Midnight Dancers (1994)

Late in "Midnight Dancers," Mel Chionglo's sprawling drama of three brothers caught up in Manila's subculture of male prostitution, the youngest brother, Sonny (Lawrence David), stops for a moment to reflect on the spiritual cost of selling one's body to strangers night after night.

"We lost something," says the character, who with his baby-faced pout looks barely 18. "I don't know what, but something, somehow is lost."

"Midnight Dancers," which opens today at the Cinema Village, shows not only what is lost but what is gained. Sonny and his older brothers, Dennis (Gandong Cervantes) and Joel (Alex Del Rosario) work as go-go boys in a sleazy sex emporium called the Club Exotica whose upstairs cubicles are reserved for paid assignations.

Through prostitution, the boys are able to keep their closely knit family from starving. And the easy money and tinselly "stardom" at the Club Exotica exert their own seductive glamour. At the same time, the brothers, who think of themselves as essentially heterosexual, are objects of scorn in their impoverished neighborhood. The Club Exotica is periodically raided by the police. And as Sonny observes, something is lost. For lack of a better term, that something might be called a healthy perspective on one's place in the world.

Although the camera spends a lot of time at the club ogling nubile dancers as they go through their often ridiculous-looking routines, "Midnight Dancers" is by no means an exploitation film. With its pungent scenes of life in Manila's slums and its portrait of a family struggling to survive, it might be described as a Filipino answer to Luchino Visconti's late Neo-Realist epic "Rocco and His Brothers." Its detailed picture of the Club Exotica, which is run by a bossy male madam named Dominic (Soxy Topacio), whom everyone calls Mommy, is also very convincing.

Although the film looks at the world primarily through the eyes of the initially innocent Sonny, its portraits of his two older brothers are more than mere sketches. Dennis graduates from the club into a seasoned streetwalker who hangs out with a gang specializing in drugs and car theft. Joel carries on simultaneous relationships with a common-law wife and an abjectly devoted gay lover who helps him support his family. Sonny's first serious lover, Michelle (R. S. Francisco), is a drag queen who works at the Club Exotica.

Although the boys' mother (Perla Bautista) doesn't approve of her sons' occupation, she tolerates it because it pays the bills.

Underneath its gritty realism and unblinkingly blase view of commercial sex, "Midnight Dancers" is a sentimental family drama whose rosiness at times strains credibility. The three brothers are unwaveringly loyal and mutually supportive, and Joel's bisexual triangle is to all appearances a nearly idyllic arrangement. When, near the end, the movie turns abruptly melodramatic, it loses its bearings, and the action scenes seem crude and perfunctory. But for all its flaws, which are large and glaring, "Midnight Dancers" is a movie with a big heart and a large vision. MIDNIGHT DANCERS

Directed by Mel Chionglo; written (in Filipino, with English subtitles) by Ricardo Lee; director of photography, George Tutanes; edited by Jess Navarro; music by Nonong Buenoamino; production designer, Edgar Martin Littaua; produced by Richard Wong Tang; released by First Run Features. At Cinema Village, 22 East 12th Street, Greenwich Village. Running time: 115 minutes. This film is not rated. WITH: Alex Del Rosario (Joel), Gandong Cervantes (Dennis), Lawrence David (Sonny), Perla Bautista (Mother), Soxy Topacio (Dominic) and R. S. Francisco (Michelle).

First Love and Other Pains (2000)

Description

Two Award-Winning Gay Short Films

In First Love and Other Pains, a Hong Kong college student is smitten with his English professor, an older frustrated British playwright. Their common love of great literature leads both men into an erotic affair - the tenuous beginnings of a romance spanning two different worlds.

From the co-directors of the camp hit Desperate Remedies comes One Of Them. Set in the 1960's, two gay teens grapping with their mixed-up emotions and emerging sexuality strike up a friendship fortified by frank talk about fashion design and ogling cute boys, all to make the taunts and boredom of small-town life almost bearable.
97 minutes, color, 2000, Cantonese w/English subtitles.

