Que paso !!! CineLocos amantes de las Movies, Father Geek is here to post up un otro Latin-AICN column this week. Our amigo LOBO is on vacation so I have had to fill in for him, trying to scrape together some interesting news of use to all of you. I think I've done a pretty good job for a gringo. First up is a report on a huge Mexican movie poster find. If you love Latin movies, you've got to love these. Here's the report sent to me this week...
One of the world's largest collections of Original, Vintage Movie Posters has been purchased in Mexico, and is now housed in the SO BAY area of San Diego, CA. This collection mostly of 13"x17" oversized title/lobby cards from MX spans the years of 1935-1985. It contains the wealth and variety of tens of thousands of classic film titles from the US, Europe, Mexico and other Foreign Lands. 150,000 of these posters have been carefully sorted and cataloged into pertinent generic film categories:
Animated Films
Bullfight Movie Posters
CANTINFLAS
Circus Movie Posters
Comedy Stars---Marx, Chaplin, L&H, A&C, 3Stooge, etc
Cowboy & Western Movie Posters
Cult MX Wrestlers
Dope, Drugs, Narcs
Elvis Presley
Epoca de Oro---Mexican Films: 1940's-1960's
Epoca de OroSpectacular School of Movie Poster Artists
European Film Posters: France, Italy, Germany
European Film Posters: Multi-National Productions
Fernandel
Film Noir Classics
Gladiator, Epic, Myth, Legend (Sword & Sandal)
Japanese Films
Jungle Films
Martial Arts Movie Posters---BLee, JChan, Misc Oriental Martial Arts
Mexican Cinema11x14 lobby cards with 8x10 photograph attached
MX Film Posters---Comic & Caricature (Tin-Tan, Resortes, Capulina, etc
MX Film Posters---Cowboy Movies
MX Film Posters---Sci-Fi, Horror, Fantasy
MX Film Posters---Serials, 1940's-1960's
Rock & Roll, Adolescents, Bad Girls, Motorcycles, Hot Rods
Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, Monster, Space---10,000 posters
Sex, Drugs & Rock'n'Roll
Soccer Movie Posters
Spaghetti Westerns
Sports Film Posters
Vintage Hollywood, 1940's-1950's---10,000 posters
Zorro
The graphics are stunning! They are all original and from the Major Film Studios, contemporaneous with each film's release worldwide. However, these very special 13"x17" posters have a much greater density of art and images than posters from any other country. Classic Illustrations, Drawings, Photographs, and Stills all laid out on each Film Poster. Melodramatic BALLYHOO (in Spanish, of course), and original Cast and Credits, and unique fonts for the Film's title: all round out the overall design of each unique Movie Poster.
Not only did Mexico have a grand and glorious Film Industry during their own 'EPOCA DE ORO' (Golden Age---1930's-1960), but also the general population of Mexico had a much greater opportunity to see the entire spectrum of Films produced worldwide. Classic oldies from MGM and Warners and RKO; internationally famous directors like De Sica, Truffaut, Buñuel, Kurosawa, Fellini, Resnais, Ray (India); and lurid Cult Films from the worldwide vaults of Horror, Sci-Fi, Adolescent Exploitation, MX Wrestlers, Italian Westerns and Gladiator Epics, Martial Arts, Sex/Drugs/Rock&Roll, etc etc.
The collection will be displayed and publicized worldwide via the Internet; and is available by appointment to Publishers, Galleries, Museums, and Serious Collectors.
Samples of this vast collection can be seen: Right Here
POSTERAZZI
Father Geek here again, man I love old posters and to think that finds this large still turn up is mind boggling to me... that's a hell of alot of pieces of old movie paper to be in one place. Well, su amigo y cuate has some more cosas for you to read about. This next bit comes from a sweet gatita (?) in LA...
Hi! Kitten here.
Lucky lucky me, I just moved into a loft on the most-filmed corner of Los Angeles. The past few weeks, off and on, they've been filming the new Schwarzenegger movie Collateral Damage. Most of the filming has been done during the day (I think they blew someone up in my parking lot) but tonight they're filming a scene at the wedge-shaped slummy building next door. There's a big hand-lettered sign in the window that reads "Latin American Indigenous People Solidarity Committee" and someone inside (Leguizamo? Partially hidden by the sign.) has a big arm-flailing tantrum whenever someone yells "Action".
Not much, but the filming seems to be going pretty slow. I'll let you know if anything else interesting happens. They'll be filming again on Friday.
Those of you who have been regular readers know that we've been covering this flick's filming on Mexico's East coast for a long time now. Well, they've finished shooting Mexico and are wrapping it all up in LA right now. Next up is a report on a film set in CUBA... Nos Vemos...
