Who the Hell Is Juliette?

1997 "Too many Juliettes... For so little Romeos."
6.8| 1h31m| en| More Info
Released: 05 September 1997 Released
Producted By: Instituto Mexicano de Cinematografía
Country: Mexico
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Synopsis

Filmed from 1995 to 1997 in Havana, New York, Los Angeles, Morelia and Mexico City, it tells the story of Yuliet, a Cuban teenager, and Fabiola Quiroz, a Mexican model, who, with humor and frankness, surrounded by quirky supporting characters, show us that the absence of their parents, deprivation and adversity made them stronger.

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Reviews

Catangro After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.
Jenna Walter The film may be flawed, but its message is not.
Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.
Michelle Ridley The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity
groggo This doc won a lot of awards, largely, I think, because it's 'different,' in that it doesn't follow the usual narrative arc of documentary film-making. Its greatest achievement, in my mind, is that it doesn't rely on the usual rogue's gallery of talking heads that consume three-quarters of most documentaries. Depending on your mood, 'Who the Hell, etc.' can be engaging and even dazzling. Some of the cinematography, particularly around Havana's iconic Malecon seawall, is spectacular. When I discovered that Mexican director Carlos Marcovich is a music video specialist, why was I not surprised? The film is loaded with signature cinematography that appeals to the MTV mobs: panorama shots, razzle-dazzle hand-held work, fast cuts and clips, alternating black&white/colour, faces that suddenly appear and speak, five different locations (we're not sure at one point if we're in Mexico City or Havana), and a 'story line' that is often confusing.Juliette is, in 1995, a 16-year-old Havana prostitute who is a study in contrasts. Her mother died violently when she was two years old, and her father left for the U.S. a year earlier. She is a child of the streets who can be be endearingly playful yet often irritating; she mixes delightful youthfulness with a maturity beyond her years. Toward the end of the film, she finally goes to Mexico City to visit her father Victor, whom she has not seen since she was a year old. Needless to say, it's an awkward reunion.This can be interesting film, particularly when the often-impish Juliette tries to explain her philosophy of being. In the end, we can answer the question 'Who is Juliette?' by saying, 'We're not really sure because she doesn't know who she is herself, but she's trying'.A huge let-down on the DVD extras is a 2006 update on Juliette, replete with footage of an ailing Fidel Castro. But it's entirely in Spanish, with no subtitles, and my rudimentary knowledge of the language left me befuddled. It was a huge -- and insulting -- mistake by the distributors, who had no trouble providing full subtitles for the film itself. This often happens with extras on DVDs -- crucial subtitles are missing. It's inexcusable.
Joanna The movie was ok for the first hour or so. It was nice to see the daily life of poor Cuban community and the beauty of the country. But it was way too long. Personally I found Yuliete quite annoying and didn't like her childish way of story telling.It seems that most people felt the same way...as 2/3 people left within first hour.
mifunesamurai An appropriate festival film that tackled the senses with its incorporated style of documentary, feature film and music clip. The story of a sixteen year old Cuban girl is told through some stunning photography, flashy editing and a MTV style of camera work, (really, Godard was doing this with BREATHLESS in 1959). The life of Juliette, (or is it Yuliette?), crosses paths with a model. They star in a video clip together and the story spreads from there as they both dwell on their lives and the whereabouts of their fathers. I realised midway through that I was grinning at the cheekiness the director, Carlos Marcovich, was up to with a story well told but possibly too long. And from where I was sitting there was a fair few people heading for the exit. They didn't seem to have the patience for the cheeky Juliette, or for that matter, the style of the direction.
Arnoldo Valdez This is a wonderful, highly original documentary, or is it? I'm not sure whats real or if some parts have been staged, but they depict the lives, dreams and problems of a beautiful Mexican model who is in Cuba shooting a music video and a young local girl who is cast as her sister. The film then shifts focus on the girl and what a girl she is! She's about 13 and can be very innocent and girlish in some scenes, and intelligent beyond her years in other as she speaks her mind in the wonderful Cuban-style gift of gab. Through her eyes we see the poverty that most Cubans endure and learn of the exploitation of children by idiotic foreigners who treat Cuban vacations like a sexual free for all. The girl is one of most powerful protaganist I've seen in a film and one can only hope that she achieves her dreams like those people in films like Hoop Dreams.What's interesting about the film is the almost surreal tone to the film, using visual gags and free association of images which I found original and funny. Also, the filmmakers made a choice which is one that very few documentary filmmakers make, and that is that they decided to tear down one of the walls, and actually participate in this girls life and try to help her. This if very different from the other films which at times feels like we're being voyeurs on other peoples misery.