rsnunez Reviews

Casanova (1976)

Excellent take on a rather fictional auto-biography of Casanova

[9/10 · 24 December 2005]

Casanova is one of my favorite films by Fellini. Besides some technical problems with dubbing Donald Sutherland's voice in Italian, the film provides an excellent portrait of the pre-French Revolution Europe. Casanova is an stallion, but is a reflective, philosophical, and critical stallion questioning the day's conventional wisdom especially when dealing with one of Fellini's favorite subjects: females and, up to a certain extinct, forcing Sutherland to do what only Marcello Mastroiani was able to do: to channel Fellini himself. I do not know the reasons why Fellini decided to give Sutherland a chance and I have to admit that Sutherland makes a great effort in playing the part. Seeing some available portraits of Casanova I can see the reasons, but one would expect Fellini to be beyond that kind of constraints. Perhaps Mastroiani was too busy (looking at was entry here in the IMDb I can see that he did 5 movies in 1976, so perhaps he was overbooked). To think of Mastroiani in this role is more intriguing when one considers the amazing rendition of the very Casanova in Ettore Scola's "La nuit de Varennes." In "La nuit..." Mastroiani plays an aging Casanova even with the odd French with a strong Italian accent that was a trademark of Casanova's charm in the may European courts where the Venetian philosopher (yes, he loved to think of himself as such). Beside these problems, the film provides a powerful critique of Europe during the 1970s, as Fellini is able to see the obvious parallelism between the 1970s and Europe in the pre-French Revolution era. The film, by the way, benefited by the then recent publication of Casanova's memoirs in a critical edition that challenged the then prevailing understanding of Casanova as a sex-pot, something that Casanova himself rejected as is possible to see in the scene of the party at the British ambassador house. After watching the movie one would think at Casanova as some sort of sex-mystic introducing in the then Enlightened West, notions about sexuality similar to those of tantric sex, although still clinging to a male-oriented understanding of sex. It is important to stress also that,despite the effort to follow Casanova's account of is life, his auto-biography is full of historical contradictions and inconsistencies.

Little Black Book (2004)

Good plot up until ...

[5/10 · 12 November 2005]

Good plot and relatively good movie until the happy ending. Have the producers were willing to allow some meaningful criticism without falling for the false safety net of the happy ending this movie would have been great.

*** SPOILER *** The plot, the characters were good enough until they decided to kill it with a happy ending that was not only unnecessary but contradictory with the message that the movie was pushing up until the backstage showdown. After that, the movie becomes a meaningless waste of time. That was the moment to say "cut, print, we have a movie." Only the pathetic fear of most of U.S. movie directors, producers and writers with their own possibilities for reflection and social critique forced the subsequent scenes. Up until then the movie was a powerful critique of the excesses of the media and the responsibility of all the parties involved in such excesses. It is a shame also as far as Holly Hunter's performance. She is a great actress, gorgeous, witty, amazing. She carried the bulk of the movie with an excellent performance, especially her monologue in the master room, as much as Ms. Bates did with her role. Even Brittany Murphy's performance catched my eye. What a shame and what a waste.

Hoy y mañana (2003)

Excellent performance but...

[8/10 · 12 November 2005]

The performance by Antonella Costa is just superb, however there are some problems with the plot and how the story develops. The movie catches with singular dramatic intensity the consequences of economic crisis in Argentina and its effects on many young female. Of course, the effects of such crises are not exclusive of Argentina. They repeat with terrifying regularity all over Latin America.

It is a movie with brains made on a low-low budget, and that is why it is killed by the whole scene on the elevator. I will not elaborate on the details of such scene, but any person that has ever used an elevator in Argentina or in any other country of the world knows that elevators do not do that. There were many ways to achieve the dramatic purposes of such scene without doing what Chomski did.

I will also add to my criticism the fact that having that beautiful city that is Buenos Aires as a background, the movie uses little or nothing of it.

That is a shame because the city offers many opportunities to develop good cinematography without spending too much.

Overall good on the performance of Antonella, great on the underlying criticism of the economic situation in Argentina, but a flaw that kind of kill the movie as an artistic exercise.

Santa (1978– )

A recurring tale in Mexican media

[3 October 2005]

Santa has been a recurring theme in Mexican media since the early days of silent movies, and later it was the very first script produced with sound. This version was produced and broad casted by Televisa in the late 1970s displaying similar production values to other so-called "historical" series produced by the Mexican media monopoly (like El Carruaje, El Vuelo del Águila, and so forth). It seeks to be as faithful as possible to Federico Gamboa's novel.

Santa is the story of a young mestiza (played by a youthful Tina Romero) who is forced into prostitution after falling in love with a middle rank officer of the Mexican Army who is unwilling to marry her and her slow and painful evolution into one of Mexico City's most demanded high-end prostitute, her involvement with a successful bullfighter, and her fall in disgrace.

