This year’s San Sebastian Film Festival is in mourning as Spanish director Mario Camus, celebrated for his sober but caring adaptations of distinguished Spanish novels such as “La Colmena” – written by Nobel prize winner Camilo José Cela – Ignacio Aldecoa’s “Young Sánchez” and “The Holy Innocents” by Miguel Delibes, died on Saturday in Santander, northern Spain, the city where he was born. Camus was 86.
Among his career achievements, Camus took the Berlin Golden Bear for best film with “La Colmena” (1983), a Cannes Prize Ecumenical Jury prize for “The Holy Innocents” (1984). Such films proved a highpoint in Spain’s ruling socialist left’s dream, pushed when Pilar Miró took over as head of Spain’s Icaa film institute in 1982, of maintaining Spanish cinema’s social edge but priming its production levels and taking it onto a European stage.
Camus also participated in Cannes’ Directors Fortnight and at the Moscow Festival...
Among his career achievements, Camus took the Berlin Golden Bear for best film with “La Colmena” (1983), a Cannes Prize Ecumenical Jury prize for “The Holy Innocents” (1984). Such films proved a highpoint in Spain’s ruling socialist left’s dream, pushed when Pilar Miró took over as head of Spain’s Icaa film institute in 1982, of maintaining Spanish cinema’s social edge but priming its production levels and taking it onto a European stage.
Camus also participated in Cannes’ Directors Fortnight and at the Moscow Festival...
- 9/20/2021
- by Emilio Mayorga and Jamie Lang
- Variety Film + TV
Danièle Delorme and Jean Gabin in 'Deadlier Than the Male.' Danièle Delorme movies (See previous post: “Danièle Delorme: 'Gigi' 1949 Actress Became Rare Woman Director's Muse.”) “Every actor would like to make a movie with Charles Chaplin or René Clair,” Danièle Delorme explains in the filmed interview (ca. 1960) embedded further below, adding that oftentimes it wasn't up to them to decide with whom they would get to work. Yet, although frequently beyond her control, Delorme managed to collaborate with a number of major (mostly French) filmmakers throughout her six-decade movie career. Aside from her Jacqueline Audry films discussed in the previous Danièle Delorme article, below are a few of her most notable efforts – usually playing naive-looking young women of modest means and deceptively inconspicuous sexuality, whose inner character may or may not match their external appearance. Ouvert pour cause d'inventaire (“Open for Inventory Causes,” 1946), an unreleased, no-budget comedy notable...
- 12/18/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
or, Savant picks The Most Impressive Discs of 2015
This is the actual view from Savant Central, looking due North.
What a year! I was able to take one very nice trip back East too see Washington D.C. for the first time, or at least as much as two days' walking in the hot sun and then cool rain would allow. Back home in Los Angeles, we've had a year of extreme drought -- my lawn is looking patriotically ratty -- and we're expecting something called El Niño, that's supposed to be just shy of Old-Testament build-me-an-ark intensity. We withstood heat waves like those in Day the Earth Caught Fire, and now we'll get the storms part. This has been a wild year for DVD Savant, which is still a little unsettled. DVDtalk has been very patient and generous, and so have Stuart Galbraith & Joe Dante; so far everything...
This is the actual view from Savant Central, looking due North.
What a year! I was able to take one very nice trip back East too see Washington D.C. for the first time, or at least as much as two days' walking in the hot sun and then cool rain would allow. Back home in Los Angeles, we've had a year of extreme drought -- my lawn is looking patriotically ratty -- and we're expecting something called El Niño, that's supposed to be just shy of Old-Testament build-me-an-ark intensity. We withstood heat waves like those in Day the Earth Caught Fire, and now we'll get the storms part. This has been a wild year for DVD Savant, which is still a little unsettled. DVDtalk has been very patient and generous, and so have Stuart Galbraith & Joe Dante; so far everything...
- 12/15/2015
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Sam Fuller's superior western classic stars Rod Steiger, Brian Keith, Charles Bronson and Sarita Montiel, and takes on a tall stack of potent issues. A Reb sharpshooter denies the South's defeat, and goes west to join the Sioux nation where he can continue his war against the Yankees. This spin on 'The Man Without a Country' is one of Fuller's best thanks to a generous budget, unflinching action violence and committed performances. Run of the Arrow DVD-r The Warner Archive Collection 1957 / Color / 1:78 enhanced widescreen / 86 min. / Street Date July 7, 2015 / available through the WBshop / 19.49 Starring Rod Steiger, Sarita Montiel, Brian Keith, Ralph Meeker, Jay C. Flippen, Charles Bronson, Olive Carey, H.M. Wynant, Neyle Morrow, Frank DeKova, Tim McCoy, Chuck Hayward, Chuck Roberson, Roscoe Ates, Angie Dickinson, Carleton Young. Cinematography Joseph Biroc Film Editor Gene Fowler Jr. Original Music Victor Young Written, Produced and Directed by Samuel Fuller
Reviewed...
