by his stories, agrees to join him at the same restaurant they first met. Juan Pablo, who at this point in the movie is his original 1999 age (40-ish) realizes who she really is: the love of his life. Once again (though in a parallel reality) another forbidden amorous liaison ensues. This time, it too seems to end in agonizing angst – except there’s a twist. Determined for a different ending, he tells Celia, just as he’s ready to leave Barcelona for the U.S., “I don’t know what will happen when I board that train.”
Before they part, she returns a pair of handcrafted pearl earrings he had given her. Later, we meet him at New York’s famed Hotel Chelsea. Nostalgia nearly overwhelming him, his fingers caress them into a closing fist. He walks away, reminding us that true love never dies.
The Goldsmith’s Secret is screening this week at the Miami Film Festival.
