LA ANTENA d: Esteban Sapir
La Antena / The Aerial (2007)
Direction and Screenplay: Esteban Sapir. Cast: Alejandro Urdapilleta, Rafael Ferro, Florencia Raggi, Julieta Cardinali, Valeria Bertuccelli, Ricardo Merkin
Esteban Sapir’s silent, surrealist Argentinean production La Antena / The Aerial had its Canadian premiere to a very appreciative audience at the Fantasia Film Festival on July 4. From beginning to end, La Antena dazzled the eyes and stirred the emotions. As the credits rolled, everyone began clapping; the filmmaker was not in the audience, but everyone was so pleased by what they had seen they couldn’t help themselves. I’m sure some of them felt like jumping up and down, and running circles around the auditorium while yelping shouts of glee. Or at least that’s what I wanted [...]
by Keith Waterfield | July 15, 2008
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Tags: Argentinean Cinema, Film Reviews, South American Cinema
THE OFFICIAL STORY Clip
In Luis Puenzo’s masterful 1985 political drama La Historia oficial / The Official Story, co-written by Puenzo and Aída Bortnik, Norma Aleandro stars as a teacher who discovers an unsettling connection between her adopted daughter and Argentina’s brutal military dictatorship. Hector Alterio plays the husband with a secret.
In the clip below (in Spanish, no subtitles), a family reunion becomes the stage for a series of personal recriminations. While Argentina suffered in the grip of its right-wing military and their sponsors, only those Argentineans with connections to the establishment managed to move up the social ladder. Alterio’s character was one of them.
Aleandro’s performance — one of the greatest in film history — earned her best actress awards in Cannes and [...]
by Andre Soares | April 6, 2008
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Tags: Argentinean Cinema, South American Cinema, Trailers
Last Remaining Seats 2007
The Los Angeles Conservancy will present the 21st Annual Last Remaining Seats series every Wednesday at 8 p.m. from May 23 — June 27, 2007. The series is held at historic movie palaces in the Los Angeles area — the precious few still in existence, that is.
This year, the following film classics will be screened:
North by Northwest (1959), Alfred Hitchcock’s movie-movie from an absurd screenplay by Ernest Lehman. The good thing is that Lehman doesn’t take his tale at all seriously; the not-so-good thing is that we must suspend disbelief (and most other brain functions as well) from the moment we see Jessie Royce Landis (born 1896) playing mommy to Cary Grant (born 1904) up to and beyond the Mount [...]
by Andre Soares | April 25, 2007
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Tags: Argentinean Cinema, Classic Movies, Film Festivals, Silent Films, South American Cinema
Mar del Plata Film Festival Awards 2007
22nd Mar del Plata Film Festival Awards – 2007
The 22nd Mar del Plata Film Festival Award was held between Mar-8-18, 2007.
The 22nd Mar del Plata Film Festival Award winners were announced on Mar. 18, 2007.
Directed by Cesc Gay, Fiction tells the story of a film director who, while resting at a friend’s home in a small mountain village, meets a violin player with whom he develops a delusional relationship. Gay and Tomás Aragay penned the screenplay. In the cast: Eduard Fernández, Javier Cámara, Montse Germán, Carmen Pla, Ágata Roca
OFFICIAL COMPETITION
Golden Astor for Best feature
FICCIÓ (Spain, directed by Cesc Gay)
Special Mention
JARDINS EN AUTOMNE (France-Italy-Russia, directed by Otar Iosseliani)
Silver Astor for Best Director (tie)
MARINA SPADA (Come l’ombra, Italy)
HONG [...]
by Andre Soares | March 18, 2007
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Tags: Argentinean Cinema, Film Awards, South American Cinema
AFI FEST 06 – Friday Evening Picks
Friday evening at the AFI FEST 06:
At 4:15pm, Roger Michell’s Venus, starring Peter O’Toole — who has been touted for an Oscar win — as an elderly actor (married to Vanessa Redgrave) who befriends the grandniece (Jodie Whittaker) of a fellow veteran actor (Leslie Phillips). Venus was nominated for five British Independent Film Awards: Best Actor (O’Toole), Best Supporting Performance (Redgrave, Phillips), Best Newcomer (Whittaker), and Best Screenplay (Hanif Kureishi).
