The Oxford Murders

Directed by Álex de la Iglesia.
With Elijah Wood, John Hurt, Leonor Watling.

Imperdible film para aquellos que disfrutan resolviendo asesinatos, y para aquellos que disfrutan de múltiples giros que cambian nuestra visión de los hechos, y también para aquellos que disfrutan de grandes dosis de suspenso y misterio, magistralmente narrados. Una obra que no menosprecia al publico, aunque suene raro.

Esta dirigida por el español “Alex de la Iglesia” y esta basada en el libro del escritor argentino matematico “Guillermo Martínez” titulado “Crímenes imperceptibles”.

Mucha filosofía.

The Oxford Murders

Directed by Álex de la Iglesia.
With Elijah Wood, John Hurt, Leonor Watling.

Imperdible film para aquellos que disfrutan resolviendo asesinatos, y para aquellos que disfrutan de múltiples giros que cambian nuestra visión de los hechos, y también para aquellos que disfrutan de grandes dosis de suspenso y misterio, magistralmente narrados. Una obra que no menosprecia al publico, aunque suene raro.

Esta dirigida por el español “Alex de la Iglesia” y esta basada en el libro del escritor argentino matematico “Guillermo Martínez” titulado “Crímenes imperceptibles”.

Mucha filosofía.

After a gap of almost 4 years, I picked up a murder mystery and what better book to pick than a book by Guillermo Martinez. The mystery is based on math puzzles and theorems and although not a great fan of theorems I was hooked on from chapter 2.

To give an overview, Guillermo Martinez is an Argentine novelist who gained a PhD in mathematical logic at the University of Buenos Aires and afterwards, worked at the Mathematical Institute in Oxford. And the book ‘The Oxford Murders’ follows the adventures of a young mathematics graduate, Martin who along with Arthur Seldom an eminent professor of Logic, sets out to solve a series of murders where the only clues left behind are a series of symbols. The story is narrated in 1^st person presumably by the author himself.

Moving on to the story, Martin joins the Mathematical Institute at Oxford after graduation, and on the advice of his supervisor, rents a room at an old war veteran Mrs. Eagleton’s place. One fine evening, Martin comes home to find his landlady murdered. To his relief however, he isn’t the lone witness for he meets Arthur Seldom, a professor of Logic who is also visiting Mrs. Eagleton at the scene of crime. The murder comes across as the work of an intellectual megalomaniac who appears to challenge Seldom following the publication of Seldom’s latest bestseller on logical series that includes a chapter on serial killers. The first clue left behind is a circle/zero, and this sets off the mathematicians and the police on a wild goose chase. The primary suspect however is Mrs. Eagleton’s long suffering grand-daughter Beth, who is only too happy to get away from Oxford. 2 murders later, Beth is off the suspects list and Seldom reluctantly reveals the 4^th symbol of the series to the police. Immediately after, an accident at a bridge reveals the true identity of the murderer. And this is just the background of the plot.

The plot by itself is quite complex and with every murder the suspicion shifts on to different characters present in the story – Lorna who is a nurse at the Radcliffe hospital, Podorov who seems to meet the psychoanalyst’s description of the murderer, a bus driver – Mr. Johnson who has an ailing daughter. All these characters seem to share one common connecting factor – they all have read Seldom’s book on logical series. Towards the end, the bit where Seldom reveals the identity of the actual murderer to Martin is quite unnerving.

This book is a absolute haven for mathematical buffs since it has plenty of pages devoted to intense discussions on Godel’s theorem, The Pythagorean Brotherhood and Fermat’s theorem to mention a few. While I could follow the logic for some of these, there were others that simply went over my head. The mystery as a whole though was very enjoyable and quite gripping, and believe it or not, its already been adapted to the big screen last year. An absolute must read book it is and I hope to read his other works!

Bagi penggemar Elijah Wood, jangan sampai melewatkan film ini. Karena aktor tampan yang bermain cemerlang di film The Lord of The Ring akan mengobati kangen Anda melalui film The Oxford Murders garapan sutradara film cult peraih belasan award berkebangsaan Spanyol Alex de la Iglesia ini.

Film produksi bersama tiga negara ini—Inggris, Perancis dan Spanyol—memasang Elijah Wood melalui pertimbangan panjang yang dilakukan oleh pihak Tornasol Films yang memproduksi film ini. Sebelum memutuskan memasang Elijah, Alex sempat melirik Gael Garcia Bernal, aktor terkenal Spanyol untuk peran utama.

