Madrigal

Cuba • 2007 • 112m •

• Directed by: Fernando Pérez. • Starring: Carlos Enrique Almirante, Liety Chaviano, Ana de Armas, Luis Alberto García, Carla Sánchez, Yailene Sierra, Anciano Arpa, Fidel Betancourt. • Music by: Edesio Alejandro.

''Not everything is what it seems''. This 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 overweight and homely girl (does he have eyes for her, or for her swanky apartment?) and, in the second part, recounting the story of a futuristic novel the actor is writing (which turns Havana into some dark orgyesque playground with a film noir tone).

Review:

The first follows the story of Javier, an actor in a highly stylized and symbolic play. He is in a relationship with another actor in the play, sexual but not very interesting to him or to her. He meets Luisita, a shy girl, a little fat. She cares about mystery and honesty, and he becomes fascinated by her. She makes him promise to always tell the truth, but he cannot, and tells a series of small lies. Luisita finds out, and rejects him, while Javier begs her to forgive him. He is about to go abroad with the theater company. He will pass her window in the bus as he leaves, and she is to leave the window open if she forgives him. While she is thinking, she finds of another act of dishonesty by Javier, and she gases herself. Her friend discovers her body and opens the window to let out the gas, leaving Javier to run from his bus believing he is forgiven, only to discover his lover is dead.

The second part is set in the future. Some disaster has made it compulsory for everyone to have sex with as many people as they can. A small number of people resist, and do not have sex, hoping to find escape to a semi-mythical place where sex is not compulsory. A man meets a woman, and falls in love with her, and when he gets a ticket to leave, gives it to her so she can escape.

The film is a deep reflection on sex and mystery, and the emptiness and tedium of sex in the modern world.

Review by matthew-brett from the Internet Movie Database.

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