Proyecto de innovación docente incluido en el Plan para la Renovación de las Metodologías Docentes
Red Dawn (1984)
Publciado por thefarmerswife - 31/07/09 a las 03:07:58 pmFlo Rida Ft Katy Perry mp3 search
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Very obviously made during the eighties and extremely reflective of the American political climate of the era, Red Dawn is a little hard to take seriously in this day and age but that doesn’t at all diminish the film’s entertainment value. Has the movie aged well? In many regards, no, not at all - in fact politically the film is unintentionally hilarious. That said, there are some interesting ideas here and a few well executed action scenes that make this slightly more than just 80s camp (though that factor does play a huge part in the film’s watchability).
The premise of the film is an interesting one. World War III begins when the citizens of a small Colorado town wake up one morning to swarms of Soviet and Cuban Paratroopers descending on the football field of the local high school. The soldiers attack the school and a small group of teenagers (Charlie Sheen, Lea Thompson, C. Thomas Howell, Patrick Swayze, Jennifer Grey) run out into the mountains to escape the invaders. Thankfully these scrappy teens are able to arm themselves with a few measly weapons - bows, knives, low caliber rifles - and with some help from an old American soldier and an injured fighter pilot (Powers Booth), they soon turn themselves into guerilla style freedom fighters. Meanwhile, around the country, the communists are re-educating the masses, taking away privately owned firearms, and more or less locking down the country. When a patrol of soldiers makes their way to the woods, the group kills them off and before you know it, they’re fighting for freedom as…. THE WOLVERINES!
The premise of Red Dawn is one worth exploring and one that is ripe with ideas - it’s a great basis for a movie, particularly in the post 9/11 world with Americans being told to ‘be on alert’ and with the threat of more terrorist attacks a very real fear. That said, the execution of what is admittedly a good idea leaves a lot to be desired and the script is so ridiculous that it’s pretty damn near impossible to take much of this film seriously at all, particularly when you’ve got some Brat Pack actor yelling WOLVERINNNNEEEEEEESSSSSSS every couple of minutes. The early scene in which the paratroopers descend on the field and then unload on the history teacher remains a powerful and effective opening and the scene in which the freedom fighters have to execute a few commie soldiers is a bit unnerving but for the most part, the film is just too goofy for it to work as well as it could have. Had more care been put into details and logic in the script instead of killing everyone and blowing everything up then director John Milius (yes, the same John Milius who co-wrote Apocalypse Now - arguably the best war movie ever made) could have created a chilling and effective portrait of a possible future instead of a ’shoot’em all let God sort’em out’ camp classic.
As a slam-bang action film, however, Red Dawn is awesome! Turn your brain off and watch stuff explode, marvel at how many people get shot (even if most of the actual carnage occurs off screen), take a drink every time someone yells ‘WOLVERIIINNNNEEESSSS’ and try not to be sloshed by the time that the end credits hit, and swoon to the strange romance that blossoms between Lea Thompson and the much older and creepier Powers Booth. In some ways, Red Dawn has it all, even if it is a huge missed opportunity.
Chungking Express (1994)
Publciado por thefarmerswife - 29/07/09 a las 02:07:39 amThe Movie:
One of Wong Kar-Wai’s better known films, at least in North America, Chungking Express is a film that basically tells two stories. The first story tells us of a young police officer known as Cop 223 (Takeshi Kaneshiro), who broke up with his long term girlfriend, May (who we never see). He’s obviously distraught over this and he gives her an ultimatum in that he buys a can of pineapple with an expiration date of May 1, 1994 on it every day. It she doesn’t call him and want to get back together by that date, he knows that they’re not meant to be. When she doesn’t call him he eats the expired pineapple and heads out to the local bar to drown his sorrows in booze. It’s here that he meets a mysterious woman in sunglasses and a blonde wig (Brigitte Lin) who he soon falls in love with despite the obvious consequences giving her criminal career.
The second part of the film follows Cop 663 (Tony Leung) who is also distraught over the end of his relationship with a stewardess that he seduced one day. Eventually he becomes involved with Faye (Faye Wong), a woman who works at a nearby restaurant. Their relationship grows increasingly more and more unusual as she starts hanging out in his apartment while he’s away at work, though he never notices the subtle changes that she makes. Their relationship, too, has unusual consequences.
A quirky and colorful look at the randomness of human relationships skewed by some odd pop culture sensibilities and striking cinematography courtesy of Chris Doyle, Wong Kar-Wai’s Chungking Express may be one of his more accessible films in some ways but it doesn’t lack any of the director’s trademark style. While at times the narrative feels like it was made up as the filmmaker’s were going along (a complaint often leveled at the director) the story remains linear and easy enough to follow on the surface while providing much in the way of symbolism and metaphor for those who want to dig a bit deeper. Playing with elements of romantic comedy and the gangster films that were popular in Hong Kong in the eighties and nineties, the film is a bit of a stew but damn does it ever taste good!
