Father Geek here with the 9th Latin-AICN Tuesday morning column. Today we received here at Geek World Headquarters in Austin an E-mail from Brasil from a representive of the REAL Coffin Joe, Jose Mojica Marins. I was just a little afraid to open it up. Visions of lawsuits danced through my head. Maybe he didn't like our Sao Paulo editor using his name, but that simply wasn't the case. He and his biographer Andre Barcinski love what we're doing here. Click Here to get a peek at the one and only, original Coffin Joe with a group of his "on set" friends.
The real Coffin Joe it turns out enjoys the columns "immensely"! He thinks they're important, and guest what? Jose Mojica Marins wants to contribute to our Latin-AICN column. Thats right the real Coffin Joe, the great Brazilian Horror Film Maker wants to write along side LOBO, Ulysses, Puma, Lobo-Guara, and our very own Coffin Joe(the Younger). Here's a scene from another one of his creepy flicks, Just Click Here . We're working things out right now, and Father Geek can't wait. This is just way way cooooool! But for now here's LOBO with his report from Mexico...
MEXICO
QUE PASA !! cine buffs , well here LOBO is one more time, so what did you guys think about the "nuns with guns" from last week, was very cool right! , well in my next report I am going to have 2 more movie reviews of those kind of flicks and a lot more stuff. This time I would like to thank a "Cuate" (Spy-reporter) that is going to cover Film festivals in Mexico City his nickname is "Puma" and if you have lot's of news concerning Mexico's film industry then become a Cuate by visiting me at MY BODEGA , Okay...
QUICKIES/RAPIDINES
MEXICO
QUE PASA !! cine buffs , well here LOBO is one more time, so what did you guys think about the "nuns with guns" from last week, was very cool right! , well in my next report I am going to have 2 more movie reviews of those kind of flicks and a lot more stuff. This time I would like to thank a "Cuate" (Spy-reporter) that is going to cover Film festivals in Mexico City his nickname is "Puma" and if you have lot's of news concerning Mexico's film industry then become a Cuate by visiting me at MY BODEGA , Okay...
QUICKIES/RAPIDINES
QUICKIES/RAPIDINES
**** ALFONSO ARAU(Like water for chocolate) after his movie with Woody Allen and Cheech Marin (Picking up the pieces) which went straight to TV (??) he is now negotiating with Altavista Films for his next project and made a comment on "ZAPATA" ; We are going to start filming this in 2001 here in Mexico.
**** From June 20th all the way until July 1st there is a Film-fest called "Dura es la vida de Tora" where films from JAPAN will be showing,having a collection of "Otoko u'a tsurai yo" of the director Yojo Yamada with actor Kiyoshi Atsumi(TORA-SAN).
**** AMORES PERROS makes the distributors of MI2 and Me, Myself and Irene shake and bite their nails, they even had to release the movies before the schedule date because AMORES PERROS is on at over 250 theaters in Mexico and is expected to be "the killer" at the box office this summer.
**** FANTASIA 2000 is doing great in Mexico lots of families are going to see it and is expected to be in theaters for 2 months and 2 weeks.
L.A. LATINO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL / MARIA FELIX
Este Festival will begin on July 24th all the way through the 30th, this is the fourth time the festival takes place and there's a lot of expectations from it in the future, because of this kind of festivals more Latinos are following their dreams that are around this Art and more people will see at the movies as an easy way to express their feelings or point of view, at least this is my personal thought and I will be happy to see more Latinos doing good movies. The Festival is in the hand of Edward James Olmos who has been really busy this year , he was no long time ago in a festival in Corpus Christi and also in N.Y. were he had his documentary "Americanos". There is an award at this Festival and is called Gabi who was given in the last Festivals to Gabriel Figueroa, Raul Julia and Carlos Saura, but this time the award is going to "La Doña" Maria Felix. La Doña is a big piece in the puzzle of the Mexican Film history and she is one of the reasons why there is the such mentioned "Epoca de Oro". She had her debut in 1942 next to Jorge Negrete in the movie "El peñon de las animas" and her last film was "La Generala" in 1970. This woman is like her nickname says the Queen/goddess/ of Mexico and not just because her Movie history but also because the way she is , her personality is just WOW ... She was and she is all that. Maria Felix denied to work in Hollywood and prefer to work with Jean Renoir, Luis Buñuel and Emilio "El indio" Fernandez. This festival is also going to show the movie Woman on Top where Penelope Cruz (newest hottie of Hollywood) stars.
<<<<< I will have later on a special report on "La Doña" Maria Felix because she is one of the gratest and a big part of our movie history in Mexico. >>>>
TEQUILA O SANGRIA
TEQUILA O SANGRIA is the name of a Fest that has Movies from Mexico and Spain in Hong Kong who had as the opening the movie "Por si no te vuelvo a ver". The Organization of this fest was expecting more movies from Latin America , but the only ones who really support such project were Mexico and Spain which I think is bad for the others who didn't show interest at this Festival because these people were really wanting to see Movies from Latin America and also they were wanting to check the reality of the "Latin world". The movies from Spain that are present at this Fest are; "Dias contados"(Uribe Bilbao), "El sol del membrillo"(Victor Erice), "Mi hermano del alma"(Mariano Barroso) and "Ponchada"(Alejandra Moya). From Mexico ;"Fibra Optica"(Francisco Athie), "Bajo California: El limite del tiempo"(Carlos Bolado) and "Por si no te vuelvo a ver"(Juan Pablo Villaseñor).
