Violence/ love cine/nice love
This tiny picture is that of Viggo Mortensen in David Cronenberg`s "A History of Violence" Notice that I found some more peaceful anagrams for the title. I am not sure that this is the great film that many local critics are saying. Certainly, it is a more restrained and less imaginative film by the Canadian director. What it does have in its favour is that it offers some very graphic situations for debate about the nature of violence, the impossibility or not of escaping it, the use of it to resolve conflicts and the social approval of it. All in a story set in small town Middle America. Where else? So, it is a thought provoking piece of work and very well done with no escaping the violence of the title. Credit to a very good performance in the lead by Mortensen 
ably supported by Maria Bello who is impressing me more and more as I see her, Ed Harris, good as ever and a surprising cameo by William Hurt as you've never seen him before. He deserves to be back on the screen more often.
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Another fable cum fairy story. The delightful "Corpse Bride" the latest Tim Burton film and a really entertaining short film about life and death and culture and true love. Excellent technical tricks in this animated film, good photography and a very witty script with some good asides. Highly recommended.
A Greek film called "A Touch of Spice". A sort of fable really about a Greek family forced to abandon Istanbul in the 60's thanks to the political tension between Greece and Turkey. The boy becomes a cook and learns that you have to appreciate the spice in life. A nice little film but rather insipid and moralistic. As a sort of magic realñism fairy tale it works. 
My favourite spring flower of which Buenos Aires is full just now. Photo taken by me in a park in San Cristobal on Tuesday 15/11.
A surprisingly effective political thriller, "The Interpreter" stars Nicole Kidman as a white African who works as an interpreter at the UN. She overhears what she thinks is a plot to kill the head of her country's government andv tells the security services - Sean Penn (kept on a leash) and Catherine Keener (rather bulldoggy). But she knows more about things in the strife-torn Zimbabwe-like country than she lets on and Sean Penn gets suspicious. Great views inside and from the UN and taut, riveting drama from Sydney Pollack, especially the bus scene and the final minutes. 
Well worth seeing the latest from this veteran director who, as usual has a cameo.
Straight to video for this award winning made for television film. In a great performance the chameleonic Geoffrey Rush plays Peter Sellers, the great British comic of the 1950's -1980. It is a rather sad film as we follow the fortunes of this zany and insecure man who made the world laugh so much and who created among others, the character of Inspector Clouseau of the Pink Panther series. A great cast of supporting actors here. Charlize Theron is unrecognisable as Britt Eklund, Emily Watson great as the long-suffering wife, Anne, Miriam Margolyes does a great job as the mother and John Lithgow is also much changed as Blake Edwards. For all the great acting and intelligent script, the film remains a biopic and perhaps doesn't quite reach the top heights but I enjoyed it and found it watchable and stylish.
Esta pelicula es una de las mejores peliculas argentinas que he visto en mucho tiempo. Rápida, muy chistosa, con un guión excelente y actuaciones frescas y muy buenas. Hay que destacar a Diego Peretti, el protagonista. Esta actuación me encantó - mucho más que otros y Damián Szifrón, el director y guionista logra un trabajo acabado sobre un tema bastante polemico acá - la corrupción y las actividades dudosas de la policia y de la SIDE.
This is a film from the line of Wim Wender's "Until the End of the World" or "Gattaca" or "1984". The world is divided into two - a part with pristine skyscrapers and all mod cons which is controlled by giant corporations. You have to have 'cover' to be there and these permits are gold dust. The rest live 'afuera' or outside in dirty, desert-like, resource scarce zones parched by relenting sun. The creation of this futuristic world by British director Michael Winterbottom and based on a scinece fiction novel is excellent and is filmed in a futuristic Shanghai and a slightly more uneven Dubai. We even have a sort of universe speak mixing various languages - English, Spanish, French, Italian, Arabic and Chinese. The problem is that the story, while more or less convincing is not portrayed with enough spice and interest to sustain us and in the end we do not really care for the characters. Tim Robbins and Samantha Morton do the honours but the real star is the setting and the gimmicks. Interesting to see but perhaps not worthy the various festival nominations it had.
Una escena de "Cautiva" una pelicula argentina, (2003). Barbara Lombardo es Cristina/Sofia que de un día a otro descubre que sus padres no son sus verdaderos padres y que ella es hija de una pareja desaparecida durante el Proceso. Primero viene la negación, luego la curiosidad y el deseo de saber la verdad. Es una pelicula discreta y respetuosa sobre este tema tan grosso en la historia argentina. Lombardo es una revelación - con su mirada terna, tranquila y a la vez insatisfecha logra transmitir todas las emociones que la chica debe sentir en esta situación. Vale la pena ver.
The good thing about this movie is that you get to see lots of stars and interesting actors doing their thing. Set in present day LA "Crash" is an interwoven set of stories which show the dark side of living in a greedy, money grabbing not-so-melted melting pot. There is a lot of aggression and violence, misunderstandings with unfortunate solutions and ironies galore. The message is that we need to touch each other more that we lived behind steel and glass. OK. There is no doubt what the director wants to tell us but at times the plot and dialogue are so obvious and preachy, the film is so dark and slow that you want to shout - get a move on - !!!!! So, not many points for the film but yes some thimbs up to Matt Dillon, Thandie Newton and Ryan Philippe especially for their acting. Don Cheadle and Sandra Bullock are in there too! Robert Altman did it all a lot better in "Short Cuts" a decade ago but I guess this shows how things have regressed in the city of angels since then.
Otra pelicula argentina. Muy pero muy triste en ciertos aspectos sobre un adolescente a quien todos sus seres queridos mueren o desaparecen! Sin embargo me gustó mucho. Parece muy autentica en sus dialogos, tiene linda música y fotografía y los actores transmiten esa sensación de no saber que hacer en determinadas situaciones. Son como almas perdidas en la vida que uno solo quiere abrazar y ayudar. No es una gran pelicula, sino una muy sencilla y noble. Santiago Pedrero como el amigo es excelente. Y felicidades al director Ezequiel Acuña.
