Strawberry & Chocolate - - Subtitled in English [VHS]

Comment: Strawberries and Chocolate is a film about the friendship between two men. David and Diego make an odd couple and are opposites in many ways. David is a college student full of ideals but lacks in maturity. David is also a communist studying political science but has a love for literature. Diego is flamboyant homosexual that is sophisticated and a bit cunning. Diego strikes up the friendship but David hesitantly accepts it because he is heterosexual.

We really do not know much of David other than from the opening sequence in which he promises to wait to have sex to his girlfriend until after marriage but she jilts him shortly later. David expects Diego to do something similar and not make advances on him. So the story is about putting aside sexuality and just being friends, accepting someone for who they are. Their common interests bring them together and both teach each other about life.

The story doesn't have too many characters and is fairly simple yet the way the film explores unlikely friendship is amazing. Strawberries and Chocolate is a Cuban film so for those who are not familiar with Cuba may find this movie a bit exotic just because of this (and there are a few parts with love spells and fortune telling). I think the acting is great and the story should appeal to those who like dramas.

Comment: Strawberries and Chocolate is a film about the friendship between two men. David and Diego make an odd couple and are opposites in many ways. David is a college student full of ideals but lacks in maturity. David is also a communist studying political science but has a love for literature. Diego is flamboyant homosexual that is sophisticated and a bit cunning. Diego strikes up the friendship but David hesitantly accepts it because he is heterosexual.

We really do not know much of David other than from the opening sequence in which he promises to wait to have sex to his girlfriend until after marriage but she jilts him shortly later. David expects Diego to do something similar and not make advances on him. So the story is about putting aside sexuality and just being friends, accepting someone for who they are. Their common interests bring them together and both teach each other about life.

The story doesn't have too many characters and is fairly simple yet the way the film explores unlikely friendship is amazing. Strawberries and Chocolate is a Cuban film so for those who are not familiar with Cuba may find this movie a bit exotic just because of this (and there are a few parts with love spells and fortune telling). I think the acting is great and the story should appeal to those who like dramas.

Comment: I won't bother with plot points and such since lots of other reviewers have already done so, but I will say that this film is definitely worthy of the accolades and positive reviews it has received. I was particularly struck by the performance of Jorge Perugorría as the gay artist Diego. Perugorria's performance draws you in whether he is being sly and bitchy or indignant and passionate. His unrequited love for David (Vladimir Cruz) is both sweetly naïve as well as crushingly sad. I won't give away the final scene, but I will say that without Perugorria's stellar performance throughout the film it would have been a less powerful moment.

But the film is more than just a gay man's infatuation with a young Marxist; it is also about the struggle of contradictory ideas and opinions in a world where the view is rigidly controlled. David is put off by Diego's flamboyance and flirtation, but he is quite fascinated by Diego's ideas and courage.

The action takes place mostly in Diego's apartment, but the scenes of Havana are stark and somewhat depressing, showing buildings and sidewalks crumbling from neglect. At one point Diego takes David to the roof of his building and laments the collapse of the once beautiful Havana.

The film was nominated for an Oscar and won numerous awards, including ones from the Berlin and Sundance film festivals, but its multiple awards at the Havana Film Festival may surprise some, considering the implicit criticism of the Cuban system contained in the film. Happily, Perugorria's extraordinary performance was recognized at the festival when he won for best actor.

Comment: "Strawberry and Chocolate"

From Cuba with Love

Amos Lassen and Cinema Pride

"Strawberry and Chocolate" is a celebration of life and non-conformity. It is about two men, one gay and one straight and how two very different people are really very much alike. They both love their homeland, Cuba and they learn what it is to love a human. Realism is the key to the movie and we also get a look at Cuba in ways we have not been privy to.
Diego is a cultivated but skeptical gay man who falls in love with a heterosexual Communist who is filled with prejudices and revolutionary ideas. The two men learn to love each other and overcome intolerance.
Set in contemporary Havana, the city seems to have lost some of its sheen and luster since Castro came to power. David (Vladimir Cruz) is a student and a strong Castro supporter. He is rebounding from the loss of his girlfriend. When his girlfriend decides to marry someone else, David goes to the wedding and there he meets Diego (Jorge Perugorria).
Diego is a flamboyant gay male and cannot disguise the sexual interest he has for David. When he sits himself down at a table in a sidewalk café and orders chocolate ice cream, he explains that some people like chocolate and some like strawberry. Thusly the film receives its name and hints at the relationship between the two men.
Diego wants to give David the education that he never received and he lures David to his apartment. David informs the government that Diego wants to see a forbidden art exhibit and is directed to become his friend in order to obtain more information about him. The two themes of the film are anti-gay resistance in Castro's Cuba and the betray-your-neighbor theme imposed by the police state.
Things go awry because no one conforms to what is expected of them. Everyone plays the government's game in public but they do exactly what they want in private.
Jorge Perugorria as Diego gives an amazing performance. His character develops from a limp-wristed clichéd gay man at the beginning and he later becomes a fascinating study of a man in conflict with the government because he is different on every level from what the system wants. He is a man with an independent spirit, a man who genuinely loves the arts and he is disappointed by the ideals f communism.
Vladimir Cruz as David also turns in a fine performance as a naïve young man who discovers beauty through his friendship with Diego. He also finds himself seriously committed to a person for he first time.
The way the two men develop a friendship is amazing. The story is somewhat of a coming-of-age story because David learns how to think, gains a new maturity of sprit and can now develop a loving and mature relationship with a woman as a result his friendship with Diego.
It is good to have a "sweet" film about accepting difference and learning to accepting other points of view. It's not a gay movie--it is a movie about friendship and about the love that Cubans hove for their country. Havana is photographed beautifully but we see the heartbreak of the city. Showing how Cubans must feel when they have to leave their country and the difficulty with that is also an emphasis of the film.
Nominated for the Oscar as the best foreign film in 1995, it is hard to see how this movie did not take home the prize.

Comment: This movie was fascinating from beginning to end. I am not familiar with the Latin culture depicted in this movie and that made it all the more interesting to me.