Películas vistas el 2017.
Películas independientes que no se encuentran en imdb:
1.TOXICITY
Muy buenas actuaciones, la de Simone en particular ha sido muy creíble.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rl82yJXQGGs&list=PLWUYTzyQERrhCsRGwdpZicbB6HP31TRU1&index=1&t=54s
Carol la vi dos veces este año.
Calificación: Regular.
Vista: 10 de enero, 2017.
1.TOXICITY
Muy buenas actuaciones, la de Simone en particular ha sido muy creíble.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rl82yJXQGGs&list=PLWUYTzyQERrhCsRGwdpZicbB6HP31TRU1&index=1&t=54s
Carol la vi dos veces este año.
Calificación: Regular.
Vista: 10 de enero, 2017.
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155 titles
- DirectorPascal LaugierStarsMorjana AlaouiMylène JampanoïCatherine BéginA young woman's quest for revenge against the people who kidnapped and tormented her as a child leads her and a friend, who is also a victim of child abuse, on a terrifying journey into a living hell of depravity.http://www.btchflcks.com/2014/09/martyrs-female-friendships-can-be-bloody-complex.html#.WHer9tLhDcd
Calificación: Excelente.
Vista: 12 de enero, 2017. - DirectorAlejandro G. IñárrituStarsJavier BardemMaricel ÁlvarezHanaa BouchaibA man dying of cancer tries his best to leave the world on his own terms.Calificación: Excelente.
Vista: 14 de enero, 2017. - DirectorRodrigo BellottStarsErika AndiaMiguel ValverdeCacho MendietaJacinto and Domitila are two indigenous Bolivians, happily married... and the most notorious criminals in the country. When they are paid to transport 50kg of cocaine to the Brazilian border, they embark on a journey that will take them through the jungles, mountains, deserts and cities of Bolivia on a riotous adventure that will test their relationship and make them question their future as criminals. Setting out from El Alto, the highest city in the world, they disguise themselves as a farming couple expecting a baby, with the cocaine hidden in Domitilas false pregnant belly. The man behind the smuggling operation, known as El Negro, is actually a blonde, blue-eyed American with a well-kept secret. Hunting down the criminals are two of the best Anti-narcotics officers in the country a corrupt Lieutenant and his racist cadet. What should have been a simple arrest soon becomes a hilarious game of cat-and-mouse with the criminals outwitting their pursuers at every turn, with the help of a bizarre medley of Bolivian characters and a narrator who sharply exposes all the irony and corruption that comes with Bolivian life. Both a celebration and a parody of Bolivian customs, countryside and culture, 'Who Killed The White Llama?' is a boisterous comedy with a more serious message at its heart: When it comes to poverty, nothing is sacred. Despite the continuing criminal, political and economic scandals that plague the country, the racial divides and the drug-trafficking, the media story that really sweeps the nation concerns the accidental killing of a baby white llama.Calificación: Muy buena.
Vista: 14 de enero, 2017. - DirectorStephen DaldryStarsKate WinsletRalph FiennesBruno GanzPost-WWII Germany: Nearly a decade after his affair with an older woman came to a mysterious end, law student Michael Berg re-encounters his former lover as she defends herself in a war-crime trial.Calificación: Muy buena.
Vista: 16 de enero, 2017. - DirectorLuke ScottStarsKate MaraAnya Taylor-JoyRose LeslieA corporate risk-management consultant must decide whether or not to terminate an artificially created humanoid being.Parecido a Ex Machina.
No me quedo claro si Lee también era un híbrido o no.
Calificación: Regular.
Vista: 16 de enero, 2017. - DirectorGiuseppe TornatoreStarsJeremy IronsOlga KurylenkoSimon JohnsFocused on the relationship between an astronomer and his lover, who spend their years apart.Sigue la misma premisa de P.S. I love you, sin embargo, debido a algunas características de los personajes, esta logró conmoverme más.
Calificación: Excelente.
Vista: 16 de enero, 2017. - DirectorJordan ScottStarsEva GreenJuno TempleMaría ValverdeA look at the lives and relationships among girls at an elite boarding school.Hay dos actuaciones que me llamaron la atención:
La de Juno Temple y la de Imogen Poots.
La actuación de Eva Green se intensifica y sobresale al final.
Calificación: Excelente.
Vista: 18 de enero, 2017. - DirectorLasse HallströmStarsEwan McGregorEmily BluntAmr WakedA fisheries expert is approached by a consultant to help realize a sheik's vision of bringing the sport of fly-fishing to the desert and embarks on an upstream journey of faith and fish to prove the impossible possible.Calificación: Buena.
Vista: Vuelta a ver el 18 de enero, 2017. - DirectorAntoine FuquaStarsGerard ButlerAaron EckhartMorgan FreemanSecret Service agent Mike Banning finds himself trapped inside the White House in the wake of a terrorist attack and works with national security to rescue the President from his kidnappers.Calificación: Regular.
Vista: 19 de enero, 2017. - DirectorBaz LuhrmannStarsNicole KidmanHugh JackmanShea AdamsIn 1939, an Englishwoman inherits a sprawling ranch in northern Australia and reluctantly makes a pact with a stockman to drive 2000 head of cattle over unforgiving landscape.Casi me duermo.
Calificación: Regular.
Vista: 21 de enero, 2017. - DirectorSteven SoderberghStarsJulia RobertsAlbert FinneyDavid BrisbinAn unemployed single mother becomes a legal assistant and almost single-handedly brings down a California power company accused of polluting a city's water supply.Calificación: Excelente.
Vista: 22 de enero, 2017. - DirectorTravis KnightStarsCharlize TheronArt ParkinsonMatthew McConaugheyA young boy named Kubo must locate a magical suit of armour worn by his late father in order to defeat a vengeful spirit from the past.Es una película que voy a tener que volver a ver para apreciarle más los detalles, de igual manera, la sentía algo floja la trama.
Calificación: Buena.
Vista: 22 de enero, 2017. - DirectorGavin WiesenStarsFreddie HighmoreEmma RobertsMichael AngaranoGeorge, a lonely and fatalistic teen who has made it all the way to his senior year without ever having done a real day of work, is befriended by Sally, a popular but complicated girl who recognizes in him a kindred spirit.Calificación: Buena.
Vista: 28 de enero, 2017. - DirectorWoody AllenStarsRebecca HallScarlett JohanssonJavier BardemTwo friends on a summer holiday in Spain become enamored with the same painter, unaware that his ex-wife, with whom he has a tempestuous relationship, is about to re-enter the picture.Calificación: Excelente.
Vista: 3 de febrero, 2017. - DirectorYimou ZhangStarsChow Yun-FatGong LiJay ChouDuring China's Tang dynasty the emperor has taken the princess of a neighboring province as wife. She has borne him two sons and raised his eldest. Now his control over his dominion is complete, including the royal family itself.Hubieron demasiados temas y me parece que deberían haberse enfocado en uno solo, hubieron detalles de por medio que más parecían de relleno que otra cosa y eso la vuelve una película pesada de ver.
Sin embargo, a mi parecer el final estuvo muy bien, por lo que salvo un mal principio y le rescato lo último que sí vale la pena.
Calificación: Regular.
Vista: 5 de febrero, 2017. - DirectorPhillip NoyceStarsAngelina JolieLiev SchreiberChiwetel EjioforA CIA agent goes on the run after a defector accuses her of being a Russian spy.Fallaron con el guión y el desarrollo de la trama y algunas escenas eran innecesarias. De igual manera es entretenida de ver, si hay una parte que me encantó es cuando cobra venganza de Ted.
Calificación: Buena.
Vista: 10 de febrero, 2017. - DirectorGuillermo RíosStarsClaudia ZepedaKaren de la HoyaScarlet DergalTen girls are suspected of committing a horrible crime, and until they confess, they won't be able to leave their school.Calificación: Regular.
Vista: 12 de febrero, 2017 - DirectorMarc WebbStarsZooey DeschanelJoseph Gordon-LevittGeoffrey ArendAfter being dumped by the girl he believes to be his soulmate, hopeless romantic Tom Hansen reflects on their relationship to try and figure out where things went wrong and how he can win her back.Exceptuando algunos detalles de la reseña:
http://www.revistagq.com/noticias/cultura/articulos/todo-sobre-500-dias-juntos/20000
Calificación: Buena.
Vista:4 de marzo, 2017. - DirectorOliver ParkerStarsBen BarnesColin FirthRebecca HallA corrupt young man somehow keeps his youthful beauty eternally, but a special painting gradually reveals his inner ugliness to all.Tendría que leer el libro para saber si de verdad está tan mal hecha como leí en las reseñas.
Calificación: Regular.
Vista: 18 de marzo, 2017. - DirectorPedro AlmodóvarStarsAntonio BanderasElena AnayaJan CornetA brilliant plastic surgeon, haunted by past tragedies, creates a type of synthetic skin that withstands any kind of damage. His guinea pig: a mysterious and volatile woman who holds the key to his obsession.https://www.blogdecine.com/criticas/la-piel-que-habito-hasta-donde-puede-llegar-el-amor-de-un-loco
Calificación: Muy buena.
Vista: 23 de marzo, 2017. - DirectorKatherine BrooksStarsErin KellyDiane GaidryLaura BreckenridgeThe intelligent Annabelle starts in an elite Catholic girls' boarding high school after being expelled from the previous 2 schools. She's open about being lesbian. She's attracted to her teacher, Simone."A mí esta película personalmente me parece muy mala. Creo que el error es tratar de hacer cine lésbico y no integrar una relación lésbica en una gran película con argumento independiente. Ejemplo: Mulholland Drive, Black Swan…
Todo lo demás produce sensación de porno barato."
Calificación: Mala.
Vista: 23 de marzo, 2017. - DirectorKerem SangaStarsDylan GelulaBrianna HildebrandMateo AriasSeventeen-year-old Anne just fell in love with Sasha, the most popular girl at her LA public high school. But when Anne tells her best friend Clifton - who has always harbored a secret crush - he does his best to get in the way.Calificación: Regular.
Vista: 6 de abril, 2017. - DirectorNicole ConnStarsNecar ZadeganThunderbird DinwiddieGary WeeksFate brings two diversely different women together, and sets them on a collision course that will shatter their preconceived notions about love, life and the power of one's soul.Todas las actuaciones, absolutamente TODAS, me parecieron malas. Y hay una escena en particular demasiado ridícula: cuando el hijo de Elena se emborracha.
Calificación: Regular.
Vista: 2017. - DirectorShamim SarifStarsLisa RaySheetal ShethAntonia FreringA young woman engaged to be married finds her life changed forever when she meets her best friend's girlfriend.Me causa gracia que hasta la hermana de Leyla guiándose por los gustos de su hermana se dio cuenta que Leyla -aunque ella estaba inconscientemente consciente de su sexualidad, ehem- se dio cuenta de que sí, Leyla, effectively, can't think straight.
Calificación: Regular.
Vista: 2017. - DirectorMaria MaggentiStarsLaurel HollomanNicole Ari ParkerMaggie MooreAn adventurous love story between two young women of different social and economic backgrounds who find themselves going through all the typical struggles of a new romance."El título prometía mucho más. El resultado es una película mediocre en casi todos los apartados. Interpretaciones poco creíbles, puntos en el argumento bastante ridículos o forzados, y el ritmo narrativo está bastante mal llevado... En ocasiones la película parece una caricatura de sí mísma."
-Ya que son adolescentes, no espero que su amor tenga sentido del todo, ya que en varios aspectos su comportamiento es bastante infantil e inmaduro.
-Le rescato una escena al final que es bastante entretenida.
-Eh, gracias a esto conocí Leaves of grass, de Walt Whitman, gracias. (?)
Calificación: Regular.
Vista: 2017. - DirectorXavier DolanStarsAnne DorvalXavier DolanFrançois ArnaudA semi-autobiographical story about Hubert as a young homosexual at odds with his mother.http://cinedivergente.com/criticas/singularidades/yo-mate-a-mi-madre
http://www.elespectadorimaginario.com/pages/septiembre-2010/criticas/jrsquoai-tue-ma-mere.php
http://academyawards2009.blogspot.com/2010/08/critica-jai-tue-ma-mere-i-killed-my.html
Calificación: Excelente.
Vista: 2017. - DirectorDavid LynchStarsNaomi WattsLaura HarringJustin TherouxAfter a car wreck on Mulholland Drive renders a woman amnesiac, she and a Hollywood-hopeful search for clues and answers across Los Angeles in a twisting venture beyond dreams and reality.https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulholland_Drive_(pel%C3%ADcula)
http://www.el-parnasillo.com/mulhollanddrive.htm
http://seronoser.free.fr/laincineradora/argumentomulhollanddrive.htm
http://elcineenlamirada.over-blog.com/article-analisis-de-la-pelicula-mulholland-dr-david-lynch-2001-63483495.html
http://www.abandomoviez.net/reportaje.php?id_reportaje=8&pag=1
http://viajarleyendo451.blogspot.com/2016/10/mulholland-drive-mejor-pelicula-siglo-XXI-bbc.html
http://www.fotogramas.es/Peliculas/Mulholland-Drive
http://www.criticosdecine.com/criticas/critica-de-mulholland-drive/
Calificación: Excelente.
Vista: 2017. - DirectorRoger KumbleStarsSarah Michelle GellarRyan PhillippeReese WitherspoonTwo vicious step-siblings of an elite Manhattan prep school make a wager: to deflower the new headmaster's daughter before the start of term.http://www.revistavanityfair.es/actualidad/cine/articulos/crueles-intenciones-reese-witherspoon-ryan-phillipe-sarah-michelle-gellar/21971
Calificación: Regular.
Vista: 3 de junio, 2017. - DirectorAlejandro JodorowskyStarsAlejandro JodorowskyBrontis JodorowskyJosé LegarretaA mysterious black-clad gunfighter wanders a mystical Western landscape encountering multiple bizarre characters.http://iveldie.blogspot.com/2005/09/el-topo-alejandro-jodorowsky-1970.html
http://criticasdeluiscifer.blogspot.com/2009/05/el-topo-1970.html
http://www.muchocine.net/critica/10615/el-topo
http://www.abandomoviez.net/db/criticas.php?film=3016
http://suburbano.net/el-topo-de-jodorowsky-su-dificultad-y-las-posibilidades-de-cambio/
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_topo_(pel%C3%ADcula_de_1970)
http://cinecutre.com/movie-review/el-topo-1970
http://seba-cinerealidad.blogspot.com/2013/08/el-topo-idem-1970-de-alejandro.html
Calificación: Imprescindible.
Vista: 15 de junio, 2017. - DirectorGuillermo del ToroStarsMarisa ParedesEduardo NoriegaFederico LuppiAfter Carlos - a 12-year-old whose father has died in the Spanish Civil War - arrives at an ominous boys' orphanage, he discovers the school is haunted and has many dark secrets which he must uncover.Frases:
«Qué soledad, la del príncipe sin reino, la del hombre sin calor».
«¿Qué es un fantasma? Un evento terrible condenado a repetirse una y otra vez. Un instante de dolor quizás. Algo muerto que parece por momentos vivo aún. Un sentimiento suspendido en el tiempo, como una fotografía borrosa, como un insecto atrapado en ámbar. Un fantasma, eso soy yo».
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-devils-backbone-2001
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_espinazo_del_diablo
Calificación: Buena.
Vista: 16 de junio, 2017. - DirectorBrian FeeStarsOwen WilsonCristela AlonzoChris CooperLightning McQueen sets out to prove to a new generation of racers that he's still the best race car in the world.No vi la segunda y no recuerdo todos los detalles de la primera, pero después de haber visto la tercera no tengo la necesidad ni quiero ver la segunda, lo único que hizo que pueda reírme después fue que dos amigas (Laura e Isabella, (¿fue Ariana?) espero no olvidarme en algún momento), se rieron toda la película de cosas que los demás no encontrábamos gracia más que para hacernos la burla.
Calificación: Mala.
Vista: 17 de junio, 2017. - DirectorDanny BoyleStarsEwan McGregorEwen BremnerJonny Lee MillerRenton, deeply immersed in the Edinburgh drug scene, tries to clean up and get out despite the allure of drugs and the influence of friends.https://www.huffingtonpost.es/2017/02/23/trainspotting-pelicula_n_14876962.html
https://www.espinof.com/criticas/trainspotting-la-epica-salvaje-de-los-yonquis
https://www.sopitas.com/638707-trainspotting-datos-curiosos/
http://epoca1.valenciaplaza.com/ver/164097/mas-de-30-curiosidades-acerca-de-trainspotting-para-celebrar-su-secuela.html
Calificación: Excelente.
Vista: 18 de junio, 2017. - DirectorGuillermo del ToroStarsIvana BaqueroAriadna GilSergi LópezIn the Falangist Spain of 1944, the bookish young stepdaughter of a sadistic army officer escapes into an eerie but captivating fantasy world.https://www.espinof.com/criticas/guillermo-del-toro-el-laberinto-del-fauno-la-obra-maestra
https://www.slideshare.net/anna_NOFX/presentazione-copia
https://www.20minutos.es/cine/cartelera/pelicula/28455/el-laberinto-del-fauno/
Me falta brindar mi opinión en muchas de estas películas y lo único que puedo escribir en este momento al respecto es sobre Javier Navarrete. Si no me equivoco esta es la tercera película (Cracks, El Espinazo del Diablo y ahora esta -que si bien la había visto anteriormente era muy pequeña para caer en cuenta de algunos detalles-) en la que puedo escuchar las sinfonías que compone y realmente este hombre logra ambientar el tiempo y espacio en melodías, envuelve toda la atmósfera y le brinda un toque que solo su música lograría armonizar.
Calificación: Excelente.
Vista: Ya la había visto antes, pero la volví a ver el 19 de junio, 2017. - DirectorBlake EdwardsStarsAudrey HepburnGeorge PeppardPatricia NealA young New York socialite becomes interested in a young man who has moved into her apartment building, but her past threatens to get in the way.http://fashionblogmexico.com/un-analisis-de-breakfast-at-tiffanys/
http://michelleuz.com/2016/10/05/curiosidades-sobre-breakfast-at-tiffanys/
"La bisexualidad que caracteriza a Holly en la novela desapareció por completo en el filme. Tampoco se hacen referencias al aborto de ésta, a su afición por fumar marihuana ni a que ejercía la prostitución." Tendría que leer la novela para saber más sobre estos detalles.
Calificación: Muy buena.
Vista: 19 de junio, 2017. - DirectorFernanda CardosoStarsAllison McAteeSarah StoufferKatherine Ann McGregorA coming-of-age drama about a former child actress attending college in search of independence and who ends up becoming romantically involved with a female professor.Calificación: Mala.
Vista: 20 de junio, 2017. - DirectorBrian De PalmaStarsAl PacinoMichelle PfeifferSteven BauerIn 1980 Miami, a determined Cuban immigrant takes over a drug cartel and succumbs to greed.https://www.amc.com/shows/the-making-of-the-mob/talk/2015/07/mob-mondays-five-true-mob-stories-behind-scarface
http://scarface.wikia.com/wiki/The_Skull
https://www.quora.com/If-not-for-The-Godfather-and-Scarface-would-Al-Pacino-be-as-popular-as-he-is
http://resenasdesdelacripta.blogspot.com/2010/03/resena-de-caracortada.html
https://www.lascosasquenoshacenfelices.com/retro-analisis-scarface-precio-del-poder-1983-the-world-is-yours/
https://www.hobbyconsolas.com/reviews/critica-scarface-precio-poder-especial-cine-80-133468
https://www.espinof.com/criticas/criticas-a-la-carta-el-precio-del-poder-scarface-de-brian-de-palma
https://elpais.com/cultura/2008/12/09/actualidad/1228777204_850215.html
Calificación: Imprescindible.
Vista: 20 de junio, 2017. - DirectorFernando González MolinaStarsMario CasasMaría ValverdeÁlvaro CervantesA privileged woman and a reckless man fall in love despite their different social classes.http://elcinequevivimospeligrosamente.blogspot.com/2010/12/critica-3-metros-sobre-el-cielo-le-gen.html
https://www.espinof.com/criticas/3-metros-sobre-el-cielo-el-galan-maltratador
https://www.ecartelera.com/peliculas/tres-metros-sobre-el-cielo/critica/3842/
Calificación: Regular.
Vista: 22 de junio, 2017. - DirectorLucía PuenzoStarsInés EfronMariela VitalePep MunnéA desperate love story between two young girls of extremely different social backgrounds who, unable to find a place for their love in the world they live in, are pushed to commit a crime.Esta es la segunda película que veo de Lucía Puenzo y si bien no me gustó, después de haber visto Wakolda y haberme fijado en algunas otras películas de ella tengo mucho interés en verlas.
https://www.elseptimoarte.net/foro/index.php?topic=12728.0
http://www.fotogramas.es/Peliculas/El-nino-pez
Calificación: Regular.
Vista: 22 de junio, 2017. - StarsRichard ThomasTim ReidAnnette O'TooleIn 1960, seven pre-teen outcasts fight an evil demon who poses as a child-killing clown. Thirty years later, they reunite to stop the demon once and for all when it returns to their hometown.Admito que al momento de verla me causó la misma sensación que otro montón de películas que son demasiado conocidas: hablan tanto de ellas al punto de estropearlas y como puede que las dejen consumidas entre comentarios del público, también puede que por las mismas opiniones se dejen llevar creyendo que la película es mejor de lo que en realidad es, y pasan de boca en boca manifestando que es una maravilla algo de lo que quizás no hablan ni siquiera bajo su propio criterio sino por lo que todos anduvieron diciendo. Aunque en este caso, considero que el "problema" de It es lo sobrevalorada que está. Tengo en claro que muchas películas que conmocionaron en ese entonces al público de los 90's no van a causar el mismo impacto en otra generación, y lamentablemente esto genera que a veces sea un terror (y también se aplica a otros géneros) circunstancial, llamémosle así, una oleada que sacudió solamente en su época. Me siento como una completa ignorante al decir que nunca he leído un libro de Stephen King -y mucho más ignorante al decir que aún sigo posponiendo su lectura- pero tengo claro que tiene más de 1000 páginas y que en parte eso es lo que justifica que la película dure casi tres horas (de las cuales yo pienso que debería haber sido menos tiempo ya que de igual manera tenían que administrar ciertos detalles de acuerdo a los límites y de lo que estaba permitido o socialmente aceptado), y lamentablemente, esto contribuyó a que mis expectativas bajen a medida que avanzaba la película y me dejó extenuada. Si bien me gustó la película, considero que me gustaría más si volviera a verla esta vez sin esperar mucho de ella.
https://www.espinof.com/proyectos/la-miniserie-it-eso-es-mejor-de-lo-que-crees-razones-para-reivindicar-la-adaptacion-de-stephen-king
https://www.hobbyconsolas.com/reviews/clasicos-terror-critica-it-eso-58704
https://www.taringa.net/posts/tv-peliculas-series/19275011/40-Curiosidades-de-la-pelicula-It.html
https://www.zonared.com/reportajes/20-curiosidades-it-1990/2/
Calificación: Muy buena.
Vista: 24 de junio, 2017. - DirectorDavid LeanStarsOmar SharifJulie ChristieGeraldine ChaplinThe life of a Russian physician and poet who, although married to another, falls in love with a political activist's wife and experiences hardship during World War I and then the October Revolution.Calificación: Imprescindible.
Vista: 25 de junio, 2017. - DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsAnthony PerkinsJanet LeighVera MilesA Phoenix secretary embezzles $40,000 from her employer's client, goes on the run and checks into a remote motel run by a young man under the domination of his mother.https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psicosis_(pel%C3%ADcula)
-(...) mientras que la película de Hitchcock Vértigo (1958), basada en la novela de Boileau-Narcejac D'Entre Les Morts, no obtuvo en ese momento buenas críticas ni ganancias económicas. Hitchcock también se tuvo que reinventar constantemente, preocupándose de Psicosis por su originalidad y como una manera de volver a ser aclamado como uno de los mejores directores de suspense.
-El escenario original de la Casa y el Motel Bates fueron construidos en el mismo estudio que el escenario de El Fantasma de la Ópera, que aún se mantiene en pie en los Estudios Universal, en Universal City, cerca de Hollywood, y constituye una atracción del estudio. El celebérrimo diseño del motel está inspirado en el cuadro House by the railroad de Edward Hopper.
El asesinato en la ducha:
-El asesinato en la ducha del personaje de Janet Leigh es la escena fundamental de la película, así como una de las más conocidas en la historia del cine. Como tal, engendró numerosos mitos y leyendas. Se rodó entre el 17 y el 23 de diciembre de 1959, presentando entre 77 ángulos de cámara.28 La escena transcurre en 3 minutos e incluye 50 planos.29 La mayoría de las tomas son acercamientos, excepto en los planos que se dirigen a la ducha justo antes y después del asesinato. La combinación de las tomas cercanas con su duración corta hacen que la secuencia resulte más subjetiva que la que hubiese sido si las imágenes fuesen presentadas solas o en un ángulo más amplio, lo cual las convierte en un ejemplo de la técnica que Hitchcock describió como "transferir la amenaza desde la pantalla a la mente del público".
-La sangre en la escena es sirope de chocolate, de hecho, una de las claves, ya que en películas en blanco y negro da más veracidad. El sonido del cuchillo entrando en el cuerpo de la protagonista fue creado clavando el cuchillo en un melón.
-Leigh y Hitchcock discutieron el significado de la escena:
Marion había decidido regresar a Phoenix, confesarlo todo y hacerse responsable por sus consecuencias, por lo que entrar a la ducha era como si estuviera entrando en aguas bautismales. El agua cayendo sobre ella purificaba la corrupción de su mente, purgando el mal de su alma. Era como una virgen de nuevo, tranquila, en paz.
-El teórico y crítico de cine, Robin Wood, también explica cómo la ducha limpia "toda su culpa". Él comenta sobre el "efecto de alienación" de acabar con el "aparente centro de la película" con la que los espectadores se habían identificado.
-Hitchcock hizo la mayor parte de la promoción por su cuenta, prohibiendo a Leigh y a Perkins hacer entrevistas para la televisión, la radio o la prensa por temor a revelar el contenido de la película.57 Incluso a los miembros de prensa y críticos no se les dio proyecciones privadas, sino que tuvieron que ver la película con el público en general. Esto posiblemente podía afectar las reseñas de la película,56 pero ayudó a preservar en secreto el contenido de la película hasta su estreno. (Como no todos tienen el cuidado de hacer esto, es por este motivo que tanto evito ver los tráilers y leer las sinopsis).
-La película presenta a menudo sombras, espejos, ventanas, y, en menor medida, el agua. Las sombras están presentes desde la primera escena. Las sombras de las aves disecadas se asoman sobre Marion mientras ella come, y la madre de Norman es mostrada solamente mediante su silueta hasta el final de la película. Más sutilmente, la retroiluminación hace que los rastrillos en la ferretería se asemejen a garras por encima de la cabeza de Lila.
-Los espejos reflejan a Marion mientras ella empaca, sus ojos mientras ella ve por el retrovisor de su auto, su rostro en las gafas de sol del policía, y sus manos mientras ella cuenta el dinero en el baño del concesionario. Una ventana del motel sirve como espejo reflejando a Marion y Norman juntos. El fuerte aguacero puede ser visto como presagio de la escena en la ducha, y el hecho de que deja de llover de repente puede ser un símbolo de la decisión que ha tomado Marion de volver a Phoenix.
-Durante la película se hacen varias referencias a las aves. El apellido de Marion es Crane (en español grulla), y ella es de Phoenix (en español fénix). En una escena, Norman le dice a Marion que come como un pájaro, y en esa misma habitación hay pájaros disecados que Norman guarda. La habitación en la que se hospeda Marion tiene cuadros de pájaros en la pared. El hobby de Norman es el relleno de aves, y comenta que Marion come como un pájaro. Brigitte Peucker sugiere que la afición de Norman por disecar aves literaliza el slang británico "bird" (en español pájaro), que se usa para referirse a una mujer deseable. Robert Allan sugiere que la madre de Norman es su "pájaro relleno" original, tanto en el sentido de haber conservado su cuerpo como en la naturaleza incestuosa del lazo emocional de Norman con ella.
-En su documental "The Pervert's Guide to Cinema" (2006), Slavoj Žižek señala que la mansión de Norman Bates tiene tres plantas, en paralelo con los tres niveles que el psicoanálisis de Freud atribuye a la mente humana: el primero sería el "Superyó", en el qué la madre de Bates vive; la planta baja sería el "Yo", donde Bates funciona como un ser humano aparentemente normal y, por último, el sótano al cual Bates baja el cadáver de su madre, que sería el "Ello" o inconsciente, como símbolo de la conexión que se postula hay entre el Superyó y el Ello.
-Psicosis se ha convertido en una de las películas más reconocidas de la historia del cine y es posiblemente la película de Hitchcock más conocida.8182 La icónica escena de la ducha es frecuentemente parodiada, homenajeada y referenciada en la cultura popular, junto con los efectos de sonido del violín. Los Simpson, en particular, han parodiado la película en numerosas ocasiones, mientras que la relación del director Skinner con su madre es una reminiscencia de la de Norman Bates con la suya.
-Psicosis es (hasta cierto punto) una de las películas más referenciadas en el cine. Ejemplos de estas referencias se encuentran en las películas Alta Ansiedad (1977), el clásico de horror Halloween (1978), Fundido a Negro (1980), Vestida para matar (1980), Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003) y Buscando a Nemo (2003). Psicosis también es referenciado en la serie de televisión That '70s Show, Fear Factor e ¡Histeria!, y en el cómic/serie Runaways. La banda estadounidense Dream Theater usa el tema principal como introducción a sus conciertos "1313".
http://www.t13.cl/noticia/tendencias/espectaculos/cultura/15-curiosidades-sobre-psicosis-a-55-anos-del-estreno
http://www.cineenconserva.com/2013/01/diez-curiosidades-de-psicosis-que.html
http://de10.com.mx/top-10/2015/06/16/10-mensajes-aterradores-ocultos-en-la-pelicula-psycho
Calificación: Imprescindible.
Vista: 26 de junio, 2017. - DirectorWoody AllenStarsWoody AllenLouise LasserCarlos MontalbánWhen a bumbling New Yorker is dumped by his activist girlfriend, he travels to a tiny Latin American nation and becomes involved in its latest rebellion.Calificación: Muy buena.
Vista: 26 de junio, 2017. - DirectorJim SharmanStarsTim CurrySusan SarandonBarry BostwickA newly-engaged couple have a breakdown in an isolated area and must seek shelter at the bizarre residence of Dr. Frank-n-Furter.http://ismorbo.com/5-razones-conocer-the-rocky-horror-picture-show/
No estoy muy de acuerdo con esta crítica pero algo tiene de cierto:
http://www.sssm.com.ar/rocky-horror/
http://www.ahoracriticoyo.com/2013/05/the-rocky-horror-picture-show-cine.html
http://www.sensacine.com/noticias/cine/noticia-18547329/?page=6
Calificación: Imprescindible.
Vista: 27 de junio, 2017. - DirectorWes CravenStarsBrandon Quintin AdamsEverett McGillWendy RobieTwo adults and a juvenile break into a house occupied by a brother and sister and their stolen children. There, they must fight for their lives.-Pensándolo bien, el hecho de que a estos chicos se los encerraba en el sótano, es algo parecido al famoso tercer patio que nos explicaba la profe Coca. Qué maravilla de mujer que era esa profesora.
-¿En la película solo habían chicos encerrados y todos eran sus hijos o eran secuestrados? No recuerdo bien estos detalles pero supongo que deben tener algún motivo o extraña fijación de los padres.
-¿Será que el Gimp de Pulp Fiction estuvo inspirado o fue una referencia de Tarantino al bondage suit de Daddy?
-Esto también me hace pensar en Don't Breathe de Fede Álvarez, un suspense (¿es correcto expresarme así?) en el cual su trama evoca una situación similar a la de esta película, e incluso una de las protagonistas cuenta con problemas familiares distintos a los de Fool, pero que tal vez la idea surgió gracias a esta película o para tratar de justificar las acciones de la protagonista al compadecernos de su situación. En ambas hay un robo, si bien en Don't breathe hubieron algunos leves previos a su golpe maestro, en ambas su modus operandi falla: en Don't Breathe cuando entran a la casa de un señor que por más inofensivo que parezca resulta tener secuestrada a una chica y la mantiene prisionera en el sótano; y en The People Under the Stairs todos se encuentran retenidos también en el sótano. Así que tal vez no sea una gran película pero sí proporciona inspiración al tener una idea original, y original a mi criterio, porque siento que no he visto tantas películas en las que aparte de secuestro, haya una situación como esta y que de paso no sea una sola persona, sino varias.
http://elcinefagodelalagunanegra.blogspot.com/2011/10/el-sotano-del-miedo-people-under-stairs.html
https://film.avclub.com/wes-craven-s-the-people-under-the-stairs-is-a-timeless-1798184605
http://www.hugozapata.com.ar/2016/10/the-people-under-the-stairs-1991/
http://www.notcoming.com/reviews/peopleunderthestairs/
http://www.semi-dead.com/news/2011/4/26/terrifyingly-hilarious-the-gimp-under-the-stairs.html
Calificación: Buena-regular.
