Good time for hope

Por: Armando Núñez Chiong

Telenovela cubana

If anything needs to be emphasized in a commentary on Loves and Hopes, it is how timely it turned out, when reaching Cubavision screens in an unso happi moment for the dramatized weekday installments.
In the Cuban corner, Finally, the sea, agonizing when the new offer appeared on Saturdays, disappointed those who enjoy and care about the good performance of the soap operas. And in the Brazilian corner Fina print still put the hairs – and tongue – on tip to those who, without asking pears from elm, demand a minimum of decorum and respect (aesthetic, ethical, social) to such an important audiovisual product. Well said already in our media by qualified persons the thousand reasons that invalidate the delivery of Rede Globo, it is only in that sense to adhere to the most acidic written ideas about the so-called bodrio.
The series that has just passed through Cubavision on Saturdays addresses most of the problems identified and largely widespread in audiovisual worldwide (family and gender violence, claim of otredades, generational conflicts, emigration, prostitution, reintegration of convicts into society, alcoholism…), which coexist with specific problems of Cuban society.
It is precisely this coherence between universality and “locality” that is another of the greatest achievements in De amores…, by deploying conflicts and issues in the context and from the logic of a group of lawyers who must face them according to the particularities of their profession, and also deal with their own personal problems.
It must be agreed that the dramaturgy worked, and interest flowed almost always until the outcome of each chapter; but they were able to take much better advantage of the singularities of human nature, and further nuance the conflicting characters.
We usually saw bad “no forgiveness” and almost perfect innocents. However, what makes legal inconvenience interesting is that, even without realizing it, good people do not always proceed as well as they would like. There are passions, mistakes, mistrust, emotional blindness…, and a good lawyer can convince that, even with the best intentions in the world, sometimes the victim has somehow led to the mis-management of his antagonist.
This editor is not a law professional, and he knows full well that he is risking an opinion, but out there he must walk something similar to what they call mitigating. The truth is that, whether they know it or not, the plots would probably win in interest, and in complexity the cases, if the defense lawyers had more prominence, or at least took their work with more claw. Nothing new under the sun, by the way: it is an effective resource in the best judicial audiovisuals.
One of the chapters that showed certain nuances was the first: the young Nancy is subjected to a process to be deprived of parental authority. The script left some respite (a few expressions of doubt and charges of conscience) to the character, and actress Susana Ruiz took every second she had to “defend” – in every way – the mother played. Good for her, who managed, moreover, to distance herself from the very similar conflicted girl she had just assumed in Anyway, the Sea.
In general, the performances showed trade and balance. Too bad Elsa, in her role as leader of the firm, has had so many quiet parliaments, something Edith Massola also incorporated with a very stern tone when designing her character; a little flexibility would have rounded up his characterization more.
Attention should be paid to the care to be taken in handing over – and writing – characters who are in every intention carrying attitudes designed to generate rejection in tele-audience. Thus, in the bigamy-motivated complaint, Daisy Quintana – very strong, as we know – swept away, and her bigoted offenses resonated most strongly in the chapter.
Similarly, both the racial enconement represented by Gina Caro, and the similar contempt that Pavel’s media vociferous all the time, do not seem to have had an effective “counter-offensive” on the side of the good ideas they wanted to defend themselves. Let us hope that they have worked as they should have in tele-audience, because what there is no doubt about is the healthy intentions of the doers.
It is curious how melodramatic codes were openly assumed, interpreted without qualms no less than by actors such as Aramís Delgado, who spared no tears, nor did they save them, decorumly, Yailene Sierra and Denys Ramos. The latter’s performance would only be objectionable because age and physique did not accompany him to assume a character who, by the way he was conceived, should have been given to a younger actor.
It was as if, from her series, the filmmaker and screenwriter Raquel González wanted to dialogue without ambages with the telenovelesque tradition, as well as suggesting the presence of “the voice of blood” that uniessote Pavel and Jibarito from the beginning, and eventually leads the mother towards the encounter with her boy.
The technical team did their thing professionally. He highlighted the photograph (Rafael García Lorenzo), who beyond emphasizing the speech showed a coherence that ultimately meant will of style, hinted from the foreground of the series and presentation. The soundtrack (Alejandro Padrón) was fine, as expected by including Silvio Rodríguez’s work, but it did not always function as an incidental or transitional resource (it is not music conceived for that), and versions of the author were also missed with more current sonorities.
But there is a reality too significant to be overlooked in a commentary on the subject, even though these lines must return to the last walks of TV Globo between us, because it is encouraging that while Fina’s exclusionary and frankly rude scratches were championed by his disrespect, it was cuban audiovisual that put the note of mesura and understanding , of loves and hopes: rarely better placed a title, and at such a good time. Ω

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