It is at least a sarcasm to be called Felicitas (a name that is related to happiness) and be very unhappy.This film tells us the unhappy life of an Argentinian woman, born in a wealthy family in Buenos Aires in the XIXth Century, Felicitas Guerrero (1846-1972). When she was 15 or 16, she fell in love with Enrique Ocampo (loosely related to Victoria and Silvina Ocampo), and married against her will at 16 to a much older (more than a 40 year gap between them) to a rich 'hacendado'(who, by the way, already had a secret family of four children living in Río Grande province, all of them older than the chosen girlish wife). As a result of this marriage, Felicitas never knew happiness.
Nowadays we cannot understand those stories of old men marrying girls, in an arrangement built by the parents and the old men, but historically, this only happened yesterday. In spite of her resistance and sorrow, she obeyed and married Martín Álzuaga, one of the richest men in Argentina, owner of many lands, with whom she had two sons that died in infancy.
Ten years after the marriage, Martín died, leaving her a huge fortune and all his properties. She became administrator and showed skills and determination, but again, her father considered she needed a man to take care of the fortune and was again receiving pressures to get married for a second time. Enrique Ocampo came back, sure that he was the right man, the beloved one, but she didn't choose him. Instead, she fell in love with a a neighbor, also very rich, Samuel Sáenz Valiente.
Enrique would not accept the rejection and took her life, shooting her in the back. It's terrible to notice how the men of her life could not accept her to take her own decisions or fail her own failings or have her own triumphs: to lead her life freely. Her father, Enrique, Martín...who knows if Samuel would have also behaved disrespectfully because she was a woman. An object to own, not a person.
With some license from the real story, Teresa Constantini has made a powerful film, not inspired but real, painful to see. The cast, perfect, and also the magnificent places.
A good film.
Nowadays we cannot understand those stories of old men marrying girls, in an arrangement built by the parents and the old men, but historically, this only happened yesterday. In spite of her resistance and sorrow, she obeyed and married Martín Álzuaga, one of the richest men in Argentina, owner of many lands, with whom she had two sons that died in infancy.
Ten years after the marriage, Martín died, leaving her a huge fortune and all his properties. She became administrator and showed skills and determination, but again, her father considered she needed a man to take care of the fortune and was again receiving pressures to get married for a second time. Enrique Ocampo came back, sure that he was the right man, the beloved one, but she didn't choose him. Instead, she fell in love with a a neighbor, also very rich, Samuel Sáenz Valiente.
Enrique would not accept the rejection and took her life, shooting her in the back. It's terrible to notice how the men of her life could not accept her to take her own decisions or fail her own failings or have her own triumphs: to lead her life freely. Her father, Enrique, Martín...who knows if Samuel would have also behaved disrespectfully because she was a woman. An object to own, not a person.
With some license from the real story, Teresa Constantini has made a powerful film, not inspired but real, painful to see. The cast, perfect, and also the magnificent places.
A good film.
