QUINCY JONES

It is amazing to see how many things one person could do for the art of music. Quincy Jones is one of the artists who gave his life to music. I knew some of his music already, but the Netflix documentary helped me to learn a bit more about the importance of Quincy Jones for the music industry. 

As he said: who could live without water or music? Definitely, not me. I am one of them who could not live without music 😊

Enjoy the documentary – strongly recommended!!!

EDINBURGH SPANISH FILM FESTIVAL

Again, another Edinburgh Spanish Film Festival has passed 😊. It is a great opportunity to see new Spanish movies, meeting cinema lovers, discover short-films and even sometimes re-watch some films in a big screen (which it is always a beautiful experience).

This year I want to highlight the amazing illustrations from artist Pilar Garcia de Leaniz- which help to bring into life the poster, magazine and many other publications and marketing stuff for the festival.

Congratulations to the festival, not only for bringing Spanish cinema to Scotland; but also for the good choice of an artist who as she says on her web: Imperfection is my alter ego , I reflect those imperfections and capture the delicate beauty in it.

I also love Imperfection!!!

A FANTASTIC WOMAN

There are movies that should be part of everyone’s education. Movies that should be shown on schools to kids and teenagers as part of a learning experience. Movies that make human beings to emphasize with other realities, to realize about the prejudices of this world and to learn understanding that everyone could be whoever they feel and want.

The world would be a better place if we accept other people on who they are, not for how they are. 

A fantastic woman is a must!

THE ART OF EDITING

Great movie mash-up! If you love cinema, you will love this :)

I FEEL ODD

I declare myself fan number one of 'ESTOY RARA'(I feel odd)!

It is a great pleasure to discover new talents; mainly when it is fresh, intelligent, funny, brave, critical, and odd 😉 
There are many reasons to fall in love with this little piece of art: two amazing actresses, the sense of humour, the surprising variation of reality, the spot-on costumes, the innovative idea, the ideal scenography, great dialogues, the social touch, the critical characters, the change of perspective and the feminist look-for sure there are plenty more but I leave it up to you…

EIFF

Loving the poster of Edinburgh International Film Festival, a tribute to Saul Bass's work (one of my favourites)

www.edfilmfest.org.uk

9 STORIES IN 2 FILMS

In less than 24 hours I have seen two exceptional movies which have the same structure. The two films are divided in four or five stories with one topic in common. The characters have not any relation among each other but their actions represent the same theme.  

The first film is called ‘A Touch of Sin’, a violent Chinese movie filmed in 2013. It is divided into four different stories based on real events; the main four characters experience a situation with death that unfortunately happened in the real world. The movie is explicit with aggressive acts. Do not watch it if you are susceptible with blood!

The second film is the fantastic ‘Relatos Salvajes’, an Argentinean black comedy with a political and social criticism. It is divided into five different stories based on how human being reacts in an extreme situation. The audience will feel more identified with these characters and their state.  If you are a fan of black comedy (like me) you will enjoy this film a lot!

I cannot finalise this post without choosing which story was my favourite for each film:

• A touch of sin - first story, with coal mine worker
• Relatos Salvajes - third story, with two drivers

If you have seen those two movies, feel free to tell me which one is your favourite!

OSCARS

This year I have decided to post my predictions for the Oscars. Unfortunately I have not seen all films but I feel brave enough to share my thoughts with you!

BEST PICTURE: Boyhood

BEST ACTOR: Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything)

BEST ACTRESS: Juliane Moore (Still Alice)

BEST ACTOR SUPPORTING ROLE : J.K. Simpsons (Whiplash)

BEST ACTRESS SUPPORTING ROLE: Patricia Arquette (Boyhood)

DIRECTING: Richard Linklater (Boyhood)

CINEMATOGRAPHY:  Dick Pope (Mr Turner)

COSTUME DESIGN: Colleen Atwood (Into the woods)

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE : Wim Wenders, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado and David Rosier (The Salt of the Earth) 

FILM EDITING:  Tom Cross (Whiplash)

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FEATURE: Ida (Poland; Directed by Pawel Pawlikowski)

MAKE UP AND HAIRSTYLING : Frances Hannon and Mark Coulier (The Grand Budapest Hotel)

SOUND MIXING :Jon Taylor, Frank A. Montaño and Thomas Varga  (Birdman)

BEST SHORT FILM LIVE ACTION: Butter Lamp


I am afraid I have left some categories out - I will need to see some movies before to make a guess :)

Feel free to leave your predictions for this year!