There are several versions of the story, but I believe this is the best rendition, unfortunately is almost impossible to legitimately get it on DVD or VHS.

Mondays in the Sun (2002)

Excellent movie

[9/10 · 14 January 2005]

The movie is well done. Bardem plays nicely his role. And the rest of the cast is superb. It is a good exploration of the plight of workers in European inner-cities (although it could be set in any city in Ohio)after the deindustrialization of these areas. Good to understand male's attitudes to the loss of blue-collar jobs, and the female's take on their desperation. It is Spain's answer to the Full Monty. But be advised, with the exception of a few dark jokes Bardem is able to crack and his flirts with two of the characters, the movie is sad and blue, characters live in desperate situations with little or not hope to get out, even if at the end there is a thin ray of hope for one of the families involved, so there is no trace of The Full Monty's festive take on the plight of workers.

Russian Ark (2002)

A shame? Hardly

[10/10 · 28 February 2003]

I am not Russian, I am Mexican, but I have the deepest respect for Russians and their history and culture (if it is really possible to separate them). Yes there are some flaws (the lousy lip-synch and the awful subtitles). Yes, it does not provide an accurate rendition of Russian history and, of course, is not a compendium of Russian culture. Can we really expect for one single movie to provide that? Amores Perros or Y tu mamá también are by no means accurate reflections of Mexican society and culture, but S. Eisenstein's movies on Mexico were not either, and even the brightest novels of Tolstoi or Dostoievski cannot be that for Russia's culture and/or history.

Russian Ark is more than a documentary because there is no attempt to provide a detailed account of the origins of the Hermitage and its many treasures. The movie is a small wonder beyond the technical achievement of the one shot filming, mainly because it stresses some of the contradictions that are inherent to any attempt to collect and display art: What is the artistic value of the guns and helmets at exhibition "as art" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NY? What is the value of displaying what the British military stole from Greece, India and Egypt in the British Museum? Or why the Mexican obsession with the wars we have fought against Spain, France, and the US has found its way up to the best museums in Mexico City? But those are precisely the kind of questions that art should raise and that is one of the many points made by the movie, What is art, how it is decided and by whom. I can understand why those issues and the movie's obsession with the European-ess of Russia and the Russians bothers some colleagues here, but it is undeniable that Russia, as many other societies has been obsessed, at times, with such issues and that such obsession is yet another point made by the movie, not because it provides a definite answer, but because it is able raise the question. Is up to us to come with our own answer.

París Tombuctú (1999)

More than punch lines

[8/10 · 10 February 2003]

This movie is more than a chain of punch lines guided by some anarchist spirit. Yes, it certainly does some heavy criticism on almost every Spanish institution, but it also criticizes the rather absurd passion with which several societies (or countries if you want) built on the whole Y2K fever . The movie takes place precisely around that date and it provides a clever, acid, and up to a certain extent prophetic portray of the whole hysteria around the Y2K (it was filmed in 1999). The rather obsessive references to the corruption phenomenon in Spain and Europe are exaggerated but they reflect on different levels the way Spain found itself after all the corruption scandals of the last years of Felipe González as Prime Minister (Presidente de Gobierno). Yes, the jokes, the punch lines are all there. Some of them are rather offensive or plainly unbelievable, like the scene where the rebel nun fight s to "consecrate" a giant Paella, as if Catholics ever consecrate food (we can bless it, but we will hardly ever think about consecrating it, much less about "consecrating" it with holy water), but it depicts nicely the unfair position of nuns within the Church when compared to priests. The movie is fun and it provides a good insight on the many paradoxes of contemporary Spain and, for that purpose, of any contemporary society.

El infierno de todos tan temido (1981)

Who is crazy?

[8/10 · 9 February 2003]

The movie tells the story of a poet who suffers from several addictions. At some point he ends up at an institution where he is submitted to the traditional psychiatric approach with yet more drugs, reclusion, and electric shocks. One thread of the story goes around the crisis of the Mexican cultural establishment at the end of the 70's. The movie presents a severe criticism of the national-revolutionary forms of art (the murals and frescoes of Diego Rivera will be the best examples of such "official" art) while critiquing the equally oppressive psychiatric and political establishments, with some marginal references to the role of the Church, represented by the nuns in the psychiatric institution, which in real life do not work in the Mexican public health system. The mental patients are portrayed as more reflexive and "democratic" than the doctors and all the other figures of authority who, for the most part, only try to silence and punish those labelled as mental patients, alcoholics, or drug addicts. The social and political criticism, however, goes along the lines of the most traditional Marxism of the 1970's, which seems kind of outmoded now, but provides a good portrait of how the Mexican cultural elites were at that time.

