Carol's Journey

After viewing this movie without subtitles in class, I went home and watched it with the subtitles to better understand the movie. In actuality it did little to enhance my understanding of the film. I was quite surprised by this. I thought that the film was a good one. Carol's character ,while quite boyish, was easily likable. I think for the most part she fit in well in the Spanish culture. She was able to make friends and even have her first love. I like that her character was a little sassy and tended to go her own way at times. I'd like to think that this was her American side coming out. She struggled to bend to some of the customs in Spain. She was not Catholic and basically was considered all but a heathen in the eyes of the intense Catholic public. She agreed to attend first communion and become Catholic but she was determined to do it her own way. She dressed more like one of the boys in a sailor suit rather than the elegant little dresses the girls had on during the ceremony. I think that this was another product of her being raised in the U.S. I think people in the U.S. are less conventional and more apt to go their own way depite what others may expect.
Despite Carol knowing how to speak and understand the Spanish language she sometimes had difficulities. She was unaware of some of the slang names that some of the children would call each other. This limited understanding made it difficult to defend herself verbally so she had to resort to kicking Tomi in his privates to get her hat back.
The very first thing that happened in the movie that I thought was indicitive of her limited understanding or her American way, was the way she behaved in the cemetary. We have learned through many of the films in this class how the Spanish culture views death and what reverence they pay to deceased relatives. In the beginning of the film, Carol's mother was standing over the grave and paying respect to her mother while Carol sat on the stone wall and was writing/reading in her diary. I am sure to any onlookers this would be the utmost disrespect. However, because Americans tend to view death in a different way her behavior would not have been an issue.
Overall, I think she did remarkably well in her adjusting to the different culture. I thought the film was cute. The only thing different about watching the movie with the subtitles was that you had a better understanding of the end of the movie and what was going on. Watching without subtitles you really didn't know that Carol was going to live with her grandparents and that indead her dad was captured or the grandfather assuring Carol that since her dad was American he did not expect him to be held for long.

VOLVER

Finally! This movie is what I have been waiting to see from the spanish films we have seen so far. Women taking control of their lives, making a living on their own, and not letting a man dictate what they can do. Raimunda displays a resilience that is unparallelled. She is raped and gets pregnant by her father we later find out. Depite everything she has been through, she is a loving mother, sister, friend, and niece. When faced with the death of her husband at her daughters hand, she does the only thing she can for her daughter, she takes it upon herself to fix the problem. She not only gets rid of the body but she continues on.
Irene we find out has been hiding for all these years portraying her own ghost. She was cheated on by her husband with a woman she knew for years. She eventually takes her revenge and burns him and his mistress up in the fire. Despite suffering the grief from accidentally killing Agustina's mother, she comes back to take care of her ailing sister hiding herself away from her daughters and society. In the end she helps take care of the dying Agustina to help atone for her sins. Her relationship with Raimunda is repaired as time has passed and Irene has had the chance to tell her daughter the truth and express her feelings of anger at not realizing about the incest.
The superstitious aspects of the movie is believing that Irene is a ghost. The people in the film acted like it was not unusual to see the ghost of a loved one once they passed on. Agustina even thought that Irene's ghost could help bring her closure before she died. The other aspect of superstitiousness in the film was the reference to the wind making people crazy, starting fires, and helping raise the ghosts of the dead. The title to the movie "To Return" perhaps speaks of the ability of the culture to accept the possibility of the dead returning as ghosts.
Overall this film portrays several women and their ability have loving relationships with each other despite personal tragedy. The strength of these women is nothing short of miraculous.

guantanamera

I found this movie to be typical of each of the movies that we have seen thus far in this class. There is an unrequited love between Yoyita and Candido. After fifty years they still have passion for each other, people in the spanish culture must have long memories or they love so deeply and passionately in such a short time that it is difficult to forget. Yoyita unfortunately dies and her niece Georgina, her husband Adolfo transport her body back to Havana. Adolfo is the domineering male figure we have encountered in most of the other Spanish films. He likes to think he is smart and can dictate what Georgina wears and lets her know how she can behave. Georgina is the subservient female in the movie, content at the beginning to go along with what Adolfo wants. Mariano is the typical macho playboy in the movie. He has many different girlfriends in almost every town they come to but yet he still wants Georgina.
The aspects of the culture that I found most interesting was that they used U.S. dollars to make their purchases. Perhaps because at the time Cuba's economy was not as stable. Street vendors hawking their wares. The poverty all around as evidenced by the houses with dirt floors, the dirt highways, rationing, seems to be a normal situation for many spanish speaking cultures. Even in poverty people seem to be happy, dancing, smoking, drinking, and in general living life to the fullest. Hot climate cultures definately seem to be the more fun loving, exciting, and lively. Love of family also seems to be a reoccurent theme. In all honesty Georgina, Adolfo, and Candido could have just buried Yoyita where she died or hired someone else to transport her body to Havana.

The Official Story

In this film we have another drama about politics. The quote "nothing is fair in love and war" seems so true as we watch this film. Alicia and Roberto are unable to have children. Through Roberto's political connections, they are able to adopt a little girl named Gaby Gaby is a well adjusted (if not a bit spoiled), smart, and playful little girl who loves to sing. Her mother and her father are both attentive parents to her, she seems to be happy.
Alicia is a devoted mother and history teacher. It is obvious in the film that she loves her husband and daughter. I think that she is so immersed in teaching the distant past that she overlooks recent events. Everything is calm and as it should be in her world. When she starts to learn of the attrocities during the war and military takeover of Argentina, she at first does not believe it. She is blissfully ignorant up until that point. The more she learns however, the more curious she is. Her longtime best friend Anna who came to see her told her about her time in captivity. I think that this was really the first time Alicia believed that these atrocities happened. When Anna tells her of the pregnant women who would come back to the internment camp without their children, she immediately thought of what little she knew of Gaby's adoption. When she questions her husband he tells her not to worry about it. Wanting a baby as bad as she did, she can't help but sympathize with the women who had their children taken away. After investigating Gaby's birth and coming up with little information, she meets a woman who is part of a group that helps locate missing families. A woman approaches her and she thinks that Gaby could be her granddaughter. When meeting with Roberto, he goes ballistic tells the woman to get out and proceeds to physically abuse his wife.
There is hope for Gaby. She has a mother who loves her and wants her to know where and what she came from. In the future she will tell her what happened to her birthparents. If the other woman is truly her grandmother she will become a part of her life. You could already see the relationship between Alicia and Gaby's grandmother forming. Even though the grandmother obviously loved her daughter, I think she would leave Gaby with Alicia. She sees that the girl is happy and loved. I am not sure what would have happened between Alicia and Roberto. Despite being a total ass at times, I could see that he loved his daughter and was afraid of losing her. I really don't think much would change for Gaby as a child. As Gaby gets older, after learning of her birth parents, I think that she will be a "anarchist" like her grandfather. I didn't feel this movie evoked hopelessness. It is my belief that through every adversity there is always hope. Hope for a better future, hope for a better tomorrow.