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Socialist Review Index (1993–1996) | Socialist Review 177 Contents
From Socialist Review, No. 177, July/August 1994.
Copyright © Socialist Review.
Copied with thanks from the Socialist Review Archive.
Marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.
We Don’t Want to Talk About it (De Eso no se Habla)
Dir: Maria Luisa Bemberg
Once upon a time in a small town lived a widow whose only child, a daughter, was born a dwarf. Fearing ridicule she kept everyone in silence about her daughter’s size, who as a result grew to be confident and talented and eventually married a rich man, and they all lived happily ever after ... until a circus came to town.
This film with its fairy tale like story is a moving tale of love, devotion, courage and destiny. The narrator invites us to consider that events could have taken a different turn, that the final outcome was by no means inevitable.
It takes place some 50 years ago in a make believe town. The widow, Leonor, is a powerful and manipulative figure whose influence is considerable and through this she maintains the silence of the town about her daughter’s status as a dwarf – doing it so successfully that it is almost as if Charlotte herself is unaware of her own differentness. She is cheerful and strong willed. Encouraged by her mother, she studies and learns to play the piano, performing undaunted for the town’s local dignitaries.
They are befriended by D’Andrea, a mysterious but wealthy bachelor played by Marcello Mastroianni, who soon falls hopelessly and passionately in love with Charlotte.
That D’Andrea falls in love with the engaging Charlotte is not entirely convincing. This man has haunted drinking parlours and brothels, in his own words known many ‘chicas’ – girls – but never a real woman. There is a moment when it is not clear whether his tormented reaction is not one of pity for her.
Initially he flees from this impossible situation returning after some time to beg Charlotte’s hand in marriage.
Their lives settle and their happiness is secure until one fine day Leonor spots an approaching circus. She pleads with D’Andrea as the newly appointed mayor to refuse permission. For once her manipulation does not succeed though she does manage to convince D’Andrea to forbid Charlotte from attending. What does she fear – that Charlotte will be finally confronted with her differentness?
Charlotte resents this and sneaks out at dawn and prowls the site as tents are dismantled. She is received warmly and is finally seen leaving with the circus, astride her white horse.
It is ironic that the two people in Charlotte’s life who have endowed her with so much love and devotion have in doing so inspired in her the curiosity and courage to leave them.
Having invested so much in Charlotte, her two devotees are left spiritually destitute. Leonor shuts herself away from the world forever and D’Andrea disappears, his whereabouts unknown, but it is rumoured he has been seen lurking around a circus in a faraway European city.
This film is the latest from Maria Luisa Bemberg, Argentina’s first successful woman director, who entered professional cinema determined to challenge the traditional stereotypes of women in film and has written and directed a number of screenplays and feature films over the past 20 years.
In a continent where so many people are marginalised by poverty, in particular in the tragic lives of street children in the capital cities, who as a result fail to reach their full size or potential, it is possible to read this as an allegory of that situation.
But it is a personal tale of individual courage with a strong and powerful message – that if those who are different are accepted then there need be no obstacle to their growth and development.
For this it should be applauded. It is also beautifully shot, a slow moving film but poignant, at many moments both happy and sad. This film has been a box office hit in Argentina and deserves to be so over here.
On release from 12 August
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