Un film del 2009, regia di Lasse Hallström, con Sarah Roemer / Richard Gere / Joan Allen / Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa. Prodotto da Lucky Red (94min)

Drammatico / Ragazzi

Un professore universitario instaura un legame fortissimo con un cane abbandonato che ha adottato.

Taquillazo por todo lo alto de ‘Luna Nueva’

‘Luna Nueva’, la segunda entrega de la popular saga ‘Crepúsculo’ se ha alzado con el liderazgo de la cartelera patria con una histórica recaudación de 7,688 millones de euros. De esta forma en tan sólo un fin de semana la cinta protagonizada por Robert Pattinson y Kristen Stewart, se convierte en el estreno del año que más logra recaudar en su primer fin de semana, superando incluso la recolección total de éxitos como ‘2012′ o ‘Celda 211′, que en dos y tres semanas en las salas de cine respectivamente no han logrado reembolsar tanto dinero como el filme de Chris Weitz. En segundo lugar se sitúa ‘2012′, la apocalíptica cinta de Roland Emmerich, que sigue asombrando al espectador con una recaudación tres veces inferior a la del éxito vampírico, pero no por ello menos aceptable, con 2,820 millones de euros. Le sigue ‘Celda 211′, que continúa resistiendo el tirón de otras superproducciones, con unos ingresos de 1,022 millones de euros en su último fin de semana. La versión 3D y corriente de ‘Cuento de Navidad’ sigue manteniéndose en el ‘top 5′, con cifras que ascienden a los 787 y 561 mil euros en cada uno de los casos.

Asimismo, el estreno de la emotiva ‘Amelia’, con Richard Gere y Hillary Swank, no logra convencer al público y obtiene una discreta sexta posición con 518.000 euros. Amenabar y su ‘Ágora’ siguen en su camino para abandonar el ‘top 10′, con una recaudación de 417 mil euros en su séptima semana en las salas de nuestro país. Mientras, ‘Siempre a tu Lado. ‘Hachiko’ ocupa el octavo lugar con cifras que ascienden a los 265 mil euros. ‘Millennium 2: La chica que soñaba con una cerilla y un bidón de gasolina’ no renuncia al noveno lugar que le dieron los espectadores la anterior semana, con 192 mil euros. Y, por último, ‘Julie y Julia’ sigue sin acabar de despegar y amenaza con despedirse del ‘top’ con una recaudación de 168 mil euros.

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What?

Distraught by the sudden, tragic death of his wife (Debra Messing), John Klein (Richard Gere), a journalist for The Washington Post, finds himself mysteriously drawn to a small West Virginia town when his car inexplicably strands him. Rescued by the sympathetic but skeptical local police sergeant (Laura Linney), he soon learns that many of the town’s residents have been beset by bizarre events, including sightings of an eerie “moth-like” entity, similar to the one seen by his late wife. Investigating further and having his own terrifying encounters with the creature, he becomes obsessed with the idea that this supernatural being can predict impending calamities and is trying to warn the town of one. Is this a psychic delusion brought on by his grief or can he convince the police sergeant that there’s a tragedy that must be averted? His life, and potentially other’s lives, depend on his making the right choices before time runs out.

Where?

That hotel room again.

With?

The girlfriend for about 40 minutes, then she fell asleep.

Why?

Since watching Paranormal Activity, I’ve been inspired to delve into the scarier side of things. As a result of trawling message boards and google, I found that this movie was being recommended in quite a few places.

I’d already dismissed it upon release due to the drab trailer and the drab Richard Gere, maybe I was wrong?

Worth It?

I wasn’t wrong.

Aside from the creepy opening 20 minutes, this was a chore to watch and I found myself struggling to stay awake. Even the one saving grace of Will Patton isn’t in the flick enough to redeem a one note performance from Gere.

And the first 20 minutes are the kicker, they really are. They led me to believe I would be entangled in a spooky mystery and found myself drawn in a lot quicker than most of the “based on true events” movies that come about, so whilst it sold me on a Sixth Sense-esque creepy slow burner, It actually ended up being a slow, dull, Final Destination style premonition flick, which didn’t work on so many levels.

Shame, another movie that promised so much but delivered so little, and as for Gere? Well, his watchable movie count still stays as 1.

4/10

i was in the  fetal position

staring at the wall

i felt ‘ fucked’

i than got up really fast

i felt alert

i thought about flowers

i thought about korean churches

i thought about new orleans

i thought about wedding flowers

i thought about wild flowers

i thought about fake flowers

i thought about flowers

i thought about buying flowers

i felt happy

i felt like i was going to stay up all night

i am thinking about selling cocaine

so i could afford a minivan

and tell people it’s my mom’s minivan

cocaine money

i want to go to sears and buy a bed set

and also a flat screen tv

i will fill out a job  application at sears

under ‘ employment history’ i will write ‘ cocaine dealer’

Dark Country

Y empezamos esta segunda entrega de mini críticas con una buena película de terror, para nada terrorífica pero  bastante misteriosa y entretenida. Lo primero que se me vino a la mente tras ver esta película (aunque antes que terminara ya lo pensaba prácticamente) es que si se hubiera rodado en los años ochenta, hoy día sería un clásico. Dark Country es la primera película dirigida por Thomas Jane (protagonista también de la película) y cuenta la historia de una pareja de recién casados cuya luna de miel se convertirá en un auténtico infierno. Dick (Thomas Jane) viaja en coche de madrugada por el arduo desierto de México con una joven que conoció la noche anterior en Las Vegas y con la que se acabó casando. En muchas películas hemos visto historias parecidas, personas que se conocen una noche en dicha ciudad e inmediatamente  acaban casándose. ¿Suele suceder esto en la realidad? ¡Tendré que irme allí de vacaciones!

En pleno viaje, y tras una escena de lo más erótica, acaban atropellando a un extraño viajero al que casi matan. A partir de ahí, el viaje se les transformará en un autentico infierno. Toda la historia recae en estos dos personajes, en Thomas Jane y en su reciente y preciosa esposa cuyo pasado e intenciones se verán algo turbios.

Dark Country está rodada en pleno desierto de México y con muchas escenas digitalizadas al estilo 300 o Sin City. Estos efectos, en plena noche y con una trama de lo más misteriosa, hacen que la película sea un continuo misterio y te veas envuelto en una gran intriga.

La película nos recuerda a uno de aquellos míticos episodios de Cuentos Asombrosos. Esa exitosa serie de televisión dirigida por Steven Spielberg en los años ochenta ¿la recuerdan?

Recomendada queda, Dark Country. Espero que sea de vuestro agrado.

Siempre a tu lado, Hachiko

Conmovedora esta última película de Richard Gere. Este tipo de películas me pueden e irremediablemente acabo soltando un puñado de lágrimas. Se la recomiendo a todos, sea cuales sean sus gustos cinematográficos, es igual, esta película debe ser visionada por todos. Una historia que enseña la fidelidad, nobleza y sobre todo la lealtad. Remake de la película japonesa Hachiko Monogatari, dirigida en 1987 por Seijirô Kôyama y basada en una historia real, narra la historia de un profesor de universidad que acoge a un perro vagabundo que se encuentra en una estación de trenes.  El profesor (Richard Gere) se documenta sobre la raza del perro, que resulta ser un can japonés conocido como Hachiko, cuyo mismo nombre le otorga al ya acogido perro. Es tal el cariño que se tienen mutuamente, y tan fuerte los lazos que los unen que Hachiko nunca se separa del profesor. Todos los días Hachiko, acompaña y recoge al profesor de la estación dónde coge el tren para dirigirse al trabajo. Un día, algo trágico sucede y la vida da un vuelco rotundo.

