Conversaciones con mamá (2004)

User Rating:

7.8/10   

Director:

Santiago Carlos Oves

Writer:

Santiago Carlos Oves (writer)

Release Date:

15 April 2004 (Argentina)

Genre:

Drama | Comedy

Tagline:

Que la ternura te toque el corazón. (Let the tenderness touch your heart)

Plot:

Jaime has lost his job and has to provide for his wife, son and daughter. Pressured by this circumstances...

Plot Keywords:

Husband Wife Relationship | Mother Son Relationship | Unemployed Man

Awards:

3 wins & 3 nominations

Cast

China Zorrilla	...	Mamá
Eduardo Blanco	...	Jaime
Ulises Dumont	...	Gregorio
Silvina Bosco	...	Dorita
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Floria Bloise	...	Lucrecia
Nicolás Condito	...	Chico
Tito Mendoza	...	Enfermero

Also Known As:

Conversations with Mother (International: English title)

Runtime:

Argentina:90 min

Country:

Argentina | Spain

Language:

Spanish

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Australia:M | New Zealand:M | Argentina:Atp | Brazil:14

Filming Locations:

Buenos Aires, Federal District, Argentina

Quotes:

Gregorio: Come on, boy! Do your job and let me do mine!
Enfermero: And what's your job, grandpa?
Gregorio: My job? I'm an anarchist-retired! That's what I am!

Conversations about life....

A middle-aged man who's just lost his job and who's about to lose his home, his wife and his entire Argentinian-bourgeois world. An octogenarian mother with a goldfish memory and almost gaga who can only speak with the truth of the experience. The friend/lover of the mother (an anarchist-retired –as he calls himself-), that keeps on fighting' the system and raisin' his fist with the power which gives him the food that he finds in the garbage. Three characters, three different lives, three rivers which will come to the same ocean.

Simplicity envelops this Argentinian-Spanish production created through a series of flash-backs, and some sequences that looks a little chaotic (in principle). Grounded in very brilliant dialogs (that happens to be the usual thing in latest Argentinian cinema) which would not be as powerful as they are if not performed by these three giants: Eduardo Blanco, Ulises Dumont and, specially, the very veteran China Zorrilla.

"Conversaciones Con mamá" is a song to individualism, to tenderness, and to love, above all those deluxe cars, swimming-pools, and the 300 channels TV. Feelings come one after the other just like in an emotional roller-coaster: the sadness of that poor old woman who feels like she's been abandoned, the witticism of the old retired man while playing a game of chess...

So this is a movie that prepares you for the real life (as José Luis Cuerda said), or at least makes you feel a little bit better with yourself and with the entire human race. Maybe we're not that bad after all.

*My rate: 8.5/10