Strawberry and Chocolate (Fresa y Chocolate, in Spanish) is a comedy drama about friendships found in strange situations. The film is based on the short story by Senel Paz, El Lobo, el Bosque y el Hombre Nuevo, who also wrote the screenplay for the movie.
The movie opens with a scene between the main character, David, and his girlfriend. He has brought her to a motel with the hope of seducing her but she is quickly disillusioned and gets mad by the ugliness of the room.
David promises the girl that they will not make love until they are married. Immediately following, the scene cuts to wedding where David’s girlfriend is marrying another man.
From this point onward, the story then takes a different turn.
David is eating ice cream in the park when he is accosted by the young, gay artist, Diego.
The two characters are distinguished as being different from their choices of ice cream: only a homosexual, according to David, would choose strawberry on a day when chocolate is available.
The homophobic and communist David is very different from Diego, who has become disenchanted by Castro’s regime.
Although David initially intends to spy on Diego, the more time they spend together, the further their friendship grows yielding unexpected consequences.
Fresa y Chocolate es una comedia dramática acerca de una amistad en medio de una extraña situación. El filme está basado en la historia El Lobo, el Bosque y el Hombre Nuevo de Senel Paz, quien también escribió el guión de la película.
La obra empieza con una escena donde aparecen el personaje principal, David, y su novia. Él la ha llevado a un motel con el fin de seducirla pero ella rápidamente se siente desilusionada y arma una bronca por lo feo de la habitación.
David le promete a la chica que no harán el amor hasta que se casen. Inmediatamente, se corta la escena y aparece el día de la boda de la novia de David, quien se casa con otro hombre.
Desde este momento en adelante, la historia toma un camino diferente.
David está comiendo helado en el parque cuando es acosado por un joven artista gay, Diego.
Los dos personajes se diferencian por su elección de los helados: solo un homosexual, de acuerdo con David, escogería el helado de fresa en un día en que el helado de chocolate está disponible.
El comunista y homofóbico David es muy diferente de Diego, quien está desencantado con el régimen de Castro.
Aunque David inicialmente pretende espiar a Diego, cuanto más tiempo pasan juntos, su amistad crece, lo que trae consecuencias inesperadas.
SPANISH LESSON
“…ella rápidamente se siente desilusionada y arma una bronca por lo feo de la habitación”. Sometimes people get mad, kick up a fuss, scold, reprimand… in many different ways. Well, this the meaning of ‘armar una bronca’. This girl was mad about the ugliness of the room… No wonder she married someone else!
The word bronca comes from the latin brŭncus (sharp) and trŭncus (trunk), the two words together give us an idea of something unpleasant and harsh, like the feeling and/or sound of a rebuke, a dispute and anger,
There are small local differences with this word: in Argentina and other places, the meaning is ‘a certain mood altered’, in Spain it is referred to the conflict, sometimes physical, derived from that mood.
Example (play on words): “Cuando dos personas se tienen una bronca argentina, arman una bronca española”. (“When two people have an Argentinian ‘bronca’, they make a Spanish ‘bronca’”.)