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8/10
Summer story
16 December 2012
Summers are very import times for growing children and teens. Freedom lets them think about who they are, explore relationships, imagining how their lives will be when their infancy is over. It's also a time for grownups to think about balances: money, accomplishments, past mistakes.

This movie is about all of that. An children's books author, his wife and his three children go on holiday in an old country house near a small river. Juana is 5 or 6, Miguel is about 8-10, Jorge, the oldest, is entering his teen years. THe next day a man who once was very important to their mother, along with his wife. THe children call this man 'uncle Peter', and he's a man with great imagination. He loves playing with the children and the youngest children love to play with him because he invents incredible adventures just for him. Miguel, on the contrary, starts understanding things better and is a little more skeptical about all of that. Besides, he's partially aware of a great tragedy that happened some time ago to his 'uncle' and his wife.

THe story explores relationships. THe children's mother once was in love with uncle Peter, and that feeling of her still lingers in the most hidden parts of her heart. Her husband is aware of that, and he has to come to terms with his own feelings.

Uncle Peter and his wife have to come to term with the tragedy they had to go through some time in the past and he also has to address some issues of his own.

Jorge is growing up fast. Growing up is not always easy. He wants to let go of his childhood habits, but it's sad when you see your brother and sister to have so much fun.

Miguel has issues of his own. He still wets the bed every now and then, and he has an obsession with fire, but he's the one who most trusts Peter.

Juana doesn0t seem to have any issues at all, but she is the most important character in the final chapter of the story.

Teo el Pelirrojo is a dialog movie. THe story develops around what is being said rather than what is being done, and it's told by the point of view of a grown up Jorge that remembers that summer. it can be a bit slow, but it's fairly interesting. Unfortunately, it's no longer available. No DVD edition has aver been made and the old videocassettes are increasingly difficult to find.
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10/10
I wish someone had done something like this
15 March 2006
Almost a Shakespearean, with play within play, the writers start from the opinion of Lorca's position during the War of 1936 to express a strong disagreement on Aznar's politics, and particularly on his decision to fight the Irak's War with the Americans. Clearly, political opinions are very personal, and one can approve the writers' opinion, or not. However it can't be denied that the construction of this self-made movie is quite good, as it is the use of cameras, fragmented when anguished feelings are present, smooth when in the script everything goes as it should (not very often, though).The actors are also very good, as most of Spanish less famous actors are. They have an excellent use of facial expressions and body language, not to speak of the voice, which is always deep and clearly well trained.

I must confess that, being a Lefty myself and an opponent of Berlusconi's government, I purchased this movie mainly because of its content, and I truly appreciated a certain dream in which Bush and Aznar were the only character. I laughed, because Berlusconi could easily take Aznar's place. I only wish that somebody did something like that in Italy too. We need this kind of culture.
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1/10
Maybe Marx was right! Or, we're back to the Middleages.
28 January 2006
It appears to me, when I watch this kind of nonsense, that Karl Marx was right when he said the religion is people's opium. How can they be so blind? Harry Potter teaches so much about values. Bravery, friendships, anti-racism, fight for freedom... Maybe they are afraid of the fact that values can be taught outside religion too. Sometimes even better. The level of tolerance Harry Potter shows - he befriends mudbloods, house elves, half giants, giants, werewolves,....- is much higher than that of activists from certain churches. If you think about it, it was Christians who burned witches, not the other way round. And it was Christians who massacred a great number of Native Americans, both North and SOuth of the Equator. And it was Christians who killed 6 million Jews and 6 millions Muslims, gays, political, Jeovah witnesses opponents around 60 years ago. And I take Christians as examples, because every big religion has been intolerant of other ideas. Harry Potter is a nice movie to watch with kids - I'd say- 10 and up.
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10/10
Mental Goosebumps
26 March 2005
I'm not the one to go and watch scary movies. I bought this title on the internet and the synopsis did not tell anything about the anguish that runs throughout the story. It only told about a young artist that goes back home to see his mother who is in a mental health hospital, and back there he has to tackle unresolved questions about his childhood. If I had read about what the unresolved questions were about, and how Jacobo tackled them I would have not bought this movie, and it would have been a pity.