“Elijah memiliki bakat yang luar biasa sekali dalam berakting dan tatapan matanya itulah yang membuat film ini menjadi berisi.” ujar sang sutradara yang terkesan dengan akting Elijah di block buster movie Lord of The Ring, sehingga akhirnya dengan mantap memilih Elijah yang memiliki tatapan mata mendebarkan itu.

The Oxford Murder memakan waktu shooting 3 bulan lebih, yakni sejak 22 Januari 2007 sampai 24 Maret 2007, dengan mengambil lokasi di Universitas Oxford, Inggris, Musium Victoria dan Albert di London, dan Pengadilan Cast Courts.

The Oxford Murders mengisahkan sebuah peristiwa pembunuhan yang terjadi di Universitas Oxford. Korban pembunuhan tersebut adalah seorang wanita tua. Mayatnya ditemukan oleh seorang dosen matematika () dan seorang mahasiswa yang berasal dari Amerika (Elijah Wood) di kampus tersebut.

The Oxford Murder mengangkat sebuah ide cerita tentang matematika, kebenaran dan pembunuhan. Apakah yang sebenarnya terjadi di Universitas Oxford tersebut? Benarkah pembunuhan tersebut ada hubungannya dengan ilmu matematika? Film yang pertama kali release di Inggris pada 25 April 2008 ini akan diputar di Blitzmegaplex. Saksikan The Oxford Murder mulai 7 Januari 2009. (oz2009)

Info:  021-92995700 or Emailto film.publisher@gmail.com ATAU

kalo kalian mau tau perkembangan film yang akan tayang atau informasi lainnya perihal perfilman di Indonesia…cepetan gabung aja di sini…

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/group.php?gid=32122099343

On pourrait presque jouer à ‘Name That Movie’ avec mon concept, tellement la photo ne permet pas d’identifier le film. Je le poste aujourd’hui, mais je l’ai donc regardé hier, c’est The Oxford Murders, avec notre ami Elijah Wood. C’est drôle cette façon qu’il a d’aller jouer les Américains dans les films étrangers. Après prise de renseignements sur Imdb, il est de la Californie et le film doit être une co-procuction française/espagnole (Álex de la Iglesia est le réalisateur, si vous vous questionnez).

Le film, on reparle dans un prochain billet.

I’ve always been a bit confused about who John Hurt actually is. I’d heard his name thrown around the movie blogosphere for a long time, but for some reason was never able to place him. I’m guessing my first introduction to him was his narration of Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (my second-favorite film of 2006), but even after that I still couldn’t place a face and always thought he was some far-off relation to William Hurt. Stupid? Yes. A simple trip to Wikipedia or his IMDb page would have helped, but I was a bit too stubborn.

Well, Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull finally gave a face to the voice I’d become so enamored with. Hurt’s character was one of my favorite parts of the film and I wish Spielberg would have given us more of him. So you can imagine my glee when I was surfing the net the other day and found a new film with John Hurt in a leading role. But not just any leading role — a juicy one as an Oxford math professor, a role that guaranteed lots of satisfyingly long monologues. Its one of those kooky movies made in another country but with American and British actors speaking English that will then be dubbed over for release in said country. Confusing. Anyway, this movie isn’t coming to the US of A anytime soon, but I was able to track a copy down and watch it nonetheless.

The film is called The Oxford Murders, based on a best-selling Spanish novel and directed by popular (at least in Spain) Spanish director Alex de la Iglesia. Its about an American exchange student named Martin finding himself entrenched in a murder plot while studying mathematics at Oxford. Martin is played by Elijah Wood and John Hurt plays brilliant math professor Arthur Seldom, a curmudgeonly old geezer with a flare for younger women and high-strung postmodern thought.

The murder plot is very dark and involving … in some ways the flow of the story reminded me of a Dan Brown novel (Angels and Demons, The DaVinci Code). When it comes to guilty pleasure entertainment, this is just the kind of stuff I like. No matter how cheap it can seem, these expansive mysteries with mucho mythology appeal to me more than most things. So it was with this in mind that I could forgive all the films many missteps: the extremely obvious dialogue, a Russian character with badly dubbed voice, the infantile romance subplot complete with a ludicrous love scene involving spaghetti, and some truly embarrassing acting.

There is much to be admired, though. John Hurt completely owns the film and he makes laughable lines seem completely plausible. He deflects Elijah Wood’s wooden countenance makes the movie his own. Considering what Hurt is working with, its a brilliant performance and worth watching just for his screen time. Iglesias’ direction also has moments of greatness. He makes classroom scenes comprised of long intellectual dialogues seem interesting, often filming historical events spoken of in the dialogue. The production is quite opulent and is always easy on the eyes.

