Written by Roberto Leal

“The problem with Marilyn playing dumb blonde roles is she’s not dumb or a blonde” —Arthur Miller, Playwright

Ana de Armas has clearly and undeniably nailed down the coveted pole position for the for Oscar race for Best Actress. The talented, beautiful, Cuban-born de Armas delivers a stunning portrayal of Marilyn Monroe that is at once harrowing, compassionate, heart-breaking, nuanced, at times painful to watch and emotionally courageous. Ana de Armas has laid the foundation for this ground-breaking and controversial performance with critically acclaimed roles in her previous films, Knives Out, in which she plays a humble caregiver, the latest Bond girl in No Time to Die and a tough, kickass CIA agent in The Gray Man. But in Blonde, de Armas not only carries the film on her slender shoulders, she elevates the entire film to award-winning heights which in turn required her to extend her emotional acting range to newer, deeper and darker regions.

The Film Auteur’s Vision

The great Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman, who gave us classic films like Persona, The 7^th Seal, and Wild Strawberries, observed that sitting in a darkened theater and watching the mesmerizing flickering images dance on a movie screen is the closest thing to the dream state. Andrew Dominik, the director of Blonde and noted for his avant-garde film, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Bob Ford, masterfully applies his auteurship skills to his vision of Blonde, which is based on the highly fictionalized, 1999 novel of Marilyn’s life by the author, Joyce Carol Oates.

In Blonde Dominik has created a surreal journey through the catacombs of Marilyn Monroe’s tortured inner psyche, as Norma Jean Baker struggles with the manufactured Hollywood identity of Marilyn Monroe that inhabits her body, mind and soul. In de Armas, Dominik has found the perfect vessel to bring his vision to life on the screen.

Dominik uses dark, muted light and shadows to convey an ethereal, dream-like tone that pervades the film often blending and mixing reality and nightmarish sequences with delusional fantasies.

Netflix, in a rare move, gave Dominik carte blanche to realize his vision of the material which contains some strong sexual content that resulted in Netflix getting its first NC-17 rating. But while the sexual content is disturbing, it is not especially graphic and as experienced through the vulnerable eyes of de Armas as Marilyn, it comes across more like pathos than porn. Ana de Armas uses her eyes, face, and inner dialogs between Norma Jean and Marilyn to paint a very textured portrait of the legendary Blonde Bombshell as a complicated, conflicted and misunderstood human being who became a Hollywood myth.

A Fine Supporting Cast

Blonde features an excellent supporting cast, all of whom turn in notable acting performances. However, Lily Fisher (Station 19, Life & Death)) as young Norma Jean and Julianne Nicholson (August: Osage County, Black Mass) as Gladys Baker, Marilyn’s mentally unstable, delusional and often abusive mother, deserve a special shout-out for their fine work in the opening scenes of Blonde that depict, with often unsettling detail, the genesis of Norma Jean /Marilyn Monroe’s journey.

Fisher has a very unforgettable and poignant scene when she is shuffled off to an orphanage and protests in a quiet, haunting, plaintive voice: “But I’m not n orphan.”  Nicholson’s riveting performance of Gladys’s descent into utter and complete madness is a disquieting and viscerally frightening experience to behold.

A Cinematic Triumph for Ana de Armas

But in the final analysis, Blonde is all Ana de Armas. Her performance is like a great concert pianist playing George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue.  She commands the attention of the camera. You can’t take your eyes off of her. She draws you into the story and demands you watch, listen and try to understand her pain. The camera loves de Armas in much the same way it loved Marilyn Monroe, who was beyond a doubt the most photogenic Hollywood movie star of all time. 

Ana de Armas’s physical resemblance to Monroe is obvious. She worked diligently with an accent coach to diffuse her lovely Cuban accent and recreate Marilyn’s speaking voice. Her Cuban accent slightly betrays her only once or twice on certain words and did not detract from her performance at all.

