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Terapias alternativas (2007)
Retrato dum psiquiatra amargurado
O filme documenta o quotidiano dum psiquiatra - Carlos Ugarte. Ele cumpre viagens diárias com relutância e falta total de respeito e dedicação a seu trabalho. Propenso à solidão, ele trabalha num lar de idosos e, ao mesmo tempo, avalia os candidatos a emprego no Estado.
Porém, para ele, ambas as tarefas são um tédio, devido à possível falta de interesse sério por parte das autoridades. Convencido que nada pode ser feito para mudar as circunstâncias, sua vida toma um rumo inesperado: ele impede o suicídio de um jovem quase marginal e ao mesmo tempo, deve cuidar de seu filho pequeno, e sua viagem juntos para os Estados Unidos.
Ugarte, já acostumado com sua solidão, é confrontado com as responsabilidades que sempre tentou evitar. No entanto, ao olhar desses dois seres com quem ele agora compartilha sua casa, ele descobre um novo modelo de força e esperança, tanto com o jovem suicida, como seu filho que tinha sido negligenciado por muito tempo Em torno desta história morna, o director Rodolfo Duran desenvolveu um quadro aparentemente simples, no qual, entre as linhas, você pode descobrir um país disposto a compreensão e solidariedade. Isto é - a existência irresponsável do psiquiatra que passa seu tempo de lazer para beber cerveja e assistir a filmes em sua velha TV está se tornando um farol de esperança.
Com o decorrer do tempo, cada vez mais, o rapaz suicida e seu filho fazem com que o Dr. Carlos entenda que sempre existe esperança. Mesmo numa luta que acha não pode ganhar e um trabalho mecânico feito com relutância.
A mudança irá permitir que modifique sua relação com o afecto e com o micro mundo que o rodeia; que apesar das dificuldades em encontrar felicidade, há sempre uma possibilidade de mudança e um farol que vai fazer dele um homem novo.
O visual do filme não busca o caminho da intelectualidade para retratar seu personagem central, mas recorre à pintura diária simples e aos sentimentos mais íntimos, embutidos em situações com fervor, um pouco de humor e um sentimento que se baseia na simplicidade e ternura.
A obra de Manuel Callau entra bem dentro da personalidade de seu personagem central, enquanto o bom trabalho de Graciela Stefani, Mausi Martínez e, acima de tudo, Paulo Cerri, contribuem ao sucesso artístico deste filme.
O Dia da Caça (2000)
Intriguing crime thriller in the Amazon
This is one of the first, if not the first, Brazilian film to enter the criminal/thriller genre, one which, for some reason, was ignored until recently. With a rather complex plot and a lot of action, this thriller takes place mostly in the exotic Amazon region of Brazil. This area borders Peru and Colombia, and therefore lends itself to concentrating the cocaine trade in Brazil.
The plot deals with high level government involvement in the drug trade. Corruption at the upper echelons of government in Brasilia is rampant, and those involved in these illegal activities try their utmost to conceal the partnership, and eliminate all those who may pose a threat. The result of the ever twisting plot is an entertaining thriller, with very unusual characters, in a most exotic setting. Watch for it at a festival near you. The film has been making its rounds in the festival circuit for two years. Worth your time!
Drôle de Félix (2000)
Felix is a fun guy anyone would love to meet while traveling
FUNNY FELIX (as the film is called English) should really be "Fun" Felix, not "Comical." The film depicts the travels of a young French guy, ethnically half Moroccan. Felix, after losing his job in Normandy, starts a journey to Marseilles, in the other extreme of France in search of his father, whom he has never met. Along the way, using the back roads, Felix meets a bunch of characters, all of whom are presented as surrogate relatives. He also encounters rampant racism, homophobia, and other obstacles. Nonetheless, Felix manages to enrich the lives of all those he meets, even as he often takes the law and morality into his own hands. He has a gift of simplicity, overcoming adversity, and befriending others which are amazing, and are very well brought to the screen, without fake sentiment or sugary, melodramatic, or moralizing tones. As a movie critic said (loosely): "We would all love to meet a 'Felix' traveling through our lives."
Ich bin meine eigene Frau (1992)
one of a kind film biography by the pioneering von Praunheim
I AM MY OWN WOMAN is one of Rosa von Praunheim's best films. A biography about famed Berlin transvestite/transgendered Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, the film blends the shock-value elements of Praunheim's early underground career, his mid career "mockumentary" phase (NEUROSIA), and his present more mainstream career (EINSTEIN OF SEX, also a biography, but not as a documentary). The film uses Tima die Gottliche (Tima, the God-like) a famed Berlin-scene entertainer, as the young von Mahlsdorf. If you like Tima by the way, who pretty much lives up to his/her name when performing, see NEUROSIA, and EINSTEIN...There are many similarities shared here by the director, lead actor, and the subject of the film. All three are Berlin-spawned male artists, using female names, and two of them take their surnames from the mediocre suburbs they come from (Mahlsdorf and Praunheim). Charlotte, from the sleepy East Berlin suburb of Mahlsdorf, was like von Praunheim a pioneering figure, but in Communist East Germany, arguably a more formidable feat. She succeeded, during the DDR (East German) period, in saving one of East Berlin's most beautiful surviving palaces from being razed having fallen in total decay after the war, and also preserved the entire contents of East Berlin's first (and only for many years) gay bar, after the DDR government closed the bar, and moved to demolish the building. Its contents are now in a museum in Mahlsdorf. Charlotte, however, had to leave Mahlsdorf, Berlin, and indeed Germany, to flee from the unwanted notoriety this film gave her. She now lives in a town of Sweden, but even there has been reportedly harassed by persevering tourists. See this film to see why Charlotte became such a a living legend, definitely her own woman. The movie is also vintage von Praunheim, and a good peek at Tima's talents. But Charlotte's star shines through, as it should.
