Original subtitles

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

(INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC PLAYING)

DURING THE INVESTIGATION FOR THIS SERIES, RICARDO FORT'S INTIMATE DIARY WAS FOUND.

NOBODY KNEW ABOUT ITS EXISTENCE.

FEDERICO: Can you read it out loud?

"I will start by saying that I was born on November 5, 1968,

"in Buenos Aires, Argentina,

"in one of the best kinds of family I could have chosen."

"Or perhaps the worst, a wealthy family.

"My father was a successful, conservative businessman

"who only dedicated himself to working in his factory."

"My mother was a very beautiful woman, with a strong personality

"and an overwhelming energy that she displayed at all times."

"This is how my story begins."

COMMANDER FORT

PROFESSOR: Think that the number of stimuli

that a person has today is infinite.

FELIPE FORT R. F. SON

PROFESSOR: We have to be

the number one stimulus, the one they choose.

FELIPE: I know my dad more from what others tell me

than from my own memories with him.

(UPBEAT TECHNO MUSIC PLAYING)

FELIPE: What I do remember is that he called my sister and me

beautiful and handsome.

My old man played mom and dad at the same time.

I love you.

FELIPE: When they ask us about our mother, I always laugh,

because we never lacked anything.

It is a question that we never ask ourselves.

You can't miss something you never had.

(PROFESSOR SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY)

Then obviously you have to see exactly, you have to script...

FELIPE: I wish Dad was here to tell him my ideas.

There is a story behind each user...

FELIPE: He could tell me what he thought...

or how I could improve them.

PROFESSOR: Why would people want to play this?

-(SOFT PENSIVE MUSIC PLAYING) -So, this is my ride.

-(CHUCKLES) -So nice. (CHUCKLES)

-Okay. -See you.

Bye. (KISSES)

-Bye. -See you.

MARTA: My dad used to tell me that when he was a kid, he felt repressed.

MARTA FORT R. F. DAUGHTER

MARTA: Once he told me that my grandfather Carlos

never said he loved him.

He said that he had never hugged him.

It seems to me that this is how parenting used to be.

But, for him, it was painful because he was a very sensitive person.

MALE CAMERAMAN: Look at the camera.

-(CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS) -MALE CAMERAMAN: Nice.

RICARDO: My father was a very cold guy.

He never had a typical father-son relationship with me.

-(INDISTINCT CHATTER) -(CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS)

MALE CAMERAMAN: Marta, look at me.

RICARDO: He left at eight in the morning, he took us to school

and then he didn't come back from work until ten at night.

Hearing the sound of his keys unlocking the door made me shiver.

MARTA: Maybe that's why he was so involved with us.

He was always grabbing, kissing, and hugging us.

My father and his brothers were raised with the customs of their time.

And my uncles conformed to that type of family.

But my father did not. He always felt different.

-(DOOR CLOSES) -(KEYS JINGLING)

(DOG WHIMPERING)

MARTA: Chula was my dad's favorite dog.

I think she remembers him. They say that dogs never forget anyone.

I love you, Chuli. I love you.

(UPBEAT TECHNO MUSIC PLAYING)

FELIPE: Dad went through several prestigious private schools,

but he was kicked out of all of them.

He ended up going to a public school.

His friends say that he never hid the fact

that he had more money than everyone else.

He went to school with jackets bought in the United States.

He wore expensive watches. He always wanted to attract attention.

He was already extravagant when he was a child.

Everyone told him not to wear those things because they could be stolen.

He told them that he didn't care because he could buy it again.

(SOFT PENSIVE MUSIC PLAYING)

MARTA: Lately, I think about my dad all the time.

I think of his childhood, his adolescence.

Of how he fought for his freedom against the current in everything.

When I think about him, I try to understand

what it was like to feel different at that time.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

-(RICARDO KISSES) -MARTA: My dad was a Scorpio,

energetic and flamboyant on the outside, though on the inside, he was insecure.