Vista: 28 de junio, 2017. - DirectorClive BarkerStarsAndrew RobinsonClare HigginsAshley LaurenceA woman discovers the newly resurrected, partially formed, body of her brother-in-law and lover. She starts killing for him to revitalize his body and escape the demonic beings that are pursuing him after he escaped their underworld.Considerando que no las he visto en el orden correcto y que todavía no las vi todas no debería estar leyendo nada sobre la película porque ni siquiera sé si hay mejores en la saga, pero por mientras lo dejo así, ya que la propuesta es original y a diferencia de los tan usados screamers que prácticamente es el único "susto " que buscan sacarle al público por la falta de ideas, deja con la curiosidad al ver que tan solo un cubo puede desatar los placeres del cielo y el infierno.
Calificación: Muy buena.
Vista: 28 de junio, 2017. - DirectorAkira KurosawaStarsToshirô MifuneTakashi ShimuraKeiko TsushimaFarmers from a village exploited by bandits hire a veteran samurai for protection, who gathers six other samurai to join him.-Al ser una película tan larga y que transcurre lentamente resulta algo extenuante verla, aunque vale la pena su duración.
https://www.espinof.com/cine-clasico/por-que-los-siete-samurais-es-una-de-las-peliculas-mas-influyentes-de-la-historia
https://www.elantepenultimomohicano.com/2012/01/los-siete-samurais-akira-kurosawa-1954.html
https://filmfellasclub.wordpress.com/2017/02/19/clasicos-del-cine-los-siete-samurais/
http://actoresdirectoresguionistas.blogspot.com/2013/09/curiosidades-de-los-siete-samurais-de.html
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_siete_samur%C3%A1is
https://www.hobbyconsolas.com/reportajes/antes-7-magnificos-fueron-7-samurais-67940
https://www.hobbyconsolas.com/reportajes/antes-7-magnificos-fueron-7-samurais-67940
https://www.filmin.es/blog/15-claves-que-quizas-no-conozcas-sobre-los-siete-samurais
https://www.cinencuentro.com/2005/04/14/los-siete-samurai-1954/
Calificación: Imprescindible.
Vista: 29 de junio, 2017. - DirectorWoody AllenStarsWoody AllenDiane KeatonTony RobertsAlvy Singer, a divorced Jewish comedian, reflects on his relationship with ex-lover Annie Hall, an aspiring nightclub singer, which ended abruptly just like his previous marriages.-Todavía no he visto muchas películas de Woody Allen y creo que este tipo de humor negro, ingenioso, irónico, sarcástico y demás adjetivos que le atañen a su cinematografía son elementos que usualmente no se los ve en las películas de comedia y si hay alguna en la que he encontrado algo similiar es en Monty Python and The Holy Grail, y justo una película lanzada dos años antes que Annie Hall, aunque conste que para comparar o para ver quién puede haber sido más influenciado por el otro o quién proporcionó más "originalidad" en este tipo de comedia tendría que ver más películas de Monty Python y Woody Allen o simplemente ver más películas o fijarme en quiénes han influenciado más en este género.
-Woody Allen ya desmintió los rumores de que la película tiene algo que ver con su relación de ese entonces con Diane Keaton, aunque no creo que esto sea del todo cierto y él está consciente de ello, ya que si la neurosis no fuera parte de su personalidad y quizás de su propia forma de relacionarse con las personas yo supongo que hubiera sido incapaz de escribir un guión y una relación como esa, a pesar de que hace referencias a algunos psicoanalistas y se deja entrever que es un hombre muy muy culto e ingenioso. Por ahora dejemos de lado el temita Soon-Yi Previn.
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie_Hall
https://www.vix.com/es/cine/179670/por-que-annie-hall-fue-una-pelicula-tan-importante
http://construccionesenanalisis.blogspot.com/2013/10/annie-hall.html
https://www.alohacriticon.com/cine/criticas-peliculas/annie-hall-woody-allen/
https://www.revistavanityfair.es/actualidad/cine/articulos/annie-hall-cuarenta-aniversario-pelicula-woody-allen/24033
https://mapleforth.wordpress.com/2013/07/23/dos-extranos-amantes/
"Al parecer, no hay duda alguna, Dos extraños amantes y 500 días con ella tienen muchas similitudes. Guardémonos, sin embargo, de decir lo que suele decirse: que ésta le copió a aquélla, que aquélla tiene más meritos por ser la primera, que ésta tiene más meritos por crear algo nuevo tomando a aquélla como base, etcétera." Bien, leyendo este párrafo me siento como una completa ignorante. Generalmente no suelo comparar diciendo que hubo un "plagio" o mucho menos que no es más que una copia exacta o mejor dicho, barata. Pero sí una influencia, aunque no niego que hasta cierto punto nunca faltan algunos elementos copiados o muy "similares", relativamente modificados o simplemente bajo una gran influencia de algo. Mal que mal, considero que el ser humano imita por naturaleza, y recibe cierta influencia de la que surge su propia originalidad e ideas; y mientras permanezca detrás de la línea que tiene esos aspectos y no se cruce al insolente plagio: me parece excelente. Innovación constante.
http://www.europapress.es/cultura/cine-00128/noticia-annie-hall-cumple-40-anos-40-curiosidades-mitico-filme-woody-allen-20170420175730.html
http://cinentransit.com/la-mirada-a-camara-algo-mas-que-un-motivo-visual/
http://mentalfloss.com/article/64355/15-things-you-might-not-know-about-annie-hall
https://www.elsiglodedurango.com.mx/noticia/936543.el-divan-de-woody-allen.html
https://www.lanacion.com.ar/2053776-diez-curiosidades-de-annie-hall-dos-extranos-amantes-en-su-cuarenta-aniversario
https://www.univision.com/estilo-de-vida/trending/opinion-woody-allen-es-un-genio-pero-es-moralmente-aceptable
https://cuatrobastardos.com/2018/04/05/annie-hall-una-neurosis-de-pelicula/
https://www.lavanguardia.com/de-moda/moda/20170501/422119393215/icono-moda-pelicula-annie-hall-diane-keaton.html
http://filmfilicos.com/annie-hall
https://www.eldiario.es/cultura/cine/Annie-Hall-Manic-Pixie-Dream-Girl_0_634487620.html
Frases:
ALVY: What do you want? It was my first play. You know, you know how you're always trying to get things to come out perfect in art because it's real difficult in life.
Calificación: Imprescindible.
Vista: 30 de junio, 2017. - DirectorJon WattsStarsTom HollandMichael KeatonRobert Downey Jr.Peter Parker balances his life as an ordinary high school student in Queens with his superhero alter-ego Spider-Man, and finds himself on the trail of a new menace prowling the skies of New York City.Calificación: Buena.
Vista: 10 de julio, 2017. - DirectorStanley KubrickStarsJack NicholsonShelley DuvallDanny LloydA family heads to an isolated hotel for the winter where a sinister presence influences the father into violence, while his psychic son sees horrific forebodings from both past and future.https://www.letraslibres.com/mexico-espana/cinetv/kubrick-shining-y-sus-fundamentalistas
https://www.cinencuentro.com/2013/02/18/reestreno-el-resplandor-the-shining-critica-federico-de-cardenas-1982/
http://stephenking.wikia.com/wiki/Overlook_Hotel
https://www.shmoop.com/shining-stephen-king/tony.html
http://mentalfloss.com/article/55893/25-things-you-might-not-know-about-shining
https://www.today.com/popculture/see-what-spooky-twins-shining-look-today-2D12017576
http://www.sssm.com.ar/shining-1980/
https://www.cinemablend.com/new/Stephen-King-Just-Went-Off-About-How-Much-He-Hates-Shining-Again-68032.html
https://www.shmoop.com/shining-stephen-king/title.html
http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-shining-makes-way-more-sense-if-kid-villain/
"And, no, it doesn't matter, because he's a protagonist in a horror story; his job is to make mistakes, no matter how old he is."
Sacado de Wikipedia:
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_resplandor_(pel%C3%ADcula)
Por algún motivo las expresiones de Danny me hicieron pensar en las de Yelling Creature, de Rob Hermann.
-El director Martin Scorsese la incluye entre las mayores películas de terror de todos los tiempos.5 Críticos de cine, estudiantes de cinematografía y el productor Jan Harlan, cuñado de Kubrick, han resaltado la enorme influencia que ha tenido la película en la cultura popular.
-El pequeño acepta y, ya a solas los dos, Dick, ahora con semblante llamativamente más serio, revela a Danny que él mismo y su abuela compartían también esta habilidad telepática, que él llama "el resplandor".
-Danny empieza a tener visiones cada vez más terroríficas sobre las niñas asesinadas, y Jack, cada vez más aislado de su familia, sufre bloqueo del escritor, se siente frustrado y su comportamiento se vuelve cada vez más extraño y violento.
-Kubrick consideró varios nombres para el papel principal, entre ellos los de Robert De Niro y Robin Williams. Descartó al primero tras verlo en Taxi Driver porque le parecía demasiado histriónico para el papel; al segundo, después de verlo en Mork & Mindy, por ser demasiado poco expresivo. También pensó darle el papel a Harrison Ford.9 Stephen King, por su parte, renegaba de Nicholson porque pensaba que, como este había rodado One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, el espectador tendería a considerarlo un individuo inestable desde el principio; por ello, King prefería para el papel a Michael Moriarty, a Jon Voight o a Martin Sheen,10 que representarían más fielmente el perfil de individuo corriente que se ve abocado gradualmente hacia la locura. En cualquier caso, desde el principio al escritor se le dijo que el actor para el papel principal «no era negociable».- Fijarme en lo que dice en los papeles secundarios, en el rodaje,tomas en movimiento.
Pero no solo las estancias del hotel se filmaron en realidad en estudio: también la residencia de los Torrance en Boulder antes de mudarse al hotel, la habitación de Halloran en Florida o la oficina de alquileres de Durkin (versión USA). Incluso las tomas nocturnas fuera del hotel y la persecución en el laberinto se prepararon y grabaron en los estudios Pinewood y Elstree, en Inglaterra. Los copos de nieve eran en realidad de poliestireno; la nieve del suelo era sal; la bruma, vapor de aceite; y la fachada del Overlook, una recreación en estudio de la del Timberline.
Las escenas se rodaban en seis sets principales: Salón del Colorado, Recepción, Gold Ballroom, Cocinas, Ala Oeste y Exteriores.44 El salón del Colorado, donde Jack escribe su novela, era iluminado artificialmente desde las ventanas para recrear el clima de fuertes nevadas del «exterior». Los 700 000 vatios de potencia elevaban la temperatura en el interior hasta los 43 ℃.45 La energía necesaria era tal, que en una ocasión se declaró un incendio que arrasó las instalaciones, aunque afortunadamente ya se había terminado la fase principal del rodaje.
"Well, first let me say that Stanley Kubrick is a brilliant filmmaker and the ‘River of Blood’ is an excellent scene that was intended to be creepy; to be surreal. It is shot beautifully. It has eerie symmetry, the lighting is bright but somehow ominous, and the music was chosen deliberately put you on edge. So, yes I understand that this is a horror film with images that were intended to scare you or creep you out. This in and of itself is valid without the need to find a deeper meaning. But deeper meanings can be there whether you are looking for them or not. This is where symbols take on lives of their own.
The elevator itself is a symbol of transition and in popular culture has been used to represent the journey to Heaven or Hell. Going up or going down? I acknowledge it is there but I’ll admit this is minor; a cultural reference that may play into our subconscious but in many ways is trivial.
The real symbols here are harder to pin down as they are less direct representations but rather existential ideas given a visual surrogate. Blood for instance is a symbol for life. To ‘get your blood pumping’ is a saying to indicate being energetic; being alive. However the loss of blood makes one weak, to ‘bleed out’ indicates a slow death. The blood flowing – gushing – from the elevator represents life pouring out, leaving the body, draining life. At the same time there is so much of it, a river; the blood begins to engulf us. Our perspective is low to the ground as if we are kneeling or lying down. The river of blood surrounds us, covers us, we are drowning in it. The cut-aways to Danny in terror are at the same time us, the viewer, as we experience this fear ourselves and realize that the darkness continues to grow around us. Till in the end there is nothing just the darkness.
The real fear this scene evokes, the real horror it conveys is the dread of emptiness. It is the fear of the Void; the creeping anxiety of the inevitability of nothing. Or to put it another way: Death.
There is inside everyone an innate fear. That one day it will all be over. Everyone has the knowledge that we will one day die and, depending on one’s beliefs, we expect and prepare for this inevitability with certain hopes. Perhaps there will be a reward, or punishment, or maybe come back to try again. But everyone, no matter how devout and certain of the outcome will have, even for just a moment, a nagging doubt. What if there is just nothing? What if we close our eyes and then it is over? Forever.
The blood elevator scene represents the ever-present fear of the end of existence. And in it we watch, trembling in terror, unable to act against it, as life becomes death and darkness overwhelms us. It seems to confirm that which we dare not tell ourselves – that one day it will all be over. In the end there is only the emptiness of darkness.
That is why this scene is so disturbing. It touches something that we don’t like to acknowledge. It represents something we don’t like to admit.
That is why a young boy was unable to sleep at night and kept the light on.
It’s why I still keep the light on."
Tomando en cuenta ese análisis de la escena del ascensor, tiene algo de concordancia con lo que el mismo Kubrick le dijo a King: "I think stories of the supernatural are fundamentally optimistic, don’t you? If there are ghosts then that means we survive death."
Yo había interpretado la última escena en la que Jack aparece en la foto de 1921 de otra manera muy distinta: pensé que al haber muerto en las afueras del hotel y bajo la influencia de fuerzas sobrenaturales, todos los que morían ahí -así sean asesinos o hayan sido asesinados-; quedaban representados en esa foto. Se me escapó el detalle de buscar a las gemelas, a Dick Halloran y a más personajes que podrían haber estado retratados también. "Either way, the end result is Jack becoming part of the hotel. Whether he’s on a list of victims or a reincarnation, he’s doomed to be stuck within the walls of the Overlook forever."
http://screenprism.com/insights/article/why-is-jack-in-the-photo-of-the-overlooks-july-4th-1921-party-at-the-end-of
I already knew that the television set in the Overlook Hotel has no cord. I knew that the movie holds the record for the most number of takes for a single scene, too. Kubrick made Shelley Duvall back away from Jack Nicholson 127 times, a brilliant directorial strategy: To get actors to portray people losing their minds, simply drive them insane for real. It worked (watch below). Kubrick also succeeded in driving a significant chunk of his audience insane, as Room 237 so lovingly demonstrates.
Calificación: Excelente.
Vista: 12 de julio, 2017. - DirectorKevin CostnerStarsKevin CostnerMary McDonnellGraham GreeneLieutenant John Dunbar, assigned to a remote western Civil War outpost, finds himself engaging with a neighbouring Sioux settlement, causing him to question his own purpose.Calificación: Imprescindible.
Vista: 12 de julio, 2017. - DirectorPaul LeniStarsMary PhilbinConrad VeidtJulius MolnarWhen a proud noble refuses to kiss the hand of the despotic King James in 1690, he is cruelly executed and his son surgically disfigured.-Antes de tener mi laptop, muchas de estas películas me tocó verlas en una computadora de escritorio que está situada entre el comedor y el living de mi casa, por lo que era un fastidio intentar concentrarme si están pasando a cada rato y encendiendo las luces o con griteríos. Y para el colmo dejaron de ser tan bulliciosos cuando dejé de sentarme ahí. En fin. Debido a eso, hubieron varias escenas en las que no logré conectarme del todo pero si hubo una que me gustó bastante -aunque no la recuerdo bien y tampoco la encontré en Youtube- es en la que Gwynplaine se mira al espejo, me parte el alma saber lo mucho que le dolía ser así y resignarse a que nunca cambiaría. La única persona que lo salvaba de sentirse tan miserable era Dea: "God closed my eyes so I could see only the real Gwynplaine". Tal vez esta sea una de las primeras películas enfocadas en representar a un personaje como un objeto de burlas con un trasfondo de tristeza. No entiendo por qué está clasificada en el género de terror, aunque me imagino que una audiencia de 1928 probablemente tenía la misma reacción que se muestra del público que hay en la película: risas y espanto.
-Tenía la duda de si esto podía tener alguna conexión con el Joker y ahora que busco sobre eso resulta que esta película influenció bastante la creación del villano que un año después del primer cómic de Batman estaría siendo implementado como el mayor némesis en la historia.
https://es.gizmodo.com/como-el-escritor-victor-hugo-ayudo-a-crear-al-joker-el-1796521180
"Aquella representación del asesino de piel blanca y cabello verde era inquietante incluso en su primera aparición. Pero lo más importante de toda la historia era que su nacimiento se debía a la mirada de Conrad Veidt en El hombre que ríe. Aunque era evidente viendo las imágenes, Kane y Robinson lo confirmaban en una entrevista de 1994:
Bill Finger y yo creamos el Joker. Bill era el escritor. Jerry Robinson vino a mí con una carta de juego del Joker. Y yo le dije, “se parece a Conrad Veidt ... ya sabes, el actor de “El hombre que ríe” ... Finger tenía un libro con una fotografía de Conrad Veidt, me la mostró y dijo: “Así es, aquí tenemos al Joker”."
http://creadoresimagenes.blogspot.com/2012/01/el-hombre-que-rie-man-who-laughs-1928.html
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-the-man-who-laughs-1928
«"The Man Who Laughs" is a melodrama, at times even a swashbuckler, but so steeped in Expressionist gloom that it plays like a horror film.»
"By not alerting us with the logic of language, silent films can more easily slip us off into the shadows of fantasy."
De Wikipedia:
The film was one of the early Universal Pictures productions that made the transition from silent films to sound films, using the Movietone sound system introduced by William Fox. The film was completed in April 1927 but was held for release in April 1928, with sound effects and a music score that included the song, "When Love Comes Stealing," by Walter Hirsch, Lew Pollack, and Ernö Rapée.
The Man Who Laughed was initially released without music, but following the film's initial success, it was recalled and re-released with sound effects, a synchronized score, and a theme song,[21] provided by the Movietone sound-on-film system.[22] Leni did not employ the shrieking and creaking sound effects of horror theater (although he did in his following film, The Last Warning). Instead, the film's viewers are disconcerted by hearing the sounds of the crowds and audiences within the film (often laughing at or jeering Gwynplaine), while the main characters (including Gwynplaine himself) are left entirely silent.
Calificación: Muy buena.
Vista: 14 de julio, 2017. - DirectorMichel GondryStarsJim CarreyKate WinsletTom WilkinsonWhen their relationship turns sour, a couple undergoes a medical procedure to have each other erased from their memories forever.Entre las preguntas de imdb tomar en cuenta:
-If it was merely Joel's constructed memory of Clementine that told him to meet her at Montauk after his procedure, then how did the actual Clementine know to meet him there?
-How does Clementine's hair help us understand "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind"?
-What happened at the end of the film? Will Joel and Clementine remain together? (Quisiera tomar muy en cuenta la respuesta a esta pregunta, engañarme y creer que podría aplicarse a mí y a lo que por el momento resulta la imposibilidad de un amor, por los siglos de los siglos, Amén.)
http://alo.co/content/7-claves-para-entender-eterno-resplandor-de-una-mente-sin-recuerdos
http://enfilme.com/notas-del-dia/video-el-detras-de-camaras-de-eternal-sunshine-of-the-spotless-mind-de-michel-gondry
De Wikipedia:
-La cinta contiene elementos del thriller psicológico y usa una narrativa no lineal para explorar la naturaleza de la memoria y el amor romántico.
-Jim Carrey: In the 2017 Netflix documentary Jim & Andy, Carrey mentions a conversation with Gondry one year before shooting began for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, shortly after Carrey had a breakup with an unspecified woman.[7] Gondry saw that Carrey's emotional state at the time was "so beautiful, so broken" and asked him to stay that way for one year to fit the character. In the documentary, Carrey commented, "That's how fucked up this business is."[8][9] Nicolas Cage was Gondry's original choice to play Joel,[6] but Cage was unable to do the role as he was in high demand from independent directors after his performance in Leaving Las Vegas. (Y por suerte no pudo).
-Kate Winslet: Todo lo que dice sobre ella. "Too many guys think I'm a concept or I complete them or I'm going to make them alive, but I'm just a fucked up girl who is looking for my own peace of mind. Don't assign me yours."
-Kaufman's original title for the screenplay was 18 words long, as he had wanted a title which "you couldn't possibly fit on a marquee,"[22] however, he eventually decided on Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, a title coming from the 1717 poem Eloisa to Abelard by Alexander Pope.
-Todo sobre la producción de la película.
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/eternal-sunshine-of-the-spotless-mind-2004
-The movie is a labyrinth created by the screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, whose "Being John Malkovich" and "Adaptation" were neorealism compared to this.
-The movie is a radical example of Maze Cinema, that style in which the story coils back upon itself, redefining everything and then throwing it up in the air and redefining it again.
-For all they know they have never seen each other before, but somehow there's a connection, a distant shadow of deja vu.
-"Eternal Sunshine" has been directed by Michel Gondry, a music video veteran whose first feature, "Human Nature" (2002), also written by Kaufman, had a lunacy that approached genius and then veered away.
-It may also be true that Joel and Clementine, who seem to be such opposites (he is shy and compulsive, she is extroverted and even wild), might be a good match for each other, and so if they keep on meeting they will keep on falling in love, and Lacuna Inc. may have to be replaced with the Witness Protection Program.
-For Jim Carrey, this is another successful attempt, like "The Truman Show" and the underrated "The Majestic," to extend himself beyond screwball comedy.
-Kate Winslet is the right foil for him, exasperated by Joel's peculiarities while paradoxically fond of them.
-The insight of "Eternal Sunshine" is that, at the end of the day, our memories are all we really have, and when they're gone, we're gone.
http://mentalfloss.com/article/67681/15-unforgettable-facts-about-eternal-sunshine-spotless-mind
https://culturacolectiva.com/cine/datos-que-no-conocias-sobre-eterno-resplandor-de-una-mente-sin-recuerdos/
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/eternal-sunshine-of-the-spotless-mind-2004-1
"Some viewers have been confused by the film's movement through chronology and locations, but I think the paradoxes are explained if we realize that everything is happening in only one place, Joel's mind. The disconnects are explained by his fragmented memories of when that they were together before, during and after the erasure. The train station sequence at the beginning is closer to the end of the movie's timeline.
Not that we're required to piece it all together. Gombry and Kaufman use qualities of the cinema itself to allow it to make emotional sense when it's baffling any other way. We know our minds easily comprehend and accept flashbacks, hallucinations and conflicting realities. Even small children seeing a flashback for the first time understand what's being conveyed. As impossible events occur, we understand they're subjective--generated in the minds of the beholders. That explains the crumbling beach house in "Eternal Sunshine" and the constantly burning home in "Synecdoche." We know at the time they aren't "real," and afterwards we're missing the point if we ask for an "explanation." These films are made with insight into how the mind translates information."
"The wisdom in "Eternal Sunshine" is how it illuminates the way memory interacts with love. We more readily recall pleasure than pain. From the hospital I remember laughing nurses and not sleepless nights. A drunk remembers the good times better than the hangovers. A failed political candidate remembers the applause. An unsuccessful romantic lover remembers the times when it worked."
Calificación: Excelente.
Vista: 15 de julio, 2017. - DirectorTerry GilliamTerry JonesStarsGraham ChapmanJohn CleeseEric IdleKing Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table embark on a surreal, low-budget search for the Holy Grail, encountering many, very silly obstacles.Calificación: Imprescindible.
Vista: 15 de julio, 2017. - DirectorSam EsmailStarsJustin LongEmmy RossumKayla ServiSet in a parallel universe, Comet bounces back and forth over the course of an unlikely but perfectly paired couple's six-year relationship.-Hasta ahora no sé analizar ningún aspecto del cine, y a veces me doy cuenta de algunos detalles pero ponerlo en palabras me resulta imposible. Además, aunque en algún momento logre hacer una crítica, no sé hasta qué punto estaría siendo acertada y mucho menos si se trata de alguna película que me gustó. Como lo es en este caso, tal vez no sea una muy buena película pero tan solo pensar en la posibilidad de que algún día podría coincidir con alguien me deja esperanzada, y para mí eso fue suficiente para que me tenga enganchada a terminar de verla y que me termine gustando.
-No sé cómo se me había pasado por alto considerar qué tanto me gusta la banda sonora y la fotografía, puedo decir que esta película es una de mis favoritas también en eso.
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/comet-2014
"In the end, “Comet” is a showcase for Long and Rossum, and they shine in that spotlight in unexpected ways. Perhaps I’ve just been burned too many times by bad movies about the intertwining of fate and love to remember that sometimes they work. “Comet” works."
https://noestiempoparacinefilos.wordpress.com/2015/04/29/critica-de-comet-la-heredera-de-los-estimulos-visuales/
https://culturacolectiva.com/cine/comet-la-pelicula-que-muestra-que-los-amores-son-como-los-cometas/
"La película que muestra que los amores son como los cometas: rápidos, torpes e inesperados."
"En la narración existen cuatro períodos atemporales que, si bien el espectador común pensaría que ha descifrado y ubicado en orden cronológico, pronto descubrirá que alguno, quizá, es el sueño de otro. Lo cierto es que todos estos escenarios se encuentran unidos por un único hecho: una lluvia de meteoritos ocurrida la noche en que Dell y Kimberly se conocieron. La escena del meritorio —deconstruida en segmentos regados a lo largo de la película— posee un sublime uso de los colores, cuya paleta e iluminación espacial adorna los diálogos más brillantes de la historia; un legado simbiótico entre la trilogía "Before", de Richard Linklater y "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind", de Michel Gondry."
"A pesar de que cada versión de la relación entre Dell y Kim es diferente, en todas existe ese imán que los hace no poder alejarse, como si no importara si es un sueño o vigilia; la conexión que los une es más fuerte que cualquier cosa, aún con las derrotas y fracasos anticipados, pues como diría Thom Yorke: "los soñadores nunca aprenden"."
https://www.reddit.com/r/MrRobot/comments/3jaa0x/can_we_talk_about_the_movie_comet_also_by_sam/
Calificación: Muy buena.
Vista: 15 de julio, 2017. - 19641h 35mPG8.4 (519K)97MetascoreDirectorStanley KubrickStarsPeter SellersGeorge C. ScottSterling HaydenAn unhinged American general orders a bombing attack on the Soviet Union, triggering a path to nuclear holocaust that a war room full of politicians and generals frantically tries to stop.Calificación: Muy buena.
Vista: 15 de julio, 2017. - DirectorJim SheridanStarsDaniel Day-LewisBrenda FrickerAlison WhelanChristy Brown, born with cerebral palsy, learns to paint and write with his only controllable limb - his left foot.https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/my-left-foot-1990
"Like many geniuses, he was not an easy man to live with, and the movie makes that clear in its brilliant opening scene."
"His novel Down all the Days and his other writings see Dublin street life with a clarity that is only possible because he was raised right in the middle of it and yet was always an outsider. As a painter, he saw Dublin in the same way: as a stage upon which people did things he was intimately familiar with and yet would never do himself."
http://cinefagosmuertos.com/criticas/especial-69-joyas-de-los-80-mi-pie-izquierdo/
"Day-Lewis became interested in the film when he read the opening scene, which features him, as Brown, using his left foot to place a record on a player and then placing a needle onto it so that it will play.[8] Lewis said of the scene: 'I knew it couldn't be done...and that intrigued me." Many scenes were filmed through a mirror, as Daniel Day-Lewis could only manipulate his right foot to perform the actions seen in the film. Day-Lewis spent some time preparing for the film at Christy Brown's alma mater in Dublin. He later returned there for a visit, with his Oscar."
-Wikipedia.
Calificación: Excelente.
Vista: 16 de julio, 2017. - DirectorAbel FerraraStarsChristopher WalkenDavid CarusoLaurence FishburneA drug kingpin is released from prison and seeks to take total control of the criminal underworld in order to give back to the community.No sabría decir qué, pero hubo algo de la película que no me convenció por completo y me resultó aburrida.
Wikipedia:
"According to Ferrara, Donald Trump gave him permission to film at the Plaza Hotel at no charge on condition that Walken would pose for a photograph with Ivana Trump, who is a fan of the actor."
"La producción y costos de la película fue financiada por aficionados importantes de Italia, entre ellos Silvio Berlusconi."
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/king-of-new-york-1990
"Instead of "Romeo and Juliet," this one recycles "Robin Hood," with Christopher Walken as a New York drug kingpin who wants to use his profits to pay the budget of a hospital for poor people. The Walken character never quite gets around to explaining precisely how he plans to set up his financing, and I am not sure any money actually goes to the poor and sick, but it's a good idea, anyway."
https://www.zinefilos.com/criticas/el-rey-de-nueva-york/
Calificación: Buena.
Vista: 17 de julio, 2017. - DirectorLukas MoodyssonStarsAlexandra DahlströmRebecka LiljebergErica CarlsonTwo teenage girls in small-town Sweden. Elin is beautiful, popular, and bored with life. Agnes is friendless, sad, and secretly in love with Elin.De Wikipedia:
"La película recibió muy buenas críticas a nivel internacional, incluyendo la del director Ingmar Bergman: "la primera obra maestra de un joven maestro"."
https://elpais.com/diario/1999/06/25/cvalenciana/930338307_850215.html
https://www.afterellen.com/movies/15784-review-of-show-me-love
Calificación: Buena.
Vista: 17 de julio, 2017. - DirectorJamie BabbitStarsNatasha LyonneClea DuVallMichelle WilliamsA naive teenager is sent to rehab camp when her straitlaced parents and friends suspect her of being a lesbian.https://observatorioplanners.wordpress.com/tag/but-im-a-cheerleader/
Pocas películas de este género, como “Habitación en Roma” han logrado abrirse paso en las carteleras; la mayoría son aclamadas en festivales de cine independiente y proyectadas en las grandes pantallas en festivales de cine LGBT.
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/but-im-a-cheerleader-2000
The danger signals are clear. Megan eats tofu, listens to Melissa Etheridge songs and has pillowcases decorated with Georgia O'Keeffe's gynecological flowers. She is obviously a lesbian. Another clue: When she kisses her boyfriend, she fantasizes about her fellow cheerleaders. Since kissing her boyfriend is something like having her tonsils cleaned by a Roto-Rooter, her fantasies can be explained, but not excused.
Calificación: Muy buena.
Vista: 19 de julio, 2017. - DirectorDarren AronofskyStarsSean GulletteMark MargolisBen ShenkmanA paranoid mathematician searches for a key number that will unlock the universal patterns found in nature.Cuántas veces voy a tener que ver esta película más adelante para entender tanta matemática.
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/pi-1998
The film “Pi” is a study in madness and its partner, genius.
He wants nothing to do with anybody. He writes programs, tests them, looks for the pattern, gets a 216-digit bug, stomps on his chips in a rage, and then begins to wonder about that bug. Exactly 216 digits. There is a theory among some Jewish scholars, he learns, that the name of God has 216 letters.
When you're looking for something that doesn't exist, it makes you crazier the closer you get to it.
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Film/Pi
http://www.cineypsicologia.com/2016/07/pi-fe-en-el-caos-darren-aronofsky-1998.html
Esta es una bonita metáfora que nos presagia lo que le suele ocurrir a aquel ser humano que quiere demostrar "el absoluto" y se obstina en ello, o cuya fascinación por encontrarlo le llevan a una búsqueda sin fín al querer descubrirlo y desentrañarlo de la realidad.
Luego, mientras pasea, narra su visión de la Naturaleza como números, y tras reflexionar en ese sentido sobre la bolsa le vemos ya sentado frente a su ordenador, de nombre Euclides.
https://www.polygon.com/2017/3/14/14923532/darren-aronofskys-pi-pi-day
https://movies.stackexchange.com/questions/59825/why-does-max-do-this-at-the-end-of-pi
http://www.abandomoviez.net/db/criticas.php?film=2991
http://www.sssm.com.ar/pi/
https://www.elcineenlasombra.com/pi-fe-en-el-caos-critica/
https://lavozenoff.net/2014/03/31/critica-pi-fe-en-el-caos/
http://psicoanalisisextension.blogspot.com/2013/01/pi-el-orden-del-caos-darren-aronofsky.html
Calificación: Muy buena.
