Cannes' Critics Say Sí to 'NO'

The Chilean film No by Pablo Larraín received a prolonged and ecstatic standing ovation as well as highly positive initial reviews by the critics yesterday, after its world premiere in the Directors' Fortnight section of the Cannes Film Festival. "Brilliant," "a masterwork," and “extraordinarily well-made," are some of the fervent adjectives that the Chilean film received, which was the first Latin American production at bat at the 65th edition of the festival.

Along with Tony Manero (2008) and Post Mortem (2010), No is the third in Larraín's loose trilogy on the Pinochet era. The film was based on Antonio Skármeta's play ‘Referendum’ and adapted by Pedro Peirano and stars Mexican actor Gael García Bernal and Larraín's regular leading man Alfredo Castro (playing here the villain role of the leader of the government opposition). No tells the story of René Saavedra, a Chilean adman who orchestrates a marketing campaign against the reelection of dictator Augusto Pinochet in the historic plebiscite of 1988.

LA Times ’ Kenneth Turan's called it "a smart, involving, tangy film that mixes reality and drama to provocative effect (…) No is a most unusual underdog story, the kind of heady, relevant filmmaking we don’t see often enough at Cannes. Or anywhere else."

James Rocchi writing for indieWIRE's blog ‘The Playlist’ referred to it as "extraordinarily well-made, superbly acted, funny, human, warm, principled and, yes, as enthrallingly entertaining as it is fiercely moral and intelligent." Furthermore he described the film as "a masterwork! No is one of the breakout films of Cannes. As wonderful as it was to find it here, the only thing to regret is that it isn't in the main competition where it deserves to be.”

Eric Kohn writing for indieWIRE called the film "brilliant", Larraín's "most accomplished work (…) delivering a lively, mesmerizing drama." Leslie Felperin wrote in his review for Variety that the performances “as one has come to expect from Larraín's work, are immaculate. García Bernal has seldom been better than he is here” and added “No has the potential to break out of the usual ghettos that keep Latin American cinema walled off from non-Hispanic territories.”

 “Anchored by an admirably measured performance from Gael García Bernal (…) the quietly impassioned film seems a natural for intelligent arthouse audiences” wrote David Rooney for Hollywood Reporter, whilst Guy Lodge for HitFix calls No the "film of the festival so far" and Larraín's "most narratively robust and emotionally rousing film to date, a hearty celebration of hard-earned democracy spiked with just enough of the director's acidly crooked humor to remind us whose house we're in."
 

Mexican Doc EL VELADOR to Have Theatrical Premiere at MoMA and National Broadcast on PBS' POV

El Velador / The Night Watchman, the most recent documentary film by Natalia Almada, will have its U.S. theatrical premiere run starting June 14 at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City, followed by a tour across the U.S., and will have its national television premiere on September 27 as part of the 25th anniversary season of PBS’ POV, as it was announced today.

Hailed by A.O. Scott (The New York Times) as "an unsettlingly quiet, even lyrical film about a world made and unmade by violence," Almada's film accompanies Martín, the night watchman who guards a labyrinthine graveyard in Culiacán, capital of Sinaloa and Mexico’s drug heartland. The film had its world premiere at New Directors/New Films Festival in 2011, and was an official selection of the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight last year.

The film -an Icarus Films release, will have an exclusive one-week theatrical engagement June 14-20 at MoMA, and then will travel to other cities across the country: Northwest Film Center in Portland (July 6-8); Northwest Film Forum in Seattle (July 6-12); UCLA Film and Television Archive in Los Angeles (July 13); Pacific Film Archives in Berkeley (July 15); the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (August 4 and 6); the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston (September); the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. (September 8); the Cleveland Museum of Art (September 12); the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus (September 25-26); the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis (September 27-28).

Almada, who was the recipient of the 2009 Sundance Documentary Directing Award for her film El General and was the recipient of the 2011 Alpert Award, will be at MoMA for a discussion following the screening of her film on Monday, June 18 at 7pm. Additionally she'll will also be present for a conversation with Mexican-American director Lourdes Portillo on Saturday, June 23 at 7:30pm also at MoMA, on the occasion of the film series "Lourdes Portillo: La Cineasta Inquisitiva."