All the time, he was looking for affection and to be cared for.

(GRUNTS, SIGHS)

MARTA: He lived surrounded by people, I guess to feel loved.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

No!

(EXCLAIMS, SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY)

MARTA: At least 50 people visited my house every day.

-(INDISTINCT CHATTER) -(WOMAN LAUGHING)

MARTA: It was odd to have so many strangers in your own home.

Kids are not fools. They see things.

I saw things I would not have chosen to experience at that age.

My brother and I didn't like it, and we told him so.

(UPBEAT TECHNO MUSIC PLAYING)

FELIPE: Dad's schoolmates also say that he invited them to his house

for a snack.

And they all accepted because it was like going to Disney World.

But it was kind of a trap because he would lock them in his room

so they could listen to him sing a new song that he had learned.

At school, he was not interested in what the other boys did.

So, to make friends, he brought a box of chocolates every day

to distribute amongst all his classmates.

(PENSIVE MUSIC PLAYING)

RICARDO: I always wanted to be a father and to give my children the love

that my father did not give me.

They called me one day, I was here on... It was a Sunday, I was in Buenos Aires,

when the woman's water broke in Los Angeles.

So, I had to fly directly that same day.

And the next day, she had a cesarean section.

I was there for the labor, I held them. I cut their umbilical cord,

and then they spent three weeks in an incubator.

There are some nurses who teach you to change them, how to feed them,

how to bathe them.

And in the last two days that you are in the hospital,

when the children are already taken out of the incubator,

they put you in a room with the infants, all night,

so that you can guide yourself and handle yourself alone with the kids.

And that was the ultimate test. I had to know that I could do it.

It is one thing to be in a clinic where you know that you pick up the phone

and they help you.

Being alone with my children, feeding them,

changing them, feeding them every two hours. You don't sleep.

There were two kids.

One cries, the other is silent. And when the other is silent,

the other cries. I think I did it unconsciously.

I handled it well until at one point I called my mother in Buenos Aires

and told her, "Mom, I can't take it anymore. I can't."

And one day, I decided to make them sleep in the other room with a baby monitor.

When I heard a "bup," I heard a little noise,

I was almost asleep.

When I go to the other room, I see my daughter, Marta, who had vomited

and was purple. She was choking. She was dying, she wasn't breathing.

To revive her, I turned her around, I started hitting her on the back.

I turned her around, I gave her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

When I saw that she was breathing, I called 911.

My daughter almost died in my arms.

MARTA: For my family, the most important thing

was always work and the factory.

And my father didn't want anything to do with the factory.

I think that for me it is also the last option.

I don't know, I would like to do something else.

EDUARDO: This factory was our second home.

EDUARDO FORT R. F. BROTHER

EDUARDO: My earliest memories are of myself and my brothers

making Easter eggs in metal molds.

(WHIMSICAL MUSIC PLAYING)

EDUARDO: The old metal molds, as they were made before.

We had a lot of fun...

and we got into a lot of trouble.

RICARDO: When I was a boy, I went to the factory

and I walked through the chocolate section and the wrapping section.

I was playing. For me, it was a game to be in the factory

with the smell of chocolate.

I always said there was a huge pool full of chocolate and toys

that I'd swim in.

EDUARDO: The big conflict between Ricardo and my father

was that Ricardo didn't like to work

and that drove my dad crazy.

When Ricky was 14 years old,

the catchphrase that he had when you asked him how he was...

would be, "Here I am, waiting."

"Waiting for what?" I'd ask. "To inherit everything," he'd answer.

He didn't want to work, he wanted to earn money fast.

As a boy, Dad taught us that money is earned.

One way we could earn it was we shined his shoes

and he paid us for each shoe we shined for him.

Ricky wanted the money without having to shine his shoes.

He never wanted to work.

RICARDO: My father was a very uptight person.

