Strawberry and Chocolate (Fresa y chocolate) is a 1993 film from Cuba, directed by Tomas Gutierrez Alea and Juan Carlos Tabio.
Havana, 1979. David is a university student and would-be writer who, as the story opens, has just gotten dumped by his girlfriend Vivian. He is out in a park one day having ice cream when a talkative older man named Diego takes a seat at his table. Diego is gay, and it is quite clear that he would like to take to take David to bed, but David, who is straight, beats a hasty retreat.
David tells the story of the flamboyant gay man who made a pass at him to Miguel, who lives in the same dormitory as David. Miguel, who is extremely homophobic, thinks that Diego is a deviant and, worse, a possible counter-revolutionary spy. So at Miguel's urging, David goes back to Diego's apartment and pretends to be friendly, in order to discover any illicit activities that Diego might be up to. Naturally, they become friends for real.
Tropes:
- Armored Closet Gay: Hinted at with Miguel. Miguel calls Diego a "fag" and acts disgusted, but interestingly, he and David are both clad only in briefs for the scene where a hung-over David is barfing in the restroom. After David is done vomiting Miguel slaps him on the butt and says David has "a fat ass". Diego seems to pick up on this, calling Miguel "faggot" ("maricon") during a nasty confrontation.
- Bittersweet Ending: Diego's compulsion to piss off the authorities ends in him getting kicked out of Cuba (to where is not specified). But he and David have formed a lasting friendship.
- Brits Love Tea: Discussed Trope. Diego makes David some tea and says "At five, all of England sits for tea."
- Call-Back: At the end, David and Diego have ice cream in the park again. David switches their ice creams around and says how he prefers chocolate to strawberry—exactly what Diego did when they first met.
- Camp Gay: Diego is very campy, with a swishy walk and an apartment festooned with Andy Warhol Marilyn Monroe prints. Diego's art partner German is even more camp; when German turns to watch a male Head-Turning Beauty go by, Diego says "Don't be such a queen."
- Comforting Comforter: David has passed out drinking on Diego's couch. Diego takes a long look at David's bare chest, then puts a blanket over him.
- Drowning My Sorrows: David's final parting from Vivian leads to him drinking until he passes out in Diego's apartment.
- Gayngst: When David indulges in some casual homophobia with Diego—maybe he could go to the doctor to get cured of being gay, it must be his parent's fault—Diego snaps. He says that they're nothing wrong with him, he's a patriotic Cuban just like everybody else, and he's sick of getting treated like a second-class citizen.Diego: I'm a part of this country whether you like it or not!
- Implausible Deniability: Diego's high-strung neighbor Nancy has tried to kill herself several times. When she makes it back home from the hospital after slashing her wrists, she said she wasn't trying to kill herself, she just had an accident in the kitchen with a knife. When David notes that she slashed both of her wrists, she says "It was double-edged."
- The Last DJ: Diego. He and his partner German have a big exhibition of sculptures coming up, but the government, which has to approve everything in communist Cuba, nixes some of the more provocative sculptures. German is willing to compromise but Diego refuses, instead insisting on withdrawing all their sculptures, much to German's fury. Diego then ups the ante by writing angry letters to government authorities, which only gets him blacklisted from doing any work in the art world. Eventually he's kicked out of the country.
- Libation for the Dead: When serving David whiskey, Diego pours a little out and says "First, the orishas." He is offering a libation to the orishas
, spirits of the Afro-Caribbean Yoruba religion. - Lohengrin and Mendelssohn: When Vivian gets married to another man, the cars in the wedding procession are playing "Here Comes the Bride" on car horns.
- No-Tell Motel: In the opening scene David takes Vivian to one of these. It's a pretty ratty place—there's a hole in the wall, through which David can hear another couple having sex. Vivian is offended, and this seems to be the reason that she picks the rich guy to marry instead.
- The Noun and the Noun: Strawberry and Chocolate, two different flavors of ice cream.
- Percussive Maintenance: Diego sometimes has to bang on his ancient refrigerator (this is 1979 Cuba) to get it to work.
- Sex as Rite-of-Passage: David is a virgin. Diego specifically asks Nancy to sleep with David in order to deflower him. She's offended, but she goes ahead and takes David's virginity, because she actually likes him quite a lot.
- Shower Scene: Even when you live in 1979 Havana and don't have a shower! A naked Nancy, getting ready for a date with David, stands in a basin and pours water over her own head.
- Title Drop: Some Insane Troll Logic from David, who uses Diego's taste in ice cream as proof that he's a deviant.David: There was strawberry! He took chocolate!