“ Caresses ” (1998)

Synopsis:

The Foreign Comedy Drama Movie “ Caresses ” is a subtly funny depiction of intertwining stories of the pain, anger, sex, love, and hate between couples, people, and family members. As a Foreign Comedy Drama Movie, “ Caresses ” extends an erotic and eloquent look at various familial and sexual encounters through the course of a single night in Barcelona. The Foreign Comedy Drama Movie features Rosa Maria Sarda as Dona, Sergi Lopez as Home, Laura Conejero as Dona Jove, Julieta Serrano as Dona Gran, Agustin Gonzalez as Home Vell, Merce Pons as Noia, and David Selvas as Home Jove – all either lacking in “ Caresses ” or the ability to provide imperative “ Caresses ” – and all no doubt, searching for the right “ Caresses ” to make their miserable lives livable. But the Foreign Comedy Drama Movie “ Caresses ” is not just erotic and eloquent – “ Caresses ” masterfully utilizes cinematic techniques like fast forward shots to transition from one episode to another. Episodes of “ Caresses ” that come full circle in a unique turning back of time conclusion to introduce a final episode of “ Caresses ” that intertwines two stories in one episode for an erotic allusion of future “ Caresses ” – making the Foreign Comedy Drama Movie a brilliant must see adventure for anyone who ever wanted the warmth of some sensual “ Caresses ”.

"A Thousand Clouds of Peace"

"A Thousand Clouds of Peace" (2003) is a low budget Mexican oddity, filmed in grainy black-and-white, that has the look and feel of an "art film" stamped all over it. It is a largely nonverbal tale of a 17-year old named Gerardo who, having just been dumped by his boyfriend, now spends his days and nights wandering around the city in a desultory daze, trying to come to terms with his loneliness and despair.

"A Thousand Clouds of Peace" is definitely an acquired taste, but a person who opens himself up to the beauty of its images and the pervasiveness of its mood may find himself intrigued - if not exactly mesmerized - by the experience. The film consists mainly of Gerardo staring soulfully either into the distance or directly into the camera, but Juan Carlos Ortuno creates such a brooding presence that we actually find ourselves touched by the universality of his character's plight. By providing little in the way of drama, dialogue and character interaction, writer/director Julian Hernandez gives the film the simplified form of a parable, turning it into a study of heartbreak and unrequited love, but one stripped of all the usual distractions and clutter.

Dreamlike in its imagery and pacing, "A Thousand Clouds of Peace" will remind you of any number of European art films from the 1960's. Take that as either a recommendation or a warning, depending on your own personal taste.

LATTER DAYS (2003)

Director: C. Jay Cox
Starring: Wesley A. Ramsey, Steve Sandvoss, Jacqueline Bisset, Mary Kay Place, Erik Palladino, Amber Benson, Joseph Gordon-Levitt


L.A. pretty-boy Christian (Wesley A. Ramsey) is blessed with modelesque good looks, and the effortless ability to pick up and take home any man he wants—even if the guy is seemingly straight! One day, a group of clean-cut guys move into a neighboring apartment, and Christian rubs his hands with the possibilities. But, alas! The fellows are Mormon missionaires! Rather than serving as a deterrent, of course the sitution presents itself as his biggest challenge yet. At the fine restaurant where he waits table, Christian's co-workers wager bets on whether or not he can bed one of the missionary boys, and he accepts the challenge with glee.

IMDb:
Aaron Davis (Steve Sandvoss) and Christian Markelli (Wes Ramsey) are the two most opposite people in the world. Aaron is a young Elder (or a Mormon missionary) who wants to do his family proud and is quite passionate about his religion and film. Christian is a shallow WeHo waiter/party boy who only looks forward to bedding a new guy every night. After Aaron and three other missionaries move into the apartment across from Christian, his friends bet him $50 that he can't get one of them to jump into the sack, so he instantly latches onto Aaron. There are two problems, though - Christian is falling in love with Aaron and the Mormons are not the biggest fans of the homosexual community. Once Aaron is discovered, the two have to go through trials of regret, loss, perseverance, and forgiveness if they both want to get to the thing that matters to them most: each other.

