Movie review: Private Tropical 11 "Dream girls in St. Martin" (2004) (Jessica Fay, Janet Alano, Ellen Haint, Cristina Pond)
The world of advertising is a fatuous place, full of dreams and hopes, where naive souls, visionaries and businessmen end up with the aim of deceiving the crowd through their cunning maneuvers. In this new film by Max Bellocchio we dive headlong into a marketing environment, in which the fight of egos, vanity and personal branding fills everything. This is the most autobiographical work of the transalpine director in the tropical saga: The Dreamers of St. Martin, a film that lives up to its title because it is full of double meanings and unattainable desires, although it is filmed on the neighboring island of Guadeloupe, not exactly in St. Martin. The particular tendency towards semantic ambiguity in Bellocchio's work reaches unthinkable levels here. Take a breath and enjoy.
TRAILER Dream Girls of St. Martin
Part 1 Dream Girls of St. Martin
Part 2 Dream Girls of St. Martin
Already in the opening credits we can feel the warmth and pleasure, which seems to pass through the screen, both common protagonists in TV advertisements. The first images remind us too much of fragrance spots. Sculptural bodies, intoxicating aromas and moist textures that put the most impassive viewer in tune. The FSC brush masterfully discriminates those impure centimeters of erogenous skin to circumvent the veto of the spanish Minister Escrivá and the blissful shadow ban of those from Mountain View.The music of the incombustible Oreste Fiengo matches these opening images very well through an electronic composition adorned with some drum'n'bass touches that would be signed by Laurent Garnier himself. An in-depth review begins here about the reflections raised by this great film from 2004.
Already in the first scene we meet Miro, a former film director who has retired to the island of Guadeloupe and who makes a very good living filming spots through work and service contracts signed with European counterparts. He is a lover of the paradisiacal corners of the "Caribbeac", as this filmmaker usually pronounces this sea and group of islands. In a few brief sentences he reminds the models of his mission. All of them are fulfilling a dream: the dream of filming a spot for the pay per view program called Call me, baby.As the Buenos Aires philosopher Eduardo García Belsunce said, representation is, on the one hand, the anticipation of future events, based on the free combination of past perceptions, and on the other, the composition in consciousness of several non-current perceptions. These advertising models have longed for their profession, they have imagined it with enthusiasm, and now on this trip to the Caribbean, their fantasy is materializing into something real.
Miro, a film director who shares a last name with the painter, but without an accent mark and without talent
Pathological dreamers
It is understood that the girls have just landed that same morning and, before starting filming the next day, Miro gives them a few hours of freedom to sunbathe, relax and enjoy these islets which, needless to say, are full of perdition. Meanwhile, Miro will spend his time feeding his pandorga with the bottle of Jameson that he has yet to release in his bar cabinet while he listens to an album by the Cantores de Hispalis.
Bedroom conversation in dim light, a recurring resource of Bellocchio
The conversation in the half-light is very interesting and the girls are excited. Firstly, they have achieved their goal, to be television commercial models, and furthermore, their hormones are raging given their tender age and they are already thinking about getting involved with cameramen or lighting assistants. However, this exchange of words is brief because the trip to the "Caribbeac" has been very long, and they are carrying the consequences of jet lag.
George grabs the camera like it's a half-finished Oktoberfest jug.
The next day, filming for the ad begins with a burly cameraman named Tom filming Petra in the pool. Her intentions are very clear from minute one. A few meters away, Bill watches the scene, who is outraged by the way inept Tommy handles the scene.
Open to everything
Bill is a road manager who is in charge of driving and cleaning the locations, but he has the airs of a film director, and always goes with the same refrain on each shoot. On this occasion, a Bill full of good intentions approaches to give him some framing advice, but Tom does not take the criticism with sportsmanship... even though he understands that Bill is somewhat right.
Tommy suffers from a marked Procrustes syndrome, a syndrome characterized by criticizing someone who stands out in a job because of their involvement, and which materializes in avoiding any relationship with that person and trying to prevent others from accepting or praising them. In some very marked cases, they seek to discredit him, discredit him and isolate him and try to cause him some discomfort and suffering.
"Look at him running, there's so far to go..."
When Bill goes to clean the latrines of the villa of Miro, located in the southern part of the island of Guadeloupe, in the elitist area of Le Gosier, Tom begins to give Petra his ear, and offers her a kind of contract with the producer, in exchange for a compensation of "here I'll catch you here I'll kill you."
