In ‘My Heart goes Boom!’ Music and dance are everything. With inventive sets and imaginative choreography, Uruguayan debut director Nacho Álvarez creates a series of interspersed dance explosions in the film, to the music of the ultra-famous Italian icon Raffaella Carrà. Filmed just a year before Carrà’s death in Rome at the age of 78, in July 2021, it is fitting that Álvarez was able to persuade her to take a cameo role in this movie, given that it celebrates her style and music so much. There is an echo there of Raffaella’s own life. Dance was also her passion before she went into acting and TV presenting, so it is wonderful that she returned to it, after some years dedicated to acting, with her dancing and singing, creating a style of TV pop that was all her own. In a career that spanned from 1970 to 2020, Carrà was seldom out of public eye. Her massive back list of hits includes: ‘Ma Che Musica Maestro’, her first hit single, to her last, Ogni Vilta che è Natale, released as recently as 2018.
Raffaella Carrà
This love story, set during the last years of General Franco’s Fascist dictatorial regime, starts with a bang as María (the charismatic Ingrid García-Jonsson), still in her wedding dress, flees from Rome back to Spain, abandoning her distraught groom Massimo (Giuseppe Maggio) at the altar. The problem is that what María want most in her life, is to dance. She literally bumps into handsome young Pablo upon arrival at the airport, which unexpectedly leads her to the studios of Television Española in Madrid.
Ingrid García-Jonsson and Giuseppe Maggio
There, to Raffaella Carrà’s greatest hits, in the troupe of Rosa and her Rosettes, María searches for fame as a dancer, Caught between the love that is blossoming between her and Pablo, who works at the TV studios with his father ( the deadly censor), the rebellious María and magically funny best friend Amparo (Verónica Echegui) search for love in the cracks.
Ingrid García-Jonsson and Verónica Echegui
When her free (and sexy) dancing style is brutally censored and left on the cutting room floor by those who would use Fascism and Catholicism to‘ protect the audience’s morality for King and Country’ by cutting out the appalling sight of too much leg, or, God forbid, some cleavage, María challenges the status quo causing havoc in the studio, the country and to her love life.
My Heart goes Boom!
Together with hairy legs and men( and girls) in tight outfits, this feel- good movie whizzes along at a phenomenal speed, with a humour and spontaneous charm that effortlessly carries you along. Even the Romeo and Juliet element is not ignored, with the presence of a balcony scene, even if with a rather different take!
It is hard to resist tapping your feet, whether Raffaella Carrà ‘s music is your thing or not. There is a tongue -in-cheek element that lifts this production from being kitsch. It was a ‘kitsch’ period on TV. Here in the UK, we had Pans’ People dancing to every track and every teenager made sure they copied every move to the last detail.
My Heart goes Boom! is more reminiscent of Saturday Night Fever or Xanadu than Mama Mía in its style, and it has sprung out this new craze for music in movies, that has finally picked up on what has been a fairly empty niche in the market for many years.
Ingrid García-Jonsson and Fernando Guallar
Reminiscent of other hard times in history (and now, with Covid), audiences seem to be once again leaning towards the fun and games of the Golden Age of Musicals, when stars like Ginger Rogers, Fred Astaire, Busby Berkeley or Gene Kelly held their audiences in awe. Now, we are entertained by a huge variety, from the exotic vision of Pablo Larraín in ‘Ema’, or the mischievous fun of María in ‘My Heart goes Boom!’ Now, with the advent of CGI and other special effects, the musical sequences can really fly, in this case up into the clouds, as María in her wedding dress, is cheered up by her fellow travellers as she flees from Rome to Madrid.
There is something in this movie for everyone, on screen and off. Amparo’s zest for life and desire for love is finally satisfied, even the stuffy, censorious Don Celedonio gets a peck on his cheek, will Pablo finally find his courage for love?
This delightful movie is being screened at the 2021 Raindance Film Festival
My Heart goes Boom!
November 5th 2021 9:15PM Curzon Hoxton
Director: Nacho Álvarez
Writers: David Esteban Cubero, Eduardo Navarro, Nacho Álvarez
Producers: Mariela Besuievsky, Carlotta Calori
Editor: Irene Blecua
Music: Roque Baños
Cast: Ingrid García-Jonsson/ Verónica Echegui/ Fernando Guallar/ Pedro Casablanc/ Fernando Tejero/Natalia Millán