Reviewed...
- 11/10/2015
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Honorary Award: Gloria Swanson, Rita Hayworth among dozens of women bypassed by the Academy (photo: Honorary Award non-winner Gloria Swanson in 'Sunset Blvd.') (See previous post: "Honorary Oscars: Doris Day, Danielle Darrieux Snubbed.") Part three of this four-part article about the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Honorary Award bypassing women basically consists of a long, long — and for the most part quite prestigious — list of deceased women who, some way or other, left their mark on the film world. Some of the names found below are still well known; others were huge in their day, but are now all but forgotten. Yet, just because most people (and the media) suffer from long-term — and even medium-term — memory loss, that doesn't mean these women were any less deserving of an Honorary Oscar. So, among the distinguished female film professionals in Hollywood and elsewhere who have passed away without...
- 9/4/2014
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
European Film Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award: Catherine Deneuve, Jeanne Moreau, Judi Dench are the only three female recipients to date (photo: European movies’ Lifetime Achievement Award-less actress Danielle Darrieux) (See previous post: "Catherine Deneuve: Only the Third Woman to Receive European Film Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award.") As mentioned in the previous post, French film icon Catherine Deneuve is only the third woman to receive the European Film Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award since the organization’s first awards ceremony in 1988. Deneuve’s predecessors are The Lovers‘ Jeanne Moreau (1997) and Notes on a Scandal‘s Judi Dench (2008). In that regard, the European Film Academy is as male-oriented as the Beverly Hills-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. More on that below. Male recipients of the European Film Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award are the following: Ingmar Bergman, Marcello Mastroianni, Federico Fellini, Andrzej Wajda, Alexandre Trauner, Billy Wilder,...
- 9/25/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Most recent film appearances, plus concert and television work Please check out our previous post: "Montiel La Violetera and Pedro Almodóvar Icon." Her last star vehicle of note was Juan Antonio Bardem's Varietés (1971), a melodrama about an aging actress who continues to dream of becoming a bona fide star. [Please scroll down to listen to Montiel's husky rendition of "Amado mío."] The forty-something hopeful eventually gets her chance at stardom, but it all turns out to be a flash in the pan. By then, following a whole array of formulaic romantic musical melodramas, Montiel's box-office allure had waned rather radically. She turned down roles in Spain's cine del destape -- post-Franco softcore comedies -- which eventually meant the demise of her movie career. Her last official star vehicle was Pedro Lazaga's comedy Cinco almohadas para una noche ("Five Cushions for One Night," 1974) -- though she would be seen in Eduardo Manzanos Brochero's That's Entertainment-like compilation feature Canciones de nuestra...
- 4/10/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Montiel movies: From the blockbuster La Violetera to new versions of Carmen and Camille (Please check out the previous post: "Legendary Spanish Star Dead at 85."] Next in line for the sensual, husky-voice performer was a second tear-jerking hit: Luis César Amadori's La Violetera ("The Violet Peddler," 1958), for which Montiel is supposed to have earned $1 million dollars. In this romantic musical melodrama, she plays Soledad Moreno, a flower seller in the Madrid of the early 1900s, who falls in passionately love with an aristocrat played by Italian star Raf Vallone. As to be expected, class issues arise. Soledad flees for France, where she becomes (surprise!) a singing sensation. What follows includes tears, despair, a deadly iceberg (heard of the Titanic?), psychological and physiological trauma, and, finally, eternal love. Pictured above: A very sexy Montiel in a risque Gina Lollobrigida-like pose. “La violetera was even bigger than El último cuplé,...
- 4/10/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Legendary Spanish-born international film and music icon has died Sara Montiel, also known as either Sarita Montiel or, at times, Saritisima, was one of the Spanish-speaking world's biggest stars. She died on Monday, April 8, apparently of "natural causes" at her house in Madrid's district of Salamanca. She was 85 years old. Earlier today, a cortege driving through the streets of Madrid was attended (and applauded) by thousands of mourning fans. Montiel was born on March 10, 1928; according to online sources, her birth name was María Antonia Alejandra Vicenta Elpidia Isadora Abad Fernández; her father was a small farmer and her mother was beauty products salesperson. She left behind her poverty-stricken childhood, spending her days in the streets of her small village while dreaming of Spanish film star Imperio Argentina, after moving to Madrid in her mid-teens. Diction and singing lessons followed. Eventually, she started appearing in films, landing two roles in 1944 releases:...