Mango Soufflé

Mango Soufflé is the first openly gay male film from India and is an eye-opening exploration of gay sexuality and relationships in a culture that is far from accepting.
This heartfelt drama begins when gay fashion designer Kamlesh, reeling from a recently ended relationship, invites a group of friends (of all sorts) for dinner for a special announcement. The situation reaches a boiling point when Kamlesh’s sister arrives with her new fiancé, a man with an explosive secret. From there the action whips into a frenzy as sexual tensions build and skeletons fly out of the closet.
Writer/director Mahesh Dattani’s colorful directorial debut (based on his own acclaimed play) is a breezy, tangy and colorful peek into the contemporary life of Indian gay culture.
(India) In English (2002)

Full Speed (1996)

Recent immigration, especially from North Africa, may have engendered a lot of social stress in France, but it has certainly helped enrich that country's films, which increasingly reflect a society no longer smugly rooted in bourgeois custom. Gael Morel's ''Full Speed,'' an enjoyably corny Gallic ''Rebel Without a Cause,'' is set in a French suburb where young Algerian immigrants are menaced by racist skinheads, and middle-class students view the North Africans as the exotically sexy equivalent of American homeboys. The movie has a lot in common with Andre Techine's ''Wild Reeds,'' not only in its use of two of the actors from that 1995 film (in which Mr. Morel played the lead), but in its portrayal of French youth as both sexually precocious and wildly romantic.

''Full Speed,'' whose four main characters are all in their late teens and early 20's, is a fable of exploitation, betrayal and passion among four intense young people. The villain of the piece is a handsome 19-year-old writer named Quentin (Pascal Cervo) whose first novel has created a stir and made him a literary poster boy for his generation.

Quentin based the book on the adventures of his best friend, Jimmy (Stephane Rideau), who belongs to a gang of North African immigrants, and he has promised to pay Jimmy back by helping him get a job as a radio disk jockey. But when the ambitious young author jumps at the chance to go to Paris and taste the rewards of being a literary enfant terrible, he all but turns his back on Jimmy and his friends.

Quentin is also professionally canny enough to know he has to find colorful material for a second novel. Before leaving for Paris, he pursues a handsome young Algerian immigrant named Samir (Meziane Bardadi), who is gay, specifically to plunder his life story for material. Playing a come-hither game with Samir, who is lovesick for him, the resolutely heterosexual Quentin extracts and copywrights the young Arab's painful story of his Algerian love affair with a boy who died in a tragic shooting accident. Once Quentin has gotten the story, he drops Samir and indicates his disgust with homosexuality.

Meanwhile Quentin's headstrong girlfriend, Julie (Elodie Bouchez), falls in love with Jimmy, who remains fiercely loyal to his friend and tries to fend her off. But Julie is as determined to possess Jimmy as Quentin is to possess Samir's story, and eventually she baits him into literally throwing her down in the mud.

The movie's most treacherous scene is an intimate birthday party for Quentin shortly before he is to leave for Paris. Samir mopes around unhappily while the deceitful Julie plays the role of Quentin's loyal girlfriend even though she has begun an affair with Jimmy. The story takes several melodramatic turns after Jimmy saves Samir from a savage beating at the hands of local thugs and is himself nearly killed.

Although ''Full Speed,'' which opens today at the Quad Cinema, has scenes set in discos, on motorcycles and on the street, it's anything but a realist film. Keeping the camera focused on its four main characters' wonderfully expressive faces, it is an unblushing ode to youth and beauty with a tart political subtext. For in the end, Quentin and Julie, as appealing as they are, are homegrown colonialists who are so self-centered and politically myopic that they barely recognize they are exploiting their friends as heedlessly as any occupying force in a North African country. You don't have to leave your hometown to act like a colonial oppressor.

FULL SPEED

Written (in French, with English subtitles) and directed by Gael Morel; director of photography, Jeanne Lapoirie; edited by Catherine Schwartz; produced by Laurent Benegui; released by Strand Releasing. At the Quad Cinema, 13th Street, west of Fifth Avenue, Greenwich Village. Running time: 82 minutes. This film is not rated.

WITH: Pascal Cervo (Quentin), Elodie Bouchez (Julie), Stephane Rideau (Jimmy) and Meziane Bardadi (Samir).

Sebastiane

Sebastiane /1976
Homoerotic story of St Sebastiane and his eventual torture, rape and martyrdom. Gloriously gay and powerfully universal
Writer-director Derek Jarman transposes the legend of the martyred Saint Sebastian to the time of the Roman Empire, and re-creates him as Sebastianus, a common Roman soldier exiled to the back of beyond. Here, he is victimised by a superior officer after he rejects his sexual advances.

