By Ed Koch
“Ratatouille” (+)
I don’t usually see animated films, because I consider them to be cartoons and don’t usually enjoy them. However, many friends recommended this movie to me so I decided to go. It is magnificent, but it is still a cartoon. Children and their parents accompanying them will love this picture.
To the credit of the producers, these rats are very real looking yet endearing. The voices of the main characters are: Remy (Patton Oswalt), Gusteau (Brad Garrett), Linguini (Lou Romano), Chef Skinner (Ian Holm), Anton Ego (Peter O’Toole) and Colette (Janeane Garofalo).
If a music track is added to the film when it is re-released in a few years, it will be even better. I am sure these rats can sing. Every children’s story must have a moral. The one in this movie is that everyone can be successful, but it also conveys that in every endeavor, one must be willing to learn and practice to become proficient.
“Blame It on Fidel” (+)
The subject matter of this film is engrossing, and the movie is well worth seeing. It is, however, flawed. The script does not unfold in a linear fashion and too often hints at what is happening in an episodic way.
The story covers a three-year period from 1970-1973 and is told from the point of view of nine-year old Anna (Nina Kervel), who is brilliant in her role. Anna lives in Bordeaux, France, with her wealthy Spanish father who is a lawyer, Fernando (Stefano Accorsi), her French mother Marie (Julie Depardieu) who is a writer, and her younger brother Francois (Benjamin Feuillet).
The radical-left parents are involved with Salvador Allende in Chile who, after winning the presidential election, was overthrown by an army putch. News footage of his last speech before being assassinated is shown. The family’s housekeeper, Filomena (Marie Noelle Bordeaux), a refugee from Cuba, constantly attacks the Communist ideology and blames every family problem on Fidel Castro, hence the title of the film. When Fernando, the father, holds a cell meeting in his apartment with two young, mysterious, bearded men, Filomena describes Communist men to Anna as always having beards.
Anna attends a strict Catholic school but is exempt from divinity classes at the direction of her parents. Her father takes her to a political demonstration in Bordeaux which turns ugly when the police use smoke bombs. Everyone scatters while shouting, “Down with Franco.” Anna feels overwhelmed by all that takes place around her, and occasionally I did as well. Indeed, the storyline is often incoherent, but it will pull on your heartstrings.
Confused by her parents’ politics, Anna taunts them on one occasion by singing a fascist ditty. We all know, at least those of my generation, the songs of the left, and those in the Spanish Civil War were the best. The cause of the loyalists should have prevailed in Spain, and Allende should not have been overthrown in Chile as he was with the U.S. helping his opponents. As I watched the movie I thought about how the Communists in the U.S.S.R. under Stalin in their repression of human rights were little different than the Nazis under Hitler.
The movie was directed by Julie Gavras, daughter of Costa Gavras who directed the great film, “Z,” depicting what happened in Greece under the fascist regime of the Colonels.
I saw “Blame it on Fidel” at a theater in Greenwich Village, and the audience consisted mainly of late-middle-aged people. At age 82, I include myself in that category. I don’t know their politics, but if I had to guess, I would say they were sympathetic to the left. When I arrived at the theater, about 20 cops were standing in front of it and about 10 police cars were parked at the curb. They were still there when the show ended. Fortunately, there was no incident bringing them there. They were present as part of the ongoing war against terrorism intended to take terrorist cells off guard by showing up unexpectedly. The officers were smiling and very friendly, but after watching this film, their presence added a certain bizarreness to the evening. I’m sure that some in the audience resented the police presence. I thought it was great to have these cops protecting us from a threat — Islamic terrorism — that will be with us for many years.
