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Madrigal review
:. Director: Fernando Pérez
:. Starring: Carlos Enrique Almirante, Liety Chaviano Pérez
:. Running Time: 1:50
:. Year: 2007
:. Country: Cuba, Spain
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"Not everything is what it seems". Here is the motto of Fernando Pérez's Madrigal, an esoteric fable built, in the first part, around a handsome actor's love story with an unattractive girl and, in the second part, recounting the story of a futuristic novel the actor is writing.
On paper, Madrigal looked like a promising work that would bring a Cuban tonality to the world of surreal cinema, which is usually the prerogative of European auteurs — except for a few North American figures such as David Lynch and Guy Maddin.
As soon as the film opened, plunging us into the middle of a modern theatrical play featuring a group of guys dressed as nuns and clapping hands while an actor hanging with wires recites some philosophical mumbo jumbo, I knew I would be in trouble for the next 110mn.
Even for a cinephile who spent years feeding off the works of the likes of David Lynch, Hal Hartley, Luis Buñuel and Mike Figgis, there is nothing more horrifying as slamming a film as "pretentious", mostly because this word has a negative connotation that can only get diluted when the film is successful. Since some of the filmmakers I've just mentioned sound normal to me while being pretentious for the average movie-goer, just try to imagine how Madrigal must be, knowing that I call it a pretentious film.
What's worse is that, despite aiming at some kind of intellectual and artistic nirvana, Mr. Pérez seems to be adept at soap operas, enveloping a cheap romance-novel type story in a glowy artsy package that provokes unintentional laughs when you should be crying.
The second part of the story, a recreation of the novel the actor is writing, is more interesting as Mr.Pérez turns Havana into some dark orgyesque playground with a film noir tone. The eagerness of the writer/director to show us how his is film is metaphoric through the repetition of the phrase "Not everything is what it seems" however defuses its purpose, removing any element of mystery.
One doesn't become an artist overnight, even with some skills. Mr. Pérez, whose previous entry was the light fare Havana Suite, wrongly assumes he could convince us with this film of being an artist by quoting French filmmaker René Clair. There is nothing more terrible than a bad attempt at art and it is unfortunate that this is the only thing he convinces us of here.
Fred Thom
 Movie Reviews: Latin American Films
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