This is arthouse movie-making at its most cerebral: the dialogue is entirely in Latin and Jarman's storytelling, which is full of pastiche and parody, makes his film the antithesis of no-brain, popcorn-munching entertainment.

The story is intensely homo-erotic and the film's concentration on the emerging homosexual relationships between the soldiers further distances it from standard fare. But the film's theme is universal and compelling: it deals with the relationship between sex and power and the destructive force of unrequited passion.

This was Jarman's directorial debut. He went on to carve himself a particular niche in British arthouse filmmaking, as an avant garde auteur, unafraid to make demands of his audience, and intent on crafting sophisticated, richly visual, innovative films.



Biography

Derek Jarman (January 31, 1942- February 19, 1994) was a British film director, artist, and writer.

Jarman's first films were experimental super 8mm shorts, a form he never entirely abandoned, and later developed further (in his films Imagining October (1984), The Angelic Conversation (1985), The Last Of England (1987) and The Garden (1990)) as a parallel to his narrative work.

Jarman made his debut in "overground" narrative filmmaking with the groundbreaking Sebastiane (1976), arguably the first British film to feature positive images of gay sexuality, and the first (and to date, only) film entirely in Latin. He followed this with the film many regard as his first masterpiece, Jubilee (shot 1977, released 1978), in which Queen Elizabeth I of England is transported forward in time to a desolate and brutal wasteland ruled by her twentieth century namesake. Jubilee was arguably the first UK punk movie, and amongst its cast featured punk groups and figures such as Wayne County, Jordan and Adam and the Ants.
Jarman was a forthright and prominent gay rights activist.
After making the unconventional Shakespeare adaptation The Tempest in 1979 (a film praised by several Shakespeare scholars, but dismissed by some traditionalist critics), Jarman spent seven years making experimental super 8mm films and attempting to raise money for Caravaggio (he later claimed to have rewritten the script seventeen times during this period). Finally released in 1986, it attracted a comparatively wide audience (and is still, barring the cult hit Jubilee, probably his most widely-known work), partly due to the involvement, for the first time, of the British television company Channel 4 in funding and distribution. This marked the beginning of a new phase in Jarman's filmmaking career: from now on all his films would be part-funded by television companies, often receiving their most prominent exhibition in TV screenings.

The conclusion of Caravaggio also marked the beginning of a temporary abandonment of traditional narrative in Jarman's work. Frustrated by the formality of 35mm film production, and the institutional dependence and resultant prolonged inactivity associated with it (which had already cost him seven years with Caravaggio, as well as derailing several long-term projects), Jarman returned to and expanded the super 8mm-based form he had previously worked in on Imagining October and The Angelic Conversation.

The first film to result from this new semi-narrative phase, The Last of England tolled the death of a country, ravaged by Thatcher's conservatism. "Wrenchingly beautiful…the film is one of the few commanding works of personal cinema in the late 80's--a call to open our eyes to a world violated by greed and repression, to see what irrevocable damage has been wrought on city, countryside and soul, how our skies, our bodies, have turned poisonous," The Village Voice

During the making of The Garden, Jarman became seriously ill. Although he recovered sufficiently to complete the film, he never attempted anything on a comparable scale afterwards, returning to a more pared-down form for his concluding narrative films, Edward II (perhaps his most politically outspoken work, informed by his Queer activism) and the Brechtian biographical study Wittgenstein, a delicate tragicomedy.

The film Blue was his last testament as a film-maker. At the time when he made the film, he was blind and dying of AIDS related complications. Blue consists of a single shot of saturated blue colour filling the screen, as background to a soundtrack composed by Simon Fisher Turner featuring original music by Coil and other artists, where Jarman describes his life and vision.

Duda/Doubt

Andoy Ranay ... Cris
Paulo Gabriel ... Erick

There's something refreshing about Chris Pablo's full-length digital opus "Duda/Doubt (2004)." Produced by the Center for Restorative Justice in Asia, in cooperation with Grupong Sinehan and the UP Cineastes' Studio, the movie takes a closer look on the goings-on in the lives of gays without forcefully injecting drag queens or gyrating men in bulge-busting G-strings.