Para los que ya hayan visto la película, o mejor dicho, para todos aquellos gaditanos que hayan visto esta película, les será inevitable recordar la emotiva historia de Canelo. ¿Os acordáis? Aquel perro que estuvo durante una década en las escaleras del hospital de Cádiz esperando la salida de su dueño que murió años atrás.

Vean esta película por favor. Es una autentica maravilla.

The Box

Que  poco me gusta Cameron Díaz, es más, me parece una actriz mediocre y extremadamente sobrevalorada. Pero esto es una opinión personal  y centrémonos en la película en sí, que tampoco es que sea de mi agrado. Del director de Donnie Darko, Richard Kelly, nos situamos en los años setenta. Vemos la tranquila y feliz vida de Norma Lewis (C.Díaz) una preciosa profesora de colegio privado que vive felizmente casada con su marido Arthur (James Marsden), ingeniero de la NASA con el cual tiene un hijo, Walter, de nueve años.  La tranquilidad se perturba con la llegada a la casa de un extraño personaje, con la cara desfigurada y que cambiara la vida del matrimonio por completo.  Este extraño personaje, le entrega a Norma una  misteriosa caja y le hace una propuesta de lo más difícil. Tienen veinticuatro horas para decidir si pulsar el botón de la caja o no. Si lo pulsan, ganan un millón de dólares y…una persona muere. Decidan lo que decidan, desencadenarán una serie de terribles desgracias.

La película es difícil de entender ya que de por sí el argumento es complicado y engorroso y además, le meten momentos completamente inexplicables e innecesarios. El espectador se sumerge en un autentico dilema moral envuelto en una esfera de ciencia ficción en un ambiente de lo más enrevesado que roza lo ridículo, absurdo y aburrido. No la recomiendo en absoluto.

DOGHOUSE

Si con Death Snow, película de la que ya hablé en Invernalia y podréis leer en este enlace, tuve que ponerme en pie y aplaudir, con Doghouse, hice lo mismo. ¿Quién dijo que el género  zombi estaba acabado? Doghouse es una alocada comedia ambientada en un lejano y desierto pueblo llamado Moodley donde la presencia femenina es mayoritaria. Así que es allí donde unos amigos quieren celebrar una fiesta para Vince (Stephen Graham), que acaba de divorciarse. Contratan un microbús conducido por una atractiva chica que los lleva hacia el pueblo. Una vez allí, las pueblerinas, no son lo que ellos esperaban, adorables mujeres dispuestas a tener sexo, no, todo lo contrario, se topan con una legión de féminas sedientas de sangre. Bien hecha, con momentos increíblemente divertidos, diálogos muy trabajados y unos personajes carismáticos, muy distintos unos de otros y que aportan momentos gloriosos.  Recomendada a todos aquellos seguidores de este género cinematográfico.

Un abrazo.

Álvaro R.

Max (Clive Owen) and Uncle Freddie (Ian McKellen)

Martin Sherman’s 1979 stage play Bent, which originally starred Ian McKellen in the West-End and Richard Gere in Broadway, is about a homosexual man sent to the Dachau concentration camp in 1930s Nazi Germany. The 1997 film version was adapted for the screen by Sherman and directed by actor and theatre director Sean Mathias. Finally getting a DVD release in Australia, Bent is an astonishing film not just for the incredibly powerful story it tells but for its remarkable production design. Mathias gave the film an intentionally theatrical look rather than attempting to disguise the film’s origins as a stage play. Factories and quarries are used to represent Berlin and Dachau and the whole film has a stylised feel to it that strongly evokes the cinema of Derek Jarman and Peter Greenaway.

In this film version Clive Owen stars as the lead character Max and brings to the part the type of intensity and complexity that would later distinguish him in films such as Closer, Gosford Park and The Children of Men. Owen has always had a sort of icy charisma and slight sleaziness to him, which gives him an engaging and unpredictable quality that allows him to play likeable bad guys and dodgy good guys. In Bent our sympathies do lie with Max because he is the victim of one of the most horrific and systematic acts of persecution that humanity has ever endured, but he is nevertheless a highly flawed characters largely due to his opportunism. Nevertheless, over the course of the narrative Max does evolve into a more compassionate human being and it is his displays of empathy and connection with fellow homosexual prisoner Horst (Lothaire Bluteau from Jesus of Montreal) that provide wonderful moments of defiance to the dehumanising nature of the camp.

Bent is a remarkable film that is completely captivating. It is expertly crafted so that, not unlike Steve McQueen’s 2008 film Hunger, it is a film of incredible visual beauty that enhances the power of the bleak narrative rather than contrast against it. While the confronting subject matter of Bent may not be a huge motivation for people to seek it out, it is worth making the effort because it is one of the great films of the 1990s.

© Thomas Caldwell, 2009

Read more reviews at MRQE

i wish my life consisted only of

you sitting next to me and talking to me

The cast of "Nine"; image courtesy of newsinfilm.com

I saw Precious today and want to talk about it length, but need to process what I saw. I’d also like to get to Push, Sapphire’s book on which the movie was based at some point before the end of the year. For now, I’ll say this. I didn’t love it but I did like it, thought Gabourey Sidibe and Mo’Nique were great, was heartened that my matinee screening had a good and diverse turnout, and think you should see it. But you may want to see it with someone and encourage your local theater to have a safe space where people can go if the movie becomes too intense or touches on frought emotions or horrible memories.

For the time being, I thought I’d mention the preview of a coming attraction. Nine, Rob Marshall’s screen adaptation of Arthur Kopit, Mario Fratti, and Maury Yeston’s musical (itself an adaptation of Federico Fellini’s 8 1/2), comes out next week. You can view the trailer here.

So, I know very little about this musical. I only recently discovered the origins of its source material, which I haven’t seen (though, based on my less-than-enthusiastic viewings of La Dolce Vita and I Vitelloni don’t hold high hopes for it, unless Fellini allowed for self-deprication in his autobiographical film the way that Bob Fosse did in All That Jazz, a movie of a similar mold that I love). Beyond that, I knew Raul Julia starred in its Broadway debut back in 1982, the original production won many Tonys, and once heard someone sing “Unusual Way” at a family friend’s wedding, which is a really cryptic song choice for such a ceremony.

As for the film adaptation, I know the players. Rob Marshall directed Chicago and is at the helm here. Daniel Day Lewis plays Guido Contini, a tortured director. The women who populate his life are considerable — Marion Cotillard plays his wife, Penélope Cruz his mistress, Nicole Kidman his muse, Stacey Ferguson (aka Duchess Fergie Ferg) a whore he once knew, and Kate Hudson a fashion writer whose character has a song that was written for the movie. Oh, and Judi Dench is Contini’s costume designer and confidant.

So, I totally suspect a two-hour version of Julio Iglesias’s “To All The Girls I’ve Loved Before” with generous dashes of love for the authorial presence of male film directors. Also, I think this trailer gives you virtually no insight into what this story is about.