In fact, it was a bit of unintentional irony that de armas, a Latina, was cast to play Marilyn Monroe. In real life, Monroe kept her Mexican birth heritage (her mother, Gladys, was born in Mexico) a professional secret because of pressure from the Hollywood studio executives who did not want their valuable All-American “product” to be tainted with a Hispanic background. So, in a karmic twist of fate, de Armas is in reality the perfect actress to portray Marilyn Monroe.

Ana de Armas’s star power keeps intensifying with each new challenging role. After her brilliant star turn in Blonde the only question remaining for de Armas is what designer dress this gorgeous and talented Latina will be wearing during her red-carpet interviews on her way to receiving her many well-earned and richly deserved acting awards for her role in this film.

BLONDE

Director: Andrew Dominik

Stars: Ana de Armas, Lily fisher, Julianne Nicholson

Distributor: Netflix

Blonde is currently streaming on Netflix.

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The Reimagining of Lupe Velez In Today’s Industry

One of the saddest phrases in the English language is, “What might have been”. In the early 1900’s Lupe Velez, a pioneering, trail-blazing Latina talent, the likes of which had not been seen before, would be a good example.

Velez, was born Maria Guadalupe Villalobos Velez in San Luis Potosi, Mexico in 1908. Her star shone brightly in the entertainment night sky, but all too briefly, then tragically, crashed and burned all too soon. Like Marilyn Monroe and James Dean, who came after her, Velez died in the prime and promise of her career. But, unlike Monroe and Dean, Velez never reached the mythic status of legend.

Velez started her show business career at an exceedingly early age, in Mexican vaudeville. Later, she attended Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, Texas, where she excelled in English, singing, and dancing. She began appearing in both Mexican and American silent films. In 1927 she appeared opposite the great Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. in The Gaucho.

One of Velez’s notable achievements early on in her film career was her successful transition from silent movies to talkies. The advent of the talking motion pictures proved disastrous to the careers of many great silent stars, including John Gilbert, Ramon Novarro, Paula Negri, and Fairbanks, some of whom experienced difficulties transitioning to talkies, because of high-pitched voices, or strong foreign accents. Velez’s Mexican accent never was an issue in her transition to talkies. In fact, her accent and distinctive Latina speech patterns and mannerisms were the core of her film persona: The Mexican Spitfire.

Velez honed her God-given, on-screen comedic skills by appearing in Hal Roach shorts with Charley Chase and Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. Velez was also directed in films by a “Who’s Who” of Hollywood’s top film directors: D. W. Griffith, Cecil B. de Mille, Henry King, Victor Fleming, and William Wyler.

The unique and comical acting skills of Valdez set her apart from her Mexican contemporaries Dolores Del Rio, and Katy Jurado. The film persona of Velez was a combination of looney and scatter-brained, like Gracie Allen, lovable, beautiful, and whacky, like Carole Lombard, and a vivacious and bombshell Hispanic, like Charo. In her films, The Half-Naked Truth (1932), Hollywood Party (1934), The Girl from Mexico (1939), and Mexican Spitfire (1940), Valdez displayed on the big screen comedic acting chops that would have served her well today, on the small TV screen.

Velez, Del Rio, and Jurado were among the earliest female Mexican actors to make it big in early Hollywood. Whereas Del Rio and Jurado were principally dramatic actresses. Where Jurado never cracked a joke or a smile in any of her movies, Velez did it all in her film roles, singing, dancing, and best of all madcap, zany comedy.

Most of Velez’s films had plots thinner than a single strand of fideo. The storylines were designed for Velez to interact and react to the other characters in the film. She was a master of verbal repartee, the ad-libbed quip, the facial aside, double-take, slapstick, and acid rejoinder. Brilliantly, she employed these abilities with Mexican-accented malaprops and other verbal miscues that do not reduce Velez’s on-screen persona into a racial stereotype. She delivers her lines with such convincing assertiveness, confidence, wit, and charm.

