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Las superamigas contra el profesor Vinilo (2003)
Superguay!
Domingo González is great. Not only has he directed videos for La Casa Azul, Spain's most exciting band, but he has a very special approach to all of his work. He's into 60's look, a vinyl bubblegum world full of color and music. It's like The Brady Bunch, The Archies, The Italian Job and caper films and The Beatles films. J-pop and martial arts are there too.
Pop lovers will definitely have a crush on this short. "Las Superamigas" are a threesome of girly heroines that fight against music haters. Like Profesor Vinilo, the city's worst DJ. There's some jokes that may only appeal Spaniards (or Spanish speaking viewers) who are more familiar with the popular music artists mentioned. But the plot is simple and funny. There's lots of fight and fashion and the perfect, melodic music of Guille Milkyway, a pop genius.
This short is funny, pinky, amazing. Sixteen minutes of pure joy. If you liked this, search the web for La Casa Azul's videos. You'll love them.
Familiaridades (1969)
Familiaridad with la nouvelle vague
'Familiaridades' is one of the early and most unknown works of Felipe Cazals. It has that 60's feeling all around, deep influenced by the French nouvelle vague, with only two main characters (in something that recalls me of the couple in Godard's 'À bout de souffle').There are some situations that become disturbing as the movie goes: first of all the arrival of the salesman. Then, the woman and him get drunk and a second salesman arrives. The appearance of a dying woman in a wheelchair becomes another subplot that kind of disturbs and works as some surrealist element to get to the end: the two characters (who are very lonely) accomplish what they intended in the beginning, when they first met.
Nadie te oye. Perfume de violetas (2001)
Nobody hears you...
"Perfume de violetas" is, by far, one of the best and most underrated Mexican films in years. The story is shocking and touching, the direction by Sistatch is marvelous and the acting is superb (just watch the two girls, they're wonderful). No more words. Just see this film. Four stars out of four.
Amar te duele (2002)
Another not so good by Sarinana
After the really disappointing "El segundo aire" (2001), Sarinana came up with two new releases: "Ciudades oscuras" and "Amar te duele". This second was well-known and loved by many people in Mexico, although it wasn't that good... just like "El segundo aire". It's a tricky film about a rich girl that falls in love with a poor guy. No more no less. Not the best Mexican film of the year, but it is certainly better than flaws like "El crimen del Padre Amaro". One star and a half out of four.
The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
This is Halloween, this is Halloween!
Tim Burton's characters Jack Skellington and the Halloween Town people come alive in this masterpiece of animated cinema. We're talking about one of the greatest animation films in the 90's decade. The animation technique is superb, the story is great and the music by Danny Elfman is just amazing. The story about the King of Halloween, Jack, who wants to participate also in Christmas (after discovering what's it all about by entering to Christmas Town) is genius. Amusing and amazing, in my opinion it deserves four stars out of four.
Zelig (1983)
Do the chameleon!
"Zelig" is, without a doubt, one of Woody Allen's greatest and cleverest films. The fake documentary about 'the chameleon man' takes places in the jazz era in the 1930's and counts with great acting by Woody himself and Mia Farrow, who plays Dr. Fletcher, a psychiatrist that will take a great part in Zelig's life. Filmed in black and white and showing many fake interviews, the "documentary" shows many of Woody's greatest jokes and one-liners, and it's completely amusing. If you have the chance, don't miss it. In my opinion, it deserves four stars out of four.
Sleeper (1973)
First great Woody Allen comedy
Woody Allen first comedies, less critically acclaimed than his latest more introspective films, were made to make people laugh. Slapstick, sketches, fast jokes. That was the big formula. Or so it seems with "Bananas" (1971) and the ironically funny "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex" (1972). But with "Sleeper" Woody took a step further: the satire is great, it's still slapsticky, but in a more intelligent way. I consider "Sleeper" as Woody's transition from pure comedy to his own style of comedy. And from there to the moon. Diane Keaton is excellent in this film, as well as Woody himself. Three stars and a half out of four.
Meeting People Is Easy (1998)
Meeting people is easy. Living like a paranoid android is not easy...
When you make a masterpiece, you have to face it. This is what Grant Gee shows in Meeting People Is Easy, a film about Radiohead and their well-known album Ok Computer. It's not an easy film to see. It's more of the style of Man With A Movie Camera by Dziga Vertov, nothing to do with the Discovery channel documentaries. In the VHS or DVD box the warning is clear: this film contains stroboscopic effects (whatever that means) and it can affect epileptic sufferers. It's Radiohead.
Creating a masterpiece has its implications. Radiohead knows that. Grant Gee could capsule all that in a film that is sometimes claustrophobic, sometimes gray. Ok Computer is trascendental rock album. Not just an album. Ok Computer is a concept album, hard, cult album, that capsules thoughts and emotions of a machine-world, where you need to be fitter, happier, more productive, where the artificial reigns and the gray panorama is all we see. Little pieces of hope, gradually disappearing to give open field to other colors, more or less bright; images of people in the cities, that say more than a thousand words, that evoke on us tortured memories and bitter gladness that we didn't want to accept. Meeting People. capsules the essence of the album, its concept; in an hour and a half we visit the places that the band visited to promote the album in 1997, with all the people that was in the eye of the hurricane. A radio registers the answers to the reporter in a room, while a camera shoots everything.
Ok Computer wasn't easy. Long sessions of interviews, frequently asked questions by the reporters and fans, a plane here, a bus there. London, Paris, Tokyo, New York. Publicity for the French radio, presentations in the David Letterman show, a concert here, tomorrow another show in another country. Hotel rooms, crowds, publicity at the metro station. Meanwhile, life goes on in the great metropolis of steel and concrete. Unplug the phone. In a city of the future it is difficult to concentrate, as Thom Yorke sings.
Maybe the scene that describes the best the situation of making a masterpiece is that one of the photo session: Yorke is literally shot, against the wall, the flash of a camera is a gun, Yorke, the pray. Unstoppable. Their partners try to defend him, but the attack doesn't stop.
Like Yorke says in one of the final sequences of the documentary: those things change you.
Paths of Glory (1957)
Paths of Glory
Paths of Glory is the best war movie I've ever seen. It capsules the horror of war in the trenches and it also shows the "desk war" between high commanders, maybe a more frightening one. A masterpiece, with Kirk Douglas in a very credible and effective role and Kubrick in the starting point of his magnificent career.