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 Entertainment | January 2007 
Midstream Switch Gives 'Romantico' a Deeper Message
 Mary F. Pols - Contra Costa Times
| | A scene from Mark Becker's "Romantico." Photo courtesy of the filmmaker. |
Late in 2000, filmmaker Mark Becker started approaching musicians in San Francisco's Mission district for a short film he was working on about the bachelor culture on the mariachi circuit. He found one of them, an illegal immigrant from Mexico named Carmelo Muniz Sanchez, to be particularly captivating and started filming him.
Then, on the sixth day of shooting, Carmelo changed Becker's documentary entirely by deciding to go back to Mexico to be with his dying mother. 'Romantico' could just as easily have been called 'Volver' ('The Return') if Pedro Almodovar hadn't gotten to the title first. Not only do we see Carmelo leaving the States to return to Mexico, but twice we hear him perform a song featuring that word ('to return to your arms,' he sings, in Spanish).
Becker may have cursed his luck initially, as he watched his primary subject fly away. But he was smart enough to let the project evolve and the scope of the resulting film is much more universal.
For anyone who has had their spirits lifted by the music of a wandering mariachi band, without having given much thought to the players (and let's be honest, if you've had a margarita in the Mission, this probably describes you), 'Romantico' should prove enlightening.
It is a tale of borders, risk-taking and the steadfast desire to make a better life for oneself and one's loved ones, against strong odds. Back in his hometown of Salvatierra, Carmelo is reunited with his wife and two daughters, but finds it much harder to support them. He dreams of returning to San Francisco again, even though at 60, a border crossing is far too dangerous, and as we've seen from the early part of the film, the three years he spent in the Mission, sleeping on a floor in a tiny room, were far from ideal.
When he's back in Salvatierra, he makes some income from the mariachi circuit, but it can't compare to what he'd earn in a Valencia Street taqueria, and he goes back to his other specialty, making and selling lemon- or milk-flavored nieve, or 'snow.' Watching him pedal his nieve cart through crowded city streets, we're struck first by how challenging this seems for someone of his age and poor health (like his mother, he has diabetes) and then by how necessary it is -- his family needs the money.
His humility is admirable, but even more so is his compassion. He can't resist a barefoot child who has only one peso but wants a three peso cone.
'Romantico' is at its moving best when Carmelo, sitting at his kitchen table, his voice cracking, explains why. He had an abusive father -- whose cruelties are only hinted at -- and a mother who struggled to support her children on her own. As a child, Carmelo begged in the streets of Mexico City, and that motivates everything he does. He lives in fear that his own children will find themselves in similar straits.
Becker shot on film, rather than digital video, and you can really see the difference; the look of the film is so lush and vibrant that even a blue plastic storage bin shoved under a table is eye catching.
But there are other places where you see the effect of working on a low budget; events described rather than filmed, gaps in time, and perhaps too much footage of the music or posed shots of a silent Carmelo.
These are small faults to find though, when the filmmaker has delivered such an insightful look into one man's experience of emigration and homecoming.
Mary F. Pols is the Times movie critic. Reach her at 925-945-4741 or mpols@cctimes.com.
'ROMANTICO'
Starring: Carmelo Muniz Sanchez
Rated: NR
Running time: 1 hour, 20 minutes |
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