But noble as its intention is, the whole work is in itself quite a failure, what with a lousy score and a cinematography that gives one the pleasure of being able to count the pixels on the faces of the actors. It is technically flawed, and certain happy-happy characters make you want to cover your eyes and ears for fear that they might pop up and play a cameo in your nightmares. But otherwise, it is a brave attempt to break out of the mold and speak of truth sans cheap histrionics and homo manicurists. The lines are witty and straightforward, and the gay bunch are a raucous romp in both their travails and joys. It's virtually a film about gay men; the last scene where a woman locks lips with a butch seems like a rock that just fell straight out of the blue.

With characters played out by unknowns, "Duda/Doubt" is underscored by its rather expletive-peppered script and explicit rawness, which the MTRCB thankfully didn't hold against the work. Somehow the movie reminded me of Maryo J.'s "Sa Paraiso ni Efren" (1999), if only for its daring premise. "Duda/Doubt" could have most certainly been better, given enough resources to work on. It's just a pity that the output itself ended up reflective of the shoestring budget used to shoot it.

For what it's worth though, "Duda/Doubt" has doubtlessly been able to get on a good fight.

My Life on Ice

Ariane Ascaride ... Caroline
Jimmy Tavares ... Étienne (et pour la première fois à l'écran)
Jonathan Zaccaï ... Laurent
Hélène Surgère ... La grand-mère
Lucas Bonnifait ... Ludovic



I'm not normally one to care so much about film technique or movie technology, the story or the characters are what usually drive my interest. However, this is the third film I have seen that was filmed using Digital Video (the other two were Barbet Schroeder's "Our Lady of the Assassins" and "Manic", both of which I have also reviewed here on IMDb) and I have come to realize that I like this style of movie-making very, very much. I might go so far as to say that the means may actually be the ends, although all these films have also given so much more than just an appealing technique. But to just simply feel that much closer and more intimate with beautiful and appealing people, regardless of their problems or whatever they are going through, is a pleasure just by itself.

This film really could have been a video journal of a teenage ice skater, one who was, at least, quite skilled with the camera, and, in fact, throughout the film, I simply believed that such a video journal is what it actually was. Living in Los Angeles like I do where so many are would-be filmmakers, and at a time when so many kids have video cameras and are so often putting them in your face or surreptitiously filming you (and themselves), it would not be far-fetched that an ice skater as disciplined and talented as the actor in the film (genuinely a second-place holder in a French figure-skating championship) could also develop skill in this other artistic medium...as, indeed, successfully done by the skater Jimmy Tavares who also demonstrated his notable acting ability in this film.

I found the video technique fascinating as, appropriately, an intimate visual expose of the coming of age of a character in a FILM, just like a diary or personal letters would be in a BOOK. It was as if Etienne, the ice skater, wanted to objectify his life by recording his activities and those of the other people who interacted with or were of interest to him in such a way that he could then step aside and see his life from the outside.

It helped a lot that the boy, Etienne, was so beautiful, as was his whole family and the people associated with him, and his personality, as was theirs, was also so charming and humorous. It was not boring or meaningless to be with these people for a year (film time). In fact, I myself, not only want to buy my own video camera and start filming myself and all the people in my life, but I also wished all the people in my life were French! And the video camera with such great depth of field picks up so many more images in a scene that one does not normally see in a movie, and this quality added to the magnitude of the experience. For example, as Etienne would be filmed skating around in his practice arena, metro trains would go speeding by outside the arena's window with perfect clarity, adding the rhythm and beauty of their motion with that of the skater gracefully doing his swirls and spins.

But all this intimacy and beauty in the camera work does not overshadow the fact that something is supposed to be happening with these characters, and, as far as I am concerned, there was no disappointment there. There were times when Etienne's subjects rebelled against his intruding in their life with his camera, and yet in the end the only one really intruded into was Etienne himself, who got particularly nervous or upset when others used his camera, but he was at the same time quite willing to film himself when he was the one at the controls.