From the opening sequence that takes us through the sprawling and unseemly Chungking Palace mall through to the sweet and entirely appropriate ending, Chungking Express (named after the restaurant where Faye is employed) is a film that bubbles with kinetic energy and vibrant life. The soundtrack, made up of some inspired classical music selections as well as pop songs from acts like The Momma’s And The Poppa’s fits the specific scenes their used in like a glove while the camera almost seems to dance along in tune to the music. A visual feast, this is a picture that sucks you in and almost makes you a fly on the wall, a silent observer in the drama that unfolds rather than a more traditional audience member.
The film is impeccably cast with each of the four major players delivering fanastic work. Takeshi Kaneshiro and Tony Leung excel as the broken hearted men looking for love while Brigitte Lin, looking like something out of a David Lynch movie in her get up, is convincing as the cold and calculating femme fatale. Special note has to go to Faye Wong who is as compelling as she is adorable here. The film, which was shot in sequence, literally follows her performance as it grows from silent and shy to bold and at times even brash as she obviously becomes more comfortable in her part.
While the stories are separate and unto themselves, they are connected by some establishing shots that ensure that we know that these characters inhabit the same universe at the same time. The restaurant and locations also connect the two stories as does the strange camera work, at least on a thematic level. In the end, Chungking Express is as entertaining and touching as it is artistically impressive and beautiful to look at. It’s one of those rare films that is almost endlessly re-watchable thanks to some remarkable direction, gorgeous cinematography and wonderful performances, all of which come together to form a rare slice of romantic pop culture that manages to feed your brain and pull on your heart strings at the same time.
The Video:
Chungking Express looks gorgeous in this 1080p AVC encoded 1.66.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer that was supervised by Wong Kar-Wai himself. Color reproduction is fantastic while the picture itself is clean and clear despite a very natural and welcome coat of film grain. Detail levels are very strong from start to finish, even in the darker scenes, while black levels stay nice and deep without ever breaking up. There are no obvious instances of edge enhancement or mpeg compression to note nor is there any heavy aliasing. There’s a lot of depth to this incredibly film-like image and print damage has been almost completely eliminated (you’ll have to really look hard to notice even the smallest of debris). There’s really nothing to complain about here, the film looks fantastic on this Blu-ray disc.
The Audio:
Criterion presents Chungking Express on Blu-ray with a very impressive Cantonese language DTS-HD 5.1 mix, also director approved, that really compliments the excellent transfer quite nicely. Dialogue is crystal clear and the levels are always well balanced and there are no problems at all with hiss or distortion. The surrounds spread the score and sound effects out very effectively and add a lot of depth to the mix that suits the film’s frenetic landscape very well. The soundtrack, made up of classical pieces as well as pop songs, has some nice punch to it as do the gun shots while the dialogue remains concise and strong, never overshadowed by what swells up in the mix around it.
The Extras:
First up, in terms of extra features, is a commentary track courtesy of Tony Rayns who does an excellent job of pointing out some of the subtleties contained in this film and placing it into context along Wong Kar-Wai’s other films. He talks about the on again, off again relationship between the director and Chris Doyle and he explains a lot of the themes and ideas that link this picture to many of the director’s other films. He covers the differences between the version of the film that played in Hong Kong theaters and the international version contained on this DVD and does a good job of detailing the history of the picture and explaining why it is important in the first place.
From there, check out the twelve minute clip taken from the UK television program, Moving Pictures (in standard definition), in which Wong Kar-Wai and his cinematographer, Chris Doyle, take us around the locations that were used for Chungking Express and explain how the style that the film was shot in developed out of necessity due to the close quarters in which the movie was made. The pair discuss using Doyle’s apartment in the film, the use of wide angle lenses and the film’s color scheme.
Rounding out the extra features are the film’s original North American theatrical trailer (in high definition anamorphic widescreen), a Time Line option that allows you to book mark your favorite parts of the film, animated menus and chapter selection sub-menus. Inside the slipcase packaging is a color booklet containing liner notes from Film Comment author Amy Toubin that aptly compare this picture to Godard’s Masculine Feminine that make for interesting reading.
Overall:
A few more supplements would have been very welcome but aside from that, Criterion has hit this one out of the park. Chungking Express holds up very well as a quirky, pop-slathered dramatic love story and the film looks and sounds better than ever on Blu-ray thanks to a fantastic transfer and a superlative audio mix. Highly recommended.
Ian lives in NYC with his fiance where he writes for DVD Talk and for AV Maniacs. He likes NYC a lot, even if it is expensive and loud.