Mexico City (2000)

Weak plot, excellent cinematography

[3/10 · 9 January 2003]

It is a shame that a movie with such a good cinematography as this one had no plot to be supported by the work of Sarah Cawley (cinematography) and Adam Lichtenstein (Film Editing), and above all, no sense of what goes on in Mexico City. The movie tries to be a very realistic depiction of life in city, but it is unable to do it. It is a shame, a lot of film wasted. An American woman tries to find her brother who has been kidnaped. The first account of the story is powerful and interesting, very realistic, but it seems that there was no effort to come with a better narrative of the ordeal, especially when it comes to the issue of the attitudes of the US embassy personnel in Mexico City, when dealing with an issue like this one. Compare, as an example, with Frantic(1988), which deals with a similar issue. Something similar can be said of the role of local authorities. Compare, as an example, with Todo el Poder (1999). The movie is worth watching if you want to get a sense of the looks of the City itself, paying little or no attention to the rather weak "plot" and the many twists that require a rather extensive suspension of disbelief. Who is going to believe that a Mexican patrol from Mexico City is going to go all the way to catch the main characters to the Mexico-US border? And that this policeman is going to be able to use its radio from the border to Mexico City! Only the producers of this movie. It is worth mentioning that unlike Frida and other movies about Mexico at least in these one Mexicans talk Spanish.

Mutant Action (1993)

A lot of Spanish local jokes in an (im)probable future

[7/10 · 30 December 2002]

The problem with Acción Mutante, if any, is that it is packed with a lot of local jokes that make little or no sense outside of Spain and some Spanish speaking countries. Perhaps that is why the movie suffers in the second half. However, I think is playful and interesting.

Cuando tejen las arañas (1979)

moral change under an authoritarian regime

[8/10 · 21 December 2002]

Cuando tejen las arañas (When the spiders weave) is one of several under-rated and under-appreciated Mexican films from the 1970's. Beyond the many nude scenes by the beautiful Alma Muriel, this film (as several others of the same period) tries to provide an account of how the Mexican society was changing moral codes under the authoritarian regime than finally collapsed in the late 90s. One revealing paradox, however, is that much of those films, which were highly critical of the Mexican status quo, were funded with public monies, following what was during the 70's and 80's a rather feeble attempt from the Mexican government to legitimize itself following the pattern of some European countries when dealing with cultural issues. "Cuando tejen...", is the story of a young model "trapped" or "freed" from her own sexual repression when she enters the modeling scene in Mexico City, and the many negative trade-offs happening during such process. The movie, despite its minor short-comings, provides an interesting description of the Mexican society at the time, its contradictions and paradoxes. Alma Muriel's character represents on many levels not only young Mexican women, but Mexican society at large, its awakening to a liberal approach to sexuality, the double standards that most usually appear in such processes, and ultimately the kinds of tensions that such changes produce.

A Place for Lovers (1968)

More than a love story

[9/10 · 20 December 2002]

This is an excellent movie. To focus only on whether Ms. Dunaway is able or not to "warm" (whatever that means) is pointless. Vittorio DeSicca provides an admirable portrait of late 60s Italy, and more broadly of the kind of moral tensions going on during the late 60s worldwide. Marcelo Mastroianni was playing pretty much himself on the screen, while Faye Dunaway is on the other extreme of her rendition of Bonnie in Bonnie and Clyde, frail, ill, sad. To my mind this movie is a jewel of the Italian masters. The Italian cinema will later overplay these kinds of extreme situations of ailing lovers confronted with an awful fate, as in Anonimo Venezziano, and many others in the early 1970s, but Amanti stands on its own, not only because of the beautiful cinematography (the Alps and Italy at large), but also because of Ms. Dunaway rendition of the character.

Under Flag (1997)

Excellent piece

[9/10 · 9 May 2001]

A military Internal Affairs investigation is launched after several "accidents" (red codes) in a military base in Argentine Patagonia. Excellent piece, something like an Argentinian version of Platoon mixed with A few good men. Nicely done, good cast, great photography, good story. Based on true stories within the Argentine Army. A good insight on the South American armies, their fights with real and imaginary enemies, and their contradictory self-perception as guardians of the national interest, it is also interesting to look at the character of the priest, afar from the role of the military chaplains of the Argentine Army

Morir en el golfo (1990)

Tropical politics in Mexico

[9/10 · 9 March 2001]

The movie offers a fine reflection of the relationship between local political bosses, the national politicians, the media and social movements in Mexico in the 70's and 80's.

The movie is based in a novel by Hector Aguilar, a fine historian and novelist who did heavy research to portray what can be considered a "study case" of politics in rural tropical Mexico.