Inexorably, the story does move to the conclusion that must have been what had been motivating Etienne the whole time, and it was here that his good acting ability was revealed to be great. As appealing as Etienne's character had always been (despite his occasional anger or bad moods), upon achieving his self-realization, some subtle dark filter or cloud seemed to have been removed from his character and he then radiated a light that was several notches brighter than what had been expressed before. I almost would have thought that a filter had been removed from the camera lense, but this new light really was from within Jimmy Tavares, himself. And that what he came to understand about himself is nowadays understood to not necessarily be all that unusual or spectacular, for him, alone, of course, it certainly would matter very much and since we had been so close to him throughout the movie, it mattered to us, too.

I could have watched so much more, but in this movie, the climax was also the denouement--as sudden as a camera can stop, or, more importantly, START (controlled with a simple pressing of a button on a remote control), so, too, are there sudden stops and starts in the life of the character effected, where what was before has now been severely EDITED, and the personal DEPTH OF FIELD is now so much greater

MACHO DANCER

MACHO DANCER

Jacklyn Jose ... Bambi
Daniel Fernando ... Noel
Princess Punzalan ... Pining
Allan Paule ... Pol
William Lorenzo ... Dennis

Abandoned by his American lover, a naive country boy (Alan Paule) seeks his fortune in Manila, where he's drawn into a world of erotic dancing, prostitution and drug running, leading to betrayal and murder.

Combining elements of melodrama and social commentary, MACHO DANCER marks a return to the subject of male prostitution for director Lino Brocka (MANILA: IN THE CLAWS OF NEON), who paints a picture of the Filippino sex industry as a dangerous arena, fuelled by drugs and police corruption, where innocent young men must compromise their virtue in an effort to stay alive. The densely plotted screenplay (co-written by Ricardo Lee and Amato Lacuesta) is filmed with genuine gusto, though Brocka fails to break any new ground on the subject (see also MIDNIGHT DANCERS and BURLESK KING, both directed by Mel Chionglo), and proceedings are stifled by Paule's amateurish performance as the gullible waif who struggles to keep his head while all around him are succumbing to the worst excesses of their unhappy lifestyle. More successful is ultra-sexy Daniel Fernando (star of Peque Gallaga's influential erotic drama SCORPIO NIGHTS) as a veteran 'macho dancer' whose association with a crooked police officer (Johnny Vicar) results in tragedy and horror, and Jacklyn Jose (YOUR WIFE, MY WIFE) as the stereotypical 'tart with a heart' who succumbs to Paule's dubious charms (yes, another 'gay' film in which the leading man falls for his leading lady!).

The running time is padded with lengthy excerpts from the various stage performances, in which naked young guys oil each other up and gyrate to synth music (Fernando's dance sequence with co-star William Lorenzo is worth the price of admission alone!), though the film's sexual content is fairly coy by western standards. Some of the dramatic sequences are allowed to overrun, and the climax is predictably ironic, but the narrative still packs something of an emotional wallop, and while production values are modest, the film's mixture of beefcake, sentimentality and violence is frankly irresistible.

Market Days Chicago 2008

On August 9th and 10th, tens of thousands of people from across the country will converge on Halsted Street to celebrate the 27th annual Northalsted Market Days®. This event is the largest two-day street fair in the Midwest, and lives up to its reputation as one of the country's finest festivals!

The event spans six city blocks, has 17 entrance gates and features three music stages with more than 40 musical acts performing. Many of these artists will be top-name, national headliners, giving Market Days a reputation for some of the best live music in Chicago.

Market Days is also famous for its vast array of unique food, and arts and crafts vendors. Vendors from across the country apply for the privilege of showing and selling their unique wares to this huge, upscale crowd. On average, Northalsted Market Days® features 400 food, arts and crafts vendors.

Habana Blues

La oportunidad de recorrer la incertidumbre en la vida del cubano y andar las calles de la Habana escuchando buena música no las brinda el filme Habana Blues. Para los cubanos que todavía tenemos el olor a Cuba en la piel resulta verdaderamente emocionante ver las actuaciones de Tito (Roberto Sanmartín), Ruy (Alberto Joel Garcia) y su esposa, Yailene Sierra, jóvenes que nos muestran a sangre fría el dilema de “quedarse en Cuba o escoger la primera oportunidad que se presenta”.