- 4/10/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Madrid, April 9 (Ians/Efe) Spanish actress and singer Sara Montiel died Monday at her home in Madrid, apparently of natural causes, emergency services officials told Efe. She was 85.
An ambulance from Madrid emergency services rushed to attend the artist, but paramedics could do nothing to save her life.
Montiel was one of Spain's internationally renowned actresses and singers when Hollywood scarcely knew the Spanish movie industry existed.
Born Maria Antonia Abad Fernandez in the town of Campo de Criptana in La Mancha, she was the diva of Spanish films, an icon of sensuality and queen of the "cuple" (a Spanish song style). She acted in some 50 movies and recorded more than 30 discs.
Her stunning beauty got.
An ambulance from Madrid emergency services rushed to attend the artist, but paramedics could do nothing to save her life.
Montiel was one of Spain's internationally renowned actresses and singers when Hollywood scarcely knew the Spanish movie industry existed.
Born Maria Antonia Abad Fernandez in the town of Campo de Criptana in La Mancha, she was the diva of Spanish films, an icon of sensuality and queen of the "cuple" (a Spanish song style). She acted in some 50 movies and recorded more than 30 discs.
Her stunning beauty got.
- 4/9/2013
- by Amith Ostwal
- RealBollywood.com
Actress Sara Montiel, one of the great stars of Spanish film, died Monday in her home in Madrid, Spanish newswire Efe reports. She was 85.
The cause of death was not yet clear from Spanish news reports, though Montiel likely died from natural causes, according to ABC.
Born in 1928 in the town of Campo de Criptana with the name María Antonia Abad Fernández, Montiel was among the first Spaniards to cross into Hollywood, where she shared the screen with legends like Gary Cooper, Charles Bronson and Burt Lancaster before returning to conquer the world of Spanish cinema.
“In Mexico and the United States I had to get up at 5:30 or 6:00 in the morning,” the actress said in an interview with Spanish daily El País, recalling the days before she returned to the country of her birth. “Never again!”
Montiel is perhaps best known in Spain for her role in...
The cause of death was not yet clear from Spanish news reports, though Montiel likely died from natural causes, according to ABC.
Born in 1928 in the town of Campo de Criptana with the name María Antonia Abad Fernández, Montiel was among the first Spaniards to cross into Hollywood, where she shared the screen with legends like Gary Cooper, Charles Bronson and Burt Lancaster before returning to conquer the world of Spanish cinema.
“In Mexico and the United States I had to get up at 5:30 or 6:00 in the morning,” the actress said in an interview with Spanish daily El País, recalling the days before she returned to the country of her birth. “Never again!”
Montiel is perhaps best known in Spain for her role in...
- 4/8/2013
- by The Huffington Post
- Huffington Post
Pedro Almodóvar I’m So Excited trailer, with Miguel Ángel Silvestre Pedro Almodóvar’s upcoming movie, I’m So Excited / Los amantes pasajeros (literally, "passing lovers" and/or "passenger lovers") has a new and full trailer. That’s the good news. The not-so-good news (for non-Spanish speakers): it’s in Spanish, without subtitles. (Please scroll down to check out the I’m So Excited trailer.) [Photo: Miguel Ángel Silvestre in Pedro Almodóvar's I'm So Excited.] But don’t feel bad if you don’t speak Spanish. After all, even Spanish speakers will likely have to pay close attention to the one-gazillion-words-a-minute dialogue — which would put James Cagney, Joan Blondell, Una Merkel, et al. to shame. I’m So Excited plot I’m So Excited is set on an airplane flying from Spain to Mexico City. If the trailer is any indication, the plane in question has many more staff members than passengers. Perhaps not such a bad thing, considering...
- 2/1/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
As Divas no Brasil / Divas in Brazil In As Divas no Brasil / Divas in Brazil, Brazilian author Evânio Alves narrates numerous little-known stories — some tragic, some humorous, some downright bizarre — about international film, music, stage, and even opera and ballet (female) stars during their visit to the South American nation. According to Alves, the reasons for the divas' visits to Brazil have been varied. For instance, Madonna's reasons for dropping by have been professional (record-breaking shows a few years ago), personal (she was dating Brazilian model Jesus Luz), and socially conscious (as a representative of the Ngo "Success for Kids"). Eleonora Duse and Vivien Leigh performed The Lady of the Camellias on the Rio de Janeiro stage; the former in the mid-1880s, the latter in the early 1960s. Margot Fonteyn danced at Rio's Teatro Municipal, while Marlene Dietrich performed a cabaret act that, as attested by images found in Divas in Brazil,...
