The work of the Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez i not restricted to such large-scale mythical creations as "One Hundred Years of Solitude." He's also a master at the smaller canvas of the short story, so much so that some years ago Spanish tThe work of the Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez is not restricted to such large-scale mythical creations as "One Hundred Years of Solitude." He's also a master at the smaller canvas of the short story, so much so that some years ago Spanish television did a series of adaptations of his works, and the Baltimore Film Forum is showing them this week and next as part of its premiere series.
Tonight's film, "The Summer of Miss Forbes," is pretty hot stuff -- erotic, violent, perverse, it's exquisitely made by Jaime Humberto Hermosillo from a screenplay by himself and Marquez.
Briefly, two wealthy parents leave their barbaric young boys with a German governess while they go off on a cruise. Miss Forbes -- the German actress Hanna Schygulla -- is one of those prim authoritarians, with glasses, tight hair, tight skirts and a tight attitude. The two boys -- studies in the giddy evil of kids -- take to spying on her at night, learning that she is far more complicated than she seems: an alcoholic who parades about drunkenly in the nude, clearly yearning for a sexual fulfillment she cannot allow herself to take from a husky young beach boy, whom she prefers to tantalize than to satisfy.