Vista: 20 de julio, 2017. - DirectorJaromil JiresStarsJaroslava SchallerováHelena AnýzováPetr KoprivaSurreal tale in which love, fear, sex, and religion merge into one fantastic world. Based on a classical Czech novel of the same title.Tuve la suerte de encontrarme en Youtube con Sleeping Beauty, de Night Things, y a pesar de que casi nunca veo los videos de las canciones, este me llamó la atención y lo vi por completo. Me fijé en la descripción y dio la casualidad de que las escenas eran de una película checa llamada "Valerie and her Week of Wonders", y lo único que puedo decir es que si en algún momento llegaras a leer esta lista y si es que todavía me permitieras formar parte de tu vida y vos de la mía; es innegable que siempre coincidimos, de alguna u otra manera, aunque no sea físicamente.
-Ahora le guardo un cariño especial, gracias, Valeria.
-¿Por qué repiten tanto que es una película que se tiene que ver "por sí mismo"? ¿Debo suponer que al pertenecer al cine surrealista esperan múltiples interpretaciones ya que la película permite más puntos de vista subjetivos que objetivos?
-Es un ambiente de ensueño aunque no sabría decir si esto se debe a que ella esta soñando o que su despertar sexual es una alegoría a que está despertando de su inocencia y por eso interpreta el mundo de una manera distinta a lo que veía antes.
"This is the best "girl gets her period" film I've ever seen. The week she comes of age, Valerie sees sex through many lenses. It is a very confusing time for her, full of danger and sensuality.
The film makes great use of color and music. The entire feature has a dreamy quality, not least because of the relentless and uneven symbolic representations. This film should be shown to every teenage girl, who should then go back and watch it again and again as she ages." (Sacado de la primera reseña de Imdb)
https://www.filmaffinity.com/pe/reviews/1/254434.html
http://www.holasoyramon.com/blog/?tag=valerie-y-su-semana-de-las-maravillas
http://elcinefagodelalagunanegra.blogspot.com/2010/10/valerie-and-her-week-of-wonders-valerie.html
"El conjunto de imágenes me sedujo de manera inmediata de forma que me la compré sin pensarlo."
"La película contiene elementos eróticos muy inocentes, en el sentido que no están creados como herramienta de estimulación sexual sino como una manera simbólica de representar el despertar sexual de Valerie."
"me negaba a ver cualquier imagen o película referida a el, ya que amo el poder de la imaginación".
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/05/movies/homevideo/tom-jerry-and-valerie-and-her-week-of-wonders-cat-mouse-and-head-trip.html
“The film is a weird exercise, striking out boldly in the paths of Bergman, Fellini and Buñuel,” Howard Thompson wrote in The New York Times when “Valerie” opened, on a bill with the Soviet director Serge Paradjanov’s even more extravagantly trippy “Shadows of Our Forgotten Ancestors” at the Elgin Theater, then New York’s go-to venue for hippie, cult and midnight movies."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valerie_and_Her_Week_of_Wonders_(film)
"Krzyminska also noted that, although the film shared many similarities with soft-core pornographic films of the period, "it seeks a broader canvas in a blend of attributes drawn from both high and low culture."
https://film.avclub.com/maybe-ignore-our-grade-and-see-valerie-and-her-week-of-1798184236
"Comedy is notoriously subjective: You either find something funny or you don’t, and it isn’t always easy to articulate why or why not. Likewise, horror: It’s scary or not scary, largely determined by personal fears and phobias. Perhaps the most subjective “genre” of all, though (scare quotes because it’s really a style, not a genre), is surrealism. By their very nature, surrealistic or phantasmagorical films offer little to those who fail to connect with a specific, bizarre juxtaposition of images and ideas, aimed directly at the viewer’s central nervous system. There’s not much in the way of a middle ground when it comes to such works—one is either delighted and transfixed or bored to tears. Take a look at the reviews for any film by the likes of Alejandro Jodorowsky, Matthew Barney, or György Pálfi, to name a few extremely divisive figures."
"Even the film’s most Freudian symbolism—blood dripping on a daisy, for example, when Valerie gets her period for the first time (an image that Criterion chose to use as cover art)—is more about how she’s perceived by others than about how she herself feels."
"You know anyone who is intelligent doesn't need to be told to make up their own opinion on art. This review is just a mediocre explanation that all criticism, whether it be movie, music, or otherwise, is subjective. Instead of rehashing this basic "Film 101" drivel, this could have been an interesting piece had the writer simply presented an opinion on the film and placed this opinion within a context of his feelings towards other experiential work. As a critic it's about defining your own aesthetic preferences based on a variety of art you do or don't enjoy so the readers can compare their own aesthetic leanings to yours and make a decision as to weather the film is worth exploring to them. Assigning a grade, describing it dryly, and saying "go see it for yourself" is just a waste of space. Step up your game."
https://cinehouseuk.blogspot.com/2016/07/valerie-and-her-week-of-wonders-1970.html
"The film is surreal, bizarre and makes no sense at all in places, but it doesn't really matter. All that matters is the look of it, and the look of it is breath-takingly gorgeous."
https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/3610-valerie-and-her-week-of-wonders-grandmother-what-big-fangs-you-have
Calificación: Muy buena.
Vista: 21 de julio, 2017. - DirectorJames L. BrooksStarsShirley MacLaineDebra WingerJack NicholsonFollows hard-to-please Aurora looking for love and her daughter's family problems.https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/terms-of-endearment-1983
Calificación: Excelente.
Vista: 22 de julio, 2017. - DirectorDavid LynchStarsJack NanceCharlotte StewartAllen JosephHenry Spencer tries to survive his industrial environment, his angry girlfriend, and the unbearable screams of his newly born mutant child.En conclusión: Puede que el misterio de Eraserhead sea el silencio de Lynch, ya que quizás tiene un significado mucho menor al que él está llevando a la audiencia a creer y que durante tantos años ha estado reacio a responder. Tal vez el gran misterio de Eraserhead radica en que en realidad no hay un gran trasfondo detrás de la película. Al igual que La Esfinge sin secreto, de Oscar Wilde.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eraserhead
"Shot in black and white, Eraserhead is Lynch's first feature-length film, following several short works."
"The surrealist imagery and sexual undercurrents have been seen as key thematic elements, and the intricate sound design as its technical highlight."
"Skal also posits a different characterization of the Lady in the Radiator, casting her as "desperately eager for an unseen audience's approval".[39] In his book David Lynch Decoded, Mark Allyn Stewart proposes that the Lady in the Radiator is in fact Spencer's subconscious, a manifestation of his own urge to kill his child, who embraces him after he does so, as if to reassure him that he has done right."
"Spencer displays a pacifistic and fatalistic inactivity throughout the film, simply allowing events to unfold around him without taking control."
"Buckley called Eraserhead "murkily pretentious", and felt that the film's horror aspects stemmed solely from the appearance of the deformed child rather than from its script or performances."
"Rosenbaum felt that the director's artistic talent declined as his popularity grew, and contrasted the film with Wild at Heart—Lynch's most recent feature film at that time—saying "even the most cursory comparison of Eraserhead with Wild at Heart reveals an artistic decline so precipitous that it is hard to imagine the same person making both films"."
"David Lynch's surreal Eraserhead uses detailed visuals and a creepy score to create a bizarre and disturbing look into a man's fear of parenthood."
"(...)the reviewer's own take on these themes were that they represented a fear of personal commitment and featured "a strong sexual undercurrent"."
"film-maker Marc Evans praised both the sound design and Lynch's ability "to make the ordinary seem so odd"."
"Dargis felt that the film's imagery evoked the paintings of Francis Bacon and the Georges Franju 1949 documentary Blood of the Beasts."
"While working on The Elephant Man, Lynch met American director Stanley Kubrick, who revealed to Lynch that Eraserhead was his favorite film.[79] Eraserhead also served as an influence on Kubrick's 1980 film The Shining; Kubrick reportedly screened the film for the cast and crew to "put them in the mood" that he wanted the film to achieve."
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/mar/22/david-lynch-eraserhead
The thing about Eraserhead is that it never gets less disturbing, never loses the sense of a small but indelible psychic trauma.
While its near-contemporary in urban paranoia, Taxi Driver, doubles as an archive record of New York in the filthy heatwave 70s, Eraserhead is a slideshow of nothing but the brain of David Lynch
https://craigbahiafilms.wordpress.com/2015/10/05/eraserhead-baby-what-was-that-thing/
http://welcometotwinpeaks.com/lynch/eraserhead-has-a-positive-message/
But in a recent interview, David Lynch states that, to date, no one has come up with his interpretation of Eraserhead. While there are many theories about the film, none of them reflect his personal vision for it. Therefore, the film must be more than an exploration of the horrors of child-rearing. Lynch’s true intention remains a mystery.
avid Lynch describes the film as “A dream of dark and troubling things.” I would emphasize the word “dream” in this synopsis. I believe the film takes place entirely within the mind and that everything we see represents the way Henry’s mind works.
http://www.vulture.com/2014/09/david-lynch-interview-eraserhead-midnight-movies.html
http://mentalfloss.com/article/93391/12-hair-raising-facts-about-eraserhead
Eraserhead was in production for five years, largely because Lynch kept running out of money. He relied on AFI, his parents, and several friends for financial support, and picked up one other unusual source of funding
Tom Buckley at The New York Times was no fan, either. He dubbed it a “murkily pretentious shocker” with an “excruciatingly slow pace.”
BUT MEL BROOKS LOVED IT.
http://filmconnoisseur.blogspot.com/2013/11/david-lynchs-eraserhead-explained.html
Sometimes a David Lynch film will be so surreal that you’ll want to see it again instantly! Or not. You see, Lynch is a very polarizing director, you either fall in love with his style of filmmaking or you don’t. I personally love Lynch’s films because of how challenging they are. I like films that defy me to interpret them, I love films loaded with symbolisms and Lynch’s films are like that. Eraserhead for example is one of those films that everyone always tries to figure out after seeing.
You gotta worry about earning enough money to give the child everything it needs. Once a baby is born, you sacrifice a lot of yourself in order to take care of that child and if you are not ready for that in your life, you will more than likely be miserable. In Eraserhead, the child never stops crying, never stops being hungry; it is a constant nag in Henry’s life.
The energies in this room are so awful that the lights begin to flicker on and off (as they often do in a Lynch film when things are too intense)
I find that with David Lynch films it's best to watch them and let them wash over you. Don't try to figure it out as you watch, just take all the imagery in. Then take some time to ponder it and come up with your theory on the themes and ideas in the film. It is a lot less frustrating that way.
I love his stuff, and he has such a wonderful visual style and uses some really interesting symbols in all his films. "Eraserhead" is certainly one of his most obtuse films ("Inland Empire" is right behind it). I don't watch it very often, but I always get something new out of the experience.
First, rather than choking before the end scene, i think the baby is "laughing" at Henry because of his perceived inadequacy with the neighbor next door.
Also, what did you think of the Lady in the Radiator embracing Henry at the end? Was she saying he made the right choice? Or was it his subconscious consoling him for his hard decision?
Very good interpretation that comes close to the way I interpret the film! One thing I never thought of before was the Judge and jury scenario with the baby saying "off with his head" and then his head being made into erasers as a way to try to erase what has happened. It makes much more sense to me now so thanks for sharing your viewpoint! I love Eraserhead, I have seen about 500 films and it is one of my top ten favorites.
Yeah, Eraserhead is certainly not for everyone! But it does have its admirers and fans, it's a cult classic for a reason!
I just watched for the first time and noticed that when x is leaving to go home she spends quite a bit of time at the end of the bed looking through the metal bed frame which resembles jail bars while trying to retrieve the suitcase with her personal belongings. Perhaps this portrays the feeling of being trapped as a mother, as if in jail with a constant crying child, so she leaves to go home
I admit that his film is like a puzzle that need to be solve and I'm glad that you are very eager to solve those.
Glad you enjoyed the article Mary, I love analyzing Lynch's films...just when I think I've got it figured out...some new element pops up!
I agree with your over view completely except for the chocking scene. I took It as the baby actually laughing at Henery. Witch in turn let Henery believe that the baby actualy wasn't a good baby on the inside ether. As if it's inner spirit was just as ugly as it's grotesque outer appearance.
I also took from the pencil factory scene that the inspector testing out the eraserhead, then giving the ok it's good look was validation that Henery was healthy and sane for think this way. That his nightmare was normal to be concerned about the situation or emotion being felt.
I think the entirety of the gas heater moments are probably more contemplation of suicide, myself. (Probably because the sounds that override during these scenes are akin to a gas leak). Especially with the song "In heaven, everything is fine..." So thus I interpret the scenes where touching her results in flashes of light as edging towards suicide (Possibly self-harm?) and the embrace at the end as him actually...doing it. (Leer todo el comentario)
I like the points Tucumcari has made as well as Frank Rieses's, the thing about this movie is of course that it can mean many things to many different people, it's all in the eye of the beholder, which is I'm sure why some points are left ambiguous by Lynch. He doesn't explain everything, so we can come up with our own explanations.
Frank, I like your points about Henry's deceased world, Lynch was going for that aesthetic, a world made sick by industrialism, by the smoke from the factories. In Eraserhead, Henry lives in a sick deceased society, where the results are people giving birth to deformed equally deceased children. Also agree, Henry and Mary and her family (especially the father) do seem to be mentally unstable as well, again a product of the crazy world they live in.
But if one interprets it in an abstract symbolism then all weirdness make sense and even enjoyable in a different way but one has to reframe it to like otherwise it's just plain bizarre and surrealistic experience out of someone's strange dream (nightmare). I believe it's boil down to David having uneasiness about his own fatherhood & possibly not confronting to his child's clubfoot disorder. But it's very surrealistic & strange experience. It's certainly not for everyone.
If you notice, the lady in the radiator seems to have testicles on her cheeks. To me she represented Henry's libido. After he had sex with the neighbor, the sperm rained down around the radiator woman and she stepped on them.... like she was getting rid of them as he ejaculated. He seems to visit the radiator woman whenever he is uptight (when he has a bad day, when his wife wont let him touch her, etc) to represent him masterbating or having sex.
I was not so enthusiastic about this film. I felt the surrealism was inaccessible to someone like myself, who does not care about being challenged to interpret a film. The technical aspects of the film were great, from the black & white photography to the sounds that underscore every scene. However, I find the use of surrealism to be a bit pretentious and much prefer a straightforward narrative style.
Great analysis! There's just one point I couldn't completely figured out: what on earth does it mean the girl's mother licking Henry's neck while confronting him? Was this really necessary? What do you think?
(Leer todos los comentarios de la reseña)
http://eraserhead-interpretation.blogspot.com/ (todo el artículo estudiarlo)
https://film.avclub.com/david-lynch-s-eraserhead-remains-one-of-cinema-s-most-u-1798181330
At one point, Henry’s head falls off and is carried by a young boy to a pencil factory, where it’s made into erasers; this explains the title, and thus is perhaps the film’s most readily comprehensible sequence.
(In general, Eraserhead sports the most disturbing sound design in cinema history, courtesy of Lynch and Alan Splet.)
Also included in the package is “Eraserhead” Stories, a feature-length making-of documentary in which Lynch predictably ducks any and all questions about the film’s meaning or creative genesis, though he’s more than happy to recount his memories of the extended shoot (which took several years, on and off, during the entirety of which Nance, a real trooper, retained Henry’s ludicrous hairstyle). Honestly, this isn’t a film that benefits from a slew of behind-the-scenes info. It doesn’t even necessarily benefit from a Blu-ray release, gorgeous though this one looks. See Eraserhead once and it’ll lodge itself firmly in some dank recess of your brain and refuse to vacate. Owning a copy is just a technicality.
https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/19g7eb/what_is_eraserhead_all_about/
Anyways, my point it, not everything he chooses to do has to have meaning behind it.
Yeah, He's never directly said the exact details of the movie, but he's mentioned it's about his early years living with his wife in Philadelphia, where his apartment was a in and around industrial complexes/factories, which directly mirrors the dystopian enviroment the film takes place in.
Furthermore, you can really see how much of Henry mirrors a young Lynch in a ton of scenes. A awkward, weird guy in which everything seems foreign and strange around him, unable to communicate to his girlfriends parents and completely out of his comfort zone at all times, as well as living in a situation he never wanted and constantly dreams of a fantasy world where he's happy. Smaller things like the artificial chickens mirror the dark ages of the nuclear family/cold war environment of the 50s/60s in the time Lynch was growing up.
But a heads up, Lynch has never clarified ANY of his movies and likely never will, and I imagine even if someone guessed it correct he'd say its wrong, because that's just the type of guy he is.
I get the sense with a lot of directors, that the movie in and of itself is the entire artistic statement. Since any ambiguity is deliberate, any clarification would be a distortion of the intended message.
Henry is an unreliable narrator and a push-over of sorts, he doesn't affect the story in any remarkable way and (as shown in the dinner scene, when cutting his food) he is afraid of messing things up. He is terrified of the consequences of each action and so does nothing, even if it affects his life.
People seem to be mistaken and think that Eraser head was something he made with a clear idea behind it. If you know David Lynch at all as a film maker he works primarily out of his subconscious. Through many interviews he has, he talks about ideas and being able to reach out to them and present them to the world.
Eraser head is another idea. He has his own interpretation of the film that he isn't going to share with anyone but the true beauty of the film is that you are supposed to come up with your own. Almost everyone that I have talked to has had their own idea about it. It personifies how he feels about ideas and how he believes people should reach out to their creative thoughts and express it.
So there is probably some sort of idea he went into the film with but when it came down to it there were many scenes he made that I'm sure he didn't even understand and the result was a work of art which is meant to be absorbed not dissected.
Now not all of his work is like this. Aside from being a very talented and intriguing artist he is also a very fabulous director. Blue Velvet is probably a great example of his finest work. The academy recognized his achievement with a nomination for best director. He has a talent with visual story telling and as director his work should be examined from a filmmakers point of view. However while he has made some incredibly successful films he has also made some negatively received ones. Dune being one and Fire Walk with me being another. Lynch is a very interesting artist and has explored all different types of works but the thing is certain that no matter what you see from him he doesn't want you to worry about what he thinks. He want's you to only worry about what you think and maybe what he created can help inspire you or at the least intrigue you.
Well, Lynch stated several times that he does have a clear idea about Eraserhead's meaning, and that a Bible quotation (that he's now forgotten) makes the film's meaning clear.
Esto podría servirme para argumentar a favor de la película:
-You know, if you've made a film, and hundreds of different people have shared their interpretation of it, and they're all "wrong", that doesn't make you clever or a genius or something, it means you're a shit film maker. You've clearly failed to get any sort of message across. A filmmakers goal is to communicate something through the medium of film.
-This is the worst comment I've ever read. Everything you said, except "A filmmakers goal is to communicate something through the medium of film" fails to communicate effectively anything but a misunderstanding of cinema. And it comes off as stupid, because Lynch communicates fuck loads of information through his films. Just because you're too dense to think for yourself, doesn't mean that's not what is being done.
https://www.espinof.com/criticas/david-lynch-cabeza-borradora-ninos-deformes-y-mentes-grotescas
https://criticasdeluiscifer.blogspot.com/2011/02/in-heaven-eraserhead.html
Henry es un ser alienado, sin personalidad, incapaz de actuar ante un mundo feo y gris. Un personaje que se deja controlar por las circunstancias, su esposa le dominan y anula. Él sólo puede soñar con un mundo mejor mientras mira a un radiador. Entiendo que el protagonista se ve inmerso en una pesadilla en la que Lynch acaba atrapando también al espectador. Ese final en el que la cabeza del protagonista sirve de materia prima para hacer una goma de borrar es unos de los finales más desconcertantes que recuerdo. Supongo que Lynch querría hacernos ver que su protagonista es un ser tan anulado por la sociedad que sólo sirve para hacer gomas de borrar. La implacable sociedad post-industrial y la familia tradicional se unen para anular al individuo.
El cine de David Lynch a veces nos regala momentos sublimes en los que la unión de imagen y sonido es algo mágico. La canción In heaven me tiene fascinado desde que vi esta escena. No es una gran canción, pero tiene ese punto infantil y a la vez perverso que luego Lynch desarrollaría con la ayuda de Angelo Badalamenti. Nunca entendí (ni falta que hace) qué pinta esta chica cantando esta canción dentro de un radiador, supongo que será una fantasía del protagonista que anhela llegar a ese cielo que cita la canción en el cual conseguirá lo que quiere, sea lo que sea. Por cierto, The pixies hicieron una estupenda versión.
-De la primera reseña de Imdb (aquí habría otra teoría):
-Some have suggested it is based after a nuclear holocaust, but nothing is explained to any conclusion.
Calificación: Excelente.
Vista: 3 de agosto, 2017. - DirectorGéza von RadványiStarsLilli PalmerRomy SchneiderTherese GiehseIn a strict Prussian boarding school for girls, sensitive student Manuela von Meinhardis develops a forbidden love to one of her teachers, the compassionate Elisabeth von Bernburg.-No recuerdo en dónde leí que la película de 1931 era mejor que esta, por lo que tendría que ver la de ese año para poder compararlas.
-Bloomington y Loving Annabelle son películas que abordan una trama bastante similar y aunque ninguna me gustó, Mädchen in Uniform es mejor considerando la época en la que fue realizada y la temática que tocaron, esto hace que la salve al menos un poco aunque por lo demás, si no fuera por eso la consideraría mala.
De las reseñas de Imdb:
-This remake of a classic from the early 1930s clearly remains one of the most unusual and bold films made in post-war Germany, brought to life by three remarkable actresses: Romy Schneider, Lilli Palmer and Therese Giehse.
The story of an orphaned teenager (Schneider) whose passionate love for her teacher (Palmer) becomes scandalous and culminates into a tragedy was by no means a critical or commercial success when it came to the screen in 1958. I guess the homosexual (lesbian) content was too much to take for an audience which was used to more common and likable subjects. Today, "Mädchen in Uniform" deserves to be rediscovered and cherished as a minor masterpiece. The acting alone is of sheer brilliance; Blandine Ebinger, Sabine Sinjen, Christine Kaufmann and Adelheid Seeck support the three leading ladies superbly.
Stage veteran Therese Giehse, muse to writers like Brecht and Dürrenmatt and long-time lover of Erika Mann, is electrifying in one of her few movie appearances. Lilli Palmer, who began her career in Hitchcock's "Secret Agent" and became a Broadway and Hollywood star in the 1940s, puts all her charm into her enchanting portrayal of Fräulein von Bernburg, the understanding teacher whose tender loving care is misunderstood disastrously. Romy Schneider surprised everybody including herself with her performance which for the first time required her to do a little more than being just the sweet, innocent Viennese girl. After this, her 13th film, she went abroad to become an internationally acclaimed character actress, working with directors like Visconti, Welles, Preminger, Dassin, and, later, Claude Sautet.
-I got to know this film through an extract of the famous kiss scene, but I felt this short part already so powerful and sensual that I immediately wanted to see all of it.
A film should be valued for what it is, independently of the fact that is a remake or not. The original Madchen in Uniform was banned and censored for decades, most of the copies were even destroyed by Nazis; we are not even sure today that the remaining material is fully the original one. Making a remake of it, in color, with contemporary and appreciated actresses, was absolutely topical and courageous, and the resulting indignation showed perfectly that the main theme was not only taboo in 1910 and 1931 but still in 1958.
For me, this film is much more about love than about sexuality between women. In this boarding school, where the only man is a small photography in one of the lockers, who wouldn't love the only kind and understanding person? At least a loving mother" for all the children (think about the good night kiss scene), but much more for a few of the girls. By nature, homosexuality is indeed a logical response to the monosexuality of this place, and for Manuela, women seem the only gender she has ever known. For Ms. Bernburg, young and obviously missing a sentimental relation, it's rather the only present gender, and Manuela is the first person to declare love to her.
Romy Schneider, already a star after Sissi's landmark role, was brave to opt for such a mature theme and talent-requiring character. Beautiful, captivating, and at the same time so naturally innocent and childish.
Original German language adds to the Prussian harshness feeling, scenic sequences are followed by ingenious shadows & lights parts, but above all it's the eminent acting that enchants the viewer, making us completely forget that the often so important soundtrack is simply missing. Take time for the film, many sequences are worth watching and analyzing several times. Madchen in Uniform is not only a must see it's a must have!
-Still, despite Romy Schneider playing the main character, this film here is probably still not as famous as the old black-and-white film. The reason, however, is not that this one here is worse, but that the old film back then was just very brave in terms of the political climate shortly before the Nazis' rise to power.
https://mcatala.com/2015/01/04/resena-madchen-in-uniform/
Porque aquí lo que se presenta en realidad es la contraposición entre dos mundos: el de la férrea educación prusiana (encarnado por la directora del colegio y por su mano derecha) y el de la educación más moderna, joven y humana (representado por Von Bernburg y la profesora de inglés, la señorita Evans).
Aunque la peli no aborde la relación amorosa entre ellas, y se encargue de dejar claro que los derroteros no van por ahí, si hay bastante subtexto o contenido simbólico
Sin embargo, tengo entendido que la versión original, la de 1931, es más crítica y más atrevida. Y es lo que espero comprobar en breve.
https://depthsofcinema.wordpress.com/2014/07/14/gay-icon-romy-schneider/
Calificación: Buena.
Vista: 4 de agosto, 2017. - DirectorKonstantin ErshovGeorgiy KropachyovAleksandr PtushkoStarsLeonid KuravlyovNatalya VarleyAleksey GlazyrinA young priest is ordered to preside over the wake of witch in a small old wooden church of a remote village. This means spending three nights alone with the corpse with only his faith to protect him.-Esta es considerada la primera película de terror rusa?
http://terrorfantastic.blogspot.com/2012/06/viy-espiritu-del-mal-viy-1967.html
El cine fantástico y de terror ruso es un gran desconocido. Yo al menos no tengo más recuerdo que un puñado de títulos diversos, por ejemplo: Aelita (1926) de Yakov Protazanov, un film mudo realizado en la edad de oro del cine soviético. O las dos más conocidas del director Andrei Tarkovsky, Solaris (1972) y Stalker (1979), ambas adaptando a la pantalla a dos de los mejores autores de ciencia ficción del por aquel entonces denominado telón de acero: el polaco Stanislaw Lem y los hermanos Arkadi y Boris Strugatski, respectivamente. Actualmente tenemos también las espectaculares producciones de Timur Bekmambetov: Guardianes de la Noche y su secuela Guardianes del Día. Y aunque poco a poco se sucede un goteo de nuevas películas del género (por ahora no especialmente remarcables), poco más conozco del cine made in Russia.
Por eso no he podido resistirme a comentar esta película, uno de los primeros films de terror ruso: Viy.
Así y hasta su desenlace, Viy obsequia al espectador con una atmósfera irreal, onírica e inclasificable, sólo reconocible en films de una maravillosa identidad visual propia como La Bella y la Bestia (La Belle et la Bête, 1946) de Jean Cocteau o Una invencion diabólica (Vynález Zkázy, 1958) de Karel Zeman.
La película la dirigen G. Kropachyov y K. Yershov bajo la supervisión de Aleksandr Ptushko, conocido como el Walt Disney de la Unión Soviética y todo un experto en la realización de films familiares y de animación. La mayor parte de la cinta posee una realización estática y muy clásica, deudora de los grandes logros del cine soviético del periodo mudo. Sin embargo, esa rigidez se pierde en las escenas del interior de la capilla abandonada. Allí los directores dan rienda suelta a su creatividad, dotando a la cámara de mayor protagonismo a través de travellings.
http://www.thisishorror.co.uk/see-horror/film-reviews/viy-1967/
The supporting cast are a gallery of grotesques who look like they’ve stumbled out of a painting by Goya or Brueghel senior.
The scenes of Khoma’s three-night vigil are as good as anything being produced in western horror cinema at the time.
With just one night left, the witch calls on all the powers of evil at her. All manner of imps and demons appear, some crawling down the walls of the church like the orcs of Moria in Peter Jackson’s Fellowship of the Ring. In many ways Viy has much in common with Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead films of nearly twenty years later, as both feature similarly dizzying camera work, boundless energy and simply refuse to acknowledge the technical limitations placed on them.
All this frenetic over-indulgence does have one downside. The Viy himself – the ultimate spirit of evil – makes for a rather underwhelming and laughable creation when he finally puts in an appearance. But by then maybe you, like Georgi and Konstantin, are having too much fun to really care.
http://sospechososcinefagos.blogspot.com/2011/06/viy-1967.html
En las primeras imágenes que pude ver de este film ya me percaté de sus claras diferencias con el cine que frecuentemente consumimos. Una fotografía diferente, una forma de interpretar alejada de lo estándar y sobre todo, una historia que no se asemeja a nada que me venga en mente. Este trabajo cinematográfico soviético llamado "VIY" (en oros sitios, VJY) de finales de los 60 traslada el cuento de Nikolai Gogol (lo siento, me salté esa clase, no le conocía) a la gran pantalla con un interesante aliento de fábula y al parecer, una admirable recreación de su original, (aunque hablo desde la ignorancia, ya que no he visto en mi vida el de Nikolai).
Gran parte del metraje es en exteriores, en campos abiertos, en la posada de la vieja arpía, en el colegio sacerdotal...pero solo en el último tercio, en el interior de la iglesia, es cuando realmente alcanza el clímax fílmico, creando un impresionante contexto ancestral con una excelente ambientación de terror comedido. Esos veinte minutos finales representan ya uno de los momentos más extrañamente divertidos de mi bagaje cinematográfico, y jamás hubiera pensado que vendría de una película rusa de los 60.
https://www.filmaffinity.com/pe/reviews/1/236417.html
-Viy está narrada con el espíritu de los cuentos viejos, de aquellos que se contaban alrededor de la lumbre cuando la radio o la televisión eran inimaginables. Recuerda a las leyendas de Bécquer o a los grabados de Goya. Está dotada de una sugerente imaginería y aderezada con las costumbres de la época, con las creencias en brujas, demonios y demás seres de la noche. Sin embargo Viy no es una película de terror, porque a diferencia de las referencias que he expuesto, ésta posee un sentido del humor socarrón e irreverente que relaja mucho la historia; además, el aire desenfadado con el que está rodada la acerca más a un cuento fantástico que a una historia macabra. En el plano técnico se pueden ver las limitaciones de la década, con unos efectos visuales muy artesanos y una puesta en escena histriónica y exagerada.
En definitiva, es una película curiosa para ser vista, tal vez, como si de un guiñol se tratara; básicamente como lo que es: la representación de un cuento.
-La imagen de la película tiene algo de la estética de las producciones de la Hammer, pero todo con una atmosfera de iconografía rusa, iglesia ortodoxa, zonas y costumbres rurales de la Rusia decimonónica que le dan un toque exótico que me recordaba en ocasiones a las inquietantes ilustraciones de Vania Zouravliov o a las pinturas mas oscuras de Goya.
Mario Bava se basó en este mismo cuento de Nikolai Gogol, para su conocida película con Barbara Steele, La máscara del diablo (La maschera del demonio o Black Sunday, 1960)
http://www.ferdyonfilms.com/2016/viy-1967/28933/
“Viy” was a tribute to the wealth of history and traditions of rural Ukraine and southern Russia and the people who live there, particularly the Cossack nations.
When Viy was filmed in 1967, it was the first horror film ever produced in the Soviet Union.
Viy is rife with black humour mediating the onslaughts of supernatural menace, with a streak of anti-clerical and socially critical humour that squarely mocks institutions of Russian society held as old, decrepit, and outmoded under the Soviets.
where the ultimate evil is a creature that can see all, as long as it can keep its eyes open.
Once she gets him outside, she grabs a broom and levitates, carrying him under her legs, for a flight across the countryside reminiscent of Faust’s journey with Mephistopheles in F.W. Murnau’s 1926 film of that story.
This aspect of Viy has a certain thematic similarity to Hiroshi Teshigahara’s Woman in the Dunes (1964), as an outsider finds himself trapped and pressganged into meeting the needs of a tiny, virtually forgotten community on the fringes of civilisation. A quality in Gogol’s writing that anticipated the later emergence of surrealism, the Theatre of the Absurd, and the peculiar imaginings of Franz Kafka is also detectable. Khoma’s situation plays like an inversion of Kafka’s The Castle, in which the protagonist can’t escape being locked in rather than locked out (Dead Souls pivots on a similarly surreal notion, a plot to make money from serfs who are literally dead, but alive in a bureaucratic and financial sense). Meanwhile, the ritualistic structure of the churchman repeatedly going into battle with an evil force that possesses a young girl anticipates The Exorcist (1973), although that film’s iron-cast moral certainties are mocked well beforehand as the representative of holy certitude here is hardly an ideal avatar, and his battle against evil is more like an extended, drunken attempt to simply weather the storm. Ershov and Kropachyov play up the sardonic side of Gogol’s tale in regards to religion and also social power evinced by various forms of elder, be it the Rector who sends Khoma off gruffly to his fate, or the boyar who forces Khoma to do his bidding. In the style of the morality-play quality apparent in many a real folk tale, Khoma represents hypocrisy, drunkenness, and self-indulgence.
