Blame It on Fidel
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$26.98
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$24.49
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Manufacturer: Koch Lorber Films
Starring: Nina Kervel-Bey, Julie Depardieu, Stefano Accorsi, Benjamin Feuillet, Martine Chevallier
Directed By: Julie Gavras
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Audience Rating: Unrated
Binding: DVD
Brand: Koch International
EAN: 0741952312994
Format: Color
Label: Koch Lorber Films
Manufacturer: Koch Lorber Films
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Koch Lorber Films
Release Date: 2007-11-06
Running Time: 95
Studio: Koch Lorber Films
Theatrical Release Date: 2006
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Editorial Reviews:
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Caught up in the political revolution sweeping France in the early 1970s, Fernando (Stefano Accorsi) and Marie (Julie Depardieu) reject the comforts of their bourgeois life and dedicate themselves full time to radical activism. This comes as a shock to their precocious nine year-old daughter, Anna (Nina Kervel), who struggles to understand her parents’ newfound ideals. Brilliantly told from Anna’s perspective, this critically-acclaimed film by Julie Gavras captures the coming-of-age moment when children realize the contradictions of adulthood and have to make their own choices. Includes over 70 minutes of bonus features including:
Making-of Featurette, Behind-the-Scenes Segments, Deleted Scenes (presented by the director)
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: ...as seen through the eyes of a child
Comment: Set in the politically turbulent Paris of the 1970s, "Blame it on Fidel" tells of a sheltered young girl who has her comfortable bourgeois existence ripped away from her after her staid, conformist parents (Julie Depardieu, Stefano Accorsi) suddenly become born again leftist radicals. Anna is forced to give up the home she loves and the nanny she adores when her father quits his job in order to dedicate himself full time to fighting for the proletariat against the evils of the world. The family moves from their spacious home in the country to a cramped apartment in the city, which is often filled with bearded revolutionaries who utter strange catch-phrases in barely audible whispers.
Thanks to a thoughtful script and sensitive direction, "Blame it on Fidel" manages to provide a compelling child's-eye view of the adult world. Incapable of grasping the "big picture" as her parents see it, Anna knows only that the family is now woefully short on cash (she runs around the house flipping off light switches and heaters to save electricity), and that her mother and father are so preoccupied with their "cause" that Anna and her little brother (the adorable, scene-stealing Benjamin Feuillet) seem to have been relegated to mere afterthoughts in their parents' tremendously busy lives. In a performance rich in insight and wisdom and utterly un-self-conscious in tone, nine-year-old Nina Kervel-Bey brings to life a character who often doesn`t fully understand what`s going on in the world around her but who never gives up trying to figure it all out. For a good part of the time, Anna is torn between childish curiosity and an indefinable sense of shame regarding her parents' newfound activities. Yet, through keen observation and endless questioning, and the eventual piecing together of the many unfiltered fragments that come floating her way, Anne is finally able to come to some kind of understanding, however imperfect, of the much larger world community of which she is only a very small but crucial part.
Despite the inherently ideological nature of the material, writer/director Julie Gavras, the daughter of famed filmmaker Costa-Gavras, keeps most of the political stuff in the background while she concentrates on the strain the grownups feel as they strive to juggle their save-the-world activities with their duties as parents.
Add to this some excellent performances by a talented cast and a rich, flavorful score by Armand Amar and "Blame it on Fidel" becomes a film well worth checking out. In this her second venture as a director, Ms. Gavras has done her old man proud.
Customer Rating:
Summary: overall a great film
Comment: I enjoyed this film very much. The young girl has such a natural talent that she makes the movie! I recommend watching this movie.
Customer Rating:
Summary: He who shall teach the child to doubt, the rotting grave will ne'er get out.
Comment: Nina Kervel-Bey, the young star of this movie, is a gifted actress who gives a marvelous performance. She brings this movie to partial life, portraying the main character with a natural presence. The story is told through her eyes, and I could not help but feel sympathy for her. Her childhood is turned upside down by her parents infatuation with leftist politics, and she feels abandoned. Her parents have little time for her now that they have joined the revolution. We see the effects of that neglect, and we see her anger.