That said, I totally want to see this movie because:

1) I’m always interested in film musicals, whether they are good, bad, screen adaptations of stage musicals, or screen adaptations of stage musicals of feature films. Yes, this means I saw Hairspray and didn’t hate it as much as many of my movie geek friends did. But those matters should be saved for another post. 

2) Unlike many people who hated Chicago (several of whom I suspect feel Marty or Roman got robbed out of a Best Picture Oscar for Gangs of New York or The Pianist), I actually enjoyed it. I felt the adaptation stayed true to the source material, deftly staged sequences that are actually going on in the protagonist’s mind, and felt like Catherine Zeta Jones, Queen Latifah, and John C. Reilly were great. I even enjoyed Renée Zellweger and Richard Gere, actors whom I otherwise would rather not watch in a movie. My only real complaint (which Jon Stewart shares), was that Bebe Neuwirth, who won a Tony for her portrayal of Velma Kelly was replaced by Zeta Jones. Otherwise, bring it.

3) Daniel Day Lewis can sing? The same guy who apparently prepared for There Will Be Blood by recording his character’s voice using early 20th century phonographic technology? I am there.

d) I’m fascinated by the presence of female pop stars in contemporary film musicals. As the golden age of film musicals has long since passed, it seems like the ones that do make it to the screen need a familiar face and voice, and they are almost always women with celebrated recording careers. Just as I wondered what Madonna brought to Evita, Queen Latifah brought to Chicago, and Beyoncé and Jennifer Hudson brought to Dreamgirls, so too am I curious what Fergie is going to bring to Nine. While detractors might snigger that it’s fitting for the woman who sang “My Humps” and “London Bridge” to play a whore, I’ll counter that she’s the only singer we hear in the trailer. Yes, that’s her singing “Be Italian.”

e) In the movie, I’m interested in seeing a whore play a teacher to our genius director protagonist man. In real life, I advocate the decriminalization of prostitution and would like sex workers to get worker rights and benefits.

f) While I worry that these women are going to be portrayed as long-suffering, one-dimensional objects of Condini’s affection, I want to see a movie that boasts so many actresses. I haven’t seen this many women in an ensemble since I saw Cruz in Pedro Almodóvar’s Volver (note: Cruz is also starring in Almodóvar’s Broken Embraces and I can’t wait for it to start playing in Austin). 

As an aside, the gossip enthusiast in me is also curious about Cruz and Kidman starring in a movie together. Ever since Tom Cruise split with Nicole Kidman and dated Cruz, I always wonder what their interactions are like every time they show up on a magazine cover together. It’s a catty curiosity, but a curiosity nonetheless. I wonder how they would be portrayed in a movie about Tom Cruise’s life, but want very much for this movie not to be made.

Vogue cover girls Nicole Kidman, Marion Cotillard, Penélope Cruz, and Kate Hudson; image courtesy of latimesblogs.latimes.com

Nicole Kidman and Penélope Cruz bookending Vanity Fair's 2001 Hollywood Issue cover; image courtesy of abc.net.au

Whether this movie is good or not remains to be seen. That said, I’ll see you at the multiplex.

Guest of Honour for the Season Finale of ‘Oye! It’s Friday!’ is our glam lady of B-town Shilpa Shetty who is going to blast the show. Hosted by Farhan Akhtar ‘Oye! It’s Friday!’ is an Indian variety talk show on NDTV Imagine where a celebrity is invited every week.

What’s all on the show let’s have a look. Shilpa in her talk with Farhan will reveal her excitement of meeting Queen Elizabeth and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown after she had won reality show ‘Celebrity Big Brother’ in 2007. Also she will open up on issues such as her relationship with Raj Kundra, the controversies with Richard Gere and her team ‘Rajasthan Royals‘.

The performances on the show would be by singer Sukhwinder Singh and also there would be dance moves by famous B-Boying group from Korea.

So don’t miss Shilpa on ‘Oye! It’s Friday!’ at 10pm only on NDTV Imagine.

Languidece noviembre, amarillean las hojas de los árboles y todo ese rollo… y como ellas, van cayendo marchitos los estrenos del fin de semana, sin despertar gran interés a un servidor. Algo me dice, sin embargo, que unos cuantos millones de personas se empeñarán a llevarme la contraria:

-Luna Nueva (estrenada el miércoles 18): Blockbuster palomitero apoyado en el fulgurante (y por mí no catado) éxito de las novelitas de Stephenie Meyer, aquí está la segunda entrega de… sí, otra historieta de vampiros y amoríos adolescentes, en la línea del producto HBO True Blood. Cómo será de pobre el guión cuando de lo único que se ha hablado es de si el vampiro Robert Pattinson, cansino como él solo, sale con esta o con la otra; y, sobre todo, con cuántos kilos de músculo se ha forrado el hombre-lobo Taylor Lautner. Pobre crío él, que a sus 18 años se ha visto obligado a machacarse en el gimnasio y engullir proteína tras otra, y quién sabe si metiéndose hormonas y otras mierdas, para cambiar su cuerpo cuando aún estaba desarrollándose, por culpa de unos productores que sopesaban la idea de largarle por alfeñique. Con más razón que nunca: para fans de la saga.

-Amelia: No parece que sea el caso, pero película que hace Hillary Swank… (casi) Oscar que se lleva; ahora encarna a una aviadora pionera que tiene que sufrir a Richard Gere y a Ewan McGregor (¡Dios!) mientras rompe barreras más chungas que el sonido, como la discriminación por ser mujer, bla, bla, bla.

-Un lugar donde quedarse: Sam Mendes, otrora admirado por American Beauty, parece cada vez más fuera de onda; ahora sirve una comedia gafapastiana y con airecitos Green Village, rollo cultureta/alternata/intelectualoide que tira para atrás.

-Tenderness: El título, la verdad, no invita nada. Luego, ¿quién sabe?, igual hasta engancha la historia de un poli (Russell Crowe) obsesionado con un chaval que mató a sus viejos y del que está convencido que, fuera ya de la cárcel, se cepillará a más gente, incluida una niñata enamorada del tal asesino. Una incógnita.

-La noche que dejó de llover: Luis Tosar se merece nuestro eterno respeto por su Malamadre de Celda 211; pero esto, hasta que alguien me demuestre lo contrario, es una ESPAÑOLADA.

Hilary Swank as Amelia Earhart. Photo courtesy of MCT Campus

By Taylor Madaffari

3/5 Stars

Mira Nair’s biopic Amelia may have barely gotten off the ground, with its bland storytelling, dismaying superficiality, and inability to transcend the icon and make real insights into this extraordinary woman’s life, but two-time Academy Award winner Hilary Swank (Boys Don’t Cry and Million Dollar Baby) glows in her turn as the legendary aviatrix.

The film is told in flashback, focusing on the decade between Earhart’s first taste of fame in1928 and her 1937 fateful disappearance somewhere over the South Pacific during an attempt to fly around the world.  It highlights her instant superstardom as “Lady Lindy,” her popularity in the lecture circuit and in commercial advertising, her solo flight across the Atlantic, her marriage to New York publisher George Putnam (Richard Gere), and her affair with Gene Vidal (Ewen McGregor), the founder of TWA and father of Gore Vidal.