In High Flyers (1937), Velez sings and does hilarious impersonations of Del Rio, Simone Simone, and Kathrine Hepburn. Del Rio and Velez were bitter professional and personal rivals. Velez did other mocking impersonations of Del Rio, with obvious venom-filled glee, in several of her movies. The two hot-tempered Mexicans frequently had off-screen encounters at Hollywood parties that made spicy headlines in the tabloids.

Movie censors of the day were left scratching their heads in confusion when Velez’s character would let loose a manic, machine-gun salvo of Mexican invectives, while in the throes of a jalapeño-hot temper tantrum. The Spanish came out so fast and furious, the censors could only wonder what Velez was saying and only hope the viewing audience was just as confused.

After viewing dozens of Velez movie clips, some Spanish-language documentaries, and the film Mexican Spitfire, there is no doubt Velez would be a huge, comedy star in today’s film and TV. It is easy to re-imagine the Velez starring in a Garry Marshall sitcom. Maybe a Latino twist on Laverne and Shirley (Lavina y Chula), about two Latinas, as Dreamers dreaming of a better life, while they toil away in an East LA, Dos Equis beer bottling plant.

Between 1941 and 1943, there were five Mexican Spitfire sequels made, featuring Valdez as Carmelita Lindsay. Today, with the vast array of streaming platform outlets Mexican Spitfire could be turned into a phenomenally successful six-part mini-series.

The TV variety show, like the classic Carol Burnett Show, has been on the endangered species list for many years. But, Velez would be a natural hosting a variety show, showcasing her singing, dancing, Vaudeville, impersonation, and sketch comedy talents. No other current Latina superstar could pull it off. Velez’s infectious and irresistible charm would make The Lupe Velez Musical Comedy Hour a sure-fire ratings hit. But alas, she lived in another time, another era.

But alas, she lived in another time, another era. Velez’s off-screen personal life was tumultuous, controversial, and rocked by scandal. A highly publicized love affair with Gary Cooper, a marriage that ended in a bitter divorce, and other off-screen antics and eccentricities, proved damaging to her professionally and personally. In another time, another era, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, these sorts of scandals ruined the careers of several female movie stars. Just ask Ingrid Bergman and Frances Farmer.

Velez’s off-screen personal life was tumultuous, controversial, and rocked by scandal. A highly publicized stormy love affair with Gary Cooper, a marriage that ended in a bitter divorce, and other off-screen antics and eccentricities, proved damaging to her professionally and personally. During the Golden Age of Hollywood, these sorts of scandals ruined the careers of several female movie stars, including Ingrid Bergman and Frances Farmer.

Today, Velez’s personal escapades would make headlines inTMZ becoming storylines for her TV show, boosting her ratings, and land her a lucrative book deal. But sadly, Velez lived in a conservative era.

On December 18, 1944, at the age of 36, Velez took a fatal overdose of the Seconal barbiturate, following a heartbreaking failed relationship resulting in an unwanted pregnancy. The names and sordid details and circumstances surrounding her death are not relevant. The loss of a great multi-talented, pioneering Mexican star and a legacy unrealized, is what matters.

Netflix has an upcoming series titled Selena: The Series, celebrating the Mexican-American Queen of Tejano Music, Selena Quintanilla-Perez, who was murdered at 23 years old, at the height of her musical career. Like Monroe, Dean, and many other celebrities who died much too young, Quintanilla-Perez, since her untimely death, has been boosted onto the pedestal of myth and legend.

It’s time that Lupe Velez, the Mexican Spitfire gets a pedestal of her own.

The post Lupe Velez: Much More Than “The Mexican Spitfire” first appeared on .

Two new big budget studio films, Miss Bala and Alita: Battle Angel are produced by predominantly Latino filmmakers starring Latinas Gina Rodriguez and Rosa Salazar, in the title roles respectively, as new kinds of cinema icons, Kick Ass, Action Heroines.

With Roma leading the way forward, we will have to wait and see if Miss Bala and Alita: Battle Angel mark a new cinematic era for complex fully realized Latina lead roles and the opportunity for Latina actresses to portray them in major motion pictures.”

From Virgin to Badass?

