Movie review: Private Tropical 33 "Summermix job in Guadaloupe 2" (2007) (Boroka Calls, Judith Vox, Morgan Spoon)
The tropical saga brings together a medley of unconnected films, with a multiplicity of characters, stories and outcomes that are completely unrelated. However, today we are facing a rarity and that is that we are facing the only occasion in which I am going to review a sequel. Within this traveling collection by Max Bellocchio, film 33 is the continuation of 32. Second parts were never good, said Don Miguel de Cervantes and, with exceptions such as Aliens or Terminator 2 (both by James Cameron), or Mad Max 2, continuations usually disappoint the audience... Another fact to take into account is the proximity of release dates (May 17 and June 1, 2007); Both were released in the same year, as was the case with Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions.
Trailer of Summermix Job in Guadaloupe 2
Part 1 of Summermix job in Guadeloupe 2
Part 2 of Summermix job in Guadeloupe 2
In the opening minutes, the Neapolitan filmmaker illustrates us with a retrospective that includes the highlights of the first part, a retrospective on which I will not dwell (in this link you can consult the review of Summermix Job in Guadeloupe 1); and immediately afterwards our protagonist, Óscar, appears, alone in a cafeteria, recapitulating the chain of scams that he has been perpetrating for some time now. The place is one of the hot spots on the island and has an atmosphere reminiscent of the Parla Teleclub in its heyday, in the midst of the late Franco era.
A presentation of the sequel, without forgetting the previous plot
Smile of satisfaction
His shirt attracts attention in such a distinguished place
Recent photos of this room, which is actually part of the Hotel Marcantonio, near Naples. For logistical reasons, this scene was filmed in Italy.
On the table lie an orange juice, a half-drunk coffee, and a magazine in which you can read, in Italian, "Leggere qui porta beni" (Something like reading this text brings riches). A cliché, no doubt, having breakfast reading investment and finance pamphlets, à la Gordon Gekko.
Oscar is oppressed by an obsessive projection towards a future of fortune, hedonism and financial freedom. Motivated by a stubborn dogmatism, his goal is to collect one million euros of assets before turning 40. In his late thirties, he was in a hurry and had to make a decision, controversial but effective: scam to achieve his goal. To do this, he made use of his poietic capacity and generated a plot, a capitalist fraud in which he considers himself a maitre de la scene; the demiurge who plotted everything. This requires being daring, but Óscar holds himself in very high esteem and it is understandable, since, with his recent speculative scams, he has amassed the not inconsiderable amount of 56,000 euros. This sum, updated to today's inflation, would be equivalent to about 70,000 euros.
With the mental lucidity that he displayed throughout the first film, Óscar concludes that it is time to flee. He doesn't want to tighten the rope any more or play with his luck any more. He has been postponing his ticket to Aruba in recent days, but his flight today, which takes off in two hours, will put an end to his Caribbean odyssey. This fiery boy knows that "the free man is above the one who is obliged to something", and that is why the time has come to take flight, thus liquidating all commitments, personal relationships and assignments: a scorched earth policy .
And, at that precise moment, when it seems that this alcoholic with early alopecia is going to get his way... something happens that changes his destiny forever. His father-in-law Valentín enters the cafeteria with his leaden walk, and his image of a hillbilly with a labile mind. Which of the two boasts today of a more hideous shirt? It is an unanswered question.
Stellar appearance, on the right and with determination, as Reagan did
Óscar tries to avoid him, like someone who avoids the NGO salesmen who wait in the busiest squares in the cities, whether it's hot or cold. However, Valentín puts an irrefutable bait: 500,000 euros. With great subtlety, he announces that a friend of his, short of money, wants to make more fortune, and that, for that reason, he is interested in investing in his bank's business.
Competition of ugly shirts
However, all good news comes with a counterpart, and in this case, what happens is that patience is going to play a fundamental role in the entire operation. Valentín clarifies that, for his wealthy contact to trust this investment, it is necessary to wait for him to recover what he invested (50,000 euros) plus the extra 30% in interest, which will happen within the agreed period of three months.
