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The Life of Juanita Castro

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The Life of Juanita Castro
Movie poster
Directed byAndy Warhol
Written byRonald Tavel
StarringMarie Menken
Ultra Violet
Mercedes Ospina
Ronald Tavel
Distributed byAndy Warhol Films
Release date
  • 1965 (1965)
Running time
66 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

The Life of Juanita Castro is a 1965 American underground film directed by Andy Warhol, filmed in March 1965 based on the absurdist theater play by Ronald Tavel by the same name.

Plot

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A playwright (Ronald Tavel) taunts a number of actresses into improvising a play on Fidel Castro and his family, at a time when the revolution was bringing back disquieting stories of executions and imprisonments and, particularly, virulent hatred and torture of homosexuals in Cuba.

Several of the play's male characters (Fidel Castro, Raúl Castro, and Che Guevara) are played by women. The actresses face a camera they believe is filming them, while in fact they are being filmed by another camera placed off to one side. At times they are directed by Tavel to perform pointless acts in unison.

Reception

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According to New York Times drama reviewer Tom Vick, the film "rewrites history as a high-camp farce," poking fun at machismo and totalitarianism.[1]

Cast

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ Vick, Tom (2016). "Life of Juanita Castro (1965)". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. Archived from the original on 6 March 2016. Retrieved 29 October 2014.
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