La nona

Based in the Argentinian theater play of the 1970's, La Nona is the story of a hard working Family of Italian background in the Buenos Aires downtown area, taking care of Their Grand Mother(Pepe Soriano), who they call, Nona. but this is not a common granny, Her appetite never stops, and the problems she bring to the family does too. in fact, their Grand sons:

The older brother, Carmelo (Osvaldo Terranova), who works as a vegetable seller in the town fairy, is very upset with his small bro, Chicho(Juan Carlos Altavista), who is a lazy man and also a pain in the ass to the family like La Nona.

In fact, is Chicho the one who tries to get rid of the problem of La Nona, but he just gives his family more and more problems, in very funny situations:Like the scene in which he tries to sell her to a museum and says to the Museum Curator:"Imported from Italy", and a lot of funny scenes with a very particular humor, only found in Argentina, and without any cliché from American movies, but with a marked influence from the Italian cinema. Another character, is Marta, the daughter of Carmelo, who works as the hocker, but lies to their family telling them she is going to work to the grocery store.

Whoever, like I said, La Nona is not common granny, in fact, She has more of one hundred years, and may live another hundred more; she can read the smalls letters of a board, like in one scene where she reads the smallest letters in the boards while a doctor is testing her view:"Note:The Argentinian guild of..", and the doctor says, "No granny, here!". Another one is where she eats all the bread of a retire home and the others old men bring her back to the family in a van.

In any case, although the movie has funny scenes, and I have to say it has not a happy ending. the family slowly fell apart because of La Nona. All the cast is perfect, from Juan Carlos Altavista(Also know as Minguito) in his best part, and Soriano, in a very memorable part with the famous quote:"Give more!". Alfano as the hocker daughter really fits in her paper, in fact, she is now a days a hocker in my country.

Well, watch the movie, is a must see for fans of south America cinema.

PD:sorry if the critic is not good enough, in fact, I'm Argentinian, and this is my first review in English.

La Nona was initially born as a play oriented towards tragic comedy that reflected Roberto Cossa's vision of society and politics. Most of Cossa's works tended to take on culture shock, as if suggesting that two different cultures cannot coexist in the same territory. Héctor Olivera decided to make this adaptation of the original play while maintaining the social symbolisms and ended up providing what is perhaps the best Argentine film that has ever existed. Currently, Argentine cinema has become synonymous with mediocrity and many of its films have tried to stand out in the field of comedy, drama, auteur cinema or independent cinema. Although there are a couple of new and old films that are redeemable, what is certain is that it is very difficult for any of them to surpass La Nona.

The first thing that makes La Nona an excellent film is that it respects the original source quite a bit. Although there are a couple of changes such as the final scene, they are minor and fit well with the film. The humor is the same, although interpreted from Olivera's perspective. Being a play, each performance he has had in different theaters has been in a different way. But the humor in this adaptation works quite well. As it is Argentine humor, it can be somewhat complicated to understand. The next thing is that Olivera knew how to capture and transmit the social criticism that the work had. Olivera's works are usually characterized by touching on social problems in Argentina and that made him know how to capture the metaphors of the work to translate them into this adaptation. Nona is always hungry to the point that her family lives in poverty and that voracious appetite is a clear allegory to the system that devours everything in its path until it leaves those from the middle or lower class in a serious economic problem.

The original work has satires and Italian stereotypes that the film was able to capture in a very successful way without losing the essence of the work. Many of the actors do their jobs very well and give the impression that they really are caricatured versions of Italian immigrants. That gives a very good flavor to the humor of the film and makes the characters unforgettable. Pepe Soriano is without a doubt the most memorable part of the film. Even with that old woman costume that he wears, he knew how to perfectly embody the voracious old woman of the play. He can very easily be mistaken for a real old woman and it is the best role he could have given Pepe.

Without having absolutely anything to envy, it is clear that La Nona is a worthy adaptation of the original work and a worthy film of Argentine cinema. Despite having passed many years, being an hour long, having few resources, being rarely mentioned and never having been adapted again into film, La Nona remains a unique film in Argentine cinema. Argentina may have produced more comedies before and since, but La Nona has never been replicated in any of them. It's one of those movies that will never be produced again and you have to appreciate it for that. Of the few good films that Argentina has produced, La Nona is the most valuable treasure of Argentine cinema. My final rating for this movie is a 10/10.

Like José Afonso's vampires, this grandmother who eats everything, exhausting her family to death, would perhaps be, in 1979, when written and directed by Hector Oliveira, a metaphor for American capitalism and the Argentine ruling class, which, insatiable, consumed the country's resources to exhaustion, literally pushing its inhabitants to a miserable death.

There is always a grandmother in every political regime, in every country, in every family, so the metaphor remains timeless, capable of pleasing successive generations and different cultures.

A classic that, despite the years, remains lively and relevant.