An awesome and ridiculous film that leaves you thrilled beyond the point of your natural endurance
2012
Theatre
The show has suddenly become quite wonderful, and the galvanising factor is the terrific stage debut of Melanie C
Blood Brothers
Music
The British pop music industry may be eating itself but if Muse are the pick of what it can offer the world in 2010 then British music is in rude health indeed
Muse
I was smitten by both Gilberts enormous luxuriant moustache and the intelligence and nuance of this highly entertaining play
I totally recommend Babbo to anyone who is looking for really good and traditional Italian food
Always been a fan but never seen them live. I was ecstatic to be part of this epic event. WOW!
London,
Derek Malcolm's rating
Reader rating
Dir: Juan Carlos Tabio, Tomas Gutierrez Alea.
Cast: Jorge Perugorria, Vladimir Cruz, Joel Angelino, Francisco Gattorno, Marilyn Solaya, Mirta Ibarra
Description: David is dumped by his girlfriend, who walks down the aisle with another man, leaving her ex to his pro-Communist views, which sit well with the ruling Castro regime. In the park one day, David encounters openly gay writer Diego, who flirts over a strawberry ice cream and challenges his ideals. A seduction of body and mind ensues as the two men sow the seeds of an extraordinary relationship.
Country: CUBA/MEX/SP/US. 1994. 110mins
Intelligent: Tomás Gutiérrez Alea’s Strawberry and Chocolate
Made in 1994, when homosexuality was frowned upon in Cuba, Tomás Gutiérrez Alea’s film seems tamer now than it did. But then it was never really about being gay. Its subject now reveals itself as political and social freedom in Castro’s Cuba and this is what makes it an intelligent companion piece to Memories of Underdevelopment, Alea’s earlier film.
Perhaps because of the director’s high standing in Cuba, there was no censorship, and Strawberry and Chocolate was a considerable success, shown all over the world and eventually winning an Oscar nomination.
Its leading character is Jorge Perugorria’s Diego, a cultivated and unshrouded gay man living in a flat cluttered with books, records and art.
He picks up David (Vladimir Cruz), a handsome young Marxist who has broken up with his girl because she was shocked that he took her to a dingy hotel to have sex. She has now married another man and he is devastated.
Accepting the older man’s invitation, he goes home with him for coffee, which is accidentally split on his shirt. He has to take it off as Diego watches but nothing much else occurs. When David leaves, he is persuaded by a nosey party official to spy on his new friend. He knew he was a homosexual, he says, because he chose strawberry over chocolate ice cream in the park.
How Alea got away with his criticism of the regime — he says Havana, one of the most beautiful cities in the world, is “crumbling into shit” — we will never know. But that’s what’s important about this film, not the feeble course of the gay man’s hopeful seduction of his miserably orthodox and stuffy young companion.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
Morning:
13°c