- 3/30/2012
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Beyond Buñuel, Spanish film-makers struggled to make an international impact – until Franco's death in 1975 liberated an entire generation
Spain embraced the new medium of cinema at the turn of the century as fervently as any of its European counterparts; this film of a religious procession in 1902, by the splendidly named Fructuos Gelabert, is typical of the early amateurs.
In Segundo de Chomón, however, Spain produced a trickster director
to rival France's Georges Méliès.
De Chomón worked mostly in France, and even made An Excursion to the Moon, his own version of Méliès's most famous film.
The route from Spain to France was well-trodden by the time Buñuel and Dalí made Un Chien Andalou in 1928; otherwise, little of Spain's silent-film output made any impact internationally.
The early sound period fared little better, as political convulsions in the run-up to the civil war made a settled industry difficult.
After L'Age d'Or (1930), his second French film,...
Spain embraced the new medium of cinema at the turn of the century as fervently as any of its European counterparts; this film of a religious procession in 1902, by the splendidly named Fructuos Gelabert, is typical of the early amateurs.
In Segundo de Chomón, however, Spain produced a trickster director
to rival France's Georges Méliès.
De Chomón worked mostly in France, and even made An Excursion to the Moon, his own version of Méliès's most famous film.
The route from Spain to France was well-trodden by the time Buñuel and Dalí made Un Chien Andalou in 1928; otherwise, little of Spain's silent-film output made any impact internationally.
The early sound period fared little better, as political convulsions in the run-up to the civil war made a settled industry difficult.
After L'Age d'Or (1930), his second French film,...
- 3/29/2011
- by Andrew Pulver
- The Guardian - Film News
Marlon Brando, Jean Peters in Elia Kazan's Viva Zapata! Ramon Novarro in Scaramouche on TCM Following Scaramouche, Turner Classic Movies will show a Mexican feature set during the Revolution, Roberto Rodríguez's La Bandida (1963), starring Mexican legend María Félix, Pedro Armendáriz, Katy Jurado, actor-filmmaker Emilio Fernández, and Lola Beltrán. And prior to Scaramouche, TCM is showing two Mexican Revolution films made in Hollywood: Elia Kazan's Viva Zapata! (1952), with Marlon Brando (wasn't Katy Jurado or perhaps Sarita Montiel available?) as revolutionary Emiliano Zapata, and Jack Conway's Viva Villa! (1934), with a surprisingly effective Wallace Beery as Pancho Villa. The beautifully shot Viva Villa! (cinematography by Charles G. Clarke and James Wong Howe) is perhaps best known for what's not seen on screen: Lee Tracy, one of the stars of MGM's Dinner at 8, getting drunk and pissing on a military parade passing below his Mexico City hotel balcony, being arrested...
- 9/27/2010
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
The Spanish-language adaptation of "Grey's Anatomy" has premiered to stellar ratings in Colombia. "A Corazon Abierto" (With Open Heart) debuted on April 26 on Channel Rcn with nearly half of the viewing share in the country.
The medical drama show premiered with a 20.4 rating and 48 share, making it the most impressive debut in the nation since the debut of "Yo Soy Betty La Fea," the original version of ABC's "Ugly Betty."
"A Corazon Abierto" follows the life of surgical intern Maria Alejandra Rivas Cavalier as she begins her training in the shadow of her mother's surgical reputation. Her co-interns include Christina Solano, Jorge Viana, Isabel Henao, and Ausgusto Maza, who will all become part of her new family while she sparks a relationship with surgeon Andres Guerra.
The characters of the series are inspired by its U.S. counterparts, with the lead character Maria Alejandra Rivas Cavalier (Veronica Orozco) inspired by Meredith Grey.
The medical drama show premiered with a 20.4 rating and 48 share, making it the most impressive debut in the nation since the debut of "Yo Soy Betty La Fea," the original version of ABC's "Ugly Betty."
"A Corazon Abierto" follows the life of surgical intern Maria Alejandra Rivas Cavalier as she begins her training in the shadow of her mother's surgical reputation. Her co-interns include Christina Solano, Jorge Viana, Isabel Henao, and Ausgusto Maza, who will all become part of her new family while she sparks a relationship with surgeon Andres Guerra.
The characters of the series are inspired by its U.S. counterparts, with the lead character Maria Alejandra Rivas Cavalier (Veronica Orozco) inspired by Meredith Grey.
