The only good thing about that night was: The little gathering, the Cranberry juice, the delicious brownies, the winners bet, the smiles, two awards (Winslet and Penn). The biggest disappointment... I don't even have to tell you which one was. The winners are listed in my previous post just in case you didn't see the ceremony. Thanks to our hostess!
February 28, 2009
February 22, 2009
Diarios de la Motocicleta
English Title: The Motorcycle Diaries
Walter Salles, Argentina + others, 2004, imdb
Review: 5.0 Uchuvas
Comment: Another long story about Che Guevara but not as long as the new production called "Che" (2008) that has to be split into two films as nobody was able to resist 4 long hours in a row watching a film.... Who can be seated for more than 3??!! even if the film is truly amazing! no way! but anyway we are here to talk about the beautiful production of the Motorcycles Diary... which is in two words: really amazing! The film has a lot of great things but what makes the whole film worth it is the super beautiful cinematography. You can add to that the great acting, the great screen play and the amazing music.
Comment: Another long story about Che Guevara but not as long as the new production called "Che" (2008) that has to be split into two films as nobody was able to resist 4 long hours in a row watching a film.... Who can be seated for more than 3??!! even if the film is truly amazing! no way! but anyway we are here to talk about the beautiful production of the Motorcycles Diary... which is in two words: really amazing! The film has a lot of great things but what makes the whole film worth it is the super beautiful cinematography. You can add to that the great acting, the great screen play and the amazing music.
El Aura
English Title: The Aura
Fabian Bielinsky, Argentina-France-Spain, 2005, imdb
Review: 4.5 Uchuvas
Comment: I saw this film a long ago. I don't remember the film in detail but I do remember that the story is very cleaver, the acting is really good and I loved the shots in the Forest.... very nice photographs!! This director has another great film, Nueve Reinas, but unfortunately hasn't done much recently.
Comment: I saw this film a long ago. I don't remember the film in detail but I do remember that the story is very cleaver, the acting is really good and I loved the shots in the Forest.... very nice photographs!! This director has another great film, Nueve Reinas, but unfortunately hasn't done much recently.
February 17, 2009
POST # 100!!!!!!
HEY!!! We did it!!!! We reach the post 100!!!!!!!!!!!
EEEEEEHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HAPPY ANNIVERSARY FOR THE ONES THAT HAVE BEEN INVOLVED IN THIS GREAT IDEA!!! It's been great fun having all your feedback through comments in the blog or by mail or in person!! I have found great voices around the subject and I enjoy it more and more every day! Keep sending info and making comments... I enjoy replying to the comments and talking and watching whatever films you tell me to see.
Happy post to you,
Happy Post to you,
Happing Post LaUchuva
Happy Post to you!!!!!! (if you have imagination just put a bit of music to the lyric)
To Celebrate our first 100 Post day, I'm going to post this great video which is not film related but... oh well.... we are in happy birthday so I'm allowed!! These people have great stuff! check their web page for more great videos!!!
MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.
February 16, 2009
Los Amantes del Circulo Polar
English Title: The Lovers of the Arctic Pole
Julio Medem, Spain, 1996, imdb
Review: 4.5 Uchuvas
Comment: Great Film! Soft and Powerful but most important full of transparent and true love. Great acting, beautiful cinematography and super good edition.
Comment: Great Film! Soft and Powerful but most important full of transparent and true love. Great acting, beautiful cinematography and super good edition.
February 15, 2009
SAFTA 2009
What it's nice about checking the film festivals and awards, is that you collect a long list of films that you can check out at some point in your life; most of the time those films awarded or nominees are worth watching!. The South African Film and Television Awards 2009 (that were celebrated on Feb 07) have given 6 out of 7 of the most important awards to one and only one film: The World Unseen by Shamim Sarif. So, let's wait until it's release here to check it out!
Berlinale 2009
I'll keep posting some awards and festivals butnot many as they are countless but I'll do it when feeling in festival's mood.
