Evidentamente comieron chocolate suizo (They had obviously eaten Swiss chocolate) was the last of five amateur Cuban films which have been restored and were screened in Cinemateca. The five films were a mixed bunch, but Marzel’s was a playful jewel. Cuba 1991 - a society on the edge of all the things that are happening in the rest of the world. The film shows what appears to be a moment of extreme violence as a man and a woman go from dancing in what might be a typical Havana family home, stacked with women from three generations. The dancers dash out into the street. The man seems to be dragging the woman violently by the hair. A mother and her daughter follow. They get to a church… and then we see the St Vitus Dance twist. The film seems to be over, everyone is dead, but suddenly Madonna’s Vogue cuts in. The dead dance. Other realities are permeating this arcane world. Everyone dances and the credit sequence is like a short film all of its own. There’s something breathlessly brilliant about this 13 minute film, which claims to be the last reel of a lost movie, featuring, the rolling credits claim, Geraldine Chaplin and Arnold Schwarzenegger, among others. The playfulness elevates everything and gives this short film a vivid, distinctive Swiss chocolate flavour.
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