POR SI NO TE VUELVO AVER - Is the story of five elderly men who live in a nursing home and their dream is to play music for a big audience. They manage to run away from the nursing home and begin their adventure. After running away from the police, the personal of the nursing home, all of the people who want to destroy their dream and giong door to door for a chance to play, they finally get a contract in a cabaret , playing music for strippers. This movie got the "Visionary Award" of the Silver Images Festival being the first movie in Spanish to get such award.
I think this movie is great, without letting aside the thought of five Old men playing in a strip bar. Get a little piece of it by clicking the TRAILER POR SI NO TE VUELVO A VER
Well amigos, I leave you now in peace and see you guys next week with some Mexican "explotation" films , Hasta la vista and don't forget to send me some stuff at MY CAVE and become a Cuate, Okay. Later ...........LOBO
ARGENTINA
Hey Central¦ Ulysses reporting from the rolling Pampas.
Ulysses here with a review of a 1975 film from Argentina called "Yesterday´s Guys Used No Arsenic" . You see, this has been a very slow news week and there really is no interesting new movie out there, so I've decided to write about this one, as it has been forgotten by almost everybody here and next to no one must know it overseas. I wanted to add to this report some kind of news, but couldn´t find anything of interest. But when these types of empty spaces appear I´ll try to fill em up with reviews of past or new flicks. After all, I think you will be more interested in discovering some cool unknown film than reading that Julieta Cardinale has joined "La vida y el tango", or whatever. Anyway, here is my review, from my humble and very Greek/geek point of view.
YESTERDAY´S GUYS USED NO ARSENIC (1975)
You want nuns with guns , drug dealing bishops or bizarre stuff like that. Well, that is certainly something our ole film industry here doesn´t produce on a regular basis, but nonetheless there is a groovy little film about murderous old men who look like choir boys from the outside, that you should really try to seek out. The plot is simple, but tight, the perfomances are first rate and the humour is as dark as Argentine made coffee. But what I really admire of this small gem of a movie is how the director managed to create such a creepy and sinister tale with nothing more than a bunch of actors and just one setting.
The film opens with the image of an old lady weeping with bitter nostalgia over a film being projected by herself in her own house. If we look hard, we can recognize that the star of the film is none other than this woman some decades ago. We later know that she used to be this iconic actress who made a truckload of money and gained enormous popularity before fading away. Of course, she is still loaded, but she constantly misses the sensation of being admired and revered by lots of ego boosters and she certainly loved to be the diva with class and immense beauty. But the only thing left from those times is a pathetic carcass with no reason to live. This lady, she lives in a fancy old house on the River Plate shore, which is also inhabited by her spouse and two friends of his. Now, we are talking about a very weird bond here. You see, these three amigos go back a long time and the reason that two of them live in this coupleâ€Ts house is that they were married to the sisters of this ancient actress, who was the main money source of them all and therefore invited them to live in this type of run-down mansion. But that was a long time ago and her two siblings are no longer with her. One was found dead of a heart attack and the other one disappeared mysteriously, with the common assumption being that she had left her darling as a direct result of a relationship that was decaying by the instant. So, the owner of the property is now stuck with her hubbyâ€Ts pals and she is getting more tired of them by the instant. She has come up with the idea of selling the house and moving to her apartment in the city, with only her husband. Everything would be simple if he would be willing to leave his friends in the gutter (as they have no means to support themselves) and leave, but he isn´t and in fact this type of thing has happened before, twice to be precise. In both cases it was the wives of the other two friends who got fed up with this collective lifestyle and wanted to get the hell out of there. As a result of this, both ended up dead. You see, these old men will do anything to keep their bond alive and if that means murder, so be it. Whatever means necessary is their motto and if they can´t obtain what they are looking for with the use of words they will turn to the most diverse and gruesome slaying methods, including acid, poison, an axe and a marble staircase. With this folks´ record you can imagine that they will start to plan the killing of the actress as she seems to really want to stick to her plan. But things get extremely nasty when a young real estate agent makes her appearance, contracted by our nice old diva. From here on, the plot lurks into really dark places and there is a couple of twists that I wouldn´t ! like to spoil, in case anyone happens to find this film, which I strongly recommend.
Anyway, all the violence and gore in this film is purely suggested and that builds up to a much more powerful effect on the viewer. For instance, we learn midway through the picture that the missing wife of one of them didn´t really leave him, but that they hit her head against the marble staircase, cut her to pieces, dissolved her in acid and placed the remains in a finely made statue in the center of the large garden.