The nuns who run Anna's school never have a chance, portrayed as distant figures who tolerate no discussion about their authority, and waste no time in verbally reprimanding Anna for her youthful questions. Her catholic classmates eventually turn on her with cruelty because of her forced absence from bible study. Her best friend spends the night at Anna's apartment, and gets a view of her father's naked body. This upsets the child, but only because she is a young reactionary.
The communist friends of her parents initially tease Anna for her counter-revolutionary beliefs, but eventually the movie shows them to be kindly and understanding friends. Anna learns to doubt everything, (even her parent's politics, to the filmmakers`s credit) and leaves catholic school of her own accord.
Reading the other reviews of this film, I was struck by how easily the Amazon reviewers slip into the Marxist vernacular. Words like bourgeoise, communist solidarity and fascistic conformity slip off the pen. The true believers still exist.
Although no one is demonized in the film, the filmmaker's leftist sympathies are never in doubt. Other reviewers have noted that the viewer is never hit over the head with "ham fisted polemics." This film is a very polished piece of propaganda. Fidel must be very proud. My own experience was a catharsis of all emotion, which befits the tragedy.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Clowns to the left of me, Jokers to the right.....
Comment: Little Anna is stuck in the middle between conservative bourgeoise grandparents, Catholic school friends and teachers, and her increasingly radicalized parents in 1970's Paris, and she doesn't like it one little bit.
Centered on an astonishing portrayal by young Nina Kervel-Bey, her defiant Anna with her pugnacious chin jutting-out fearlessly faces the various forces swirling around her with justifiable frustration and anger at the upset and turmoil created in her young life by neglectful parents caught up in their leftist political passions and the likewise estrangement from the conervative foundations of her previously privileged life. Her spirit is undiminished however as she faces them all down with wit and preternatural common sense, asking the difficult question and demanding attention and respect. This little girl is wonderfully expressive and impressive and Gravas has elicited a marvelous performance from her.
While I assume Gravas sympathies probably lie with the politics of the parents, she is very even-handed in her depiction of all sides and is never polemical but instead finds the humanity in all. Being the daughter of a famously political director herself, she must have brought great understanding to the confusion and anger of a young child who could care less about politics but experiences only absent and distracted parents and a comfortable life overthrown for passions and principles she does not understand and is very perceptive in pricking the pretensions of while revealing the confusion in the adults around her.
A very fine film, well acted by all, but little Nina is the whole show and for one so small and lovely to dominate and carry a film of this depth with such ferocious confidence and humor is a tribute to the wee actor and her director and is well worth anyone's time.
Customer Rating:
Summary: You say you want a revolution . . .
Comment: Set in Paris in 1970-71, this is a film about 9-year-old Anna, growing up in the home of leftist political activists. Directed by Julie Gavras, daughter herself of political filmmaker Costa-Gavras, the film represents the attempts of a child to make sense of the earnest turmoil that has upset her previously untroubled middle-class life, as well as concepts like solidarity. Her father, played by Italian actor Stefano Accorsi, has fled Franco's Spain and along with his wife (Julie Depardieu, daughter of Gerard Depardieu) becomes involved in the election of Chile's socialist president Allende. Chilean exiles begin filling their home, while Anna's mother embarks on a project to make abortion more freely available to French women.
Meanwhile, Anna and her young brother, are exposed to the anti-communist sentiments of a Cuban nanny and her wealthy grandparents. A conservative friend from Catholic school provides a further complication. Torn in a variety of directions, the young heroine soldiers on, with an independent spirit of her own, confronting both the certainties and uncertainties of her parents. Told from her point of view, the camera is often at a child's eye level, and amid all the unresolved confusion there are also moments of comedy, provided often by her diminutive little brother. The DVD includes a making-of featurette, deleted scenes, and other features, with an emphasis on the challenge of directing children.
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