Save The Green Planet! (2005)
Publciado por thefarmerswife - 25/07/09 a las 05:07:11 pmJang’s debut feature is a dark comedy which takes pain and madness severely and asks the viewer to empathise with a psychotic loner who’s kept going by uppers and seems gripped by paranoid fantasies. Not a experience on first release in Korea, but the DVD sold out overnight and the film has been collecting holiday prizes around the smashing. Abetted by a tightrope dancer who adores him, Byung-Gu (Shin, brilliant) kidnaps the industrialist Kang in the belief that he’s an alien, paving the way in return an incursion from Andromeda. While Kang is tortured for information, assorted mutually antagonistic cops get on with on the case, before you know it fingering Byung-Gu as a serial killer acting on long stratum grudges. Jang creates a fantasy space in which the revisionist evolutionary theories of 2001 co-exist with the history of labour activism and anti-fascist protest in Korea; the integument also oscillates between wild wit, insecurity, horror and pathos, sometimes all in a man shot. It’s quite something.
Deja Vu (2006)
Publciado por thefarmerswife - 23/07/09 a las 10:07:58 amTony Scott is a director known mainly for his maximum-class action thrillers, things like “Top Gun,” “Days of Thunder,” “Crimson Tide,” “Enemy of the Ceremonial,” and “Man on Energy.” His favorite star lately is Denzel Washington, so the pairing seemed a cinch respecting their 2006 collaboration, “Deja Vu.” But things are not forever so simple. It turns out that “Deja Vu” involves such a incredible premise that it’s hard to take the large screen unquestioningly. It’s only Washington’s intense yet admissible-natured performance that keeps it together for as wish as it does. Which isn’t quite long enough.
Things start into the open air with a bang, literally, as a ferryboat filled with people explodes from a terrorist’s bombard. I should tell you up front that this is not only a Tony Scott fight film but a producer Jerry Bruckheimer action video. That may explain a infinite of what follows. The flicks is very loud and runs high to car chases, gun battles, and high-tech clobber. But saying that after telling you who made it is indubitably redundant.
Washington plays ATF agent Doug Carlin, who is investigating the boom for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Carlin is a smart fellow, and in Washington’s characterization quite an lenient one, too. This is portentous for the responsibility to develop, because the film gets goofier as it goes along, and it is only Washington’s affability that keeps it from descending entirely into mediocrity.
The setting is New Orleans, collection Katrina. Scott said he moved the location there from Long Island, NY, because he wanted to catch up in the community in the filmmaking and consequently forbear revive it. Surely, it couldn’t participate in been conducive to the publicity, but I wondered as I watched the movie if Stylish Orleans hadn’t already gone as a consequence enough trauma without enduring a movie up a ferryboat disaster, too. Oh, well….
Anyway, Carlin hasn’t been on the subcontract more than a infrequent minutes before he practically solves the case, with sole the actual identity of the desperado missing. He so impresses FBI agent Andrew Pryzwarra, played by Val Kilmer, that Pryzwarra invites him to be a member of the FBI’s elite investigative team also looking into the explosion. Now, here’s the thing: Pryzwarra leads Carlin into a renewed smoothness with technology he says can look wager in time, retrieving and recompositing aide pictures concerning any given place at any given two shakes of a lamb’s tail in time. The photographic technology can compensate track through walls using thermal imaging and digital reconstruction. Uh-huh.
Carlin, brilliant as he is, tells them that the death of a young lady, Claire Kuchever (Paula Patton), whose body they smoke at the scene of the outbreak, is the key to the inscrutability. Find out who killed her, and you gather up out who the bomber is who blew up the ferryboat. The scientific reasoning here is rather convoluted, so don’t demand. Ergo, Carlin and the FBI link up point the new photographic technology to track Claire’s past few days. But that’s not all. I told you Carlin was a smart ridicule. He figures out in a insignificant that the FBI are giving him a line, that no such detailed technology is feasible. No, what, in the score, the FBI combine are really doing is affluent back in time. They’ve developed a method of warping the very stuff of align. They’re not watching a visualize of the past; they’re watching the former itself, happening in verifiable time.
OK, you can see where this is heading. If you can watch the past as it is in reality phenomenon, then why can’t you go help into this days, this alternate time slice, and transform it? Yeah, you can take the conspiracy from there.
The first half of the picture is pretty involving. It’s a straightforward mystery yarn, with Washington and Kilmer keeping us interested in their investigation. Then comes the sci-fi stuff, and the fishing takes a scare into Never Land. It’s in point of fact weird because the further along the movie goes, the less wisdom it makes, as the effect takes embarrass in both the tip and the past. I use profanity, too, that the apogee had my voice dropping reveal in disbelief. I via, if any reader would parallel to to jot in with a spoiler warning and explain how the ending was supposed to have happened, I proper for one would get a bang to listen to it.
Cafe Lumiere review
Publciado por thefarmerswife - 21/07/09 a las 01:07:31 pmHou Hsiao-hsien’s Cafe Lumiere (2003) is a tibute motion picture made to commemorate the centenary of lauded Japanese writer-steersman Yasujiro Ozu’s birth.
I admit that went I first began to devour foreign cinema and specifically got into the Japanese masters like Mizoguchi, Kurosawa, Imamura, and such, I did not like Yasujiro Ozu. His films lacked any visual bravado and seemed to be psychologically simple and dramatically pat, so much so that the first Ozu films I saw seemed to run together. Despite initially not liking his work, I still knew that it was singular and it was clear he was working on his own wavelength. That it something I appreciated and, even if I still wouldn’t like his style, made me anxious to figure him out. It wasn’t until I got older and reconsidered his films that I realized just what exactly Ozu was aiming for and all of the reasons that make him a master film maker.