Golden Globe award-winning actress Gina Rodriguez (Jane The Virgin) stars as Gloria in Sony Pictures Miss Bala opening nationwide on Friday February 1.  Miss Bala an English language remake and refashioning of the critically acclaimed 2011 Mexican film of the same name directed by Gerardo Naranjo.

Rodriguez portrays Gloria, a young Mexican-American makeup artist who discovers an inner strength in a dangerous world of cross border crime when she tries to rescue a friend who becomes involved with a violent drug cartel and disappears after winning a beauty contest.  Ismael Cruz Cordova (Ray Donovan) a Puerto Rican actor co-stars as Lino, the charismatic drug cartel leader. Aislinn Derbez plays Isabel. If the last name sounds familiar, the actress is the daughter of famed Mexican actor/producer/director Eugenio Derbez (Latin Lover).  The film also stars Anthony Mackie (The Avengers) and features the additional talents of Ricardo Abarca, Matt Lauria, and Christina Rodlo.

Pablo Cruz (Cesar Chavez) who produced the original film under his production company Canana in Mexico partnered with Kevin Misher (The Scorpion King: Book of Souls) on the remake which shot on location in and around Tijuana, Baja California Mexico. They brought Catherine Hardwicke (Twilight Sagas) to put the new spin into action.

Pablo Cruz (Cesar Chavez) produced the original film and for the remake partners with Kevin Misher shot the remake under the direction of Catherine Hardwicke (Twilight Sagas) on locations in and around Tijuana, Baja California Mexico.  Graciela Mazon(The Mask Of Zorro) served as costume designer for the film.

Battle Angel

Alita: Battle Angel starring Rosa Salazar (Maze Runner, Divergent) in the title role is a $200 million Twentieth Century Fox production directed by Robert Rodriguez (Sin City, Spy Kids) and a collaboration of a script with James Cameron (Avatar, Titanic) who also produced is producer on this highly anticipated film which opens nationwide in 3D on February 14^th.
Christoph Waltz, Jennifer Connelly, Marshashala Ali and Jackie Earle Haley also star in this epic adventure of a female cyborg who must rediscover her past that is based on a popular Japanese Anime/Manga based on Yukito Kishiro graphic novel series “Gunnm”.  David Valdes (The Green Mile, Unforgiven) produced along with Cameron and John Landau at Rodriquez’s Troublemaker Studios in Austin Texas.

In a recent interview by Mia Galuppo in The Hollywood Reporter’s, Salazar (who is of Peruvian descent) talked about being aware of the star-making impact a movie like Alita can have, “I’m always grateful to be hired, especially as a Latin woman in the business.” She added, “And I’m always grateful when the most essential part of my character isn’t that she is Latin.”

While Miss Bala and Alita Battle Angel are movies for action and Sci-Fi movie fans, both have particular appeal to the under served Latino audience, (which makes up 25% of the movie going audience according to the MPAA) the industry’s most loyal and fastest growing young demographics.  

2017 and 2018 demonstrated that diversity sells tickets with such multi-cultural and multi-ethnic films as Coco, Crazy Rich Asians and Black Panther which smashed box office records, not only domestically but also worldwide. On the other end of the spectrum, just two of 2017’s top 100 grossing films featured Latino actors in lead roles

According to USC’s Annenberg inclusion imitative annual report on female and minority film representation. None of 2018’s top 100 films featured a Latina actress in a lead role.

In a just broadcast NPR interview Rodriquez remarked on her trailblazing lead role in Miss Bala,  “ It’s about an ordinary woman who becomes an extraordinary woman and really solidifies her power and finds her strength. If this film is a success, they [the Studios] will make more.”

These two new films arrive hot on the heels of the ten Oscar nominations for Alfonso Cuaron’s Roma including Best actress Yalitza Aparicio and Best Supporting actress Marina de Tavira.

With Roma leading the way forward, we will have to wait and see if Miss Bala and Alita: Battle Angel mark a new cinematic era for complex fully realized Latina lead roles and the opportunity for Latina actresses to portray them in major motion pictures.

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