This time I'll post about Berlin Film Festival. The awards were annouced yesterday night. There is a list of great films to have a look. This year's most important award (The Golden Bear) was awarded to a Latin American film and director!! Well done! It is her second film and apparently it's really a great job (what else can you expect from someone with such a beautiful name!!)
Golden Bear for Best Film:
La Teta Asustada (The Milk Sorrow) by Claudia Llosa, Peru-Spain
Silver Bear - The Jury Grand Priz
Alle Anderen (Everyone else) by Maren Ade, Germany
Gigante by Adrian Biniez, Argentina-Uruguay-Germany-Spain
Silver Bear for Best Director:
Asghar Farhadi for Darbareye Elly (About Elly), Iran
Silver Bear for Best Actress
Birgit minichmayr in Alle Anderen (Everyone else), Germany
Silver Bear for Best Actor
Sotigui Kouyate in London River, UK
Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution
for the Sound-Design of Katalin Varga, Romania-UK-Hungary
Silver Bear for Best Script
for The Messenger, USA
Alfred Bauer Prize
Adrian Biniez for Gigante, Argentina-Uruguay-Germany-Spain
Andrzej Wajda for Tatarak (Sweet Rush), Poland
Just one last word to mentioned that Tilda Swinton is the Jury President of The International Jury of the Berlinale 2009.
Offret
English Title: The Sacrifice
Andrei Tarkovsky, Sweden-UK-France, 1986, imdb
Review: 4.0 Uchuvas
Comment: It's not an easy film for the only fact that it's extremely slow; I was about to collapse half way of the film but manage to forget about the story and just enjoy the amazing cinematography. Most of the shoots of the film (if not all) were so beautiful! The use of color emphasis so beautifully the photo. There were million of scenes where it looks like a portrait! I remember especially one of them that reminds me Johannes Vermeer's paintings. It really amuse me how a film could make that! The other great point of the film is the movements of the camera... it moves horizontally several times during the film but soooooo slowly that lulls you!!! As I said, it's a beautiful film but be aware of the slowness of it! My sister will get sleep in the first minute of the film for sure!
Comment: It's not an easy film for the only fact that it's extremely slow; I was about to collapse half way of the film but manage to forget about the story and just enjoy the amazing cinematography. Most of the shoots of the film (if not all) were so beautiful! The use of color emphasis so beautifully the photo. There were million of scenes where it looks like a portrait! I remember especially one of them that reminds me Johannes Vermeer's paintings. It really amuse me how a film could make that! The other great point of the film is the movements of the camera... it moves horizontally several times during the film but soooooo slowly that lulls you!!! As I said, it's a beautiful film but be aware of the slowness of it! My sister will get sleep in the first minute of the film for sure!
Todo Sobre mi Madre
English Title: All About my Mother
Pedro Almodovar, Spain, 1999, imdb
Review: 3.5 Uchuvas
Comment: For now, this will be my last posting of the mini Almodovar's festival I did during the last month.
Comment: For now, this will be my last posting of the mini Almodovar's festival I did during the last month.
I think the story is a bit too much! to top the terrible performance of Cecilia Roth playing the main character, kills the film for me. She is really terrible! she over acts so much!... really really bad! Trying to forget about her (although being the main character is impossible to) I have to say that the cinematography is soo nice... Almodovar is great on this... just G R E A T and that's basically why I gave more than 3 Uchuvas! To finish this post I'll quote one special shoot that I think is the most beautiful shoot in the whole film: when Manuela (Cecilia Roth) is waiting for his son in front of a huge poster of a "famous" actress... really nice!
February 8, 2009
BAFTA 2009
So here with some winners of BAFTA awards. I have to repeat that I totally disagreed with saying that Slumdog Millionaire is worth an award. The film is good, no doubt, but it isn't a film that worth so many awards!!
