Bitter Sugar (Azucar Amarga)

 

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C+     Extras: D     Film: B+

 

 

Bitter Sugar (1996) is an incredible film that somehow went unnoticed upon its original release.  This is all the more interesting since its director, Leon Ichaso, was coming off the high-profile U.S. release Sugar Hill (1994, not narratively related to this film) starring Wesley Snipes.  While that was not a huge commercial or critical success, where were the critics when Bitter Sugar arrived?

 

Not where they should have been, supporting a film that had so much going for it.  This is a film that tells us volumes about modern Cuba, how the nightmare of Castro still hangs on, about the lives of the U.S.’s too often ignored neighbors, and the many ways people hope to make their hopes and dreams possible.  This film has great depth, but something sinister and political obviously stopped this winner from finding its audience.  The audience is still there to win, especially on a DVD of the film this good.

 

The full screen, black and white image is a real treat, offering a crisp, clean image.  Though this is modern black and white, meaning it is not as dark; the way it is shot is stunning.  The film is able to be beautiful, and then show darkness & ugliness in no time.  This is due to fine editing, in combination with one of the best uses of monochrome in the last few decades.  Day or night shots, this looks good. It should also make one wonder if the choice of black and white is somehow a response to the use of monochrome in the 1964 Cuban propaganda classic I Am Cuba.  Either way, the contrasts are fascinating.

 

The Dolby Digital 2.0 sound is in stereo and plays back nicely in Pro Logic.  The Latin music is more purely so than the pop-washed version U.S. listeners have endured lately.  The dialogue is not too much in the center channel, as tends to be the case too often in Pro Logic playback.  This sounds very naturalistic, which only enhances the location shooting.  The combination of the two makes for one of the best black and white movies on DVD yet, worthy of Paramount’s DVD of John Frankenheimer’s Seconds, Columbia’s Last Picture Show, Criterion’s Spellbound, A&E’s The Avengers TV series, Universal’s Touch Of Evil, Kino’s Metropolis, or Warner’s Citizen Kane.  Those who miss black and white will find Bitter Sugar a revelation that monochrome lives, and can still have great impact in storytelling.

 

The theatrical trailer, along with profiles of director Ichaso and seven of the actors, in generously informed segments that tell us about some very talented people we are simply not seeing enough of, are the few extras offered.  The cast consists of: Rene Lavan, Mayte Vilan, Miguel Gutierrez, Larry Villanueva, Teresa Maria Rojas, Orestes Matacena, and Luis Celeiro.

 

Gustavo (Lavan) is a young, idealistic, smart supporter of the Revolution in Cuba, who has a promising future.  Unfortunately for him, his Rock musician brother (Villanueva) is a target of the government, his father (Gutierrez) is barely surviving his psychiatry business, and then he has fallen in love with the stunning Yolonda (Vilan).  What transpires will challenge everything Gustavo stands for.

 

Screenplay by Leon Ichaso & Orestes Matacena, based on the story by Ichaso & Pelayo Garcia, Cinematography by Claudio Chea, Edited by Yvette Pineyro, Music by Manuel Tejada, and Directed by Leon Ichaso.

 

Another things that strikes the viewer immediately is how concerned the film is with the people in it, so any political points of view it has are never contrived.  This film earns its convictions, heart and soul.  It has some great moments of humor, then some shocking moments of horror.  It is not a very violent film visually, but will move the viewer who invests into the story, rewarding them strongly.  Many an American filmmaker, especially the bad ones who keep getting hired, really needs to see this film.  It would give them a perspective on all the bad conventional ways they are going wrong in storytelling, digital effects notwithstanding.

 

Outside of the academic, cinematic or political, this is extremely well acted and well written. Of the many reviews of rarely seen feature films of late, Bitter Sugar has been the biggest surprise.  The DVD has a fine presentation of an excellent film.  Everyone should pick this one up.

 

 

- Nicholas Sheffo