All of this, yet the narrative is strangely static— emotionally flat and uninspired.  Nair’s direction is too timid, tiptoeing around Earhart’s affair with Gene, there are a number of illicit glances and one stolen kiss in an elevator, but that’s the only evidence ever offered.  I think Nair may have been afraid of presenting a morally flawed and complex character, but that’s exactly what would have made Amelia more human, and, as a result, infinitely more interesting.  Even the ever-present dangers inherent to flying in the 1930’s don’t register.  Everything is bland, calm, flat-lined.

The dull emotional tenor of the film is at odds with the passion and fervor of the real Earhart.  She was a proto-feminist, challenging gender barriers (she wore pants and sometimes ties, insisted the word “obey” be removed from her wedding vows) and dedicated to living her life on her own terms.  She was deeply committed to achieving her dreams and inspired others to do the same, mentoring young women and using her celebrity to gain recognition for female flyers.

Swank, with her short, tousled hair, splash of freckles, slightly androgynous face, slim figure, and strong physical carriage, perfectly embodies how I imagine this vibrant woman.  She looks like her, smiles like her, sounds like her—she’s absolutely captivating.

However, the viewer is never privy to what drives her.  We’re not quite sure what’s at stake when she leaves George Putnam’s side to fly the skies.  Nair trades meaningful characterization for inspiring platitudes in banal voice-overs that, at times, lean toward romantic drivel.  She doesn’t seem particularly interested in exploring Earhart’s drives, ambitions, or motivations beyond a superficial level; this Earhart loves to fly because the script says so.  The movie is unsurprising; it makes no discoveries or insights, presents no novel perspectives.  It simply rehashes the generalities we know to be true:  Amelia Earhart was a courageous woman who led an extraordinary life.

Despite these disappointments, the film is visually stunning, with breathtaking aerial views, bold Art Deco lines and lush 1930’s fashions.  It boasts impeccable period detail, including real-life footage, headlines, and the gleaming recreation of the twin-engine Lockheed L-10 Electra that Earhart flew to her uncertain end.  Her final flight is dealt with tastefully and directly, artfully avoiding the realm of conspiracy and wild conjecture; it is so accurate, that many of the radio transmissions between her and the Coast Guard cutter Itasca, stationed off of Howland Island, are repeated verbatim.

This film should have been a soaring, inspiring, complex account of an intriguing woman, but it never quite got off the ground.

Click here to listen to “Amelia Earhart’s Last Flight”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRMu3dEHCaM

Hilary Swank as Amelia Earhart. Photo courtesy of Daemon's Movies.

By Taylor Madaffari

3/5 Stars

Mira Nair’s biopic Amelia may have barely gotten off the ground, with its bland storytelling, dismaying superficiality, and inability to transcend the icon and make real insights into this extraordinary woman’s life, but two-time Academy Award winner Hilary Swank (Boys Don’t Cry and Million Dollar Baby) glows in her performance as the legendary aviatrix.

The film is told in flashback, focusing on the decade between Earhart’s first taste of fame in1928 and her 1937 fateful disappearance somewhere over the South Pacific during an attempt to fly around the world.  It highlights her instant superstardom as “Lady Lindy,” her popularity in the lecture circuit and in commercial advertising, her solo flight across the Atlantic, her marriage to New York publisher George Putnam (Richard Gere), and her affair with Gene Vidal (Ewen McGregor), the founder of TWA and father of Gore Vidal.

All of this, yet the narrative is strangely static— emotionally flat and uninspired.  Nair’s direction is too timid, tiptoeing around Earhart’s affair with Gene, there are a number of illicit glances and one stolen kiss in an elevator, but that’s the only evidence ever offered.  I think Nair may have been afraid of presenting a morally flawed and complex character, but that’s exactly what would have made Amelia more human, and, as a result, infinitely more interesting.  Even the ever-present dangers inherent to flying in the 1930’s don’t register.  Everything is bland, calm, flat-lined.

The dull emotional tenor of the film is at odds with the passion and fervor of the real Earhart.  She was a proto-feminist, challenging gender barriers (she wore pants and sometimes ties, insisted the word “obey” be removed from her wedding vows) and dedicated to living her life on her own terms.  She was deeply committed to achieving her dreams and inspired others to do the same, mentoring young women and using her celebrity to gain recognition for female flyers.

Swank, with her short, tousled hair, splash of freckles, slightly androgynous face, slim figure, and strong physical carriage, perfectly embodies how I imagine this vibrant woman.  She looks like her, smiles like her, sounds like her—she’s absolutely captivating.

However, the viewer is never privy to what drives her.  We’re not quite sure what’s at stake when she leaves George Putnam’s side to fly the skies.  Nair trades meaningful characterization for inspiring platitudes in banal voice-overs that, at times, lean toward romantic drivel.  She doesn’t seem particularly interested in exploring Earhart’s drives, ambitions, or motivations beyond a superficial level; this Earhart loves to fly because the script says so.  The movie is unsurprising; it makes no discoveries or insights, presents no novel perspectives.  It simply rehashes the generalities we know to be true:  Amelia Earhart was a courageous woman who led an extraordinary life.

Despite these disappointments, the film is visually stunning, with breathtaking aerial views, bold Art Deco lines and lush 1930’s fashions.  It boasts impeccable period detail, including the gleaming recreation of the twin-engine Lockheed L-10 Electra that Earhart flew to her uncertain end.  Her final flight is dealt with tastefully and directly, artfully avoiding the realm of conspiracy and wild conjecture; it is so accurate, that many of the radio transmissions between her and the Coast Guard cutter Itasca, stationed off of Howland Island, are repeated verbatim.

This film should have been a soaring, inspiring, complex account of an intriguing woman, but it never quite gets off the ground.

Click here to listen to Amelia Earhart’s last flight:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRMu3dEHCaM

No voy a extenderme comentando el título que se estrenó el miércoles, porque de “Luna Nueva” mucho se ha hablado ya en este Blog, y mi compañero Snake, recogió la noticia el mismo día en el que debutaba en las pantallas españolas (para leer su post, pinchad aquí).

Por otro lado, y para quienes queráis tener una información más completa de la película, si pincháis aquí, podéis acceder a un especial sobre ella, confeccionado por Karelia, otra de los componentes de este Blog.

Y dicho esto, me dedico a comentar los cinco nuevos films que podremos ver a partir de hoy en nuestros cines.

“Tenderness” es un thriller producido en USA, protagonizado por Russell Crowe, Laura Dern, Jon Foster y Sophie Traub. La película está basada en una novela de Robert Cormier, escritor de literatura juvenil, ya desaparecido, y, precisamente, los dos personajes sobre los que gira la trama del film, son el joven Eric Komenko (Jon Foster), puesto en libertad recientemente, después de cumplir condena por el asesinato de sus padres, y Lori (Sophie Traub), una adolescente obsesionada por Eric, que irrumpe por sorpresa en su vida. Russell Crowe interpreta a Cristofuoro, un detective de la policía que sigue de cerca los pasos de Komenko, convencido de que este es un potencial asesino en serie.

“Amelia”, es un biopic sobre la vida de la aviadora estadounidense Amelia Earhart (Hilary Swank) que desapareció mientras sobrevolaba el océano Pacífico en 1937 en su intento de realizar un vuelo alrededor del mundo. El film nos cuenta también sus relaciones con su marido, George Putnam (interpretado por Richard Gere), con la ex esposa de este, a la que da vida Virginia Madsen, y con el que fue su amante y gran amor de su vida, Eugene Vidal (Ewan McGregor), padre del escritor Gore Vidal.

