I Not a Mexican
I don't understand how it takes 20 minutes to spread carne asada on 3 flour tortillas and throw some salsa and onions on....BUT, it did give a chance to check out some Mexican soap operas. I noticed a couple things, they tend to place a greater value on looks as opposed to say, acting skills. Maybe that is a feature of the soap opera as genre, as opposed to Mexican soap operas specifically - but i'm not sure - they still have those variety shows with all sorts of hot chicks.
The scenes tend to feature a lot of sitting around and a lot of injuries. I couldn't hear the dialog, so I just studied the images. There were several scenes in hospitals, where one hot chick is lying in bed with a neck brace and wounds, obviously incapacitated for one reason or another. She must have been the lead character, because they kept going back to the hospital bed and different characters would visit her. At one point, the camera zoomed into her reaction, while jump cutting WITHIN the zoom, and then, get this, they repeated it over and over three times. A mean looking women revealed something to her prior to this emotionally significant moment, I'm guessing from the mouthed "Mama" that she was her REAL mother, or something.
In another scene, a different hot chick was in a wheelchair with a guy was standing behind her talking to her. Had someone brought this into directing class, Jeremy Kagan would have said, "let's give them something to do." Perhaps something to do with the content of their discussion or something that reflected their relationship. But these soap opera directors have real balls - they say, NO cheap tricks, I'm going to let the dialog tell the story - NO ACTION. NO SPECIAL EFFECTS. Pure drama.
Anyhow, my food was finally ready, so I didn't get to see what happened, I wonder if there are always so many injuries on Mexican soap operas.
2 comments:
yes there are always injuries on mexican soaps. i came upon a soap while at the laundromat once. the storyline went something like this: jealous woman buys a gun from a strange man in his bedroom. she exits and they cut to a close up shot of the gun dealer looking very perplexed (cue music sting). cut to apartment exterior: gun woman spies on happy couple making out in the parking lot. she shoots the woman who collapses in her lover's arms. she then shoots the man and they both lay there dead and bloody. the murdress runs to the slain woman and mourns. i guessed that she was a scorned lesbian lover and had misfired at her ex. the latins understand true melodrama.
no way there's lesbian love involved. these are catholics we're talking about. her man must have been cheating on her with her sister. or best friend.
indeed, the mexicans understand melodrama.
Post a Comment