Though he had two stages in his career, defined by pre-WW2 and post-WW2 Japan, Ozu’s voice, be it sweetly comic, quietly dramatic, or just plain melancholy and bittersweet, and what he talked about was always the same. It is arguable, but there simply may be no better film maker who was magnetically concerned with themes of his countries culture, familial matters, traditional estrangement, and societal change. Though his approach seemed to be, on the surface, very minimal, the depth and richness of how he captured everyday life and human behavior was extraordinary.
There may be no better choice than Taiwanese film maker Hou Hsiao-hsien to do a tribute to Ozu. Over the course of his entire career, films like All the Youthful Days, Goodbye South Goodbye, and The Flowers of Shanghai, Hou Hsiao-hsien’s work seemed to be inspired both narratively and visually by Ozu; reflected by Hou Hsiao-hsien’s penchant for tales of secular rootlessness and use of long, near static camera setups and the hypnotic way he captures beauty in the most mundane environs.
Cafe Lumiere opens with the Shochiku company film logo, the studio that Ozu made most of his films with. This gentle, understated film concerns Yoko (Yo Hitoto), a young writer who is currently researching Taiwanese composer Jiang Wen-ye. She has just returned from a trip to Taiwan. While she is hanging up her laundry, she talks to a friend on the phone, describing a dream she had about a baby with a face of ice. The next day she visits Hajime (Tadanobu Asano, hands down Japan’s go-to young actor) a friend who runs a little bookshop. She then goes to visit her parents, lazily falls asleep while her mother is cooking, and then matter of factly announces that she is pregnant, by her Taiwanese boyfriend, whom she doesn’t want to marry, and she is keeping the baby.
Actually, I could sum up what happens in the rest of the film in about two or three sentences. Hou Hsiao-hsien is like that, careful, minimal. There is no dramatic hysteria. It almost feels like watching a documentary where everything is hinted and suggested, like Hajime’s and Yoko’s unspoken crush on each other which is acted out under the motions of friendship, sharing a cup of tea, looking at Hajime’s laptop art, or Hajime bringing a sick Yoko a meal and sitting with her. Yoko’s parents worry over her decision to raise the child without a husband, without sufficient financial means, and that the burden will a carry over to them just as her father is about to enter retirement. But, in a very Ozu-ish moment between parents and their child, they go to confront her, to try and rationalize with her, but the generational gap is so wide that it ends with them reticent, silently listening as Yoko calmly lists all the unwavering facts as to why she wont change her mind.
Hou Hsiao-hsien understands, like Ozu did, that the rhythm of life, even life in conflict, is generally much more simple, subtle, and paced than most dramatic cinema would have you beleive. There can be turbulance and volumes spoken in the slightest minutia. He’s got some great actors and the laid back style has them appearing as natural as can be in the scenic Japanese settings, every angle, every locale, reinforcing the urban isolation of the characters. The one thing the film misses is the emotional impact that Ozu had, and you get the feeling that Hou Hsiao-hsien is more in riffing mode and operating with the reigns on rather than aiming for some real substance. Ozu was always very realized, whereas Hou Hsiao-hsien operates on a much more sketched level. But, even though Hou Hsiao-hsien falls a tad short of capturing the profoundness of Ozu, Cafe Lumiere is a pleasant enough ode to a master.
Miami Rhapsody (1995)
Publciado por thefarmerswife - 18/07/09 a las 01:07:42 pm“Miami Rhapsody” is the lenient of hack-handed tribute Woody Allen could do without. From the opening disagreeable situation — in which Sarah Jessica Parker waxes distraught to an mouldy-evaluate psychiatrist — to the closing “Annie Hall”-style wrap-up, there appearance of to be only two things missing: the distinguished nebbish himself and the humor he produces.
As the over-analytical, soon-to-be-married advertising copywriter who discovers marriage is not all it’s cracked up to be, Parker quips and chirrups through this lukewarm-hearted, romantic comedy as if she were Meg Ryan possessed by Alvy Singer. It’s unclear whether to laugh supportively (after all, everyone in this production is trying so hard), or send for an exorcist.
Tanned, ringletted and insufferably questioning, Parker (who rarely seems to find time to actually do her job) is thrilled when veterinarian boyfriend Gil Bellows (picture Paul McCartney as a mooning, American noodle) proposes. But in the kind of grand design you only find in bad ensemble dramas, Parker learns that every marriage she thought was okay, isn’t.
The first bad news comes from her depressed father (Paul Mazursky), who believes that his wife (Mia Farrow, whose comedic talents run into the singular) is having an affair. For Parker, it’s time to be incredulous and, of course, effortlessly “funny.” The only things missing from each punch line are the drum roll and cymbal crash.
