New Moon is nothing if not an international advertisement for the hungry virtues of virginity and young people can’t get enough of it
The Twilight Saga: New Moon
Theatre
A smart, prickly and rewarding view of sexual and emotional confusion
Cock
Restaurants
Kitchen W8 is a bargain for this area, if such sophistication is what you crave
Kitchen W8
Too long and drawn out but very entertaining with excellent special effects
This is a peculiar play and does not work for me. Some of it is very funny but there are real flaws
Alex has a strong powerful voice and was faultless, she is far better now than she was on the X-Factor
London,
Critic rating
Reader rating
Dir: Pablo Larrain.
Cast: Alfredo Castro, Amparo Noguera, Hector Morales
Description: Drama set against the backdrop of late '70s Santiago, when Chile was in the icy grasp of the Pinochet regime. Murmurs of dissent are met with swift reprisals and much of the country suffers in silence, doing anything to get ahead. Fifty-something dreamer Raul Peralta is obsessed with the film Saturday Night Fever and models himself on the film's white-suited protagonist, Tony Manero. When a local TV talent show launches a search for Chile's very own disco-dancing love god, Raul seizes his chance, perfecting his slick moves with the help of backing dancers Cony, Pauli and Goyo. However, political allegiances and raging ambition gradually prove Raul's undoing.
Country: CHILE/BRA. 2008. 97mins
Killer moves: Raul (Alfredo Castro) is obsessed with Saturday Night Fever
We are in the drab outskirts of Santiago during Pinochet’s regime. Tanks patrol the streets. Inflation rages. Raul, a sallow 52-year-old loner, develops an obsession with John Travolta’s character in Saturday Night Fever.
He is hardly a dancefloor dandy, and doesn’t talk or smile much, but he leads a troupe of dancers who perform disco routines in a run-down café. He is also a psychopath: having helped an old woman home after she’s knocked down by some youths, he batters her to death and steals her television.
He sells the TV in order to purchase enough glass to recreate the illuminated dancefloor of the Travolta film and goes to the movies regularly to see his idol perform. When the cinema is showing Grease instead of Fever, he calmly bludgeons the projectionist to death. He is preparing to enter a competition to decide who is the best Chilean Travolta and nothing is going to get in his way.
Director Pablo Larrain, aided by a quietly compelling performance from co-screenwriter Alfredo Castro as Raul, is clearly commenting not only on a kind of celebrity fetishism. His focus is American rather than Chilean popular culture, but it’s also an oblique comment on the amoral traumas of the time. Perhaps it is Pinochet who Raul is trying to get away from?
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
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