Poorly titled
lecudedag | NSW Australia | 10/04/2008
(3 out of 5 stars)
"I just want to start by speaking of this one's title. Now it was originally released as "Le Teta i la lluna". When released in English it is known as "The Tit and the Moon". The distributors of this Amazon copy obviously have a problem with the word "tit" and thus have opted for a half-Spanish, half-English 'compromise' title.
Anyway, onto the film. The chief character is a boy called Tete (played by Biel Durán). Obviously a Spanish pun on the word 'boob' (teta); he's obsessed with breasts and breast-milk. This obsession is manifest in a feeling of alienation towards his mother following the birth of a baby brother. He misses his mother and he envies his brother - and the attention he's getting as he's breast-fed. He also feels alientated towards his father.
Tete sees big boobs everywhere and dreams of the milk they contain. He meets a circus performer Estrellita (played by Mathilda May - anyone who's seen "Lifeforce" will know her perfect breasts). Tete fatasises about feeding from her breasts. There's a scene where he asks her for milk and she exposes her breast and squeezes it, shooting a stream of milk into his mouth.
To add further drama the movie is set in the lead-up to the Fiesta de La Virgen de la Salud (Festival of the Virgin of Good Health). This is set in the first week of September, when the town of Algemesí (in Valencia) stages one of the most fantastic folklore festivals, incorporating the Human Pyramid Festival. Tete is expected to climb to the top of this human pyramid but his nerve fails. He risks loosing the respect of his father.
Suddenly he fantasies about seeing Estrellita on a high balcony, exposing her breast as an incenentive to climb higher. He then appears on the balcony and she breast-feeds him. From behind them comes his mother and she embraces him and breast-feeds him too - he has at last been reconciled with his mother, and through his bravery, with his father"