Don't Tell Anyone

Starring:Santiago Magill, Christian Meier, LucÃa JimÃ©nez, Giovanni Ciccia, Vanessa Robbiano, Carlos Fuentes (II), Gianfranco Brero, Carlos Tuccio, Anibal Zamoa, Emilran CossÃo, Jorge Lopez Cano, Alonso AlegrÃa, Gerardo Ruiz, Johnny Mendoza, Javier EchevarrÃa (II), Michael Scally, Gilberto Torres, Gisella Vega, Coco Castillo, Rasec Barragan
Director: Francisco J. Lombardi
Studio: Picture This
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Description
DON'T TELL ANYONE (No Se Lo Digas A Nadie). A beautiful Peruvian student must confront his macho father, his overly religious mother, and his doting girlfriend, before discovering his true sexual nature. Based on the best-selling novel by popular talk show host Jaime Bayly. Featuring Latin TV stars Santiago Magill, Christian Meier, and Lucia Jimenez. Official Selection: Latin American Film Series at Lincoln Center as well as The Los Angeles & Chicago Latin American Film Festivals.

Description

DON'T TELL ANYONE (No Se Lo Digas A Nadie). A beautiful Peruvian student must confront his macho father, his overly religious mother, and his doting girlfriend, before discovering his true sexual nature. Based on the best-selling novel by popular talk show host Jaime Bayly. Featuring Latin TV stars Santiago Magill, Christian Meier, and Lucia Jimenez. Official Selection: Latin American Film Series at Lincoln Center as well as The Los Angeles & Chicago Latin American Film Festivals.

Customer Reviews:

"Imagine you're aiming at baby Jesus.".......2006-06-07

In the Peruvian film, "Don't Tell Anyone" Joaquin Camino (Santiago Magill) doesn't exactly fit his father's notions of masculinity, so his father drags the teenager off on a day trip designed to bring out his son's inner brute. It's a sad commentary that being a man is supposed to be about shooting, killing and brutalizing, but that's exactly what Joaquin's dad thinks. The trip is a disaster--Joaquin is paired off with a handyman's Indian son, and while they're supposed to be hunting, Joaquin's advances towards the other man are rebuffed in horror. But all this escapes the notice of Joaquin's father; they return to the city, and in his father's eyes at least, Joaquin's day somehow serves as a rite of passage into manhood.

Joaquin then goes to university where he meets fellow student Alejandra (Lucia Jimenez). While Joaquin's religious, protective mother is delighted to see her son involved with a girl from a good family, the relationship is fraught with problems. He meets Gonzalo (Christian Meier), the fiance of Alejandra's best friend, and they begin a secret relationship. Gonzalo argues that he loves his fiancee and intends to get married, and he seems to find it perfectly normal to live this double life with Joaquin on the side.

Joaquin tries to come to terms with Peruvian society's attitude towards homosexuality. His male friends accept these secret relationships between males that are coupled with marriage to acceptable, desirable woman and also contrasted to violent, public homophobia. Joaquin, unable to juggle all these opposing moralities, finally leaves Peru and dives into Miami's seamy side.

The film addresses many of the hypocrisies associated with Peruvian society's attitude towards homosexuality, and also ties in this attitude with prevalent racist attitudes towards the Indian population. However, Joaquin is not a particularly sympathetic character, and ultimately the film's conclusion seems ambiguous. From director Francisco J. Lombardi, the film "Don't Tell Anyone" is in Spanish with English subtitles--displacedhuman

Coming Out Is So Very Hard To Do.......2005-12-20

'No Se Lo Digas A Nadie' ('Don't Tell Anyone') is probably a good PR line for this little film trying to be something grand. In excess of two hours director Francisco J. Lombardi makes an attempt to bring to life the autobiography of gay Peruvian talk show host Jaime Bayly and to explore the angst of teenagers and college students finding their way into the adult world. What results is a soap opera treatment that wades around in a lot of self-pity and wrong choices.

Joaquin Camino (Santiago Magill) struggles as a child with his terrible secret of attraction to boys in a home atmosphere of a macho homophobic father and a religious zealot mother. He tries girls, even a graduation gift prostitute compliments of his father, but he is unable to 'be a man' and after high school runs away from home. In college he mixes with the marijuana and cocaine crowd, unsuccessfully attempts physical affection for his girlfriend Alejandra (Lucía Jiménez) but eventually falls in love with a closet case to end all closet cases Gonzalo (Christian Meier) who runs when Joaquin makes it clear he is available for a relationship. This is the manner of the tale which eventually resolves in demonstrating how many young people hide their true identities behind alcohol and drugs and the fast life: the story as expected has no real ending because of the lack of ultimate character definition.

