Casa de los babies

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Movie
German title Casa de los babies
Original title Casa de los babies
Country of production USA , Mexico
original language English and a.
Publishing year 2003
length 95 minutes
Age rating FSK -
Rod
Director John Sayles
script John Sayles
production Alejandro Springall ,
Lemore Syvan
music Mason Daring
camera Mauricio Rubinstein
cut John Sayles
occupation

Casa de los babys by independent director John Sayles is an American - Mexican drama from 2003 . It is an ensemble film from a female perspective about cross-border adoption .

Sayles was responsible for the script, direction and editing of the 95 minute film made for IFC Films in Acapulco ( Mexico ). Theatrical distribution in Germany is still open. He was already on TV on SF2 and SF1.

As director John Sayles notes in the audio commentary, “When people call our films 'political' it always seems to me that they are politically conscious, in the sense that they are not politically unconscious. They are not necessarily ideological […] I often end up with more questions than I have answers ” .

action

Sayles tries here a kind of sensitive traffic (D: Steven Soderbergh , USA 2000) with an episodic structure in the context of adoption tourism in the north-south prosperity gap.

In an unspecified contemporary South American country, five wealthy Americans and one Irish woman are on adoption leave. The following women are stuck together in the immediate vicinity of the infant ward, which houses the country's “best export items” :

  • Nan has hair on her teeth and a powerful husband at home. However, she is also prone to kleptomania , and above all to bribery . As a child abuse victim , she recommends a harder pace for upbringing herself. Your legally mandated attorney is conveniently the hotel owner's brother, Señora Muñoz.
  • The quiet Gayle is religious - and with alcoholics anonymous. She speaks Spanish.
  • Jennifer loves her apparently rich husband in Washington, DC , but is unsure of what she wants. You and Eileen are the youngest in the group.
  • Skipper is a well-trained New Age marathon runner, understands naturopathy and massage and doesn't speak much. While massaging, she confesses to Jennifer that she has already had three miscarriages.
  • Leslie is of Jewish faith. She is hip and determined, but tends to be evasive in conversation. The other tourists think she is a lesbian .
  • Eileen as an Irish woman seems to feel uncomfortable abroad , but the sensitive woman 's desire to have children is still evident. In the presence of the cleaning lady, she imagines how she would spend a carefree winter day in the snow with her daughter.

While the forms of women in bureaucratic limbo stuck, drive them into the foreclosed hotel or with margaritas on the beach the time, gossip, hope, fear and plan. Their stay is artificially delayed in the course of the “balance of trade” . In view of the uncertain force majeure of the authorities, the perhaps expectant mothers show themselves in different stages of despair and copen with their situation in different ways. In addition, they watch each other in the tropical heat as they vie for the optimal allocation of resources .

At Dramatis personae there are also: the pragmatic entrepreneur Señora Muñoz, who owns the sophisticated hotel and padded purses, who has seen hundreds of such women come and go; a $ 4, unemployed, learning-by-doing tour guide, trained architect who dreams of Philadelphia and plays the TV lottery ; the caretaker of the hotel, son of Señora Muñoz, who thinks Nan is a “witch” , gets excited about regulars and rants about the cultural imperialism of the Yankees ; a local young Romeo from the beach, a pregnant teenager; the very young cleaner Asunción, who gave away her own baby not long ago; a nurse; Street children who deal with window cleaning and pickpocketing, sniffing glue and sleeping in cardboard boxes or on the beach (and seeing shooting stars ).

Most recently, Nan succeeds with her bribery attempt and buys an infant each for herself and Eileen. The two babies have a free ticket to the first world and a no less uncertain future. Before you can see in the waiting room of the authorities which one is being carried to which one , the picture freezes .

Reviews

  • “As far as one can move away from escapist film entertainment and remain fictional. [...] building on Sayle's profound sensitivity to how much the political is personal [...] one inevitably has to ask what kind of mothers it will be. "( Stephen Holden : The New York Times )
  • "Offers a very entertaining and intelligent look at the life of the crazy lottery " (Time Out Film Guide)
  • “Stumbles into the protagonists' lives with next to no introduction and withdraws before anything dissolves. [...] It is true that the film is less than the sum of its parts, but one has to look for such sensitive and moving parts for a long time. "( Ed Gonzalez : Slant)
  • “A puzzle of individual fates should be condensed into a portrait of society with a political dimension, without sanding down the unevenness or closing all the gaps. [... Sayles] did not really make them his own [..] It seems as if Sayles himself does not always find his way around the narrative landscape he designed "( Thomas Binotto : Neue Zürcher Zeitung )
  • “Ultimately, we see that the external administrative act of adoption is bigger than a single person or a newborn. [...] All in all, the film just tries too much. […] A process of adoption extends to sociological, psychological and physical pressures that cannot be rationally pursued across six main characters, especially not in two hours. Then there is the complexity of working with a foreign administration with its own timing, rules, cultural nuances and language difficulties, which results in at least a ten-hour mini - series . […] Although we know a little about their past and their motivation, we do not grow with them and do not feel their relief despite all the anger and love effort. [...] in the end a foreign bureaucrat throws the dice "( Mark Sells : Film Threat)
  • “In the end [..Sayles] pulls the plug as if he was finished or if he was running out of time [...] Subtlety is not his thing. [...] Sayles knocks on clichés and platitudes and carefully tries to turn them around, only to find nothing among them. [...] Perhaps the most dramatic course takes place between the local cleaning lady who speaks no English and one of the guests who does not speak a word of Spanish. They exchange heartfelt feelings about motherhood and children without ever understanding each other, but still on the same wavelength. […] This is the kind of subtle observation we wanted to see more of, but Sayles is too busy looking for a deeper meaning to even notice. ”( Desson Howe : The Washington Post )
  • "You could stumble upon the author-director's exaggerated naturalism of using simple conversations like those you hear in the supermarket next door." ( Harvey S. Maps : rec.arts.movies.reviews)
  • "A preaching story about six neurotic American women [...] If you don't realize that Americans have a significantly higher standard of living than Latin Americans [...] a good choice." ( Steve Rhodes : rec.arts.movies.reviews)
  • “The six actresses […] seem convinced that with little or no make-up, they would be real people that you play. [...] a schematic treatise [...] interspersed with montages of chubby Latino babies "( Variety )