A través de un amigo Ruy y Tito logran contactar a dos españoles productores que buscan músicos underground en Cuba. El contrato que los europeos le ofrecen al grupo al que ellos pertenecen, Habana Blues, no resulta ventajoso. Esto exaspera divisiones entre Ruy y Tito al igual que entre el resto de los jóvenes pertenecientes a la banda musical.

Algunos de los integrantes, por tal de salir de Cuba, aceptan lo que sea; otros, se sienten con el derecho a reclamar mejor remuneración por el valor de su música. Tal dilema envuelve los sentimientos y emociones de estos jóvenes que no encuentran esperanza de un futuro mejor y a quienes la escasez material subyuga día a día.

El filme de dos horas nos da la oportunidad de observar la vida del cubano reflejada en la familia de Ruy, a quien el divorcio le asoma a las puertas con dos hijos pequeños y el cierre del permiso para vender artesanía, a su esposa, se convierte en el leitmotiv que la impulsa a aceptar irse de Cuba hacia Miami en una lancha junto a sus dos pequeños hijos.

Un teatro a punto del colapso, edificios mugrientos y el apartamento de “Ruy” nos trasladan a La Habana real que hoy pulula junto al muro del Malecón y el Paseo del Prado. La miseria no es un término abstracto. Se puede palpar a través de la pantalla con el poder de la imagen que nos brinda el Director de la cinta, Benito Zambrano.



Mas allá del mensaje “apolítico” de la cinta, de que los grupos de Miami financian la búsqueda de “músicos disidentes” y utilizan a terceras personas para su cometido para nada Habana Blues es un filme político. Al contrario, es un retrato humano que logra el nudo en la garganta en los espectadores y las lágrimas en los más sensibles.

Cualquier cubano de cualquier parte del mundo puede verse reflejado en la vida de estos tres jóvenes amantes de la música y, sobre todo, de la libertad.

Mas comentarios

Benito Zambrano (41), director de "Habana Blues", y conocido por la exquisita "Solas" (2000), pasó por Buenos Aires Al nivel de su opera prima, "Habana..." cuenta la intensa historia de Ruy y Tito, dos músicos fuera de la onda musical típica: llenos de rock, sueñan con convertirse en estrellas de la canción, pese a las dificultades que le impone el sistema de vida cubano.

"Cuba es un lugar loco y maravilloso, y esta película es un agradecimiento al lugar que me formó como persona y cineasta", dijo el sevillano Zambrano, que lanzó un deseo:

"Ojalá que Cuba no pierda su alegría... Y haya más libertad que no tenga que estar la gente prostituyéndose para conseguir algo.


La desgracia de los gobernantes latinos es que se convierten en ladrones o dictadores. Y Fidel... (suspira). Fidel es el loco de la isla, pero no el culpable de todo".

Hay un mensaje de fondo que genera hormigueos corporales...

Sí, sobre todo cuando el humor y los sentimientos conviven y se hieren. Es una bella metáfora sobre la dignidad, la amistad y el amor".

Zambrano vivió y estudió en Cuba, por lo que conoce todas las dificultades que representan hacer una película allí. "La isla está cada vez más encerrada; por lo tanto, los cubanos tienen menos alternativas.

Por eso, el grito en el cielo de uno de los protagonistas por abandonar el país como sea parece tan real"

¿Cuál es su máxima pretensión con "Habana Blues"?

Que sea estrenada en Cuba y en Miami, un misión complicada...
El realizador, que elaboró una historia muy desde adentro, mira de frente la realidad sociocultural cubana. "Intenté hacer un film desde las entrañas y muestro cómo es ser joven y vivir en la isla".

¿Es el film que quiso contar?

Yo no soy Almodóvar ni Julio Medem, pero creo que es una historia personal y sensible.


