Bowie: Cultural Icon and Latin American Film Buff

Photograph by Fernando Aceves

In tribute to the passing of the musician and icon David Bowie, Cinema Tropical remembers his demonstrated passion for Latin American cinema, as evidenced by his curatorial program for the 2007 High Line Festival, which comprised ten films.

The series titled “David Bowie Presents 10 Latin American and Spanish Films from the Last 100 Years” was co-presented by Cinema Tropical and featured one film from every decade. “It’s so exciting to dive headfirst into this world, such talent and great innovation going on,” Bowie said about coming up with his selections, adding, “I could call this selection, One-Hundred Years of ‘Look What I’ve Found.’”

The list of films screened at the Quad Cinema, in New York City, between May 11-17, 2007, is as follows:

El automóvil gris / The Grey Automobile
(Enrique Rosas Priego, Mexico, 1919, 120 min.)
Mexican director Claudio Valdés Kuri takes a silent film classic - one filled with gangsters, police chases and sumptuous costumes - and gives it a thoroughly modern soundtrack through the talents of his actors and pianist. Following the Japanese benshi tradition of silent film narration, the actors artfully render the voices and emotions of each of the film's characters, offer witty repartee and, at times, sing and dance on stage, as well. A two-hour theatrical production that blurs the boundaries of what is Mexican or Japanese, what is film versus theater, and what it means to understand language and the filtering effects of time.

Limite
(Mário Peixoto, Brazil, 1931, b&w, 115 min.)
Cast: Taciana Rei, Olga Breno, Raul Schnoor, Brutus Pedreira, Carmen Santos, Mário Peixoto.
Considered a legendary cult movie and voted as one of the best Brazilian films of all time, Limite is an avant-garde film that explores the visual possibilities of cinema. The film was made by Mário Peixoto when he was 21 years old and was the only film he ever directed.

El Prisionero 13
(Fernando de Fuentes, Mexico, 1933, b&w, 76 min.)
Cast: Alfredo del Diestro, Adela Sequeyro, Luis G. Barreiro.
The first film in Fernando de Fuentes’ celebrated trilogy on the Mexican revolution (along with El Compadre Mendoza and Vámonos con Pancho Villa) is a poignant critique on corruption in which a Colonel is bribed to free young man from his execution by a firing squad. There are thirteen prisoners on death row, fate will decide the 13th prisoner.

Dos Monjes
(Juan Bustillo Oro, Mexico, 1934, b&w, 85 min.)
Cast: Magda Haller, Víctor Urruchua, Carlos Villatoto, Emma Roldán, Manuel Noriega.
"Narrating a love triangle involving two monks, Fray Servando and Fray Javier, the film weaves together a story from the conflicting points of views of the two rivals. As Fray Javier gradually goes mad, those parts of the film told from his perspective take on the trappings of German Expressionism, including exaggerated make-up, skewed angles, deep shadows and a crooked, distorted sense of space. Masterfully photographed by Agustín Jiménez, the film was a belated effort to incorporate the styles of a European vanguard into Mexican commercial film.” – Jesse Lerner, Mexperimental Cinema.

Aventurera
(Alberto Gout, Mexico, 1949, b&w, 111 min.)
Cast: Ninón Sevilla, Tito Junco, Andrea Palma, Rubén Rojo, Miguel Inclán.
One of the most popular Mexican films ever made and a cult sensation during its recent U.S. theatrical revival, Aventurera is the most famous example of the curious hybrid of film noir and musical films known as cabareteras that were wildly popular in Mexico in the 40's and 50's. Starring the immortal Ninón Sevilla, who Variety called "a cross between Rita Hayworth and Carmen Miranda," it follows the melodramatic rise and fall of a popular nightclub star with a dark past.

Robinson Crusoe
(Luis Buñuel, Mexico, 1954, color, 90 min.)
Cast: Dan O’Herlihy, Jaime Fernández, Felipe de Alba, Chel López.
One of his less frequently screened films, Buñuel’s Robinson Crusoe is a fascinating adaptation of Daniel Defoe’s classic that offers a very personal reinterpretation of the Crusoe metaphor questioning man's relationship with God and morality. Dan’Oherlihy was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Actor for his performance in the title role.

Memorias del subdesarrollo / Memories of Underdevelopment
(Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, Cuba, 1968, b&w, 110 min.)
Cast: Sergio Corrieri, Daisy Granados, Eslinda Núñez, Omar Valdés.
As the first film from post-revolutionary Cuba to be released in the U.S., this had a widespread impact unequaled in the history of Latin American cinema. Set in the early 1960s, the film centers on a Europeanized Cuban intellectual, too idealistic to leave for Miami, but too decadent to fit into the new society. A critique of revolutionary society, and a remarkable demonstration that artistic subtlety, political commitment and entertainment are not incompatible.

