Change Your Image
davidtraversa-96947
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Reviews
El retrato (1947)
Delightful nonsense
I wasn't going to write a review after watching this picture on You Tube, being already a seventy years old film, but seeing not one single review on IMDb, I felt someone should say something about it. After all, making a film implies a great deal of effort from everyone involved and that alone deserves some recognition.
Also, Mirtha Legrand, being alive and well today (92 years young), deserves a good deal of consideration for such a long and fruitful career.
About the film:
It was such a surprising breath of freshness and delightful nonsense to watch this very light comedy, entertaining in every single scene, utterly absurd and yet so catching with a completely unreal plot, played masterfully by a bunch of seasoned actors and actresses (all of them dead by now, save the female protagonist), that it leaves one with an inner sense of joy and lightness.
Seventy years is too long of a period in social mores, we've seen so many changes in that respect, that one has to set his/her mind to 1947 to get into this film. If you are able to do that, you'll have a delightful time watching this movie. If you are not..., forget completely that you saw my review and look around for newer stuff.
La barra de la esquina (1950)
Have you ever been abducted?
Neither have I. But if you want to feel first hand life in an alien civilization, I highly recommend you to watch this 1950s Argentinian movie.
The main character, played by the tango singer/actor Alberto Castillo, is supposed to come back to Argentina after a 20 year period, during which he became a very popular singer in other countries and now decides -nostalgia- to return to his native country where he has a flamboyant reception during his opening night in front of an adoring public.
Neighborhood chums he frequented as a child and young teenager went all of them to their old friend's premiere, hoping maybe to see him after the show and remember old times with him.
This movie has all the ingredients to grab the least intellectual part of the population, done during the best times of the Peronismo, movement that talked directly to their "Dear shirtless", that adored Perón and Evita.
His career was meteoric and his popularity lasted for over twenty years.
I mentioned at the beginning an "alien civilization" in the sense that seventy years later we watch this movie in awe seeing the complete change in customs and emotional reactions these people have in front of different happenings that nowadays would mean very little or nothing at all to us.
The acting is OK for this type of production, entertaining, fast, dynamic editing, but something that really took my breath away was to notice in the theater scene, where those two are seating and carrying on a dialog while the surrounding crowd remains frozen, like statues, in what nowadays we know as Mannequin Challenge, where you gotta stay still and do nothing. They all held their positions during the whole sequence! When one thinks that they came up with such an aesthetic solution SEVENTY YEARS AGO, one realizes that there is nothing new under the sun.
We must know that Alberto Castillo the man, in real life, became a certified Dr. gynecologist, because his Italian parents (Alberto Salvador De Lucca, his real name) wanted him to have some "real" profession, since they considered tango singing to be a doubtful way of making a living.
But since women started going to see the "gynecologist singer" in droves after seeing him in movies, he decided it was time to close his practice to become only a tango singer, and his legend started.
His parents must have been very surprised when their son became an Argentinian idol for the lower classes, adored by them, making a handful of incredibly popular movies, singing in theaters all over the country and Latin America, making records, etc.
Alberto Castillo died at 87.
A Harlot's Progress (2006)
Mesmerized and Repelled
I appreciated the previous reviews since I learned, by reading them, some facts I didn't catch when watching this movie, as some of the other viewers experienced too, and that being said by native speakers was a consolation for my feeble knowledge of the English language.
Several times during the viewing I was tempted to look for subtitles, since the background noise was at times quite loud, interfering with the dialogues but I noticed that by doing so my listening becomes lazy and I rely more and more on the written word.
About the movie: I was mesmerized and repelled by the early 1700s London low life, because at least in this film we don't get the slightest relief showing here and there some better society places and better attired people. Of course we are witnessing the rise of a very young and poor prostitute at the time, and the atmosphere couldn't be more depressing.
From beginning to end this movie is REALLY depressing..., I'm tempted to say that if Dorothy Parker were alive today, she could have been the writer of the script. But such masterfully produced work gets my admiration as the only reaction to the enormous effort they all must have endured to produce this jewel.
The top drawer talent displayed on all categories, from set and costume design to flawless acting and hyper realistic period make up goes beyond any expectation.
It's fortunate that nobody has, so far, developed smells as a possibility for the spectator to enter even further in that period, because if they did, watching this movie could have been practically impossible.
It became appalling seeing the living conditions poor women had to suffer during those times and most of all, the prostituted ones (although nowadays, 300 years later, many of them go through similar experiences), but one must admit that society has come a long way since those times.