Although very different in style with its breezy, straightforward storytelling to the more esoteric aesthetics of Andrei Tarkovsky and Sergei Paradjanov, two of Soviet cinema’s highest-profile talents of the day, Viy shares a spirit in common with their works nonetheless, for it tries to convey an authentically folkloric vision and a quintessence of one corner of the cultural inheritance. That’s the part of the psychic landscape within that inheritance, where the collective memory has hazy fringes, the place where ancestors lived and the things they took to be trye still takes on a type of reality, if only in the freakish fancies lurk and the monstrosities parents use to keep their children in line in grimly prophetic parables. The Viy itself, although made up by Gogol, has exactly that quality of something plucked out of a bedtime boogeyman tale. The actual root for the creation is, perhaps ironically, thought to be the Christian Saint John Cassian the Unmerciful, a religious hero who strangely gained a quality close to demonic in later folklore because of his reputation of extremely harsh judgement, and who had similarly incisive, excoriating vision that nonetheless was only selectively uncovered when he brushed back his long hair. Fittingly, Ershov and Kropachyov’s aesthetic in Viy’s fantasy sequences is rooted in stage pantomime and magic-lantern shows, rejecting the realism that was just starting to become dominant in Western horror cinema. Ershov, Kropachyov, and Ptushko utilise the space of the village church as a theatrical space where illusionism reigns. The old wooden carvings and creepy icons painted on the walls and carefully manipulated candle lighting sets the scene, surveyed upon first entrance by the slowly pivoting camera movements, like a bullring or battleground in a Sergio Leone film, ideal for the basic spiritual conflict all the infrastructure of the settled, Christian world is supposed to hold at bay. Stray cats and birds suddenly scuttle through the old, creepy space.
The mounting spectacle of Khoma’s vigils starts with the witch girl climbing out of her coffin and searching for him, whilst Khoma has, in obedience to Ukrainian folk ritual, drawn a magic chalk circle about the lectern from which he reads Bible quotes. The witch is blind to him and held out of the circle, meaning she can only frantically slaw at the invisible barricade, before the cock’s crow drives her back into her coffin. The second night sees the witch levitating her coffin and trying to use it to bash her way through the circle, flying around the church as if in her own personal zero-gravity dodgem car, whilst Khoma bellows panicky prayers and tosses boots at her. When she fails she curses him, leaving him momentarily blind and also with his hair turned snowy white. Moments of pure fairytale strangeness flit by, like a tear of blood sliding down Pannochka’s face as she lies on her bier. The staging in these scenes conveys both a sense of absurdist humour in the confrontations between terrified churchman and vengeful witch, and crescendo of the beguiling strangeness of the supernatural as envisioned here, with the camerawork suddenly turning frantic and aggressive, as when Pannochka furiously stalks around the limits of Khoma’s protective circle, and the sight of her trying to bash through the barrier with her flying coffin. These scenes also get a kick out of the peculiar manifestation of evil in the form of Varley’s pale-faced, dark-eyed teenage witch, a lovely visage possessed of a wilful desire to destroy Khoma. She anticipates Linda Hayden’s flower-decked pagan priestess in The Blood on Satan’s Claw (1970) in embodying malevolence with the most seemingly innocent, beguiling surface imaginable.
The sarcastic punch-line for all this sees Khoma’s two friends Khaliava and Gorobets back at the seminary, working on restoring artworks and supping vodka on the sly as they try to work out why Khoma failed in his vigil, eventually deciding he didn’t believe in his own spiritual authority enough to fight off the evil, when a true holy man would have simply commanded the monsters to go. Talk about Monday morning quarter-backing. Viy certainly never exactly goes for pulse-pounding horror, more a spry and mordant frisson that evokes the way you get scared when you’re six years old. It’s a delightful annex of the horror genre nonetheless.
(A decir verdad, todo ese artículo vale la pena)
Calificación: Muy buena.
Vista: 4 de agosto, 2017. - DirectorRian JohnsonStarsJoseph Gordon-LevittLukas HaasEmilie de RavinA teenage loner pushes his way into the underworld of a high school crime ring to investigate the disappearance of his ex-girlfriend.-¿Qué es exactamente el cine negro-noir)
Sacado de la primera reseña de Imdb:
He does this for his own means, with a stoicism that hearkens back to Bogart's Sam Spade.
We open with the stare of our protagonisthard and piercing, yet on the verge of tearseyes slowly welling up as he peers down on a motionless body, facedown in a tunnel's steady, flowing stream. This is film noir at its best: wrong men and notorious women.
If you love film noir of the 50's, 60's, and 70's check Brick out while you can. (Tendría que fijarme cuáles son todas estas películas para realmente poder comparar, al parecer lo "innovador" de esta película es que son adolescentes, aunque sinceramente no es algo que logre llamar mi atención solo por eso).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brick_(film)
The origins of Brick were Rian Johnson's obsessions with Dashiell Hammett's novels.[1] Hammett was known for hardboiled detective novels, and Johnson wanted to make a straightforward American detective story. He had discovered Hammett's work through an interview of the Coen brothers about their 1990 gangster film, Miller's Crossing. He read Red Harvest (1929) and then moved on to The Maltese Falcon (1930) and The Glass Key (1931), the latter of which had been the main influence for the Coens' film.[4] Johnson had grown up watching detective films and film noir. Reading Hammett's novels inspired him to make his own contribution.[4] He realized that this would result in a mere imitation and set his piece in high school to keep things fresh.
He encouraged the cast to read Hammett but not to watch any noir films, because he did not want them influencing their performances.
Johnson cited Sergio Leone Spaghetti Westerns and Shinichiro Watanabe's Cowboy Bebop (1998) as influences on his visualization of the film.
He has also stated that many of the film's visual cues were taken from the neo-noir Chinatown (1974) with its wide-open flat spaces.
https://film.avclub.com/the-mastery-of-brick-s-opening-annotated-by-writer-dir-1798236802
The first time I saw Brick, at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, I went in planning to walk out after half an hour. Nothing against the movie, about which I knew only the basic premise; as a Bugsy Malone fan from childhood, I was more than ready to roll with high-school Dashiell Hammett. No, the problem was a scheduling conflict: The movie I was most excited about that year, Thomas Vinterberg’s Dear Wendy, started about an hour after Brick did. There was no way I was gonna miss Dear Wendy. (Yeah, I know that sounds weird now. It made sense then, several years after Vinterberg’s The Celebration.) But I had time to kill, so I figured I’d look in on this goofy little stunt, and if it showed any promise, then I could try to catch the whole thing later on. I grabbed a seat on the aisle to facilitate a quick escape, and set my phone’s timer to remind me via silent vibration when it was time to bail. (prácticamente esta es la misma duración de tiempo de prueba que me he establecido yo para no estar perdiendo el tiempo en películas que novalgan la pena, por más que no me guste dejarlas empezadas)
Rian Johnson: As far as drum-beating goes, I am and always will be Nathan’s Neil Peart. So many of the pivotal scenes in the three movies we’ve made together work on the screen because of what Nathan brought to them. The theme he uses here (he called it “Emily’s Theme”) is still my favorite of his; it not only elevates the scene with a melancholy weight, but sets the tone for the movie as a whole.
I know that when I see something traumatic, I don’t really process it in the moment, but I store it with an intense amount of detail and then watch the memory of it very carefully.
That clean delivery is also very much in keeping with Hammett’s writing style—short bursts of information, no words wasted. I was so in love with his writing that I wrote the first draft of Brick as a prose novella, imitating his writing style in hopes that it would shape the storytelling. But Hammett aside, I also just love that clean meting out of information piece by piece as a filmmaking technique.
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/brick-2006
What is the audience for this movie? It is carrying on in its own lifetime a style of film that was dead before it was born. Are teenage moviegoers familiar with movies like "The Maltese Falcon"? Do they know who Humphrey Bogart was? Maybe it doesn't matter. They're generally familiar with b&w classics on cable, and will understand the strategy: The students inhabit personal styles from an earlier time.
This mixing of styles and ages has been done before. Alan Parker's "Bugsy Malone" (1976) was a 1930s gangster movie cast with pre-teen kids (including Jodie Foster). Once you accepted the idea, it worked, and so does "Brick." The crucial decision by writer-director Rian Johnson is to play it straight; this isn't a put-on, and the characters don't act as if they think their behavior is funny.
The victim is Emily (Emilie de Ravin), who called him earlier for help; from a lonely phone booth (itself a relic of pre-cellular movies) he sees her being taken past in a car, possibly a captive.
Brendan turns into a classic 1930s gumshoe, tracing her movements back through a high school drug ring and ignoring threats from a high school principal who tries to pull him off the case (this is the role police captains filled in old private eye movies). True to the genre that inspired it, the movie has tough and dippy dames, an eccentric crime kingpin, some would-be toughs who can be slapped around like Elisha Cook Jr. in "The Maltese Falcon," and an enigmatic know-it-all. This last character was, in the old days, an informer, bookie or newspaper reporter often found in the shadows of a bar; in "Brick," he apparently exists permanently while sitting against a back wall of the high school, from which vantage point he sees and knows, or guesses, everything.
Does the movie work on its own terms as a crime story? Yes, in the sense that the classic Hollywood noirs worked: The story is never clear while it unfolds, but it provides a rich source of dialogue, behavior and incidents. Then, at the end, if it doesn't all hold water, who cares as long as all of the characters think it does? "The Big Sleep" is famous for the loophole of a killer who is already dead when he commits his crime. At the Madison Film Festival last weekend, I saw "Laura" again, and was reminded it is entirely a movie about atmosphere, dialogue and acting styles, in which the very realities of murder are arbitrary. It makes no difference who committed the central killing; what's important is that everyone acts as if it does.
https://www.espinof.com/criticas/brick-cine-negro-entre-estudiantes
Las ideas hace tiempo que se han acabado, ya todo está contado, sólo falta encontrar una nueva forma original de volver a contar esa historia que ya hemos visto una y otra vez.
Porque como mandan los cánones del género, aquí tenemos al típico personaje de cine negro, perdidamente enamorado de una mujer que ya no le besa o le abraza, y ese amor perdido, imposible, marcado a fuego es el que le hace continuar hacia delante, a pesar de llevar escrito en la frente la palabra "perdedor". Y es que todos los protagonistas de este estilo de historias suelen ser perdedores, eso sí, con cierto encanto, y casi siempre sin nada que perder, porque aquello que más querían ya lo han perdido.
Lo que ya no me parece tan bien como lo hasta ahora citado, es que el film es muy, pero muy frío, y distante. El cine negro no es así, por mucho que aquí hayan querido darle una vuelta de tuerca. Además, sólo se han arriesgado a la hora de ambientar el film, en el resto nada de nada, y esa frialdad juega en contra de la película de forma alarmante. Muchos espectadores tardarán en entrar en la historia o simplemente no lo harán. Aparte de esa frialdad, hay algo más que desentona en el conjunto y es uno de los típicos elementos del cine indie, que aplicado aquí no queda nada bien. Absolutamente todos los personajes están tan deprimidos que parece de un momento a otro van a hacer un suicidio colectivo. Este toque tan característico de las películas independientes no hace más que estropear buena parte de la narración. Podrían habérselo ahorrado perfectamente y el film hubiera funcionado mejor.
Un film pasable, que desde luego aporta algo de frescura a la cartelera, aunque podría haber estado muchísimo mejor.
Calificación: Buena-regular.
Vista: 4 de agosto, 2017. - DirectorMike NicholsStarsNatalie PortmanJude LawClive OwenThe relationships of two couples become complicated and deceitful when the man from one couple meets the woman of the other.Sacado de imdb:
Like Shakespeare, Williams, and O'Neil, whose words are a testament to the condition of their lives and times, Marber, through his language and presentation of these four exquisite lost souls, forces the mind to acknowledge and deal with the most base of our natural tendencies, painting a brutally honest portriat of the human condition in the 21st century.
Is this film based on a novel?
No, it is adapted from the 1999 play of the same name by Patrick Marber, which draws inspiration from Mozart's Così fan tutte, Harold Pinter's Betrayal, and Christopher Hampton's Les liaisons dangereuses.
http://www.lashorasperdidas.com/index.php/2005/01/21/closer/
Las vidas y las relaciones de estos cuatro personajes se cruzan y se separan en múltiples escenas entre las cuales pueden pasar seis meses, tres días, o un año. Es el primer paso al mundo en el que nos introduce Closer: un mundo donde el paso del tiempo no significa nada en las relaciones de pareja.
Closer, sin embargo, rompe una regla básica del cine: crear personajes con los que al menos el espectador pueda identificarse o, como mínimo, comprenderles. Pero Closer no funciona así: todos ellos nos producen repugnancia, un puñado de subdesarrollados emocionales incapaces de querer a la persona que les ama y, aún más allá, capaces de hacerle daño sin tener en cuenta lo que sienten por ellos. (No me parece un argumento acertado ya que si bien son personajes bastante complicados con los que no toda la audiencia puede sacar características que tal vez se le atañen a su personalidad, estoy segura que cualquiera podría imaginarse a otra persona actuando de esa manera con ellos o simplemente crear una escena de lo que esa persona podría hacerle acorde a como es) (...) Por desgracia, esta condición suele jugar en su contra: difícilmente podremos ver una película tan fría como Closer en la que sus personajes son incapaces de querer pero muy capaces de odiar y hacer daño.
https://www.espinof.com/criticas/closer-la-trivialidad-hecha-cine
Estoy bastante convencido de que Nichols quería lograr con ella una película generacional, tal como hiciera con la recientemente comentada en Blogdecine, y bastante interesante, ‘El graduado’ (‘The Graduate’, 1967). Ya la totémica canción (con la que nos machacaron durante un tiempo) ‘The Blower’s Daughter’, de Damien Rice, se emplea de un modo parecido a las canciones de los insufribles Simon & Garfunkel en aquella película: como identificativa de un tono y de un universo sentimental determinado. Y, ciertamente, su letra tiene que ver con los acontecimientos que relatará la película, y el tema posee gran parte del mérito de que los primeros minutos sean tan brillantes.
Fue Patrick Marber el que adaptó su propia (y exitosa) obra teatral (en la que, por cierto, Clive Owen interpretó a Dan en lugar de a Larry), y quizás ahí se originan muchos de los problemas de la película. Adaptar una obra teatral al cine es algo más que airearla.
Pongo un ejemplo que suelo usar: ‘Los Soprano’ (‘The Sopranos’, David Chase, 1999-2006) va de gente que es lo peor de lo peor, violentísimos, machistas (los personajes femeninos también lo son), egoístas hasta el paroxismo…llega un punto que terminas asqueado de ellos, y sin embargo poseen una resbaladiza humanidad que se manifiesta en lugares recónditos, que les otorga vida y verdad. Me parece que es la piedra angular de esa ficción extraordinaria, como lo es, creo, de muchas obras maestras. En ‘Closer’ Nichols se dedica a contarnos la vida de unos individuos que, sospecho, también desprecia. Haberles dado una oportunidad a esos personajes, hubiera significado dársela también al espectador, pero no va a ser el caso.
Post Data: ¿Soy el único al que le parece que Portman sale muy guapa en algunos planos y horrible en otros, en todas sus películas?
(Todo el artículo vale la pena)
http://meristation.as.com/zonaforo/topic/368196/
Bueno, yo te doy mi interpretación. En ese punto el personaje de Portman se da cuenta de que su relación con el personaje de Law es imposible por una razón muy clara: no sabe perdonar. Ella misma en cambio si sabe perdonar y considera eso como basico para la relación. En ese momento el personaje de Law se le desvela como lo que realmente es, no un ingenuo romantico, sino un cabrón egoista que quiere que le perdonen pero que no puede hacer lo mismo.
En cuanto a lo de la tumba, esta claro que el personaje de Portman miente en cuanto a su nombre. Para mi (y añadiendo la escena final) esto quiere decir que el personaje de Portman (junto con el de Owen) son los dos más decentes del grupo. El personaje de Portman se "reinventa" en cada nueva relación (cambio de look, ocultación del pasado etc) para darlo todo. Parece que entiende la vida como un volver a empezar cada vez que rompe con su pareja.
No me terminó de gustar esta pelicula, la vi como que todo lo que decian era muy profundo durante todo el meetraje de la pelicula. Con esto no estoy diciendo que no me gustan las peliculas,supuestamente profundas,pero toda historia necesita de uno o varios climax,pero que no toda la pelicula sea un climax. (Ambos están bien)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closer_(2004_film)
Back in London, Dan returns to Postman's Park, and to his surprise, notices the name "Alice Ayres" on a memorial that is dedicated to a young woman, "who by intrepid conduct" and at the cost of her young life, rescued three children from a fire. The final scene shows Alice/Jane walking on Broadway towards West 47th Street with male passers-by staring at her beauty. This completes the visual symmetry within the film as it echoes the opening scene where Alice/Jane and Dan are staring at each other on the sidewalks of London. (Creo que haber escogido el nombre de una mujer que a costa de su propia vida rescata a tres personas del incendio resume lo que fue Jane en la interacción de los cuatro personajes, y la escena final resume que esa es una acción que está dispuesta a repetir una y otra vez)
The Alice Ayres tile in Postman's Park, London
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/closer-2004
Mike Nichols' "Closer" is a movie about four people who richly deserve one another. Fascinated by the game of love, seduced by seduction itself, they play at sincere, truthful relationships which are lies in almost every respect, except their desire to sleep with each other. All four are smart and ferociously articulate, adept at seeming forthright and sincere even in their most shameless deceptions.
"The truth," one says. "Without it, we're animals." Actually, truth causes them more trouble than it saves, because they seem compelled to be most truthful about the ways in which they have been untruthful. There is a difference between confessing you've cheated because you feel guilt and seek forgiveness, and confessing merely to cause pain.
The characters connect in a series of Meet Cutes that are perhaps no more contrived than in real life.
(Voy leyendo varias críticas de Roger Ebert y creo que en vez de recolectar pedazos de lo que dice y ya que su opinión está bien resumida creo que de ahora en adelante voy a poner directamente el link porque vale la pena volver a leer todo el artículo de nuevo)
Eventually both men will have sex with both women, occasionally as a round trip back to the woman they started with. There is no constancy in this crowd: When they're not with the one they love, they love the one they're with. It is a good question, actually, whether any of them are ever in love at all, although they do a good job of saying they are. (qué bonito que resume todo lo que "sentiría" una persona cuando esté conmigo)
Alice seems the most innocent and blameless of the four until the very end of the movie, when we are forced to ask if everything she did was a form of stripping, in which much is revealed, but little is surrendered. "Lying is the most fun a girl can have without taking her clothes off," she tells Dr. Larry, "but it's more fun if you do."
Is there anything more pathetic than a lover who realizes he (or she) really is in love, after all the trust has been lost, all the bridges burnt and all the reconciliations used up?
Mike Nichols has been through the gender wars before, in films like "Carnal Knowledge" and "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf." Those films, especially "Woolf," were about people who knew and understood each other with a fearsome intimacy and knew all the right buttons to push.
What is unique about "Closer," making it seem right for these insincere times, is that the characters do not understand each other, or themselves. They know how to go through the motions of pushing the right buttons, and how to pretend their buttons have been pushed, but do they truly experience anything at all except their own pleasure?
Calificación: Excelente.
Vista: 5 de agosto, 2017. - DirectorStephen ChowStarsStephen ChowWei ZhaoYat-Fei WongA young Shaolin follower reunites with his discouraged brothers to form a soccer team using their martial art skills to their advantage.-Leyendo uno de los comentarios del artículo de Roger Ebert es que me enteré de que está muerto, entonces quién dirige su página? Porque asumo que este es un artículo suyo y es de los más concisos que he leído por lo que asumo que en los que se han explayado más no tienen nada que ver con él, tengo que fijarme en esto.
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/shaolin-soccer-2004
What these correspondents do not grasp is that to suck up to my demanding readers, I would do better to praise "Dogville." It takes more nerve to praise pop entertainment; it's easy and safe to deliver pious praise of turgid deep thinking. It's true, I loved "Anaconda" and did not think "The United States of Leland" worked, but does that mean I drool at the keyboard and prefer man-eating snakes to suburban despair?
Not at all. What it means is that the star rating system is relative, not absolute. When you ask a friend if "Hellboy" is any good, you're not asking if it's any good compared to "Mystic River," you're asking if it's any good compared to "The Punisher." And my answer would be, on a scale of one to four, if "Superman" (1978) is four, then "Hellboy" is three and "The Punisher" is two. In the same way, if "American Beauty" gets four stars, then "Leland" clocks in at about two.
The movie has been directed and co-written by Stephen Chow, who stars as Sing, a martial arts master turned street cleaner, who uses his skills in everyday life and is in love with Mui (Vicki Zhao), who sells buns from her little street stand and combs her hair forward to conceal a complexion that resembles pizza with sausage and mushrooms. It is a foregone conclusion that by the end of this film Mui will be a startling beauty.
(Toda la reseña vale la pena y después de un tiempo voy a tener que leerlas de nuevo porque tiene tantas referencias que sinceramente a veces no logro entender sus comparaciones debido a que no conozco algo de lo que está hablando, por lo que necesito leerlas de nuevo más adelante como mínimo cuando haya terminado mi lista de películas "Para ver sí o sí")
https://www.filmaffinity.com/pe/reviews/1/840049.html?orderby=6
De la película hay poco que decir: no hay trama, los diálogos rozan lo patético y las actuaciones son de patio de colegio. La cuestión es ¿Importa? La respuesta es no. Stephen Chow no aspira a ser Scorsese o hacer cine intelectual a lo Von Trier. Él solo quiere entrener y plasmar en una pantalla el mundo friky que le entusiasma. Si eso coincide con nuestros gustos bién...Si no pués mejor no lo veas.
En este caso el espectador medio que le pueda gustar esta película debe cumplir dos requisítos básicos:
1- Ser fan del fútbol
2- Ser fan de Oliver y Benji.
(No, no se necesita ningún requisito, por el contrario. Yo no soy fanática del fútbol ni de las artes marciales y de igual manera he podido disfrutar de la película porque como dijo él mismo -a pesar de que luego se contradice estableciendo que hay "requisitos"-, la película no te exige tener cierto grado de inteligencia como para estar dándole interpretaciones más profundas o partiéndote la cabeza tratando de entender hasta el más mínimo detalle. Tampoco es algo que necesite mucho análisis ya que no tiene sentido, y el humor con el que es narrado es lo que la hace entretenida para toda clase de público)
Esta película es un auténtico cachondeo. Es un desfase brutal en el que empiezas a reir y no acabas. Toda la historia es un deshueve: La moñería de la historia de amor con uso de la fuerza zen para hacer los mejores bollitos del lugar, el proceso de conversión de banda en equipo cósmico de la muerte, los amistosos, el torneo.
(Tengo que leer más sobre lo que es el zen como para entender bien a qué se refiere)
Hablar sobre una comedia siempre me ha parecido complicado. Es fácil valorar una comedia de Lubischt o Wilder porque mantenían una fuerte carga social y humana. En realidad esas mismas historias sin la vertiente cómica serian perfectos dramas. El problema viene cuando el centro del film es la comedia. El ejemplo mas claro serian las películas de los hermanos Marx. La trama, normalmente con un argumento mínimo, era la excusa para hacer reír. Lo que hacia de estas películas grandes comedias eran su capacidad de hacer reír, bien con gags en los diálogos o visuales, y el ritmo. Si nos atenemos a esto, Shaolin Soccer es una excelente comedia, porque mantiene un ritmo notable y mantiene una capacidad de crear humor con la imagen sorprendente, casi inaudito en el cine actual. Chow se aleja de las propuestas simples y de mal gusto de sagas como Scary Movie o las de Leslie Nielsen, logrando un trabajo solido en su dirección, que se vale de la breve y sencilla trama principal para hacernos reír sin parar durante buena parte del metraje. De hecho lo mas sorprendente es el ímpetu visual que Chow le imprime al film, con planos llenos de imaginación que parecen sacados en ocasiones del cartoon. Y como no podía ser menos, los actores contribuyen mucho a la comicidad del film, en especial el propio Chow que también es el protagonista y que tiene un talento especial para la comedia. Las parodias en conjunto son muy divertidas aunque no es el centro de la propuesta. Los efectos especiales merecen especial atención, lo que parece increíble teniendo en cuenta el genero al que pertenece. Y básicamente esos son los ingredientes que conforman este cocktail explosivo en el que locura, surrealismo, acción, comedia y realismo mágico se dan la mano en una de las películas mas divertidas de última década, a pesar de que muchos vean en ella una película tonta mas. Y mucha atención a este director, Stephen Chow, porque puede hacer cosas muy grandes. Muy recomendable (y no soy de recomendar comedias, todo hay que decirlo)
https://www.hobbyconsolas.com/reviews/shaolin-soccer-critica-pelicula-futbol-kung-fu-92948
Claro que, casi desde el minuto diez de la cinta, sabemos que vamos a ver de todo menos fútbol. Aquí, lo que hemos venido a ver, es desfase e hipérbole como la que veíamos en Captain Tsubasa.
Calificación: Buena.
Vista: 5 de agosto, 2017. - DirectorKimberly PeirceStarsHilary SwankChloë SevignyPeter SarsgaardA young man named Brandon Teena navigates love, life, and being transgender in rural Nebraska.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandon_Teena
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boys_Don%27t_Cry_(film)
The filmmakers retained the names of most of the case's real-life protagonists, but the names of several supporting characters were altered. For example, the character of Candace was named Lisa Lambert in real life. The casting process for Boys Don't Cry lasted almost four years. Drew Barrymore was an early candidate to star in the film. Peirce scouted the LGBT community, looking mainly for masculine, lesbian women for the role of Brandon Teena. Peirce said the LGBT community was very interested in the project because of the publicity surrounding the murder. High-profile actors avoided Peirce's auditions at the request of their agents because of the stigma associated with the role.
At one point, the project was nearly abandoned because Peirce was not satisfied with most of the people who auditioned.In 1996, after a hundred female actors had been considered and rejected, the relatively unknown actor Hilary Swank sent a videotape to Peirce and was signed on to the project. Swank successfully passed as a boy to the doorman at her audition. During her audition, Swank, who was 22, lied to Peirce about her age. Swank said that like Brandon she was 21 years of age. When Peirce later confronted her about her lie, Swank responded, "But that's what Brandon would do".Swank's anonymity as an actor persuaded Peirce to cast her; Peirce said she did not want a "known actor" to portray Teena.In addition, Peirce felt that Swank's audition was "the first time I saw someone who not only blurred the gender lines, but who was this beautiful, androgynous person with this cowboy hat and a sock in her pants, who smiled and loved being Brandon."
Swank earned $75 per day for her work on Boys Don't Cry, totaling $3,000. Her earnings were so low that she did not qualify for health insurance
For the role of Brandon's girlfriend, Lana Tisdel, Peirce had envisioned a young Jodie Foster. The role was also offered to Reese Witherspoon and Sarah Polley. Peirce ultimately decided to cast Chloë Sevigny based on her performance in The Last Days of Disco (1998). Sevigny had auditioned for the role of Brandon, but Peirce decided Sevigny would be more suited to playing Lana because she could not picture Sevigny as a man.
"There's a moment in The Last Days of Disco when Chloë does this little dance move and flirts with the camera," she says. "She has this mix of attractiveness, flirtation and sophistication that she gives you, but then takes away very quickly so that you want more: you want to reach into the screen and grab her. When I saw that, and her confidence and wit, I thought: if she could flirt with Brandon and the audience in that way, that's exactly what we need for Lana. I said to her, 'Will you please audition to play Lana?' She said, 'No.' And I said, 'OK, you can have the role.'"
The accuracy of Boys Don't Cry was disputed by real-life people involved in the murder. The real Lana Tisdel declared her dislike for the film; she said Brandon never proposed to her and that when she discovered the truth about Brandon's sex, she ended the relationship and left him. Tisdel disliked the way she was portrayed in the film, and called the film the "second murder of Brandon Teena". Before the film's theatrical release, Lana Tisdel sued the film's producers, claiming that the film depicted her as "lazy, white trash and a skanky snake" and that her family and friends had come to see her as "a lesbian who did nothing to stop a murder". Tisdel said the film falsely portrayed her continuing her relationship with Teena after she discovered he was transgender. Tisdel settled her lawsuit against Fox Searchlight for an undisclosed sum. Sarah Nissen, cousin of perpetrator Marvin Nissen, was also critical of the film, saying, "There's none of it that's right. It was just weird." Leslie Tisdel, Lana's sister, called the film "a lie of a movie". Leslie was not included in the film, and her ties with the third victim, Phillip DeVine, were omitted due to storyline constraints.
Lana Tisdel's potential involvement in the rape and murder of Brandon Teena was also highlighted. Various people involved in the case, particularly Brandon's family, have alleged that Tisdel was somehow involved with the murders, or had at least set them up in an act of vengeance. Perhaps the most notable admission about Tisdel's motives came from Tom Nissen, who infamously confessed that Tisdel was present at the time of the murders in the car and had even tried knocking on the door of the farmhouse where Brandon, Lambert and DeVine were staying. When nobody answered the door, Nissen alleges that Lotter broke in while Tisdel waited in the vehicle while the murders were carried out. Tisdel denied this and a lack of evidence meant that it could not be vigorously pursued in the proceeding court case—the presiding judge considered most of Nissen's claims as nothing more than hearsay. Not only did Tisdel vehemently deny any involvement in Brandon's murder, she denied ever being present at Lisa Lambert's farmhouse on the night Brandon was murdered. Unlike Tisdel's own evidence and the admissions presented in court, Boys Don't Cry took the liberty of placing Tisdel at the crime scene, albeit without any intention of setting Brandon up.
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/boys-dont-cry-1999
She is not a transsexual, a lesbian, a cross-dresser, or a member of any other category on the laundry list of sexual identities; she is a girl who thinks of herself as a boy, and when she leaves Lincoln, Neb., and moves to the town of Falls City in 1993, that is how she presents herself. By then she has become Brandon Teena, and we must use the male pronoun in describing him.
Like Matthew Shepard in Wyoming, Brandon died because some violent men are threatened by any challenge to their shaky self-confidence.
"Boys Don't Cry" is not sociology, however, but a romantic tragedy--a "Romeo and Juliet" set in a Nebraska trailer park.
For Lana, Brandon is arguably the first nice boy she has ever dated. We meet two of the other local studs, John (Peter Sarsgaard) and Tom (Brendan Sexton 3rd), neither gifted with intelligence, both violent products of brutal backgrounds. They have the same attitude toward women that the gun nut has about prying his dying fingers off the revolver.
Does Lana know Brandon is a girl? At some point, certainly. But at what point exactly? There is a stretch when she knows, and yet she doesn't know, because she doesn't want to know; romance is built on illusion, and when we love someone, we love the illusion they have created for us.
Kimberly Peirce who directed this movie and co-wrote it with Andy Bienen, was faced with a project that could have gone wrong in countless ways. She finds the right note. She never cranks the story up above the level it's comfortable with; she doesn't underline the stupidity of the local law-enforcement officials because that's not necessary; she sees Tom and John not as simple killers but as the instruments of deep ignorance and inherited anti-social pathology. (Tom knows he's trouble; he holds his hand in a flame and then cuts himself, explaining, "This helps control the thing inside of me so I don't snap out at people.") The whole story can be explained this way: Most everybody in it behaves exactly according to their natures. The first time I saw the movie, I was completely absorbed by the characters--the deception, the romance, the betrayal. Only later did I fully realize what a great film it is, a worthy companion to those other masterpieces of death on the prairie, "Badlands" and "In Cold Blood." This could have been a clinical Movie of the Week, but instead it's a sad song about a free spirit who tried to fly a little too close to the flame.
https://www.elantepenultimomohicano.com/2014/10/boys-dont-cry.html
https://www.indiewire.com/2016/12/kimberly-peirce-boys-dont-cry-reed-transgender-1201757549/
To be fair, progress has been made. (...) But just because things are better than they were does not mean they’re resolved. Such is the lesson of Black Lives Matter — and, for that matter, the dangerous myth that Barack Obama’s election solved racism in America. Young transgender people like these Reed protestors may have benefitted from the wider acceptance that films like “Boys Don’t Cry” helped usher into Hollywood, but they are not wrong to demand more. To dismiss their concerns because their tactics are caustic would be a mistake.
Calificación: Excelente.
Vista: 6 de agosto, 2017. - DirectorMike CahillStarsMichael PittSteven YeunAstrid Bergès-FrisbeyA molecular biologist and his laboratory partner uncover evidence that may fundamentally change society as we know it.https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/i-origins-2014
If scientific analysis were conclusively to demonstrate certain claims in Buddhism to be false, then we must accept the findings of science and abandon those claims.”—Dalai Lama XIV
“I Origins” is a film about how destiny and love can lead us to different revelations than we could have possibly reached without them.