Will This (Finally) Be Latin America’s Year at Cannes?

For all of the influence and vitality of Latin American cinema over the past dozen years or so, the Cannes Film Festival has been lukewarm in its acknowledgement. Considered by many the most important showcase for international filmmaking, Cannes began at last to open itself to this region’s cinema in the past few years, and the 65th edition that starts today (and runs through May 27) marks the strongest and most positive representation of Latin American film in recent memory.

This year’s Official Selection includes Post Tenebras Lux, the newest film by Mexican director Carlos Reygadas, as well as On the Road by Brazilian director Walter Salles. Among the 22 productions in competition, Reygadas’s film is one of those with the most expectation and interest. Variety’s Robert Koehler has named it his pick to win the Palm d’Or.

Reygadas and Salles have been regulars in the Official Competition (Reygadas in 2005 with Batalla en el cielo / Battle in Heaven, and in 2007 with Luz silenciosa / Silent Light for which he won the Jury Prize; Salles in 2004 with Motorcycle Diaries and in 2008 with Linha de Passe). Pablo Trapero, Hector Babenco, Lucrecia Martel, Guillermo del Toro, Fernando Meirelles and Alejandro González Iñárritu, have been the other Latin American directors to be included in the main section in the past decade.

It’s worth mentioning that since the inception of the Palm d’Or award in 1955, only two Latin American films have won the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival: Luis Buñuel’s Viridiana (Mexico/Spain) in 1961 and Anselmo Duarte’s O pagador de promesas / The Given Word (Brazil) the following year.

Beyond the Official Selection, it’s on the parallel sections where we’re seeing unprecedented representation of Latin American cinema this year. The Directors’ Fortnight, an independent section of the festival, adds to the lineup with a record-breaking number of six Latin American productions.

These include the Uruguayan film 3 by Pablo Stoll; the Mexican-Canadian co-production Fogo by Yulene Olaizola; the Argentine film Infancia clandestina / Clandestine Childhood by Benjamin Ávila; the Chilean-French co-production La noche de enfrente / The Night in Front by the late Raúl Ruiz; the Colombian Film La Sirga by William Vega; and the Chilean film No by Pablo Larraín starring Mexican actor Gael García Bernal.

Additionally, Directors' Fortnight will also feature two Brazilian short films in its official competition: Porcos raivosos / Enraged Pigs by Leonardo Sette et Isabel Penoni, and Os mortos vivos / The Living Dead by Anita Rocha da Silveira.

A Certain Regard section includes the Colombian film La Playa the debut feature film by Juan Andrés Arango, Después de Lucía / After Lucía by Michel Franco, and two productions by Argentine director Pablo Trapero: Elefante blanco / White Elephant and the omnibus film 7 días en La Habana / 7 Days in Habana sharing director credits with Benicio del Toro, Julio Medem, Elia Suleiman, Juan Carlos Tabío, Gaspar Noe, and Laurent Cantent.

The International Critic’s Week will feature the Argentine film Los Salvajes / The Wild Ones by Alejandro Fadel, and the Spanish-American-Mexican co-production Aquí y allá / Here and There by Antonio Méndez Esparza. The selection also include the Argentine short film Yeguas y cotorras / Mares and Parakeets by Natalia Garagiola and the Brazilian short O Duplo / Doppelgänger by Juliana Rojas.

Two other Latin American films will be shown in the festival as special screening: the Brazilian film A musica segundo Tom Jobim / The Music According to Tom Jobim by veteran director Nelson Pereira de Santos, as well as the debut feature film by Argentine director Gonzalo Tobal, Villegas.

The Puerto Rican short Mi santa mirada by Alvaro Aponte-Centero makes the first film from the Caribbean island to be selected for Cannes’ official competition in this category. Additionally, the Festival also announced the lineup for the Cinefondation Selection which includes Los Anfitriones / The Hosts by Miguel Angel Moulet from the Escuela Internacional de Cine y TV de San Antonio de los Baños in Cuba, and Pude ver un Puma / Could See a Puma by Eduardo Williams from the Universidad del Cine in Argentina.