Excellent movie, but you must really take a deep breath and set your mind accepting the low light for almost all the scenes, the slow pacing, the murmurs that were many of the dialogues and the desperate conditions of those poor people, all of them, women, children and men.
William Hogarth, the guiding figure on this movie, was a superb painter that left us a fantastic legacy with his depiction of his London, fortunately so changed (for the better) nowadays.
Como tú lo soñaste (1947)
Georg Kaiser,1878-1945, German Writer, "An October Day", Argentinian film adaptation
I haven't seen many Argentinian movies, but this 1947 adaptation of a German novel seems to me a true jewel of a film. Everything is correct from the historical point of view (late nineteenth century) from streets, to houses, to carriages, to props. Even the lighting falls over everything with a distinct nineteenth century languor thanks to gas light.
The photography is exceptional, unfortunately I saw a mediocre copy. For some inexplicable reason, Argentina seems to be totally indifferent to the preservation of its more than rich film legacy.
This is a very dark story, almost black, with the fatal consequences of mistaken identities unleashing heavy penalties for all involved in the drama.
Mirtha Legrand makes a complete switch from her previous frivolous 1940s blond Bimbo image to become this demure nineteenth century heroine, with dark hair, long and abundant tight curls framing her lovely face and yards and yards of fabric for her nineteenth century garments.
The film is mainly supported by the three main male characters, superb all of them and Mirtha is the "victim" of an almost unforgivable mistake (it could have happened in "Tom Jones", but there as hilarious comedy), a mistake that you have to see to believe!!
Anyhow, if we will dissect the plot of every movie we see, none of them will endure more than the first few minutes of the projection. Just watch this movie, very enjoyable precisely because of that incredible faux pas.
La pequeña señora de Pérez (1944)
Fluff as light as soap bubbles
1944. Argentina didn't suffer the second world war. It was, maybe, its best time economically.
This type of comedy is the example we have nowadays to measure the extent of those riches: Fantastic interiors in private residences, huge and lavish; magnificent cars, extra large and some of them convertibles; private ownership of superb horses; servants galore...; women dresses splendid and lots of them, silly (very silly) situations within homes with people that were having an exceptional life quality due to a florid economy that, I'm afraid, Argentina never saw again even until today, 2016.
In short: All that: Gone with the Wind.
But let's stay in 1944 because that's the year this light (extremely light) comedy was filmed.
Mirtha Legrand is our protagonist (it seems she made several comedies of this kind at the time, being very young and with an excellent understanding for the tempo required for these improbable situations). She was incredibly decorative with her ice blonde-blue eyes, delicate figure and fantastic upper class presence. A high class BIMBO from the word go.
This movie comprises the whole gamut of No-No's a prim and proper society woman was supposed to respect to be herself a respected member of her social class. Those rules border on the insane and clash completely with the way we live an think nowadays and NO WOMAN will be caught dead following those rules. Men probably would love to go back to those days...
Taking all these historical moral and social obstacles in perspective, one can, still now, enjoy this fast and frantic comedy of errors, with excellent actors and direction and with Mirtha Legrand as eye candy from beginning to end (she was seventeen at the time).
Talking about changing times, it caught my attention the cordovan strong and obvious accent of Tito Gómez, and actor that used that gimmick throughout his comic acting career because, having myself lived by now several years in Córdoba, I think natives don't speak any more with such strong accent (Television? Internet?). Even regional accents have gone with the wind!!
Bajo un mismo rostro (1962)
Twins in real life and in this movie.
The most difficult change of character to swallow in this soap opera is that one of Inés, our protagonist. After something like fifty years (1962) from the making of this movie and NO REVIEWS in IMDb since then..., I assume that nobody will care too much if I write an indiscretion about the script, like revealing the end or some other nasty surprise.
Anyhow, from now on, consider that I will start by writing a SPOILER...
* * * As I started this review talking about the sudden change of character of our protagonist, I want to make it clear that it seems practically impossible for Inés, this beautiful, prim and proper woman totally in love with her lover, to become all of a sudden an expensive, deluxe call girl and as a guy in a nightclub said about her: "The top expert woman in Buenos Aires to clean men's bank accounts"...
* * *
After being through with the spoiler I continue.
Let's clarify now the very old fashioned premises this movie was based upon (a 50 year lapse have changed completely the world and its morals --save in the Bible Belt of the United States). In 1962 women were still supposed to "belong" to ONE MAN ONLY and most preferably to her LEGAL HUSBAND... (church ceremony, white dress, as many children as possible, a gorgeous kitchen, washing machine, toaster, blender et al, where she would, happily, spend most of her life, etc.).
