These will be challenges to examine when Babenco's new movie comes our way.Carandiru pulls you in and entertains you but paints too sympathetic a portrait of the inmates to be memorable. The episodic structure works well but Babenco's touch is too soft.
Thanks for doing these reports on your viewings.
Authentic cohibas, one more benefit of living in Canada.
I look forward to your response to Carandiru, Chris. Pixote it ain't.
An effective film documenting one extraordinary battle in the war between labor and global capitalism. When Sintel, a subsidiary of the Spanish telecommunications giant Telefonica, gets sold to a wealthy family under shady circumstances, nearly 2000 mostly male workers suddenly find themselves out of jobs. More than 1500 erect a protest base on a major thoroughfare in Madrid. The workers live in "Camp Hope", built from donations, personal effects and scraps, for 187 days. The workers' struggle captures the imagination of citizens nationwide who've endured the growing pains of privatization and globalization.
Director Pere Ventura enters the camp and reveals a fighting spirit, camaraderie and solidarity motivated by shared history and circumstances. The Iguazu Effect makes no attempt to present a balanced, journalistic approach. It's squarely on the workers' side and assumes you don't need to hear a contrasting point of view.
Imagine a Buddhist temple floating on a small lake surrounded by lush hills. This is the idyllic setting where a monk teaches Buddhist tenets to his disciple. Each chapter takes place during a different season and a different stage of development in the pupil's life. Each stage corresponds to a specific lesson needed to attain enlightment.
South Korean director/writer/editor Kim Ki-duk makes excellent use of the natural setting. The topography, fauna and flora play an integral part in the film, as if Ki-duk picked the setting before he thought of the narrative. Excellent job casting the actors playing the pupil at different ages (to achieve character continuity) and pacing the story with assurance.
It's a pleasure to report that finally a film by this great director will receive distribution in the West, including North America. I came into the screening with high expectations, having seen Ki-duk's The Isle on import dvd. I was not disappointed. Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter and...Spring is great cinema.
Looking very forward to this film about "the seasons".
I'll keep an eye out.
"Set the controls for the heart of the Sun" - Pink Floyd
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I assume the Iguazu Effect is pure documentary. Sounds amazing. The far reaching effects of globalization and privatization are unfathomable. Seeing 1500 workers in a make shift camp must put things in perspective...
Paul Devlin's doc Power Trip relates to THE IGUAZU EFFECT's themes--privatization and globalization. I saw it at Film Forum in NYC in December. I hope more people will get to its local screenings nationwide--see the website .http://www.powertripthemovie.com/screenings.html . Will keep an eye out for THE IGUAZU EFFECT
*Yes, The Iguazu Effect is pure documentary. The title refers to the Iguazu Falls in South America. The charismatic leader of the workers explains that the workers are like fishermen on a boat sailing on calm river waters unaware of the violent fall ahead, so sudden it's impossible to warn those sailing behind.
*I heard an interview of Paul Devlin on NPR and was intrigued. Look forward to Power Trip.
*Glad to report that The Isle from Kim Ki-duk("Spring, Summer...") has finally been released on dvd in America. Check it out.
A frightened young mother frantically gathers a few belongings, takes her young son in hand, and flees into the dead of night. Thus we plunge mid-crisis into Iciar Bollain's gripping drama about a house wife in love with her abusive husband, forced to attempt to change his ways when she moves out.
Take My Eyes won 6 Spanish Critics Circle awards and 7 Spanish Academy awards including best actor for Luis Tosar (Mondays in the Sun) and best actress for Laia Marull as Pilar. This is a film with excellent production values, but it all starts with a good screenplay. Writers Ms. Bollain and Ms. Luna conjure a perfect balancing act. To generate tension and suspense with a minimum of on-screen violence (unlike the similarly-themed Once Were Warriors), to provides hints as to why some abuse and why victims tolerate it without being preachy or concrete, to develop a variety of interesting supporting characters while maintaining the focus on the couple. To do all this and incorporate humor that's never forced or incongruous. Quite a task. Quite a piece of drama.
Ross McElwee's documentaries are his diaries. Ross dreams of the giant bright green tobacco leaves of his native North Carolina, and decides to leave his Boston home for a visit. Once there, a movie-buff cousin tells him that quite possibly the Gary Cooper melodrama Bright Leaf is a thinly disguised portrait of their great-grandfather, who created the famous Bull Durham tobacco, only to lose the patent to eventual billionaire Buck Duke. From this point of entry, McElwee ventures into multiple avenues of inquiry while constantly providing amusing and candid voice-over. I imagine how annoying this could be if coming from someone less witty, congenial and self-deprecating than him.
McElwee is practically a one-man crew, which allows for a great deal of flexibility and improvisation. I've only had the opportunity to watch Sherman's March('87), a film that's supposed to be about the Civil War general's march into Atlanta and about the New South and ends up being about McElwee trying to get a southern girl to mend his broken heart. Bright Leaves, his 7th feature, is coming to over 200 theatres in the US and Canada.
Registered User
From "Bright Leaf"
Brant Royal, played by Gary Cooper encounters John Barton (Jeff Corey) who becomes disenchanted with his methods.
Barton: "I've learned a great deal from you, Brant. If I weren't an honest man, I might be able to use it."
It's supposed to be one of the worst directed by Curtiz(Casablanca), very rarely if ever shown anywhere.
I don't enjoy being critical of flawed movies that attempt to experiment with narrative and create something original. I actually prefer a film like November, Achero Manas' follow-up to the award winner Pellet, than better productions that stick to well-tested formulas.
I'll try to explain. Manas' mother was an actress in a street theatre group that created revolutionary art for no pay in the 70s. He interviews her and others, all in their 50s. We flash back to events they relate that instead of taking place in the early 70s (when Franco was still in power and this activities had a profound significance) are set in 1998-2001. This scenes start with a title with the exact date in mock-documentary fashion. We come to realize that some of the content of the interviews has been scripted to fit into a plot: Alfredo moves to Madrid to attend college and ends up creating a theatre group for the purpose of "changing the world". When the old Alfredo says: "I can't believe they arrested us just for acting in the buff. I mean it was 1999", we realize the interviews are supposed to be taking place in the 2030s.
Manas explained during Q&A that he wants to explore how these revolutionary acts would be viewed in a more contemporary context. I wish he had invested more time polishing the script because the performances and several scenes of the young troupe in performance are excellent. As presented, it's hard to see what was gained by changing the historical context.
Andre works a a photocopier in Porto Alegre, Brasil. He lives with his mom in an apartment, from it he can look into Silvia's room. She is a shop-girl who attends night school and lives with her lecherous dad. Our 20 year old hero goes to her job pretending to be a shopper and stages other "accidental" meetings. Andre becomes increasingly frustrated at not having enough money to court her. Uncharacteristically, he starts doing illegal things to earn money, eventually involving his voluptuous co-worker Marines, her goofy German boyfriend and some shady characters.
O HOMEN QUE COPIAVA is the fourth Brasilian film I watch at the Fest. This country has been producing a high number of quality movies in the past few years, particularly since the release of Central Station. O Homen que Copiava is not only great fun but also sophisticated as cinema: Director Jorge Furtado introduces brief cartoon sequences (Andre likes to draw them) and at one point, splits the screen in six. The film loses some of its freshness in the second hour, when a gun is introduced. But Lazaro Ramos' winning performance as Andre is a constant pleasure.
I like your succinct reporting style oscar.
Film reviewers could learn from your "no bullshit" aproach...
"Set the controls for the heart of the Sun" - Pink Floyd
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