- 4/28/2010
- icelebz.com
MADRID -- Spanish actress Sara Montiel will receive the honorary Biznaga award at the Malaga Spanish Film Festival, organizers announced Thursday.
The ceremony to honor the actress, who starred in "Veracruz" with Gary Cooper and Burt Lancaster and "Run of the Arrow" with Charles Bronson and Rod Steiger, will take place March 12 at the presentation of Juan de Orduna's 1957 classic "El Ultimo Cuple".
The festival will celebrate the film's 50th anniversary with a special screening. "El Ultimo Cuple", the tale of an aging singer with a sad love life who tries to infuse new life into her career, launched Montiel onto the international stage.
The Malaga festival runs March 9-17 in the Mediterranean resort town in the south of Spain.
The ceremony to honor the actress, who starred in "Veracruz" with Gary Cooper and Burt Lancaster and "Run of the Arrow" with Charles Bronson and Rod Steiger, will take place March 12 at the presentation of Juan de Orduna's 1957 classic "El Ultimo Cuple".
The festival will celebrate the film's 50th anniversary with a special screening. "El Ultimo Cuple", the tale of an aging singer with a sad love life who tries to infuse new life into her career, launched Montiel onto the international stage.
The Malaga festival runs March 9-17 in the Mediterranean resort town in the south of Spain.
- 1/25/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
CANNES -- In "Bad Education", Pedro Almodovar beguilingly combines film noir with autobiography even as he blurs the distinction between fiction and reality.
The movie's story exists on three interrelated levels: First, what is experienced in life; then, how reality is transformed by fantasy; then, finally, what cinema makes of this transformed reality. The filmmaker's choice of genre is a perfect metaphor for the transforming power of cinema, for noir usually deals with deception and duplicity, and the film's intricate, beautifully orchestrated structure creates a virtual hall of mirrors.
The film's North American release may prove tricky for Sony Pictures Classics, however, because the story line delves into issues creating incendiary headlines right now, namely pedophile priests and homosexuality in the Catholic Church. Almodovar is, of course, not an American, nor is he interested here in the severe problems that confront the American church. He is not, as he says, looking for "revenge" against the bad education he received from the clergy or to expose priests as sexual predators. But the film is likely to take hits from U.S. critics and social commentators who will read this into the film and find the mix of melodrama and passionate gay sexuality highly uncomfortable. The writer-director's name will be a big draw in art house venues, but this film is not as comical or kitschy as his other melodramas.
At the film's center is a young film director, Enrique Goded (Fele Martinez), casting about for an idea for his next film. That idea walks in the door in the person of an old school chum, Ignacio, an actor who now calls himself Angel (Mexico's Gael Garcia Bernal). He brings with him a short story, "The Visit", based on the experiences that he and Enrique had at school 16 years earlier. Enrique fails to recognize the boy he once knew but does recognize the truth of the story and its potential for a movie.
"The Visit" recalls the two boys' love for each other and how their principal and literary teacher, Father Manolo (Daniel Gimenez Cacho), expelled Ignacio because the priest was himself in love with Enrique. But the story continues on to fantasize about a reunion of all three as adults. Ignacio, now a drug-addicted drag queen impersonating movie star Sara Montiel (a gay icon in Spain), seduces Enrique and blackmails the priest.
Enrique wants to adapt the story for a movie. But he and Angel fall out when Angel demands to play the drag queen. Enrique investigates and learns that Angel is not Ignacio but rather his younger brother, Juan. The real Ignacio died three years earlier, after writing "The Visit".
Eventually, production moves ahead, with Angel playing the lead and becoming Enrique's lover. On the final day of shooting, the real Father Manolo, who now calls himself Mr. Berenguer (Lluis Homar), turns up and reveals to Enrique how Ignacio died.
As in French New Wave films, movies form a backdrop to the story of "Bad Education". The boys become intimate while watching a Montiel movie. The priest seduces Enrique with the song "Moon River" from "Breakfast at Tiffany's". When Juan/Angel and Berenguer go to a cinema after killing someone, they see French film noir movies. Afterward, Berenger muses, "It's as if all the films were talking about us." Indeed.
Movies are Almodovar's filter. He views his past in terms of his favorite films. Real people turn into fictional characters who in turn imitate characters from past movies. As in film noir, "Bad Education" is not about good or bad people but rather flawed humans who can become the victims of their own sorry past and some who will stop at nothing to attain success.
This is an often surprising, sometimes upsetting, intricately woven masterwork that sums up many of the obsessions and trademark characterizations that reach back into Almodovar's already storied career. The actors all move smoothly between the various "realities" without any confusion. Bernal is particularly appealing as the film's "femme fatale."