This movie was played by these beautiful twin sisters, actresses very well know at the time in Argentina. It's quite difficult to place them apart because their features are practically the same, at least in photography. One sister plays the nun (false eyelashes included, Mirtha Legrand couldn't be upstaged by sister Silvia) although Silvia wears the most outrageous false eyelashes on this southern part of planet earth, besides being overly made up and overly coiffed with a vengeance.
Silvia is Inés in the story and she starts the film as a model in an Haute Couture house, enjoying life with her lover, to whom she's extremely attached and in love with and convinced that she will marry this man SOON (he promised her so).
We must remember that in 1962 for a respectable woman to be a LOVER of a man, it was unthinkable (and she WAS his lover...).
Woops! another SPOILER is about to take place!!!
* * *
But in this life nothing that seems perfect can last too long... The lover is A PIMP that exploits naive women falling for his --physical assets?-- although I must confess I didn't find him that special..., but anyhow, the actor playing the part was, to my understanding, the best performer of them all.
To continue the story, from one scene to the next, Inés becomes that cool seductress, man eater woman I mentioned at the beginning.
* * * End of the second SPOILER...
To finish this review as suddenly as Inés's change of life (I don't want to extend too much my review), I think the end has a very fascinating twist to it worthy of having spent almost two hours watching this old movie (although quite interesting to understand the social limitations women suffered at the time).
I was surprised to learn that the script was adapted by a famous Argentinian writer of that time, a Silvina Bullrich, from a well known novel.
Silvia Legrand abandoned her movie career when getting married and Mirtha continued (by now she has a 75 year career trajectory and almost 90 years of age and --at least in pictures and on television-- she looks quite beautiful for her age (and perfectly clear minded, since she's the hostess of a TV program that so far had lasted 45 years).
Well, enough is enough. Watch this movie, learn about the mores of past times in Argentina, enjoy a bit of Buenos Aires streets and city life (location shots) of 1962 and if you pay attention to the plot, you won't be able to stop watching till the bitter end (surprising and bittersweet end).
Viudas (2011)
Mesmerizing
Enjoyable from beginning to end.
The technical side of this film is so good that you forget there is a camera between you and the actors.
Photography, lighting, sound: Sheer perfection.
Not to mention the acting: These actors could have been directed by Ingmar Bergman. Marcos Carnevale was the director, as good as the Swedish Master.
Graciela Borges (Elena in the film) was extraordinary as usual. And she looks incredibly young and beautiful besides being such a proficient actress.
Rita Cortesse (Esther) A winner hands down. What an actress! I will always remember her marvelous film "Herencia" -2001.
Valeria Bertuccelli: Perfect casting. Very good actress.
Martin Bossi: (Justina in the film) this one could be the Achilles heel in this film. Why? Although his performance is flawless, it was disorienting (to me at least) not to understand his character looks from the very beginning: Nowadays there are so many shades of genres that they blend all together in blurry confusion; could he/she has been a Trans in transition? has he transitioned already? is he just gay? is he a heterosexual man that enjoys dressing up in women's clothes?
We'll never know.
He plays his character too stiff and almost with fear of being booed by the audience, so one sees all the time a man slightly modified with a miniskirt and a pony tail.
The story is very interesting, being a love triangle, they never fail to grab you till the bitter end: Who wins, the wife or the lover? Since even IMDb blows the core of this story without the ubiquitous "spoilers ahead" I assume I won't have any problems talking openly about it.
The script is terribly astute and subtle in offering us in small doses the imperceptible changes both women go through in confronting each other under the shadow of the dead husband/lover, traitor in life to both of them. "Widow", singular, "Widows", plural. Clever manipulation for the title, indeed!
Meanwhile Esther, Elena's best friend, sees it all (and so does Justina, the Paraguayan maid, working at Elena's home for the last 14 years, and knowing her better that Elena herself. When at the phone, gossiping with a friend, Elena enters and Justina immediately changes from Spanish to Guarani, so Elena won't understand - -by the way, Guaraní is one of the most beautiful and melodious languages on earth-- unfortunately going head on to extinction (caution: I'm NOT Paraguayan).
If you are not fully grown up, please, stay away as far as you can from this film as from the Black Plague; it's subject matter, black humor and subtle feelings, all exceed your understanding.
I must say that the very end of this film, corny (according to another reviewer) or not, is masterful, it's so sublime that instantly will melt your heart. The beginning of a beautiful, understanding and rock solid friendship. It reminded me of "Les parapluies de Cherbourg".
Summing it up: Go and see it.