Bella

HUGE

Bella is the type of film told in such a simple straightforward manner, you naturally appreciate it for it's poignancy towards the main characters. It's a tender story of two people who help each other in crisis situations; one from his past, the other, her present and future.

Jose (Eduardo Verastegui) is the quintessential chef for his fastidious brother Manny's ( Manny Perez) restaurant. From the beginning you already see he has some issues regarding past events in his life that he is struggling to get past. His story, told in a wonderful array of flashbacks reveals a regrettable incident that prevented him from pursuing a dream most precious to him.

Nina (Tammy Blanchard) also works at the restaurant and has called in or been late several times much to the chagrin and increasing impatience of Manny. After a home pregnancy test gives an unwanted positive sign, she rushes to work-late. She's fired almost immediately by Manny who doesn't even give her a chance to explain.

Feeling sorry for her, Jose, unbeknownst to Manny, walks out when he's needed the most and catches up with Nina offering friendly support. She's dubious of his motives at first but slowly warms up to his sincerity. He spends most of the day with her, traveling the city streets, stopping to eat and even takes her to his parents home to meet them. All this time he talks to her about the unwanted child she's carrying and what she intends to do about it, then in the process pours his heart out regarding his dismal past.

Bella became the darling at the Toronto Film Festival, winning the People's choice award. Understandably, because it is such a human film dealing with controversial issues. Which probably explains why I did not become bored with it as I thought I would. Jose and Nina convince you completely of their instability supplemented by a friendship that, by the way, does not evolve into a romantic bedroom sequence. This is something that many romance fans would have expected. It simply doesn't happen. And after seeing how Verastegui and Blanchard portray them you feel that it doesn't have to. Their relationship blossoms platonically.

Bella is also a great triumph for director Alejandro Monteverde whose short film Waiting for Trains earned the 2002 Las Vegas Festival award for best directorial debut. Like Trains, Bella is indicative of Monteverde's talent in dealing with personal subjects that effect us all. He
definitely has a future in this genre. He and fellow writers Patrick Million and Leo Severino have composed a story so natural and unpretentious that you can't help but to admire it.

Lenser Andrew Cadelago's spontaneous photography supplements the film's ebbs and flows as Jose and Nina travel around town by foot, by train and even stopping for a relaxing nightcap at the beach. Using much of the natural day and evening light and contrast gives more substance to both of them as well as their co-stars.

Making crucial decisions that impact our lives and the lives of others can always be difficult. It is a arduous journey that the majority of us take at some time. Bella presents these elements of our humanity fairly, without being critical, yet fostering the determination to be responsible for the choices we all make.

COMMENTARY
Ladane Roberson HUGE	To tell a story you need very little but a camera and lighting . To make one feel the heart beat of the story you need the cast and crew of Bella !

By Joe De Matteo

Super

Alejandro Gomez Monteverde was able to bring a life time of emotion and human experience into his first full length film. It is that emotion that made this film an award winning work, and it is that emotion that makes it a wonderful movie experience.

Bella is an amazing human story, real and compelling, drawing you into the lives of people who push onward every day without purpose beyond the responsibilities of their jobs.

For me, the unique and wonderful thing about Bella is that it feels true: I watched the lives of two people unfold. The torment, the indecision, the fear, the out of control feeling, the feeling of not wanting to be in control, the feelings of hope. How wonderful. Humans, experiencing extreme emotion, and the desperation of dissatisfaction. And then this almost peaceful moment sitting on the ever moving grains of sand, watching the tumultuous sea.

Life.

Thought the stories and settings are different, as is the general feel of the films, I find this similarity to Richard Linkleter's Before Sunrise [1995], Before Sunset [2004] films. In each of these films the conversations between two people is so engaging. Jesse (Ethan Hawke( and Celine (Julie Delpy) in the Before Sun* films, and Jose (Eduardo Verástegui) and Nina (Tammy Blanchard) in Bella . However, Bella shows us a reality closer to our own; Jesse and Celine are in a cocoon of the writer's making, Jose and Nina are people who are out of sync with the flow of the reality they are living in, and that reality is, one might say, is a character in the story. Because it is their reality, the world they live in that causes their dissatisfaction.

The line in the sand is Nina's firing, and Jose's decision because of it. Nina is torn from her work-a-day life, while Jose rips himself out of it.

As the consequences of this moment of turmoil, Jose finds a purpose in reaching out to Nina, a corner is turned, and I found myself involved and caring about the characters.

This is a time out of everyone's life. A time of decision that changes everything for good or for ill.

Yes, Bella is a Super film.