Jose Luis Alcaine's atmospheric cinematography and Alberto Iglesias' passionate, dramatic music greatly add to the melodrama.
Bad Education
Sony Pictures Classics
An El Deseo production in association with TVE, Canal Plus
Credits:
Screenwriter-director: Pedro Almodovar
Producer: Agustin Almodovar
Executive producer: Esther Garcia
Director of photography: Jose Luis Alcaine
Production designer: Antxon Gomez
Music: Alberto Iglesias
Costume designers: Paco Delgado, Jean-Paul Gaultier
Editor: Jose Salcedo
Cast:
Enrique Goded: Fele Martinez
School friend/Zahara: Gael Garcia Bernal
Father Manolo: Daniel Gimenez Cacho
Sr. Berenguer: Lluis Homar
Paca: Javier Camara
Mother: Petra Martinez
Young Ignacio: Nacho Perez
Young Enrique: Raul Garcia Forneiro
Running time -- 104 minutes
No MPAA rating...
The movie's story exists on three interrelated levels: First, what is experienced in life; then, how reality is transformed by fantasy; then, finally, what cinema makes of this transformed reality. The filmmaker's choice of genre is a perfect metaphor for the transforming power of cinema, for noir usually deals with deception and duplicity, and the film's intricate, beautifully orchestrated structure creates a virtual hall of mirrors.
The film's North American release may prove tricky for Sony Pictures Classics, however, because the story line delves into issues creating incendiary headlines right now, namely pedophile priests and homosexuality in the Catholic Church. Almodovar is, of course, not an American, nor is he interested here in the severe problems that confront the American church. He is not, as he says, looking for "revenge" against the bad education he received from the clergy or to expose priests as sexual predators. But the film is likely to take hits from U.S. critics and social commentators who will read this into the film and find the mix of melodrama and passionate gay sexuality highly uncomfortable. The writer-director's name will be a big draw in art house venues, but this film is not as comical or kitschy as his other melodramas.
At the film's center is a young film director, Enrique Goded (Fele Martinez), casting about for an idea for his next film. That idea walks in the door in the person of an old school chum, Ignacio, an actor who now calls himself Angel (Mexico's Gael Garcia Bernal). He brings with him a short story, "The Visit", based on the experiences that he and Enrique had at school 16 years earlier. Enrique fails to recognize the boy he once knew but does recognize the truth of the story and its potential for a movie.
"The Visit" recalls the two boys' love for each other and how their principal and literary teacher, Father Manolo (Daniel Gimenez Cacho), expelled Ignacio because the priest was himself in love with Enrique. But the story continues on to fantasize about a reunion of all three as adults. Ignacio, now a drug-addicted drag queen impersonating movie star Sara Montiel (a gay icon in Spain), seduces Enrique and blackmails the priest.
Enrique wants to adapt the story for a movie. But he and Angel fall out when Angel demands to play the drag queen. Enrique investigates and learns that Angel is not Ignacio but rather his younger brother, Juan. The real Ignacio died three years earlier, after writing "The Visit".
Eventually, production moves ahead, with Angel playing the lead and becoming Enrique's lover. On the final day of shooting, the real Father Manolo, who now calls himself Mr. Berenguer (Lluis Homar), turns up and reveals to Enrique how Ignacio died.
As in French New Wave films, movies form a backdrop to the story of "Bad Education". The boys become intimate while watching a Montiel movie. The priest seduces Enrique with the song "Moon River" from "Breakfast at Tiffany's". When Juan/Angel and Berenguer go to a cinema after killing someone, they see French film noir movies. Afterward, Berenger muses, "It's as if all the films were talking about us." Indeed.
Movies are Almodovar's filter. He views his past in terms of his favorite films. Real people turn into fictional characters who in turn imitate characters from past movies. As in film noir, "Bad Education" is not about good or bad people but rather flawed humans who can become the victims of their own sorry past and some who will stop at nothing to attain success.
This is an often surprising, sometimes upsetting, intricately woven masterwork that sums up many of the obsessions and trademark characterizations that reach back into Almodovar's already storied career. The actors all move smoothly between the various "realities" without any confusion. Bernal is particularly appealing as the film's "femme fatale."
Jose Luis Alcaine's atmospheric cinematography and Alberto Iglesias' passionate, dramatic music greatly add to the melodrama.