Trying to picture her mother in a hotel room tryst, Parker protests, “She wouldn’t know what to do first, have sex or redecorate.”
Ba-doom, kssssh!
It turns out Farrow is involved, with Antonio Banderas, a Cuban nurse who takes care of Parker’s invalid grandmother. Later, when Banderas defends Farrow’s moral qualities, Parker retorts, “I think my mother sacrificed the moral high ground that night with you and her on the uneven parallel bars.”
Ba-doom, kssssh!
There are many more of these marital woes and punch lines — and I reveal nothing that previews for this movie don’t. Parker’s father is — or has been — seeing his travel agent. As for Parker’s brother Kevin Pollak (who resembles Parker only to the extent that both are bipeds), he’s leaving his pregnant wife for Amazonian model Naomi Campbell. (Why Campbell would fall for a short, hairy guy who resembles a pipe cleaner with his clothes off, is one of the film’s many engaging mysteries.) Meanwhile, Parker’s younger sister (Carla Gugino), married for barely six months, has just jettisoned her vows for a fling with an old school chum.
Parker, who interrogates each relative with such self-righteous outrage that she makes every one look sympathetic, finds her hopes for wedded bliss diminishing by the punch line. But she’s not so horrified at Banderas that she can’t invite him to lunch.
What will the future hold for Parker? Will she marry the sweet, sincere animal doctor, or fall for the Latin lover in the crisp green uniform? And just how many secondhand observations about modern relationships and unbelievable characters can writer-director David Frankel pack into one movie? “Miami Rhapsody” not only answers these and other questions, it comes up with a new spin on the old maxim. Imitation, this movie shows, is the sincerest form of imitation.
MIAMI RHAPSODY (R) — Contains profanity and partial nudity.
Desperate review
Publciado por thefarmerswife - 17/07/09 a las 04:07:51 pmdirecting these cheapie films and making them look stylish.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
A “B” thriller noted for its renown noir scene of the protagonist
getting worked over by a ruthless gang in their dark basement hideaway
while overhead a single light bulb swings back and forth from the force
of the beating. Anthony Mann is a master at directing these cheapie films
and making them look stylish. He gets the most out of this thin story because
of the complementary performances of Raymond Burr and Steve Brodie. Burr
makes for an excellent villain, while Brodie is refreshing as the innocent
hero on the run from both the cops and the criminal gang.
Married for only 4 months, independent trucker Steve Randall (Brodie)
brings his wife Anne (Audrey Long) flowers to celebrate how happy they
both are; but, while getting ready to celebrate that evening he receives
a work related call offering him a chance to make more than he normally
does for delivering merchandise. It turns out that Steve is being duped
by an acquaintance he knew from before he went into the army, and is forced
by them to deliver stolen merchandise. Somehow Steve manages to work the
blinking lights on the truck to get the attention of a passing policeman
in the warehouse area. But the cop is killed after wounding the beloved
brother of the gangleader, Walt Radak (Burr). The brother is captured and
convicted of murder, and he is sentenced to die in the electric chair.
Walt escaped with Steve still held hostage by the other gang members
(Steele, Frederick & Challee). Walt then administers that classical
noir beating of Steve as he tries to get him to go to the police and confess
he murdered the cop, which would thereby free his brother. When Steve refuses,
even after the beating, Walt blackmails him by saying he will hold his
wife hostage until he does.
Steve manages to elude the hoods and calls his pregnant wife, telling
her they have to get out of town immediately. Steve says that when he gets
her to safety in her aunt’s farm in Minnesota, he’ll go to the police.
But on the way to the farm, he tries to buy a car from a crooked used-car
dealer who cheats him out of his money. Steve ends up stealing the 1927
car, but it breaks down on the road and he is given a lift by the local
sheriff. When the sheriff discovers who they are and tries to arrest them,
his car goes accidently off the road and he loses consciousness. Steve
will flee with his wife and reach Aunt Klara’s farm. Steve then turns himself
over to homicide Lieutenant Ferrari (Jason Robards Sr.-Robard’s father).
Ferrari says he doesn’t believe him but lets him go to be the bait for
the rest of the gang, as he realizes they are after him.
Walt hires a sleazy private detective (Fowley) to find Steve, who
is followed by the cops to the farm and then back to Walt’s hideout. The
cops get into a shoot-out with the gang, severely wounding Walt. But the
gang escapes, and it’s now 5 months later and Walt’s brother is to be executed
at midnight. The climax comes as Walt nabs Steve and threatens to execute
him at midnight, just when his brother is scheduled to die.
Violence and desperation are the themes. They are both very real
themes, as the innocent couple is more afraid of what the ruthless gang
can do to them than afraid of the law. If examined closely there are many
holes in the story, but what works very effectively is how the film shows
that middle-class aspirations for the postwar period are tinged with cynicism.
It’s shown how there’s a sense of brutality that fills the everyday American
social scene. The paranoid couple feels the urgency to look out for themselves,
not trusting anyone else to help them. This feeling of hopelessness the
couple has, gives this film its classic noir look.