Furthermore, Brazil has been selected as the festival's special guest nation this year, and veteran Brazilian filmmaker Carlos Diegues will head the Camera d'Or Jury, which awards the Best First Film of the festival.

With all of the above representation we can only hope that Latin American cinema will finally get the international attention that’s long over due.

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Photos: (from top to bottom) No by Pablo Larraín Chile); Post Tenebras Lux by Carlos Reygadas (Mexico); Elefante blanco by Pablo Trapero (Argentina); Villegas by Gonzalo Tobal (Argentina); and La Sirga (Colombia) by William Vega.

In Memoriam: Carlos Fuentes and Film

Filmmaker Luis Buñuel with Carlos Fuentes

Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes, the country's most celebrated novelist, died today in Mexico City at the age of 83. Throughout his prolific literary career he had some fruitful and influential relationship to Mexican cinema. Fuentes’ first foray into screenwriting happened in 1964 with the film El gallo de oro / The Golden Cockerel by Roberto Gavaldón which was based on Juan Rulfo’s story.

Fuentes had some participation in the group Nuevo Cine, a cinephile group formed in the early sixties by young artists and intellectuals and aspiring filmmakers that were influenced by the French New Wave. The group established a very influential journal that laid the ground for a new generation of film critics.

During the rest of the sixties, Fuentes continued to be active as a screenwriter. He wrote the scripts for Los bien amados / Un alma pura (1965), and Amor, Amor / Las dos Elenas (1965) both based on his own stories and directed by Juan Ibáñez. He also collaborated with Gabriel García Márquez on the script of Tiempo de morir / Time to Die (1966), Arturo Ripstein’s debut feature film based on García Márquez story.

That same year he also worked as screenwriter for Carlos Velos’ adaptation of the milestone novel by Juan Rulfo Pedro Páramo (1967) starring John Gavin. He worked with Ibáñez again on the script of Los Caifanes / The Outsiders (1967) and few years later he worked with Felipe Cazals on his film Aquellos años (1972).

Fuentes also forayed into directing in 1974, along with Héctor Casillas, he co-directed and co-wrote the short film Enigma compartido. The miniseries The Oil Conspiracy / Complot petróleo (1981) directed by Paul Leduc and based on Fuentes novel La cabeza de la hiedra, was the writer's last screenplay work. 

Additionally, some other work of Fuentes was also adapted to the big screen including the Italian film La strega en amore (1966) by Damiano Damiani based on his novel Aura; and Gringo Viego / Old Gringo (1988), based on his novel of the same name, directed by Argentinean filmmaker Luis Puenzo and starring Gregory Peck and Jane Fonda.

Fuentes was married to film actress Rita Macedo between 1959 and 1973 –with whom he had his only surviving daughter, and reportedly he had affairs with actresses Jeanne Moreau and Jean Seberg.

Colombian Cinema Is Ready for Its Close-up

By Carlos A. Gutiérrez

After more than a decade, Latin American cinema has surprisingly not shown signs of weariness just yet. It’s as vital and vibrant as it was in the late nineties with the emergence of the “New Argentine Cinema,” which heralded an impressive era for filmmaking from the region. One reason why Latin American film is still going strong lays in the fact that it’s been constantly nourished by the talent of young filmmakers emerging from different countries. In addition to Argentina, Uruguay, Mexico, Brazil, and more recently Chile, among other nations, have all contributed to this unprecedented era for Latin American cinema. Next up at bat: Colombia.

Two factors have been key for the consolidation of Colombian cinema: the 2003 film law and the Cartagena Film Festival. Following on the footsteps of other Latin American countries, Colombia passed a comprehensive film law in 2003, which offered tax incentives to film production, as well as the creation of a film development fund (Fondo para el Desarrollo Cinematográfico) to support local projects. This legal structure proved to be key to support the incipient local film community and to secure funds for film productions.

Secondly, the Cartagena de Indias International Film Festival (FICCI), the longest-running film festival in Latin America, has also proved key in the consolidation of the local film community. The festival was founded in 1959 by Víctor Nieto, who remained its director until his death in 2008. In 2010, Monika Wagenberg was appointed as new director of the festival and tasked to remake FICCI a major international platform for Colombian cinema (for full disclosure, Monika and I are co-founders of Cinema Tropical).