If I wanted to have things, I had to earn them by working,

working in the factory, of course.

The only way he thought we could make a living

was by working in the factory.

He didn't believe in me as an artist. Not as a businessman or producer,

or a singer, or anything like that. That's why when he passed away...

for me, it was a rebirth of the person I always wanted to be, the artist.

EDUARDO: At one point, Ricky stopped coming to the factory.

He preferred to accompany my mother

to see fashion shows, accompany her to the hairdresser.

He was a good friend of my mother. He stayed with her.

Sometimes he liked to dress up as Rafaela Carrá and they sang together.

They put on quite a show. Very funny.

(CAMERAMAN LAUGHING)

EDUARDO: Ricardo wanted money, but Dad didn't give him the money.

That's why Ricardo told my father that he had begun dating other men,

in order to irritate him.

My father didn't approve, but he never rejected Ricardo entirely.

RICARDO: No, when my father found out... The first time he found out about this,

I was talking to my mom and I told her that I was fine,

that I was with a boy.

I had been seeing a psychologist since I was 16. But I hadn't told him.

So, my old man... I was arguing with my mom

and he asked me what was going on. I tell him,

"Look, I'm dating a man, I like him, I'm fine, I'm happy,

"I'm not asking you to understand, but to respect me."

He tells me, "I don't understand, it disgusts me, but I respect you."

He even told me that he'd prefer to have a drug-addicted son

than a gay son. He told me that.

And I gave him both.

VOICE OF EDUARDO FORT R. F. BROTHER

EDUARDO: An older married couple used to live on the floor below us.

Ricardo spent a lot of time down there. Sometimes this couple babysat us.

But Ricardo spent more time with them than us.

That man, I think he molested Ricardo.

When we found out, my father almost killed him.

Ricardo was a boy. He was five years old.

The old man was a son of a bitch.

(UPLIFTING PIANO MUSIC PLAYING)

MAURICIO MAYER VOCAL TRAINER

(MAURICIO VOCALIZING)

(BOTH VOCALIZING)

(VOCALIZING)

MARTA: My dad named me after my grandmother, obviously.

He was very close to his mother.

He had a powerful love for her.

Once my grandmother said that Dad was the daughter she never had.

MARTA FORT R. F. MOTHER

MARTA: They loved to sing together.

(VOCALIZING)

(AUDIENCE CHEERING, APPLAUDING)

Mrs. Marta Fort, my mother.

I am a happy mother. He has grown up with me.

-She's already starting to tell stories. -A little one.

The teacher from the Colón came to my house to teach me

how to vocalize because I have a lyrical voice.

My children grew up surrounded by music.

That is why I have a great artistic, musical genius,

and I am amazed at this son I have.

-Thanks, thanks. -(AUDIENCE CHEERING, APPLAUDING)

-Ms. Marta Fort. My mom. -Thanks.

Thank you. Thanks.

(UPLIFTING PIANO MUSIC CONTINUES)

RICARDO: There was a very large mirror in my house

and I would grab a brush or a deodorant

-pretending it was a microphone... -FEMALE INTERVIEWER: A microphone?

RICARDO: ...and do a show in front of the mirror.

I closed the door to the hallway

and I began to sing, putting on a tremendous show.

-(FEMALE INTERVIEWER LAUGHING) -RICARDO: And I did it every day,

it was my way of practicing. Since I was little I did it.

My mother and I were very close, always.

Then at one point in my life, my mother kind of distanced herself.

She separated herself so I wouldn't become dependent.

She would sometimes take my dad's side

-so I wouldn't be spoiled. -(FEMALE INTERVIEWER LAUGHING)

RICARDO: At that moment, I was, like, headless,

without affection from anywhere. Because I didn't get along with my father

and with her, I was supported all the time.

It's like... That was very hard for me.

(DOOR CLOSING)

FELIPE: My dad believed that if he repeated things out loud,

they would come true.

