‘Ramona’: Passion or Reason

Among the many inspirations that exist from American cinema in international productions, one of the least discussed is mumblecore. Independent productions, small budgets, naturalistic performances and dialogues, but also situations in which personal relationships prevail. With directors like Noah Baumbach, Lynn Shelton or Greta Gerwig as prime examples, It is not strange to see his influence in ‘Ramona’, Andrea Bagney’s debut work.

‘Ramona’ raises an interesting question about romantic relationships: Is it better to let yourself be carried away by the adventure or anchor yourself to routine and daily life, with the security it gives? This is the dilemma facing the protagonist of the film, a fabulous Lourdes Hernández, known above all as the Red of Russia, the singer knows how to blend in the existential doubts of a young woman who is approaching thirty and who sees that her life is not going as she expected.

This is where Bagney’s film shines: in its protagonist, in how his return to his native Madrid has several readings; how he had to fly back from London because his plans for him didn’t materialize when he dropped out of his translation degree at university; how she survives in the capital by babysitting while running errands, how she tries to get over the recent death of her parents, and how she had to shatter her dream of traveling to Australia and South America. A personal odyssey in which her relationship with her boyfriend, Nico, played by Francesco Carril, is the beacon.

This relationship is the only stable point of a woman who sees the future with great uncertainty. She becomes her only family, Ramona struggles to survive as she seeks her opportunity as an actress. Here’s where Bagney puts the emphasis, how, in that moment of existential doubts, the young woman meets a bohemian man to whom she feels attracted and with whom she spends a fascinating and dreamy morning and who, in the end, turns out to be the director of the film for which she will tests days later.

A delightful cinematic debut with a mumblecore spirit à la Madrid

Bagney thus creates a story in which the young woman hesitates between letting herself be carried away by the adventure or the fragile protection she has built for herself. Added to this is the fact that the director creates an ambivalent scenario, since the young woman lives with her boyfriend in an apartment in the heart of Lavapiés, a central locality with signs of gentrification, but also with a series of conflicts that are reflected in the film, which allows you to deepen that personal ambivalence that the protagonist feels. There, Bagney transforms Madrid into the other protagonist, beautifully seen in the black and white with which the feature film is shot.

A black and white that breaks when the tape enters the filming of the film project that unites Ramona to Bruno and where he’s used to looking at that conflict from a perspective that works like a game of mirrors and which leaves that feeling that, in certain moments of life, it is necessary to be pragmatic rather than dreamer and that this choice shouldn’t be a bad thing, because there is nothing that gives more peace of mind than what is foreseeable. A mature message, in tune with the existential doubts of today’s thirty-somethings.

Coupled with that beautiful black and white, some stunning performances (Lourdes Hernández is a worthy successor to Itsaso Arana) and an atmosphere that transforms Madrid into New York or Berlin, Andrea Bagney’s feature debut shows the style of a filmmaker with an indie soul that could be measured with the French style of Jonás Trueba. A delightful debut with a formidable protagonist, who manages to portray the uncertainties of the millennial generation without the ambition of wanting to champion something, being an honest story with itself. With nods to “Annie Hall,” it’s a project that’s already beckoning you to want to see more of its first-time director.

Note: 7

The best: It’s fascinating black and white and that message in favor of everyday life and routine over adventure.

Worse: It’s hard to start.