The ideas of the film that also intrigued me even though I disagree with some of them whole-heartedly. The movie begins in the midst of a WWII battle in which British soldiers marvel at one of their men sitting in the middle of a surging battlefield writing in a journal. John Hurt then pipes in with his first meaty monologue saying that this man was not crazy — he was urgently writing what would become the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus; what he calls “the most influential philosophical work of the 20th century.” His main idea: there is no way of finding absolute truth outside of mathematics. Philosophy is dead and “whereof we cannot speak, therefore we must be silent.” This idea is bounced around constantly in trying to solve the Oxford murders and is turned around, molded, proved, and disproved all over again until the film’s mind-boggling last scene which takes place in a museum full of fake artifacts. My head was swimming all through the end credits.

Yeah, The Oxford Murders may be a mediocre-to-poor film, but John Hurt is darn good and it intrigued me the whole time.  I didn’t feel like my time was wasted. If it ever decides to pop up in theaters here in the US, I’ll write a more formal review. If you can find it, give it a watch. The awesomeness of John Hurt in a leading role is almost too great to pass up.

A few weeks ago, I was back in Oxford – my home before I moved to Melbourne about 4 years ago. The city of dreaming spires is still as beautiful as ever with punts gliding past, croquet being played on perfectly mown college lawns, church bells ringing and gargoyles looking down from many a bell tower and medieval cloister.  

“This marvellous city can be stifling,” says Elijah Wood, a young American student, in a film called The Oxford Murders also starring John Hurt. I know just how he feels. Dripping with architectural, historic and other wonders, it’s easy to feel a bit stuck in Oxford – walled in.  There’s plenty going on and the city offers plenty of wonderful parks and gardens to escape the hustle and bustle, but it lacks a certain vibe, a certain buzz.

Oxford comprises a curious mix of locals, students and tourists and, in truth, never the three do meet. Perhaps that’s why it lacks oomph and why I ran out of steam.  Perhaps too much beauty, too many bell towers, too many walls and all surrounded by a busy ring road and situated in the low-lying (think damp and fog) Thames Basin.

Don’t get me wrong, I did have fun in Oxford and was lucky enough to have a bunch of wonderful friends and a terrific job as fundraiser at the local Wildlife Trust, but after five years,  I was ready to move on to pastures new.

My first few months in Melbourne were tough but once I got going I found that it pretty much gave me a ticket to dream and to start afresh.  Melbourne has an upbeat feel, a groovy vibe, a certain ‘go for it’ energy. Melbourne is never boring – whether you’re into books, fashion, jazz, comedy, food, horse racing, cricket, art, kite-surfing, wine-tasting, fashion or spending lazy days on the beach – it’s all on offer.

Combined with the Aussie ‘go for it’ attitude and ‘you’ll be right’, it’s the kind of place that allows you to reinvent yourself, have an adventure and see what happens.  Forgive all the cliches, but there’s plenty of space in Australia to spread your wings and experiment. It’s a young, vibrant country  – not so beholden to social convention and tradition as the UK.

But, it’s been fun revisiting all those British customs and traditions, all the pomp and dressing-up. Royal Ascot was on last week – and it was nicknamed Royal Chavscot (Chavs are akin to bogans (sp?!)) and their inadequate dress sense has ruffled upper class sartorial feathers).  Dress code for the Royal Enclosure was tightened up this year following complaints that standards were slipping and hemlines rising.

Mini-skirts, midriff-baring tops, spaghetti straps and halter-neck dressed were all banned on the orders of the Queen’s representative, The Duke of Devonshire. Ladies were also advised that knickers should be worn, but not on show, and that streaky tans are a ‘total fashion faux pas.’  Race-going Melburnians – take heed.

Guillermo Martinez is a young Argentinian writer with a PhD in Mathematics. He first came to some notice in the UK a couple of years ago with the publication of The Oxford Murders. That book, which enjoyed a respectable success, has recently been made into a film with John Hurt, which has helped enormously to raise Martinez’s profile and I expect The Book of Murder to receive similar critical acclaim.

In many ways it is a novel that is very similar to The Oxford Murders. The style is unmistakably that of Martinez. IT could be argued that thisis not strictly a crime novel, although the narrative does revolve arounda series of crimes. In fact, the central conundrum presented to us in The Book of Murder is whether the events portrayed are, in fact, crimes at all or merely a coincidental series of freak accidents. Certainly this is not detective fiction, although the author’s mathematical background is eveident in its focus upon logic and reasoning.