THE UGLY IS GONE

I like the feeling of not knowing what is going in the world for a period of time, this is part of the fact of being on holidays. However this includes missing some information like the death of one of the most loved and long-lived actors: Eli Wallach-I realised about his death a week after(which annoyed me a bit)

There are some reasons why he deserves to be on my blog:

• He has been one of the best supporting actors ever.
• He had more than 60 years of acting experience and played more than 160 characters.
• He was not one of “The Magnificent Seven” but he was the fabulous villain: Calvera.
• He was in one of my favourite westerns without knowing he was the character called “The Ugly” until the end of the shooting.
• He was part of my favourite trilogy (The Godfather)-even if the third part is not good enough, he was worthy to be seen.
• He was still working until not long ago, amazing!!

I felt in love with his Ugly character and this scene will be always my favourite one:

THE GREAT SPEECH

I just can say... listen carefully, please!

Probably the best director and actor that have ever existed: the Great Charles Chaplin!

NEBRASKA

It is quite hard to see a movie nowadays and think: 

”I love everything on it”

Well, I had this feeling when I watched Nebraska; and now after two weeks of analysing every single aspect on it, I still think is just perfect!  The characters are deep, funny and touching. The plot is created from a simple idea but offering lot of meaning behind it. The cinematography is well chosen in B&W to give more sense to the characters and to build a perfect atmosphere. The landscape of the film is just an important part of the movie as its cast. The dialogues are sharp; there are as many funny moments as emotive. The soundtrack is stunning- I recommend it to listen on its own.

Even the poster is just an amazing piece of art. It remains me a lot of Man Ray and his famous technique called solarization. From a simple profile we can see a clearly silhouette of the main character and his crazy hair which defines the trip you will be taken on if you see Nebraska.

It is difficult to finish a movie and be fulfilled with every single aspect of it. I admit I am quite demanding with movies but Nebraska did not disappoint me, not even a bit.

DOCUMENTARIES

I have always been a bigger fan of movies than documentaries mainly because I am always more interested in the representation of reality than the reality itself.

The old way of doing documentaries just based on interviews and facts always left me a bit empty but I really believe there is a new approach for this genre. Recently I have been watching quite a lot of documentaries which, in my opinion, are taking a new dimension showing to the audience a real story using techniques based on films.

Although I am still not sure if the directors are taking a new step on documentaries or the reality is becoming more unreal? Reading the news nowadays it really feels like the reality is produced by Hollywood!

I leave you with a bunch of documentaries which are worthy to watch:

-"Searching for sugar Man" - I already mentioned about “Searching  ForSugar Man”  in a previous post- I strongly recommend everyone to watch it; the story and the way the director takes you through it is just stunning. If by any chance you have lost hope, please watch it!

-"The Imposter"

-"The Act of Killing" 

-"Man on wire" 

CHEAP CINEMA

Having a look to the long queues of “The festival of The cinema” gave me hope. People still wants to enjoy movies at the cinema. The tickets were only 2.90 Euros which explains that is all about money, not lack of enjoying art. Maybe if the distribution companies have thought about this earlier not so many cinemas would have been closed all around Spain.

There are books at different prices, DVDs, theatre tickets and many other things... so why all cinema tickets have the same price? Of course if you are going on a Wednesday morning it will be cheaper than Saturday night. But why movies with different budgets cost the same for us? Going to see The Hobbit costs the same money that going to see Amour, for example; when the budget of the super production is always going to be higher than a small movie. And I will bet anything than increasing the tickets two or three pounds/euros for The Hobbit will not change much the benefits they will gain; on the other hand, small films will notice a big difference if they are a bit cheaper. I am talking about to give people(audience) and small movies options and opportunities.

Some people would think that if you are going to see a cheap movie means is bad; but here comes one of the main problems about values nowadays: quality is measured on quantity. In my opinion it should not be like that, at least with cinema. Not because it costs more would be better!

BOXING

For some strange reason in life, I was able to see a boxing competition live. To tell you the truth I did not enjoy anything of it but a short film they play to present the boxers. The movie was really well done; the editing, light and soundtrack were just great. Make me wonder why this violent sport looks so good on the screen.

I have always enjoyed most of the movies about boxing; aesthetically speaking they are just amazing. The scenes of fights have always been strongly visual and beautifully shot. In addition, most of their main character's personality and life goes perfectly with the way they earn their living. 
Here I leave you with some examples of the most recommendable and famous films about boxing:

Finally just to say I strongly recommend you to go to see boxing in cinemas; in my opinion it is far more enjoyable experience than seeing it live.

