Salve, No Salve Evita

Last night, I waslearning to cook Menudo and as I cook I found myself singing Don't Cry For Me Argentina. Well the latest Glee Episode reminded me of this beautiful song (though I still think that Lea Michelle and Chris Colfer murdered the song, I still love Glee though) and as I cook I think of writing about the film adaptation of the musical Evita (1996). As of this writing, I'm listening to the song and also my favorite High, Flying, Adored.

With Madonna casted for the title role and Antonio Banderas as Che the narrator/critique, the movie is performed where everything is sung except for a few lines. I first watched this movie when I was in third year high school, utterly bored in a hot weekend, and found the copy on my father's DVD collection (I still wonder why my father have this copy. I never bothered to ask) . Madonna is simply amazing in the movie as she believingly portrays Eva Peron. However, what interests me in this movie is Banderas' character.

Che is a random person in the story line. He appears out of nowhere. In fact, he's everywhere and he narrates the "slutty" past, critics every move and sometimes acts as the conscience of Eva Duarte. Che puts me in a position if I could admire Evita being the woman of the masses-- the descamisados-- or see her as somebody who nurtures her own personal agenda while hiding to the cloak of being the saint-like. (Sounds familiar? If not, watch the show on TV5, 6:30 Pm on weekdays.). The presence of Antonio Banderas's character makes it hard to empathize fully with Evita Peron. It makes me wonder if Evita is just another victim of the well-established social class in Argentina or she is a conniving social climber very hungry of power.


Evita works in a way that it puts me in a position seeing every facet of Evita Peron. Moreover, Madonna is great and because I'm gay, the word great is underrated to describe Madonna to me. Here are my favorite scenes from the movie:





I love the sarcasm in this song:


This movie is great. highly recommended.

Of Apologies and an Eternal Love Story Further Immortalized

Apologies first: Sorry to you that I haven't posted anything else since Sunday because my grandmother chose to stay on that isolated town without internet access rather than spending the rest of our vacation with my cousins here in the city. I am just sooooo hooked in to writing this blog that it bothers my conscience all the time that I didn't write anything for the past how-many days. At least, I am still on the schedule and it is still Week Number 1 so I could catch up with my everlasting vow to make this blog a success.

SO HERE IS NOW THE MAIN COURSE

It is Week 1 and Movie Number 2. Romeo + Juliet (1996) is one of the most creative movie I have ever saw. Having these classical script from William Shakespeare's play of the same title, it is refreshing to see this modernized movie after years of seeing the script staged with those elaborate and flamboyant costumes. how there costumes where and especially seeing the nice body of Benvolio and the hot boyish body of Romeo.....ooh ooh, sizzling. "(Okay, I'll stop talking hotness here, it is getting cheesy).

The classic love story of this two couple which started as love at first sight never fails to bring tears to my eyes. However, this film was astoundingly amazing because instead of sticking to the conventions set by the script of Shakespeare, this movie has done a positive make-over for the entire story. While retaining the traditional dialogue of the script, the movie seamlessly and naturally fits itself to the revised and modernized adaptation. Thus, having instead the original family feud between the house of Montague and the house of Capulet, the film made it a corporate war between the feuding families which didn't exactly terrorize the original storyline. As an example for those who haven't seen the movie yet, here is the legendary balcony scene from the movie:

Starring Leonardo di Caprio and Claire Danes as the juvenile lovers, the acting was as superb as the novel characterization of the dramatis personae. No one could ever predict that Lady Capulet could wear a very sexy Cleopatra-inspired costume and Mercutio cross-dressed during the Capulet's party. No wonder that this movie earned several awards for the creativity it exhibits.

Overall, the movie makes the very difficult Shakespearean vocabulary easier to understand and lets my generation appreciate the play with such ease. I do hope that many producers would modernize other Shakesperean plays as much as this movie has been a success.

PS. There is a new trending topic in Twitter that is just running five weeks. It is also about a modernized Romeo and Juliet. If you are reading right now, try to log-on to your twitter account and follow Romeo and Juliet. http://www.suchtweetsorrow.com/