The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant review
Publciado por thefarmerswife - 14/07/09 a las 11:07:40 amall uniformly smashing.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant is Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s
13th of the 33 films he made in his short life and one that received international
acclaim. It features an all-female cast, all uniformly smashing. “Bitter
Tears” is a film based on a play Fassbinder wrote that makes no attempt
to disguise its theatrical origins. The film is divided into five acts
set in the same room, against the backdrop of a painted mural after Poussin.
The painting gives a striking view of a male nude’s private parts. In this
claustrophobic setting, the stirring emotional performances and the film’s
long, elegant takes never let the viewer forget the high artifice of the
dramatic situation.
“Bitter Tears” sketches an improbable lesbian relationship that teeters
on the strength of dominance and submission. This psychodrama love triangle
involves Petra von Kant (Margit Carstensen) as a manipulative wealthy woman,
her willing slavish secretary and possible former lover Marlene (Irm Hermann),
and an attractive model named Karin Thimm (Hanna Schygulla) with the common
beauty of a working-girl and the ambition to climb the social ladder as
a bisexual based on her figure. Fassbinder’s misanthropic point is that
if you look below the surface, all human relationships are based on factors
of master and servant. Love is mostly a substitute for possession or of
putting demands on someone. Karin at one point cruelly explains her flawed
love for Petra by saying: “I love you in my own way.” Other quotes that
favor Fassbinder’s spin on the miserable human condition include: “People
need each other but haven’t found a way to live with each other” and “Everyone
is dispensable.”
Petra is a haughty, caustic, self-absorbed, successful fashion-designer
living in Bremen. She lost one husband to a car accident, and gave birth
to his daughter Gaby (Eva Mattes) a few months after he was buried. The
starving-for- affection high-school-aged girl has been sent to boarding
school and rarely sees her mother. Petra was also married and then divorced
from a man she learned to despise, finding him so revolting that she says
“He stank of man.”
Living with Marlene her subservient secretary, assistant and maid
in a luxurious but cramped apartment, Petra displays contempt while bossing
Marlene around despite her obedience, hard work, and uncomplaining attitude.
When questioned about how cruelly Petra treats Marlene, she responds by
saying that’s what she expects and wants. Upon a visit from her friend
Sidonie (Katrin Schaake), Petra meets Sidonie’s friend Karin. She falls
head-over-heels for the 23-year aspiring fashion model and has Karin move
in with her. But Petra receives the stings of a one-way love relationship
as Karin dominates the relationship with her insolence and unconcern about
Petra’s feelings. Hopelessly in love with Karin, Petra will have a nervous
breakdown after Karin tells her she had wild sex all night with a well-endowed
American black serviceman, and that she will leave Petra for her husband
who just arrived from Australia.
The big breakdown comes on Petra’s 35th birthday, some time after
Karin has left her possessive grasp, when in a drunken state of shock Petra
verbally insults all her houseguests (all the women characters in the film
except for the absent Karin). Petra has lost control because Karin, on
top of everything else, never even called to wish her a Happy Birthday.
Adding to her despondent state is the arrival of her parasitic mother (Gisela
Fackelday), who upon finding her daughter in love with another woman can
only express shock and disappointment.
Petra’s recovery begins in the quiet after the storm when she realizes
that love means more than possession and dependence. In the final act,
to the sound of The Platters singing “The Great Pretender,” Petra offers
a partnership to Marlene, who has been a silent witness throughout, but
the secretary without saying a word to this generous (from Petra’s point
of view) offer packs a suitcase and leaves. This stinging stylized drama
of losing a love-object is consistent with Fassbinder’s ongoing theme of
devastating irony in relationships and his setting the table with sensual
atmospheric gloss and high-camp. It’s all played out without action in
a non-stop verbal barrage, which should limit its audience to Fassbinder
freaks and lovers of the unusual in drama and admirers of Douglas Sirk
melodramas.
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The Hills - The Complete First Season (2006)
Publciado por thefarmerswife - 12/07/09 a las 04:07:46 pm 
The First Season
MTV’s Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County was a successful venture in reality television. The series focused on a group of absurdly wealthy high school kids and all of the drama that surrounded their lives. The series was quite a hit. In the show’s first season, a great deal of the drama focused on one of the cast members, Lauren Conrad. In the show’s second season, her role was much smaller as she had graduated high school and moved on to bigger and better things. Lauren’s adventures are continued in this spin-off series The Hills.
Set in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles, CA, Lauren and her good friend Heidi Montag leave Laguna to experience life in the fullest. They go with the intent to attend school at the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising. Lauren also has an interview lined up with Teen Vogue for a prestigious internship that she (surprise, surprise) gets. Joining Lauren and Heidi, are a few new faces to the world of Laguna Beach: Audrina Patridge is the beautiful next door neighbor who wants to be an actress, Whitney Port is Lauren’s newest best friend and fellow intern at Teen Vogue, Jordan Eubanks is Heidi’s boyfriend, and Brian Drolet is Jordan’s best friend. Also joining the cast is a familiar face, Jason Wahler. The heart breaker from Laguna Beach’s second season comes to L.A. and rekindles the romance with Lauren. Together, they join Lauren and Heidi on a variety of life adventures, filled to the brink with over-the-top drama.