The film's biggest problem is that the two women in Ian’s life aren’t as well-drawn as they could have been in a superior film. Sofi and Karen feel a bit too much like obvious opposites—the "spiritual model" and the "scientific technician." If both characters were allowed a bit more of their alternate, “I Origins” would have been a more interesting venture. For, in the end, it’s a film that argues we don’t live in a world of science OR faith but one in which both will give us a deeper understanding of who we are and where we’re going. (Justo hace unos días en una reunión de familiares de mi papá (a la que se me llevó sin que yo sepa), mi primo Marco -que al parecer no es tan ignorante y estúpido como la gran mayoría de mi familia paterna-, sacó el tema de que a pesar de ser creyente, sabe muy bien que no todo puede resumirse en la divinidad. Y es cierto, ya que si bien la ciencia justifica sus explicaciones en la lógica y las creencias en la fe, hay ciertos aspectos que no se pueden explicar ni con lo uno ni con lo otro, por lo que Origins intenta demostrar que ambas vías convergen en un mismo Universo.)
https://www.elseptimoarte.net/foro/index.php?topic=30343.0
Sacado de la primera reseña de Imdb:
We watch at least 4 or 5 movies every week, and I have to say that this is the best film I've seen in a long time. Brit Marling seems to choose her films very carefully, and I'm coming to suspect that anything she's involved in is going to be different, and very well done.
This film is inspiring - not just because of it's content, but because of the way it's made. Hollywood can NOT make films like this. They can do a lot of things, but they can't seem to write scenes, scenarios, and certainly not dialog like this. This feels like real life, and because of this, it really effects you and draws you in. You really get to know, understand and care about the characters, in a way that just doesn't seem to happen in 'Hollyweird' films.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/filmreviews/11121024/I-Origins-review-hipster-Terrence-Malick.html
Eyes and souls have been cinematically intertwined since at least 1929, when, in Un Chien Andalou, Buñuel and Dalí carved out their visionary manifesto with the quick swipe of a razor blade across a plump and oozing eyeball. Since then, the metaphor has turned up all over the place, from Psycho to Blade Runner, A Clockwork Orange and the westerns of Sergio Leone. In I Origins, however, the metaphor trots off down a strange and lyrical new trail.
At this point, the Twilight Zone theme music may be striking up in your head, but I Origins addresses its subject with the kind of bright-eyed earnestness normally seen only in spaniels and MA students. What sets the film apart, beyond the glowing photography, delicate performances and beautifully selected Radiohead soundtrack, is that few young directors would have the nerve and ambition to 'go spiritual’ without the protection of irony or dogmatism. It’s not so much science-fiction as hipster Terrence Malick — which, believe it or not, is a compliment.
https://willowsoul.com/blogs/numbers/seeing-1111-sundance-film-i-origins
Reincarnation research experts say that when you remember someone from a past life, the eyes are the first thing you recognize. This leads to the proverb, "The eyes are the windows to the soul." If you meet a person and recognize their eyes, it's probably a good sign that you've connected with them in the past, because while our physical bodies change from lifetime to lifetime, our eyes remain the same.
The strangely meaningful string of "11" coincidences that Ian encounters are examples of the "synchronicity" term coined by Carl Jung, the renowned Swiss psychiatrist. Jung basically defined synchronicity as a "meaningful coincidence" that cannot be explained by cause and effect.
Another example of synchronicity is seeing or hearing repeating words. You may suddenly start to see and hear a certain word (e.g. "forgive") several times, in different forms (e.g. songs, movies, or books). Pay attention when this happens because it's a sign that something important is happening in your life, and it's the Universe's way of sending you a message. So, in matters of the heart, if you keep hearing and seeing "forgive," it might be a sign for you to release and surrender any guilt or anger you're harboring so you can start the process to heal inside and attract love again. Forgiveness sets you free and it is the best form of loving yourself.
Synchronistic events can be viewed as a form of guidance from the Universe to help you make life choices by pointing you in a whole new direction. Often times, it's a sign to reassure you that you're on the right path. In I Origins, Ian follows a string of "11" synchronicities to find Sofi which leads him on a quest to India. There, he discovers a child with eyes that match those of Sofi's, and Ian begins to wonder about the possibility of reincarnated souls. If you are seeing 11:11 everywhere, I Origins is a thought-provoking movie to watch. The film asks us to ponder deep questions about faith, destiny, scientific truth, and the soul's journey after death.
https://movies.stackexchange.com/questions/31269/why-is-11-an-important-number-in-i-origins
We also see the number '11' at the end when Ian find Salomina. He found her in 11 days (he spent 20.000$ with a 2.000$ daily cost since the second day he arrived in India). Salomina had 44% of good answer in the final test. It means she gave 11 good answers out of 25 questions. Otherwise, it's 11% over the mid note which would be 33% (1 chance out of 3). This movie is amasing!
Calificación: Muy buena.
Vista: 6 de agosto, 2017. - DirectorDrake DoremusStarsFelicity JonesAnton YelchinJennifer LawrenceA British college student falls for an American student, only to be separated from him when she's banned from the U.S. after overstaying her visa.Sacado de la reseña de Imdb:
It's not just any long distance relationship of course, it's an overseas relationship. That's a situation which is pretty tough for just about any couple to pull off. So the movie then shifts its tone to one of compromise and struggle. How much can one person sacrifice for the other? Can they somehow lift the ban, or will Jacob have to move to England thus leaving his current job in the U.S.? Is it all even worth it after it's all said and done? Many questions arise, not to mention the possibility of finding new love in their own respectable countries with someone else. (Esta es una de mis más grandes dudas existenciales considerando lo mucho que la he idealizado y mucho peor sintiendo que es el amor de mi vida)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Like_Crazy
Sometime later, Anna is finally offered a new visa. She gives up her job, her current boyfriend and her apartment, and flies to Los Angeles to Jacob, who greets her with flowers at the airport where they have an awkward reunion. Jacob brings Anna to his house where he joins her in the shower, and as the water falls over them, they remember happier memories they had together at the beginning of their relationship, which has now become strained due to their indiscretions during the time spent apart.
a trip to Santa Catalina Island (where Jacob takes Anna in the early stages of their relationship), and the gift of a bracelet (in the film, a bracelet is given to Anna by Jacob).
https://www.elantepenultimomohicano.com/2013/01/critica-like-crazy.html
Hubo un tiempo no muy lejano en que cine independiente era sinónimo de buen cine, propuestas arriesgadas y poca ambición comercial. Desde Sexo, mentiras y cintas de video (1989) de Steven Soderbergh, probablemente el título más emblemático de esta corriente, muchas han sido las satisfacciones que nos han llegado desde festivales como el de Sundance, creado para dar un mayor empuje a este tipo de ofertas. Pero también es cierto que el dinero todo lo corrompe y cada vez nos llegan más producciones que intentan vendernos la moto de estilo indie, pero acaban cayendo en los convencionalismos del cine más comercial.
Precedida de una sensacional acogida en Sundance 2011, donde se hizo con el Gran Premio del Jurado a la mejor película y el Premio Especial del Jurado, Like Crazy (2011) viene a dignificar una vez más el cada vez más previsible cine independiente americano. El director californiano Drake Doremus alcanza la madurez creativa con ésta, su cuarta película, un drama romántico protagonizado por una pareja de jóvenes, sin caer por ello en la ñoñería propia de productos más convencionales como Crepúsculo o las adaptaciones de las novelas de Nicholas Sparks. Sin duda, todo lo que presenciamos en esta visión amarga sobre el primer amor, resulta tristemente real y cada línea de diálogo, cada mirada o cada actitud de sus personajes, encuentran una rápida identificación en cualquier espectador que haya estado enamorado alguna vez.
Si en 2010, Derek Cianfrance ya había descrito con maestría los estragos del paso del tiempo en una relación de pareja en aquella otra joya, carne de Sundance, que fue Blue Valentine, con Ryan Gosling y Michelle Williams, Like Crazy podría considerarse su versión más juvenil. Tal vez no llegue a las cotas de descarnada desnudez de aquella, pero lo cierto es que la cinta de Doremus tampoco se queda en la superficie a la hora de escarbar en los estragos del desamor. Algo que queda perfectamente representado en la fenomenal escena final en la ducha, donde no se necesitan palabras para comprender que algo se ha quedado en el camino. Las fugaces imágenes de pasados tiempos felices se contraponen con la actitud más bien distante de los reconciliados amantes. Sin duda, a esas alturas de la película ya habían sucedido demasiadas cosas como para que ese amor juvenil que todo lo puede, sea siquiera la sombra de lo que fue. Cuando algo se rompe, por mucho que lo queramos reconstruir pegando los trocitos, nunca volverá a ser igual. Y ahí queda la historia de Anna y Jacob, grande en su pequeñez, agridulce como la vida misma y una cita ineludible para los amantes del mejor cine independiente americano.
https://film.avclub.com/like-crazy-1798170176
Like Crazy is the latest and most lightweight addition to a welcome recent trend of bittersweet, realistic semi-romances that includes Blue Valentine and Weekend. Like those films, it pits the delicate vulnerability of its central relationship against the unforgiving forward march of time, the passage of which, as much as distance, complicates the bond between young lovers.
The film, which is Drake Doremus’ fourth (he’s not yet 30) and reportedly draws heavily from his own history, sets itself up for a challenge it can’t quite meet by focusing so intensely on the transcontinental limbo portion of the relationship.
Yelchin and Jones are apart far more than they’re together, and it often seems that it’s this difficulty that keeps them so stuck on each other.
By the film’s latter half, we’re left not hoping its lovers will find a way to be together, but longing for them to get over each other and move on.
https://www.npr.org/2011/11/04/141981852/crazy-in-love-and-feeling-every-moment-of-it
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/like-crazy-2011
Anna can't get into the United States. Jacob can get into London, but he can't move there because, you see, he designs and builds chairs, and his business is in Santa Monica. Say what? You can't design chairs in London? You wouldn't rather live in London with the girl you love than build chairs in Santa Monica? His chairs look ordinary to me. The one we see is a straight chair made of wood. We see him lovingly perfecting a sketch of it. Assemble a dozen second graders, assign them to draw a chair, merge their drawings into one, and they would look like a Jacob Chair. This guy is no Eames.
I discuss these problems because I think they expose a problem. It's easy to identify with Anna, because the character is wonderfully well drawn and acted; Felicity Jones, a rising star, has a face that glows when she smiles, and radiates her love and sense of loss. She reminds me of Helena Bonham Carter. You may recall her as Miranda in Julie Taymor's "The Tempest." She may have only a case of first love, but what love is more urgent and presents a more desperate challenge?
It is probably impossible to film a love story in Los Angeles without the lovers running on the beach, usually within sight of Santa Monica pier. I also understand why young lovers in movies inevitably end up on bumper cars and share ice cream cones. There's an impulse in first love to re-enact childish pastimes, as if to start anew and grow up together.
What am I arguing? That the movie requires a happy ending? It's not that it doesn't have one. It's more that the complications over the visa feel like a contrivance to separate them so we can share their loss. Since one of them, Jacob, is free to do something about that, we have two choices here: (1) they mourn sadly on two sides of the ocean, or (2) he bites the bullet, shuts up his shop and moves to London. That would open the way for authentic grown-up challenges, in which they find it can be harder to make sacrifices and live together than it is to suffer narcissistically while apart. As convincing as it is when it begins, "Like Crazy" tilts too much in the direction of a weepie and not enough in the direction of the facts of life.
Calificación: Buena.
Vista: 6 de agosto, 2017. - DirectorLeos CaraxStarsMichel PiccoliJuliette BinocheDenis LavantAs a deadly virus which infects people who have loveless sex sweeps Paris, a lonely pariah attempts to steal a potent antidote, only to fall for the mistress of his partner-in-crime. Is the infectious young love the cure to the bad blood?Calificación: Muy buena.
Vista: 7 de agosto, 2017. - DirectorAllen CoulterStarsRobert PattinsonEmilie de RavinCaitlyn RundA romantic drama centred on two new lovers: Tyler, whose parents have split in the wake of his brother's suicide, and Ally, who lives each day to the fullest since witnessing her mother's murder.Prácticamente ninguna de las críticas tiene un análisis más profundo de una película tan superficial... como era de esperarse.
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/remember-me-2010
"Remember Me" tells a sweet enough love story, and tries to invest it with profound meaning by linking it to a coincidence. It doesn't work that way. People meet, maybe they fall in love, maybe they don't, maybe they're happy, maybe they're sad. That's life. If, let us say, a refrigerator falls out of a window and squishes one of them, that's life, too, but it's not a story many people want to see. We stand there looking at the blood seeping out from under the Kelvinator and ask with Peggy Lee, is that all there is?
https://www.espinof.com/criticas/recuerdame-no-pierdas-el-tiempo
Y se puede justificar que el look del actor, en plan despreocupado, como si acabara de levantarse de la cama, es el aspecto ideal del personaje que interpreta aquí, pero es que resulta ser el mismo que el de su personaje en ‘Crepúsculo’. Con un poco menos de talco en la cara y sin la purpurina cuando le da la luz del Sol, desde luego, pero por lo demás prácticamente igual, a lo que hay que sumar constantes primeros planos de Pattinson, desde todos los ángulos posibles, y una buena cantidad de ñoñas escenitas románticas (y un poco de sexo light) junto a De Ravin que son prácticamente idénticas a las que comparte con su novia, Kristen Stewart, en la saga ‘Crepúsculo’. Sólo faltaba que apareciera un pretendiente marcando musculitos para completar el cuadro.
Herida por el aburrido romance, lleno de tópicos y sin química alguna (Pattinson lo intenta, pero De Ravin ni eso, interpretando a una chica cuya complicada personalidad se resume en que siempre come primero el postre), la película se desarrolla sin demasiado interés, mejorando sólo cuando aparecen en escena los adultos, en concreto un fantástico Pierce Brosnan y un correcto Chris Cooper (antológica su frase de “¡Y cambia el cerrojo!” tras dar una paliza a Pattinson); Lena Olin también está pero apenas le dejan un par de frases. Y así, a punto del bostezo final, llegamos al desenlace, que es prácticamente lo único que narra con fuerza, con pulso firme el director Allen Coulter. Es un cierre sublime, que puede emocionar al público más implicado en la trama, del mismo modo que provocar la risa en los que han estado soportando de mala gana las dos horas anteriores. No tapa los agujeros de una película fallida, que necesitaba más crudeza y menos pose, más drama y menos cursiladas, pero es un buen postre con el que irse a casa y pensar, quizá, que hay que aprovechar mejor el tiempo. A fin de cuentas, no tenemos demasiado.
http://www.escribiendocine.com/critica/0000512-las-peliculas-como-mercancia/
Articulada como un drama romántico juvenil, el film trasviste de gravedad el tratamiento superficial y pueril que le propensa a sus criaturas, aspectos que la vinculan con las series de adolescentes clase ABC1 que hicieron furor en los ’90, con Dawson's Creek y Beverly Hills, 90210 como emblemas. Ya a la primer carita sufriente del chico-rico-disconforme-con-la-vida que interpreta Robert Pattinson, notamos que todo luce impostado, prolijamente desprolijo, arbitrario, increíble; estilización que alcanza el paroxismo en la absurda construcción del vínculo romántico (Ally es la hija del comisario que encarceló a Tyler y que, por esas casualidades que ocurren en Hollywood, resulta ser compañera de clases y blanco perfecto para una venganza): Dos miraditas, un par de histeriqueos, una escenita de sexo bien, pero bien empalagosa -con el sol tiñendo toda la casa de un dorado irreal hasta la médula- y listo, la bella y el soso se enamoraron.
Calificación: Regular/mala.
Vista: 7 de agosto, 2017. - DirectorJim JarmuschStarsTilda SwintonTom HiddlestonMia WasikowskaA depressed musician reunites with his lover. However, their romance, which has already endured several centuries, is disrupted by the arrival of her uncontrollable younger sister.-La laptop se reinició dos veces y no había guardado nada de lo que puse aquí, qué bonito.
-Me imagino que todas las películas de Jarmusch tienen una cantidad similar de referencias culturales y si es así, leer sus reseñas o datos sobre ellas van a ser un largo y satisfactorio proceso.
Del FAQ de Imdb:
-Why were silver bullets changed in this film to wooden bullets?
-Since when are there wolves in Detroit?
-Where did Adam get his money?
-What were the Tangier street vendors constantly offering Eve, telling her that they have what she needs?
-Why the gloves?
-What was the significance of the mushrooms growing out of season?
-How does the movie end?
-What was in the "dirty" blood?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Only_Lovers_Left_Alive
-Leer de nuevo todo lo de la trama y si es posible estudiarla ya que la película tiene bastantes referencias culturales.
-In August 2010, Jarmusch said that Tilda Swinton, Michael Fassbender, Mia Wasikowska and John Hurt had agreed to join the film, described by Jarmusch in May 2011 as a "crypto-vampire love story" but he did not have financing yet. Financing the film was a difficult process for the director and he explained at the world premiere at the Cannes International Film Festival in May 2013 that, "it's getting more and more difficult for films that are a little unusual, or not predictable, or don't satisfy people's expectations of something".
Jarmusch revealed in 2014 that, after seven years of frustration, Swinton said "That's good news, it means that now is not the time. It will happen when it needs to happen".
-Van Wissem explained:
I know the way [Jarmusch] makes his films is kind of like a musician. He has music in his head when he’s writing a script so it’s more informed by a tonal thing than it is by anything else ... I feel that I’m sort of political. Jim’s film is anti-contemporary-society. And the lute goes against all technology and against all computers and against all the shit you don’t need.
Van Wissem also described the film as "a very personal film, maybe even autobiographical" and that "Jim is a cultural sponge, he absorbs everything".
-Leer el subtítulo de "Cultural references", "names", "literature", "scientists", "wall of fame", "places".
-Among the books Eve reads and packs for her trip to Detroit are: (leerlos todos, o al menos algunos).
-Tim Grierson of Paste noted that "Hiddleston and Swinton play their characters not as blasé hipsters but, rather, deeply reflective, almost regretful old souls who seem to have decided that love is about the only thing you can count on". Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian gave the film 3 out of 5 stars, pointing that Adam and Eve look more like "well-born incestuous siblings" in spite of being lovers, while the Observer's Jonathan Romney concluded that the film is "a droll, classy piece of cinematic dandyism that makes the Twilight cycle redundant in one exquisitely languid stroke".
Kurt Halfyard of Twitch Film commented: "Retro recording equipment hasn't looked this claustrophobically sexy since Berberian Sound Studio". Alfred Joyner of International Business Times felt that "the melancholy that permeates Motown in the film could be seen as Jarmusch's take on the loss of America's greatness in the 21st century".
https://www.filmcomment.com/article/review-only-lovers-left-alive/ (Leer todo)
-Shall I tell you again about Einstein’s theory of spooky action at a distance,” whispers Adam (Tom Hiddleston) to Eve (Tilda Swinton) his wife of many, many years. Or maybe I’ve misremembered and she’s sweet-talking him, so intricately have they wedded their identities. They could be the most perfect couple you’ve ever met, lovers for eons, perhaps the only lovers left alive, just the two of them against the world. You might recognize the feeling—the way they feel, the way you feel watching them hanging out at a club, perhaps like the old Mudd Club resurrected in Detroit, she on his lap, both of them languorous and attenuated. No Wave rock royalty. Just a pair of vampires.
https://superqueen.wordpress.com/2014/03/27/may-i-avas-wrist-length-gloves-in-jim-jarmushs-only-lovers-left-alive/ (leerlo todo)
There was a time (early/mid 2000s, I think) in which I was obsessed with a fashion accessory: gloves. My spirit guides were Carrie Bradshaw and May Welland: though totally different, the protagonist of Sex and the City and one of the main female characters of Martin Scorsese’s The Age of Innocence had something in common – beautiful gloves and a peculiar grace in wearing them. At the time, I bought some lovely vintage pieces on eBay (which I’m still very proud of), but I haven’t worn them as much as I would. Using leather or embellished gloves in everyday life is unpractical, but the old flame has been rekindled after watching the latest film by Jim Jarmush, Only Lovers Left Alive.
Gloves have a specific function in the film: according to the director, they are his contribution to the “mythology of vampire films, which is a cumulative thing,” (the reference is to fangs, holy water, no reflections on mirrors, threshold-crossing and sparkling skin in the sun). “We added in these leather gloves that they wear when they’re outside of their habitat,” he explained. “Why? Cause we had something that was ours that we invented. And we thought it looked really cool.” Asking the host to remove one’s gloves (hence the title of this post) doesn’t seem to have a specific function, though; probably it’s only a courtesy. Obviously Eve and Adam wear gloves, too, but Ava’s are the most interesting ones. We see them in detail in the scene set in a Detroit bar where the White Hills are performing.
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/feb/23/only-lovers-left-alive-review (leer todo)
https://www.espinof.com/criticas/jdiff-2014-only-lovers-left-alive-la-pelicula-definitiva-de-vampiros (Leer todo)
'Only Lovers Left Alive' arranca con un nocturno cielo estrellado que al girar en círculos se transforma en un tocadiscos. La cámara sigue dando vueltas en plano cenital y vemos dormir a los dos protagonistas, Adam (Tom Hiddleston) y Eva (Tilda Swinton); él en Detroit, ella en Tánger. Se siente como una manera de reflejar el paso del tiempo mientras ellos permanecen intactos. Despiertan, y se buscan. Adam es un músico que empieza a tener éxito en el circuito underground gracias en parte al secretismo que le rodea.
-De hecho, 'Only Lovers Left Alive' contiene mucho sentido del humor, llegando a provocar alguna que otra carcajada a pesar de su atmósfera pesimista.
https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2013/09/tilda-swinton-only-lovers-left-alive (todo)
https://lindalinda123.wordpress.com/2015/05/25/zombies-contamination-and-only-lovers-left-alive/ (todo)
Hip and cool, this film is also about loneliness and otherness, and the struggle to rise above the often blinding servitude to meaninglessness to which the lonely outsider is often relegated. As mortal humans, we don’t live long enough to fully rough out the extents of love and “lifefulness.” And thus we can’t hand the knowledge as a “certainty” down the generational ladder. But that’s where the immortal creatures of human imagination come in—to offer the time so crucial to the exploration of life and all its foibles…and the great mystery of love.
https://www.selectspecs.com/fashion-lifestyle/only-lovers-left-alive-vampy-sunglasses-inspo/ (todo)
Yes, because these monstrous creatures are nothing like the vampires we imagine- they prefer to feed on fashion, literature and music rather than blood.
https://movies.stackexchange.com/questions/68029/why-do-adam-and-eve-live-so-far-apart (todo)
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/feb/20/jim-jarmusch-women-leaders-only-lovers-left-alive (todo)
Speaking to Jim Jarmusch, it turns out, isn't so different from watching one of his films. His work, like his conversation, doesn't cohere into stories so much as constellations, networks of seemingly isolated ideas which achieve a greater meaning arranged together just so. As a man, he's immediately identifiable: the Lee Marvin face, that shock of white hair that looks like Andy Warhol touched up with a Tesla coil.
https://www.inverse.com/article/22668-marlowe-shakespeare-oxford-npr-vampires-only-lovers-left-alive (todo)
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/jim-jarmuschs-petrified-hipness (todo)
http://www.shaviro.com/Blog/?p=1205 (todo)
https://www.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2014/05/02/the-contradictory-couple-in-jim-jarmuschs-only-lovers-left-alive-are-neither-alone-nor-alive (todo)
https://io9.gizmodo.com/take-an-up-close-look-at-doctor-whos-gorgeous-new-tardi-1829793686
(todo)
https://www.fastcompany.com/3019966/jim-jarmusch-outs-himself-as-a-mycophile-in-only-lovers-left-alive (Todo)
https://blackiswhiteblog.wordpress.com/2013/10/06/film-analysis-jim-jarmuschs-only-lovers-left-alive-2013/ (todo)
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/only-lovers-left-alive-2014 (todo)
http://cinedivergente.com/criticas/singularidades/solo-los-amantes-sobreviven
http://cinedivergente.com/criticas/singularidades/solo-los-amantes-sobreviven (todo)
Calificación: Excelente.
Vista: 7 de agosto, 2017. - DirectorAlain ResnaisStarsEmmanuelle RivaEiji OkadaStella DassasA French actress filming an anti-war film in Hiroshima has an affair with a married Japanese architect as they share their differing perspectives on war.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroshima_mon_amour
It is the documentation of an intensely personal conversation between a French-Japanese couple about memory and forgetfulness. It was a major catalyst for the Left Bank Cinema, making use of miniature flashbacks to create a nonlinear storyline.
-Toda la trama. (Averiguar sobre las bombas de Hiroshima y estudiar)
“Here is an 'impossible' love story between two people struggling with the imagery of a distant war. At the end of this romantic, poignant movie about leave takings and responsibilities, the two fateful lovers meet in a cafe. Resnais gives us a rare establishing shot of the location. 'He' is going to meet 'She' for the last time at a bar called 'The Casablanca' - right here in the middle of Hiroshima! It's still the same old story. A fight for love and glory. A case of do or die. The world will always welcome lovers. As time goes by."
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/recommendations/9851332/Tim-Robey-recommends...-Hiroshima-Mon-Amour-1959.html (todo)
https://www.criterion.com/films/217-hiroshima-mon-amour (todo)
https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/hiroshima-mon-amour (todo)
Calificación: Excelente.
Vista: 8 de agosto, 2017. - DirectorZiad DoueiriStarsVahina GiocanteMoa KhouasKarim Ben HaddouTwo inner-city teenagers engage in an obsessive, innocent flirtation fueled by Lila's sexually explicit overtures.
- Ahora caigo en cuenta de que es mejor leer las críticas y las reseñas después de ver la película, ya que de esa forma puedo guiarme y no permitir que se me pasen por alto algunos detalles que no sé poner en palabras debido a mi falta de conocimiento y criterio cinematográfico.
-Chimo es cautivado por la exuberante belleza de Lila, se siente atraído por inercia al ver al supuesto "Ferrari en un depósito de chatarra", quien sería su inspiración y quizás la mejor historia de su vida.
De la reseña de IMDB:
I'm not exactly the target audience for realist dramas or romance films. My tastes lean heavily towards fantasy, especially horror, the darker side of that broad genre. I tend to prefer stereotypical "guy" and adolescent films. But Lila Says is a beautiful, extremely well made film in many ways. I only subtracted one point because it is just a tad slow in a few sections; however, I can easily see revising my score to a 10 on subsequent viewings.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lila_Says
He eventually manages to convince a police detective to let him telephone Lila, whereupon he simply says "I love you" and she says "I know". It is implied at the end that he plans to meet Lila who is in Poland for the summer. However, as he remembers his experiences with Lila, he writes about them, winning the writing scholarship he scorned earlier, and ultimately changing his life and allowing him to escape the poverty of his home city and to study among the best in Paris. Lila changed Chimo's world, as he did hers.
https://www.screendaily.com/lila-says-lila-dit-ca/4021615.article
But Chimo is also clueless about how to take his relationship with Lila to an emotionally deeper or more physical level. Predictably, the film grinds its way to an unhappy conclusion.
Lila Says examines important themes such as breaking out ofone's self-imposed, social confines; the supposed awfulness of French suburbs;and crossing the religious divide between Muslim and Christian. But even thoughit may want to do more, the film remains firmly a mood piece.
There is none of thechest-bursting anger of La Haine, none of the visual power of City OfGod, the music of Ma CT Va Craquer, nor the story-telling logic ofDoueiri's own 1998 effort West Beirut. It does not even have the ugly,but ticket-selling sex appeal of Irreversible, Hole In My Heart or Pretty Baby.
https://film.avclub.com/lila-says-1798200931
(todo)
Meanwhile, Khouas' friendship with Giocante upsets his friends until, inevitably, it all erupts into violence and a development that suggests what would happen if M. Night Shyamalan directed an episode of Red Shoe Diaries.
https://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/films/reviews/view/9876
There are always going to be people who are convinced that sexuality is dirty and should be kept behind closed doors. Schools and health care systems around the world still say little about our sexual bodies and much less about the creativity inherent in passion. Politicians and preachers have made eros into a whipping boy. But we much prefer the perspective of spiritual teacher Eknath Easwaran who wrote in The Bhagavad Gita for Daily Living: "Harness the raw energy of sexual desire and help transform it, little by little, into an abiding flow of joy. . . . If you feel strong sexual drives, congratulations. If you feel haunted by sex day and night, you are rich in resources. It's like striking oil in your own backyard: you have a little Arabia to supply you with all the power you need." Equally on target as an antidote to the prudishness of so many religious folk is the example of Sister Wendy, who in her television talks about the paintings of the Great Masters lavished praise on Renaissance portraits for displaying luxurious pubic hair.
(Lila)'s passion and exuberance draws Chimo into her world, and he is soon obsessing about everything she does and (says). ¿Cómo no me había dado cuenta de esto antes? Por lo menos ya tengo claro que sería: Lila Says (todas sus fantasías sexuales contadas a lo largo de la película).
https://www.alohacriticon.com/cine/criticas-peliculas/lila-dice-ziad-doueiri/
El hecho de que Chimo tenga el don de la escritura fácil, a pesar de su total inexperiencia como lector, y la recomendación de una profesora suya al respecto, harán que aquél se decida a plasmar sus pensamientos sobre el papel, una vez escuchadas las “máximas” que le suelta Lila. En este sentido, Doueiri utilizará esa iniciativa para que sea el propio Chimo quien narre en “off” la totalidad del relato.
Aunque haya sido Khounas quien se haya visto galardonado por su interpretación, lo que está claro es que la presencia de Giocante, sus primerísimos planos y sugerentes poses, será lo que quede en la retina del espectador. Una actriz que, dicho sea de paso, intervino en “Soldados de Salamina” (2003) de David Trueba.
En definitiva, una tórrida producción que exhibe, como pocas, el engranaje que mueve el mundo (...).
http://www.cuak.com/critica/lila-dice-2004/ (todo)
https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/lila-says
In the sense that Giocante’s sexuality is the be-all-end-all of the world here, the actress has earned comparisons to Brigitte Bardot’s famous tart from And God Created Woman (...).
Doueiri often relies entirely too much on the film’s soundtrack of songs, but he cleverly uses not one, not two, but three songs from Vanessa’s Daou’s Zipless, surely one of the greatest make-out CDs in history, to further point to the myth of Lila’s adolescent code—one that only Chimo’s sensitive heart is willing and patient enough to want to unlock.
https://www.fotogramas.es/peliculas-criticas/a11458/lila-dice/
Heredera de la Lolita de Nabokov y de la Brigitte Bardot de Y Dios creó a la mujer, la protagonista de Lila dice encarna el erotismo en estado puro, ese que prefiere sugerir antes que mostrar y que arrastra las pasiones hasta límites casi enfermizos.
No en vano, la actriz que encarna a esa reencarnación de la ninfa de Nabokov se llama Vahina Giocante. Y, aunque suene a chiste fácil, no es un pseudónimo hecho a la medida del personaje.Para erotómanos cultos y refinados.
Calificación: Excelente.
Vista: 9 de agosto, 2017. - DirectorFrançois OzonStarsMarine VacthGéraldine PailhasFrédéric PierrotAfter losing her virginity, Isabelle takes up a secret life as a call girl, meeting her clients for hotel-room trysts. Throughout, she remains curiously aloof, showing little interest in the encounters themselves or the money she makes.Sacado de IMDB: (Interesting but shallow) (todo)
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/nov/28/jeune-et-jolie-review
It has a stylish gloss and sexy glow, no doubt about it. Only French cinema could get away with it.
Yet once the credits roll, its essential absurdity and obtuseness become apparent: it's a solemn belle de jour tale with a touch of David Hamilton softcore, existing outside the grim reality of vulnerable women being abused and trafficked.
Abdellatif Kechiche's Blue Is the Warmest Colour was attacked as a movie for middle-aged men; that charge could be made far more powerfully against Jeune & Jolie.
The film's intense seriousness can only be appreciated by not taking it too seriously.
http://filmfilicos.com/joven-bonita
Los bellos paisajes, las frías habitaciones y los lujosos hoteles por los que Isabelle se mueve, están simplemente para complementar la belleza de la joven, a la vez que la soledad y la sensación de distancia que de ella se desprende. Los espacios se convierten así en una extensión del hermoso cuerpo de la joven. Unos espacios que dan cobijo a unas experiencias que no resultan ser para Isabelle más que modos de escapar de una monotonía que la persigue, maneras de buscar algún sentido o algo que la motive a experimentar con ganas la sexualidad.
Me vais a permitir esta vez exponer un comentario más personal que objetivo sobre la película. Una idea que planeó sobre mi mente durante toda la extensión de la película. Salvando las evidentes distancias y sin saber muy bien el motivo, desde el minuto uno de proyección A nuestros amores de Maurice Pialat flotó en mi mente. Quizás la juventud y la belleza de la protagonista que conducen a la comparación con Sandrine Bonnaire. Los aires franceses que rezuman inevitablemente de ambas películas. El tema del vacío existencial y de la soledad difuminada por ambas protagonistas mediante relaciones sexuales. El que ambas se sientan amadas y deseadas por su entorno, que sean como una especie de diosas distantes y veneradas. Ese conjunto de ideas o quizás ninguna de ellas hicieron que durante la proyección la unión de ambos personajes (Isabelle – Suzanne) reinara en mi mente.