This scene is a constant in Bellocchio's filmography and, without a doubt, helped to put the focus at that time on certain despicable attitudes in the world of entertainment that would end up coming to light in later years.
The same old indecent proposal
It is an expensive villa in web CapiFrance
Picture of Meretdemeures, in which we see the enclosure that has currently been placed
Aerial view in GoogleMaps
After sunset, Bill drops back into Miro's pool, where Petra continues squeezing some of the already withered rays of the sun. She may need a little after sun on sensitive areas of the skin because she has been exposed to ultraviolet radiation and other external agents for many hours. Against all odds, Bill's purpose is much more professional.
The purple tone of this scene is very appropriate: it allows you to smell the saltpeter and hear the
song of the seagulls that prowl the coast towards the end of the afternoon
After exchanging a few words about Tom's rudeness to her that same morning, Petra offers to shoot an advertisement right then and there. Bill can't believe what he's hearing but he accepts the challenge without thinking.
Luckily, Bill has a camera with him that fits in a fairly large pocket.
The mosquito net protects against all types of stinging bugs
In the hotel bedroom, Petra tells her friend Helen that she has met a boy named Bill who has recorded an off-the-record spot for her, and that she is looking for new models. Helen will be next. This is how they agree before going to sleep after a hard day of filming.
CEO, Chief executive onanist
Miro plans the next scene the next day and tasks Robert with shooting with George (whom others call Tom), and two new girls: Mary and Krys. Bill, always willing, offers himself as a consultant to improve the final product...
Bill wants to do the reverse shot
They remind him that his training is gear change and cloth
Miro and Robert consider the mere offer a disgrace, and they expel him from the deck without sparing any opinions... Bill, incensed, obeys the orders of his companions without hardly a complaint. It is impossible not to empathize with the boy, who suffers intense mobbing from his boss and colleagues from the first scenes.
Petra takes Mary to the dark side
In a new night scene, shot in low light like Barry Lyndon, Petra explains that she is going to be part of tomorrow's scene, and since she is always thinking about the same thing, she announces to Mary that if they find the right moment, they have to try steal a kiss from the cameraman at the waterfall.
The waterfall is Le Saut d'Acomat
Tommy (or George) carries a beer mug camouflaged inside the chamber. No doubts
The girls of Tarzan
Bill has done a great job searching for locations like the waterfall in the previous scene, and he can meet up with Helen, Petra's roommate. Contrary to what one may think, Bill does not know the meaning of the word rest, and he takes advantage of his free time to film his own Call Me, Baby commercial.
Bill uses the camera like Kusturica
Of course, at the end of the session, Bill suggests going to the port and having a few drinks on Miro's yacht. In the end, Helen is a model originally from Bohemia, and she is much more attractive than the average West Indian. These are opportunities that should not be missed.
After work comes pleasure
Simultaneously, Miro receives a call from a certain Tom, (another one, how curious!), who is the real boss. Thomas Sonetti has stayed in Europe and is going to analyze the material that Miro is going to send him by air, in order to have some room for maneuver before the models return again to the eastern countries from which they come.
Miro may be the tacky film director in history. Pick at all the beach bars on the seafront
Call me, baby has a lot of potential but needs more promotion, to continue inciting viewers to call 906 lines, lines that caused so much trouble at the end of the century, breaking up marriages and emptying piggy banks mercilessly.
However, Miro does not seem to be the right one for this assignment because he has lost the little judgment he had and now he suffers the apologia recounted in The Emperor's New Clothes. This story by Hans Christian Andersen explains the dangers of automatisms and the fear of asking stupid questions. Miro has been in this business for so many years that he no longer bets on creativity and blindly trusts his cameramen, who in reality no longer have the brilliance they once displayed and who only think about taking the models to the vegetable patch. Jobs continue to come to Miro and he boasts of a healthy economy, taking advantage of the inertia of his past glories, but he needs someone to make him see that his achievements no longer convince the target and that he suffers from alcoholism.
Pirates of the Caribbeac
Odd position to shot
After this scene on the high seas in which the images speak for themselves, we move on to one of the key scenes of the entire film. Bill has gotten Mr. Sonetti's direct number, and calls him behind Miro's back, to tell him where in the suitcase he has hidden the tapes that he made with Petra and Helen. The infamous Jimmy Saville once said that "if you're clever you can screw up, but if you're clever you can't", and here Bill lives by cunning and masters timing.
