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Blame It on Fidel (2006)

Director: Julie Gavras

Time Out rating

Average user rating

4 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

Nine-year-old Anna is very much the little princess. She enjoys the run of her aristocratic grandma’s rambling chateau, even teaches her friends to eat fruit with a knife and fork. All that’s about to change however, since her Spanish father, stung into action by his brother-in-law’s heroic resistance against Franco, has decided to let his political conscience guide his law practice, while her mum’s forsaking the shallows of a women’s magazine for a serious tome on something called ‘abortion’. Soon Anna’s sharing a tiny Paris apartment with sundry beardy Chilean activists, and (by contrast) an exiled Cuban maid who blames everything on Castro. It’s time for the stamping of tiny feet as Anna wonders why her parents always put Monsieur Allende first?There’s a delightfully supple comedy in this early ’70s story, not only from the tantrum-throwing heroine’s uneasy adjustment to newly radicalised priorities, but also in her instinctive probing of mum and dad’s sometimes woolly self-justification. While Julie Depardieu and Stefano Accorsi are both fine as the grown-ups, the film belongs to Nina Kervel’s intuitive brilliance as their Little Miss Unimpressed, a pouting terror in school uniform. It’s conjecture just how close this is to the childhood of the first-time director, whose father is the great political filmmaker Costa-Gavras, but she’s managed the rare trick of making an essentially serious movie with the lightest of touch. How do we learn about notions of justice and equality when as children our perspective’s so naturally self-centred? A deft, original, entertaining and thoughtful look at that moment when we realise the world’s just that bit more complicated than we thought.

Author: Trevor Johnston

Time Out London Issue 1939: October 17-23 2007

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User reviews of this film

anna said...

Posted on Nov 01 2008 02:58 After seeing such positive reviews for this movie, I was looking forward to viewing "Blame it on Fidel". It's a movie that ultimately delivers on it's promise, but also disappoints due to the poor subtitling job done for the version that I picked up at my local Blockbuster. Many, too many, segments of dialog were omitted, and frequently in the most significant moments of conversation. The very crux and heart of the film, as the parents attempt to explain their life-altering decisions to the children, were pared down to clipped snippets or cliches about rich versus poor, the have and the have nots. In matters of such complexity, made more difficult by adults inability to talk to children, I simply felt that there was much being said, from adult to child, from child to adults, that I was not privy to hearing. I loved the movie, despite feeling cheated of it in all it's fullness .
And, as a side note...I wasn't really certain where to go with a "complaint" such as this.....and if I didn't ultimately get it right by coming here, then....my apologies!

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andrew lysley said...

Posted on Dec 24 2007 18:19 Great little low budget film with a wonderful performance from the girl and her brother. Seeing the events of the early 70s through the eyes of the children within a left-wing family was a directorial tour de force. Witty, clever script too. Shame it was shown so close to Christmas here in Oxford as it received poor publicity and was shown off-peak. As a result there lamentably few in the audience.

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geo6dap said...

Posted on Nov 11 2007 09:38 A really excellent film, stimulating, thoughtful and witty, depending a lot on the fine acting and direction of Nina Kervel. I went away thinking a lot about what it presented and am still thinking about it next morning! Various poor bits of editing and inconsistencies (father loud shouting at mother in a late scene, beautiful but rather contrived final scene) but far outweighed by the many other brilliant scenes, Cuban 'gusano' maid overplayed, but so full of excellent parts, handled by the various children in a less actorly fashion than the grownups that it is well worth 100 minutes of anyone interested in film.

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paulrou said...

Posted on Oct 22 2007 09:32 I went into the film, wanting something to do. The film was brilliant on childhood development, witty and also the effect of May 68 and individual histories coming together. Really thoughtful, touching with an underlying complexity of emotions. It felt real, with the obvious stripping down of characters for comic and to enhance dramatic tension.

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