Bad Education
Sony Pictures Classics
An El Deseo production in association with TVE, Canal Plus
Credits:
Screenwriter-director: Pedro Almodovar
Producer: Agustin Almodovar
Executive producer: Esther Garcia
Director of photography: Jose Luis Alcaine
Production designer: Antxon Gomez
Music: Alberto Iglesias
Costume designers: Paco Delgado, Jean-Paul Gaultier
Editor: Jose Salcedo
Cast:
Enrique Goded: Fele Martinez
School friend/Zahara: Gael Garcia Bernal
Father Manolo: Daniel Gimenez Cacho
Sr. Berenguer: Lluis Homar
Paca: Javier Camara
Mother: Petra Martinez
Young Ignacio: Nacho Perez
Young Enrique: Raul Garcia Forneiro
Running time -- 104 minutes
No MPAA rating...
CANNES -- In "Bad Education", Pedro Almodovar beguilingly combines film noir with autobiography even as he blurs the distinction between fiction and reality.
The movie's story exists on three interrelated levels: First, what is experienced in life; then, how reality is transformed by fantasy; then, finally, what cinema makes of this transformed reality. The filmmaker's choice of genre is a perfect metaphor for the transforming power of cinema, for noir usually deals with deception and duplicity, and the film's intricate, beautifully orchestrated structure creates a virtual hall of mirrors.
The film's North American release may prove tricky for Sony Pictures Classics, however, because the story line delves into issues creating incendiary headlines right now, namely pedophile priests and homosexuality in the Catholic Church. Almodovar is, of course, not an American, nor is he interested here in the severe problems that confront the American church. He is not, as he says, looking for "revenge" against the bad education he received from the clergy or to expose priests as sexual predators. But the film is likely to take hits from U.S. critics and social commentators who will read this into the film and find the mix of melodrama and passionate gay sexuality highly uncomfortable. The writer-director's name will be a big draw in art house venues, but this film is not as comical or kitschy as his other melodramas.
At the film's center is a young film director, Enrique Goded (Fele Martinez), casting about for an idea for his next film. That idea walks in the door in the person of an old school chum, Ignacio, an actor who now calls himself Angel (Mexico's Gael Garcia Bernal). He brings with him a short story, "The Visit", based on the experiences that he and Enrique had at school 16 years earlier. Enrique fails to recognize the boy he once knew but does recognize the truth of the story and its potential for a movie.
"The Visit" recalls the two boys' love for each other and how their principal and literary teacher, Father Manolo (Daniel Gimenez Cacho), expelled Ignacio because the priest was himself in love with Enrique. But the story continues on to fantasize about a reunion of all three as adults. Ignacio, now a drug-addicted drag queen impersonating movie star Sara Montiel (a gay icon in Spain), seduces Enrique and blackmails the priest.
Enrique wants to adapt the story for a movie. But he and Angel fall out when Angel demands to play the drag queen. Enrique investigates and learns that Angel is not Ignacio but rather his younger brother, Juan. The real Ignacio died three years earlier, after writing "The Visit".
Eventually, production moves ahead, with Angel playing the lead and becoming Enrique's lover. On the final day of shooting, the real Father Manolo, who now calls himself Mr. Berenguer (Lluis Homar), turns up and reveals to Enrique how Ignacio died.
As in French New Wave films, movies form a backdrop to the story of "Bad Education". The boys become intimate while watching a Montiel movie. The priest seduces Enrique with the song "Moon River" from "Breakfast at Tiffany's". When Juan/Angel and Berenguer go to a cinema after killing someone, they see French film noir movies. Afterward, Berenger muses, "It's as if all the films were talking about us." Indeed.
Movies are Almodovar's filter. He views his past in terms of his favorite films. Real people turn into fictional characters who in turn imitate characters from past movies. As in film noir, "Bad Education" is not about good or bad people but rather flawed humans who can become the victims of their own sorry past and some who will stop at nothing to attain success.
This is an often surprising, sometimes upsetting, intricately woven masterwork that sums up many of the obsessions and trademark characterizations that reach back into Almodovar's already storied career. The actors all move smoothly between the various "realities" without any confusion. Bernal is particularly appealing as the film's "femme fatale."
Jose Luis Alcaine's atmospheric cinematography and Alberto Iglesias' passionate, dramatic music greatly add to the melodrama.
Bad Education
Sony Pictures Classics
An El Deseo production in association with TVE, Canal Plus
Credits:
Screenwriter-director: Pedro Almodovar
Producer: Agustin Almodovar
Executive producer: Esther Garcia
Director of photography: Jose Luis Alcaine
Production designer: Antxon Gomez
Music: Alberto Iglesias
Costume designers: Paco Delgado, Jean-Paul Gaultier
Editor: Jose Salcedo
Cast:
Enrique Goded: Fele Martinez
School friend/Zahara: Gael Garcia Bernal
Father Manolo: Daniel Gimenez Cacho
Sr. Berenguer: Lluis Homar
Paca: Javier Camara
Mother: Petra Martinez
Young Ignacio: Nacho Perez
Young Enrique: Raul Garcia Forneiro
Running time -- 104 minutes
No MPAA rating...
