"NO" directed by Pablo Larraín, with Gael Garcia Bernal.

"NO" is said to be film director Pablo Larraín's final film of an Augusto Pinochet trilogy that began with "Tony Manero," the second being "Post Mortem," films I reviewed in Screen Shots last month. It is based on real events.  "No" features Gael García Bernal and Alfredo Castro.

Gael Garcia Bernal as René  Saavedra at work in the ad agency.

Bernal plays René Saavedra, an in-demand advertising accounts executive in the creative department of an agency run by Lucho Guzmán (Larraín regular, Alfredo Castro).  In Chilé in 1988, the government was so certain that after 15 years of Pinochet's military dictatorship, he would easily get another eight years in office.  The government decided on a plebiscite, a simple Yes or No vote by its citizens.  If Yes, another 8 for Pinochet; if  No, a free and open democratic election sans Pinochet.  The committee for the No campaign, knowing of Saavedra's work, had no doubts that he could pull off a successful ad campaign that would ensure a No majority.

I had been watching reruns of the Cable series, "Mad Men", so seeing Saavedra and his group working up copy and TV spots for the campaign was interesting and intriguing.  Smartly, he avoided focusing on how Pinochet's murderous dirty work affected the majority of Chileans.  Instead, he created up-beat, fun ads for the No campaign that gave people optimism and hope.  Guzmán was not happy (for once, Castro was not playing an pathological, obsessive killer ("Tony Manero"); a loser with a dead-end job ("Post Mortem"); or a licentious, homosexual patient in an asylum for the mentally ill ("Fugue"), but a believable ad executive a la the Roger Sterling character in "Mad Men".

Guzmán feared losing his rich corporate clients if they found out that his firm was involved in the No campaign.  Authorities' attempts to intimidate Saavedra and sabotage his work,  failed.  The unorthodox marketing theme is thought by some No members to be a simple-minded dismissal of the regime's horrific abuses.  Nevertheless, the campaign approves Saavedra's proposal.  Lucho offers Saavedra a partnership if he drops the campaign.  He refuses.  Lucho then signs on to the Yes campaign not only to save face with his clients, but for survival
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The  "No" ads are followed up by international Hollywood celebrity spots and wildly popular street concert rallies.  The police attacks are futile.  Ironically, the "Yes" side is desperate to the point of parodying the "No" ads.


Again, as in his previous films, there were criticisms about "production values."  In "No," Larraín used low definition, magnetic tape, widely used in the '80s by Chilean television news, prompting some entertainment rags to argue that this most likely lessened the film's chances not only commercially, but also for getting an Oscar. ("NO" was nominated for Best Foreign Film.)  An article in the Village Voice stated that  the film allows Larraín's new material to mesh seamlessly with the 1988 archival film clips of actual police crackdowns and pro-democracy assemblies that Larraín included.  The article went on to state that this decision was  an "accomplishment in cinematic verisimilitude."

Genaro Arriagada, head of the real No campaign, accused Larraín of simplifying history, focusing exclusively on the advertising campaign and ignoring the grassroots voter registration effort that played a huge part in getting out the No vote.   The director defended his film saying that he created art not a documentary.  He went on to say that "a movie is not a testament. It’s just the way we looked at it."  Further, a Chilean political science professor questioned whether the moment that political activism turned into marketing should br celebrated, instead of a discussion of principles.  However, were it a documentary, would it have gotten the play it did?