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. a b c film service : Casa de los babys. In: Kabeleins Filmlexikon. SevenOne Intermedia GmbH, accessed on March 5, 2009 .
  2. a b “When people call our movies 'political,' I always feel like they're politically conscious in that they're not politically unconscious. They're not necessarily ideological […] I often end up a movie with more questions than I have answers. " (Sayles). Fox, s. Web links.
  3. see International adoption in the English language Wikipedia.
  4. a b Roger Ebert : https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/casa-de-los-babys-2003. In: rogerebert.suntimes.com. October 3, 2003, accessed March 6, 2009 .
  5. The legal residency requirements that he needed for the film are most similar to those of Chile , says Sayles. Gonzalez, p. Web links.
  6. ^ A b David Rooney: Casa de los babies. (No longer available online.) In: Variety . August 25, 2003, archived from the original on September 27, 2008 ; accessed on March 6, 2009 (English): "The six lead actresses in" Casa de los Babys "appear convinced that by wearing little or no makeup, they're playing real women. […] An entirely schematic treatise […] Punctuated by montages of fat-cheeked Latino babies “ Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.variety.com
  7. a b Stephen Holden : Casa de Los Babys (2003). In: The New York Times . September 19, 2003, accessed on March 6, 2009 (English): “as far as you can get from escapist movie entertainment and still call it fictional. [...] rooted in Mr. Sayles's profound awareness of the degree to which the personal is political [...] you can't help wondering what kind of mother each will be "
  8. also Ng, s. Web links.
  9. ^ A b Ed Gonzalez: Casa de los babies. (No longer available online.) In: Slant. August 6, 2003, archived from the original on April 22, 2005 ; Retrieved March 6, 2009 (English): "dropping into the lives of the film's women with little-to-no introductions and pulls out before anything is ever resolved. […] By film's end, Sayles likes the struggle of the film's women to both a lottery and astrological fate. [...] But if the film is less than the sum of its parts, you won't find parts as delicate and devastating " Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.slantmagazine.com
  10. GA: Casa de los Babies. (No longer available online.) In: Time Out Film Guide. Formerly in the original ; accessed on March 6, 2009 (English): "offers an immensely entertaining and intelligent look at life's mad lottery"
  11. Thomas Binotto: Orientation problems. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . June 25, 2004, accessed May 9, 2019 .
  12. Mark Sells: Casa de los Babys. In: Film Threat. November 10, 2003, accessed March 6, 2009 : "Ultimately, we realize that the foreign adoption process is larger than any single person or newborn baby. [...] All in all, the film just tries to do too much. The process of adopting a child has all kinds of social, psychological, and physical stresses that cannot possibly be addressed rationally across six main characters, let alone in a two-hour time frame. Add to that the complexities of dealing with a foreign government and bureaucracy that operate on their own time table, with their own rules, cultural nuances, and language barriers and you have at minimum, a ten hour miniseries. [...] Even though we do get to know a little about their past and their intentions, we don't get to grow with them nor do we get to experience the final joy of all their efforts and goodwill. [...] it all comes down to a foreign bureaucrat rolling the dice "
  13. similar to Holden.
  14. ^ Desson Howe: Sayles's Baby Blues. In: The Washington Post . October 3, 2003, accessed on March 6, 2009 (English): "He seems to pull the plug, as if he's suddenly had it or just plain ran out of time. […] But he's stuck with a tin ear for subtlety. [...] Sayles pokes at these cliches and secondhand ideas and tries to turn them over thoughtfully, but he doesn't seem to find much under them. [...] Perhaps the best dramatic exchange is between a local maid, who speaks no English, and one of the visitors, who doesn't know a word of Spanish. They exchange heartfelt feelings about motherhood and children without understanding each other, somehow connecting in spite of everything. This is the kind of on-the-money encounter we could have enjoyed more of, but Sayles is too busy searching for deeper truths to notice "
  15. Harvey S. Maps: Casa de los babys (2003). In: rec.arts.movies.reviews. 2003, accessed on March 6, 2009 (English, at IMDb ): "Some may complain that the writer-director is overly naturalistic, punctuating ordinary conversations between people that you might hear in your neighborhood supermarket"
  16. Steve Rhodes: Casa de los babys (2003). In: rec.arts.movies.reviews. 2003, accessed on March 6, 2009 (English, at IMDb ): “a preachy story about six neurotic American women […] If you weren't aware that Americans have a much higher standard of living than Latin Americans […] CASA DE LOS BABIES is a reasonable choice "