Romántico (film)

Romántico

Romántico theatrical poster
Directed by Mark Becker
Produced by Mark Becker
Starring Arturo Arias
Carmelo Muñiz Sanchez
Music by Raz Mesinai
Distributed by Kino International (theatrical)
Release dates
  • January 2005 (Sundance Film Festival)
  • November 6, 2006 (United States)
Running time
80 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Spanish

Romántico is a 2005 documentary film directed by Mark Becker.[1]

Recognition

Critical response

New York Newsday Romantico is visual poetry on the run… And, as any work of art does when it’s successful, improves our perceptions of the world.”"[2]

Slant Magazine offered in 2006 that Romántico might be the documentary of the year, in that its "sensitively detailed surveillance of one man's personal misfortune" illuminates a national crisis. They favorably compared it with Carlos Reygadas' Battle in Heaven in that both films deal with the same social circle and maintain a "vigilant aesthetic".[3] In revisiting the film in 2010, they offered that the film was a "well-done character study" that could teach "a lot about how someone else thinks and experiences the world."[4]

The New York Times wrote that Romántico was "a sympathetic portrait of Carmelo Muñiz Sánchez, an illegal Mexican immigrant living in San Francisco who, after scuffling for three years as a mariachi musician, returns home to care for his ailing mother." They found the film to be representative of the stories of "countless illegal immigrants" who are a "struggling shadow population that is all but invisible in the United States." [5]

Film Threat made note that the film was originally to be about the life of two immigrant musicians in San Francisco, but due to Carmelo Muñiz Sanchez deciding to return home to Mexico during the filming, the film "evolved into a richly observed slice of life tale about a man returning home".[6]

Awards and nominations

References

  1. LaSalle, Mick (19 January 2007). "Who really is that man with guitar?". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 16 November 2010.
  2. Anderson, John (November 3, 2006). "review: Romántico" (PDF). New York Newsday. Retrieved 19 November 2010.
  3. Gonzalez, Ed (October 23, 2006). "review: Romántico". Slant Magazine. Retrieved 19 November 2010.
  4. Nakhnikian, Elise (August 21, 2010). "A Movie a Day, Day 96: Romántico". Slant Magazine. Retrieved 19 November 2010.
  5. Holden, Stephen (November 1, 2006). "In Clutches of Poverty, Not Despair but Survival". The New York Times. Retrieved 19 November 2010.
  6. Wible, Daniel (May 25, 2005). "review: Romántico". Film Threat. Retrieved 19 November 2010.
  7. Scott, A. O. (January 31, 2005). "Nonfiction Has Its Day at Sundance". The New York Times. Retrieved 19 November 2010.
  8. 8.0 8.1 "Independent Spirit Awards". Movie City News. Retrieved 19 November 2010.

External links