“Un lugar donde quedarse” la dirige Sam Mendes, realizador de las aplaudidas “American Beauty” (1999), “Camino a la perdición” (2002), y “Revolutionary Road” (2008). El film es una comedia dramática, que también puede encuadrarse en las llamadas road movie. Es el peregrinar de una pareja treintañera por Estados Unidos, buscando el lugar ideal donde afincar su familia, ya que están a punto de  tener un hijo. En su recorrido conocerán a muchas otras familias, vivirán con algunas de ellas situaciones surrealistas, pero siempre sacarán algo positivo de sus encuentros, lo que les llevará a una reflexión final.

“La noche que dejó de llover” es de producción española, está protagonizada por el aclamado Luis Tosar (“Celda 212” -2009), y fue pre-estrenada en el pasado Festival de Valladolid. Cuenta como Spleen (Tosar), un hombre fuera de lo corriente, que pasa las noches filosofando en una taberna con sus amigos, conoce a una chica con la que inicia una relación también fuera de lo corriente, y que tiene como marco la noche.

“Los condenados”, también producida en España, fue pre-estrenada en la pasada edición del Festival de Cine de San Sebastián. La dirige Isaki Lacuesta, del que pudimos apreciar “Cravan vs. Cravan” (2002) el documental con el que debutó en la pantalla grande. En esta ocasión, nos cuenta una tensa historia en la que dos ex-guerrilleros se reencuentran después de 30 años en una excavación ilegal, en la que comienzan a buscar el cuerpo de un compañero desaparecido en aquella época.

Y… hemos llegado al final. A la semana que viene, más.

Buen cine.

LA SAGA CREPÚSCULO: LUNA NUEVA

Título: La Saga Crepúsculo: Luna Nueva

Título Original: The Twilight Saga: New Moon

Género: Thriller, Fantasía

Nacionalidad: USA

Año: 2009

Director: Chris Weitz

Guión: Melissa Rosenberg

Intérpretes: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Ashley Greene, Peter Facinelli, Elizabeth Reaser, Kellan Lutz, Nikki Reed, Jackson Rathbone, Bronson Pelletier, Alex Meraz, Kiowa Gordon, Billy Burke, Chaske Spencer, Edi Gathegi, Rachelle Lefevre, Michael Sheen, Christopher Heyerdahl, Charlie Bewley, Daniel Cudmore, Dakota Fanning, Graham Greene, Anna Kendrick, Michael Welch, Christian Serratos, Justine Wachsberger, Jamie Campbell Bower, Justin Chon, Hugo Steele

Sinopsis: Basada en la novela Luna Nueva, segunda de la saga Crepúsculo de Stephenie Meyer.

El romance entre mortal y vampiro alcanza nuevas cotas cuando Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) tienta al destino en su intento de conocer mejor a su amado vampiro, Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson). A medida que se sume en los misterios del mundo sobrenatural del que ansía formar parte, descubre un par de antiguos secretos que la ponen más en peligro que nunca.

Nada más cumplir Bella 18 años, Edward decide abandonarla con intención de protegerla. Una desconsolada Bella se ve pasando su último año de instituto sola, medio dormida e insensible, hasta que descubre que puede visualizar la imagen de Edward siempre que corre peligro. Su deseo de estar con él a toda costa la lleva a asumir riesgos cada vez mayores, e incluso llega a aficionarse a correr temerariamente en moto a toda velocidad.

Con la ayuda de Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner), su amigo de la infancia y miembro de la misteriosa tribu quileute, Bella restaura una moto para sus aventuras. El gélido corazón de Bella se va descongelando poco a poco gracias a su creciente relación con Jacob, que guarda su propio secreto sobrenatural.

Cuando Bella deambula sola hasta un prado, se encuentra cara a cara con un letal atacante. Tan solo la intervención de una manada de lobos sobrenaturalmente grandes la salva de una espeluznante muerte y el encuentro deja terriblemente claro que Bella todavía corre grave peligro. En una carrera contra reloj, Bella descubre el antiguo secreto de la tribu quileute y el auténtico motivo por el cual Edward la dejó. También afronta la posibilidad de una reunión potencialmente mortal con su amado muy distinta de la que esperaba.

TENDERNESS

Título: Tenderness

Título Original: Tenderness

Género: Thriller

Nacionalidad: USA

Año: 2008

Director: John Polson

Guión: Emil Stern

Intérpretes: Russell Crowe, Laura Dern, Sophie Traub, Jon Foster, Alexis Dziena, Michael Kelly, Jake M. Smith

Sinopsis: El detective Cristofuoro (Russell Crowe) es un veterano policía obsesionado con el caso de Eric Komenko (Jon Foster), un joven que acaba de salir de prisión tras cumplir condena por el asesinato de sus padres. Eric Komenko también ocupa los pensamientos de Lori (Sophie Traub), una problemática adolescente que se siente irremediablemente atraída por él desde que presenció un extraño suceso años atrás. Lori se presenta por sorpresa en la vida del joven, determinada a acompañarle allá donde vaya, a pesar de las advertencias del detective Cristofuoro, quien, convencido de que Eric es un asesino en serie que pronto volverá a actuar, no dudará en seguir sus pasos. Aunque tenga que emplear métodos poco ortodoxos para intentar detenerle.

AMELIA

Título: Amelia

Título Original: Amelia

Género: Drama, Biopic

Nacionalidad: USA

Año: 2009

Director: Mira Nair

Guión: Ronald Bass, Anna Hamilton Phelan

Intérpretes: Hilary Swank, Richard Gere, Ewan McGregor, Virginia Madsen, Christopher Eccleston, Mia Wasikowska

Sinopsis: Basada en la vida de la aviadora Amelia Earhart (Hilary Swank), legendaria piloto y un enigmático símbolo del espíritu libre americano, cuya existencia se rigió por una profunda curiosidad por todo lo que la vida le podía ofrecer. Los precoces triunfos obtenidos por Earhart en el ámbito de la aviación y su meteórico ascenso en fama y fortuna, recibieron el estímulo de su tempestuosa asociación y posterior matrimonio con el editor George Putnam (Richard Gere). Unidos por su mutua ambición, admiración y, finalmente, gran amor, el vínculo entre ellos no llegó a romperse ni siquiera con la breve pero apasionada aventura que Earhart mantuvo con Gene Vidal (Ewan McGregor). Earhart fue la primera mujer que cruzó el Atlántico en solitario y fue el primer piloto, ya sea masculino o femenino, en atravesar el Pacífico, también en solitario. En su intento por ser la primera persona en dar la vuelta al mundo por la ruta ecuatorial, la vida de Amelia se vio truncada trágicamente por su misteriosa y prematura desaparición en las aguas del Pacífico Sur en el año 1937.

