Otra historia de amor (1986) Online

this movie was made in 1986, when argentina had but just returned to democracy. as such, it is a very interesting snapshot of what the social imaginary was like in argentina in those years. the movie drew in large audiences and many a married person, after seeing this movie, questioned his/her choices and the forces that had impinged on those choices. as a cinematographic product, the movie is average: it was the director's first (and sadly also his last) movie and it shows at times. as a social product, this movie offers an excellent opportunity to understand argentina's contradictions and the way the glttbq community was beginning to resurface after years of persecution. today buenos aires is a premium destination for glttbq travelers -- there are civil union laws, international gay hotels, a myriad of gay organizations, etc. it is amazing -- or perhaps NOT so very amazing considering this city's paradoxical nature -- that this movie was made only 20 years ago. i recommend it for its historical value and its honest naïveté.

The answer is yes. A very real and effective film about two men that fall in love. The film shows in a simple way the relationship between an office man with his chief (a married man that discover his homosexuality face) and the society problems with their affair is discovered. One of the best gay films of Argentine. See "La Piel del Amor".

Although cliche ridden, this film offers a rare chance to focus upon a gay relationship in which the people involved are free from any feelings of guilt, and offer us a positive outlook for the two lovers. It's a pity it is so hard to find on video...

At the time of its release there weren't many gay-positive films being made, and anyone who's been keeping their eyeballs peeled through Hollywood releases for the past thirty-odd years knows that they're still ages away from making a genuine movie where love between two men isn't the taboo subject. Twenty years before BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN (a film I need to recall and see if it truly is that important because the more I think of it, over half a year from its release, the less I see it as a positive love story -- if it is a love story at all, which may make me re-evaluate my own review from late January.), this simple yet moving story hit art theatres in Dominican Republic and for the times, critics and connoisseurs alike were labeling it "risky" and "sensitive", a thing to acknowledge in private and speak little of. And I can see why: while the love scenes between Arturo Bonin and Mario Pasik aren't overblown with eroticism, they pack a punch, and both men are shown in full display of affection. Again, keeping in mind that in the mid-Eighties all gay men had to hold on to as moviegoers were coming-of-age dramas mainly seen on cable channels, the start of AIDS-themed movies, and the usual, requisite campy films where gays were flaming queens and nellies -- caricatures of aunties who could only be seen as a sidekick or a punt of crude jokes, and gay-themed movies in which things were implied. And the occasional shocker, like CRUISING, DEATHTRAP, and even VICTOR/VICTORIA.

However, OTRA HISTORIA DE AMOR ("Another Love Story") has a near conventional situation: Bonin plays a businessman trapped in an unhappy marriage who meets the new addition to the firm as a self-assured man (Pasik) who in a risky move lets his Bonin know he's attracted to him. At first surprised, Bonin let's his repression slide and initiates a tentative affair that gets disclosed by a rejected secretary. Bonin gets a transfer to another office overseas while Pasik gets fired from the firm, but instead of going their ways, both men decide to live a happy life together. In many ways, the film's simple context is that of BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN with the genders leveled out to be the same: BROKEBACK took the doomed love affair and made it two men instead of a man and a woman. In OTRA HISTORIA DE AMOR it's the same thing: in a traditional movie, the love story would have been between a man and a woman, disclosed by a jilted third party. By switching one of the characters to be male, all it said was that while "controversial", love could happen even under restricted circumstances. It's a sensitive movie, real to life, where the men aren't exactly buff models but experienced actors. An obscure little movie that one day may be released on DVD.