Film Reviews by JT

French drama schools must be very different from British or American ones. This film has the ring of truth throughout and not a whiff of "people doing acting" which makes its bleak message all the more awful. The fact that neither of the main perpetrators was ever punished must leave the complainants feeling pretty sick. I will make a point now of watching Spotlight, which I gather tells a similar story of abuse and cover-up by the church hierarchy.

Viva Zapata is a slightly romanticised account of the career of this highly influential revolutionary leader whose name is still revered by revolutionaries the world over. Written by John Steinbeck and directed by Elia Kazan at the height of the McCarthy era its political agenda is clear enough. We see three presidents and one not-quite president over a period of barely 10 years. Zapata is the last one, murdered by a resurgent military-political establishment of the sort that has plagued Latin America from Mexico to Chile ever since those countries gained their independence from Spain. The question is: why? After 200-odd years, why have the countries of Latin America never developed robust political institutions and progressed to full democracy?