Strawberry and Chocolate

The film Strawberry and Chocolate by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea and Juan Carlos Tabío is the story of a young man named David. David lives and studies at a university in Havana Cuba. David has lady problems, either with the inability to communicate with them or like we saw in the opening scene with his girlfriend, just plain bad luck. He just can’t seem to get things right when it comes to women and now every beautiful girl he sees drives him mad with. . . passion, which is really just his desire to, excuse my vulgarity, pound the first piece of ass that bends over to close. He longs for the pleasures of a woman companion, but somehow every opportunity is ruined. David is also a large believer in the revolution that is being led by Castro during the period that the movie was filmed in; he wishes to be a revolutionary himself and dreams of changing the country for the better. One day as David is eating his lunch a stranger sits down with him and begins talking to him. The mans name is Diego and he is an artist type person who claims to have seen or been watching David. He appears to be a gay individual as suspected by David and his friend Miguel. Miguel even suggests that David spy on Diego because he’s a dangerous person. David doesn’t think so though, he thinks Diego is a pretty cool guy, he even had some books that David had been looking for. Diego, as mentioned is an artist type and is planning an event to display some of the art that he and some other well know artists have created. As David and Diego begin to spend more and more time together Diego can’t seem to keep something to himself, that just happens to in fact be himself and he makes a move on David. David is taken back a little and just a little confused because he doesn’t see himself that way. Diego apologizes and promises to leave that stuff out of their relationship. This however, only last until David begins seeing one of Diego’s neighbors, a nosey little tramp, as described by Diego. He can’t bear to see someone he cares for so much tormented and betrayed the way he is. Once David lets his inhibitions go and allows Diego to show him what he’s been missing, so to speak, he realizes it’s something he can live with and not ashamed to do so.

            Again this was another movie where I had trouble seeing the theme, this one being a comedy. I was unable to see the humor, especially when no one is laughing. Non-the-less I thought the movie was okay. Nothing I’d probably watch again, but not the worst film we’ve seen so this semester. I thought Diego’s character was actually pretty funny, he really seemed to be overdoing it at times. He just seemed really forward and seemed to insinuate things of a sexual nature at times. His interest in art was cool, this is another film where there has been some major theme with some kind of art.