Indiewood Circuit
Posted: January 2, 2010
Penelope Cruz in love with Lluis Homar in 'Broken Embraces'
Broken Embraces (Los Abrazos Rotos)
Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Writer: Pedro Almodóvar
Producers: Esther GarcÃa
Stars:
Penélope Cruz
LluÃs Homar
Blanca Portillo
Tri-genre: noir romance suspense
Story Situation: dangerous love
Satisfaction Rating: above average
Maturity Rating: 13+
Plotline: Mateo (Lluis Homar) lives, lusts and writes in the dark. He was the victim of a violent car accident fourteen years previously. Not only did he lose his vision, but also the love of his life, Lena (Penelope Cruz). He was a movie director and Lena was his leading lady on-set and steamy lover off-set. But it was a secret passion because Lena was stuck in an intimate relationship with jealous aging tycoon Ernesto (Jose Luis Gomez). The situation grows increasingly tense as Lena pulls away from the ever-suspicious Ernesto and into the arms of her true love Mateo … until the accident.
Now, under the pseudonym Harry Caine, Mateo lives a quiet life as a novelist with his past suppressed. But after an unintended drug mishap involving Diego (Tamar Novas), the son of his business partner Judit (Blanca Portillo), Mateo sits vigilantly at his bedside and entertains him by recounting the whole sad tale, revealing his suspcion that the tycoon’s son Ray (Ruben Ochandiano) may have been responsible for the fatal accident and that he may not yet be done with his underhanded deeds. Then Judit reveals the truth that Diego is Mateo’s own son from their short fling. Suspicion now turns to her.
Michael Herbig Remains Germany’s Top BO Director
"Wickie" Dominates German Box Office
Writer-director-comedian Michael "Bully" Herbig
German writer-director-actor Michael Herbig scored the 3rd best all-time opening for a German language film over the past weekend at nearly $12.5 (€ 8.53) million with Wickie und die starken Männer - Der Pfeil (Vicky the Viking). Based on a 1974 German animated TV series, the film follows the comedic adventures of a timid Viking boy. Previously Herbig wrote, directed and produced the Star Trek parody Raumschiff Surprise - Periode 1 (Starship Surprise - Episode 1), the all-time top-opening German language film, as well as the Western parody Der Schuh des Manitu (Manitou’s Shoe), the all-time top-grossing German film.
Herbig, nicknamed “Bully” after a jersey he wore during soccer practice, began his comedy career with the morning show Langemann und die Morgencrew (Longman and the Morning Crew) before moving to German television as writer-director-actor-host for the skit comedy shows Bullyparade and Bully & Rick where he tried out several different Saturday Night Live-style parodies. His first theatrical smash hits were based on characters and themes voted for by the show’s audience.
France Nominates ‘Un prophète’ as Best Foreign Film
Director Jacques Audiard and actor Tahar Rahim
Having already won this year’s 62nd Cannes Grand Prix, director Jacques Audiard’s prison thriller Un prophète (A Prophet) has been selected as France’s entry in the foreign language film category for the 82nd Academy Awards, scheduled for the 7th of March 2010. Audiard, best known for the 2006 César Awards Best Picture De battre mon coeur s’est arrêté (The Beat that My Heart Skipped) about a man who must choose between a career in crime or classical music, relied upon ex-con technical advisers to help create an authentic ambiance for the present suspenser again focused upon a malleable young man confronting a hardened criminal world.
Mastering the Art of Tarantino
Who’s Afraid of the King of Cool?
Opinion by Paul Maslak
Posted: September 9, 2009
Quentin Tarantino - The Reigning King of Cool
Like fine wine, fine filmmakers get better with age. The more they practice their craft, the steadier and more effective their creative choices. That old practice-makes-perfect bromide is not so hard to understand. Surprisingly, though, sometimes the same holds true for their audiences. The more we watch an evolving filmmaker’s work, the more we appreciate his acquired mastery. I count myself among the latter for the art of Quentin Tarantino.
I admit I’ve come last to the party. But my journey has been difficult.
When Tarantino first appeared on the festival circuit with Reservoir Dogs, I thought he was absurdly overrated: A storyline lifted from Ringo Lam’s City on Fire (Lung fu fong wan), starring Chow Yun-Fat, provided the dramatic chassis upon which to string unending profanity, unwatchable violence, and a denouement with a magic gunshot that could only have hit its target in a bad B movie. Okay, Tarantino had a tiny budget. No reshoots. And didn’t that same magic bullet conclude George Steven’s classic big budget Western Shane in the shootout between Alan Ladd and Jack Palance? To my mind, however, the critics who raved about Reservoir Dogs did so only because it won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize - owing in part to home court insider festival favoritism - and because that trophy intimidated critics into biting their tongues rather than report what they really thought. If Reservoir Dogs had a redeeming moral meaning, I would not have known because I was too incensed by the contrived ugliness of the cinematic experience.
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World's Favorite Films 2010
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World Favorite Foreign Language Films 2010
Yip Man 2 (Chinese)
My Name Is Khan (Bollywood)
Nodame Cantabile 2 (Japanese)
Blood Brothers: Secret Reunion (Korean)
L'arnacoeur (French)
Doraemon: Mermaid Adventure (Japanese)
Little Big Soldier (Chinese)
La rafle (French)
Io, loro e Lara (Italian)
Liar Game (Japanese)
Our Rossiya (Russian)
Younger Brother (Japanese)
Housefull (Bollywood)
Harmony (Korean)
Go Lala Go (Chinese)
Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf 2 (Chinese)
Chico Xavier (Portuguese)
Kandahar (Russian)
