[Marxism] Nada Mas - A fun, Cuban-style jab at bureaucracy (MH)

["Walter Lippmann" <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Perhaps the reviewer doesn't know that the supervisor from hell is
played to a delicious turn by Daysi Granados, who's been a leading
Cuban actress since Memories of Underdevelopment in 1968. Anyone in
Cuba will certainly understand the frustrations which are described
in this picture from experience. Cubans laugh at the shit they have
to put up with at times, as you see in this picture. This movie is
now easily purchaseable on DVD. Probably your typical MIAMI HERALD
reader would also miss the fact that this director, is also quite
active in Cuban politics. He spoke recently at the rally celebrating
five years since Elian Gonzalez was rescued from the Miami Relatives
- I think of them as an atheletic team, like the Bad News Bears - 
and his latest film Viva Cuba, has been shown all over the island 
to rave reviews.

See a portrait and read some more about the director of this movie:
http://www.walterlippmann.com/habaneros.html

Director speaking at rally celebrating Elian's rescue:
http://www.walterlippmann.com/elian-04-22-2005.html
Juventud Rebelde's review of Cremata's new movie, VIVA CUBA:
http://www.walterlippmann.com/docs228.html


Walter Lippmann, CubaNews
http://www.walterlippmann.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews
 
===================================================================

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/entertainment/movies/12769593.htm

MIAMI HERALD
Posted on Fri, Sep. 30, 2005    
NADA MAS (NOTHING MORE) **½

A fun, Cuban-style jab at bureaucracy

BY MARTA BARBER
mbarber@xxxxxxxxxx

Carla works at the post office, where she manually rubber-stamps each
incoming letter with the date of arrival. She's young and attractive,
but obviously bored with her job as well as her personal life. She
suddenly feels mischievous and opens a letter addressed to a local TV
personality. The text is faulty and the handwriting awful, so she
decides to rewrite the letter using her own words, sentences that
show her loneliness as well as her abilities. One letter leads to
another, and before she knows it, she's taking home dozens of letters
to rewrite.

Though basically a feel-good, romantic comedy, Juan Carlos Cremata
Malberti's first feature film spoofs the inefficiency of a postal
office in present-day Cuba. With the acute vision of someone who
knows the situation well -- and is allowed to criticize it freely --
Cremata pokes fun mainly at the workers, not at the regime.
Nevertheless, it's a fun, caricaturesque portrait of the communist
island's bureaucratic backwardness.

Shot in black and white, with only dashes of color -- a yellow
butterfly, a multi-colored stained-glass lamp, spilled Cuban coffee
(a la Spielberg in Schindler's List) -- the artsy film amuses with
its mixture of styles and its bows to French and American cinema.

With spiked, blond hair, short-cropped tank tops and jazzy
sunglasses, Carla clashes with her dowdy colleagues at the post
office and with her neighbors. When she was 15, about 10 years
before, her parents left for Miami. Since then she's been waiting to
be chosen in the lottery for a visa to go to the States. She lives a
solitary life, now solely devoted to rewriting the letters. She sees
herself as the redeemer who'll bring happiness to hundreds of lonely
souls like her.

Her detachment from other workers and her youthful looks draw
attention, and that means her illegal scheme may soon be detected.
Her boss, Cunda, who looks like a Russian party watchman, and a
cross-eyed assistant, begin to spy on her every move.

Though at the beginning the characters look cartoonish, you begin to
detect the sarcasm and laugh heartily at them. They are definitely
stereotypes, but this being a Cuban film about Cubans on the island
makes them doubly funny. The chase at the end of the film,
reminiscent of a Marx Brothers sequence, is a hoot.

With its mixture of artsy looks, Amélie-like lead actress, and its
stereotypes, Nada Mas is far from a perfect film. But it is a crowd
pleaser. The film won the Grand Jury Prize awards at the Toronto,
Tribeca and Miami film festivals. If you know Cuban slang, you'll
enjoy it even more as the translation in the subtitles, especially
during fights, sometimes doesn't match what they are saying. If
you're willing to put aside its inconsistencies, Nada Mas is fun to
watch.



________________________________________________
YOU MUST clip all extraneous text before replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism