Ninette

Ninette (2005) by Jose Luis Garci boasts a good cast , such as: Elsa Pataky , Carlos Hipolito , Enrique Villen, Fernando Delgado , among others. Entertaining and amusing film with great players , sympathetic situations , and smart mood . Set in the Fifities, this is an attractive and charming comedy in which a dowdy Spaniard (Carlos Hipólito) , goes to Paris on holiday, hoping to meet a pretty French girlfriend . A friend of his who lives there sets him up to stay with a Spanish family. Armando (Enrique Villén) provides him accomodation at a boarding house inhabited by two Spanish Republicans . His wishes may come true after meeting Ninette (Elsa pataky), his landlord's sensual and possessive young daughter. Their parents (Fernando Delgado, Beatriz Carvajal) are communists and atheists self-exiled in France after the Spanish Civil war. Andres then falls for the young haunting and possessive daughter of both.

A passable and polite comedy with subtle laughs and acceptable direction and in which the splendid actors provide nice acting . It isn't quickly filmed , but slowly shot , and excessively talkie ; nevertheless , containing a witty and sparkling dialogue at times. However, this Jose Luis Garci film is quite uneven, in reality it is a play filmed in interior settings without exteriors that would have helped a little to enhance the story. The movie feels overlong, heavy and somewhat boring with half an hour less in its duration the film would have been much better. The picture is partially saved thanks to the interpretation that is displayed by a notable main and support cast of the best Spanish actors. The two main ones: Elsa Pataky and Carlos Hipólito give decent interpretations, however due to the continuous, empty and uninteresting dialogue, their performances end up being scattered. There are some nice jokes in the film and the cast playing eccentric characters make cosy fit . An agreeable , and attractive and charming film, standing out Carlos Hipólito who delivers an adequate performance as the single man who decides to trip Paris with unexpected consequences, as well as Elsa Pataki giving a sensual acting as the young girl who falls for him . She is really wonderful and imitating the French accent . Support cast is frankly awesome , such as Fernando Delgado and Beatriz Carvajal as the old and odd couple of Republican exiles .Furthermore, Illustrious supporting characters in brief appearances, such as: Mar Regueras, Miguel Rellán, Carlos Iglesias, Eduardo Gómez, Jorge Roelas and María Elena Flores . Most part takes place indoors , at the French apartment , and shot at studios, without even showing some brief exterior shots of the magical city of Paris. Besides, a few roles and some incidents seem artificial , and implausible, as when Andres arrived in the apartment and , quickly , he falls for Ninette , kiss each other and go to room . However , the developing of the film is finely paced and as a result , it is amusing , fun and funny . Being adapted from a play by the popular writer Miguel Mihura , a prestigious author whose books and stories have been very rendered such as Melocoton en almibar , Solo para hombres, Maribel y extraña familia , Puente para la paz , Bigote para dos , La hija del penal , Castillo naipes , among others .

The motion picture was unevenly directed by José Luís Garci. He is considered to be one of the best actors/directors of the Spanish cinema . Garci directs good and successful movies as his first trilogy formed by Asignatura pendiente, Asignatura aprobada and Las Verdes Praderas. José Luis Garci is without a doubt one of the most influential film personalities in the history of film in Spain and perhaps the best known writer/filmmaker in the country . Garci won one Academy Award for ¨Volver a Empezar¨ or "Starting Over". Although Garci was not the first Spanish director to win that award . Luis Buñuel had won the prize in the same category "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie" , but this film was really a French entry . After his Oscar win in 1983 for Best Foreign Language Film with Volver a Empezar (1982) , he received three further nominations in that category with Sesión Continua (1984), Asignatura Aprobada (1987) and El Abuelo or The Grandfather (1998 ), making him the most-nominated Spanish director in that category . He has left a distinguished talent in his successful movies throughout the years , as writing as shooting , such as : La Cabina (1972) , Las Verdes Praderas (1979), Sesión Continua , and his big hit: Volver a Empezar (1982), And Special mention for his 'Film Noir' trilogy The Crack I, The Crack II with the great Alfredo Landa and El Crack cero with Carlos Santos. 'Ninette' rating 5/10.

Ninette by Miguel Mihura has been adapted several times , such as 1984 TV series by Gustavo Perez Puig with Victoria Vera , Juanjo Menendez , Ismael Merlo . And the notorious and much better adaptation: ¨Ninette y un señor de Murcia¨ 2005 by Fernando Fernán Gómez with Fernán Gómez, Rosanda Monteros, Rafael L Somoza, Aurora Redondo, Claudia Gravy, Alfonso Del Real.

I saw Ninette last year, and in my opinion it was one of the best films I saw in the whole year. Humour is very intelligent and Garci knows who make you laugh in a very polite and smart mood. These film it is not for all tastes because it's not a quick movie and who wants to see the film only for Elsa Pataky will get bored, because if you only find see her naked you can download the pictures on th Internet. The film is another thing, a good story based in the plays about the character of Ninette, the performances, the cinematography...everything almost touch the perfection.Elsa Pataky makes her best performance( she was great and superb in Romasanta, Tiovivo c1950 and Beyond Re-animator), she makes you laugh, cry and now she has become a well-known actress. The other actors in the cast are fantastic. Garci has done a very good master piece, if you want to fall in love with Ninette,just watch it(her).

Andres is from Murcia (a poor region of Spain, at the 50's) and goes on holidays to Paris. There he meets Ninette, the most beautiful girl in France and they fell in love. At the end they get married, but then, her exuberant body will cause Andres to become too much jealous. At first I wanted to watch this film as it was one of the best of the year (in Spain), it was also from Mihura's text and well I do not love Garci, but he does good films sometimes... Unfortunately, it is not very good, the main Character, Andrés, results absolutely stupid and most of the time, all that is happening has no sense (for example when andres is thinking in having an adventure with his secretary... who'd do it having Elsa Pataky as wife??). The directing is correct, nothing more, and the story results boring. The only good point is the fact that we can see Elsa Pataky nude many times, which, well has any artistic value but she's very pretty... To sum up, there are better films everywhere

In the 50s some Spanish guy named Andres decides to visit Paris. A Spanish friend of his who lives there sets him up to stay with a Spanish family. They are some old hard core communists atheists self-exiled in France.

Andres wants to see Paris, the sights, the cabarets, but his friend is not interested in showing him the city. There's nothing to see, he claims. Finally they agree that the friend will bring some girls. After he leaves, Ninette arrives. She's the much younger and gorgeous daughter of the old couple. She meets Andres and immediately seduces him. They start a relationship. Ninette doesn't want to show him Paris either. And at this point Andres doesn't have much incentive to go out when he has Ninette.

So we spend time with them in the small living room. The old guy just wants to hear Andres tell stories from the home town. They prepare only Spanish meals for him when he was eager to try French food. When a conversation turns controversial the old timer quotes Lenin as an authority to put an end to all arguments.

Even though the trip was to last only two weeks, Andres apparently stays for months. One day Ninette announces she's pregnant. No one believes her for some reason. When she says the kid is Andres' they believe her even less.

That takes them all back to Spain. Andres and Ninette, her parents and his friend for some reason. We meet them one year later. Ninette's pregnancy turned out a lie. Andres has a store that sells religious figurines and artifacts. We are told that at first Ninette helped in the store and sales were great. But Andres got jealous so he banned her from working there so people wouldn't just go in the store to ogle at her. So Ninette spends her time sunbathing half naked and bored. Andres hired some grumpy lady to work on the store. His mindset is that staff should treat customers poorly so they go in, buy a single item, and leave. But Andres is falling for his assistant. They start an affair. Ninette and her mom notice this.

Now Ninette and her mom decide to open a store selling French clothes. She wants Andres to close his business and open up a Citroen dealership because her dad works in that business. That takes them back to Paris for a trip.

That's more or less the "story" here. It's not much of a story. Certainly not something that should take up almost two long hours. The entire movie is filmed in a few rooms in a soundstage. There are no exterior shots of anything. There certainly is no arc, no drama, no development. It's supposed to be a comedy I gather, although it's not particularly funny. Of course there are no funny lines, no jokes, no punchlines, no comebacks. It's not an American movie. I think what is supposed to be funny is how this movie reflects the character of Spanish people. But it's more, it reflects the character of all Hispanics in some sense and even of the immigrant mindset. No one cares about the host country one bit. All they do is reminisce about the old country, which they rarely visit. There's a some dynamic here between old conservative (even when they are communist) mindsets and the younger generation that feels like she belongs in the host country. Ninette is a caricature of a French girl- open minded, sexually open, so much so that Andres retorts at some point, in one of the few funny lines-- "What kind of morals do you have? what is this, Babylon?"

Ultimately this movie is all about seeing the stunning Elsa Pataky. She's cute, adorable, irresistible, stunning. And occasionally we do get to enjoy seeing her undressed, but not often enough. But not even she can save this dull mess of a movie. I can more or less see the spirit of what they were trying to do. And this movie does look and feel very much like a 50s movie. But they could have gone in a better way about it. Do check out the "making of" featurette to see more of Elsa's lovely natural attitude and smile.

When trying to find what doesn't work in Ninette many things come to my mind. They are not the predictable ones though: The unusual scenarios (all interiors!) or the choice of an actress like Elsa Pataky (imitating a French accent) work incredibly well, and the start is the best part of the movie. As the movie goes on the only flaws are probably the hyper-naive script where characters seem very artificial and implausible, especially Carlos Hipolito who disappoints a little whereas Pataky does a quite a goo job. I haven't read Mihura's works and I suppose they worked well in theatres but it don't translate very well to cinema. The way Ninette acts, the parent's ideology's caricature and the protagonist's friend (the kind of gags) are the things I reckon less attractive of this film.

But the film doesn't crash until the family moves to Murcia and an absurd and unnecessary part is added to the film. Well, I know that everything is Mihura's two work's adaptation but it doesn't justify what starts there. They appear in Murcia (where no one has a Murcian accent and they are even laistas) and the protagonist has an attempt of affair with Mar Regueras (who wouldn't, being married to Elsa Pataky) but it doesn't go on, ending with a sudden and strange outcome. The last part back in Paris is even more strange and confusing.

So I found the first part in Paris acceptable and the rest just awful. The film seems to rely on Pataky's body to succeed and that's why they released it in august, I suppose.