El Hombre Que Amaba Flores by Favio Gayoso. A.K.A “My first Argentine Dollar Baby”
I don’t know you guys, but I really love Argentine movies. Not only because Argentina is a close neighbor for Brazilian folk, but especially for how good their movies are. I can even say (with a sad heart) that Argentine movies are better than Brazilian movies, their screenwriter has a lot to teach us and the rest of the world. Now,imagine how happy I was when I found out that there were Argentine Dollar Babies!!! For this review I will talk about the first one that I watched, “The Man Who Loved Flowers”, by Favio Gayoso.
When I was choosing Dollar Babies for my first film fest here in Brazil in 2022, I tried to get an Argentine Dollar Baby based upon the short tale “Harvey’s Dream“, but it turns out that the director had passed aways years before and no one had that short movie at that point.
Óscar Garrido was the one who told me that, but he also gave me some good news: if I really wanted an Argentine Dollar Baby I should talk to Favio Gayoso, director of the argentine version of “The Man Who Loved Flowers“. Óscar helped me to get in touch with the filmmaker and it became real.
Let me tell you in advance that “The Man Who Loved Flowers” is an awesome short movie and a good example of a good Argentine movie. One of the first things that caught my attention in this short movie from 2011 was its soundtrack, because Gayoso was clever in a way that I wish I was when I did my Dollar Baby: Gayoso used famous songs in his movies! Why was this so intelligent ? Well, once you are not allowed to officially post the Dollar Baby on-line because of the rules, who said that we could not use famous songs in it? Because of the Dollar Baby deal’s rules, all the Dollar Babies would only be watched at private screenings and at film fests, so why not put famous songs in it since Youtube was forbidden too? Some filmmakers did use famous songs, like Elio Quiroga in his Home Delivery, he had “It’s The End of The World As We Know It“, by R.E.M, but Elio got the band’s green lights to do it. Gayoso did not, but (once again) he did nothing wrong, he was just smarter than us. Which songs did he use? He opens his short movie with a Beatles‘ song!!!!!! “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” at the opening credits was so good, you start to watch the movie already having so much fun! And later he uses a Bee Gees‘ song, “How Deep is Your Love“, a song that talks about the character’s quest for his beloved … Gayoso, thank you for this, Gracias Chico. I wished I also had that idea, you showed us the obvious while you entertained us. Gracias por eso.
And the song thing also worked in a smart way with another “character” in the movie: the radio. King’s version of this storye uses the radio only once in a very specific way to give us important information and set the mood for a spring evening in early 60ths NY. And most of the filmmakers almost did not pay too much attention to the radio thing, most of them only used the radio the same quick way King did, but not Gayoso. Gayoso’s version practically made the radio a character, because he is not important just to set the mood and to give the important information, he also gives us “fake news” while he introduces the idea of a killer in town. It reminded me the way King plays with his readers at the original tale, but in a different way: at King’s version, the first thing we eat in the radio is about “The Hammer Killer”, but it is a quick note, if you read too fast or not paying too much attention you can miss, but the information is there. Gayoso on the other hand, when the radio is giving the news for the first time, the news about “The Hammer Killer” is in the middle of other news, but it tells us that a suspect was arrested. And since there are other things happening on the screen and we have this information about the arrest, we don’t pay too much attention to it. But at the end credits, when the radio comes back it tells us that another body was found we realize that the director was playing with us all along. Just then we realized that the same way King told us about a killer in town at the beginning of his story, Gayoso also told us that a SUSPECT was arrested. That was so cool.
Another good use for the radio was how Gayoso used to radio not only to give news and play songs, but also to set the stage of this story in Buenos Aires, capital of Argentina. It might look like a silly thing to say this, especially if you think that a lettering written “Buenos Aires, Argentina” would give the audience the same info, but let me tell you that a lettering would be a lazy way to do that. Giving this information at the radio in such a fluid way in the middle of the news is an example of how good argentine screenwriters are.
About the screenplay, well, it is one of the best written ones based upon this short story. It is faithful when it needed to be, but even when it was faithful it still had some sense of contemporary, because not only it did not try to emulate the 60s, but also kind of talk to South America nowadays. For instance, that two old guys chatting in the post- credit scene while they were playing chess, man, that is something I can find in my hometown if I take a walk right now. Two old men talking about violence and economic issues in a park, that made this movie so contemporary, so South American. The two actors were damm good at this scene, ending with them complaining about their pensions was so funny. Please, don’t close the movie’s window on your phone or computer at the end credits, this post-credit scene is important in the best way some Marvel’s post-credit scenes are.
Another thing that called my attention to the way this movie was written was how Gayoso played with the hammer before he shows it at the murder scene. Once again, Gayoso was faithful to King’s original idea because King just teases us with something that the main character has in an inside pocket of his jacket, something that he touches just to be sure it was still there. At Gayoso’s version, the main character does that, he touches his pocket looking for something and I can’t recall other Dollar Babies based upon this short movie that did this or at least some that did it in a way that makes us pay attention to it. Gayoso did and it was important to his version because until it happens, the audience has no reason to be suspicious about this character, it is quite the opposite actually. Ernesto O’Donnel is the actor who plays the main character and he does that not in a brilliant way, but in a way that sometimes does look fake on purpose. I believe that it was Gayoso’s choice that directed Ernesto this way, because Ernesto gives us a guy who looks kind of goofy sometimes in a way that reminds me of Tobey Maguire‘s Peter Parker in Spider-man. You know, when Peter Parker used to show us that goofy smile when he was happy. I see the same kind of goofiness in Ernesto. And the same way we also see Tobey in a purposefully exaggerated acting when he goes bad in third Spider-man, when the audience sees a different side of Ernesto’s character they can see what I believe is also a purposefully exaggerated acting. I believe that Gayoso wanted to make us suspicious about that guy all along.So Ernesto goes from goofy to a crazy killer in a fun way to watch it, most of this because of Gayoso’s talent as a director but also because of Ernesto’s talent as an actor. Gracias, chicos.
But the supporting actors are some of the best parts to watch in this short movie, one of them in particular: the flower seller. I already told you that the two old guys playing chess gave us a fun scene, and let me assure you that the murder scene was also well directed and had good performances of both actors, the victim was really good and the new lines for her character were a good addition to the story. But let me tell you that if there is one great supporting actor in this short tale that almost steals the spotlight from Ernesto, it’s Enrique Escobar, the flower seller! His scene with Ernesto is not only one of the best scenes of the movie, but it is also the most important for the story in my opinion, because in this scene we are still buying the idea that the main character is just a goofy guy, an in love guy buying flowers. And the way the flower seller’s character was played by Escobar, man, it was unique. It looks like he is trying to scam his client, there is a little bit of latin malice that Escobar gave to his acting and that made this version of this encounter an unique and latin encounter. Gracias, Escobar.
I am glad to say that this is a Dollar Baby that you can watch in this YouTube link. Or at least this link was still on when I started this review. Hope you guys like it and please, write it down and share your thoughts about it with the director.
I am sure he will love to hear from you guys.
The dollar baby’s grade? We from SKSM give 3 fingers of the dead guy’s hand. There should be 4, but the dead guy says that he lost it while he was dancing at the beginning of the movie.
See you guys next time.
“Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, life goes on…”
Leonardo Granado
