Alicia Bustamante Movies
Gerardo Chijona directs this screwball comedy hailing from Cuba. Macho truck driver Candido (Enrique Molina) forbids his drop-dead gorgeous daughter Sissy (Thais Valdes) to become a dancer at Havana's hippest club, the Tropicana, though she does so anyway. On the job, Candido accidentally smashes into hunky biker Sergito (Vladimir Cruz) who has a star-shaped mole on his butt, just like Candido. Out of guilt, he brings Sergito home to recuperate. Though Sissy is more than delighted at having this injured Adonis lollygagging about the house, Candido's buddy Promedio (Litico Rodriguez) fears a potential sexual encounter. As all of this is going on, Candido's arch-nemesis Armando (Santiago Alfonso), a choreographer at the Tropicana, tries to strike vengeance by seducing Sissy. When she rebuffs the creep, she is demoted to chorus girl. As the film progresses, subplots are layered upon subplots until the film's delirious denouement. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alicia Bustamante
- 1989
Cuba has never been regarded as a cinematic capital, thus it's a bit offputting to find so accomplished a film as Plaff! emerging from Castro-land. Deliberately kaleidescopic, with scenes edited out of sequence, the film involves a superstitious woman at odds with her science-oriented daughter-in-law. When the younger woman threatens the older one's complacent belief in portents and talismans, the older one plots the younger's demise. The film maps the older lady's increasing withdrawal from all vestiges of reality--hence the film's full title, Plaff! Or Too Afraid of Life (Desmasiado Miedo A La Vida, O Plaff) Director Juan Carlos Tobio also cowrote the stream-of-consciousness screenplay for this ramschackle but irresistible film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Daisy Granados, Thais Valdes, (more)