He did many things at once. I never even knew when he slept.

He had a ton of ideas all the time.

I don't know if he was a good father but he was mine and I miss him.

I thought a lot about how to pay tribute to him,

about what passions unite us.

My dad was very interested in cars and so am I, in that we are alike.

(CAR ENGINE REVVING)

RICARDO: My father was a fan of the Rolls Royce,

but, of course, he never bought one

because he said that he could not go to the factory with a Rolls Royce.

I remember when I was a boy, I would draw...

I would go to school and draw the grill of a Rolls Royce.

And, today, I have three of them.

I inherited one and I bought the rest later.

Life flows in such a way to point you in the right direction.

I think I'm a very good father. Maybe I'm not

as perfect as I should be,

in the sense of always taking care of my kids.

I'm not the kind of dad who takes his kids to school, picks them up,

and helps them with their homework. I do not do that.

My parents didn't do it with me either.

My children are raised with so much love.

I see my children are so happy. I see them so healthy.

I tell them that they have a lot of money and that they are millionaires

and that they will always have a lot of money.

That is what I tell them so that they always have it in their minds.

MARTA: When I was a girl, I was very exposed.

It is not normal to grow up with a camera that films you all day.

(SOFT PENSIVE MUSIC PLAYING)

MARTA: That made me be too aware of what others said about me.

RICARDO: I am the same. I am a child in this body

that I created myself going to the gym,

perhaps as a way to form a wall around me so that people cannot hurt me,

but inside, there is a little boy saying, "Accept me, love me."

MARTA: When I got older, I realized that I was famous and I didn't know it.

They talked about me on TV and in magazines.

People believe that because you were born

in a family with money, things don't affect you.

(ANDREA SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY)

ANDREA SERVERA CHOREOGRAPHER

MARTA: They criticized me for being fat, then they criticized me for being skinny.

At one point I said, "I'm going to have the body I want...

"and if you don't like it, don't look."

(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING)

MARTA: I'm preparing a tribute to my dad. He wanted to be an artist,

and I think I do too. I am realizing that it is not easy.

Before, I was lying in bed all day.

But now, I'm happy to be able to improve myself.

-(UP-TEMPO TECHNO MUSIC PLAYING) -(ANDREA SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY)

(PANTS)

MARTA: I learned from my dad that you have to overcome difficulty.

There are no excuses.

(SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY)

MARTA: Even if I have to take a thousand classes,

I will do my best to achieve what I want.

(ANDREA SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY)

MARTA: Doing this is a way of telling my dad

the things I never got to talk to him about.

FELIPE: People generally don't like millionaires.

(CAR ENGINE REVVING)

FELIPE: But they loved Dad.

-(CAR ENGINE REVS) -(TIRES SCREECH)

(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING)

FELIPE: I think it was because he fulfilled his dreams,

because he was a rare millionaire, an odd millionaire.

He didn't do the things that millionaires do.

He didn't follow rules.

He was not discreet, he was not protected, he did not hide his money,

and he did not have a quiet life.

He lived his life at 1000 miles an hour.

RICARDO: At the premiere of Fortuna 2, on Corrientes street,

I was very proud of what I had done. On opening night, I looked down

and I don't know why, but I imagined my father sitting there.

FELIPE: I, on the other hand, see that my father is in the first row.

Watching my life as a spectacle and I feel him close by.

I feel that now he himself is watching over me.

(CELL PHONE CAMERA CLICKS)

FELIPE: That's why I like to think that everything I do is for him to see.

(WHIMSICAL MUSIC PLAYING)

(THUNDER RUMBLING)

(WINDS WHISTLING)

(SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC PLAYING)

RICARDO: Everything I did when I was a kid cost me a lot. Nobody helped me.

I've knocked on a thousand doors, I've been with the most important people.

And no one has ever given me a hand, ever.

They've shut me out at every opportunity.

I've recorded demos and I've gone to record companies.

