GUANTANAMERA
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 1997 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): ** 1/2
What happened to the appreciation of foreign films? Are we Americans becoming happily oblivious to the rest of world as seen through the eyes of their cinema? Although a few foreign movies such as IL POSTINO and LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE have become popular, most never even get a U.S. distributor. And the vast majority of those that do are promptly ignored.
As I sat by myself in an empty theater at the press screening of GUANTANAMERA, I lamented the presence of other critics. The large local daily chose to go with a syndicated feed rather than send a live critic. The local weeklies, the radio station, and, most tragically of all, the local colleges chose to pass on this sweet, subtitled picture. At least the local bastions of learning might be expected to show up, but their newspapers chose not to cover it. Everyone seems convinced that Hollywood blockbusters and English language, usually American, independents are all that are worth seeing.
End of diatribe. Granted they didn't miss an award winner, but this Franz Kafka Meets "Scientific Socialism" tells more about the state of Cuba today that many more learned treatises. And its precious style will engender many a smile if few guffaws.
GUANTANAMERA comes from the same creative team as the acclaimed Cuban film STRAWBERRY AND CHOCOLATE, including directors Tomas Gutierrez Alea and Juan Carlos Tabio, and stars Jorge Perugorria and Mirta Ibarra. Both pictures are light-hearted farces with delightfully uplifting spirits.
Opening to the happy tunes of the song "Guantanamera," we find ourselves in an impoverished country with asinine bureaucracy. The red dirt roads that cut through the towns are set off by white, dilapidated buildings with peeling paint. The colorful clothes of the women and big smiles from some of the inhabitants provide a contrast to the otherwise rampant visual gloom. (Patriotic signs, such as "Socialism or Die," periodically dot the roadway. Considering the conditions the people live under, the signs prove highly ironic.)
The famous singer Yoyita (Conchita Brando) has come all the way from Havana to her hometown of Guantanamera to see her old sweetheart, Candido (Raul Eguren). Since they haven't seen each other for half a century, the happiness proves too much for her. She drops dead in her long-lost lover's home. The rest of the film is a road picture with the corpse and its entourage making its way slowly back to Havana.
In the two car procession are Candido, Yoyita's niece Georgina (Mirta Ibarra) and her husband Adolfo (Carlos Cruz). Adolfo, an anal retentive government official, uses his previously devised and excruciatingly complex scheme to save gas. Coffin-carrying cars are supposed to form a kind of relay race with the coffins changing vehicles in towns along the way. How this could possibly save gasoline is never explained, for obvious reasons.
Along the way, they go to various restaurants only to find they are out of food. One has only tamarind juice and another just tea and rum. After one frustrating attempt to get sustenance, the radio in the would-be hearse brags of another record food crop for the country. After they finally get a decent meal at a speakeasy-like underground restaurant, Candido reflects on his life. "Loneliness is the worst sort of hungry," he tells Georgina.
In another scene, one funeral parlor has set out small pastries to comfort the mourners. When people who never knew the dead begin to show up to get the food, they start issuing tickets only to certified relatives. But this scheme turns into mayhem when people claiming to have relatives who have died before the food policy demand tickets.
Along the way Georgina keeps coming across her ex-student and now a truck driver named Mariano (Jorge Perugorria). Mariano reveals he had a crush on her in school. Georgina is bored silly with her stiff husband, and she and Mariano begin to make eyes at each other.
One moment captures the film best. When the wrong body is about to be buried, Adolfo looks briefly perplexed. "There are always problems," he says. "And there are always solutions." His has the logic of a consummate bureaucrat. Just bury it.
GUANTANAMERA runs 1:41. It is in Spanish with easy to follow English subtitles. The film is not rated, but it would probably get an R for brief nudity and a little profanity. This sweet little film would be fine kids around 11 and up. Although the story far outshines the acting, I do recommend the picture and give it ** 1/2.
**** = A must see film. *** = Excellent show. Look for it. ** = Average movie. Kind of enjoyable. * = Poor show. Don't waste your money. 0 = Totally and painfully unbearable picture.
REVIEW WRITTEN ON: September 30, 1997
Opinions expressed are mine and not meant to reflect my employer's.
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