(Ahora que menciona eso me hace recuerdo que una de las escenas en las que ella conoce al chico se parece mucho a una de Suzanne)
https://www.elantepenultimomohicano.com/2013/08/jeune-et-jolie-critica.html
Pero el foco casi siempre está puesto en esa protagonista, llamada Isabelle, para quién la pérdida de la virginidad y las consiguientes aventuras eróticas pierden todo romanticismo, desviando su placer hacia algo mucho más calculado.
La película tiene pues un alto contenido erótico, aunque siempre esté tratado con delicadeza, sin que tales escenas resulten de alguna forma gratuitas ni desprendan un innecesario aire precario como ocurre en muchas películas, pues no tienen un tono diferente al del resto de secuencias.
Al no ser tampoco tan pulida e ingeniosa como En la casa, acaba siendo un trabajo en definitiva menos memorable, aunque indudablemente cuente con el sello de Ozon pues éste sigue demostrando su talento para combinar con soltura dos tratamientos a priori enfrentados: el elegante y el pasional. Adjetivos que, por otra parte, también definen el enigmático comportamiento de Isabelle.
("En la casa" es la anterior película del mismo director.)
http://columnazero.com/critica-cine-joven-y-bonita-jeune-et-jolie/
Dicen que la adolescencia es el momento más difícil de nuestra vida. “La mía fue de verdad horrible, es un momento de muchos cambios en el que se desmitifica a los padres”, confiesa el director. Se trata de un momento en el que empezamos a hacer lo que realmente queremos, indiferentemente de lo que digan nuestros mayores. Si queremos beber, lo vamos a hacer; si queremos acostarnos con alguien, encontraremos el momento para hacerlo sin que nadie se entere. Es el momento de la locura, de empezar a conocerse a uno mismo y empezar a tomar las riendas de una vida que, por primera vez, se bautiza como nuestra.
Isabelle nos concede el privilegio de espiarla; nos hace confidentes de todos los secretos que guarda bajo el nombre de Lea. Aunque nos adentremos en el invierno y cada vez llevemos más tiempo siendo testigos de todo lo que vive, el espectador desde el principio se convierte en un vouyerista que sólo podrá verla, pero en ningún momento llega a entenderla. La continencia es la característica que puede resumir a una Isabelle que nunca va a estallar, que nunca parece estar satisfecha; una continencia que refleja más un acto de rebeldía que una elección. Un “no saber” constante que provocará la misma insatisfacción en el espectador.
“Hago películas así porque considero que son suficientemente inteligentes para entenderse. No estoy aquí para dar respuestas, sino para plantear preguntas. Lo que me interesa es el misterio. Pretendo que cuando uno salga de la película siga pensando en ella” dice Ozon, director galardonado por Dans la maison y con una larga filmografía a sus espaldas. Consigue que el espectador se plantee cosas acerca de Isabelle y su vida, pero ¿es eso suficiente para que digamos que es una buena película?
La primavera es la ultima parte, el cierre del ciclo, en el que vemos a una Isabelle que se acepta así misma, que comprende justamente lo que respondes, ya que ni su nueva vida de adolescente ni la vida que tenia como mujer ocasionalmente, le eran suficientes, no le llenaban ese vacio existencial que tenia pero con las pequeñas pinceladas que nos dan puedes tener diferentes teorías, ella podría haber comprendido al fin con ese ultimo gesto en su rostro de la escena final, que ha madurado, ha conocido lo que le daba curiosidad, pero que tambien puede amar, puede ser amada, que lo que en realidad encontró, sin buscar, fue ese sentimiento especial que tenia por un hombre como georges. (esto estaba entre los comentarios)
https://www.bolsamania.com/cine/critica-joven-y-bonita-jeune-et-jolie/
Calificación: Regular/buena.
Vista: 10 de agosto, 2017. - DirectorJonathan DaytonValerie FarisStarsPaul DanoZoe KazanAnnette BeningA novelist struggling with writer's block finds romance in a most unusual way: by creating a female character he thinks will love him, then willing her into existence.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby_Sparks
Calvin Weir-Fields is a young novelist who is struggling to recreate the early success of his first novel and unable to commit to any of his ideas. With his introverted personality and idealistic view of what it means to be in love, Calvin also struggles in finding relationships, feeling most women are only interested in an idolized and preconceived notion of who they believe him to be.
The film was written by Zoe Kazan who plays the eponymous character. Kazan was initially inspired by a discarded mannequin, and the myth of Pygmalion, quickly writing twenty pages, before putting the script aside for six months. She returned to the writing when she was clear on the central concept of comparing the idea of love to the actuality of it.[4] During the writing, Kazan thought of Woody Allen's The Purple Rose of Cairo and Groundhog Day, wanting to present a slanted version of our own reality. From early in the development she wrote the lead character Calvin with her boyfriend Paul Dano in mind. On the feminist aspects of the story Kazan explains she wanted to explore the idea of "being gazed at but never seen" where a woman is not properly understood but in a way that wasn’t unkind or alienating for men.[5] She rejects the description of Ruby Sparks as a Manic Pixie Dream Girl, calling it reductive and diminutive, whereas Ruby Sparks is about the danger of idealizing a person, of reducing a person down to an idea of a person.
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/ruby-sparks-2012
He's been blocked ever since. I imagine J.D. Salinger having gone through torture like this.
She is an ethereal backlit beauty named Ruby (Zoe Kazan), who materializes in Calvin's life and represents his ideal romantic partner.
Surely one of the most dreaded things an actress can hear is, "We've made a few changes to your character." But if characters have lives of their own on the page, they also take on a reality in the minds of those who portray them, and the finished character we see in a film may be more of a compromise than anyone's personal vision.
If the film has a message, and I'm not sure it does, it may be: As long as you're alive, you're always in rewrite.
https://filmschoolrejects.com/revisiting-ruby-sparks/
The narrative line of Ruby Sparks is fairly straightforward: a young writer, endeavoring through writers-block, dreams of his idyll woman.
Kazan’s work goes beyond dream-girl appears and shenanigans ensue. Her writing plays with audience expectation when we come to find Ruby is our central point of empathetic connection as we bear witness to her journey of selfhood and consciousness developing her into a complicated woman rather than an idyllic caricature.
Ruby is such a fascination. She literally lights up the screen with her bold colors and thoughtful repose.
Calvin’s own misgivings of the people around him come from a place of his self-perceived image. Upon confronting his ex, Lila, his former partner calls him to the mat. Calvin has navigated his life creating adaptations of relationships based upon his own projecting; wanting to be in a relationship with himself.
https://www.espinof.com/criticas/ruby-sparks-para-los-que-creen-en-el-amor
No pretendo decir que es una propuesta única en la historia del séptimo arte —a estas alturas es prácticamente imposible lograr algo semejante— pero sí que es fresca y original comparada con la inmensa mayoría de los estrenos que nos llegan cada semana. Ofrece un punto de vista singular plasmando algo tan trillado como una relación amorosa entre dos jóvenes. Puede verse como una versión actual y libre de la leyenda de Pigmalión, y me ha dejado sensaciones similares a las que me produjeron dos joyas como ‘La rosa púrpura del Cairo’ (‘The Purple Rose of Cairo’, Woody Allen, 1985) y ‘¡Olvídate de mí!’ (‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’, Michel Gondry, 2004). Desde luego guarda más parecido con todos títulos que con el anterior trabajo de los realizadores, ‘Pequeña Miss Shunsine’ (‘Little Miss Sunshine’, 2006).
Dicen que el amor se acaba. O que es un invento publicitario. Y que la rutina es letal. Podemos estar un rato soltando tópicos. Lo cierto es que las relaciones amorosas no son tan sencillas como las pintan en las películas.
Porque como llega a decir Calvin: “…enamorarse es un acto mágico“. Quizá podría decirse que es una ilusión compartida. Como el cine. ‘M. Butterfly’ (David Cronenberg, 1993) lo reflejaba con crudeza…
http://www.sensacine.com/peliculas/pelicula-205375/sensacine/ (todo)
Calificación: Muy buena.
Vista: 10 de agosto, 2017. - DirectorDavid F. SandbergStarsAnthony LaPagliaSamara LeeMiranda OttoTwelve years after the tragic death of their little girl, a doll-maker and his wife welcome a nun and several girls from a shuttered orphanage into their home, where they become the target of the doll-maker's possessed creation, Annabelle.Calificación: Muy buena.
Vista: 18 de agosto, 2017. - DirectorÉric RohmerStarsJean-Claude BrialyAurora CornuBéatrice RomandOn lakeside summer holiday, a conflicted older man is dared to have a flirt with two beautiful teenage half-sisters despite his betrothal to a diplomat's daughter and the fact that the girls have boyfriends.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claire%27s_Knee
It is the fifth movie in the series of the Six Moral Tales. (Genial, de nuevo vi una película sin saber que era una saga)
The story happens between 29 June and 29 July, presumably in 1970. (Inter-title cards of the dates are displayed before the daily events are shown.)
It was Rohmer's second film shot in color, with Rohmer explaining "the presence of the lake and the mountains is stronger in color than in black and white. It is a film I couldn't imagine in black and white. The color green seems to me essential in that film...This film would have no value to me in black and white."
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/claires-knee-1971
But then Claire joins the group, and one day while they are picking cherries, Jerome turns his head and finds that Claire has climbed a ladder and he is looking directly at her knee.
Rohmer has an uncanny ability to make his actors seem as if they were going through the experiences they portray. The acting of Beatrice Romand, as sixteen-year-old Laura, is especially good in this respect; she isn't as pretty as her sister, but we feel somehow she'll find more enjoyment in life because she is a...well, a better person underneath. Jean-Claude Brialy is excellent in a difficult role. He has to relate with three women in the movie, and yet remain implicitly faithful to the unseen Lucinda. He does, and since the sexuality in his performance is suppressed, it is, of course, all the more sensuous. "Claire's Knee" is a movie for people who still read good novels, care about good films, and think occasionally.
https://letterboxd.com/film/claires-knee/
Eric Rohmer's 5th Moral Tale
-->Possible moral topic(s) treated: Emotional manipulation for the fulfillment of perverted fantasies. BAM!!
Rohmer accomplishes the ridiculously difficult task of putting into coherent (sometimes sophisticated, but never sophistic) words the complex mentality that drives men's impulses into scandalously immoral actions. Maybe our fathers saw scandal in the age difference issue; today, it doesn't bother us that much anymore because society is, in some respects, more degraded than before. Hence, Le Genou de Claire arises new questionings today.
I use the word "scandalous" because Jerome's ambitions are truly perverted. The direction is impeccable and accurate because only all of us men are capable of understanding the powerlessness caused by a gorgeous female figure in an instant, no emotional attachments involved. In that way, everything suddenly becomes elements that conspire against you: the landscape in which you are in, the climate, the people around you when all you want is to find the golden opportunity of being alone with the source of your obsession, the lovers like if they were your personal competitors... everything becomes a conspiracy against you. A vacation can turn into a nightmare, but us men can find the fun in such disturbing experience.
A substantial amount of scenes in Le Genou de Claire needed to resemble an "interview style", so that both genders have the opportunity to make efforts to express the reasons behind their actions. Truth is, we do not know the reasons behind our actions. Jerome's marriage does not matter at the end of the day. What should really capture the audience is how, while trying to explain our actions, we build complex sentences as coherent as possible to justify what we do while pretending to know that we understand the complex psychological processes involved, and that is what Jerome stands for as a character. That is why Laura's presence occupies the first half of the film and her participation in it turns out to be funny and ironic, but paradoxical: she understands better why she does what she does (the "lack of parental figure" observation was spot-on) than Jerome, even better than Aurora, whose experimental reasons remain unexplained and that makes it all the more mysterious... just like human nature is.
Watching this film is like watching a mirror for men. The situation, even though improbable, is very realistic towards our unfortunately primitive male nature, and most of us have been in that situation with a close relative. Age does not matter, I reiterate. But it is shameful to accept that our so-called "freedom" (in the context of "I am a free man/woman", like stated in the film) does not represent more than slavery to our passions. Damn it, I've been there, it is extremely difficult to handle, but why is it that we want to be the #1 guy in the lives of every single woman we meet? Rohmer, audaciously, circles around this particular question with challenging delicacy and, let's say, "diplomacy", making you realize that moral is relative, and the roots of your decisions and impulses are much more disturbing than what you realize.
The movie peaks when Jérôme meets Claire for the first time. This is a holy-moly visual that for Jérôme, once it happens, it can’t be undone, but for him, no image of Claire after that can ever be as powerful. He has seen a small photo of Claire but nothing that would prepare him for this moment. Many attractive women have appeared in a movie in a bikini, but few have done it with Claire’s spectacular nonchalance. This meeting is an interesting contrast with Blake Edwards’ “10,” a film a decade later in which Dudley Moore’s vision of Bo Derek on the beach occurs in a daydream, after he has already seen her multiple times. After an emotional breakthrough, both films will redirect their protagonists to Plan A.
Jérôme’s encounter is almost laughably businesslike. Claire in this setting is wielding enormous power but seems to have no interest in using it. She gets up from her lawn chair in some kind of anticipation of Jérôme’s visit. She explains the others are gone and smiles when he notes, matter of factly, she’s all alone. Otherwise, they agree it’s a nice day, and once Claire’s boyfriend Gilles pulls up, Jérôme strides away.
http://www.widescreenings.com/claires-knee-rohmer-analysis.html
Later, Jérôme will reveal to Aurora what seeing Claire means: “desire,” apparently long dormant for him, renewed.
Many attractive women have appeared in a movie in a bikini, but few have done it with Claire’s spectacular nonchalance. This meeting is an interesting contrast with Blake Edwards’ “10,” a film a decade later in which Dudley Moore’s vision of Bo Derek on the beach occurs in a daydream, after he has already seen her multiple times. After an emotional breakthrough, both films will redirect their protagonists to Plan A.
Once Claire shows up, Laura’s observations feel like lettuce next to ice cream — one of them is a healthier relationship for the long term; the other would be a lot of fun to try right now. Once Laura notices Jérôme’s fixation with Claire’s knee, she hands him a basket with disdain, her faint spell broken.
Kael wrote that the viewer accepts “the way the situation has been abstracted from normal living.” This is a pure play on the contrast between sexual and emotional attraction. He has put a small collection of unusually attractive people together in a Garden of Eden to compare views on relationships. Whatever Aurora plans to do with her story, we don’t care. Whatever Jérôme does for a living, we don’t really know. What he is doing at night (by day, he is supposedly selling a vacation home, but nobody is coming to look, and he is shown doing no work on it), who knows. The viewer wants him to see the girls, share his observations with Aurora, and hopefully not break any laws.
Rohmer’s biggest decision on what to exclude involves the fiancee. We will never meet Lucinde. This makes it easy for the viewer to bless what Jérôme is contemplating. Should he be marrying this woman? That question, almost incredibly, is irrelevant. He hints they might even be planning an open marriage or at least one in which a 3rd-party experience might be easily forgiven. He assures Aurora that they are good to go. Lucinde’s side of the story would be interesting.
(The next and last film in Rohmer’s series, “Chloe in the Afternoon,” will have the title character assuming both the Laura and Aurora role. That film is perceptive but gets bogged down in boredom, characters entertaining infidelity because there’s nothing else to do.)
Vincent Canby called “Claire’s Knee” “a superlative motion picture” and “very close to being a perfect movie of its kind.” But he ignores a big problem, that Rohmer depicts nothing special about Claire’s knee. The close-ups of this body part have an emperor-has-no-clothes element. Whatever about it has somehow caught Jérôme’s fancy doesn’t register with the viewer the way everything else about her does. Unlike in “10” (or, in a really offbeat parallel, “Shallow Hal”), we see Claire the way the rest of the world sees her, not the way in which Jérôme is fantasizing about her.
Whatever Lucinde might think of this is irrelevant. Would she be more concerned about his interest in the girls or in Aurora? Jérôme has attained a level of intimacy with each woman. The victory is apparently his realization that his conquest of Claire must not be sexual. Rather, he has exploited her supposed vulnerability by touching her knee. He’s never done anything “so heroic,” he brags to Aurora, and insists it took “a lot of courage.” (Again, we are in fantasy-land here.)
Jérôme declares, “The girl’s body no longer obsesses me ... It’s as if I’d had her, I’m fulfilled.”
https://www.nytimes.com/1971/02/22/archives/the-screen-an-almost-perfect-claires-knee.html
Eric Rohmer's "Claire's Knee," which opened yesterday at the 68th Street Playhouse, comes very close to being a perfect movie of its kind, something on the order of an affectionate comedy of the intellect that has no easily identifiable cinema antecedents except in other films by Mr. Rohmer, most notably "My Night at Maud's."It is the product of a literary sensibility, and it grows out of a literary tradition, but it is, first and foremost, a superlative motion picture. Like "Intolerance," "My Darling Clementine," "Rear Window" and "Le Gai Savoir"—movies I mention only because it resembles them not in the least—"Claire's Knee" could exist in no other form.The film is the fifth in Rohmer's projected cycle of "Six Moral Tales," each of which is designed as a variation on the theme of the man who, in love with one woman, feels drawn to another, whom he finally rejects in order to pursue the first, whom he may or may not win. Carlos Clarens, writing in Sight and Sound, has called this official schema "a snare for professional film decoders," and I agree.The joys in Rohmer's Moral Tales exist not so much in the variations he works, nor in contrasting one film with another, but in responding to the various levels of experience contained within each film. Of the three Moral Tales I've now seen, including "Maud" (the third) and "La Collectionneuse" (the fourth), which has not yet been released here, "Claire's Knee" is by far the most fascinating. It is both more easily accessible than "Maud," and more complex, less of a conventional narrative and more of an emotional experience.The setting is near Annecy in western France, not far from the Swiss border, a lovely, slightly out-of-fashion summer community that faces the overwhelming Alps across the Lake of Annecy.
"Claire's Knee" unfolds like an elegant fairy tale in a series of enchanted and enchanting encounters, on the lake, in gardens heavy with blossoms, in interiors that look like Vermeers. Everything in this world has sharply defined edges, like the lake, which is not bordered by beach but by a manmade quay.
For them, in spite of all their talk about being bored with love and suffocated by beauty, each polite meeting becomes as fraught with suspense and danger as a confrontation of gladiators.Beneath this surface level, "Claire's Knee" is also about self-deception, about cruelty, about a certain kind of arrogance that goes with wisdom, and very much about sex. It is no accident that the beautiful, lean, comparatively stupid Claire, for whom Jerome conceives his "pure desire," is the only person in the movie enjoying, at the moment, a completely satisfactory, uninhibited sex life.
"Claire's Knee" is a difficult film to do justice to without over-selling it. It is so funny and so moving, so immaculately realized, that almost any ordinary attempt to describe it must, I think, in some way diminish it.
Calificación: Excelente.
Vista: 19 de agosto, 2017. - DirectorJennifer KentStarsEssie DavisNoah WisemanDaniel HenshallA single mother and her child fall into a deep well of paranoia when an eerie children's book titled "Mister Babadook" manifests in their home.En resumen: Babadook es una metáfora de la oscuridad y la depresión de la madre que comienza a manifestarse como un monstruo. Al principio solamente Samuel está consciente de eso, trata de advertirla, trata de ayudarla y como todo niño que adora a su madre no importa lo que pase él la ama sobre todas las cosas, y hasta construye armas para protegerla (si no me equivoco la escena en la que la madre intenta matarlo él las utiliza). Parece imposible salir de esa situación ya que su madre no quiere hablar del tema y prefiere encerrarse en sí misma sin darse cuenta de que al hacer eso no solo se está provocando más daño a ella, sino a su hijo, y en realidad eso es lo que lo empieza a "enfermar" a él (¿esto podría ser Munchausen considerando que la madre le da remedios sin la necesidad de que los tome?). El ambiente y la relación en la que viven es algo enfermiza y el niño lo sabe, tan solo está esperando a que ella también lo sepa no para deshacerse de ese monstruo, sino para aprender a convivir con él y controlar la oscuridad que vive con ellos. El Babadook es la depresión, un monstruo que nunca se va a ir pero aprenden a convivir con él.
Toda la reseña de IMDB "Better than most, but not quite up there with the best."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Babadook
One night, Sam asks his mother to read a pop-up storybook called Mister Babadook. It describes the titular monster, the Babadook, a tall pale-faced humanoid in a top hat with taloned fingers who torments its victims after they become aware of its existence. Amelia is disturbed by the book and its mysterious appearance, while Sam becomes convinced that the Babadook is real. Sam's persistence about the Babadook leads Amelia to often have sleepless nights as she tries to comfort him.
At her birthday party, Sam's cousin Ruby bullies Sam for not having a father, in response to which he pushes her out of her tree house; as a result she breaks her nose in two places.
On the drive home, Sam has another vision of the Babadook and suffers a febrile seizure.
Terrified, Amelia burns the book and runs to the police after a disturbing phone call. However, Amelia has no proof of the stalking, and when she then sees the Babadook's suit hung up behind the front desk, she leaves. Amelia starts to become more isolated and shut-in, being more impatient, shouting at Samuel for 'disobeying' her constantly, and having frequent visions of the Babadook once again. Her mental state slowly decays further and she exhibits erratic and violent behaviour, including severing the phone line with a knife and brandishing it aggressively at Sam seemingly without realising. This mental decline culminates in several disturbing hallucinations, most of which involve the violent murder of Sam with herself as the willing perpetrator.
Amelia is stalked by the Babadook through the house until it takes over her and finally possesses her. Under its influence she breaks Bugsy's neck and attempts to kill Sam. Eventually luring her into the basement, Sam knocks her out. Tied up, Amelia awakens with Sam, terrified, nearby. When she tries to strangle him, he lovingly caresses her face, causing her to regurgitate an inky black substance, an action which seemingly expels the Babadook.
Production:
Kent studied at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA)—where she learned acting alongside Davis—and graduated in 1991.[7] She then worked primarily as an actor in the film industry for over two decades. Kent eventually lost her passion for acting by the end of the 1990s and sent a written proposal to Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier, asking if she could assist on the film set of von Trier's 2003 drama film, Dogville, to learn from the director. Kent's proposal was accepted and she considers the experience her film school, citing the importance of stubbornness as the key lesson she learned.
"In terms of the characters, Kent said that it was important that both characters are loving and lovable, so that "we [audience] really feel for them"—Kent wanted to portray human relationships in a positive light.
Kent drew from her experience on the set of Dogville for the assembling of her production team, as she observed that von Trier was surrounded by a well-known "family of people". Therefore, Kent sought her own "family of collaborators to work with for the long term."
In terms of film influences, Kent cited 1960s, '70s and '80s horror—including The Thing (1982), Halloween (1978), Les Yeux Sans Visage (1960), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), Carnival of Souls (1962) and The Shining (1980)—as well as Vampyr (1932), Nosferatu (1922) and Let The Right One In (2008).
Filming: (todo)
Symbolism:
Teeman writes that he was "gripped" by the "metaphorical imperative" of Kent's film, with the Babadook monster representing "the shape of grief: all-enveloping, shape-shifting, black". Teeman states that the film's ending "underscored the thrum of grief and loss at the movie's heart", and concludes that it informs the audience that grief has its place and the best that humans can do is "marshal it".
The malevolent Babadook is basically a physicalised form of the mother's trauma ... I believe, the Babadook embodies the destructive power of grief. Throughout the film, we see the mother insist nobody bring up her husband's name. She basically lives in denial. Amelia has repressed grief for years, refusing to surrender to it.
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-babadook-2014
I went into “The Babadook” under a kind of misapprehension. I’d heard a bit about the movie—it would have been difficult, as a working film reviewer to not have—but not orally, so I thought that the title was pronounced with a long “o” or even a sort of “u,” so it rhymed with “Luke,” or, more pertinently, an obscure Italian-American slang word that Robert De Niro uses in “Raging Bull,” that word being “mamaluke.” As in, “I look like a mamaluke.” “A WHAT?” “Like a mamaluke. Like the mamaluke of the year.” Under this misapprehension, I actually underestimated this horror movie, the debut feature written and directed by Australian filmmaker Jennifer Kent.
Both a relentless psychological thriller with heavy primal stuff on its mind and a full-throttle slam-bang scare-fest, it delivers raw sensation without insulting the intelligence the way the more sensationalist but also essentially trite pictures in the New Horror Paradigm along the lines of “Insidious” tend to do.
And the child, a little boy, is a pip. Samuel (the cherub-faced Noah Wiseman, giving one of the most amazing and intense child-actor performances I’ve ever seen) spends a lot of time playing games and concocting crude weapons with which to protect himself and his mum from imaginary enemies, and he’s at work on this project day and night, loudly.
The situation’s a nasty mess, and Kent really makes the viewer resent little Sam about it, particularly after little Sam discovers a rather malevolent children’s book that warns of the evil household influence of a nasty man called, yes, The Babadook.
Kent’s directorial strategy is a marvel. In the first half of the film, she tells the story through the increasingly bleary eyes of Amelia. Once the ostensibly nonexistent Babadook starts making himself known —most devastatingly in a car rearview mirror incident that provides one of the film’s most jarring and viscerally potent sequences—it becomes Amelia’s turn to play the part of the monster.
This movie has been compared to Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining,” which has very similar themes and also played similar games with deliberately blurring the lines between the contents of the troubled characters’ psyches and the possibly supernatural evils out to do them harm.
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/oct/23/the-babadook-review-chilling-freudian-thriller
The Babadook is partly a psychological thriller in the style of Roman Polanski’s Repulsion or The Tenant, a Freudian study of Amelia and Samuel’s joint dysfunction and joint breakdown. In one sense, the book triggers their collapse, and is a symbol of Amelia’s depression. With its top hat and cloak, the Babadook looks like the magician’s outfit that Samuel likes to wear – he shows great talent for magic, and his fanatical need to impress and unnerve his mother with his tricks is becoming disturbing: already he is in constant trouble at school.
When desperately lonely Amelia is masturbating in bed one night, her moaning inevitably wakes Samuel and the resulting scene is almost unwatchable. In a sense, it is Samuel who is the invader, the vessel of agonised memories and warped needs, and the two have jointly projected this ordeal into the Babadook: a creature of their own making. But, of course, it is also a supernatural phenomenon that cannot be explained away.
Noah Wiseman convincingly combines being frightened and frightening. He looks weirdly like the young Amish boy played by Lukas Haas in Peter Weir’s 80s thriller Witness: he is permanently, secretly aghast at what he is experiencing.
Kent exerts a masterly control over this tense situation and the sound design is terrifically good: creating a haunted, insidiously whispery intimacy that never relies on sudden volume hikes for the scares.
Books demand participatory complicity in a way that TV doesn’t, and like vampires, the monsters and giants of children’s stories cannot enter without being invited over the threshold. The Babadook leaves behind it a satisfyingly toxic residue of fear.
https://movies.stackexchange.com/questions/34591/whats-the-significance-of-amelias-toothache-jaw-pain
https://highdigger.wordpress.com/2015/08/10/the-babadook-or-what-i-wanted-to-know-about-repression-but-was-afraid-to-ask-freud/comment-page-1/
This duality between the way people appear and their dark, hidden inner lives, is a constant theme of the move. In one scene, Amelia is watching cartoons while falling asleep, and the cartoon is a wolf climbing into a sheepskin so that it may stalk its prey undetected. In another, Amelia is shown seated in plain clothing without makeup, while her sister’s friends, all standing with nice dresses, full makeup, and well-done hair, patronizingly offer suggestions for getting out of her depression.
Amelia’s fixation on maintaining appearance produces the psychological conflict that ultimately drives the plot of the film. Amelia refuses to discuss the death of her husband, Oskar.
However, it increasingly appears that the Babadook is not real at all, but merely a fantasy bogeyman that justifies Amelia’s accelerating erratic and violent behavior, enabling her to continually postpone admitting that she is truly suffering from mental illness.
In the climax of the movie, Amelia, possessed by the Babadook, strangles the family dog to death and attacks Sam. She has been experiencing hallucinations where her deceased husband offers to reunite with the family if Amelia will “deliver the boy.”
He tells her that he loves her no matter what, and while she is attempting to strangle him to death, he caresses her face, liberating her from the Babadook. However, when the Babadook returns to drag Sam upstairs, Amelia screams that she will kill the Babadook (...).
The ultimate lesson of the movie seems to be a Freudian one – that which goes out through the door comes back in through the window. In other words, the Babadook is a product of Amelia’s repression of her grief. She blames Sam for Oskar’s death, and resents him for it, yet refuses to admit this when her sister confronts her about it. Amelia’s refusal to admit that she has not gotten over Oskar’s death, and her refusal to discuss the issue, has not extinguished her grief but instead given it such power that it is able to take control of her. At one point, the Babadook delivers a new book to Amelia which states that the more she denies the Babadook, the stronger it will grow. Amelia is later shown with chalk all over her hands, suggesting she was in fact the one that constructed the book.
Further, in addition to repression, Amelia also copes with her psychotic episodes via overindulgence. For example, following two separate moments of conflict, Amelia offers Sam ice cream for breakfast in hopes it will compel him to forgive her. Additionally, she continually uses loud television to keep Sam and herself awake. This desire for overstimulation is a mechanism of further denying responsibility – rather than accept and sit with her anger and sadness, she attempts to drown it out with short-term pleasures, like ice cream, TV, and masturbation.
Overall, I was extremely uncomfortable with the level of social judgment Amelia and Sam experienced, but if the Babadook truly is a metaphor for mental illness, it’s quite possible that Amelia was both invoking this judgment in acts of self-destruction (such as one scene where she mocks one of her sister’s friends for not having time to go to the gym), and projecting judgment of herself onto others. In one scene she is apologizing profusely to social workers in her home for bugs coming through a hole in the wall, yet it is quickly revealed that the hole was illusory. Delusions of society all being against you and out to get you may very well accompany Amelia’s illness, distorting her perception of other’s behavior and crippling her ability to distinguish between appropriate and inappropriate social behavior.
Additionally, the fact that Amelia ultimately overcame the Babadook merely by threatening to kill it and banishing it to the basement leave me less than satisfied. Amelia hasn’t admitted to anyone that she saw the Babadook, or sought treatment for her depression. On the other hand, she does have a moment of honesty where she admits to some social workers that her husband died, and she does so voluntarily and without hesitation. I would have appreciated a film that used vulnerability as the mechanism of resolution for Amelia, and I also would have appreciated one that made more explicit that the Babadook was entirely Amelia (and potentially Sam’s) fabrication. Nonetheless, I appreciated the overall message of the film; a fixation on appearance and a refusal to admit one’s breakdowns will ultimately yield the oppressive sensation that one is out of control of their life. Attempting to escape from, rather than address, our problems can only work so well – for many problems come from within, and no matter where we flee or how we attempt to do so, we cannot flee from ourselves.
http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=107107&forumID=1&archive=0
Esto lo comentó un usuario:
I don't care for the recent efforts in the horror genre (Ring, Grudge, Paranormal Actvity 1-5, Insidious, Conjuring etc). Their schtick is old and predictable and not in the least bit frightening to me.
Babadook is frightening, but only in the terrible acting, poor characters and script and the way you're never sure if it's set in the 70's or that's how Australia still looks today! (No lo había pensado de esta manera pero me imagino que construyeron una casa colonial para que parezca que vivían en una vieja casa)
Esto lo comentó otro usuario:
The Ring and The Grudge (both remakes of Asian movies) are hardly "recent efforts", respectively from 2002 and 2004. I immensely enjoyed the remake of The Ring, thought it had good performances, strong visuals as well as a captivating back story and premise, The Grudge was ok for its atmospherics and foreign terrain. Both movies were very influential as every horror movie released after it basically featured a scary girl in a white torn dress with long dark hair. It is finally starting to wear off, but to my surprise there are still movies that use similar imagery to this day.
Though while watching it at first Insidious (2010) felt like a routine ghost story, once it got into the supernatural realm, I enjoyed it a lot, especially the symbolism and images it showed and as far as I'm concerned, a better (unintentional) remake of Poltergeist you wont find. It has the same likable family unit and the poltergeist 'backstory' I ate up. Especially in the sequel. The Conjuring felt more formulaic and I didn't get into it as much. I haven't seen its spin off Annabelle yet. It's worth mentioning all these movies have excellent scores by Joseph Bishara that add so much tension and momentum. And then there's Sinister which I also liked up until the reveal.
These recent horror movies are actually rather tame if you compare them to 70s and 80s horror movies where violence, gore and sex were very prevalent, mainly because it was so "taboo". Which is why I'm amazed that these recent low body count ghost story movies have taken over after the wave of splatter porn (Saw/Hostel/Human Centipede), maybe people were tired of seeing endless exploitative torture scenes, I know I was. It also ties in with the old cliché in horror, less is better.
