Le Bal des 41

The movie is well made but there is definitely a lack of vision. It seems like every shot if an hommage of everything that has already been done before and by someone who has an extensive background on advertisement. It's pretty but it feels empty. It is extremely obvious the way they want to punctuate the "stiff" life and the "joy" of the underground life but it never feels authentic. Many of the performances feel wooden as if they were making sure we understand what they want to convey, instead of pulling us into the story. We don't even get to extensively see the joy of the dance and we don't see the consequences and humilliation inflicted in them either. It's not terrible but it is not a movie that successfully tells an engaging and believable story and the never-ending parade of "artsy" shots are just too much.

Excelent film, but to say this is the "true history" is a slight exaggeration, there being very little documentation (and that skewered by the journalism of the era) about the event or the supposed "club of 42". While the incident was and is well remembered here in Mexico, how much is the "real truth" and how much is speculation (we don't know that Ignancio de la Torre was actually at the dance, although his sexuality was well established... fun fact, because Emilio Zapata was one of de la Torre's more important employees -- his horse trainer -- Zapata was "smeared" by his opponents as an allegedly gay man). That de la Torre was a self-indulgent elitist snob and oppresive member of the Mexican "one percent"... as were the other 41... had the unfortunate side effect of perpetuating the stereotype of gay men as a bunch of rich cross-dressing hedonists.

A good cast and talented designers are left out to dry by incompetent direction and especially screenwriting. The characters are inconsistent and have no development arc. The understanding of social roles in history is abandoned for nonsensical melodrama. The most centred sex scenes are heterosexual, and queer love is left as a strangely posed affair in long shots.

Brief summary

Remarkable approach from the melodrama centered on a love triangle of a social, political and sexual scandal that occurred in Mexico in 1901. A dazzling staging and a first-class script and performances in a film with Viscontian echoes.

A testimony of the homoodium of that time (which did not stop at class privileges) and which continues to have renewed echoes in the present that are far from being silenced, particularly in countries like Mexico and many others.

Review

The film begins with the lavish engagement party of the ambitious deputy Ignacio de la Torre (Ignacio Herrera) with Amada, the daughter of Mexican president Porfirio Díaz (Mabel Cadena) back in 1900. What nobody knows yet is that Ignacio is a A covered homosexual who attends a kind of clandestine gay club and ends up linking up with Evaristo Rivas (Emiliano Zurita), an employee of Congress.

This remarkable film by David Pablos brings together a host of successes. First, because it bets on melodrama to address a scandalous historical event that occurred in 1901 in Mexico City and that no one had dared to address, concentrating the plot on the love triangle that Torres, Amada (a true irony that was called that) and Rivas constitute. , with its progressive and complementary stories of love and heartbreak. However, the scenes that take place in the club are enough to describe the profile of its members, their codes, their dynamics and the activities that took place there. On the other hand, the socio-political context is very clearly exposed and without annoying underlining. This approach marks a huge difference from Hollywood "fact-based" products that are information-saturated in their all-encompassing claim that produces schematic developments of their characters.

Monika Revilla's script (not coincidentally also the scriptwriter of Someone has to die) is extremely precise, in a story where the characters speak only what is necessary.

The staging is dazzling: the setting and the costumes conveniently place us in the high social extract of the characters, the photography is wonderful and the director achieves an accumulation of effective, expressive and virtuous sequences that accompany, when necessary, to their characters. As in all good melodrama, irony and a certain bitter humor are not lacking, as in an anthological scene in which Amada plays the piano.

The performances of the protagonists are very good, in characters that present various nuances within their well-defined profiles in a story that is a true pressure cooker.

Dance of the 41 is a testimony, on the one hand, of how not even money and privileges could put a free and private sex life absolutely safe from homophobia, homo-hate and the derision of the political, religious and social establishment of the Mexico (and the world) of then and that continues to have renewed echoes in the present that are far from being silenced, particularly in countries like Mexico.

This is a very nice well made movie with a beautiful sad heartbreaking important true story that is beautifully written and told. Performances are superb and real. The film also has great production design and amazing costumes. Dance Of The 41 is a must see biography and it's on Netflix now, you have no excuses.