For the first season of The Hills, there are ten half-hour episodes. The first episode introduces the new cast and sets up the general premise, which is two beautiful, rich young girls on their own. They are forced to go through the “pains” of life and learn what it means to have responsibilities. They learn what it means to attend college, have a job, maintain relationships, and still have fun. This is pretty much the entire scope of the first season. For instance, Heidi turns out to be a bundle of drama as she has no idea what it means to be responsible. Early in the show, she quits school when offered a job she thinks is her dream. But she finds out that she has to work, it is tough for her to deal with. Similarly, Lauren tries to juggle her relationship with Jason, her internship, and school. She finds it tough to manage all three.
In the end, The Hills follows a similar tone that was set in Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County. However, unlike its parent series, The Hills does focus slightly more on the “real world” and learning responsibility, as well as the “drama” that follows when several extremely rich girls give it a shot. As an overall series, The Hills works and it has enough solid content that makes it perfect for young audiences.
Episode Guide
1. New City, New Drama: 19-year-old Lauren has the opportunity of a lifetime: to move to L.A. with her best friend, Heidi, so they both can attend The Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising. Lauren also has an opportunity to interview for a killer internship at Teen Vogue. It all seems like a Fashionista’s dream when Lauren gets the internship, they are both admitted to FIDM and one of Lauren’s first assignments is to work a high-profile celebrity party. The only problem is that Heidi’s immaturity makes Lauren think this move may have been a big mistake.
2. A Change of Plans: Lauren gets scolded by her boss for Heidi’s poor judgment at the Teen Vogue party, which she crashed and brought three friends, putting Lauren’s fragile position in jeopardy. Heidi is already bored with everything and ditching classes after her first day of school. When she meets someone who offers her a chance at her dream job, she starts to consider ditching school all together. Heidi gets the job and her fashion school days are suddenly a memory.
3. An Unexpected Call: Lauren’s seemingly glamorous position at Teen Vogue puts her on a plane to New York City to Deliver a dress for Fashion Week. Heidi is going nowhere fast in L.A. when she realizes that he dream job requires that she actually has to work. Lauren’s exciting trip to New York is cut terribly short.
4. Lauren and Jason, Take Two: After her anti-climatic trip to New York City, Lauren comes home to an unexpected phone call that adds to her confusion about balancing school and her chaotic job. Heidi further laments about the monotony of licking envelopes and getting the boss’ lunch. Lauren accepts a date with her old boyfriend, Jason, who has just unexpectedly moved to L.A. Cautiously, Lauren goes to dinner with Jason, hopeful and scared that sparks may fly…
5. Jason’s Birthday: Lauren gets her first assignment to work a photo shoot…only problem is that it is on Jason’s birthday. Priorities are blurred as Lauren tries to please Jason and Meet the needs of her demanding job at Teen Vogue. After Lauren purchases an expensive birthday gift for Jason and arranges a large dinner celebration, Jason shocks Lauren with the thanks that she gets.
6. Boyfriends & Work Don’t Mix: Heidi finally gets the chance that she was waiting for at her job… problem is, it falls on the night of her and Jordan’s 6-month anniversary. Trying to serve the demands of her job and her boyfriend, she realizes that boyfriends and work just don’t mix. Lauren is stressing out at her first major fashion show assignment, but she finally gets the recognition that she was hoping for…
7. Somebody Always Has To Cry: Lauren sees that Jason has serious issues, and she doesn’t know what to do about them. Lauren and Heidi are busy preparing for their first “real” New Year’s Eve celebration and the chance to experience the ultimate New Year’s midnight kiss. The hours leading up to midnight make the possibility of the midnight kiss doubtful.
8. You Can’t Just Be With Me?: The Hills are alive with Hollywood glamour when Lauren is put in charge of a casting for a male bathing suit calendar and Heidi is assigned to work an all-star Grammy Party. Lauren’s all-male casting doesn’t go over well with Jason, and despite the impressively romantic attempt that he made for her birthday, the sparks that they both expected are drowned out by silence.
9. Love Is Not a Maybe Thing: Heidi is coming to her own conclusions about what she really wants. Audriana, Heidi, Brian, Jordan, Jason and Lauren are start to realize that there is so much more to “being in love” than just saying it. Everyone is confused…except for Heidi, who takes a surprisingly new lease on life.
10. Timing Is Everything: Lauren and Jason have decided to take a big step and “do their own thing.” Lauren’s perseverance at work finally lands her a mind-boggling opportunity at Teen Vogue that could leave Jason alone at the beach.
