(Aaaargh! I just was writing a lengthy post and for some reason my browser died so I lost the whole thing…so I’m not going to re-write it all, just a quick summary.)

I went to a few films at Festivalissimo over the weekend. My ranking of the ones I saw so far is as follows:

1. Princesas (Spain) — really enjoyed this story about prostitutes in Madrid. It is funny and very moving, and deals with themes like poverty, immigration, racism, violence against women, love and the need to be remembered, in a light, quirky-but-sad way. The lead actress Candela Peña (from Barcelona, was also in Todo sobre mi madre) was fantastic. Really good movie.
2. Vete de mí (Spain) — a father/son story, also quite funny and well-done. Father is an actor, son is a “layabout”, and gradually their roles change/reverse. Always fun to see things fall apart.
3. Madeinusa (Peru) — strange tale of a girl in a remote Peruvian pueblo, where absolutely “anything goes” (!) from 3pm on Good Friday (when “God dies”) until 6am Easter Sunday, when he is resurrected. You see (they believe), God is dead during this period and so he can’t see us! Well, turns out the town’s mayor has been waiting all year to sleep with his daughter… Meanwhile a gringo from Lima is stuck in town, so they lock him up to keep him from witnessing their debauchery. Of course, he is “exotic” to the daughter…guess what happens? (-; The spectacular colour and imagery, the slow pace and magic-realism feel were enjoyable, but in the end I was left a bit disappointed with the motivation of the characters; also the ending.
4. La sagrada familia (Chile) — highly touted “first film” for a Chilean director (Madeinusa was also a debut film), left me quite disappointed. Not only (though partly) because of the “look” — it was a video projection, not film that we watched — the lack of rich colour…but also because of the writing. Was promising (also deals with father/son relationship, also over Easter weekend — what’s up with that? ;-), but just didn’t offer what I’d hoped for.

By the way, the past weekend has been really nice (since our big snowstorm on Friday), but now today we have whiteout blizzard conditions, and the temperature is dropping from -2 to -24 in the next few hours, leaving us with a predicted wind chill of almost -40 tonight. Fun fun fun! Buckle up your ski pants!

[UPDATE: March 11, 2007 — I went to see my fifth Festivalissimo film this Sunday. It was Chicha tu madre (Peru). Also highly touted, but I found it a bit confused. There was a clear (enough) story, but some of the elements didn’t connect in a way that I found meaningful. The Buenos Aires charity doctor with the bleeding orifices, for example? Perhaps there is a culture gap that blocks my understanding… I’m not even sure which definition of chicha is the relevant one, here. I’m guessing it’s: (Perú) U. en aposición para referirse a toda actividad informal, de mal gusto y de baja calidad. There is a vast underground economy in Peru, where if you want to be a taxi driver, apparently you just get a car and slap your own “taxi” sign in the window (95% of public transport in Lima is done by “the informals”). It seems almost everything is done “under the table”, unofficially. I enjoyed the snapshot of Lima, of this ad hoc world, but in the end can’t say I really appreciated the movie that much.]

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