Otro usuario:
For me not an awful movie, but not "terrifying" at all. Then again most recent horror films that get great reviews leave me cold. The Possession, with Jeffrey Dean Morgan was very good, but that's maybe the one recent horror film I've really enjoyed.
And since we're on the music board here, eh the score didn't impress, either.
Otro usuario:
Yeah, I don't understand what the big deal about this was either. Not particularly scary or original.
There are several other better horror films from 2014, like OCULUS, DEEP IN THE DARKNESS and AS ABOVE, SO BELOW.
Otro usuario:
The film has flaws. It runs on too long, and the resolution isn't fully convincing. But I at least find it an extraordinarily vivid rendering of an all too real state of mind.
Incidentally the movie contains many clips from old pictures, including briefly THE STRANGE LOVE OF MARTHA IVERS. There is a specific credit for Miklos Rozsa's music at the very end of the credits.
Otro usuario:
I don't mean to be argumentative, but I think you sort of missed the point of the film. Yes, it's a little creepy and spooky, but I saw the film as an allegory about mental illness and depression.
Both the mom and the kid are clearly traumatized following the death of the dad, and the Babadook is the physical manifestation of the mom's increasing mental instability. The kid's real emotional and behavioral problems make her issues increasingly worse - the line 'baba-dook-dook-dook" is similar to the kid's continual whine of "mama-look-look-look" - and I don't think it's a coincidence that the Babadook appears to her as a manifestation of the dead father.
The ending, to me, was a representation of the way the mom came to terms with her issues: the Babadook is literally consigned to the basement (read: pushed away from the forefront of the mind), but is never truly gone and has to be controlled, like real mental illness.
Otro usuario:
Oculus? Really? That one seemed laughable and painfully derivative much more than scary.
Still I'd say the best horror of the last decade or so is THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE and I can't think of anything even close to this one since (which unfortunately includes Derrickson's Sinister). I quite liked first WOMAN IN BLACK too.
I am definitely looking forward to checking Kevin Smith's TUSK, though.
Otro usuario:
I just can't seem to find a film that chills me to my core like some films of my past have.
I think the hyperbole attached to this film really didn't help my eventual opinion of it.
Got to agree with Jon. I think that it is really unfortunate how they are advertising and selling this great wee film. It's not a horror film..its a drama about a woman's breakdown. It bugs me how folk say it's laughable and such. Amazing performances from the woman and the boy along with a creepy overall atmosphere and some horror TOUCHES. Laughable? What's laughable about borderline child abuse?! It's a perfect example of a good film that has been ruined by a misguided stupid marketing campaign.
Oh yeah..the music was good as well.
Otro usuario:
There's definitely a "munchausen syndrome by proxy" element to the story too, I felt, with the mother deriving some sort of satisfaction from the attention she gets as a result of her sons problems. It seems to me that a lot of the sequences involving the Babadook "possessing" the mother are actually scenes of her abusing him, but viewed from the child's point of view, coupled with his own obsession with monster stories. The sons whole thing about "I just want you to be happy" seems to speak to this.
https://www.lavanguardia.com/cine/20150116/54423687664/the-babadook-critica-de-cine.html
The babadook es un ejemplo de terror irracional, el propio de una inquietud difusa y cimbreante. Se sitúa allí donde nada tiene explicación y, sin embargo, todo está cargado de sentido. Como en los sueños. O mejor, como en las peores pesadillas. En El resplandor, por citar un clásico, ocurría algo parecido. Y también en Repulsión, de Polanski, otra de terror inclasificable. Son historias en las que no sabes por qué ocurre lo que ocurre, valga la redundancia. Pero lo intuyes con espanto.
Calificación: Muy buena.
Vista: 19 de agosto, 2017. - DirectorRob ReinerStarsJames CaanKathy BatesRichard FarnsworthAfter a famous author is rescued from a car crash by a fan of his novels, he comes to realize that the care he is receiving is only the beginning of a nightmare of captivity and abuse.A Annie no le gustó la cantidad de malas palabras que tenía el nuevo libro de Paul.
Del FAQ de IMDB:
-Did Annie cause Paul's accident?
-Did Annie know at the dinner scene that Paul had laced her wine with Novril?
De esto solo me llama la atención el champagne que toma:
Paul finishes the book and asks for his usual—a cigarette, matches to light it, and a glass of Dom Pérignon champagne.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misery_(film)
As of 2018, Misery is the only Stephen King adaptation to be an Oscar-winning film. The "hobbling" scene in the film was ranked #12 on Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments.
Plot:
Famed novelist Paul Sheldon is the author of a successful series of Victorian romance novels featuring a character named Misery Chastain. Wanting to focus on more serious stories, he writes a manuscript for a new novel that he hopes will launch his post-Misery career. While traveling from Silver Creek, Colorado to his home in New York City, Paul is caught in a blizzard and his car goes off the road, rendering him unconscious. A nurse named Annie Wilkes finds Paul and brings him to her remote home.
One day, when Annie is away, Paul begins stockpiling his painkillers. He tries poisoning Annie during dinner, but fails. Paul later finds a scrapbook of newspaper clippings about Annie's past. He discovers that she was tried for the deaths of several infants, but the trial collapsed due to lack of evidence. Annie had quoted lines from his Misery novels during her trial. Annie later drugs Paul and straps him to the bed. When he wakes, she tells him that she knows he has been out of his room and breaks his ankles with a sledgehammer to prevent him from escaping again.
(...) she tells Paul that they must die together. He agrees, on the condition that he must finish the novel in order to "give Misery back to the world". He conceals a can of lighter fluid in his pocket.
When the manuscript is done, Paul asks for a single cigarette and a glass of champagne, as is his usual ritual when completing a book, to which Annie complies. Using the match Annie gives him, Paul sets the manuscript on fire, and as Annie rushes to save it, he hits her over the head with the typewriter. They fight and Annie is killed when Paul smashes her in the face with the base of a heavy statue.
Eighteen months later, Paul, now walking with a cane, meets his agent, Marcia, in a restaurant in New York City.
Seeing a waitress, he imagines her as Annie. The waitress says she is his "number one fan", to which Paul responds, "That's very sweet of you".
Production:
In the original novel, Annie Wilkes severs one of Paul Sheldon's feet with an axe. Goldman loved the scene and argued for it to be included, but Reiner insisted that it be changed so that she only breaks his ankles. Goldman subsequently wrote that this was the correct decision as amputation would have been too severe.
According to Reiner, it was Goldman who suggested that Kathy Bates, then unknown, should portray Annie Wilkes.
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/misery-1990
Stephen King has a modest but undeniable genius for being able to find horror in everyday situations. My notion is that he starts with a germ of truth from his own life, and then takes it as far as he can into the macabre and the bizarre. Take "Misery," for example, the story of a writer who finds himself the captive of his self-proclaimed "No. 1 fan." The hero has not finished a novel to her liking, and now she has him in her grip and he is writing under a particularly painful and violent deadline.
I can only imagine what some of the more peculiar fan letters of a writer like King must read like, and perhaps one of them even suggested this story.
Bates, who has the film's key role, is uncanny in her ability to switch, in an instant, from sweet solicitude to savage scorn. Some of the things Stephen King invents for her to do to the writer are so shocking that they could be a trap for an actor - an invitation to overact. But she somehow remains convincing inside her character's madness.
Many competent directors could have done what Reiner does here, and perhaps many other actors could have done what Caan does, although the Kathy Bates performance is trickier and more special. The result is good craftsmanship, and a movie that works. It does not illuminate, challenge or inspire, but it works.
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/may/09/stephen-king-misery-kathy-bates-review
Firstly, she is not a face we know, which aids rather than undermines conviction. Secondly, she is not your conventional American screen actress, glamorous unto death. She almost looks like a real person the sort you might find in a deserted area of Colorado in comfortable snow boots. Thirdly, she is a fine actress who knows that less in the way of a ‘performance’ is often more and that strong moments have to be severely rationed.
Bates pushes her character this way and that, dispensing kindness and threat in equal proportions. It’s clear she’s mad but, not at first, that she’s absolutely barking. Meanwhile, James Caan as Sheldon goes from pain-filled gratitude to anger and terror with all the aplomb of a man who started his career on screen a quarter of a century ago frightening an immobile Olivia De Havilland half to death in Lady In A Cage.
This performance is at least as good as Bates’, and Richard Farnsworth as the eccentric Sheriff, of sounder mind than he seems, is not far behind.
In racing parlance, it is by Whatever Happened To Baby Jane out of Fatal Attraction, and a good example of a popular film that doesn’t take its audience for granted.
https://www.espinof.com/criticas/criticas-a-la-carta-misery
A pesar de que lo consideramos un escritor de bestsellers, que tira de estudio y produce novelas como churros, con ánimo exclusivamente comercial, de la obra de Stephen King han surgido algunos de los mejores ejemplos de la mini-historia de la adaptación cinematográfica. Fan del autor de pequeña, leí en aquellos años una gran parte de su producción y vi casi al completo lo que se ha trasladado a la pantalla de sus trabajos. Con calidad sumamente desigual, su currículum como guionista o autor adaptado, se nutre de, desde una cutre ‘Cementerio de animales’, a las más grandes obras fílmicas inspiradas en sus novelas: ‘El resplandor’, ‘Cadena perpetua’ y, ¿por qué no?, la que nos ocupa, pasando por cintas más curiosas que buenas, como ‘Carrie’, ‘Christine’ o ‘La zona muerta’. No es mi intención repasarlas todas, ya que son multitud, pero comentaré que casi la totalidad de las que pude ver, por poco estimables que fuesen, me marcaron de alguna forma y de casi cualquiera de ellas recuerdo aún ahora frases e imágenes.
‘Misery’ (1990) no solo ha constituido una de las más apreciables adaptaciones que han salido de los libros del de Maine, sino que podría ser considerada su mejor novela, quien sabe si por ser la más cercana al tener un protagonista que funciona en cierto modo como su alter-ego y por no tirar de elementos sobrenaturales o tópicos en el terror. Recuerdo devorarla una y otra vez, disfrutando del juego metalingüístico, de esa obra dentro de la obra y, por supuesto, de la relación enferma y psicopática de ambos protagonistas, retratados a la perfección en sendos casos.
La tensión: (todo)
Spoilers: No cierro aún el aviso ante palabras que destripan el final o momentos clave de la película, para comentar la escena que más me marcó ya en su día –y apuesto a que no solo a mí–: hablo de la ruptura de las piernas con el mazo. Reiner no escatima el primer golpe y nos deja ver el pie fuera de su sitio, aunque se podría haber obtenido el mismo efecto de contagio de dolor con un sonido fuera de campo, como hace en el segundo mazazo, y la reacción del actor. Es el único instante de la película que recurre a lo grotesco, ya que aquí el miedo no lo producen la sangre, las vísceras u otros factores, sino la pura psicología.
Calificación: Muy buena.
Vista: 20 de agosto, 2017. - DirectorJames MangoldStarsWinona RyderAngelina JolieClea DuVallA directionless teenager, Susanna, is rushed to Claymoore, a mental institution, after a supposed suicide attempt. There, she befriends a group of troubled women who deeply influence her life.Es algo innecesario que yo lea estas reseñas con lo mucho que me cuesta analizarlas objetivamente, y ni qué decir si las películas me afectan a nivel personal.
Sacado del FAQ de IMDB:
-Is this movie based on a book?
-What did Susanna Kaysen think of the movie?
http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/girl-interrupted/answers/show/63145/why-does-suzanna-no-bones-wrist-what-does-wrist-banger-mean
why does suzanna have no bones in her wrist and what does wrist banger mean??
beggining of film when docs take strap of wrist in hospital? thanks guys
-She does have bones in her hand/wrist, but she thought she didn't (due to her mental illness).
And a wrist banger is basically someone who bangs their wrist on things, to cause bruises. It's a form of self harm.
-Susanna undergoes a period of depersonalization, where she claims she has "lost her bones."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girl,_Interrupted
Girl, Interrupted is a best-selling 1993 memoir by American author Susanna Kaysen, relating her experiences as a young woman in a psychiatric hospital in the 1960s after being diagnosed with borderline personality disorder.- Plot:
Susanna reflects on the nature of her illness, including difficulty making sense of visual patterns, and suggests that sanity is a falsehood constructed to help the "healthy" feel "normal" in comparison. She also questions how doctors treat mental illness, and whether they are treating the brain or the mind. During her stay in the ward, Susanna also undergoes a period of depersonalization, where she bites open the flesh on her hand after she becomes terrified that she has "lost her bones". She develops a frantic obsession with the verification of this proposed reality and even insists on seeing an X-ray of herself to make sure. This hectic moment is described with shorter, choppy sentences that show Kaysen's state of mind and thought processes as she went through them. Also, during a trip to the dentist with Valerie, Susanna becomes frantic after she wakes from the general anesthesia, when no one will tell her how long she was unconscious, and she fears that she has lost time. Like the incident with her bones, Kaysen here also rapidly spirals into a panicky and obsessive state that is only ultimately calmed with medication.
After leaving McLean, Susanna mentions that she kept in touch with Georgina and eventually saw Lisa, now a single mother who was about to board the subway with her toddler son and seemed, although quirky, to be sane.- Structure:
Girl, Interrupted does not follow a linear storyline, but instead the author provides personal stories through a series of short descriptions of events and personal reflections on why she was placed in the hospital. She begins by talking about the concept of a parallel universe and how easy it is to slip into one, comparing insanity to an alternate world. She discusses how some people fall into insanity gradually and others just snap. Kaysen also details the doctor's visit before first going to the hospital and the taxi ride there at the beginning of the book before launching into the chronicles of her time at the hospital.- Author opinion:
The author, Susanna Kaysen, was among the detractors of the film, accusing Mangold of adding "melodramatic drivel" to the story by inventing plot points that never happened in the book (such as Lisa and Susanna running away together).
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/girl-interrupted-2000
In the spring of 1967, while everyone else in her senior class seems to be making plans for college, Susanna consumes a bottle of aspirin and a bottle of vodka. "My hands have no bones," she observes. Soon, with a push from her family, she has committed herself to Claymoore, an upscale psychiatric institution. The diagnosis? "Borderline personality disorder," say the shrinks. A supervising nurse played by Whoopi Goldberg offers her own diagnosis: "You are a lazy, self-indulgent little girl who is driving yourself crazy." Winona Ryder plays Susanna Kaysen, whose real-life memoir tells of how she lost two years of her life by stumbling onto the psychiatric conveyor belt. Although mental illness is real and terrifying, the movie argues that perfectly sane people like Susanna can become institutionalized simply because once they're inside the system there is the assumption that something must be wrong with them. Goldberg's nurse has seen this process at work and warns Susanna: "Do not drop anchor here."
The film unfolds in an episodic way, like the journal it's based on. Themes make an appearance from time to time, but not consistently; the film is mostly about character and behavior and although there are individual scenes of powerful acting, there doesn't seem to be a destination. That's why the conclusion is so unsatisfying: The story, having failed to provide itself with character conflicts that can be resolved with drama, turns to melodrama instead.
One problem is the ambivalent nature of Susanna's condition ("ambivalent" is one of her favorite words). She isn't disturbed enough to require treatment, but she becomes strangely absorbed inside Claymoore, as if it provides structure and entertainment she misses on the outside. Certainly Lisa is an inspiration, with her cool self-confidence masking deep wounds.
Jared Leto plays her boyfriend Toby, whose number is up in the draft lottery. He wants them to run away to Canada. She is no longer much interested in steering her future into their relationship and prefers her new friends in Claymoore. "Them?" says Toby. "They're eating grapes off of the wallpaper." Susanna chooses solidarity: "If they're insane, I'm insane." Wrong. They're insane, and she isn't, and that deprives the film of the kind of subterranean energy that fueled its obvious inspiration, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest."
https://www.theguardian.com/film/News_Story/Critic_Review/Observer_review/0,4267,152680,00.html (todo)
https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2018/06/27/girl-interrupted-twenty-five-years-later/ (seleccioné lo más importante pero toda la reseña tiene datos interesantes incluso de la opinión de la autora)
When Susanna Kaysen set out to write a memoir of her time spent at the psychiatric hospital McLean, she wanted to write like “an anthropologist in the loony bin.” She had watched her husband, an anthropologist, conduct a study of Faroe Islands—“a standard anthropological thing, a study of a village, of who married and who didn’t and what were the feuds,” Kaysen told me. Her husband’s study made her realize that “McLean was sort of like a village but somewhat larger. Our ward was a tiny little village with our doctors and nurses and aides.”
Kaysen hired a lawyer and got ahold of her medical records and began writing. She pared down details about herself and her struggle with mental illness so that the resulting memoir, Girl, Interrupted, reads today like a comedic travelogue of an extended stay at a young women’s ward.
Instead, Kaysen said, many took Girl, Interrupted as some sort of stigma-defying big-t Truth about life with mental illness.
“What had spurred me to write was rage and a desire to dissect this world. And that didn’t seem to register for a lot of these people.” (esto lo dijo Kaysen)
Letters poured in. Young women “would find my phone number somehow and ask to meet me,” Kaysen recalled. “They would say they felt that I was them, or something like that.”
Kaysen’s memoir, with its nonlinear chronology and scans of her actual medical records, felt very postmodern. “People thought it was a transcription of reality or my brain,” Kaysen told me. “That’s an intrusive feeling to the person into whose brain you didn’t plug.”
Girl, Interrupted was an early entry in the publishing gold rush that would be termed the memoir boom. Autobiography had long held a place in American letters, but typically those books were told by the famous or powerful. However, in the wake of the personal-is-political progressive movements of the sixties, the life writing of unknown citizens became more marketable. Early examples from this genre, termed “memoir” to distinguish it from the high roller’s “autobiography,” include Vivian Gornick’s Fierce Attachments (1987), William Styron’s Darkness Visible (1990), and AIDS memoirs such as Paul Monette’s Borrowed Time (1988).
The few years after 1993 would see the books that marked the memoir boom’s apex: Mary Karr’s The Liars’ Club (1995), Frank McCourt’s Angela’s Ashes (1996), and Kathryn Harrison’s The Kiss (1997). But Kaysen’s book is still considered the progenitor of the now common mental-illness memoir. While Styron’s memoir on depression and Kate Millett’s The Loony-Bin Trip (1990) predate Girl, Interrupted, neither garnered such widespread popularity. “I do think that Girl, Interrupted was right at the forefront of the memoir wave,” said Julie Grau, who acquired Kaysen’s book as a young editor and now heads a Penguin Random House imprint that focuses on memoir. “Susanna’s memoir spawned many Girl, Interrupted–type memoirs of young women grappling with mental illness in various forms. We can all come up with lists of the nieces and nephews of Girl, Interrupted.” The following year would see the publication of two other successful memoirs by literary women, Lucy Grealy’s Autobiography of a Face and Elizabeth Wurtzel’s Prozac Nation.
Grau was working at the imprint Turtle Bay, an all-female “Utopian little imprint” housed in a brownstone, when Kaysen’s manuscript arrived on her desk. It wasn’t an obvious best seller. The manuscript was rejected by a number of publishers before Grau accepted it. “I presented it to Joni Evans”—the imprint’s director—“and said I wanted to buy it,” Grau, who also founded the imprint Riverhead, remembered. “We actually laugh about this now, but Joni said, ‘Oh, God, who would want to read a book about a girl in a mental institution?’ And I said, ‘Actually, I think a lot of people.’ ”
The book was a New York Times best seller for eleven weeks in hardcover and twenty-three weeks in paperback. Today there are 1.5 million copies in print in the United States. Prior to publication, though, Kaysen herself doubted that her book would make anything but a quiet debut. When advance copies were being distributed to critics, the author went to Italy, expecting little attention. “I started to get these completely crazy phone calls,” Kaysen told me. “Allure wants you to write about how you dress. Vogue wants to interview you. Harper’s Bazaar wants to run an excerpt.”
And yet Kaysen was willing to yield. She spoke in broad strokes about having “a kind of lonely childhood” and how books functioned as companions. “There are other books that have filled a role culturally, in some small way—like The Sorrows of Young Werther. And how many people thought they were Holden Caulfield? But I wasn’t thinking, I’m going to make a lot of people feel like I understand them.”
http://www.labutaca.net/films/colabora/inocenci.htm (todo)
Calificación: Excelente.
Vista: 20 de agosto, 2017. - DirectorCéline SciammaStarsPauline AcquartLouise BlachèreAdèle HaenelAfter meeting at a local pool over their summer break, a love triangle forms between three adolescent girls, which proves difficult to sustain as they each desire the love of another.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_Lilies_(film)
Meanwhile, Floriane confesses to Marie that she has not yet had sex, despite what everyone else on the swim team seems to think. Floriane tells Marie that the rest of the young women on the team make up rumours because they do not like her. In fact, Floriane does not have many female friends.
Floriane thanks Marie for the interruption, and later tells Marie that she wants Marie to be her 'first', but Marie rejects Floriane.
Marie then states that she will do what Floriane had asked her to do earlier. In bed, it seems as if Marie accomplished the goal.
In the locker room, Marie and Floriane finally share a passionate kiss. Floriane indicates that she is going back to the party. Floriane tells Marie to 'save her' if the guy she talked to earlier at the party turns out to be 'an ass.' Marie and Anne jump into the pool fully clothed. They float on their backs in the pool together, while Floriane dances alone at the party, oblivious to the effect that her actions have had upon Marie and Anne.
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2008/mar/14/worldcinema.drama
With the insouciance that only really beautiful people can manage, Floriane indulges Marie's adoration and one evening even encourages her to call round at her house and go for a walk. Her strategy becomes clear: poor Marie is to provide cover for Floriane, who wants to escape from her strict parents and meet with François in an underground lockup, while Marie can only hang around, waiting for her friend to finish and return to complete their bogus walk back home. But their friendship deepens and becomes scarily close to something that Marie had hardly dared to dream - though it causes new tensions with poor, excluded Anne.
https://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/04/movies/04lili.html
The flowers that bloom in the French film “Water Lilies” belong to a familiar cinematic species, the newly sexualized teenage girl. Being French, these teenage girls exhibit some notably different characteristics from their Hollywood counterparts; among other things they don’t text, snap their gum or deliver snappy dialogue like some peewee-league Rosalind Russell. But like most movie teenagers, they also weigh in closer to carefully fabricated adult conceits than to fleshed-out real girls.
The three 15-year-olds at the center of “Water Lilies” certainly belong to recognizably fictional types. There’s Anne (Louise Blachère), the sloppy, fat loner (more gently rounded than truly big), who pals around with Marie (Pauline Acquart), a reedy child-woman who, in turn, only has big hungry eyes for Floriane (Adèle Haenel), a ripe beauty whose suggestive smile portends trouble. The scope of that trouble slowly emerges as the girls circle one another at the local pool — they’re all involved in synchronized swimming, hence the title — at parties and, most provocatively, in one another’s bedrooms. Desire, the writer and director Céline Sciamma suggests, embracing her film’s controlling metaphor rather too enthusiastically, has a way of disrupting the most carefully choreographed life.
Ms. Sciamma sets her story in a generic French suburb at a great psychological remove from the holiday hot spot where Catherine Breillat’s teenagers romp in and out of their clothes in “Fat Girl.” Although Ms. Sciamma explores adolescent sexuality and makes something of an uneasy spectacle of the young flesh at her disposal, she has neither Ms. Breillat’s searching intelligence nor her daring.
There’s a great comment that one of the characters makes about the ceiling being the last thing most people see. I’m wondering if the director (who also wrote the film) was making a connection with sex and death, since in some of the sex scenes the girls were shown to be lying on their back, staring at the ceiling.
The soundtrack is really cool too, there’s an absence of sound through a lot of the film so when the music does come in it has a lot of impact. Overall it’s a fantastic film and I think French films are my favourite type of foreign films. They just have this elegance about them that I find so interesting. Water Lilies is one that I really enjoyed. The performances were great and although it’s a relatively short film there’s a lot of depth to it. I’m strongly recommending this one.
Calificación: Buena/regular.
Vista: 20 de agosto, 2017. - DirectorDario ArgentoStarsJessica HarperStefania CasiniFlavio BucciAn American newcomer to a prestigious German ballet academy comes to realize that the school is a front for something sinister amid a series of grisly murders.Al leer que dicen que la trama de Suspiria es débil, no lo había visto de esa manera y tampoco me pareció que lo fuera, pero si ese es el caso y la trama es algo superficial el hecho de que el remake sea dirigido por Luca Guadagnino tiene sentido ya que Call me by your name tampoco tiene una buena trama ni desarrollo del guión, pero la estética es perfecta.
Toda la reseña de IMDB: "Artistic Nightmare"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suspiria
Suspiria (Latin: [sʊsˈpɪria], lit. "sighs") is a 1977 Italian supernatural horror film directed by Dario Argento, co-written by Argento and Daria Nicolodi, partially based on Thomas De Quincey's 1845 essay Suspiria de Profundis (Sighs from the Depths) and co-produced by Claudio and Salvatore Argento. The film stars Jessica Harper as an American ballet student who transfers to a prestigious dance academy in Germany but realizes, after a series of brutal murders, that the academy is a front for a supernatural conspiracy.
The film is the first of the trilogy Argento refers to as The Three Mothers, which also comprises Inferno (1980) and The Mother of Tears (2007). Suspiria has become one of Argento's most successful feature films, receiving critical acclaim for its visual and stylistic flair, use of vibrant colors and its score by the prog-rock band Goblin.
-Plot: (todo)
-Development: (todo)
-Casting:
American actress Jessica Harper was cast in the lead role of American ballet dancer Suzy Banyon, after attending an audition via the William Morris Agency. Argento chose Harper based on her performance in Brian De Palma's Phantom of the Paradise (1974). Upon being cast in the film, Harper watched Argento's Four Flies on Grey Velvet (1971) to better understand the director's style. Harper turned down a role in Woody Allen's Annie Hall (1977) in order to appear in the film.
-Filming:
Suspiria is noteworthy for several stylistic flourishes that have become Argento trademarks, particularly the use of set-piece structures that allow the camera to linger on pronounced visual elements. Cinematographer Luciano Tovoli was hired by Argento to shoot the film, based on color film tests he had completed, which Argento felt matched his vision, in part inspired by Snow White (1937). The film was shot using anamorphic lenses. The production design and cinematography emphasize vivid primary colors, particularly red, creating a deliberately unrealistic, nightmarish setting, emphasized by the use of imbibition Technicolor prints. Commenting on the film's lush colors, Argento said:
"We were trying to reproduce the colour of Walt Disney's Snow White; it has been said from the beginning that Technicolor lacked subdued shades, [and] was without nuances—like cut-out cartoons."
-Musical score:
The Italian prog-rock band Goblin composed most of the film's score in collaboration with Argento himself. Goblin had scored Argento's earlier film Deep Red as well as several subsequent films following Suspiria. In the film's opening credits, they are referred to as "The Goblins". Like Ennio Morricone's compositions for Sergio Leone, Goblin's score for Suspiria was created before the film was shot. It has been reused in multiple Hong Kong films, including Yuen Woo-ping's martial arts film Dance of the Drunk Mantis (1979) and Tsui Hark's horror-comedy We're Going to Eat You (1980).
-Critical response:
John Stark of The San Francisco Examiner was critical, writing: "Suspiria is mostly gore, with little plot or intrigue." Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune expressed similar sentiments, criticizing Harper's role to being "reduced to cowering in corners" and "costumed to look much younger than her years"; while praising Argento's "visually stylish" direction, he felt that Suspiria was inferior to his directorial debut The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970) and "plays like a weak imitation of The Exorcist (1973)".
Like Siskel, Bruce McCabe of The Boston Globe likened the film to The Exorcist and The Sentinel (1977), ultimately deeming it "a fitful, uneven piece of work too often more uncontrolled than the hysteria it's trying to create."[29] Dave Kehr of the Chicago Reader gave a favorable review, claiming that "Argento works so hard for his effects—throwing around shock cuts, colored lights and peculiar camera angles—that it would be impolite not to be a little frightened".[30] Although J. Hoberman of The Village Voice gave a positive review as well, he calls it "a movie that makes sense only to the eye".[31] Bob Keaton of the Fort Lauderdale News praised the film's "well-crafted plot," likening elements of it to the works of Edgar Allan Poe, adding: "For the seekers of superficially devilish thrills, Suspiria is just the thing."[32] A review in the Colorado Springs Gazette deemed it "a film to experience and for lovers of cinematic suspense... Suspiria may prove to be the most harrowing shocker ever filmed."
-Retrospective assessment: (todo, aunque no sean datos muy importantes sería bueno revisar estas listas)
-In popular culture:
In the comedy film Juno (2007), Suspiria is considered by the title character to be the goriest film ever made, until she is shown The Wizard of Gore and changes her mind, saying it is actually gorier than Suspiria.
In books by Simon R. Green, mentions are often made of a "Black Forest Dance Academy" in Germany, a place where witches and Satanists gather, a possible reference to Suspiria.
The film is also mentioned in the episode "The Seminar" of The Office (season 7).
Was featured in Ryan Murphy's American Horror Story: Hotel (season 5): a character is watching television and the movie is Dario Argento's Suspiria.
Suspiria is featured in the documentary film Terror in the Aisles (1984).
-Subsequent films:
Suspiria is the first of a trilogy of films by Argento, referred to as "The Three Mothers". The trilogy centers around three witches, or "Mothers of Sorrow" who unleash evil from three locations in the world. In Suspiria, Helena Marcos is Mater Suspiriorum (lit. Latin: "Mother of Sighs") in Freiburg. Argento's 1980 film Inferno focuses on Mater Tenebrarum (lit. Latin: "Mother of Darkness"), in New York City. The final installment in the trilogy, The Mother of Tears (2007), focuses on Mater Lachrymarum (lit. Latin: "Mother of Tears") in Rome.
-2018 film:
The film was described by Guadagnino as an "homage" to the 1977 film rather than a direct remake.
https://www.filminquiry.com/suspiria-1977-review/
Many filmmakers, film critics, film historians, and cinephiles consider Profondo rosso (Deep Red, aka The Hatchet Murders, 1975) to be the greatest Giallo film ever made. However, in my humble opinion, writer and director Argento’s next film, Suspiria, is the most inventive and imaginative horror film ever made, and certainly the best of Argento’s Giallo films. Featuring Goblin’s iconic score and venturing away from the murder mystery plot elements of the prior iterations of the Giallo genre, this time exploring supernatural elements, Suspira is a masterclass in suspense, body horror, and primal, subliminal fear.
-Theater of the Absurd:
Through Giallo, Argento basically established a movement that redefined and expanded both Italian cinema and the barriers that confined international horror cinema. From Suspiria onwards, though primarily less focused on the supernatural other than Argento’s La Tre Madri trilogia, Giallo emphasized stylistic elements over plot development in its films. And that is the most important thing to know before seeing Suspiria; it is an absurdist fairytale of witchcraft with a faint hint of noir murder mystery that doesn’t have to make sense.
The film’s narrative fits seamlessly into the plot, as the viewer is essentially taken on the ride of a lifetime from Suzy’s shocked, confused perspective as she tries to navigate through the house of horrors that the dance academy has in store for her. Stylistically, Suspiria represents the purest foundational elements that were essential to the Giallo genre. It is a technical wonder.
-An Astounding Technical Achievement: (todo)
-Soft-Subbing Over Dubbing, All Day, Everyday: (todo)
-The Embodiment Of Timelessness: (todo)
-The Inspiration Behind Suspiria: (todo)
Vale la pena toda la reseña y debería estudiarla porque tiene muchas referencias y da muchos detalles.
http://cineultramundo.blogspot.com/2015/11/critica-de-suspiria-dario-argento-1977.html (toda la reseña vale la pena, solo que quien la escribió por parecer más inteligente le metió palabras que no vienen al caso así que aquí dejé lo más claro):
La primera imagen que nos recibe dentro de “Suspiria” es la de un espacio real –un aeropuerto- pero al cual la alucinada imagen sitúa en el vértice de lo irreal. La alucinada luz y de la ropa de los pasajeros –una mujer vestida de rojo adelanta a Suzy como una señal de alarma que se repetirá a lo largo del metraje- rodean a la heroína de colores primarios que comienzan a golpear el subconsciente de la espectador y lo colocan en un estado perceptivo alterado.
El plano está en un lado del espejo que todavía permanece en contacto con lo ordinario, con la voz en “Off” del tráfico aeroportuario. El contraplano lo domina la irrupción de la música psicoactiva y esotérica de “Goblin”; es decir, el otro lado del espejo, el de lo extraordinario. Suzy (Incluso su nombre es “Psicodélico”) se sube a un taxi y su trayecto está rodado como si fuese una pieza de estudio del Hollywood dorado. La artificialidad se adueña de la imagen; hemos roto definitivamente con el lado cotidiano.