So, here the winners in red, my favorites in green and half half when agree:
BEST FILM
Slumdog Millionaire
The Curious case of Benjamin Button
Frost\Nixon
Milk
The Reader
OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM
Man on a wire
Hunger
In Bruges
Mamma Mia
Slumdog Millionaire
DIRECTOR
Clint Eastwood for Changeling
David Fincher for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Danny Boyle for Slumdog Millionaire
Ron Howard for Frost\Nixon
Stephen Daldry for The Reader
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Changeling
I've loved you so long
In Bruges
Burn After reading
Milk
LEADING ACTOR
Frank Langella in Frost\Nixon
Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler
Dev Patel in Slumdog Millionaire
Sean Penn in Milk
Bradd Pitt in The curious case of Benjamin Button
LEADING ACTRESS
Angelina Jolie for Changeling
Kristin Scott Thomas for I've loved you so long
Kate Winslet for The Reader
Kate Winslet for Revolutionary Road
Meryl Streep for Doubt
SUPPORTING ACTOR
Heath Ledger for The Dark Knight
Robert Downey Jr. for Tropic Thunder
Brendan Gleeson for In Bruges
Philip Seymour Hoffman for Doubt
Brad Pitt for Burn After reading
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Penelope Cruz for Vicky Cristina Barcelona (No way!!!)
Amy Admas for Doubt
Freida Pinto for Slumdog Millionaire
Tild Swinton for Burn After Reading
Marisa Tomei for The Wrestler
ANIMATED FILM
Wall-E
Persepolis
Waltz with Bashir
BEST FILM NOT IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE (have only seen 3 so I can't say which one is better but definitely I've loved you so long is not the best one so far!)
The Baader Meinhof Complex
I've loved you so long
Gomorrah
Persepolis
Waltz with Bashir
MAKE UP AND HAIR (I include this award as I think this film did an astonishing work)
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button... The best make up I've seen in the big screen!!!
February 6, 2009
Laitakaupungin Valot
English Title: Lights in the Dusk
Aki Kaurismaki, Finland , 2006, imdb
Review: 3.5 Uchuvas
Comment: Another Kaurismaki typical film! The king of films about lonely and empty lives.
Comment: Another Kaurismaki typical film! The king of films about lonely and empty lives.
Two meaningless things that caught my attention were: I think there wasn't one single scene that didn't have a cigarette on! What a way to smoke!! and then, there were a lot of Tango songs in the film! The film starts with my beloved song from Carlos Gardel, Volver!!!! and then, another Gardel's masterpiece: el dia que me quieras and some other tango songs. After the film I was told how popular Tango was in Finland so I went to wikipedia and found this article about Finnish Tango that gave me an explanation as to why Gardel was part of the film's soundtrack. Apparently Tango in Finland is even more popular than in Argentina.
One last comment... if you want to see this film (and most, if not all, of Kaurismaki's films), make sure to be open mind to face a different style of movies.
The top 5 worth leaving
In a film's class last year, I learned to stay seated until the credits of a film are finished as it's nice to see all the people involved in the film (and respectful to them I think) plus while you see the credits you learn a lot about how the film was done. But sometimes is soooo difficult to stay seated even to see the end of the film!!
I only can recall two films that were so so so so but SO SUPER bad that I stopped watching them in the middle of it and another two that I didn't left because I went with friends to the theater so I waited for them to finish the film.
Do you have any film that can be added to this list of worth leaving in the middle of it?
These are my top 5:
1. Canvas, US imdb
2. Audition, Japan LaUchuva
3. Love in the Time of Cholera, US imdb
4. Idiots, Denmark LaUchuva
5. Life is a Miracle, Serbia LaUchuva
February 4, 2009
Vals Im Bashir
English Title: Waltz with Bashir
Ari Folman, Israel+others, 2008, imdb
Review: 3.5 Uchuvas
Comment: Without any doubt the graphics are great, the artistic side of the film is really good. I like a lot how they play with a yellowish color; that color and some others gave so much power to the film, especially to the subject of it; for me the color talks for itself. I won't say that the film is a bad film... not at all! It's just that I don't like war films even if they are animation films!! In fact it's very stressing looking at an animation film (which is suppose to be fun and relax) showing a war story. For people who don't care much about watching or not war films, it's really worth it!
