Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: El Crimen del Padre Amaro

This is topic El Crimen del Padre Amaro in forum Film Handlers' Movie Reviews at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Charles Everett (Member # 889) on 12-15-2002, 12:55 PM:

AMC Empire, Times Square/NYC, 12/7, 2:30 PM matinee. Hall #20 (Top of the Empire), attendance approx. 40. Lots of negative dirt in R1, otherwise picture quality was good. Sound good for SR. Subtitles large and easy to follow, unlike most foreign-language imports.

Padre Amaro broke all the Mexican records for homegrown fare earlier this year. It got picked up for US release with an eye to the "pedophile priests" scandal that has engulfed the Catholic Church.

Although the movie is based on a 19th century novel the storyline has echoes of more recent events: Young priest is sent to a rural village, he has eyes for a devout working girl, she gets pregnant, she has trouble deciding whether or not to have the baby. The longtime priest in the village has to deal with other priests who don't seem as rigid. One of these other priests is accused of harboring guerrillas in the hills; he tells the village priest the real problem is "pistoleros y narcos" (gunrunners and drug traffickers).

I saw Padre Amaro only days before the "pedophile priests" scandal erupted anew. Given these developments the acting in Padre Amaro is less important than the storyline. In fact, the Princeton Garden Theatre picked up Padre Amaro the day Bernard Cardinal Law resigned as archbishop of Boston.

I was impressed by Luisa Huerta; she plays Dionisia, the eccentric widow who lives with her cats in a shrine to the saints. Imagine an old lady telling her cat she has the answer for what ails him -- "the body of Christ!"

Padre Amaro is strongly recommended, especially if you're Catholic. If this picture doesn't get major Oscar nominations it'll be because Miramax buys off the Academy as it usually does.

Also of note: At this show the video projector used for rolling stock was turned off, thus no preshow or rolling stock. The AMC Empire booth built a trailer pack with 7 trailers in all.