I was working at Runway's when I managed to catch a screening of a rough assembly of a new movie with Harvey Keitel. Although it is set in Cuba during the Castro revolution in the fifties, it's not an action flic! It co-stars the blonde from HIGH FIDELITY and MIFUNE. Harvey plays a very convincing powerful cubano in a small town in Cuba, and she plays an American woman living in the town who befriends Harvey's grandson. It's sort of remembrance by the little kid as a grown man, like a John Ford's HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY.
This is Harvey's best performance since the double header of THE PIANO and THE BAD LIEUTENANT. Don't be surprised if it brings an Oscar nomination to Keitel, although everyone in the cast was super, in particular the actress who plays Harvey's wife, a mexican actress by the name of Diana Bracho.
The film has only those two names, since the rest of the cast is all Latino, mostly from Cuba and Mexico, therefore total unknowns in the US. I recognized the young actor from LOVE IS A BITCH! who is in a terrific chase sequence.
I know the music is been composed in Cuba by a guy named Edesio Alejandro (and one of his songs that I heard in the cut was superb!).
The film is in English, and although the cut I saw ran about 2 1/2 hours, it grabbed you from beginning to end.
It's supposed to come out next year, and is an Artisan release in the states.
I get that after the success of BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB, they were looking for a similar Cuban-theme movie. It has also something to do with an old Doris Day film from the fifties, entitled JULIE. The film is DREAMING OF JULIA, and there were no credits on the film, although I heard the writer-directors are latinos and first timers.
Cuate THURSBY
Father Geek with some news by way of Argentina on our beloved FANTASTIC FOUR... This could easily be so much Guano del Toro...
A local newspaper here in Argentina posted an article today about the Fantastic Four movie.
Acording to "La Gaceta" the cast includes George Clooney as Reed Richards, Cameron Diaz as Sue Storm, Arnold Schwarzenegger as Ben Grimm and James Van Der Beek as Johny Storm. Sounds interesting, doesn't it? Although La Gaceta is an important news paper over here i don't know how reliable this information is. The article also names Raja Gosnel as director and Sam Hamm as screen writer, but we alredy knew this. Anyway, get your contacts working on this one.
Just call me El Argentino
Father Geek back again. This next news item concerns Coffin Joe, no not our Brazilian editor/reporter, but the real cine legend who's films are being released on DVD, que bueno!
Cine Talk here again! I just thought I'd let you know that three "Coffin Joe" movies are coming to DVD on April 3rd 2001-- please find attached cover scans! Knowing that you and Father Geek love these movies I thought you'd be chuffed at the news!
Cine Talk - Helping you discover cool and classic movies.
Now, our Coffin Joe reports in from Sao Paulo, Brasil...
Hello Father Geek , everyone , Coffin Joe here for another week of Brazilian movie news . This week I got a review , and sadly no news . Read on :
-Last year the movie " Orfeu " debuted here in Brazil , with reviews that weren´t really kind , and now the movie has been out in States for a while in select cities ( including L.A. and N.Y. ) so , what the hell , I´ll review it for ya . The film , directed by one of the founders of the " Cinema Novo " movement of the sixties , Carlos " Cacá " Diegues , is an update of the Greek myth ( Orpheus and Eurydice ) and is also heavily inspired by the classic Marcel Camus flick " Black Orpheus " ( it´s almost a remake if you will ) . It´s set in Rio de Janeiro ( like Camus´ film ) , during Carnaval season ( like Camus´opus ) and it features a mainly black cast of characters ( like the classic does ) . Other than that the film is set in present day Rio , and it deals with two lovers who are about to face a whole lot of problems ( mainly a drug dealer played by Murilo BenÃcio , the actor who plays Penelope Cruz´s cheating husband in " Woman on Top " ) that will lead to the girl´s tragic fate .
Yes the cinematography is beautiful ( sweeping , magnificent sights of Rio ) , yep the soundtrack is pretty darn neat ( not my type of music , but I admit Caetano Veloso is good ) , but everything else is below average . Acting is a concept that the movie´s lead Toni Garrido ( who´s , by the way , a singer here in Brazil , the lead singer for the band Cidade Negra ) hasn´t really heard of . Sorry , he´s a fine looking young man , I know the ladies love him and all , but when it comes to acting he doesn´t have what it takes yet . The rest of the cast holds its own , BenÃcio in particular who plays the drug dealer almost too realistically ( kinda scary ) . Oh , there´s this other little problem : the ending sucks hairy monkey ass . Let´s just say that it tries really hard to be poetic and stuff , but comes across as a bad joke . I´m done .
Coffin Joe says : bye .
P.S. : Next week wait for a review of the documentary " O Rap do Pequeno PrÃncipe " , which chronicles the lives of a rapper and a drug dealer in the slums of Recife here in Brazil . Have a good week everybody .
