Classic Colombian film, and as such, filled with an inherent arrogance. The film which was nothing but gold to critics is one of the most pointless film proposals I've ever seen.
This 1998 film starts off with the now boring Pulp Fiction Original idea of setting up several stories within the same context and the same characters, however, being this a film made in my country, Colombia, the whole story is pointless beyond shoving down the audience throat the fact that we live in a vicious place.
What's the conclusion of the film, violence, the whole film can be summed up with that single word. The only attempt to explore a characters mind is to the main character, with one of the most repeated ideas ever, the mother ghost, plus, we are remembered over, and over, and over that she misses her mother, we get it, move on, tell me more, but besides the abusive use of this idea, there's really nothing else deep going on. The other characters are basically just cartoons of a very serious issue, the product of ignored poverty.
A bunch of "puff the magic dragon" kids is not art, it's not anything. The film only manages to create a scary context, but it remains as such, the film is all context, no story here, the film does not teach me anything, imagine the film as Natural Born Killers, only with a Mickey and Mallory that never philosophize, or learn anything, or do anything but get high and bully other people, with almost every line being loaded with profanity.
Colombian filmmakers have made this "works of arts" for decades now, I'm sick of it. I'm a Colombian filmmaker myself, and it burns me to see that the only stories done here are about poor drug addicts, and hookers, and hit men. There's more to this country than that, and even if you want to do a story about poor people, you can give it meaning, an important message, something, I can see that the situation is bad by just looking up at the statistics, which is what this film basically does, show the statistics only with actors.
Rodrigo D:No Futuro had the same problems, it's no trick to show poor people cursing and doing bad stuff. I would like to propose examples of movies that have used similar characters and story lines and really accomplished something. The most clear example is Amores Perros(the Mexican Pulp Fiction), the film is not only technically superior, but also develops it's characters with much more maturity, and the film says something at the end(of every storyline).
Gangs of New York is(believe it or not) similar, a look at the most miserable places of a city, and yet look at it, the film has a huge point to it. Taxi Driver, another film that explores urban decadence, and boy does it make a strong statement.
Point is La Vendedora De Rosas only works as a gratuitous look at violence and urban decadence, a film that constructs an world with empty people inside, and if that was the point of the film, the shame on the makers, to say poor people are empty. Bottom line, this film only works for the sick curiosity of those who don't know squad about my country.
A much more objective and accurate view was ironically made by a US writer director, the guy who made Maria Full of Grace, that film really does capture the essence of my country, not Vendedora De Rosas. Now, some might call me elitist, and argue that since I'm Colombian but not poor, I can't give my view, well as I said before, I'm a filmmaker, and have studied the behavior of poor people here, and it's nowhere near the mental masturbation of Victor Gaviria(maker of Vendedora...).
For all of those who though that this film was a very realistic approach, it's a blatant cartoon that is based on it's shock factor from the vicious people shown in the film, in order to impress simple minded audiences.
A must-miss, trust me.
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