Hollywood gives us a short break from Cali

More notes from our monthlong stay in Cali, Colombia:

8:28 p.m. June 27 – Any day is a good day if you get to watch a movie … speaking of words to live by.

And after a morning spent at the local mercado, trying different fruits and vegetables and buying souvenirs, MP and I in the afternoon took a cab across Cali to a little cine set next to the Mueso del Arte Moderno, which turns out to be just down the road from the Cali zoo. We’d read in the newspaper – yes, the newspaper, not online – that a retrospective of Robert Aldrich’s 1967 film “The Dirty Dozen” was playing. In English with Spanish subtitles. So we said what the hell.

First we walked through the exhibit at the museum, whose theme involved masks (or máscaras) and all they represent, thematically, literally, etc. So there were KKK masks hanging from the ceiling, photos of Amazon tribal members wearing face paint, sculptures and even a video installation … that, unfortunately, wasn’t functioning.

The theater itself was across a plaza, and admission was 4,000 pesos for two – or just over $2. Cheap at any price. And the theater was larger than I expected, fully capable of seating 150 or so people in seats set at a steep rake, not unlike the IMAX. The screen, though, was far smaller, and the sound system was barely audible. So good thing for the subtitles.

Before the film played, Cali’s answer to Bob Glatzer spoke – in Spanish, of course – telling us of the importance of the film, at least in terms of John Cassavetes’ career. One of the films that Cassavetes had directed, “Faces,” had played the week before, though he only acted in what the Colombianos call “Los Doce del Patibulo” (or “The 12 on a Scaffold”).

This is at least the third time that I have seen it all the way through. And while I wouldn’t claim it as any great achievement – even though it boasts a cast that includes Cassavetes, Lee Marvin, Charles Bronson and Jim Brown – it will keep you occupied for much of its two-hour-plus running time. My favorite sequence: Donald Sutherland passing himself off as a general inspecting the troops.

Much more entertaining was watching MP, in the middle of the film, try to find the bathroom, which involved her having to go outside, talk to two different people and then basically be hand-led down a flight of stairs. Her sign language and pidgin-Italian does serve her well.

Afterward, we walked down the street to a hotel and hailed a cab. The driver turned out to have worked for eight years in Queens, N.Y., as a driver for a private car service. But he spoke only a few words of English.

But he praised my Spanish, so I tipped him extra.

I need all the props I can get. I don’t want to have to go begging grannies just to find the bathroom.