Óscar's eyes shine, and moved by the impetus of a stale youth who was believed to have let all the trains from his station pass by, he begins to speak like a politician from the county capital, or a banker from the city of London, carrying the conversation towards collaboration agreements, early expiration dates and other similar euphemisms. Óscar understands that it is imperative to act as soon as possible. Suddenly, by the work and grace of God, it seems that Valentín will have the 65,000 euros (50,000 plus the agreed 30%) in just 48 hours.
As soon as Valentín leaves, Óscar begins to take stock in a soliloquy worthy of big screen cinema. Very soon, he will embark on a self-destructive wheel that will make "the milkmaid's tale" a child's game. He needs 9000 euros and will do whatever it takes to get them.
He sees an opportunity...
After downing the juice in one sip, Óscar returns to the villa he rents, an unidentified villa in Guadeloupe with a huge pool. The Typha domingensis (reeds) that appear in the background of the scene, behind the party wall, indicate that it could be located near Goyave or Sainte Anne, but it has not been possible to determine the location, for the moment. This invasor specie has been slowly spreading on the French overseas island and has a special concentration in both areas.
Villa for rent, because a good banker knows that 2007 was not the time to buy
Cockroaches are inside and outside the pool
One of his valets, Mario, removes the dead insects from the surface of the pool. Óscar approaches him and asks him as a favor to lend him his car for a couple of days. Mario, who curiously looks a bit like Dominic Toretto, is a true devotee of his car and, at first, flatly refuses, but he soon resents when Oscar offers him a couple of robopilinguis as compensation...
Your own car is like your gun.
The reeds in the background, and the large reed in the foreground
On the other hand, Eric, probably Oscar's best friend, continues to mechanically execute the process of selecting the employees for Pascal Le Fleur's resort that was the main plot of Summermix Job in Guadeloupe 1, something that the viewer may notice. I have even completely forgotten at this point in the film.
Barbara is with him on the beach and ready for anything, which leaves us baffled because, at the end of the first part, we were already certain that the girl had been chosen for the job, and the only doubt was who would be the one. who would accompany him: Megan, Nicole or Sabrina.
However, it seems that a woman's intuition works well for Bárbara, who does not trust Oscar's word one bit. It is because of these suspicions, and not mere carnal malice, that Barbara is with Eric on the seashore, under the palm trees. The subsequent filler scene helps to relax the mind a little after the maelstrom of numbers and banking operations with which the film began.
Trashies at the beach
In the next shot we see Óscar negotiating with a filibuster who is dedicated to the retail of objects of dubious origin. From his appearance and the scarf on his head, it could very well be Marco Pantani; if the climber, winner of Giro and Tour, had not died three years earlier in a stinking inn in Rimini. Óscar is buying costume jewelry to later sell it as fine jewelry. He ditches the auction by acquiring the ring with "brilliants" set for 50 euros and with the hope of selling it later for 3000. It is a tocomochero move that cannot go wrong and the doppelgänger of "il pirate" leaves with a smile from ear to ear.
The cheapest ring of the bazaar
The image is a fundamental aspect in a commercial, they say
Take the money and run
That same morning, a fact evident since Óscar appears with the same surfer shirt, he sells his employee Mario's 5th generation Golf at a discount. A forty-year-old man with a Lacoste polo shirt pays him 7,000 euros on the spot, under the promise of having the documentation the next day. Sanitation by eviction protects him and we assume that he is aware of this, due to the calmness he shows during the traditio.
Nothing to declare here, please
Non-domino acquisition, in the middle of the street
We abandon Oscar's dealings and enter the humid darkness with carmine iridescence and cherry effluvia typical of a "house of lax morals." Two pelanduscas sway before the astonished gardener, Mario, who seems hypnotized like when a feline contemplates its prey. Óscar had promised two women in exchange for letting him have the car, and he is keeping his word.
