Miguel-12

This movie is an adaptation of the poem written by the Roman poet Ovid. It has gorgeous cinematography and beautiful acting. I like the modern depiction of the gods in the Roman pantheon and their interactions with humans.

I saw this movie when I was pretty young, too young maybe to really understand what was happening, but the core of the story has managed to stay with me for all these years. This movie is the story of a young, beautiful and very frustrated woman who is married to a famous choreographer in the 70's Italy. She has everything material she wants, clothes, a fancy home, jewelry, servants, except one thing: her husband refuses to have sex with her because she wants to get pregnant and have a child. Her husband does not want to have children because he feels they'd be too much responsibility and will interfere with his career and, and since they live in catholic Italy, having an abortion or other type of contraceptive measures is unthinkable. So she goes out, gets a job and does what comes naturally for a young, beautiful woman: she becomes extremely promiscuos and has sex with every man she comes in contact with, in just about every location imaginable. But there is hell to pay when her husband finds out that she's cheating on him, and her punishment is something worse than death. All this happens in about the first third of the movie. I liked the direction and editing, but the acting is what makes this movie worth watching.

I saw this movie when I was 9 years old. To this day I don't understand how they allowed children into the movie theatre in Mexico to watch this type of movie. I still remember bits and pieces of it and they all come together to recreate the nightmares I had after watching this movie. Without giving away the ending, the movie is about a rich man who moves into a huge old mansion in the middle of the country with his new young wife and the daughter he had with his first wife. Along with them comes a woman who plays the role of nanny and governess for the young girl. In the enormous backyard, which is mostly covered with weeds and bordered by the woods, the young girls discovers a grave guarded over by the statue of an angel that holds open a huge stone book in his arms. Sometime in the first part of the movie, the young girls confesses to her nanny that she has found a secret playmate, a young boy, but nobody pays attention to her until very mysterious things start to happen and tragedy strikes the new household. I only wish that someday the Mexican Institute of Film would help recover and releases to the general public this and other gems of the Mexican cinema.