Comment: Without any doubt the graphics are great, the artistic side of the film is really good. I like a lot how they play with a yellowish color; that color and some others gave so much power to the film, especially to the subject of it; for me the color talks for itself. I won't say that the film is a bad film... not at all! It's just that I don't like war films even if they are animation films!! In fact it's very stressing looking at an animation film (which is suppose to be fun and relax) showing a war story. For people who don't care much about watching or not war films, it's really worth it!
La Mala Educacion
English Title: Bad Education
Pedro Almodovar, Spain, 2004, imdb
Review: 4.5 Uchuvas
Comment: So, I will keep going on with my Almodovar's mini private film festival. The story is just really weird, oh well as ALL Almodovar's films... Knowing his type of films, which has very complicated relationships, this story is not surprising, it's weird but totally expected from Almodovar... which is not bad in any sense... I've said before that Almodovar is a King in the film industry and this film is not the exception. I loved loved loved Gael Garcia Bernal acting as a transvestite specially when singing: "quizas, quizas, quizas..." just amazing!!!! He did a great performance here! Not only acting as a transvestite but with a Spanish accent!!.. yes, great job! When you talk about Almodovar's films you can't leave without mentioning something about the cinematography, so here I am talking about one specific shot: The football match when the priest jumped to block a goal... a masterpiece! a great freeze shot!
Comment: So, I will keep going on with my Almodovar's mini private film festival. The story is just really weird, oh well as ALL Almodovar's films... Knowing his type of films, which has very complicated relationships, this story is not surprising, it's weird but totally expected from Almodovar... which is not bad in any sense... I've said before that Almodovar is a King in the film industry and this film is not the exception. I loved loved loved Gael Garcia Bernal acting as a transvestite specially when singing: "quizas, quizas, quizas..." just amazing!!!! He did a great performance here! Not only acting as a transvestite but with a Spanish accent!!.. yes, great job! When you talk about Almodovar's films you can't leave without mentioning something about the cinematography, so here I am talking about one specific shot: The football match when the priest jumped to block a goal... a masterpiece! a great freeze shot!
February 1, 2009
Entre Les Murs
English Title: The Class
Laurent Cantet, France, 2008, imdb
Review: 4.0 Uchuvas
Comment: Finally I made it! After waiting for such a long time I watched The Class today! To talk about this film you have to name Francois Begaudeau; he wrote the book (which won a French prize), did the screenplay (with the director an another guy) and played the main character. He did a great job everywhere. What I liked the most was the outstanding acting. All the students were nonprofessional actors and what a job they did!!! The whole film looks very real... That is the best of the film, the sense of reality. I'll have to say that, for me, this type of films are tough to digest, for me it has been tough to get into films that don't tell an specific story but it shows a fact. I'd love to know French... the dialogues are kind of quick and if you have to read you miss a bit of the moment. It's a great film, I wouldn't say that it's for a Palm D'or (as it is) but...
Comment: Finally I made it! After waiting for such a long time I watched The Class today! To talk about this film you have to name Francois Begaudeau; he wrote the book (which won a French prize), did the screenplay (with the director an another guy) and played the main character. He did a great job everywhere. What I liked the most was the outstanding acting. All the students were nonprofessional actors and what a job they did!!! The whole film looks very real... That is the best of the film, the sense of reality. I'll have to say that, for me, this type of films are tough to digest, for me it has been tough to get into films that don't tell an specific story but it shows a fact. I'd love to know French... the dialogues are kind of quick and if you have to read you miss a bit of the moment. It's a great film, I wouldn't say that it's for a Palm D'or (as it is) but...