El espíritu de la colmena / The Spirit of the Beehive
(Víctor Erice, Spain, 1973, 99 min.)
Cast: Fernando Fernán Gómez, Teresa Gimpera, Ana Torrent, Isabel Tellera.
Víctor Erice’s spellbinding El Espíritu de la Colmena, widely regarded as the greatest Spanish film of the 1970s is set in a small Castilian village in 1940, in the wake of the country's devastating civil war. A six-year-old Ana attends a traveling movie show of Frankenstein and becomes possessed by the memory of it. Produced as Franco’s long regime was nearing its end, El Espíritu de la Colmena is a bewitching portrait of a child’s haunted inner life and one of the most visually arresting movies ever made.

Oriana
(Fina Torres, Venezuela/France, 1985, color, 88 min.)
Cast: Doris Wells, Daniela Silverio, Rafael Briceño, Mirtha Borges.
A taut, gothic, Latin American romance, winner of the Camera d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Marie returns to a rundown Venezuelan house in the jungle where she spent summers as a child. Her return ignites memories of a summer when her adolescent sexual curiosity led to a surprising encounter. "An exotic Jane Eyre set in a jungle-choked hacienda" (Seattle Weekly).

Los amantes del círculo polar / Lovers from the Arctic Circle
(Julio Medem, Spain/France, 1998, 152 min.)
Cast: Najwa Nimri, Fele Martínez, Nacho Novo, Maru Valvidieso, Sara Valiente.
Julio Medem, one of Spain’s most famous contemporary filmmakers (perhaps best known for his film Sex and Lucia) offers us this passionate love story told by each one of the sides. The story begins in 1980, Ana and Otto’s lives will become part of the same circle that will close 17 years later in Finland, right in the limits of the Artic Circle.

Machuca
(Andrés Wood, Chile/Spain/UK/France, 2004, 115 min.)
Cast: Ariel Mateluna, Matías Quer, Manuela Martelli, Ernesto Malbran.
Set in Chile, 1973, Machuca is an astonishingly intimate and painful coming-of-age story about a pair of 12-year-old boys from opposite extremes of society who form an unlikely friendship during the last days of President Allende and General Augusto Pinochet's military coup.

Colombia Nabs First Foreign Language Film Nom

El abrazo de la serpiente / Embrace of the Serpent (pictured), the third feature film by Ciro Guerra, became this morning the first Colombian to ever been nominated for Best Foreign Language Film in the Academy Awards.

Colombia has been submitting Oscar candidates since 1980, when The Latin Immigrant / El Inmigrante latino by Gustavo Nieto Roa became the first Colombian submission for the 53rd edition of the Academy Awards.

Embrace of the Serpent had its world premiere in the Directors’ Fortnight section at the Cannes Film Festival last May where it won the top prize. It tells the story of Karamakate, an Amazonian shaman, who works with two scientists for 40 years while searching the rainforest for a sacred healing plant.

The Colombian picture is competing against A War by Tobias Lindholm from Denmark, Mustang by Deniz Gamze Ergüven from France, Son of Saul by László Nemes from Hungary, which is the top contender, and Theeb by Naji Abu Nowar from Jordan.

Embrace of the Serpent opens February 17 at Film Forum in New York City, followed by a limited release in other cities after February 19, distributed by Oscilloscope Laboratories.

The Oscars Announce Noms from Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced this morning the nominations for the 88th edition of the Academy Awards, which include candidates from Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico.

The Revenant by Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu leads the Oscar nominations with 12 in total, including for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor. Iñárritu has been nominated seven times to the Academy Awards in total, and has won three statuettes, including for Best Director and Best Picture just a year ago.

Mexican DP Emmanuel Lubezki received his eighth Oscar nomination for Iñárritu’s film, after wining two years in a row with Gravity in 2014, and Birman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) in 2015. Martín Hernández also from Mexico, was nominated for Best Sound Editing for The Revenant, earning his second nomination, one year after his first one.

Big news for Colombia this morning as the South American country received its first nomination ever for Best Foreign Language Film with Ciro Guerra’s El abrazo de la serpiente / Embrace of the Serpent (pictured right). This marks a high point for Colombian cinema, which in 2015 had a stellar year in the international film circuits.

The Brazilian film Boy and the World / O Menino e o Mundo (pictured left) by Alê Abreu was unexpectedly nominated for Best Animated Feature, becoming the first Latin American film to ever been nominated in this category.

The Chilean production Bear Story / Historia de un oso by Gabriel Osorio and Pato Escala received a nomination for Best Animated Short. Additionally, the US-Mexico production Cartel Land by Matthew Heineman nabbed a nomination for Best Documentary Feature.

