Blame it on Fidel! with Nina Kervel: DVD Cover

    Blame it on Fidel!
    a.k.a. La Faute A Fidel, Tutta colpa di Fidel Director: Julie Gavras Cast: Nina Kervel, Julie Depardieu, Stefano Accorsi, Martine Chevallier

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    • DVD Release Date: 11/06/2007
    • Original Release: 2006
    • Sales Rank: 38,300

    Viewer Rating: (2 ratings)

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    • Overview
    • Editorial Reviews
    • Scenes
    • Customer Reviews
    • Cast & Crew
    • Full Product Details

    Scenes

    Features

    Making of featurette; Behind-the-scenes segments; Deleted scenes presented by the director; Original theatrical trailer

    Full Product Details

    Scene Index

    Disc #1 -- Blame It on Fidel
    1. Fruit [7:58]
    2. Communista [2:12]
    3. Changes [3:18]
    4. Mickey Mouse, the Fascist [6:24]
    5. Concessions [:16]
    6. Hypocrisy [3:19]
    7. Mai Lahn [6:40]
    8. Sheep [8:22]
    9. Communism 101 [1:37]
    10. May, 1968 [5:11]
    11. Sex-Ed [4:43]
    12. 51% [:05]
    13. Runaway [6:17]
    14. Family History [3:42]
    15. Coup [1:42]
    16. Credits [5:03]

    Scene Index

    Editorial Reviews

    When her wealthy parents are suddenly motivated to take an overtly political stance as massive political and economical change sweeps through France, the daughter of a wealthy Spanish lawyer and a successful French journalist attempts to make sense of her once-stable world as everything she thought she ever knew is turned upside down.

    Anna (Nina Kervel) is a nine-year-old Catholic schoolgirl who excels in catechism class and knows how to hold a knife and fork while cutting her fruit. Her father, Fernando (Stefano Accorsi), comes from a prominent Spanish family and her mother, Marie (Julie Depardieu), is a well-known writer for a popular French women's magazine. Also sharing the family's sprawling home is Anna's younger brother, François (Benjamin Feuillet). When the increasing militancy of Fernando's communist sister begins to pose a threat to the family, the concerned brother stealthily travels to Spain and successfully smuggles his sister back into France. Fully indoctrinated in the belief that all communists are bad, Anna struggles to understand why, after returning from a trip to Latin America, her parents seem to have developed a strong social conscience. Meanwhile, as the thunderous footsteps of eager revolutionaries begin to echo through the hallways and mom begins to prepare a book protesting the illegality of abortion, Anna does her best to adapt to the strange new environment. The fiction feature debut of filmmaker Julie Gavras (daughter of celebrated filmmaker Costa), Blame It on Fidel! playfully covers the year in which the death of Charles De Gaulle, the election of Salvador Allende, and a landmark petition signed by 300 French women admitting to undergoing illegal abortions altered the way many Europeans viewed the world. Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

    Customer Reviews

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    • Ratings: 2Reviews: 1

    Political Upheavals from a Child's Vantageby Anonymous

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    November 07, 2007: BLAME IT ON FIDEL! "'La Faute àFidel!" is an enlightening film from France's fine director Julie Gavras, a story based on the novel 'Tutta colpa di Fidel' by Domitilla Calamai that addresses the effect of major political, philosophical, and activist effects on children. What makes this fine film unique is the child's stance on the adult politics: what may seem like exciting challenges for change of an existing corrupt system for the adults may indeed be an unwanted rearrangement of the wants and needs of children whose political acumen is less advanced than the need for order and consistency in everyday life. The story takes place in Paris in 1970 - 1971. 9-year-old Anna de la Mesa "Nina Kervel-Bey" is a bright child who loves the divinity aspects of her Catholic school and enjoys the wealthy bourgeois elegance that surrounds her. She and her little brother François "Benjamin Feuillet" are informed that their aunt, an anti-Franco activist from Spain, will be moving in with Anna and her parents Fernando "Stefano Accorsi" and Marie "Julie Depardieu". This critical move incites a change in philosophy for Anna's parents and soon they become enchanted with the rise of Allende in Chile and embrace the Socialist mindset and the promised feminist movement changes, moving from their elegant house into a small apartment and demanding that Anna give up her divinity studies 'because the are against Communist thought'. As liaison in France for Chilean activists, Fernando holds strange and frequent meetings, disturbing further the life Anna loves. While little François is able to go along with the life changes, Anna rebels and refuses to alter her goals and needs merely for the 'fad' of her father's frequent trips to Chile while leaving behind her mother to continue writing articles for the "'bourgeois'" French magazine Marie-Claire! As the political upheavals increase Anna is more pugnacious in demanding her rights and the finest moments of the story demonstrate how a child can respond to political change and still find her 'place' in the world that she chooses! The pacing of the film is fast and captures the exhilaration of the foment 'round the world in the early 1970s. The cast is excellent, especially the children who have not had prior exposure to acting. The message is a potent one that deserves our attention both as informative of a political era and as a piece of veritas cinema from a fine director and crew. In French and Spanish with English subtitles. Highly recommended. Grady Harp