“The documentary styled pic …
Publciado por thefarmerswife - 05/07/09 a las 10:07:38 amthough entertaining was nevertheless irrelevant.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Oily Paramount film mogul Bob Evans tells his side of things in this
biopic. It’s hard to warm up to this self-promoting lightweight, but his
story has some interest for those tuned into the shallow side of Hollywood.
Evans keeps things funny with his rapid-fire delivery and knack for doing
uncanny voice imitations of the celebs. The co-directors and producers
Nanette Burstein and Brett Morgen (”On the Ropes“) are clearly on
Evans side and do a fine job keeping the egomaniacal Evans’ story amusing,
and supply some gorgeous photos and interesting archive footage to go along
with the film’s breezy tone. Even though Evans might be a jerk and lacks
artistic taste, he did run Paramount and has been associated with them
for 35 years (which might tell you, that one doesn’t have to be genius
to run a studio). It was under his helm that such greats as Rosemary’s
Baby, The Godfather, and Chinatown were produced. There was also Love Story,
a smash at the box office but one of the vilest cliché movies ever.
Other noted films he was involved in as an executive include: The Odd Couple,
Harold and Maude, Urban Cowboy, True Grit and his big flop The Cotton Club.
Evans narrates his sudden rise in Hollywood lore with a mixture of
schmaltz, self-importance, and mock surprise and pleasure at his success
(as if it just came to him and he didn’t seek it out!). He opens his narration
stating “There are three sides to every story: my side, your side and the
truth. And no one is lying. Memories shared serve each one differently.”
The slickly handsome New Yorker was involved in a sportswear line called
Evans-Picone, where his older brother was in charge. He had no luck breaking
into Hollywood even though he started as a child actor. His film career
got started in 1956 as a result of a lucky encounter. He was mingling poolside
at the Beverly Hills Hotel when the great screen legend Norma Shearer approached
him about a small role in the Cagney picture “Man of a Thousand Faces,”
to play her late movie mogul husband Irving Thalberg. The next year legendary
producer Darryl F. Zannuck spotted the ladies man in NYC’s famous El Morocco
nightclub and offered him a bit part as a bullfighter in Hemingway’s The
Sun also Rises, which he trained three months for. Zannuck was sent a telegram
voicing most of the casts displeasure at his hiring, those signing included
Hemingway, Tyrone Power, Ava Gardner. and Eddie Albert. But Zannuck shot
back: “The kid stays in the picture, and anybody who doesn’t like it can
quit!” Evans never took himself seriously as a potential great actor, and
from then on resolved he’d rather be a Zanuck than a movie actor. Evans’
starring role in his next film, “The Fiend Who Walked the West,” was the
one that was so bad it ended his acting career.
Though going nowhere in the film biz as far as his acting career,
Evans tells us he got lucky and through a newspaper story he finds himself
in 1967, at the age of 37, as head of European production at Paramount
with no experience as a film executive. The studio was going through a
difficult economic period and of the nine major studios, it was ranked
last. Charles Bluhdorn, the chief of Gulf & Western, which had just
acquired the studio, had been swayed by a New York Times piece on Evans
written by Peter Bart to let Evans choose the films for the studio. The
inexperienced Bart was rewarded for his good publicity by the new ‘boy
genius’ and became his right-hand man. Through whatever means it takes
to turn a studio around, Evans did it and saved the studio from ruin. In
a matter-of-fact way he relays some gossip about working with Mia Farrow
on Rosemary’s Baby and how he fought to get Roman Polanski to direct it
above the objections of the New York boys. He ran the productions for the
studio for about seven years, and in 1974 he opted to be a freelance producer
while still maintaining lucrative connections to Paramount.
Evans narrates from his kingly home he bought from Norma Shearer,
the Beverly Hills estate, Woodland, whose posh grounds has a swimming pool
and lush gardens and enough luxuriously decorated rooms to comfort the
entire cast of any of his films. There are photos of the vain man escorting
some of the loveliest stars in Hollywood, schmoosing with Henry
Kissinger, and affectionately telling how Jack Nicholson did him a big
favor by flying to France to talk an industrialist into selling him back
his estate. The bachelor swinger married starlet Ali MacGraw, but
things started to change when she dumped him for The Getaway costar Steve
McQueen while he toiled day and night producing The Godfather. By the early
’80s, Evans started losing some of his glamor. There was a cocaine arrest
from a DEA sting, a rumored involvement in the murder of an unethical businessman
backer of his The Cotton Club, years of obscurity when Paramount rejected
him, and mental problems that caused him to check into a loony bin. But
the 72-year-old is a survivor, and when Stanley Jaffe took over as head
of Paramount, he payed back the favor Evans did for him as a young man
and brought him back to the studio.
The documentary styled pic though entertaining was nevertheless irrelevant.
I know as little about Bob Evans as I did before seeing the pic. There’s
not an ounce of introspection to be had in this self-serving mogul. Evans
is the kind of producer who gave us Chinatown and Love Story, and is proud
of both as if the films were equal in worth. That should tell you all that
you have to know about him.
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