La lengua de las mariposas (1999)
Overrated; long though with some merit, this film drags
If you follow the Spanish cinema scene (not just one of Europe's most hip but among its most prolific), you can't help but feel pain every time a somewhat more than mediocre Spanish film is released internationally, given the DOZENS of outstanding , much more noteworthy films overlooked for each ONE of these pretenders... So, it is again with this pain that I left the cinema after watching BUTTERFLY, yet another supposed swan song for veteran actor Fernando F. Gomez. Happily, it does fail as that. He's had a major song each of the last three years (THE GRANDFATHER, ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER and now this one), but the old swan is still very much swimming amongst us. I hope this year's "Swan Song" will be better, as the GRANDFATHER was, infinitely. But the film fails to deliver anything fresh.
As for the pastoral Spanish setting, the Green (very rainy) Northern Coast has been over exposed as of late (the GRANDFATHER was also shot here); the cute Spanish kids, growing up and coming of age with livestock time; the timeless traditional villages,...please....enough! Harvey Weinstein, wake up and smell the cow manure from these movies before these bores ridden with cliches drive away your hard gained audiences! Why aren't more deserving films widely released! And those that show the real Spain. No more cute kids, grandfathers, and pastoral settings. Even the Almodovar characters which have been so copied by a dozen or so directors are STILL more typical and fresh; though these are heading towards the tired category fast also. These over looked, great films are well-subtitled in English. In fact, many are also about the newly fashionable "Spanish Civil War," a national tragedy that has gone the route of the concentration camp drama; that is, a genre of its own: lots of good ones, and with cute kids, and pastoral settings. We (the more specialized film buff) see them at festivals by the dozens. It's a shame more "mainstream" foreign film buffs are constantly being showed the same tired visions of Spain; the cute kids coming of age in villages, or in the cities with half-man, half women creatures, and AIDS-stricken pregnant nuns. There is life, and fine films depicting the middle ground of this life, coming out of Spain. Wait for the ones that are worth your while. Skip this one.
Sunshine (1999)
This epic crowns the legendary career of Istvan Szabo
SUNSHINE, the latest epic from arguably Central Europe's greatest living director of his generation, crowns a distinguished career. Many details of his earlier work, including the Sonnenschein name for the Jewish family (from the name of the Hungarian Imperial Jewish Doctor in COLONEL REDL) are evident; particularly themes and period touches from his brilliant trilogy, MEPHISTO, COLONEL REDL, HANUSSEN). OK. So Klaus Maria is missing. He is really unique. But who better than the brilliant Ralph Fiennes (awarded the 1999 European Best Actor "Oscar" for this performance last December)as the lead "Sunshine" patriarch? Make that three "Sunshine/Sors/Sonnenschein" patriarchs, all with their own nuances, all very in tune with his period, and character. And who better to play the "Sunshine" matriarch than the recent Tony winner Jennifer Ehle, as the younger Matriarch, followed by her own (obviously look alike) mother, the great Rosemary Harris, as her older self? The film is full of masterful strokes like these. After an Oscar-qualifying run in late December, the film was just re-released (I saw it in New York ten days ago), and will be expanding throughout America soon. Don't miss this masterpiece on the big screen, where it can really be appreciated.
Est - Ouest (1999)
Another historical period "never again" to be repeated
So many themes have been overworked as reminders to us all, that certain events should "never again" happen. While enough can never be said about these tragedies, some have been relatively ignored. The horrible Stalin era has been largely forgotten in our post- Cold War World. EAST WEST vividly illustrates the hell of this 20 plus year regime in a sweeping epic, in my opinion, among the best of all time. The film illustrates what was perhaps the greatest persecution and mass murder of all time: the Stalin purges. Not including the 20 million Soviet World War II dead (for which Stalin, as Hitler's ally the first few years, must take much responsiblity), another estimated 10 to 20 million "subversive" citizens were murdered or died after extreme torture and slave labor in camps. Many, as the returning Soviet emigres from France in EAST WEST, were misled like cattle to the slaughter house. More films about this era should be made, but for now, see this one. Much as he did in his Oscar-winning INDOCHINE, the director takes a simple love story and places it into a historical context that gives its soap opera roots grave urgency, and a grand, epic sweep. EAST WEST is as much a detailed look at life in Stalin's "workers state" of terror as it is a story about the great sacrifices people make for the sake of love. Ultimately, the film is a suspenseful and hugely engrossing drama that asks whether love can survive in the face of murderous political oppression and unbearable exile.
Cenizas del paraíso (1997)
Top notch criminal who-done-it
This a top of the line police thriller, crossed with sibling/father rivalry drama, criminal who-done-it, and psychological character study. Quite unique really, the film is worthy of its impressive Argentine pedigree: directed by one of the country's greatest, and starring an ensemble of its best players. They range from its eldest living legend in the father/dead judge role to its most promising and popular young ones as the three sons. In between, the talent is just as impressive. This includes returning native Cecilia Roth, and talented local actors, mostly seen on TV. A very entertaining and intelligent film worth a watch.