I liked this movie a lot. It was written so well you don't understand if Jacobo's father is really there hurting his son or not until the very end of the movie, you just see the escalating fear, anger and pain in Jacobo's face as in Marìa's eyes as a reflex. The physical violent scenes, which have to be present in thrillers, are not too many and are scattered throughout the movie to help in reaching the climax of the action and they are not too scary. It's the mental status of the two main characters that frightens the viewer. The cathedral's setting adds to it and, also, the weather which is mainly dark and raining as to stress on the fact that Jacobo as big black clouds filling his mind.

I think that this movie, which is not related so much to Spain as a cultural region, might be of interest to a wide audience.The setting might have been any cathedral in the western world, and the story theme is universal: how and if an abused child can grow up and move past a devastating mental illness. And, it's a great movie about friendship and love, as well. Marìa risks a lot to help Jacopo. She quits an affair with a well known and stable psychiatrist and she goes against her mom's advice not to get involved because those who have been hurt often hurt others as hurt is the only thing they know .

Both Marta Etura and Juan Diego Botto were great, but Luis Tosar was astonishing. He could look tender and caring and a few moments after he was looking so frightening and mean.
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10/10
Why is growing-up such a pain?
26 March 2005
Heche (which means letter H) is a nineteen year old boy that nobody wants. After his parents' divorce, his mother's got a new life in Argentina, and there's no place for him. After he survives an 'accident' that is believed by everyone as an attempted suicide, his mother asks his father to take care of him. His father agrees, even if he still does not think he has a place for his son. Only his father's woman and his best friend, an homosexual drug addict, show affection for this boy who is lost and can't find a way to really grow up and become independent.

Being raised in a family of people who flew Argentina before I was born, I was used, kind of, to the heavy Argentinian accent that the actors have, Federico Luppi especially. However, I agree it might be difficult for other Spanish speaking people who are used to a more 'orthodox' Spanish to understand parts of the dialogs, which is a shame. Dialogues are what makes this film so interesting and touching. The things that are said contrast with the things that remained unsaid, and you can only imagine by reading the character's eyes. Alicia, for example, is almost always laughing and having fun, but her eyes are dark, worried. Her happiness is just a mask she wears to avoid realize how much she feels bad about what she is missing for, a real family, with children. She only tells Hache about that, she wishes she were his mother. Hache apparently is resigned to being a nuisance for his parents, but he wants to escape this situation by living alone, even though he's not ready yet. He uses drugs and only his father's best friend manages to keep him away from danger.

The two main actors were great. Federico Luppi's portrayal of a father who is very disappointed for his son's way of life was so real I wanted to kick him! Juan Diego Botto was perfect, too. You could think he was portraying himself. I wonder if it's a pity he lives in Spain and his works are not known across the Atlantic Ocean, nor east of the Pirineos.
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8/10
Strong but quite realistic, I guess (not sure about the spoiler thing)
26 March 2005
Warning: Spoilers
10 years ago young men and women were like that. It's more a documentary than a fiction. I remember my brother coming home at 6 or 7 in the morning and sleeping through the day .

The story is about a group of upper-class young people in their early twenties. As most in Spain and Italy, they still live at home with their parents. One of them works, all of the others are students. The main character, Carlos, is a good student, but out of school he changes into a jerk. He does not respect his family, except for his grandparent, he teases his friends, does not believe in anything but having fun right away. I guess,however, his behavior is mask to hide feelings. Carlos hides his sadness. When he is extremely sad he cries in his room alone, but when others are around him he turns his usual tough self and almost jokes about the event that made him sad. The actor, however, did a great job in putting the sadness into his eyes. Everyone can see that though he speaks hard, Carlo's eyes are filled with anguish. He is afraid to show his feeling, he is afraid of feelings, and tries to brush them away speeding the nights through discos, pubs, drugs, and sex, with his group of friends.

At the end the strongest one is the one who realizes something is wrong and, who knows, is ready for a change. What added to the sense of lost is the dark. Most of the shows is about night life, but even the scenes taken during the day are kind of dark, grim. I watched this film because it starred Juan Diego Botto, an actor I had a crush on when I was about 10-11 and he acted as Felipe in Zorro. I must say he has grown-up well. As I said before, his portrait of Carlos is great. He can act he is obnoxious while his eyes show fear, anger, sadness, and guilt.
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