Besos para todos

With an excellent cast of young actors now becoming famous everywhere, and the expertise of a much-experienced Jaime Chávarri, one would expect something less trite and something which did not fall back on the overly-used scapegoat of the dying years of the Franco Regime. It should also be expected that the story be somewhat more faithful to the ambience of the period in question - the mid sixties - and the behavioural context of that time in general and in Cádiz in particular. However, this little adventure embarks on a spree which, I suppose, might be called a comedy, but really only sparks off triviality and a certain feeling of having been betrayed somewhere.

I was 25 when I arrived in Spain, just five years later than the story being told in this film, precisely in a small city in the provinces. In no way could I compare the situations being enacted by those wonderfully fortunate people in the film, with what in effect was being lived by the real young people at that time. Life was far more serious than as painted in this film.

The acting is good - you have some of the best actors of Spain today in `Besos para Todos'. But my complaint stands firm: sorry, Sr. Chávarri, you have stepped out of line here, you have mixed up reality and fantasy and clothed it as a comedy.

If on the other hand you only want a film depicting young people about to set off on amorous adventures, without any hint of historical background, you might well enjoy this film.

I was only aggravated, annoyed. Perhaps it is just my peculiar attitude and memories of those `early years', tainted by parochial provincialism immersed in the shadows of a worn out tottering totalitarianism being assaulted by quasi-mystical songs from Joan Manuel Serrat.