*Plot and ending analyzed*
The Ultimate Happiness
La máxima felicidad (1982)
First of all, the audio is horrible and very difficult to hear, add to that, a Venezuelan 'slang' that is spoken very fast. Still, if you speak Spanish at a basic level, you can understand most of it.
The film looks like something from the 70's, but it was 1982. It's odd in some ways, with drab colorless shots of people and the city at night.
Some despondent woman leaves what seems to be her lover's room, putting a note on the mirror with lipstick. Later, she's at some street café where a man catches sight of her. He reminded me of Marjoe Gortner (a former evangelist preacher and 70's actor). He takes her to his apartment, where they sleep together.
In the morning, some other man greets them. Turns out later, that the men are lovers. He's an intellectual, and doesn't show much emotion but he's an interesting chap I think. The lady enters their "family" in quite a bizarre manner. All the characters for the most part, are devoid of any life and to me, quite incongruous, disparate, and ultimately divergent, but I think that is what drew me to watch them in their flaws. They fight for no reason, then make up just as quickly.
In a lot of ways, this Venezuelan film is a retread of Jules and Jim (1962) (a 1962 French film directed by Francois Truffaut). It's a slow affair but interesting to watch. There's the love and jealousy and petty squabbles found in all human relationships. They all meet other vapid intellectuals or friends and converse on life. That's the bulk of the film.
I kept thinking they would end it with a tragedy, but I was wrong. Nonetheless, it's a somewhat interesting film. Don't be fooled, it isn't profound or grand, but just a snapshot of low budget Latin American filmmaking. They use a lot of music; I noticed Georges Bizet (French composer), Carlos Gardel (French Argentine singer), Josephine Baker (American-born French singer) and quite a long tribute and eulogy to Marilyn Monroe.
If you like low budget foreign films that concentrate on slow characterization, then you might like this one.
In Spanish with no subtitles.
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