The movie's story exists on three interrelated levels: First, what is experienced in life; then, how reality is transformed by fantasy; then, finally, what cinema makes of this transformed reality. The filmmaker's choice of genre is a perfect metaphor for the transforming power of cinema, for noir usually deals with deception and duplicity, and the film's intricate, beautifully orchestrated structure creates a virtual hall of mirrors.
The film's North American release may prove tricky for Sony Pictures Classics, however, because the story line delves into issues creating incendiary headlines right now, namely pedophile priests and homosexuality in the Catholic Church. Almodovar is, of course, not an American, nor is he interested here in the severe problems that confront the American church. He is not, as he says, looking for "revenge" against the bad education he received from the clergy or to expose priests as sexual predators. But the film is likely to take hits from U.S. critics and social commentators who will read this into the film and find the mix of melodrama and passionate gay sexuality highly uncomfortable. The writer-director's name will be a big draw in art house venues, but this film is not as comical or kitschy as his other melodramas.
At the film's center is a young film director, Enrique Goded (Fele Martinez), casting about for an idea for his next film. That idea walks in the door in the person of an old school chum, Ignacio, an actor who now calls himself Angel (Mexico's Gael Garcia Bernal). He brings with him a short story, "The Visit", based on the experiences that he and Enrique had at school 16 years earlier. Enrique fails to recognize the boy he once knew but does recognize the truth of the story and its potential for a movie.
"The Visit" recalls the two boys' love for each other and how their principal and literary teacher, Father Manolo (Daniel Gimenez Cacho), expelled Ignacio because the priest was himself in love with Enrique. But the story continues on to fantasize about a reunion of all three as adults. Ignacio, now a drug-addicted drag queen impersonating movie star Sara Montiel (a gay icon in Spain), seduces Enrique and blackmails the priest.
Enrique wants to adapt the story for a movie. But he and Angel fall out when Angel demands to play the drag queen. Enrique investigates and learns that Angel is not Ignacio but rather his younger brother, Juan. The real Ignacio died three years earlier, after writing "The Visit".
Eventually, production moves ahead, with Angel playing the lead and becoming Enrique's lover. On the final day of shooting, the real Father Manolo, who now calls himself Mr. Berenguer (Lluis Homar), turns up and reveals to Enrique how Ignacio died.
As in French New Wave films, movies form a backdrop to the story of "Bad Education". The boys become intimate while watching a Montiel movie. The priest seduces Enrique with the song "Moon River" from "Breakfast at Tiffany's". When Juan/Angel and Berenguer go to a cinema after killing someone, they see French film noir movies. Afterward, Berenger muses, "It's as if all the films were talking about us." Indeed.
Movies are Almodovar's filter. He views his past in terms of his favorite films. Real people turn into fictional characters who in turn imitate characters from past movies. As in film noir, "Bad Education" is not about good or bad people but rather flawed humans who can become the victims of their own sorry past and some who will stop at nothing to attain success.
This is an often surprising, sometimes upsetting, intricately woven masterwork that sums up many of the obsessions and trademark characterizations that reach back into Almodovar's already storied career. The actors all move smoothly between the various "realities" without any confusion. Bernal is particularly appealing as the film's "femme fatale."
Jose Luis Alcaine's atmospheric cinematography and Alberto Iglesias' passionate, dramatic music greatly add to the melodrama.
Bad Education
Sony Pictures Classics
An El Deseo production in association with TVE, Canal Plus
Credits:
Screenwriter-director: Pedro Almodovar
Producer: Agustin Almodovar
Executive producer: Esther Garcia
Director of photography: Jose Luis Alcaine
Production designer: Antxon Gomez
Music: Alberto Iglesias
Costume designers: Paco Delgado, Jean-Paul Gaultier
Editor: Jose Salcedo
Cast:
Enrique Goded: Fele Martinez
School friend/Zahara: Gael Garcia Bernal
Father Manolo: Daniel Gimenez Cacho
Sr. Berenguer: Lluis Homar
Paca: Javier Camara
Mother: Petra Martinez
Young Ignacio: Nacho Perez
Young Enrique: Raul Garcia Forneiro
Running time -- 104 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 5/12/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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