La hermana San Sulpicio: A bit dusty, but charming

Is it worth your time?

Honestly, you probably shouldn't bother if you need high-octane pacing or modern editing. But if you’re curious about early sound cinema in Spain, or if you just want to see Imperio Argentina absolutely own the screen, give it a shot.

Purists of the novel might be annoyed by the shifts, and people who hate 'old' movies will likely turn it off after five minutes. Everyone else? You might find it weirdly sweet.

Imperio Argentina is the whole show here. She plays Gloria with this infectious energy that makes everyone else look like they’re standing in wet cement.

There’s a specific scene where she’s just laughing, and it feels so much more real than the stiff dialogue around her. It’s like she forgot she was being filmed for a second. I really liked that.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of La hermana San Sulpicio (1934) through its definitive frames.

The pacing is… well, it’s 1934. It moves at the speed of a gentle stroll through a plaza. Sometimes that’s fine. Sometimes you find yourself checking your watch, wondering why that one interaction in the garden lasted three minutes longer than it needed to.

It’s not as sharp as There Goes the Bride, but it has this localized flavor that feels honest. It’s definitely not as weird as Jön a rozson át!, that's for sure.

Random thoughts from the couch:

• The lighting makes everyone look like they’re glowing from the inside, which is a bit distracting.
• I’m pretty sure one of the extras in the background of the street scene is just waiting for the bus.
• The sound quality dips in and out, like the microphone is having a personal crisis.
• The costumes! They are honestly the best part of the production design.

It’s not a masterpiece, but it’s a nice little time capsule. It feels like the kind of movie that was meant to be seen with a loud, laughing audience in a theater, not on a laptop at 2 AM. 🎞️

You can tell they were trying really hard to make the humor land, and sometimes it feels a little desperate. But hey, at least they were trying. It beats watching another soulless remake.