Hello Hemingway

Director Fernando Perez's body of work is entirely different from most of his contemporaries working in the Cuban cinema, as his stories present ideas and situations that other directors wouldn't dare to take. One wonders how does he manage to get this films shown in his own country, or even abroad.

This film is full of symbolism. The parallel between Larita and the great American writer, Ernest Hemingway, specifically, his own work, The Old Man and the Sea, is at the center of the story.

Larita wants to overcome the obstacles in front of her to get a scholarship, but like the Old Man in the story, she ends up defeated by forces that are much bigger than her. As fate has it, the one time she goes looking for Hemingway at the villa where he lives, she is told the great writer is hunting in Africa.

We see Larita scanning the horizon, looking north. Well, some fifty years later, her fellow countrymen probably are using this area to stage the exodus in precarious vessels to go to Florida, or to a death at sea. In fact, Mr. Perez seems to be telling us the more things change, the more they stay the same, which is the case after more than forty years of the present regime in that country.

The best excuse for seeing this film is the beautiful work by the actress playing Larita, Laura de la Uz. She is totally convincing and a natural in the hands of her director.

Fernando Pérez's "Hello Hemingway" looks at 1950s Havana through the eyes of impoverished high school girl Larita (Laura de la Uz), who hopes to study in the United States. Larita lives near Ernest Hemingway, while idolizing the likes of Paul Newman, Tony Curtis and Elvis Presley. Along with trying as hard as possible to get a scholarship to the US, Larita occasionally participates in protests against the Batista regime. At once a study of Cuba right before the revolution and also a look at an individual's hope of a better life, the film is certainly a fine addition to the pantheon of historical movies told through children's eyes, like Joe Dante's "Matinee".

I've only seen a few Cuban movies, but I have liked them all. It'll be nice when Americans are finally allowed to travel to the Caribbean island. But beyond that, "Hello Hemingway" shows how much better movies are when they concentrate on plot and characters, as opposed to every blow-'em-up flick released by Hollywood.

It seems like it would have been hard for a Cuban director to get permission to use The Diamonds' "Little Darlin'".

Born at the turn of the 20th Century, but long after his demise, 'Papa' wanders again, looking through the window glasses at La Vigía.

Powerful drama, picturesque locations, a haunting musical score and splendid natural performances. Specially that of young actress Laura de la Uz as Larita.

I have been fortunate to watch this movie right from the personal collection of my close friend, Modesto Alanis von der Meden, cast for the role of Hemingway.

Not an actor but a successful Mexican businessman and also a hunter, Modesto was chosen for the role not only for his amazing likeness to 'Papa', but also for his similar character and great charisma. I think he performed wonderfully although his role was but a brief one in the movie.

A pleasing memento. Having one evening a trivial chat with my friend, over coffee, a glass of stupendous rum and with a splendid cigar aroma filling his cozy personal den, he talked about his unforgettable experiences, as a first-time actor, back in the production days. He also recalled that locals were many times stunned when seeing him around Hemingway's place, so many years after his demise. Were they perhaps seeing the wandering ghost of the Old Man, still searching for his long gone shark-eaten fish in the immensity of the Sea ... who knows what lingering thoughts were still haunting in their minds ... Anyway, a very pleasant evening altogether.

"Allá arriba, junto al camino, en su cabaña, el viejo dormía nuevamente. ... El viejo soñaba con leones en la playa."

Now I know how to greet my friend, ... "Hello, Hemingway!"

It's a pity that third world films don't get a distribution the way anything coming from Western Europe and Northern America gets. Anytime I leave a cinema after having seen a masterpiece such as this, I got the feeling that the distribution guys to be able to let us see any picture shot in the dominant world are depriving us of a lot of wonderful films they are too absentminded to sit and watch (and if they did, could they understand them anyway?). Laura de la Uz, the teenage protagonist in this film, is deserving of an Oscar (if the Oscar ever meant anything to anybody) and I'm sure that whoever got a prize that year in the best female main character category robbed her. While I'm writing, it's 1999, the film is dated 1990 and my heart aches at the thought that she could have starred in more films or, even worse, she could have made no fortune with her acting and could now be a forgotten school teacher or bartender. Pérez himself, who has shot only four films so far and whose "La vida es silbar" is almost as good as this, is a great director, as deserving as that other great Latin-American Solanas.