To conclude, the relationship between the main characters and many of the plot points may seem implausible, incoherent and pigeonholed from what I am writing, but I can sincerely promise that the storyline has no flaws and that, in the film, everything fits together to perfection. So, If you can find this film wherever you live (I think it was distributed in the US), give it a look. You won´t be disappointed.
Give this a chance,Ulysses
BRASIL...
Hey there fellas , Coffin Joe here , getting a bit better at the
finding the perfect lady deal , a gal I like I lot seems to like me
as well , now who knows what might happen , heh ? I´m almost done with
my finals here , so vacation is just around the corner and hopefully
I´ll be able to have more time to write the column . First here's the word from Lobo-Guara...
Hey there, how are you? Fine with me, thanks! I got some news! I hope they can be useful!
Eu Tu Eles was the biggest attraction of Festival de Cinema e VÃdeo do Ceará that ended last thursday. The movie, that was very well received by the audience in Cannes, last May, had the same recognition at the Festival in Ceará. The audience aplauded a few minutes before it ended.
Eu Tu Eles tells the real story of a woman who lived with three husbands at the same time and place and gave birth to 7 children. All of it happened in Quixelô, a small town in Ceará. Where people suffer from lack of education, drought and poverty. They survive by haversting nuts. The woman, Maria Marlene Sabóia, 55 years old nowadays, married Oscar 28 years ago. Oscar himself invited his cousin Chico, whose mother had just passed away, to live with them in 1980, and five years later José Afonso joined the family.
Marlene thougth that the movie had been released at the theatres and it was gone for good. She only heard that the movie was to be released next August , because it gained an award in Cannes, what called the attention of the media , to their story and the movie itself. She lived with those three men, from 1985 until 1997. But their relationship was only discovered and reported by the press in 1994. In 1995 the rights to make the movie about them were sold. Since then, they never heard of the producers again, until recently.
Eu Tu Eles is starred by Lima Duarte (as Oscar), Stênio Garcia (as Chico), Luiz Carlos Vasconcelos (as José Afonso) and Regina Casé as Marlene. Produced by Leonardo Monteiro De Barros, scriptwritten by Elena Soarez and directed by Andrew Waddington, Eu Tu Eles, will get national release only on August 4th.
The heavy rock Brazilian band Raimundos, got chosen by the producers of MI:2 to have a song included in the Brazilian version of the soundtrack. The song is called "Give My Bullet Back". The album will be released by Roadrunner and the movie MI:2 will get national release in Brazil on July 22nd.
Still on the Raimundos subject, vocalist Rodolfo Abranches just finished his part on the next Afonso Brazza movie, entitled, "A Grade". The shootings happened about 3 weeks ago at the Prainha, located in Lago Paranoá, BrasÃlia. Rodolfo plays Maicon Morcegão, one of the villains that gets killed by Afonso's character in the movie. It's just a small part.
Lobo-Guará is outta here , see you next week !
Here´s some more of this week´s news from Brasil and Coffin Joe :
-That movie I reported about a while ago called " Através da Janela " (*Through the Window ) , directed by Tata Amaral ( Starry Sky ) ceived a few awards at the Fourth Brazilian Film Festival in Miami , Florida , including best director , best screenplay and best actress to Laura Cardoso . Thanks to Captain Cometo for the tip .
-Two Brazilian film magazines , CINEMAIS and REVISTA de CINEMA , dedicate this month´s issues to Ruy Guerra´s latest movie , " Estorvo " which debuted at the official showcase at the Cannes film festival . Cinemais features an interview with director Guerra and Revista de Cinema interviewed Marcelo Durst , the director of photography .
-I saw " Oriundi " this Saturday starring Anthony Quinn and a whole bunch of Brazilian actors . Like it was reported in last week´s Latin- aicn , it deals with an aging Italian man who lives in Brazil and on the day of his birthday he meets a young lady who looks a lot like his deceased wife . See , I won´t spoil it for ya , I think that the movie is good , but could have been better . It drifts to all these sub-plots loosing focus of what the story is really about , and these sub-plots are only marginally interesting . Anthony Quinn is great in the movie , well above the other actors in the flick , as expected , and he speaks Italian in the movie in case you were wondering . Visually I think it´s neat , not Bride with the White Hair , but cool . The sequences where the young woman who looks like Quinn´s character´s wife appears could´ve been a bit more interesting ( I don´t know , slo-mo , brighter lighting , something to give her a ghostly feel ) . A good movie that runs out of breath in the last act .
-" Garagem Olimpo " , an Argentinean movie by director Marco Bechis , was elected the best film at the Tenth Cine Ceará Festiavl in Fortaleza , Ceará here in Brazil . " Texas Hotel " by Brazilian director Claudio Assis , won as best short film and " Amorte " by another Brazilian Camilo Santos Cavalcante won as best video .
-The Fujifilm company is set to invest U$ 300,000,000 dollars into a number of Brazilian films . The first project to take advantage of this investment is director Carla Camurati´s latest film " Copacabana " , which tells the story of the famous neighborhood in Rio , spanning over a century .