The main difference between the two novels, though, is in the location. The Book of Murder is not set against the gentile academic life of Oxford (arguably making The Oxford Murders, at least in part, a homage to the English detective story and Country House Murder), but in the heat and urban claustrophobia of Buenos Aires. A hint of the supernatural (or at least supernatural possibility) is introduced and this clash of the supernatural and the ultra-rational seems to give more than a nod to the Magical Realism of much South American fiction. This means that The Book of Murder is far more of apsychological thriller than its predecessor.

Martinez’s style is strong, confident, literary and readable and he has an excellent translator in Sonia Soto. He is definitely an author to watch (or read).

Titolo originale: The Oxford Murders 

Regia: Alex De La Iglesia

Cast: Elijah Wood, John Hurt, Leonore Watling, Anna Massey,
Julie Cox, Alex Cox, Dominique Pinon, Jim Carter, Burn Gorman

Distribuzione: Warner Bros, Spagna Francia, 2008

Guarda il trailer

Martin (Elijah Wood) è un giovane studente americano con la passione per la matematica e per un professore e scrittore di Oxford in particolare, Arthur Seldom (John Hurt). Giunto ad Oxford per conoscerlo e per proporgli una ricerca di dottorato, il ragazzo prende alloggio presso un’anziana ed eccentrica signora, la quale, due giorni dopo, viene trovata morta nel suo soggiorno. È solo il primo di una serie di omicidi e il primo di una sequenza di segni che l’assassino lascia dietro di sé, vittima dopo vittima. Il dottorato di Martin si trasforma, così, in un tirocinio sul campo: lo studente e il professore iniziano ad ingare sull’accaduto: riusciranno a indovinare la logica che sta dietro quelle morti, in modo da porre fine alla macabra sequenza?

Alex De la Iglesia, regista spagnolo di “La Comunitad“ e dell’esilarante commedia noir ”Crimen Perfecto“ mette in scena un thriller atipico con una struttura che ricorda il famoso gioco da tavola “Cluedo“. Il film è la trasposizione cinematografica dell’omonimo romanzo del matematico argentino Guillermo Martinez.

La pellicola è giocata sin dall’inizio sul contrasto tra la fede incondizionata nella matematica di Martin e l’irraggiungibilità della verità affermata dal professore. Entrambe queste visioni rappresenteranno i binari all’interno dei quali si svolgerà l’indagine alla ricerca dell’assassino nella quale i due si ritroveranno coinvolti.

Il ritmo è veloce, serrato e la scelta dei personaggi è quanto mai azzeccata: John Hurt è davvero credibile nei panni dell’enigmatico professor Seldom (bellissimi i suoi monologhi!) e il sempre più versatile Elijah Wood dà vita ad una prova molto convincente. Interessante anche il corollario di personaggi che ruotano intorno ai delitti, tutti potenziali sospetti: Beth, la figlia della prima vittima, interpretata da un’ottima Julie Cox, giovane problematica soffocata dalla presenza della madre, Lorna (Leonor Watling), la ragazza di Martin, giovane infermiera alquanto ambigua, lo strano e inquietante compagno di studi di Martin (Burn Gorman), che vede complotti ovunque. Inoltre il mondo austero e serio della matematica e della filosofia è reso più leggero e fruibile dall’ispettore Petersen (Jim Carter), funzionario di polizia a cui sono affidate le indagini, che spesso annaspa, senza nasconderlo e con molta ironia, dietro le elucubrazioni del professore e di Martin.

In definitiva un giallo classico piacevole, forse con qualche forzatura di troppo, soprattutto nel finale, ma comunque un buon prodotto.

Conclusione: Consigliato, in particolare agli amanti dei thriller complessi e “cervellotici”.

Voto: 7

Although i am not fan of comedies, especially American sit-comes, i dearly love some  black comedies. Alex de la Iglesia’s  first movie, (produced by Pedro Almodovar), Accion mutante , is one of them. Watched it many years ago and it so funny sci-fi horror comedy. Still laughing when i remember it.  Brilliant satire, with underlined critique of social system and its imperatives ( to rid the universe of pretty people and superficiality by terrorist group of ugly mutants ). In a future world ruled by good-looking people, …

Watched today his next master piece, very original, absurd surrealistic comedy “Crimen ferpecto” (The Perfect crime). So much black humor, with social satire on consumerism and machism. Some twists in movie are so brilliant. Alex de la Iglesia is very talented and very underrated director. Just increased my love toward Spanish movies.

How can anyone in the universe not LOVE this film?, 22 January 2007
Author: rooprect from New York City

It’s hilarious. It’s poignant. It’s artistic. It’s even philosophical at times. I can’t imagine anyone not liking this film. “Crimen ferpecto” is a great surrealistic comedy along the lines of “Being John Malkovich”, “One Night at McCools” or even the masterpiece “Brazil”.