The winners of the 88th edition of the Academy Awards will be announced on February 28 in Los Angeles, California.

MoMA To Show Argentinean Film Noir

The Museum of Modern Art has announced the film series “Death Is My Dance Partner: Film Noir in Postwar Argentina,” which will take place February 10-16, 2016 at the museum’s Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters in New York City.

With its revelations of a darkly entertaining and uniquely indigenous brand of film noir, MoMA’s 2015 Mexico at Midnight: Film Noir from Mexican Cinema’s Golden Age series paved the way for further research into other homegrown forms of noir.

A suitably sinister place to start is Argentina during the Peronist years (1949–56), a period of repression and class warfare for some, and a glorified age of social justice and national pride for others.

For the screenwriters, directors, and actors in this six-film series, Buenos Aires is a cesspool of murder and corruption, where serial killers, pedophiles, and racketeers walk the streets with impunity, and no crime goes punished—the perfect backdrop for adaptations of thrillers by Cornell Woolrich, Hugo Fregonese, and Adolfo Jasca, as well as Richard Wright’s Native Son and Fritz Lang and Thea von Harbou’s 1930 expressionist classic M. Taut and exciting, with perverse pleasures every step of the way, this exhibition is co-presented by its curators, Eddie Muller, founder and president of the Film Noir Foundation; and his Argentine colleague, film historian Fernando Martín Peña.

The series will feature the New York premieres of four films preserved by the Film Noir Foundation in association with Peña: Apenas un delincuente / Hardly a Criminal (1949) by Hugo Fregonese,  Si muero antes de despertar / If I Should Die Before I Wake (1952) by Carlos Hugo Christensen, No abras nunca esa puerta / Never Open That Door (1952) (pictured above left) also by Christensen, and El vampiro negro / The Black Vampire (1953) by Román Viñoly Barreto.

The series will also screen the Foundation’s restoration of Los tallos amargos / The Bitter Stems (pictured above right and left) by Fernando Ayala (performed by UCLA Film & Television Archive) and the world premiere of Pierre Chenal’s Native Son (1951) (digitally restored by The Library of Congress), this exhibition proves, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that we really don’t know what we’ve been missing.

Alejandro G. Iñárritu and Fernando Coimbra Nab DGA Noms

Two Latin American directors have been nominated for the 68th Annual DGA Awards, it was announced today. Fresh from his Golden Globes victory and as it was expected, Mexican filmmaker Alejandro González Iñárritu (pictured left) has been nominated for the DGA Awards for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film for 2015 for The Revenant.

Surprisingly, Brazilian director Fernando Coimbra received a nomination for Outstanding Directorial Achievement of a First-Time Feature Film Director -a new category recognizing the achievement of first-time feature film directors- for A Wolf at the Door / O Lobo Atrás da Porta.

This marks González Iñárritu’s fourth DGA Award nomination, and second in a row. He won the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film in 2014 for Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) and for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Commercials for “Best Job” (Procter & Gamble) in 2012. He was also nominated for Babel in 2006. Iñárritu’s opponents are Tom McCarthy (Spotlight), Adam McKay (The Big Short), George Miller (Mad Max: Fury Road), and Ridley Scott (The Martian).

Coimbra’s thriller A Wolf at the Door premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in 2014, and was the winner at San Sebastian’s Latinos Horizontes section and at the Rio Film Festival, among other accolades. He’s competing against Joel Edgerton (The Gift), Marielle Heller (The Diary of a Teenage Girl) and László Nemes (Son of Saul).

The winners of the 68th Annual DGA Awards, presented by the Directors Guild of America, will be announced on Saturday, February 6, 2016.

Mexicans Rock at the Golden Globes

Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu and actor Gael García Bernal were two of the top winners at the 73rd edition of the Golden Globes. González Iñárritu won two Golden Globes, for Best Motion Picture - Drama, and for Best Director, Motion Picture for The Revenant; and García Bernal won the Golden Globe Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series - Comedy or Musical for Mozart in the Jungle.

With the two new accolades, González Iñárritu’s has received four Golden Globe total, after winning in 2007 for Best Motion Picture for Babel, and last year for Best Screenplay for Birman. Leonardo DiCaprio won Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama, also for The Revenant.

This was García Bernal’s first nomination and first win. He made his feature film debut in 2000 in Amores Perros, directed by González Iñárritu.

Other Latino winner of the evening was Guatemalan-American actor Oscar Isaac who was presented the Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television for Show Me a Hero.

The 73rd edition of the Golden Globes Awards, presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, took place this evening in Beverly Hills, California.