EMA
Chile, 2019, 104 minutes, Colour.
Mariana Di Girolamo, Gael Garcia Bernal, Santiago Cabrera, Paola Giannini, Cristian Suarez.
Directed by Pablo Larrain.
Emma is an intense character, fiery Latin American, from Chile, the city of Valparaiso, with one critic referring to her as wanting to dance to our own choreography.
Ema has been written by celebrated Chilean director, Pablo Larrain, who made impressive films in his home country, Tony Manero, No, as well as international films, the portrait of Jacqueline Kennedy, Jackie, and the portrait of Diana, Princess of Wales, Spencer. Mariana di Girolamo in an intensely fiery performance as Ema, as a dancer, as a woman seeking love, experimenting in relationships, attempting to be a mother, attempting to be a wife. Gael Garcia banal has collaborated with Pablo Larrain in Neruda and No.
The film is memorable in some of its striking dance routines, theatrical, through the streets of the city, rehearsals, teaching children in schools – and in the theatre, a large ensemble, costumes, choreography, an extraordinary backdrops with cosmic overtones.
The human drama is complex, a married couple and their trials, the sterility of the husband, suggestions about his sexual orientation, an attempt at adoption, the child creating a fire and the giving him back to the adoption agency, the contact with his next adoptive parents, difficulties in relationships, promiscuity…
Universal themes but presented with an intense and fiery Latin American perspective.
- A Chilean story, Chilean characters and dilemmas, universal?
- The city of Valparaiso, Chile and atmosphere, homes, streets, dance theatre, schools and classrooms, the countryside? The musical score?
- The theatrical atmosphere, the music, songs, performance? The large ensemble, the dance movements, style, atmospheric backdrops, theatre performance around the city, in the classrooms? The dance routines around the city, the flamethrower?
- The portrait of Ema herself, her background, intensity, fire (and the symbol of fire throughout, the opening with the traffic lights on fire)? Her dancing? Her family background? Domestic sequences? Her marriage to Gaston, his stability, issues of sexual orientation? The adoption of Polo, the hopes for a family, his age, inexperience, the fire incident, giving him back to the adoption agency, the effect on each of them? His later reappearance, at the school, Ema and her wanting to start again with him?
- Ema, a person in torment, passion, the breakup of her marriage to Gaston, the consequences, her relationship with the women in the dancing group, their personalities, attitudes, sexuality, the liaison is? The effect?
- Anibal, his character, his work, the link with the troop, the attraction to Ema, his wife and family, the tensions, the affair and the consequences, Gaston and reaction, and the irony of the relationship of the wife with Ema?
- Gaston, with the dance troupe, the putting of performances, rehearsals, the dancing, the evocative symbolism? Gaston, with the group, somewhat lost, the flashbacks to the past with Ema, the attempted some kind of reconciliation? Her wanting to be liberated?
- A portrait of two people, in relationship, love, out of love, clashes, crises?