La noche, las luces estroboscópicas en “Technicolor” de musical de Vincente Minelli, un bosque de cuento donde los árboles parecen alineados en un tapiz antinatural.
Con ella hemos atravesado el “Hall” de la academia de baile, un espacio imposible, geométrico y “Art Nouveau”, de suntuosa atmósfera ominosa punteada por la anempática fanfarria de “Goblin”. Luego el crimen, que parece ser, en su formulación, el peaje estético que Argento paga al “Giallo” para trascenderlo mediante lo esotérico. “A la brujas, aliadas del mal, les gusta la retórica clásica del asesinato, les gustan los procedimientos artificiales del crimen” (1). Los asesinatos son, así, la sublimación del artificio. Son intervenciones artísticas incrustadas en mitad de la película. A medio camino entre el cine musical y el arte contemporáneo. Son performances expresionistas, piezas “Museísticas” cuya belleza las justifica “Per Se”. Las ordenación de la figuras en el plano habla de De Chiricho, su ordenación de colores y su geometría remiten a Mondrian, mientras el uso de ese mismo color como manchas puras para sugerir distintos estados de ánimo, o inducirlos, tiene que ver con Kandinski o Rothko. Expresionismo abstracto en movimiento cinemático. Imagen “Sinestésica”, en definitiva
La arquitectura tiene, también, voz propia. Argento establece una tensión y una armonía paradójica entre piezas extraídas de distintos lugares reales con el fin de recrear su propio espacio imaginario, compuesto del mismo modo en como lo hará Stanley Kubrick con el “Hotel Overlook” de “El Resplandor” (The Shining, Stanley Kubrick, 1980), otro espacio con respiración propia, otro puzzle de realidades exentas de la realidad y reordenadas en un no-lugar alucinado y terrorífico, sincrético.
De eso trata la magia, decía Aleister Crowley, el mayor mago del siglo XX, de imponer la voluntad. “Tienes una voluntad fuerte, mis felicitaciones”, le dice en un momento de “Suspiria” la señorita Tanner a Suzy. Toda la batalla de esta historia se desarrolla en este terreno: La voluntad de Suzy; el intento de quebrarla.
Suzy aparece por lo común minimizada por la composición, que la empuja a un lateral del encuadre, dejando en el resto un gran espacio de extrañamiento. Suzy se asemeja a las heroínas de Val Lewton –“La Mujer Pantera” (Cat People, Jacques Tourneur, 1942) (...)
La luz crea un efecto de respiración, o de latido, que convierte la academia en un espacio viviente, extensión de la perversa figura de su directora. No es de extrañar que cuando Helena Marcos, la gran bruja del “Conciliábulo”, haga su aparición esta sea primero como una sombra chinesca y luego como una superposición en el vacío; y al ser destruida, es decir convertida en carne mortal, la casa erigida a su alrededor, como en todas las historias y cuentos de maldad, será destruida y purificada por el fuego.
Cuenta Darío Argento en una de las entrevistas del documental de 2001 que celebra el 25 aniversario de la película que esta, en origen, había sido pensada para estar protagonizada por niñas, exacerbando su naturaleza de cuento perverso. Esta idea, fascinante, perdura en ciertos aspectos dramáticos –la forma de relacionarse e incluso la personalidad de las protagonistas, reconvertidas en ninfas de etérea belleza- y escenográficos –las enormes puertas, que son un motivo simbólico además, y estancias que empequeñecen a la protagonista- que remiten a la narrativa y a la ilustración de los cuentos, cuyos arquetipos son reformulados según una mixtura de “Art-Pop Setentero”, “Exploit” y “Experimentalismo” donde la forma es la vía de comunicación principal; tal y como hoy reivindican trabajos como “The Lords of Salem” (íd, Rob Zombie, 2012) los “Ultramanieristas Gialli” de la pareja Hélène Cattet y Bruno Forzani –“Amer” (2009) y “L'étrange couleur des larmes de ton corps” (2013)- “A Field in England” (Ben Wheatley, 2013), “Under the Skin” (Jonathan Glazer, 2014) o “Solo Dios perdona” (Only God Forgives, Nicolas Winding Refn, 2013), un extraño gemelo del presente “Film” de Argento que parece casi una superposición del mismo pero trasladado a los temores masculinos.
Dice Argento, también, que la “Blancanieves y Los Siete Enanitos” (Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs, Walt Disney, David Hand, 1937) de la “Disney” fue la principal inspiración estética para la singular imagen de “Suspiria”, a lo cual debería añadirse la clara impronta, si bien virada hacia lo “Naif”, de Mario Bava. El “Technicolor” de “Suspiria”, abstracto y “Pictoricista” subraya la artificialidad del conjunto, casi como si fuese una impugnación del horror realista comandado por “El Exorcista” (The Exorcist, William Friedkin, 1973) y “La Profecía” (The Omen, Richard Donner, 1976), que sofocaban la imaginación con su angustioso sentido documental del terror. Lúgubres e invernales, su luz macilenta encontraba en el colorismo frenético y la puntillosa elaboración formal su exacto opuesto; curiosamente compartido por la ya comentada “Exorcista II: El Hereje” (Exorcist II: The Heretic, John Boorman, 1977), variación psicodélica, sensorial, simbólica y “Art-Pop” de la original.
Epílogo:
La idea, “Fantabulosa”, de “Las Tres Madres” –“Mater Suspiriorum, Mater Tenebrarum y Mater Lacrimarum”- todavía no está formulada en “Suspiria”; si bien, como tantas cosas en la película, está latente, en potencia. Dario Argento y Daria Nicolodi, compañera del cineasta, reclaman cada uno la idea para “Suspiria” y lo que sería su, digamos, universo expandido. La actriz y guionista lo liga a las narraciones de su abuela, una pianista francesa cosmopolita, lo cuentos infantiles y sus propios sueños; Argento, en cambio, habla de un viaje por los lugares esotéricos de Europa y la inspiración en los grandes teósofos y ocultistas como Helena Blavatsky, fundadora de la teosofía en los libros, citados de un modo u otro en “Suspiria” y subsiguientes, “Isis sin velo” y “La doctrina secreta”, el místico George Gurdjieff o Rudolf Steiner, creador de la antroposofía, sin desdeñar la sombra teórica de Carl Jung, Thomas de Quincey, visionario y opiómano, o el ya citado Aleister Crowley y su filosofía “Thelemita”. Friburgo, “Nueva York” y Roma (Pese a que el propio Argento menciona siempre a Turín como la capital ocultista de Italia) serían las ciudades mágicas donde reina cada una de las madres, hermanas entre ellas. Pero esa, es otra historia, contada con otras técnicas y otras formas.
https://www.elantepenultimomohicano.com/2016/05/cineclub-suspiria-1977-dario-argento.html (todo)
(...) esta famosa película (de culto para muchos aficionados desde el día de su estreno) me parece excesivamente sobrevalorada y con muchas más sombras que luces (o debería decir, colores llamativos).
Cada vez que la veo (y lo he hecho unas cuantas
veces) me asombro, para bien, de lo cuidadoso y
detallado de los (geométricos) decorados, la
esplendida fotografía (deudora, sin duda, del
expresionismo alemán), el esmero de Argento por planificar cada escena (sobre todo las muertes) y la asombrosa utilización del sonido y la banda sonora para generar inquietud (compuesta por la banda de rock progresivo italiana Goblin y que recuerda, al menos a mí, los sonidos percuso-metálicos de los pre-industriales Einstürzende Neubauten) y la justa pero eficaz dosis de sangre. Todo ello dota al film de un ambiente malsano y claustrofóbico de primera.
Es cierto que la cinta no aburre (en sus casi 100
minutos) y te atrapa de forma hipnótica entre rojos,
azules y amarillos resplandecientes y entre pasillos
enigmáticos y personajes misteriosos al son de
sonidos distorsionados y excesivamente elevados,
pero lo que se cuenta carece de un hilo conductor,
y dado que no podemos olvidar que una película
es mucho más que una sucesión de imágenes (más o menos estéticas), no debemos ser
indulgentes y tolerar la falta de esfuerzo por parte de sus creadores a que todo fluya
ordenadamente hacia un clímax final.
Y somos nosotros,
y sólo nosotros quienes debemos denunciar esto,
para que además de brindarnos un espectáculo audiovisual de primera, también nos deleiten
con la sustancia de lo que se narra
Por todo lo mencionado, y aún reconociendo las
notables virtudes técnicas de esta película, de las
que podríamos estar hablando y analizando
durante días (en su momento fue considerado por
muchos un film de arte y ensayo), no puedo darle
un aprobado. Por supuesto recomiendo su
visionado, tanto por la influencia que ha tenido,
como por la belleza de muchas de las secuencias,
así como por lo equivocado que puede estar mi argumentación (estoy convencido que muchos
de vosotros la considera una verdadera obra maestra).
Nota final: Sé que es muy difícil parir guiones o historias como los escritos por gente como Leigh
Brackett, Robert Bolt, Billy Wilder, Joseph L. Mankiewicz o Robert Benton, pero eso no debería
ser un inconveniente. Al contrario, debería ser una motivación para aquellos que se enfrentan a
la hoja en blanco (cuenten la separación traumática de un matrimonio, el ataque de un pulpo
gigante, la invasión de la Tierra por parte de alienígenas o la sucesión del capo dentro de una
familia mafiosa).
Entre los comentarios:- De hecho, en otras pelis sobre brujería/paganismo nos
antigua), Kill List o la última de Rob Zombie.- Por
20 minutos que no guardan relación con nada de lo visto anteriormente (es como si
hubieran intentado fusionar dos películas distintas). Mientras que en el caso de Suspiria
la “trama” siempre es la misma pero para hacerla avanzar saco personajes de la
chistera o en determinado momento sin saber por qué (simplemente ad hoc) un
personaje recuerda de golpe algo que hasta ese momento le era del todo imposible de
recordar (“un poquito de por favor”, como decía aquel).
-Una vez re-visionada, no me queda otra que darle la razón al bueno de Max. Una de
dos, o la cinta ha envejecido muy mal, o mi gusto cinéfilo se ha refinado con el paso de
los años.
-no comparto la opinión en cuanto al mal manejo del guion a la aparente falta de
coherencia del mismo, bueno me parece una falla del critico porque tal parece que no
se ha dado cuenta que es una pesadilla se presenta como una pesadilla y según yo se
las pesadillas no tienen coherencia narrativa mas si un significado subconsciente
https://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/features/suspiria-dario-argento-influences
First released in Italy 40 years ago, on 1 February 1977, Suspiria has a nightmare ending with a smile. Not a wicked smile or a Norman Bates-style madman’s grin, but a victorious smile to be read as an act of reassurance and female empowerment. Not something you’d readily associate with the cinema of Dario Argento.
Suspiria is the horror movie as high art. Acclaimed for its febrile tone, experimental score by Goblin, garish lighting and baroque violence, it’s a 98-minute barrage of primal terror, blood and guts, eardrum-piercing noise and dreamlike imagery. “Avete visto Suspiria” (“You have been watching Suspiria”), the on-screen message proudly boasts before the end credits roll. And don’t you know it.
(Tan solo voy a poner los nombres de las películas y cuando las haya visto voy a leer en qué se asemejan):
-The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
-Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
-Cat People (1942)
-Blood and Black Lace (1964)
-The Witches (1967)
http://mentalfloss.com/article/503550/14-unforgettable-facts-about-%E2%80%98suspiria%E2%80%99
Though the phrase “fairy tale” is often thrown out to describe Suspiria’s unique Technicolor horrors, the original seed of the story apparently emerged from something quite real. According to co-writer Daria Nicolodi, her grandmother Yvonne Müller Loeb was once sent away as a young girl to a prestigious boarding school, only to find that Black Magic was actually being practiced there. When Nicolodi heard the story, she filed it away in her head, until she and Argento took a trip through various European cities with a history of witchcraft. She was reminded of the story, told Argento about it, and Suspiria was born. (no se supone que eso fue algo que le pasó a ella?)
http://mentalfloss.com/article/503550/14-unforgettable-facts-about-%E2%80%98suspiria%E2%80%99
3. IT WAS ALSO INSPIRED BY FAIRY TALES.
6. DARIO ARGENTO ALSO MAKES A CAMEO.
11. ONE DEATH SCENE WAS PAINFUL IN REAL LIFE.
12. IT WAS INITIALLY A CRITICAL FLOP.
13. IT WAS THE FINAL FILM TO BE PROCESSED IN THREE-STRIP TECHNICOLOR.
14. ARGENTO ISN'T THRILLED ABOUT THE UPCOMING REMAKE.
Todos los datos son interesantes pero estos son unos que no tocaron mucho en las anteriores reseñas o que simplemente no los mencionaron.
Calificación: Imprescindible.
Vista: 22 de agosto, 2017. - DirectorDario ArgentoStarsLeigh McCloskeyIrene MiracleEleonora GiorgiAn American student investigates the disappearance of his sister and the death of a friend, both connected from New York to Rome by an old alchemy book.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inferno_(1980_film)
The story concerns a young man's investigation into the disappearance of his sister, who had been living in a New York City apartment building that also served as a home for a powerful, centuries-old witch.
Plot:
Rose Elliot (Irene Miracle), a poet living alone in New York City, finds an ancient book titled The Three Mothers. The book, written by an alchemist named Varelli, tells of three evil sisters who rule the world with sorrow, tears, and darkness, and dwell inside separate homes that had been built for them by the alchemist. Mater Suspiriorum, the Mother of Sighs, lives in Freiburg. Mater Lachrymarum, the Mother of Tears, lives in Rome, and Mater Tenebrarum, the Mother of Darkness, lives in New York.
Rose suspects that she is living in one of the buildings and writes to her brother Mark (Leigh McCloskey), a music student in Rome, urging him to visit her. Using clues provided in the book as a guide, Rose searches the cellar of her building and discovers a hole in the floor which leads to a water-filled ballroom. She accidentally drops her keys and enters the water to find them. After she reclaims the keys, a putrid corpse suddenly rises from the depths, frightening her. Rose manages to get away, but is being watched.
In Rome, Mark attempts to read Rose's letter during class. He is distracted by the intense gaze of a beautiful student (Ania Pieroni), who leaves suddenly; Mark follows, leaving the letter behind. His friend Sara (Eleonora Giorgi) picks up the letter, and later reads it. Horrified by the letter's contents, she takes a taxi to a library and finds a copy of The Three Mothers. Sara is attacked by a monstrous figure who recognizes the book. She throws the book to the ground and escapes. Returning to her home, she phones Mark telling him to come and asks a neighbour, Carlo (Gabriele Lavia), to keep her company. The lights suddenly go out and both Sara and Carlo are stabbed to death by a gloved killer.
Rose sees two shadowy figures preparing to enter her apartment. She leaves through a back door, but is followed. She is grabbed from behind by a clawed assailant and brutally guillotined across the neck with glass from a broken window.
Mark uses a clue from Rose's letter to discover that beneath each floor is a secret crawl space. He follows hidden passages to a suite of rooms where he finds Professor Arnold who reveals, via a mechanical voice generator, that he is in fact Varelli. He tries to kill Mark with a hypodermic injection. During the struggle, Varelli's neck is caught in his vocal apparatus, choking him. Mark frees him, only to be told by the dying man, "Even now you are being watched." Mark follows a shadowy figure to a lavishly furnished chamber, where he finds Varelli's nurse. Laughing maniacally, she reveals to him that she is Mater Tenebrarum. She suddenly transforms into Death Personified. However, the fire that has consumed much of the building enables Mark to escape from the witch's den. Debris crashes down on the fiend, destroying her.
Filming:
They filmed the actor carrying a bag that contained some kind of moving mechanism, to make it look like it was full of cats. He walked into the lake, pushed the bag underwater, and fell in. At that point, some phony mechanical rats were attached to him for closeups. When the guy at the hamburger stand runs over the lake... that guy was actually running on a plexiglass bridge under the water; it made it look like he was actually running across the surface of the lake. All of the stuff with the live rats was shot back in Europe.[3]
During the film's production, Argento became stricken with a severe case of hepatitis---and had to direct some sequences while lying on his back. At one point, the illness became so painful that he was bedridden for a few days; filming was then restricted to second unit work, some of which was done by Mario Bava.[3] Argento has called Inferno one of his least favorite of all his films, as his memories of the movie are tainted by his recollection of the painful illness he suffered.
Design and effects: (todo)
Music:
Argento prominently featured a selection from Giuseppe Verdi's Nabucco throughout Inferno, the Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves ("Va, pensiero, sull'ali dorate"), an operatic chestnut, from scene two of the opera's third act. In two instances, a recording of the Sinphonic [sic] Orchestra and Chorus of Rome was used.[10] Argento also tasked Emerson with including the piece in his soundtrack. He re-orchestrated "Va, pensiero..." in five-four time to mimic a "fast and bumpy" taxi ride through Rome.[11] When Argento reviewed Emerson's progress he did not initially recognize the remix, but was later pleased to discover it was used for Sara's taxi ride.
http://www.kinoeye.org/02/11/castricano11.php
Imagine combining Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960), Victor Fleming's musical adaptation of Frank L Baum's novel The Wizard of Oz (1939) and Dante Alighieri's early 14th-century poem, "Inferno," which features a descent into Hell. To this heady mix, add characters who appear so one-dimensionally strange and alienating they seem to have stepped off a Brechtian stage. Include the almost-comic figure of Death from an amateur stage production or a medieval morality play and don't forget evil and the supernatural.
Set this hybrid construction to selections from Verdi's 1842 opera Nabucco and discordant music from Keith Emerson of Emerson, Lake, and Palmer; illuminate the highly stylised sets in surreal blues and reds and have the characters speak cryptically. The result is the profoundly haunting and disturbing dream-logic of Dario Argento's Inferno (1980), a film which appears to be self-consciously masquerading as a giallo-style, Gothic opera�albeit without singers.
In the prologue, the voice-over of Varelli utters the words that will draw Rose and viewer alike into Inferno's dream-logic:
I do not know what price I shall have to pay for breaking what we alchemists call Silentium. The life experience of our colleague should teach us not to upset laymen by imposing our knowledge upon them. I, Varelli, an architect living in London, met the Three Mothers and designed and built for them three dwelling places. ...I failed to discover until too late that from these three locations the Three Mothers rule the world with sorrow, tears, and darkness... And I built their horrible houses, the repositories of all their filthy secrets...
The land upon which the three houses have been constructed will eventually become deathly and plague-ridden, so much so that the area all around will reek horribly. And that is the first key to the mothers' secret, truly the primary key. The second key to the poisonous secret of the three sisters is hidden in the cellar under their houses. There you can find both the picture and the name of the sister living in that house. This is the location of the second key. The third key can be found under the soles of your shoes; there is the third key.
Before dismissing Rose from his shop, Kazanian cryptically adds, "the only true mystery is that our lives are governed by dead people." Leaving the shop, Rose hesitates before an iron grate in an alleyway and, recalling the words of Varelli that the second key is "hidden in the cellar," descends the moonlit stairs in high Gothic style in search of the Mother's abode.
In this instance, the cellar is a convention that signals an oneiric descent into the "underworld" or the unconscious. As Gaston Bachelard points out in The Poetics of Space, although the cellar can be "rationalized and its conveniences enumerated... it is first and foremost the dark entity of the house, the one that partakes of subterranean forces."
Calificación: Buena.
Vista: 23 de agosto, 2017. - DirectorPeter JacksonStarsMelanie LynskeyKate WinsletSarah PeirseTwo teenage girls share a unique bond; their parents, concerned that the friendship is too intense, separate them, and the girls take revenge.https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criaturas_celestiales
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10371147
http://adamabrams.com/hc/faq2/library/7.9.5.1.html
-Wendy believes her sister has never contacted Anne Perry although they both live in Great Britain. She says suggestions Pauline and Juliet were lesbians is rubbish and believes they were not the monstrous, evil girls they were portrayed as. "We were so close growing up –as little girls we were like twins," says Wendy. "I loved her and she still loves me. I accept what happened in our lives was an absolute mistake." Wendy is happy her sister has found contentment in her new life but feels she has suffered by choosing to stay in New Zealand.
-I became fascinated by the case after seeing Peter Jackson's 1994 movie, Heavenly Creatures. Like many journalists I began investigating what become of Pauline Parker after Juliet Hulme was revealed to be murder mystery writer, Anne Perry. There was considerable sympathy for Pauline and a strong reaction to Perry's suggestion that she only took part because feared Pauline would commit suicide.
-I gave the search away but decided to have another look at the case after watching the movie for a second time, earlier this year. I did more research into the facts of the case, including reading through the transcripts of the trial. The more I read, and the more people I spoke to, the more I felt that there was so much about the two girls that was, well…so normal. Seeing that Anne Perry was such a highly respected person in her community made it all the more intriguing for me. The girls were highly intelligent and shared so many dreams together, I felt sure Pauline's life would be similar to Anne's. That turned out to be right. Both women are devout Christians living in small, rural villages and have chosen not to marry.
-Pauline and Juliet came from two very different family backgrounds in a city where social classes were quite distinct. Juliet Hulme, born in Britain, was the daughter of the university rector, Dr Henry Hulme, living in a large and stately house. By contrast, Pauline's inner city home doubled as a boarding house, run by her mother, while her father managed a fish shop.
Pauline and Juliet met in their first year at Christchurch Girls High School. Both girls were highly intelligent and in the top class for their year. A former student from the same class remembered Pauline as "a moody, scowling type of girl but a strong character. She insisted on being called Paul. She was a tomboy, with dumpy, boyish looks and curly black hair that was shorter than the other girls."
She recalls Juliet "as a fish out of water but not in a humble way". She said Juliet was anti-authoritarian and once corrected a French teacher in class. "She had a very posh English accent and would hold her head high as she walked. I was with a group of girls clowning around in a locker room and she came up to us and said, 'Oh, you are all so very mid-Victorian'." The girls struck up an intimate friendship and Pauline spent increasingly more time at the Hulme's home, often staying weekends and school holidays.
-Todo el subtítulo de "Their dark friendship".
https://www.noted.co.nz/archive/listener-nz-2012/anne-perry-life-after-the-parker-hulme-murder/
Actually, it was decided the deluded superciliousness of the girls at the time wouldn’t have helped their case. What I think some people haven’t appreciated is that the whole crisis came about within 24 hours,” she says, as the events leading up to the murder come reeling out. “Within 24 hours I learnt that my parents’ marriage was dissolving, my father lost his job and they were leaving the country and a girl to whom I felt I owed a great deal of debt hit the buffers as well and the decision had to be made within hours. “But that was nobody’s fault. It just happened. I never blamed anybody else for that. There was nobody to turn to, because they were drowning as well.” She has said she believed Parker would kill herself if they were separated, that it was one life or the other.
“So the letters were a lifeline and I felt when she needed a lifeline I owed her. And you can get a very exaggerated sense of who you owe – whom you owe, should I say – when you’re that age.” Even edging close to the abyss, Perry never loosens her firm grip on her syntax. At the time of the trial, there was talk of lesbianism, something Perry has always denied. According to the prosecution, the accused were bad: “two highly intelligent but dirty minded girls”. According to the defence, with its failed argument of folie à deux, they were mad. There were the still-shocking entries from Pauline Parker’s diaries: “… we decided to use a rock in a stocking rather than a sandbag. We discussed the moider fully. I feel very keyed up as if I was planning a Surprise party … So next time I write in this diary Mother will be dead. How odd, yet how pleasing.”
Calificación: Regular/buena.
Vista: 24 de agosto, 2017. - DirectorPhilippe GarrelStarsBrigitte SyPhilippe GarrelLouis GarrelThe familiar conflicts of a film director planning to make a movie about his life, and the confrontation he has with his wife, an actress who was turned down for such a project in which she wanted to play herself.Calificación: Regular.
Vista: 27 de agosto, 2017. - DirectorDario ArgentoStarsAsia ArgentoCristian SolimenoAdam JamesAn American art student in Rome accidentally triggers the return of Mater Lachrymarum - the Third Mother - and must use her latent magical powers to end the witch's reign of terror.https://www.screamhorrormag.com/mother-tears-film-review/
Calificación: Regular.
Vista: 27 de agosto, 2017. - DirectorChristophe HonoréStarsLouis GarrelLéa SeydouxGrégoire Leprince-RinguetCute Junie starts at her cousin Matthias' high school and class after her mom's death. She meets his friends. The boys want to date her - even her handsome, young Italian teacher.Calificación: Regular.
Vista: 1 de septiembre, 2017. - DirectorFred M. WilcoxStarsWalter PidgeonAnne FrancisLeslie NielsenA starship crew in the 23rd century goes to investigate the silence of a distant planet's colony, only to find just two survivors, a powerful robot, and the deadly secret of a lost civilization.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forbidden_Planet
Forbidden Planet pioneered several aspects of science fiction cinema. It was the first science fiction film to depict humans traveling in a faster-than-light starship of their own creation.[6] It was also the first to be set entirely on another planet in interstellar space, far away from Earth.[7] The Robby the Robot character is one of the first film robots that was more than just a mechanical "tin can" on legs; Robby displays a distinct personality and is an integral supporting character in the film.[8] Outside science fiction, the film was groundbreaking as the first of any genre to use an entirely electronic musical score, courtesy of Bebe and Louis Barron.
https://www.altfg.com/film/forbidden-planet/
When one thinks of 1950s science-fiction films, one thinks of the sort of schlocky black-and-white B movies that were parodied on the old Mystery Science Theater 3000 television show. Yet, while there were a whole lot of films like Plan 9 from Outer Space and Robot Monster, the 1950s did have some truly good sci-fi movies, among them The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Incredible Shrinking Man, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The War of the Worlds, and The Thing from Another World.
Upon its release, Forbidden Planet drew raves for its Oscar-nominated special effects, its electronic music score by Louis and Bebe Barron (though credited as Electronic Tonalities, to avoid music guild fees), vivid matte paintings inspired by Chesley Bonestell, and the famed Monster of the Id (MOTI), which was animated by Joshua Meador, on loan from the Walt Disney studios.
Even more famous was the appearance of Robby the Robot, who would be featured in The Invisible Boy – included as a bonus on the Forbidden Planet DVD – as well as in several 1960s sci-fi TV shows such as The Twilight Zone, Night Gallery, and Lost in Space (with whose robot Robby is often confused). A couple of decades later, Robby had a cameo in Gremlins (1984).
As for its plot, Forbidden Planet offers a simple but elegantly constructed tale filled with humorous asides that leaven the forced “love story” aspect in the film.
Forbidden Planet, as literate and well acted as it is, would not be such an iconic film without Robby the Robot, who can speak 188 languages, including dialects and sub-tongues. Robby steals every scene he’s in, whether telling Adams, who comments on the planet’s high oxygen content, that “I rarely use it myself, sir. It promotes rust,” or zapping a little monkey who tries to steal fruit from a bowl.
There are also some interesting claims regarding technology. As an example, Forbidden Planet opens with the statement that mankind did not reach the moon until the end of the 20th century. Additionally, many of the ship’s devices run on clearly antiquated atomic energy, there are no wireless communicators, and many of the technologies are gobbledygook, such as the use of “quanto-gravitetic drive” to travel in hyperspace.
And as for the main feature? Well, Forbidden Planet deserves all its kudos. It’s not a perfect film, but it’s a great way to spend a couple of hours. It is also far better than Star Wars, which, though made twenty years later, seems much more outdated and juvenile. Only 2001: A Space Odyssey, Solaris, Alien and Aliens, and the first two Terminator films, have really equaled or surpassed this classic in depth and effects.
It’s worth pointing out that despite Forbidden Planet‘s ‘happy ending,’ there is the possibility that the MOTI is still dormant inside Alta. After all, she is her father’s daughter, and had an even more vivid nightmare than her father when the MOTI attacked the ship a second time. Also, the film wisely only ‘shows’ the MOTI once, and never shows the Krel, for the imagination can always conjure greater scares than the best special effects. Additionally, Forbidden Planet makes good use of narrative ellipses to condense the tale, something that far more realistic art films often fail to do.
Calificación: Buena.
Vista: 1 de septiembre, 2017. - DirectorRob ReinerStarsBilly CrystalMeg RyanCarrie FisherHarry and Sally have known each other for years, and are very good friends, but they fear sex would ruin the friendship.http://mentalfloss.com/article/57846/15-fun-facts-about-when-harry-met-sally
Calificación: Muy buena.
Vista: 2 de septiembre, 2017. - DirectorStanley KubrickStarsKeir DulleaGary LockwoodWilliam SylvesterAfter uncovering a mysterious artifact buried beneath the Lunar surface, a spacecraft is sent to Jupiter to find its origins: a spacecraft manned by two men and the supercomputer HAL 9000.Calificación: Excelente.
Vista: 2 de septiembre, 2017.
Tengo que volver a verla y recién ahí leer las reseñas y demás. - DirectorRené LalouxStarsBarry BostwickJennifer DrakeEric BauginOn a faraway planet where blue giants rule, oppressed humanoids rebel against their machine-like leaders.https://film.avclub.com/fantastic-planet-looks-as-strange-today-as-it-must-have-1798188151
Originally released in 1973, René Laloux’s animated sci-fi parable Fantastic Planet still looks strikingly alien, over four decades later. Its visual ideas are so outré that few have been borrowed or referenced by subsequent films, and Laloux himself made only two other features (most notably 1988’s Gandahar, which was released in the U.S. as Light Years). Not that Laloux’s imagination was the prime mover, in any case—most of Fantastic Planet’s fantastic design work came from the mind of Roland Topor, a French illustrator who’d teamed with Alejandro Jodorowsky to create a new surrealist movement in the ’60s. (Topor also wrote the source novel for Roman Polanski’s The Tenant and played Renfield in Werner Herzog’s Nosferatu The Vampyre. He was quite the interesting guy.) The nonhuman creatures are still humanoid, in order to make the intended allegory clear, but this world’s other details are so mesmerizingly weird that Criterion, which is releasing the film next week, probably wishes it could sell a pouch of primo weed with each DVD.
Calificación: Excelente.
Vista: 3 de septiembre, 2017. - DirectorDavid FincherStarsBrad PittEdward NortonMeat LoafAn insomniac office worker and a devil-may-care soap maker form an underground fight club that evolves into much more.http://mentalfloss.com/article/59444/15-things-you-might-not-know-about-fight-club
2. EDWARD NORTON AND DAVID FINCHER COMPARED 'FIGHT CLUB' TO 'THE GRADUATE.'
14. THE BLU-RAY VERSION OF 'FIGHT CLUB' INITIALLY SHOWS THE BLU-RAY MENU FOR 'NEVER BEEN KISSED.'
https://www.looper.com/76812/ending-fight-club-explained/
Calificación: Excelente.
Vista: 4 de septiembre, 2017. - DirectorAnthony MannStarsGary CooperJulie LondonLee J. CobbA reformed outlaw becomes stranded after an aborted train robbery with two other passengers and is forced to rejoin his old outlaw band.Calificación: Regular/mala.
Vista: 6 de septiembre, 2017. - DirectorKatsuhiro ÔtomoStarsMitsuo IwataNozomu SasakiMami KoyamaA secret military project endangers Neo-Tokyo when it turns a biker gang member into a rampaging psychic psychopath who can only be stopped by a teenager, his gang of biker friends and a group of psychics.Calificación: Imprescindible.
Vista: 6 de septiembre, 2017. - DirectorAndy MuschiettiStarsBill SkarsgårdJaeden MartellFinn WolfhardIn the summer of 1989, a group of bullied kids band together to destroy a shape-shifting monster, which disguises itself as a clown and preys on the children of Derry, their small Maine town.Armond White para National Review:
King tiene un desprecio por la infancia y juventud americana y la usa como carne de cañón para sus desgastados clichés. Esta nueva adaptación de su trabajo es una muestra más de esta obsesión millennial por sustos baratos huecos y carentes de significado.
Calificación: Buena.
Vista: 14 de septiembre, 2017. - DirectorTodd HaynesStarsCate BlanchettRooney MaraSarah PaulsonAn aspiring photographer develops an intimate relationship with an older woman in 1950s New York.Calificación: Imprescindible.
Las anotaciones se encuentran en la lista de "películas vistas el 2016".
Vista: 1 de mayo, 2016.
Vuelta a ver: 3 de junio, 2017.
Vuelta a ver: 14 de septiembre, 2017.
Vuelta a ver: 1 de enero, 2018.
Vuelta a ver: 14 de noviembre, 2018.
Cantidad de veces vista: 5. - DirectorMartin ScorseseStarsRobert De NiroJodie FosterCybill ShepherdA mentally unstable veteran works as a nighttime taxi driver in New York City, where the perceived decadence and sleaze fuels his urge for violent action.https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-taxi-driver-1976
https://www.reddit.com/r/TrueFilm/comments/1yfgv8/help_me_understand_taxi_driver/
http://mentalfloss.com/article/67148/13-grimy-facts-about-taxi-driver
Calificación: Excelente.
Vista: 16 de septiembre, 2017.