Elegance is not its strong point
Mario V, "the bewitched"
Despite everything, good Mario still has not forgotten his Volkswagen, always present in his prayers, but it seems that today he is ready to have a good time. Óscar, with a markedly admonitory mood, urges him to put aside his automobile fixation and leaves without waiting for a response. Finally, Mario turns to the geishas under the spell and is finally ready to succumb to the atavistic sublimation of group sex.
Grateful and drooling
While such a three-way Lupercalia´s party is going on, Oscar takes his buddy Eric to the billiards and continues with his lied speech, talking about a supposed sister that no one had heard of (even Eric believed that Oscar was only begotten), and about a engagement ring so atrocious it would look out of place even at a Balenciaga show.
"Friendly" meeting at the sports bar
¡Look this amazing ring!
Roll up and pay me in cash...
He sells it for 1,700 euros, cold and hard, to Eric, who succumbs to such an impious beelzebub, with hardly any resistance. He takes the bills from his pocket, removes the elastic band characteristic of retirees from Castilla y León, and hands them to him without further reflection.
Good boy
The film continues and now Óscar meets with Valentín in a booth in the cafeteria at the beginning of the film. It is a place safe from other people's eyes and allows you to receive the envelope with the 65,000 euros, an act you do without blinking. But the pufo does not end here, since Valentín endorses him a check in the name of Mr. Farfán so that he can collect the 135,000 euros next Monday in the apparently comfortable position of assignor of the credit, but under the condition that he return 41,000 to him. , in advance.
In other words, he will have to give Farfán 41,000 euros on a day like today, and cash the check tomorrow. Thus, this difference of 94,000 would be added to the 6,000 that Farfán already advanced to reach the 100,000 euros destined for the investment; 6,000 euros that, on the other hand, he has just given him among the 65,000 that he has given to Valentín so, from that moment on, Óscar is broke.
Cordiality of prick
More money than in a casino
A change of roles is already palpable. Valentín has turned into a hustler as if by magic, and Oscar, now dopaminergic in the face of the succession of zeros, is like a bottle at the mercy of the tide, which increases its leverage after each meeting, without weighing the risks, prey to manipulation and deception. The victim and perpetrator have irrevocably swapped roles and Valentin's preeminence threatens a checkmate.
Keep an eye out...
Valentín notices Óscar's crooked gesture, already immersed in a sea of suspicion, and decides to reassure him by assuring him that Farfán is staying at the Imperial Hotel, one of the most famous resorts on the island, in case there is any problem with cashing the check. , but adds that on Monday before noon he will leave for the Bahamas.
Logo of the hotel
"He who takes out his wallet to show it is a fool"
Óscar is in a precarious situation, however, in a last display of pomp and pageantry, and using a credit card, he takes charge of the account that only includes a very expensive and exclusive bottle of French champagne produced in Épernay.
On an express trip using the points he had accumulated on his trusted low-cost airline, a distraught Oscar travels to Naples to sell his jet black BMW 5 series e60, which was languishing in the garage. He manages to get the fair sum of 41,000 euros for it, and it barely has any miles on it, but it is the last asset he has left and he is in a hurry to receive the cash. It was a bad decision to buy it just three months before, and it is even worse to undersell this sedan like that, but the 500,000 euros cause a sinusoidal wave of feelings and cloud your vision. The milk jug is about to break into a thousand pieces...
Italian plate. Unlike the famous Abigail, who buys a Porsche with cryptocurrencies, it is up to him to sell his vehicle and he has just entered the business.
As soon as he returns from Italy he goes to visit his girlfriend Electra. He meets her at Pascal Le Fleur's resort where the job candidates are staying. It's Electra's favorite place, because it seems like she's always there. You already know that Bellocchio can't do without a thread, which leads me to think that he relates this 5-star resort to a kind of emotional refuge for the unfortunate Electra, who always suffers from her boyfriend Oscar's sit-ins. This beautiful woman is largely forgotten in this sequel for the moment, but she will gain prominence, as we will see, in the later stages.
