Change Your Image
alexrene-80054
Reviews
Que Horas Ela Volta? (2015)
A unique and interesting exploration of class in Brazil.
Val is a housekeeper for a wealthy family in São Paulo Brazil. Despite being like "part of the family" and raising the family's son, Fabinho, as if he were her own son, Val has been separated from her own family for many years as she works to make money to support her daughter. When that daughter, Jessica, needs a place to stay while she studies for her entrance exam for a prestigious college in São Paulo, Val is all too eager to be reunited with the child she had to leave behind so many years ago. Val has been a live-in housekeeper/nanny for the family for years, and the issues begin when Jessica quickly shows that she has no respect for the unspoken rules that govern class within the household. The title of the film roughly translates to "When will she return?" and the theme of mothers separated from their children reappears throughout the film. Val and Jessica are not close because Jessica was raised by family while Val made money to support her. Fabinho and Dona Barbara are similarly estranged by her career. This film explores the dynamic and class boundaries within the household. Although Val considers herself part of the family, Jessica's disruptive presence quickly reveals that this is not quite the case. Val is also physically separated from the family, dwelling within her own domain in the kitchen and constantly eavesdropping on the conversations that take place in the dining room just through the open doorway. Que Horas Ela Volta? is hilarious, well-acted, and at times a little uncomfortable to watch. Val and Jessica may not disassemble class structure in Brazil, but the ridiculous and sometimes demeaning treatment that Val receives from Dona Barbara does cause the viewer to reject that treatment, which is a start.
La teta asustada (2009)
Thoughtful depiction of the inequality in a modern society
The film begins with a horrifying story of rape and violence told through the song of an elderly woman who lays dying on her bed. She describes her horrific experiences during the years of the conflict in Peru between Sendero Luminoso, a left wing guerrilla group, and the Peruvian government. Though she has lost much in the conflict, including her husband whose emasculation and murder she describes in her song, she has left behind a daughter, Fausta, who becomes our protagonist. Fausta and her family do not have money to bury her mother or return her body to their village, so Fausta accepts work in the home of a wealthy white pianist. Fausta and her family are indigenous, and live in poverty in Lima, Peru where wealth, class, and race are all still intertwined. Fausta shares her mothers penchant for composing songs and her boss, who is struggling to complete a piece by her recital date, encourages Fausta to sing for her. When Fausta finishes her song, the boss performs it to a standing ovation in a packed theater. When tries to have her work acknowledged she is left abandoned on the dark streets of Lima, a terrifying fate for Fausta who has a crippling fear of men and is afraid of being assaulted like her mother was.
What Claudia Llosa has done perfectly here is capture the undertones of race, sex, and class that define so much of most modern societies. Fausta fears rape and this fear is especially valid given that she is an indigenous woman. If Fausta were not both indigenous and a woman, the threat of rape or any other form of violation would not be so understandable. Native people in Peru are often limited by a governmental/societal system that not only devalues them, but actively targeted them in the recent past. Though Fausta's fears stem from the past treatment of indigenous woman in Peru, her boss's duplicity is a product of a modern social structure that has not changed too drastically from previous decades. This is the context that makes her boss's strong reaction to her quiet comments so powerful. How dare Fausta, a poor indigenous woman, try to take any credit for her own work? Fausta attacked Peru's system of societal system by simply acknowledging it, when quiet acceptance of the creative theft was the expectation. In La Teta Asustada, Llosa displays the two extremes of oppression. The first being violence, and the latter silence.
Liz en Septiembre (2014)
All in one romantic film
Liz in September by Fina Torres is a lesbian-centric take on the generic romance film. Liz (Velásquez) is a former model and a notorious player. Eva (Maturén) plays the role of the beautiful woman with the broken down car. Through a turn of fate, she ends up being sent to Margot's (Lazo) beachside hotel where all of the residents are lesbians. The romance between Liz and Eva begins, in standard rom-com fashion, as a bet between Liz and one of her friends about whether or not Liz can convince Eva to sleep with her within three days. Liz is not looking for anything serious. This is revealed to us through several, repetitive expositions between her and other characters as well as conversations that her friends have with each other. Every character in Liz in September seems to have an odd fixation on Liz. Despite this, we learn relatively little about Liz as a person other than the fact that she is completely irresistible. One of the other inhabitants of Margot's hotel is Liz's ex-partner Dolores (Lazo), whom Liz cheated on. We are never told why Liz cheated or how she and Dolores moved on to become friends, infidelity is just another part of Liz's bad girl persona. Throughout the film, Dolores's current girlfriend Coqui (García) makes several heavy- handed passes at Liz who feels neither the compulsion to inform Dolores or any apparent guilt afterwards when she briefly succumbs to Coqui's seduction. Even the romance between Liz and Eva, supposedly the central feature of the film, feels neglected in place of showing off how amazing and hot Liz is. Liz in September is notable for its unapologetic portrayal of women who love women. That being said, the movie feels at the same incomplete and overburdened.The irresistible playgirl, the unsatisfied wife, the dead child, the bet, the breakneck speed romance and the cancer all combine into a movie that is not displeasing to watch, but is disjointed and over-the-top cliché.
XXY (2007)
Intriguing and Beautifully Filmed
Alex and her parents, Kraken and Suli live in a small fishing town on the coast of Uruguay. Alex is an intersex individual who has recently stopped taking her hormonal medication which suppresses her masculine characteristics. The film opens with Suli contacting a former close friend of hers, Erika, who along with her surgeon husband Ramiro and adolescent son Álvaro will be coming to stay with Alex's family for the next few days. Unknown to Alex and Kraken, Suli hopes that this visit will lead to Ramiro operating on Alex to remove her male sex organs. From the onset, there is an attraction between Alex and Álvaro and their relationship continues to advance despite Alex's aggressive proposition upon their initial meeting that they have sex, which Álvaro declines. The film follows their relationship as well as the relationship between Alex and her father as Alex is confronted with society's demands that she conform to gender expectations and Álvaro discovers his homosexuality.
The film is beautifully shot with a lighting that makes the colors rich and lively. The shots are exciting, intriguing and at times overwhelming much like the story they tell. The film beautifully navigates the experience of sexual maturity for a person who occupies the space somewhere between our expectation of male and female. An unbreakable familial bond is shown between Alex and her father, Kraken, which only grows stronger in the face of adversity. Puenzo directs with acknowledgment of the audience and society's curiosity about intersex individuals and refuses to allow Alex to become a spectacle in her own story. Rather than shying away from the topic or other controversial themes, Puenzo dives head into the confusion one faces during puberty, the excitement of new love, and the danger that people like Alex face in a society where being abnormal makes one a target for violence. Overall, XXY is a beautiful depiction of a complicated love that will remain on the mind of a viewer long after the screen goes dark.