Por Claudia Márquez



Otros detalles
Roberto SanMartin


Roberto San Martín nació en La Habana, el 26 de abril de 1976, en el seno de una familia de artistas: su madre es la actriz Susana Pérez y su padre es el escritor y director de Cine y TV, Roberto A. San Martin. De esta manera Roberto desde pequeño se habituó al ambiente de los platós cinematográficos, los estudios de la TV y los escenarios teatrales. A pesar de ello intentó encontrar su futuro, empezando varias carreras como administrador, francés, dirección de empresas, dirección de cine. Así mismo estudio para diversos oficios como diseñador gráfico u hostelero. Mientras tanto se ganaba la vida trabajando como informático, vendedor y cocinero.
Un día el director teatral Boris Villar se presentó en su casa para hablar con su madre y terminó ofreciendo un papel sin diálogo a Roberto, quien así daba sus primeros pasos en su carrera artística. Poco a poco ficho para varias telenovelas rodadas en Ecuador y Cuba: Las mujeres de Pocholo, Historias personales, Las huérfanas de una obra pía (1999), Violetas de agua (1999) y Enigma de un verano, emitida en 2001, el mismo año en que el actor coqueteó por primera vez con el cine en el cortometraje Encantado. Para entonces Sanmartín ya se había adherido al grupo de teatro "El Publico", con el cual representó La Celestina (2001-2002), Icaros (2003) y Vida y muerte de Pasolini (2003).
El intérprete compaginó estos trabajos con la filmación del largometraje Entre ciclones (2002) y la presentación de programas juveniles culturales como A moverse y Cuerda viva. Gracias a la popularidad alcanzada en su país, Benito Zambrano le confió seleccionar a actores que pudiesen interpretar a músicos para su filme Habana Blues. En dicho proceso, le sugirieron que entregase su ficha para que pudiese dar vida a algún personaje de reparto. Finalmente le tocó en suerte uno de los dos protagonistas, Tito, un músico que decidía abandonar la isla para establecerse España. Sin darse cuenta el propio actor experimentaría las mismas vivencias que las experimentadas por el rol que representaba: Sanmartín dejó La Habana -separándose así momentáneamente de su mujer-, se instaló en el barrio de Lavapies en Madrid, y se introdujo en el mercado español. En esos momentos Habana Blues fue seleccionada para el Festival de Cannes de 2005, al que acudió acompañado de su director y del equipo. Para entonces, Sanmartín ya había filmado La semana que viene (sin faltas) junto a Imanol Arias, donde dio vida a un hombre que se ganaba la vida tunneando.
En verano Roberto Sanmartín se presentó a las pruebas de casting para interpretar en Aquí no hay quien viva a Yago, un ecologista de Aldeas Verdes, de talante progresista y anticonsumista que ve sus ideales tambalearse al iniciar una relación con Lucía (María Adánez), una treintañera "pija"... Elena Arnao le seleccionó por sus pintas de hippy y al considerar que el actor proyectaba la imagen de hombre aventurero, que ama por encima de todo la vida, y está dispuesto a asumir riesgos. A lo largo de la serie Yago seguía emprendiendo acciones de protesta contra los empresarios y promoviendo huelgas, a la vez que se acostumbraba al confort capitalista...
Sanmartín al mismo tiempo se incorporó al rodaje de La dama boba donde en principio debía dar vida al paje de un aristócrata (Liseo: Luis Merlo). Finalmente la renuncia de Merlo a consecuencia de su agenda apretada le permitió sustituirle. Para ello Sanmartín tuvo que tomar clases de dicción con Alicia Hermida. Su interpretación de noble afeminado, humillado y rechazado por la mujer que ama (Nice: Macarena Gómez), le valió el premio de Mejor actor secundario en el Festival de Málaga de 2006.
Ese mismo año Sanmartín y Vladimir Cruz participaron en el homenaje al cine cubano dispensado en el Festival de Cine del Sahara. Completó el año rodando el cortometraje El regalo, sumándose al reparto de la película Soy un pelele donde interpretó a un homosexual que al recuperar la conciencia tras un coma no es consciente de su identidad sexual, y fichar junto con el resto de reparto de Aquí no hay quien en la serie La que se avecina.

"""Silvio Ramírez (Roberto San Martín)
Treintañero gay que trabaja en un bar de ambiente. Vive junto con su amiga Cris en el 1ºA.
Se lleva mal con los Recio y muy bien con Silvio y Sandra. Estuvo apunto de casarse con Cris por los papeles pero se enamoró del cura que les iba a casar.
Después de la marcha de Cris, vive en el trastero de Enrique y trabaja como camarero en su bar.""""""