The movie is able to keep that aspect of the original story, although it pays more attention to the love plots and political conspiracies involved, loosing some valuable aspects of the original history and the book.

The Realm of Fortune (1986)

A fine movie

[9/10 · 9 March 2001]

This is a fine adaptation of one of the few stories of Juan Rulfo, a fine Mexican novelist who, unfortunately wrote only a handful of pieces.

The movie does a fine job in translating a very complex story about a professional cock-fight trainer and gambler who, after a twist of fate, finds his luck, both good and bad, in a beautiful female singer portrayed by gorgeous Blanca Guerra at her best.

As usual, movie adaptations of novels lost a lot of the original richness, but even taking into consideration that loss, this movie makes a wonderful job in portraying not only the cockfighting and gambling world in rural Mexico, but also in reflecting and criticizing the society involved in such practices.

Not only that, see after the multilayered role of Blanca Guerra as Bernarda, La Caponera. First, her relations with the cockfighters-gamblers. Then, the relation with her daughter.

Arturo Ripstein's used real locations in central rural Mexico, so the movie has a real-life feel. Some shots are Eisenstein's like, although since it was filmed in color it is hard to fully appreciate them.

Las poquianchis (De los pormenores y otros sucedidos del dominio público que acontecieron a las hermanas de triste memoria a quienes la maledicencia así las bautizó) (1976)

Dark atmosphere for a twisted but real story

[9/10 · 9 March 2001]

The film is based in a true-life story; nasty and ugly as possible, since it involves a ring of child and women prostitution in which some middle-rank politicians and police bosses in mid-cities in Central Mexico (El Bajío) were involved from the early 50's to the early 70's.

The film keeps almost always a closed, dark atmosphere, which can be suffocating, but reflecting accurately the kind of life the girls in this ring were living as forced prostitutes.

The film has several twists; one of the most interesting is the fact that the ring was headed by two women (Las Poquianchis) who presented themselves publicly not as the regular brothel happy-go-lucky "madame", challenging the status quo, but as faithful Catholics. Another key twist is, of course, that of the involvement of the local authorities in the cities where Las Poquianchis operated their ring.

Overall, it is a very good under-rated and under-appreciated Mexican movie.

Gran Hotel (1944)

The best Cantinflas ever

[10/10 · 9 March 2001]

This is probably the best Cantinflas movie ever. Not only because at that time both Mario Moreno the actor and Cantinflas the character had the required maturity but also the needed freshness to successfully develop comedic plots, as well as production values, and the quality of the script.

It is a fine comedy, whose gags are, to some extent, hard to get for non-native Spanish speakers, because of the very nature of Cantinflas, whose charm depended heavily in complex but meaningless word games that express but the ability of the "regular Joe" to deal with issues, as well as the tensions within Mexican society during the years of the economic expansion brought by the second World War.

El vuelo del águila (1994–1995)

A different kind of Soap Opera

[6 March 2001]

This is probably the best accomplished "historic" Soap-Opera produced in Mexico. As close to Roots as possible, it is historic because it goes along some key developments in late 19th- early 20th Century Mexican history, trying to relate those facts in the lives of both historical figures and fictional characters who provide the Soap-Opera approach with the standard romantic plots of this kind of productions.

Although the approach and premises of the series were contested in some academic circles in Mexico, the production as well as the script are good enough to provide a fair perspective of how Mexico was in the years considered, but especially of why the country came to be what it is now.

La antorcha encendida (1996)

Soap Opera goes "historical"

[6 March 2001]

As with El Vuelo del Aguila (The Flight of the Eagle) and some others soap-operas not indexed (v.gr., El Carruaje, The Chariot)La Antorcha Encendida was a fair attempt to reconcile soap-opera and historical documentary.

The production is good, and the script is able to mix and match key developments of Mexican history, with the standard soap-opera romantic plot, which was helpful to boost the ratings and capture the audience's imagination while offering a good account of Mexican History.

The End of Violence (1997)

Excellent

[10/10 · 3 March 2001]

In the tradition of the road movies this piece by Mr. Wenders is one of my favorites. He is able to build a metaphor of several compelling issues: the role of technology in every day life; the role of authorities; the relations between several ethnic/racial groups; the very role of the movie/culture industry. His mastery as a director, as well as the quality of the script and, last but not least, the quality of the Soundtrack are key issues in this, of course, subjetive opinion of the film.

Lisbon Story (1994)

Beautiful story

[10/10 · 3 March 2001]

Besides the excellent photography of the film, the story is -as many other from Wenders- a deep reflection on the role of the media as reflecting "reality" and creating a second order "reality". Especially the inability of the media to "copy" reality, and the unavoidable role of the media as both and intermediary and a creative agent. The soundtrack by Madredeus is great and the whole setting, Lisbon, is worth the ticket