Le Gosier lighthouse bring us in the island again
The umpteenth rudeness
This is the terrace where the reunion takes place.
Google Earth pic of the villa Rue du Cap Sud, nº 13, en Le Gosier.
Perennial synechiae in the weakened myocardium of the Electra
As we say, this appearance of Electra is not as testimonial as one might expect, since in the next scene she appears in a torrid encounter with Eric and Nicole, anchored in a cove aboard a yacht. Eric doesn't know that Electra is dating Oscar, which is quite shocking. Or maybe he does know, but he is already implementing his revenge, because he already knows that he has been scammed with the supposed gemstone ring.
Typical marine shot by Max Bellocchio, with a sunken ship. Clear allegory to Oscar's fate, or his relationship with Electra, which is running aground
Disgust doesn't last long
Polyamory heals everything
After dusk, at the beach bar of the municipal swimming pool, between bottles of Bacardi Breezer and Havana Club, Óscar phones Valentín to make a date that same night at the Beach Club. There he will deliver the 41,000 euros to Mr. Farfán.
Product placement of Havana Club, Bacardi Breezer, and even the city of Las Vegas
Just a few meters away, at the edge of the pool, Eric and Mario conspire against Óscar and prepare a revenge for two scams committed against their assets: one for the plastic ring and another for the sale of the car without consent. They enter the bar and without giving him time to explain, they beat him down as a summary judicial process.
Nothing sadder than a pool outside of swimming hours
Resentment and vinegar taste...
The judge and the secretary preside over a quick trial
A couple of hours later, with the complexion of a bullfighter after a romp, Óscar is at the bar of the beach club, or perhaps it is a bitch club, judging by the heretical red tones that fill the entire room. Valentín enters the scene with a reverse tracking shot and is stunned to see her face, made up like in a Hellraiser movie from the 80s.
The damage is so evident that Oscar cannot make the typical excuse of having cut himself while shaving and opts for the always elusive phrase "it's a long story." Nobody likes to do business with a broker who has a broken face, because one tends to believe that his erratic financial activities are the reason for his scratches: creditors, ruined people... However, at this point, Valentín has already completely penetrates Oscar and seeks 100 years of forgiveness, robbing a thief.
Oddly enough, Valentin now seems nervous and timid, as if he were under Jeremy Bentham's panopticon. Constantly looking at his flanks, he wants to make sure that no one witnesses how he escorts Oscar towards the hell of bankruptcy.
Óscar is surprised that he has come alone, and Valentín claims that his rich friend cannot be seen in this type of establishment with a dubious reputation, and that is why he has come on his behalf, as if he were an emissary. He assures him that this mysterious friend is staying at the Imperio Hotel, which may well be a different one from the Imperial Hotel where Mr. Farfán is installed, or may be a slip of the tongue as a result of so many lies... The gish gallop or machine gun of fallacies that Valentín has put into practice in each and every one of his dialogues in the film causes contradictions of this type.
Torturing an injured animal...
Aside from that small lexical error, the big problem with this scene is something else. Óscar, with his face made into a chrome, still has the 41,000 euros in his possession. Eric and Mario have surely seen the thick wad of bills in his shirt pocket, as they stick out like a silk handkerchief on a tailored suit. What's more, Óscar has avoided the bouncer of the bitch club despite being bleeding precisely because the bills stood out like a pontifical tiara... and in a brothel, cash is highly valued, as it leaves no trace. The only possible justification is that, in the event of a possible complaint for beatings, Eric and Mario prefer that the judicial warrant be motivated only by an accusation of minor injuries and not for robbery with violence.
The wad in question ends up in another pocket, in Valentín's, who does not even stop to count it, and leaves never to return, but not before asking Óscar to write the receipt for the next meeting, fueling his illusions. candid scammer who has now, unknowingly, changed his position on the board.