At 7pm, Argentina’s submission for the 2006 Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award, Derecho de familia / Family Law. Directed by Daniel Burman, Derecho de familia is a dramatic comedy starring Daniel Hendler as thirty-something attorney who must come to terms with his role as both father and son.
At 7:15pm, Tony [...]
by Andre Soares | November 10, 2006
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Tags: Argentinean Cinema, Film Festivals
Fabián Bielinsky
Fabián Bielinsky, whose second and final film, El Aura / The Aura, was shown at the Los Angeles Film Festival this past Wednesday, has died of an apparent heart attack.
The Buenos Aires native was best known for his 2000 film Nueve reinas / Nine Queens, a labyrinthine caper thriller starring Ricardo Darín and Gastón Pauls as two con-men out to commit the perfect robbery. Nueve reinas won awards at festivals in Biarritz, Bogota, Lima, and Oslo, plus seven awards – including Best Film – from the Argentinean Film Critics Association. In 2004, Nueve reinas was repackaged by the Hollywood remake mill, turning into the poorly received Criminal, directed by Gregory Jacobs, and starring John C. Reilly and Diego Luna.
Bielinsky [...]
by Andre Soares | July 1, 2006
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Tags: Argentinean Cinema
EL AURA by Fabián Bielinsky
El Aura / The Aura (2005)
Direction and screenplay: Fabián Bielinsky. Cast: Ricardo Darín, Dolores Fonzi, Pablo Cedrón, Nahuel Pérez Biscayart, Jorge D’Elia<
THE OTHER SIDE
I had high hopes for writer-director Fabián Bielinsky’s second feature film, El Aura / The Aura — Argentina’s 2005 submission for the Best Foreign-Language Film Academy Award and the winner of the Argentinean Film Critics’ Association Silver Condor Award. I had found Bielinsky’s clever, labyrinthine 2000 caper thriller Nueve reinas / Nine Queens one of the most intriguing examples of the genre.
Unfortunately, El Aura — which, like Nueve reinas, offers a harsh look at contemporary Argentina — didn’t live up to my expectations.
Although this somber psychological thriller provides several solid dramatic and suspenseful [...]
by Andre Soares | June 30, 2006
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Tags: Argentinean Cinema, Film Festivals, South American Cinema
Mar del Plata Film Festival Awards 2006
21st Mar del Plata Film Festival Awards – 2006
The 21st Mar del Plata Film Festival Award was held between Mar. 9-19, 2006.
Ricardo Benet’s Noticias lejanas / News from Afar tells the story of a man who returns home to confront his past.
OFFICIAL COMPETITION
Golden Astor for Best Film: Noticias lejanas (Mexico), by Ricardo Benet
Special Jury Prize: Molly’s Way (Germany), by Emily Atef
Silver Astor for Best Director: Marco Martins (Portugal), Alice
Silver Astor for Best Actor: William H. Macy (U.S.), Edmond
Silver Astor for Best Actress: Justine Clark (Australia), Look Both Ways
Silver Astor for Best Screenplay: Sarah Watt (Australia), Look Both Ways
Silver Astor for Best Ibero-American Film (tie): Cinema, Aspirinas e Urubus / Cinema, Aspirin and Vultures (Brazil), by Marcelo [...]
by Andre Soares | March 19, 2006
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Tags: Argentinean Cinema, Film Awards, South American Cinema
Falklands War Film Opens in Argentina
Via AlertNet: A Reuters article by Mary Milliken discusses the new Argentinian film Iluminados por el fuego / Blessed by Fire, which depicts Argentina’s disastrous military campaign to take over the Falkland Islands (known in Argentina as Las Malvinas) from Britain in the early 1980s.
Directed and co-written by Tristán Bauer, and starring the excellent Gastón Pauls (the younger con man in Nueve reinas / Nine Queens), Iluminados por el fuego is based on a book by Edgardo Esteban, who was one of the underarmed and underfed conscripts sent to fight the much better equipped British army in the inhospitable archipelago.
"When you are 18, you don’t think about death," says Esteban, currently a TV journalist. "But ever since this war, death [...]
by Andre Soares | September 7, 2005
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Tags: Argentinean Cinema, Politics, South American Cinema
