In Orient, were shot some scenes of the film Bearn (Jaime Chávarri, 1984). We located in this small town this text of Les fures, another Villalonga novel that refers to Bunyola, although it evokes a place like the current Orient, as a "village of yesteryear"
... Imagine a village from days gone by, still without the agony of radios and motorcycles, with only a hundred or so small and sun-bleached houses, with the shelter of an old church, immutable and seemingly new, just as when they built it. (...) And what can we say of the landscape surrounding this ode-worthy village? Up to Rousseau and Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, landscape has counted for little in literature. Romantics invented it and then exhausted it immediately. Landscapes comprise trees, land, rocks: inanimate objects, or almost, the same now as in Roman times, described once and for all. The drama of a history is not in the vegetable or mineral kingdoms. It is man we should care about. If I have talked of the church, of the Bearns' house or the baroque fountain in the square, it is because behind these things there is, in the flesh, the man who created them.
Les fures, 1967
Translated by Richard Mansell. Performed by Gabriel Janer Manila.
(Palma, 1897 - 1980). Llorenç Villalonga is considered to be one of the foremost novelists in Catalan literature. A columnist, prose writer and playwright, he was an author who defied the conventions of literary genres, producing a solid interconnecting body of literature, with continuous interrelations among characters and settings and a blend fiction and reality. Villalonga heralds the start of the modern novel in the Catalan language, inspired by certain European models that allowed him to break away from the prevailing Costumbrista literary trend, which focused on local customs and manners. In his writings, there are echoes of Marcel Proust, Valle Inclán and the classics of enlightened thinking.
His best-known novel, Bearn or The Dolls’ House, has been translated into over 20 languages and adapted for theatre, television and cinema. Set in 19th century Mallorca, it reflects the waning values of a society in a state of radical change. For Villalonga, “the only paradises are lost ones”.
Bearn is more than just a novel. It marks the beginning of a series of complementary novels that recreate a lost Mallorca, always based on the author’s memories. These novels include Les Fures (The Ferrets), inspired by his childhood years in Bunyola. Renamed Fontnova by the author, Bunyola was the town where Villalonga grew up with his brothers and sister and it inspired many descriptions of the hamlet Bearn.
The hamlet of Orient is between Bunyola and Alaró, in the valley of the same name between the mountains of Alfàbia, Rateta, Ofre and the castle of Alaró. Nearby is the source of the Coanegra storm channel. It is located in the Tramuntana mountains, and the landscape is dominated by holm oaks and kermes oaks, so prevalent in the mountains.
Orient has become the setting for some of the adaptations of Villalonga's works. The film version of Bearn, directed by Jaime Chávarri (1983) chose Orient to be the location of the main village, and also chose the Raixa estate, where Chávarri filmed the memorable scene of Ángela Molina, playing Xima, descending the beautiful steps in the garden.