The plot begins bizarre, and from there it gets ever bizarrer. Set in a department store (the perfect metaphor for the human condition!), this film brilliantly weaves the themes of glamorous/plastic life versus the mundane/real. Trapped between worlds and desperately trying to achieve the former is our hero Rafael, a man whose entire life exists within the ladies’ clothing department. Somehow he gets wrapped up in murder, blackmail and ectoplasmic visitations from lovable corpses. Yeah, I told you it gets bizarre.

But despite the zany plot, there’s a very poignant & sober message that runs just below the surface. It’s subtle, but it comes to fruition during the magnificent climax when we realize exactly what this whole wacky movie is about. If you’ve paid attention to symbolism, metaphor, allegory and all that intellectual jazz, you’ll get it, and you’ll see how everything fits into place. If not, fine, you’ll enjoy the picture anyway because it’s just plain funny. The beauty is that you can take it at your own pace. Great film. Damn near perfect. Er… ferpect.

This year is coming his new movie (this time thriller) The Oxford Murders .  Haven’t seen it yet, but i wonder how good he is in different movie genre

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Music from the movie:Francoise Hardy – (English) Message Personnel

British indie director and sometimes actor Alex Cox writes in today’s Guardian about his guest role in The Oxford Murders and muses about Iberolatinamerican directors’ fascination with England. He notes Cuarón’s installment of Harry Potter and especially Children of Men, both filmed in England, but more interestingly says of Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth: “It’s a Spanish-language film, intended for the Spanish-speaking market; yet its fantasy language is utterly English, old chum – drawing on everything from Arthur Rackham to Alien.”

The Oxford Murders is directed by Spanish director Álex de la Iglesia and opens this week in the UK. It is an adaptation of the 2003 thriller novel Crímenes imperceptibles by Argentine mathematician, novelist, and essayist Guillermo Martinez in which mathematical symbols are the key to understand a series of murders that have taken place around the university.

Reporting from Mexico City for the Hollywood Reporter/Reuters, John Hecht reveals how “once-endangered genres like sci-fi, horror and animation are making a spirited comeback,” as young filmmakers move beyond lesser imitations of commercially successful its from nuevo cine mexicano like Y tu mamá también. Lemon Films productions like the horror film Kilometer 31 and animated feature Una Pelicula de Huevos have found commercial success while films from Canana Films and Mantarraya Producciones have made their mark on the festival circuit. “Less than a decade ago, it would have been hard to imagine a Mexican production company lining up a western and a sci-fi project in the same year. Yet as the industry has evolved, the spectrum has opened up considerably.” Read more.

Reuters and AP photos here. Elijah Wood and others pose during the presentation of the movie “The Oxford Murders” in Madrid January 14, 2008.

Alex de la Iglesia cuenta en Los Crímenes de Oxford, esperadísima nueva película del director, con los internacionales John Hurt y Elijah Wood, y la polifacética artista patria Leonor Watling. Este primer cartel, minimalista pero efectivo, anticipa esta historia de auténtico tono policíaco y que, a juzgar por la expectación levantada en importantes sitios web de ultramar, a buen seguro tendrá también buena acogida fuera de nuestras fronteras.

Guillermo Martinez, 2005, 197 s

Det här är inte en kriminalroman utan en renlärig och mycket logiskt lagd pusseldeckare (som heter Morden i Oxford på svenska). En ung argentinsk matematikdoktorand – författaren är som av en händelse också en matematiker från Argentina — anländer till Oxford och vips så är hans hyresvärd mördad. Snart kopplas fler mord ihop, en serie kryptiska symboler hittas i anknytning till mordplatserna, och seriemördarjakten är igång, allt i en autentisk Oxford-miljö.

Jakt är egentligen fel ord för det hela sker på ett mycket makligt, professorsmässigt och akademiskt sätt. I själva verket blir teorier runt matematiska serier, Gödels ofullständighetsteorem, Wittgensteins filosofi och Fermats sista sats snabbt viktigare än eventuella tekniska ledtrådar runt morden. Här finns en rejäl dos filosoferande runt matematik och det perfekta brottet, men i slutändan har de många matematiska resonemangen ganska liten bäring på själva brottet. Inte för att det skadar boken; perifera, men intressanta diskussioner av denna typ hör hemma i en pusseldeckare.

Hela mysteriet är inte längre än att det kan avslutas under en lång eftermiddag i hängmattan. Boken är egentligen en bagatell, en liten kanapé. Du blir serverad ett lagom listigt pussel och du tror du vet vem som är mördaren, men du har naturligtvis fel.