Reviews
Mariposas en el andamio (1996)
Two Snaps Up
Perhaps we've evolved into a sophisticated culture in the US with successful gay politicians, effective civil rights laws, and a major presence in commercial films but back at Stonewall, drag queens were the first to fight for freedom dignity and the Constitutional right to life liberty and the proverbial pursuit of happiness.
Well in late 90s Cuba, it's the drag queens again who are at the forefront of the fight for gay liberation.
This is not a perfect documentary technically but who cares. It will have your heart in your throat repeatedly with it's "realness". The musical performances populate the film with a passionate resonance that never lets up. Edited in between are philosophical musings of artistes that are profound social commentary along with that of relatives and workers who have come to respect these "mariposas" as important participants in the total fabric of Cuban society..
If you enjoyed "Paris Is Burning" you are hereby required to see this sister documentary, that is, if you can find it. >
Schwanensee (1966)
Nureyev's Show
Nureyev in his prime and Fonteyn at her most accomodating. Why Nureyev chose to scuttle the traditional Black Swan music is a mystery of the production. It's a glaring flaw although Fonteyn does her best, fouettes and all, in his watery choreography for the dramatic pas de deux. There's not too much of a selection for ballet on DVD at the moment and for lovers of Nureyev, this is his show. (Hint to DVD producers; how about releases of DTH's "Creole Giselle" and "Firebird". They should be visually stunning in DVD format.)
I Like It Like That (1994)
The acting, writing, editing, directing, cinematog...
The acting, writing, editing, directing, cinematography, music and art direction are infused with Chekhovian tragi-comic magic from the yearning of intersected details and human idiosyncracies. A jewel of a film, stolen by it's charismatic leads Lauren Velez and Jon Seda.
Gods and Monsters (1998)
Gods and Stereotypes
This noxious tripe and all its trendy buzz, regurgitated with meek docility in previous posts, is a rip-off of the great film "Dreamchild". Reversed here for an English man of advanced age who embodies the classic of literature Frankenstein as its film director, hallucinating and coming to grips with his adolescence, sexuality and his current life as he faces terminal disease. In "Dreamchild" with precisely the same scenario, it is an English woman of advanced age who embodies the classic Alice in Wonderland as the girl it was written for, hallucinating and coming to grips with her adolescence, sexuality and her current life as she faces terminal disease. Hallucinated scenes from their classic tales become interwoven with scenes of real daily encounters as they cope with impending death and a Pirandellian blending of the actual and the imagined. But Coral Browne in "Dreamchild" makes peace with her hallucinations and her youth. McKellen doesn't. Instead in this invented insult to the life of James Whale we get another tortured, masochistic homosexual role a la William Hurt in "Kiss of the Spider Woman" groveling after a disdainful straight male. More angst violence and suicide for gays! Hooray just what we need to see in a film right after Matthew Shephard's murder. Oh joy, "The Children's Hour" for the 90s, only this time were so elevated we use the words queer and homosexual in the film as if that gave it validation. It's just more typical H'wood negative slime on gay themes. The ending is utterly repulsive; don't bring kleenex, bring your barf bag. And the Corman-level FX of the Frankenstein hallucinations in "Gods and Monsters" can't hold a candle to the sophisticated FX of the Wonderland hallucinations in "Dreamchild". Redgrave's acting is so pathetically comic book in a so-called serious drama you want to slap her while the performances of the supporting cast are lower than provincial college theatre. What a mess.
Danzón (1991)
It's a love thing
Julia is a middle aged phone operator in Mexico City who divides her time between her job, her daughter and the "Danzon": an elegant, romantic Cuban dance popular in Caribbean Latin America.
Julia wants to taste one great romance in her life before she feels she will have lost what's left of her beauty. Like a ritual, each Wednesday Julia dances the Danzon with the dashing, mysterious and still handsome Carmelo in the old "Salon Colonia". They've danced for years but barely know each other.
One night Carmelo disappears without a trace. Suddenly bereft, Julia abandons well-regulated obligations and responsibilities and sets off on a long distance odyssey, searching for her missing cavalier. These comic, touching and ultimately triumphant adventures lead Julia to a deeper comprehension of the meaning of life and true happiness.
Dance with Me (1998)
Vanessa's Oscar Worthy Ruby Sinclair
********** Williams performance is the rock which sustains the believability and dramatic tension of "DANCE WITH ME"s unfolding events. Her acting is drenched with Irene Papas catharsis; when she plumbs her soul at the climactic final championship dance she travels through more horizon lines on her emotional interior landscape than Keir Dullea at the end of "2001". We don't need FX to see those plateaus. Her face is a gradient seismograph of the turbulent earthquakes transforming her heart. This is an AMAZING performance. To accomplish this in the middle of an athletic dance of Olympic intensity is simply beyond the pale of any other actress on screen today. No one else could have pulled this off and Williams does it with such absolute authority it's chilling.
We have VASTLY underrated the talent of this woman and Hollywood should hang its head in shame for that.
Hollywood adapted actress rankings quickly when required to do so in the past. Sally Field went from Gidget/Flying Nun to Daughter of Stanislavski in "Sybil" overnight. Vanessa's triumph is dropping critical jaws with similarly astounded gasps:
"At last a vehicle for her PRODIGIOUS TALENT. The teaming of Chayanne and Vanessa is like a double dose of Viagra!" ------------- Time Magazine
Behind the same buzz that catapulted Jessica Lange from kitsch "Kong" to "Frances" glitters Vanessa William's similarly elevated dust in "DANCE WITH ME". She's broken through to become the Dorothy Dandridge of our generation.
Williams says she's used to proving herself with each new project:
``That's the luxury of having people doubt you, everything surprises them."
Dance, Girl, Dance (1940)
An American Classic
Directed by a woman (!) in 1940 (!) and written by a team of two women and a man, "Dance, Girl, Dance" tackles a central plot explored later in "Flashdance" and "Dance With Me" (also directed by a woman, Randa Haines) - the serious dancer struggling for identity in a cheap, commercialized world.
Artistic dancer Judy is forced to sleaze it up as a stripper to earn a living. But she refuses to sacrifice either her dignity or her dreams. Lucy's a hoot as a whore in a rare big-screen appearance before her TV show. And Maria Ouspenskaya of the Chaney Jr. werewolf pics is hysterical as Judy's ballet teacher. "When ze moon iz full my child yu vill do plies!" Well, she doesn't actually say that, but she might as well.
The strengths of "Dance, Girl, Dance" lie in Arzner's telling the story of an emancipated, free-thinking American woman discovering and flexing her muscles of independence. O'Hara gives a rousing performance as Judy. Her onstage tongue-lashing of the trenchcoat wearing men in her audience is a speech equal to Jimmy "Mr. Smith" Stewart's Washington address.
While much of the dialogue and editing crackle with the wit of 40s screwball comedy, Arzner masterfully turned her camera to dramatic insights and crafted a true American gem, one of the most underrated classics of its day.