UN LUGAR DONDE QUEDARSE

Título: Un lugar donde quedarse

Título Original: Away we go

Género: Comedia

Nacionalidad: USA

Año: 2009

Director: Sam Mendes

Guión: Dave Eggers, Vendela Vida

Intérpretes: John Krasinski, Maya Rudolph, Jeff Daniels, Carmen Ejogo, Jim Gaffigan, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Josh Hamilton, Allison Janney, Melanie Lynskey, Chris Messina, Catherine O’Hara, Paul Schneider

Sinopsis: Cuando Burt y Verona (John Krasinski y Maya Rudolph) descubren que están a punto de tener un niño, sufren una crisis de pánico. No soportan el pueblo donde viven, y ahora que los padres de Burt se mudan de allí, pierden el sistema de apoyo con el que contaban. Deciden emprender un viaje en busca del sitio ideal para echar raíces y criar un niño. De paso, visitan a una serie de parientes y amigos. Algunos son absolutos excéntricos, otros son conmovedores, pero todos ayudarán a Burt y a Verona a encontrar su destino. Acabarán por descubrir que para crear un hogar, sólo se necesitan el uno al otro.

LA NOCHE QUE DEJÓ DE LLOVER

Título: La noche que dejó de llover

Título original: La noche que dejó de llover

Género: Drama

Nacionalidad: España

Año: 2008

Director: Alfonso Zarauza

Guión: Alfonso Zarauza

Intérpretes: Luis Tosar, Nora Tschirner, Mercedes Sampietro, Chete Lera, Miguel de Lira, Fede Celada, Cristina Solano, Macarena Gómez, Camila Bossa

Sinopsis: Spleen (Luis Tosar), un tipo poco corriente, pasa las noches filosofando hasta el amanecer en compañía de sus amigos de La Taberna de los Dramáticos, santuario bohemio al que no falta ni una noche desde hace años. Después de tres meses de lluvia ininterrumpida, de pronto esa noche deja de llover. Es entonces cuando Spleen sale a comprar pan y conoce a La Rusa (Nora Tschirner), una rubia con flequillo en la que materializa sus ilusiones. Juntos iniciarán un viaje inesperado, tierno y surrealista a través de la noche y del interior de ellos mismos que transformará sus vidas por completo.

LOS CONDENADOS

Título: Los condenados

Título original: Los condenados

Género: Drama

Nacionalidad: España

Año: 2009

Director: Isaki Lacuesta

Guión: Isaki Lacuesta

Intérpretes: Daniel Fanego, Arturo Goetz, Leonor Manso, María Fiorentino, Bárbara Lennie

Sinopsis: Dos ex-guerrilleros se reencuentran 30 años más tarde en una excavación ilegal, donde buscarán el cuerpo de un tercer compañero desaparecido entonces. La tensión y los secretos escondidos durante ese tiempo aflorarán a medida que se acerquen a la impredecible solución final, donde no todo será lo que parecía.

-

Swanson 

“Pirate Radio”  Rated R, 1 hour 56 minutes.  Distributed by Focus Features, Starring Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Friday & Saturday @ 2pm, 4:30, 7pm & 9:45

Sunday to Thursday @ 2pm, 4:30, 7pm & 9:30

i just finished watching a movie called breathless and honestly i really liked it and it made me think about richard gere in a totally different and more positive way. his performance in this film is just awesome.

valérie kaprisky and richard gere in breathless

doing a little research on the flick, i learned it’s a remake of à bout de souffle by jean-luc godard starring jean-paul belmondo and jean seberg.
i actually can’t wait to see it.

Se pare ca Hugh Jackman a  pierdut inca o data in fata lui Johnny Depp. Astfel, Johnny Depp a fost pentru a doua oara in viata sa ales cel mai sexy barbat.

Topul a fost facut de revista People, iar actorul in varsta de 43 de ani a repetat succesul din anul 2003.

Kate Coyne, editor senior la revista People, a declarat ca Johnny Depp a fost sexy acum 10 si probabil va fi sexy si peste 10 ani. Acesta stie sa se faca placut de mai multe generatii de femei, de la adolescente si pana la femei trecute de varsta tineretii.

Singurii care au mai castigat acest titlu de doua ori au fost George Clooney, Brad Pitt si Richard Gere.

Tragedy and Redemption

CLASSIFICATION     MC Mature Catholics

RATING     Four of 5 Stars

Distributed by Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow (released on 26 September 2008)

97 minutes

The Film

Nights in Rodanthe is a film adaptation of the novel of Nicholas Sparks having the same title. It was filmed in the small seaside village of Rodanthe, the northermost village of the inhabited areas of Hatteras Island as well as Carolina Beach in North Carolina. It is written for the silver screen by Ann Peacock and John Romano, and directed by George Wolfe.

The Preview

The Story

The film opens with the young girl Adrienne Taylor-Willis (Diane Lane) running on the beach towards her father who carried and spun her around. She wakes up from this dream into a life of a divorced mother, and hurries her two children Amanda (Mae Whitman) and Danny in time for their father Jack (Christopher Meloni) who will be dropping by to pick them up for a vacation. Jack wants to go back with Adrienne and they stay with him in Orlando, but Adrienne wants it discussed when the kids come back.

Meanwhile, Dr. Paul Flanner (Richard Gere) prepares his last things and leaves the family house he sold after he and his wife divorced. He drives off to a barge on his way to Rodanthe where he had booked at a bed and breakfast inn by the sea.

Adrienne unloads her things on Jean’s bed as Jean (Viola Davis) is leaving for an extended trip, and Adrienne will be taking Jean’s place in managing the inn.

When Paul arrived, he finds Adrienne at the porch. She shows him the reserved Blue Room. At 7:30, she serves the supper but Paul transfers to the kitchen where she is preparing the salad because he prefers not to eat alone. So they dine together and get to know each other.

That night Paul recalls the night he performed his last surgery for the day, and had to shut off his son, Dr. Mark Flanner (James Franco). He also remembers the day her wife Jen left him after the divorce. That night, the patient he operated on died.

The following day, Paul visits Robert Torrelson (Scott Glenn), the husband of his patient who died on his table, only to find the recalcitrant son Charlie (Pablo Schreiber) who refused to allow him to see Robert.

In the town’s grocery store, Adrienne heard about the operation that killed Mrs. Torrelson, and knew that the surgeon was Paul. Back in the inn, Paul tells her that Mrs. Torrelson had a non-life threatening cyst on her face but still died on his operating table.

After dinner, Adrienne shows Paul her artworks at the attic. She also shows him a safe box she made from a drift wood. After a call from Jack, which left her fuming, Adrienne and Paul entertain themselves into Jean’s unhealthy pantry supplies by throwing them into the waste bin.

The following morning, Robert and Charlie arrive to see Paul. Robert wants to know what happened during the operation. Paul tells him that she reacted to the anesthesia, which happens only one out of 50,000 cases. Robert insists his loss of his wife of 43 years when Paul tries to defend himself from the blame.

Just after Robert and his son left, the storm came and fast. Adrienne and Paul need to do their best to keep the rainstorm from getting in as the lights turn off. The place is in total darkness except for a flashlight in Adrienne’s hand. Paul just came in on time to save Adrienne from a falling shelf. Alone in the dark, they made love.

Early the following day, Adrienne took the beach, feeling remorseful for not being with Danny, who had an asthma attack the previous night and is in a hospital that very hour. Paul decides to see Robert in his place. Adrienne joins him. It is here that Paul appreciates the depth of Robert’s loss.

That night, a crab crack celebration is held at the wharf area to celebrate the passing of the storm. The singing, eating and dancing that the townspeople join progress into the night as a band of retired musicians and old vocalists took country music into the air.

When the children arrive home, Adrienne makes it clear that she and Jack will not be going back together despite Amanda’s tearful protest. Things go back to normal as Adrienne continues to do her job as a mother of two and Paul his work in the hospital. Meanwhile Adrienne and Paul continue to write letters.

