STONES FOR IBARRA

US, 1988, 100 minutes, Colour.
Glenn Close, Keith Carradine, Alfonso Arau.
Directed by Jack Gold.

Stones for Ibarra is a strong telemovie directed by English veteran Jack Gold. Glenn Close and Keith Carradine are excellent in the lead roles as an American couple in the late '50s who go to live in a small Mexican mining town, inheriting the mine from the husband's grandparents. The film evokes memories of Mexico in the past and of the revolution as well as Mexico in the '50s and '60s.

The film was written by Ernest Kinoy from a prize-winning novel by Harriett Doerr. The film is moving, wise, perceptive.

1. Impact of the film? Entertaining? Moving? Perceptive?

2. The Mexican locations, the desert, the mining town, the atmosphere of the small town? The contrast with the American cities? Musical score?

3. The title, the opening credits, the final meaning of the stones for the grave, the memorial for the dead - and the memorial for Richard?

4. The background of the story: the Americans in Mexico, the grandparents and their owning the mine, running the mine, relationship with the townspeople? The wife's imagining the earlier period, the grandmother, the dresses and the decorum, the people? The happy memories of the past - and trying to re-create them? The significance of these memories and the character of the wife? The contrast with the memories of the nun, the revolution, the massacre and the brutality of the rebels?

5. The husband and wife, their love for each other, leaving the United States behind, their quest for each other, their lives together in the Mexican town, restarting the mine, relationship with the villagers?

6. The arrival, the house, getting it in order? The friendship with the townspeople? Domingo and the ride and his guiding them to the town? Their response to the atmosphere and environment? The opening up of the mine, the request for workers?

7. Richard, his vision, the family inheritance? His relationship with the workers? Engineering skills? The opening up of the mine? The accidents, deaths? His fairness? The involvement with people in the recovery of the town?

8. Richard and his relationship with his wife, his collapse, his illness? Their going back to the United States? The diagnosis? The wife's unwillingness to accept the truth? Her care for her husband, calling the doctor? The taxi-drive, the doctor's support? Richard's death? Her grief, the funeral? The final grave and the stones for Ibarra?

9. The portrait of the people in the town, their way of life? The money and the dangers - especially the explosions? The plan for the taxi, the buying of the taxi and its use? The festival and people enjoying themselves? Domingo and his brother, the infatuation with the girl, the money for college, Domingo and the girl going off in the car - and the shooting? The brother and his trial and imprisonment? The comment on the value of life, the fatalism of the people?

10. The sister, her teaching the wife English? Their discussions? Her refusal to remember the past? The flashbacks, her place on the hacienda, the rebels, the shooting of the master and the son, her grief, going to the convent?

11. Portrait of a loving couple, their quest and their life? The tragedy of illness and death? Sympathies for a different culture? At home in the different culture while puzzling about it? The audience invited to share these experiences?