The cast is fairly strong, especially Santiago Magill, and they try to make the best of a thin script. Production values fit the mood of the film and there are some fine little moments that justify watching it. In the long run the movie seems to be afraid to offend anyone and that fear keeps it from being bold enough to make a clear statement about human sexuality. Perhaps this is because the film it is from a Latin American culture (Peru), but basically it is a lost opportunity. Grady Harp, December 05

Impresionantes actuaciones.......2004-06-26

Aunque casi llegando a la pornografía, las actuaciones de Santiago Magill y Christian Meier son magnificas y bastante creibles.
La adaptacion propiamente de la novela de Jaime Bayly es un poco exagerada, pero creo que conserva la esencia de la narración.
Esta película muestra como la intolerencia y la ignorancia puede influir en una vida desordenada de homosexualidad, drogas y perversion.
Al final no deja ninguna leccion clara, pero en resumen es una pelicula muy entretenida.

strangly enough, in a sense a bit homophobic.......2004-05-23

I'm not going to write a complete review of this DVD, the previous reviews already give a lot of information. Joaquin, the main character of this movie, is bisexual but with a preference for men. Then why is it that his first heterosexual encounter with a woman is shown quite explicitely, and his first homosexual encounter with a man is hardly shown at all? And this happens more often in this movie. Don't get me wrong, I'm not asking for a gay porn movie. However when the main character of a movie is predominantly gay, then it is a bit silly if his gay encounters are hardly shown at all, and his heterosexual encounters are shown lengthy and explicitely. The love scenes are important for the movie, but then homosexual encounters and heterosexual encounters should have been shown with equal explicity. The movie now feels rather unbalanced in this respect, and makes it much more difficult to understand the feelings of Joaquin.

Cheerless film rails against bigotry and oppression.......2004-05-22

DON'T TELL ANYONE [No se lo Digas a Nadie] (Peru/Spain 1998): An unhappy young Peruvian man (Santiago Magill) clashes with his affluent, god-fearing parents as he struggles to come to terms with his attraction to other men in a country steeped in hypocrisy and prejudice.

An understanding of the macho culture which underpins Peruvian society is a prerequisite for viewers of Francisco J. Lombardi's DON'T TELL ANYONE, an apparently sanitized version of the bestselling book by chat show host Jaime Bayly. Hot young TV star Santiago Magill (The Most Beautiful Man In The World - official!) plays the central character as a deeply confused individual who wants to conform but is unable to deny his true sexuality, despite the attentions of a sympathetic girlfriend (Lucia Jimenez) who believes she can make him 'normal' again. Inevitably, Magill goes off the rails and forfeits his education before descending into coke-fuelled abandon and fleeing to Miami. Unable to escape his past, he's forced to compromise the very essence of his humanity...

Lombardi's cheerless film shakes an angry fist at the influence of religious doctrine in Peru (revealed here as a sham) and the racism suffered by the country's native Indian population, an anger shared by the movie's principal character, who rails against the very same bigotry and oppression which stifles his freedom at every turn. His slide into rebellion makes for uncomfortable viewing (Magill gives a powerhouse performance as the delicate, pretty-boy waif who gravitates toward anarchy and emerges a strong - though embittered - survivor), but it's also faintly predictable, given the terrible circumstances under which he is forced to exist. Magill is pleasingly nude in a number of scenes, though gay viewers may be alarmed by the emphasis placed on his relationship with Jimenez, who thinks he's merely suffering a 'trauma' and can be cured by having sex with a woman (it's no surprise to learn that director Lombardi is straight), while his relationships with men are depicted as fragile and fleeting, primarily because his male partners are under the same societal pressures as himself. Unable to indulge his true sexuality, Magill's character seems doomed to a life of unhappiness and deceit, an approach which distinguishes the film from its feel-good American counterparts. Technical credits are polished, and the cast is exemplary, but it's hard to enjoy this bleak little movie, and even harder to dismiss it.

The DVD from Picture This! is fair enough, though this is yet another gay movie whose theatrical Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack has been downmixed to 2.0 surround for its US disc release. Picture quality may suffer on larger monitors and colors are a little heavy (which may have been part of the film's original color scheme), but it's generally OK. A trailer for this film is included, along with previews for other gay-themed movies from Picture This! The 114 minute running time quoted on the packaging is a mistake.

108m 28s
1.85:1 / Letterboxed
DVD soundtrack: Stereo surround 2.0
Theatrical soundtrack: Dolby Digital
Spanish with optional English subtitles
All regions

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