Scarfs for life
Every time he is left alone, Óscar resumes his mental calculations with some of his own accounts from the Central Lechera Asturiana in its years of maximum turnover. And all this, with a fake check in hand, which assumes that it will bring him 135,000 euros, and waiting for them to give him the 500,000 euros that a non-existent tycoon has.
Knowing that the island is dangerous (his battered cheekbone attests to this), he decides to book a ticket to Paris with which he will fly the next day, after stopping by the bank to redeem the check. It will be like good old Andy Dufresne's trip to Zihuatanejo, but with views of a skyline with the Eiffel Tower, the Sacre Coeur and the Montparnasse building. Francesco Tonnelli (we finally know his real and only name) books a first class ticket. Oscar, to his friends, also known to the candidate girls as Pascal Le Fleur, has a real name, like the rest of us mortals.
He still has the strength to flee
Simultaneously, Electra, Valentín, Mr. Farfán and Angela laugh behind Óscar's back, who has given them a total of 50,000 euros. An allegory to the "hunted hunter", for this evil quartet who are preparing to sail to the next island, Martinique, to strike another blow by swindling another unwary. Valentín is not Electra's father, which shows that she is a great actress who has even managed to fake an Electra complex, and a brutal seductress who has dazzled Oscar in a couple of weeks.
The friction makes the love
Father and daughter, or just the opposite?
On the other hand, Ángela is not Farfán's wife, she is a street prostitute who has joined this triumvirate of 21st century pirates to form a squad without remorse. Mr. Farfán is actually called Gary, and he is a former bank robber from the south of Ireland, who has been wanted by Interpol for a decade.
Nobody believed that these were a couple, except Oscar
As a final note to the figure of Valentín, it must be noted that in all the meetings with Óscar: in the cafeteria, in the booth, at the beach (or bitch) club... the color red predominates on the walls, on the curtains , and even on the open page of the magazine. Infernal red, as if it were a coven in hell in which the Beelzebub dispatches with his satyr.
The film ends with a meditative Oscar, precisely emerging from a building with a facade painted in deep red, lamenting at the feet of a replica of the sphinx in Vienna's Belvedere Gardens. A beautiful paradox, given that the lion's body symbolizes strength, and the female head, wisdom, when Oscar has shown that he has not been able to defend himself against his enemies with either muscle or intellect. The very first close-up of Óscar, defeated and broken, puts to rest the phrase that Ernst Lubitsch used to say: "there are a thousand ways to position the camera but in reality there is only one."
Rage
Bitterness
Anger
The impressive front wall of the Hotel Marcantonio
In conclusion, it must be said that this mini-saga that makes up films 32 and 33 of the Tropical series melts like a sugar in warm water as the footage progresses... In this second part they completely forget about the selection process of the films. candidates for the job and focus on a vendetta against an Oscar who is absolutely overwhelmed by events. Protagonists of the first part, such as Electra, completely lose their aura in this second half. Electra only appears in a trio of scenes, as it nears sunset, the impersonation of Pascal Le Fleur falls into the most absolute indifference and the viewer, who anxiously awaits the return of this landowner to the island, while the scenes of filler, it is left without contemplating what the mother of all revenge would have meant...
In short, we are facing a lost opportunity and a bittersweet ending that leaves me with an indescribable feeling of emptiness...
THE END
RATING: 3/10
Info:
Private Tropical 33 "Summermix job in Guadaloupe 2"
Year: 2007
Genre of the plot: social cinema, scams, revenge
Paradise destination: Guadeloupe
Actors: Judith Vox, Franco Trancedancer, Yasmine Cold, Morgan Spoon, Marco Zero
Peter Benis, Lucia Teadoraba, Jessica Poore, Chloe Desaire, Tera Fond, Boroka Calls
Where can I find it: Private or Google
Link to spanish version
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