The day Paul misses his scheduled flight to visit her Adrienne wonders why he is not on the plane. The day after, Mark arrives bringing with him Paul’s things, or what’s left of it. He tells her of the change that Mark saw in Paul. And that Paul got consumed into the flood of mud when Paul tried to get some more supplies to take with them. Mark thanks Adrienne for giving him back his father.

Inside Paul’s things, Adrienne finds an unsent letter from Paul telling her that he wants them to be together for life. The pain strikes her deep and she cannot seem to get over it.

Adrienne is deep in sorrow when Amanda and Danny come back from another vacation with Jack. Adrienne tells Amanda what really happened between her and their father. Adrienne told Amanda about Paul.

Amanda visits the inn to stay with Jean for awhile as she recalls all the beautiful things she shared with Paul there.

The film ends with Adrienne, while walking on the beach to ease up her sorrow on Paul’s death, as she found an unlikely sight on the beach–a herd of running stallions free and carefree to be what they are. She, accompanied by Jean, Amanda and Danny, bade goodbye to the memory of Paul at the wharf as the wind blew her face. 

The Review

Nights in Rodanthe is a tragic romantic story of two divorcees who discovered love after living together for nights in Rodanthe. It deals with the issues of time among married couples, caeer demands, breaking up, and moving on with life. There is so much pain in the story. But there is also redemption and positive change that came out from that pain.

Divorce. The film proposes that divorce may be necessary and must be pursued when couples can no longer live as they have drifted apart through the years or one spouse abandoned the other for another. It tries to show that finding the right person to love after a divorce can happen. While the proposal is believable as presented in the movie, it remains to question how hard teh couples worked for their marriage, and if there is still something that forgiveness can do to help renew a difficult union. While abandonment may justify unforgiveness and divorce, Catholic morals decry divorce as a solution to marital difficulties, maintaining that everything is possible for couples who sincerely want to work for it through God’s grace. Since most marital problems are caused by lack of effective communication, viewers are invited to decide whether the grounds for separation in this  movie are valid and justifiable.

Career. The film also correctly emphasized the dangers of so much commitment to professional work, leaving no time to one’s family. The film understands this, and attempts to emphasize the problems created when couples happen to choose wrong priorities in their married life. A physician who loves his work so much so as to leave him no time for his wife and child. That love becomes ironic in view of his decision to get married in the first place. The imbalance broke Paul’s family, estranging himself from his wife and his only son. The film however provided redemption form this family failure through the medical mission that both father and son have mutual interest and through which they rediscovered their relationship.

Professional failure. One of the sources of pain in this film is Paul’s professional failure that costs a wife’s life in a medical procedure he performed hundreds of times over and successfully. The pain of loss was overwhelming to the patient’s family, but eventually became a chance for Paul to learn compassion and for the surviving family to forgive… ironically through open and honest communication.

Children moving on. The film also explores the confusion and pain suffered by children of divorced parents, their hope of their parents’ eventual reconciliation that may never come. But redemption too came when the children understood that their parents may not be able to live together anymore because of past mistakes that broke the relatioinship for good.

The Verdict

Nights at Rodanthe is a move of pain and redemption, which Catholics may find very rich with lessons on married life and love. While it presented divorce in its positive picture, it is honest in portraying the pain of loss, of broken relationships, and the need to repair and heal the wounds left, and eventually achieve redemption. Despite its good parts, it is a typical Hollywood movie in handling sex.

The film can be educational to mature Catholics, but not recommended to teh young and less mature in their faith. It represents a two-sided blade for married couples as the positive outcomes of the story can be of the story can be educational as well as a source of temptations in justifying the easier course of separation, annulment or divorce in handling a troubled marriage.    

Reviewed by Zosimo Literatus

Come un uragano è un film americano del 2008 adattamento cinematografico australiano del romanzo omonimo Nicholas Sparks. Il film è interpretato da Richard Gere e Diane Lane nella loro terza collaborazione sullo schermo dopo Unfaithful (2002) e The Cotton Club (1984).

Leggi altre notizie su: | George C. Wolfe | Diane Lane | Richard Gere | Viola Davis

Amelia Earhart is a legend today for succeeding in the dangerous man’s world of early 20th century aeronautics, where death loomed around every corner. And she accomplished a lot in her brief professional career as a pilot – just don’t look to the new film Amelia to explore it in any meaningful way.

The film stars Hilary Swank as Amelia Earhart and follows her through her first meeting with book publisher-cum-pr agent G.P. Putnam, the man she would eventually marry, played by a dashing-as-ever Richard Gere. It is Putnam who scouts Earhart to be the first woman to fly across the Atlantic–though she is forced to do it as the passenger of two men–and turns her into an American pop culture star. We see Earhart come into her own as a pilot, taking risks and accomplishing aviation goals. There is some emphasis (but maybe too much) on her love life: Though her marriage to Putnam was open on her part, she is shown to have rebuffed men when their advances didn’t suit her. Of course, we all know how this story ends and scenes from her final flight are spliced throughout the film along with voice-over passages from the journals that she had sent home along the way.

The greatest strength of this film lies in the cinematography. When Earhart took her final flight around the world, she followed the equator and flew over Africa and India. In the film, we get to see glorious aerial views of the African savanna and its exotic animals. There are a few edge-of-the-seat moments which serve to add some excitement, but they don’t add anything to the story. Unfortunately, that is the extent of the positive.

The best way to describe this one is forced. The writers adapted the screenplay from two separate books: Susan Butler’s East to the Dawn and Mary S. Lovell’s The Sound of Wings – and the result is something that seems pieced together more than an organic development of Earhart’s story. For instance, Earhart’s relationship with Putnam comes out of nowhere in the movie. The writers added it because it was a fact of Earhart’s life, instead of finding a way to show that the two gradually developed an affection for each other over a period of years. Swank’s performance is more caricature than anything else. While Earhart hailed from Kansas, Swank chose to give her a speech pattern similar to that of New England’s Katharine Hepburn. Her Amelia never feels completely natural. There is no trace of the two-time Academy Award winner. Sometimes it feels like this may as well be Swank’s first acting role, though we shouldn’t blame her because she is doing the best she can with a script of corny one-liners and fragmented conversations.

Unlike more successful biopics, Amelia avoids deconstructing Earhart’s legacy. Earhart certainly deserves her iconic status, but this movie could have done more to make the audience question it a little. Earhart packed a lot of celebrity into the last nine years of her life. Was that celebrity due purely to her talent as a pilot? Or was it her husband’s promotion of her career? Despite her lasting fame and the public’s fascination with her fate, Earhart isn’t the subject of that many movies. Maybe the next one will be better.

Written by: Sata Schramm

- por Bernardo Brum

Depois de mais de quarenta anos de carreira, Bob Dylan alçou seu nome, álbuns e canções ao posto de um dos artistas mais importantes e influentes do século vinte. Na música, foi responsável por levar a onda inglesa de música pop adiante e torna-la mais séria, adulta e compromissada, a fim de levar o rock and roll ao posto de mais artística e consciente, influenciando algumas das principais bandas e artistas contemporâneos e posteriores. Liricamente, trouxe as preocupações, linguagem e estilo de gente como T.S. Eliott, Walt Withman, Dylan Thomas e a literatura beat para cantá-las sobre um estilo único, mistura de folk, blues, country e rock and roll.