MISTER MICHAEL HANEKE

For those who do not know him, it is a pleasure to introduce you to Mister Michael Haneke, an Austrian filmmaker.

First of all I must say that Michael Haneke’s movies are not made for all public. If you are used to easy films or you just want to be entertained by a happy story, do not dare to watch his films. His stories are beyond all this; full of violence, fear and psychological issues of the actual society.

He uses a style which is far away from Hollywood and commercial movies. He wants the audience to think, to reason about a particular matter; and the best of all he does not give you any solutions or answers, it is up to you to figure it out.

His movies are based on disturbing situations which among all are based on us, on how humans behave and on where is the limit of this behaviour. He does not even offer you the possibility to identify with characters; the opposite, he wants you to see it from outside like a proper audience.

Recently I have discovered a Greek director who reminds me a lot of Haneke’s styles: Yorgos Lanthimos. If by any chance you love Michael Haneke’s style, you will definitely enjoy Dogtooth.

SEARCHING FOR LOST TALENT

Watching Searching for Sugar Man make me realise once more that truth is stranger than fiction. The winner for Best Documentary at the Oscars 2013 explains an incredible story about recognition, life and music.

This realistic tale about the search for the talented and enigmatic character called Rodriguez reminded me a bit of the also mysterious voices of the couple’s personal song of Blue Valentin ( I have always recommended this movie to everyone)

Even if the song itself is amazing what really made it more interesting is the story behind it. ‘You and me’ was originally recorded by Penny and the Quarters in the 1970s. It was released on a compilation album which was unnoticed by the public. The members of the band were unknown; their names were not appearing anywhere, even when the movie was released and became a hit.

Finally, a year after the movie was out the daughter of the singer recognized her mum’s voice:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/jul/18/blue-valentine-mystery-singer-revealed

Four decades after this woman and her brothers created a beautiful song, she discovers that their voices are part of a new generation who sing out and loud a hymn about love ‘You and me’ 

SNOW WHITE

The nominations for the Oscar 2013 are out!! I found some satisfying surprises as the nominations for Tarantino‘s and Haneke's movies, Adele's song or Robert de Niro; and other not quite good for example the fact that the Spanish movie Blancanieves did not have a nomination for Best Foreign Language Film.

I have not had the pleasure to see the abstract version of the famous story by Pablo Berger, but just seeing the trailer and reading the reviews I cannot wait to see it in a big screen.

There had been three movies based on the German fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm in 2012: Mirror Mirror, Snow White and the Huntsman and Blancanieves; each of them with a different style. I have a special feeling with the Disney version of Snow White mainly because it was my first VHS tape I purchased and I remember watching it loads of times.

To end this post just to mention that the nominations for the Spanish film awards called Goyas are also out and Blancanieves has 18 nominations. I imagine it will win more than one but to tell you the truth the simple fact of doing a silent movie in the 21^st century (like The Artist) deserves more than just awards. 

THE FIRST FILM OF THE YEAR

I have started 2013 with good energy, loads of positive thoughts and watching High Noon. Rarely this classic western with Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly has been my first movie of the year. Although I like watching good classics and some of my favourite movies are westerns, I do not consider myself a huge fan of the genre. One thing is for sure, any film lovers must have seen at least those westerns:  Wild Bunch - Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid - The Good, The Bad and The Ugly - Once upon at the time in west – Unforgiven (and probably many others I cannot remember right now)

High Noon is a black and white movie filmed on real time which gives a special touch to the picture. The audience goes with the characters one hour and thirty minutes before noon and from the first shoot you get hooked on the story of revenge, past and present.

PAUL NEWMAN

 

There is not much to say... THE GREAT  PAUL NEWMAN!! SIMPLY IRRESISTIBLE!

OSWALD THE LUCKY RABBIT

There is an exhibition about Mickey & Oswald’s Epic Tale in London at the moment. Even if I am Disney fan, I had to recall myself about: who is Oswald? I investigated in the beautiful world of internet and found out the Oswald could have substituted Mickey itself, but for ownership reasons it did not happened.

Oswald was an animated character created by Disney and Ub Iwerks. He was the leadership character in 26 episodes of an animated series between 1927 and 1928. But when Disney lost the ownership of Oswald, they created Mickey. Thankfully Oswald was recovered by Disney in 2006 and has been part of a series of videogames since then. I just hope that Disney will create a full-length film about Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, for sure he deserves it!

Well, I am really happy that Mickey have been part of my whole life; but this made me wonder how life would have been if Oswald was in it?