They promised me albums, then they screwed me over

or made me sign deals that went nowhere. I mean, I've been through a lot.

(INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC INTENSIFIES)

MARTA: My dad found freedom singing, though he wasn't taken seriously at home.

He insisted so much that my grandfather bought him a ticket to Miami

so that he could do a casting with Palito Ortega.

Things didn't go as expected.

But what does it matter if one sings well or badly?

What matters is doing it without fear.

(TENDER POP SONG PLAYING)

WOW, I CAN'T BELIEVE IT. THAT'S GREAT, MARDEL, IT'S GOING TO BE INCREDIBLE

(SONG FADES)

MALE VOICE: That's a lot of chocolate, right?

Perhaps a bit too much?

Ricardo Fort chose to walk his path in life away from this factory.

Right or wrong, he did what he wanted.

He preferred to risk it all to fulfill his dreams,

which were dreams without chocolate.

When he had to decide what to do with his life, he flipped a coin.

If it works out, fair enough. And if not, who cares?

(COIN CLINKS)

(UPBEAT POP SONG PLAYING)

RICARDO: Chocolate!

They want chocolate and I don't know if So much chocolate I don't know if

Choco-chocolate I don't know If they want chocolate

They want chocolate and I don't know if So much chocolate I don't know if

If you came to ask me what it means To be a millionaire

Ugh, oh, high red flag Commander of this crazy circus

In people's heads, memes in the mind

Let no one apologize for what they feel On the street they told you

You are the president, commander, oh

For you the important thing Was always freedom and not chocolate

Chocolate...

-(GLOVE BOX WHIRS) -(COIN CHIMES)

-(CAR BEEPS) -(ENGINE REVS)

PICK A COURSE

-(LIVELY POP SONG PLAYING) -(CAR ENGINES REVVING)

-(CAMERA SHUTTERS CLICKING) -(TIRES SCREECHING)

(CHIMES)

(MUSIC DISTORTS)

-(MUSIC RESUMES) -(TIRES SCREECHING)

(CAR ENGINES REVVING)

-(TIRES SCREECHING) -(MUSIC GLITCHES)

CONTINUE?

RICARDO: Mom! Mom! Take your hand from there, damn!

-Mom, you cut all the lights -(COMPUTER BEEPS)

They want chocolate and I don't know if So much chocolate I don't know if

Choco-chocolate I don't know If they want chocolate and I don't know if

They want chocolate and I don't know if So much chocolate I don't know if

Choco-chocolate I don't know If they want chocolate

And I don't know if they want chocolate

And I don't know if So much chocolate I don't know if...

-(RADIO STATIC CRACKLING) -(MALE VOICE SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY)

RICARDO: Mom!

Mom!

(UPBEAT POP SONG CONTINUES)

RICARDO: Mom!

Mom!

MARTA: I don't know If they want chocolate

They want chocolate and I don't know if So much chocolate I don't know if

Choco-chocolate I don't know If they want chocolate

They want chocolate and I don't know if So much chocolate I don't know if

Let no one apologize for what they feel On the street they told you

You are the president, commander, oh

For you the important thing Was always freedom and not chocolate

Chocolate

They want chocolate and I don't know if So much chocolate I don't know if

Choco-chocolate I don't know If they want chocolate

They want chocolate and I don't know if So much chocolate I don't know if

Choco-chocolate I don't know If they want chocolate

They want chocolate and I don't know if So much chocolate I don't know if

Choco-chocolate I don't know If they want chocolate

They want chocolate and I don't know if So much chocolate I don't know if

Choco-chocolate I don't know If they want chocolate

RICARDO: Chocolate!

Mom!

Mom!

Take your hand from there, damn!

Mom, you cut all the lights

MARTA: Commander, oh

For you the important thing Was always freedom and not chocolate

Chocolate

-RICARDO: Mom! -(SONG CONCLUDES)