And so, his life began to change...
The next cut explains the confusion prevailing in the team and is that Miro, in a conversation with an accentuated encomiastic tone, congratulates Max for his videos (which are actually Bill's). Max begins to pay close attention when he hears evaluative adjectives about his work, although he soon realizes that everything must necessarily be a misunderstanding, since he has not given a damn since they landed.
Max, however, decides to remain silent, the silence of a bureaucrat, because "he who remains silent grants", and will decide how to take advantage of that advantageous situation in the future. To begin with, the first perk he receives is that Miro commissions him to film the first spot on the sands of the beach with Petra and Helen, the protagonists of Bill's videos and from whom the ambitious road manager has been able to get so much benefit.
Spectacular framing with vanishing point. Bellocchio's own visual eclogue
Miro's yacht is better than many people's homes
With the aim of further highlighting the emperor's new clothes, Bellocchio shows us in detail Miro's yacht, which stands out for its noble woods and luxury finishes worthy of royalty. Life smiles on the veteran director, who out of reverential respect, no one has told that his recordings have been in clear decline for decades.
Shirt unbuttoned so the date doesn't involve watching a movie
The temperature rises like in the boilers of the Titanic
That night, Helen does not sleep with Bill in a cabin on Miro's yacht, but instead returns to the hotel where the other models are staying. In the umpteenth scene of nighttime confessions, Helen, more dreamy than ever, announces to Petra that perhaps she will stay here to live with Bill and not return to her beloved Prague again.
In lingerie, the conversation is more disturbing
The next morning, Max's scammer takes Helen and Petra to film a spot of the same style that convinced Miro, but the problem is that Max has no idea about that almost numinous touch that they demand of him because he was not the author, and in this scene he staggers around until he ends up on a beach, where things take a turn for the worse, given his obvious inability to make a recording worthy of mention.
At anchor, let's hope the camera has a good stabilizer...
Venus of Miro
In the afternoon, while the young women take a dip at a nudist beach, Miro brings them out of their reverie to film the last scene of the spot. Miro, almost always tipsy from whiskey, treats them satrapically, like a chieftain from other times, boasting in his dominance; But, however, they, dazzled by their fulfilled dreams, genuflectedly and without a grimace.
Thank goodness these shirts seem to be quite affordable, because Miro appears to have a fairly large collection.
The budget for the spot has been running out, and in accordance with this, Miro has decided to rent a boat with a rancid, rusty, and damp smell everywhere. George (or Tommy) doesn't seem to care and tries to make the most of Mary and Krys, with a splendid cloudy background in the distance, which looks like something out of an impressionist painting from the late 19th century.
The last scene, on a low-profile motorboat, George
urges girls to put more effort if possible into prosody, as compensation
The cell phone always gets in the way when one is immersed in reading a book
Finally we know Mr. Sonetti
Thomas Sonetti explains to Miro bluntly that all the material he has sent him is stinky, with the exception of the tape he sent him in the red box (the tape filmed by Bill). Tom makes an irrefutable offer to Miro. If he films all the material (and whatever you ask him to do in the future), in the style of the red box tape, that is, mutatis mutandis, he will hire you to make a hundred commercials.
Pensive, Miro tries to remember, without success, the tape on the red box, and decides to ask the cameramen without further ado.
Nobody knows
The material author finally confesses
Bill has freed himself from the tangled lines that restricted his art and now sees himself with enough authority to demand a private conversation from Miro. After sending George, Robert and Max to wind, Bill and Miro reach an agreement that will generate huge benefits for both of them.
With the right equipment and a fixed salary, Bill will work exclusively for Miro, on the condition that he fires the other three cameramen who mobbed him for so many years...
Crow pact, with detrimental effects on third parties
The new dolphin needs special care
There is no better way to close this review than with the Parable of the Doorkeeper, which Franz Kafka so brilliantly develops in Chapter IX of The Trial. Even if they don't let you leave your comfort zone, and they stop you by claiming that you are not capable of something, never accept other people's opinions without having put them to the test...
THE END
RATING: 2/10
Info:
Private Tropical 11 "Dream girls in St. Martin"
Year: 2004
Genre of the plot: love
Paradise destination: Guadalupe.
Actorr: Jessica Fay, Francesco Sitcom, Janet Alano, Ellen Haint, Cristina Pond, George Bull, Robert Rosenborg, Max des Cortés
Where can I find it Private or Google
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