Muitas vezes criticado abertamente pela crítica, o público e até mesmo por companheiros de profissão por deixar de fazer o que já era consagrado para arriscar-se em novos universos, Dylan não olhou para trás e fez sua fama como cantor engajado, como poeta marginalizado pelos seus, como excêntrico e até mesmo como pregador religioso. Recusou todos os rótulos impostos a ele e construiu uma carreira complexa e ambígua como o artista sensível e pessoa difícil que sempre aparentou ser aos olhos do público – seja por suas músicas e letras, seja por sua vida pessoal atribulada. O homem por trás do mito sempre provou ser alguém tão cheio de ambivalências e longe do alcance de maniqueísmos, assim como a sua música.

Todd Haynes, realizador de um dos mais cultuados filmes alternativos da década de noventa, Velvet Goldmine, no qual abordava a história do movimento glam rock, realizou com rara maestria este filme sobre o homem que é uma das figuras mais conhecidas e ao mesmo tempo mais misteriosas da música popular mundial. Desde o início, parece ter uma proposta muito difícil: a de retratar um homem que tanto mudou com o passar dos anos. E para tal, Haynes teve uma sacada exótica que se revelou extremamente funcional: a de dividir a história em seis segmentos, e em cada um deles, um ator diferente interpreta Bob Dylan.

Marcus Carl Franklin é “Woody Guthrie”, o Bob Dylan impostor e viajante, que cruzava o país de vagão em vagão antes da fama tocando violão para trabalhadores interioranos dos Estados Unidos, escondendo sua identidade verdadeira e atravessando o país em busca de conhecer seu ídolo, o verdadeiro Guthrie (um dos compositores de música folk mais influentes do século vinte). Ben Wishaw é Arthur Rimbaud, o Dylan poeta e anônimo que serve de ponte entre todas as facetas, que é anti-social, não quer ser reconhecido de jeito algum e passa todo o seu segmento dando uma entrevista sobre sua vida, demonstrando suas inquietações e parecendo ser uma espécie de “cérebro” para todas as outras encarnações Dylanescas.

Christian Bale é Jack Rollins, antigo cantor de folk que após anos de excesso converteu-se ao protestantismo. Richard Gere é Billy The Kid, o Dylan fora-da-lei (uma referência direto a uma das incursões de Bob no cinema – Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid, de Sam Peckinpah) que foge de todos. Heath Ledger é Robbie, ator despontando em início de carreira após interpretar em um filme o personagem de Christian Bale, que vive um tempestuoso relacionamento com sua namorada . E por último, mas não menos importante, a mais falada de todas as interpretações: Cate Blanchett, como Jude Quinn, o cantor que trocou a música folk politicamente engajada pelo blues-rock poeticamente desajustado. Um fantasma em vida, que vive de lançar sua sombra sobre o mundo da cultura de massa e assombrando os mais próximos pela seu desajuste social, sua dependência em drogas, sua alucinada vida de músico de estrada sem vida própria e sentindo que todos à volta estão o espremendo até não sobrar suco nenhum.

O mais surpreendente é que Não Estou Lá, é perfeitamente inteligível, e o melhor de tudo, sem nunca deixar de ser complexo – o tipo de filme para ser sentido – por mais caos que exista, o diálogo com o espectador sempre existe. Com a premissa de aproximar o mundo do universo de Bob Dylan, Todd Haynes nunca peca por falta de ousadia; o filme mergulha corajoso no objetivo de desvendar a lenda que se construiu em torno de uma só pessoa.

Pouco a pouco vamos entrando em sintonia com a história de um homem que, de início um completo desconhecido, foi catapultado em largos saltos para uma fama opressiva que progressivamente foi minando-o de relacionamentos, de contato físico, de uma vida saudável, de qualquer oportunidade de lazer, sendo sufocado cada vez mais por crítica e público que exigiam que cada assobiada que desse fosse genial e ao mesmo tempo não queria que ele evoluísse como artista, até que um dia não agüentou mais, refugiou-se de tudo e de todos e renasceu como alguém mais espiritual e que vê o tempo passar e as pessoas agirem de outra forma, em um período que pode ser reconhecido como o início dos anos sessenta até o fim dos setenta, construindo a cruzada solitária e excêntrica de um homem em busca de transcendência não econômica ou popular, mas, acima de tudo, pessoal. Uma estrada dura e realista de decadência e glória muitas vezes misturadas uma com a outra que deu ao mundo da música não o que ele queria, mas o que ele precisava ouvir.

A habilidade técnica de Haynes se sobressai especialmente no segmento interpretado por Cate Blanchett, em que pipocam referências em matéria de enquadramento, fotografia, história e concepção ao clássico Oito e Meio de Fellini, onde um diretor sufocado pela fama não consegue encontrar vazão suficiente às suas angústias interiores, mas quer de qualquer jeito fazer um filme que consiga fazer com que as pessoas revejam seus conceitos de vida através de sua arte – o mesmo dilema vivido pelo músico à época. Cate, soberba, oferece uma das melhores interpretações dos últimos tempos como um Dylan atordoado irônico, perdido e consumido por show business, álcool, anfetaminas e poesia.  Christian Bale também segura muitas bem as pontas, com o seu segmento narrado em forma de documentário que trata sobre as mudanças de vida do artista que interpreta. A aparência já desgastada e velha, a voz amargurada e já meio rouca, e o jeito de andar já meio desajeitado e de sobrevivente de dias frenéticos convencem muito bem.

Não só nesse segmento, o talento do realizador empolga por coordenar seu filme tão bem, e pode-se dizer que ele nunca foi tão feliz quanto aí, em que seu cinema pulsa como a vida do músico que o retrata – a fúria suicida de Ballad of a Thin Man, a solidão de One More Cup of Coffee, o idealismo político dos áureos tempos, a inocência dos primeiros dias, as experiências de quase morte que sempre fizeram de Dylan uma espécie de Jó roqueiro… O final é a própria anti-catarse cinematográfica. Sem clímax, seco e direto, sem orgasmo. Apenas a sinceridade e contemplação que parecem as mais apropriadas do mundo à uma obra que nem essa.

Enfim, literalmente um dos melhores filmes dos últimos anos,  fugindo da direção convencional e um tanto covarde de outras cinebiografias como Johnny e June e Ray e convergindo tudo em um necessário cinema autoral. Assim como Dylan, Todd Haynes sabe que a rollin’ stone gathers no moss, ou em bom português, uma pedra que rola não cria limo, e criou esta pérola que, por sua ousadia, dificilmente irá tornar-se datada ou rapidamente esquecida. Não Estou Lá cutuca, questiona e nos joga no inferno pessoal de um indivíduo o tempo inteiro, sem concessões.

Crítica escrita ao som da obra-prima de Bob, o disco Highway 61 Revisited. Essencial para qualquer um que queira se inteirar, filme e música, Todd Haynes e Bob Dylan.

“Eu aceito o caos. Só não sei se ele me aceita”.

5/5

Ficha técnica: Não Estou Lá (I’m Not There) – 2007, EUA. Dir.: Todd Haynes. Elenco: Ben Wishaw, Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Richard Gere, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Heath Ledger, Marcus Carl Franklin, Kris Kristofferson, Julianne Moore.