Bread and Roses (2000)

Two Latina sisters work as cleaners in a downtown office building, and fight for the right to unionize.

Director:

Ken Loach

Writer:

Paul Laverty (screenplay)

Stars:

Pilar Padilla, Adrien Brody, Elpidia Carrillo

5 wins & 10 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Pilar Padilla	...	Maya
Adrien Brody	...	Sam Shapiro
Elpidia Carrillo	...	Rosa
Jack McGee	...	Bert
Monica Rivas	...	Simona
Frankie Davila	...	Luis (as Frank Davila)
Lillian Hurst	...	Anna
Mayron Payes	...	Ben
Maria Orellana	...	Berta
Melody Garrett	...	Cynthia
Gigi Jackman	...	Dolores
Beverly Reynolds	...	Ella
Eloy Méndez	...	Juan (as Eloy Mendez)
Elena Antonenko	...	Maria
Olga Gorelik	...	Olga

Storyline

Maya is a quick-witted young woman who comes over the Mexican border without papers and makes her way to the LA home of her older sister Rosa. Rosa gets Maya a job as a janitor: a non-union janitorial service has the contract, the foul-mouthed supervisor can fire workers on a whim, and the service-workers' union has assigned organizer Sam Shapiro to bring its "justice for janitors" campaign to the building. Sam finds Maya a willing listener, she's also attracted to him. Rosa resists, she has an ailing husband to consider. The workers try for public support; management intimidates workers to divide and conquer. Rosa and Maya as well as workers and management may be set to collide.

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Plot Keywords:

three word title | janitor | justice | rose | union | 

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Taglines:

The Balance Of Power Is About To Change.

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Genres:

Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong language and brief nudity

Details

Official Sites:

Channel Four Television [UK]

Country:

UK France Germany Spain Italy Switzerland

Language:

English Spanish

Release Date:

25 October 2000 (France)

Also Known As:

Bread & Roses

Filming Locations:

Doheny Library - 3550 Trousdale Parkway, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

£37,890 (United Kingdom), 4 May 2001, Limited Release

Opening Weekend USA:

$49,662, 13 May 2001, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$525,738, 8 July 2001

Company Credits

Production Co:

Parallax Pictures, Alta Films, Alta Producción

Technical Specs

Runtime:

110 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

Adrien Brody signed on without a script, because he trusted the director Ken Loach.

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Quotes

[last lines]
Maya: Take care. Take good care of yourself. I love you.

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Connections

Referenced in Ocean's Thirteen (2007)

User Reviews

The only thing worse than the movie are the user comments

Many reviewers love this movie and compare it favorably to typical mainstream movies. But this movie is worse because of the pretensions. The characters are as one dimensional as in die hard 2, and the polemics as simplistic as the typical hollywood plot.

The fact is that politics turn art into propoganda, and this movie is nothing more than a sophomoric essay. I am not even saying that my politics differ.(yeah, they do) I would have enjoyed a movie showing the lives of those we too often treat as invisible and the injustices they face. And I would have been moved and affected by such a movie.

But the audience manipulation is so transparent that by the end I was cheering for the dickhead managers, if only to rebel against a director trying to tell me how to think.

If one is going to make a "message" movie, make it balanced, or at least subtle. Better yet, show the pure unadulterated truth on the screen, and the message will come out by itself. My money would be better spent on "another teen movie" how the hell was this movie nominated at cannes i will never know