The coming-of-age of Colombian cinema can be testified by the fact that this year two films will represent the country at the Cannes Film Festival: Juan Andrés Arango’s La Playa D.C., selected for the Un Certain Regard Section of the festival, and William Vega’s La Sirga competing at the Directors’ Fortnight section.

La Playa D.C. tells the story of Tomás, an Afro-Colombian teenager who fled the country’s war-torn Pacific coast, yet faces new difficulties of growing up in Bogotá, a city of exclusion and racism. La Sirga is the story of Alicia, who escaping armed violence ends up in La Sirga with the last relative she has left. Both films participated in the co-production meetings at FICCI.

Last year, Alejandro Landes' Porfirio was the big story of Colombian cinema, having premiered at Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes to great critical acclaim and winning numerous awards internationally, from the prize as Best Film Director and Best Colombian Film at the 2012 edition FICCI to the Golden Peacock at the Goa Film Festival. The film was recently seen at New Directors/New Films Festival in New York City.

Two other films that were showcased at Cartagena this past February and are currently touring the international film circuit are Jhonny Hendrix Hinestroza’s Chocó and Carlos Osuna’s Gordo, calvo y bajito / Fat, Bald Short Man. The former tells the story of a Chocó (played by Karent Hinestroza, wife of the director) a woman from the rural areas of the Pacific north coast of the country who is subjugated by her husband and the dominant male tradition, had its world premiere at the Panorama section of the Berlin Film Festival. The latter is an animated feature film about a lonesome, middle-aged bureaucrat who endures the constant torment at the hands of coworkers and his bullying brother.

Other noteworthy recent titles are from first-time Colombian directors are: Jairo Carillo’s animated film Pequeñas voces / Little Voices; the Sundance-selection Todos tus muertos / All Your Dead Ones by Carlos Moreno; Gabriel Rojas Vera’s Karen llora en el bus / Karen Cries on the Bus; as well as the multi-award-winning films El vuelco del cangrejo / Crab Trap by Oscar Ruiz Navia and Los viajes del viento / The Wind Journeys by Ciro Guerra.

Not only is Colombian cinema is finding its way through the international film festival circuit, some filmmakers have also found local support in the box office. Andi Baiz’s thriller La cara oculta / The Hidden Face released earlier this year had a very good performance at the local box office. That was also the case of Harold Trompetero’s popular comedy El Paseo; Juan Felipe Orozco’s Me saludas al diablo de mi parte / Greetings to the Devil, and Jaime Osorio’s horror film El Páramo / The Squad, which were some of the highest-grossing Colombian films from last year.

Encouraging, too, is the fact that most of the works referred above are first films, which is telling of the diversity of this young generation of directors. It will be crucial that these filmmakers can consolidate a career making a second, third, and more films. Yet for the existing talent and current favorable conditions, it seems Colombia is bound to be the next headliner in world cinema.

Carlos A. Gutiérrez is Co-Founder and Director of Cinema Tropical.

Film Society of Lincoln Center Will Feature Mexico's Cinema Planeta

Greens Screens, the Film Society of Lincoln Center's series programmed by Isa Cucinotta and Marian Masone which addressesthrough film the vital environmental concerns of global warming, the safety of our food supply, sustainable living, among other issues, has announced a special collaboration with Cinema Planeta, International Environment Film Festival of Mexico to take place June 1-3 at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center's amphitheater. The program will consist of the screening of 12 films, from Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and Spain, among other countries, some of them in their New York Premiere.

Green Screens:Cinema Planeta will feature the Mexican documentaries Canícula (pictured) by José Álvarez; Silvestre Pantaleón by Roberto Olivarez and Jonathan Amith; as well as the Argentine documentary Yatasto by Hermes Paralluelo and the Brazilian documentary Within the River, Among the Trees / No meio do rio, entre as árvores by Jorge Bodanzky, among others. For the complete lineup and more information visit the Film Society of Lincoln Center's website.