LaUchuva Ancestors...
Beto (a Colombian friend) has sent this article from The Wall Street Journal, January 23,2009 about Movie's Ranking Systems. Unfortunately they forgot to include LaUchuva in the article!!! Shame on them!!! (although they kind of cover the whole fruit system with this sentence: "under the veneer of objective numerical measurement, is really just an apples-to-oranges mess"). I wanted to include this article here for one especial reason: They show the First US Movie Review (Daily News, Tuesday July 31, 1928). I thought it was really nice to see where LaUchuva came from... Thanks Beto!
Una Pura Formalita
English Title: A Pure Formality
Giuseppe Tornatore, Italy-France, 1994, imdb
Review: 4.0 Uchuvas
Comment: I feel that this movie is a dark film... literally dark. The set is very wet, dark, unorganized, confused. All this "darkness" only makes sense IF and only IF you manage to have a SUPER BIG imagination to understand what was the film about! TBH I only liked the film after I was given an hypothesis about what was the film about... so if you watch this film PLEASE let me know your hypothesis. Gerard Depardieu is really good here so is Polanski.
Comment: I feel that this movie is a dark film... literally dark. The set is very wet, dark, unorganized, confused. All this "darkness" only makes sense IF and only IF you manage to have a SUPER BIG imagination to understand what was the film about! TBH I only liked the film after I was given an hypothesis about what was the film about... so if you watch this film PLEASE let me know your hypothesis. Gerard Depardieu is really good here so is Polanski.
Festen
English Title: The Celebration
Tomas Vinterberg, Denmark-Sweden, 1998, imdb
Review: 4.0 Uchuvas
Comment: It's supposed to be a drama movie but tbh I just laugh a lot with the whole thing... what a "party"!!!! Sometimes I just think that the whole thing is an exaggeration after exaggeration!... but it's a great film... it's the kind of film that you need to be in the right mood to enjoy it.
Comment: It's supposed to be a drama movie but tbh I just laugh a lot with the whole thing... what a "party"!!!! Sometimes I just think that the whole thing is an exaggeration after exaggeration!... but it's a great film... it's the kind of film that you need to be in the right mood to enjoy it.
Habla con Ella
English Title: Talk to Her
Pedro Almodovar, Spain, 2002, imdb
Review: 5.0 Uchuvas
Comment: I've been re-watching a lot of Almodovar's movies recently; that guy is just amazing! He really is!!! I've been trying to recall a bad film of his and I only can remember one that I'll need to see again just to make sure that I didn't like it (Atame). Talk to her is one of my favorites Almodovar's movies!! The story is soo good! The main actor (Javier Camara) is really really good! As in ALL Almodovar's movies (well at least the ones I remember with detail) the cinematography is unbelievable!!! There are two scenes that I just think are so beautiful and perfect!!: the silent film, which is a high!!! only he can imagine a scene like this one!!!! and the dressing up of the bullfighter... that part is just soooo amazing!!!! the sound in that part of the film is so beautiful!!!! so much!! For me this film is one of the greatest he's done!
Comment: I've been re-watching a lot of Almodovar's movies recently; that guy is just amazing! He really is!!! I've been trying to recall a bad film of his and I only can remember one that I'll need to see again just to make sure that I didn't like it (Atame). Talk to her is one of my favorites Almodovar's movies!! The story is soo good! The main actor (Javier Camara) is really really good! As in ALL Almodovar's movies (well at least the ones I remember with detail) the cinematography is unbelievable!!! There are two scenes that I just think are so beautiful and perfect!!: the silent film, which is a high!!! only he can imagine a scene like this one!!!! and the dressing up of the bullfighter... that part is just soooo amazing!!!! the sound in that part of the film is so beautiful!!!! so much!! For me this film is one of the greatest he's done!
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