Il Castello Dei Carpazi (Tajemství hradu v Karpatech) - Oldrich Lipský

primo, ha partecipato Jan Švankmajer (e si vede), e poi è una storia che si ispira a Verne, con grande fantasia e colpi di scena a ripetizione, e quel pizzico di follia che ci sta bene.

a me è piaciuto molto, e così spero di voi - Ismaele

QUI il film completo con sottotitoli in spagnolo

This film's director Oldrich Lipský is beloved by Czech language viewers for a series of more or less bizarre comedies that mix the corny with the grotesque and the surreal.

This example of Lipský's improbable art is based on one of Jules Verne's lesser novels, and uses this source material for a loving parody of adventure novel and gothic romance tropes that has just as much fun with its parodic elements as it has with showing off the grotesque inventions of its mad scientist (there's always a mad scientist). These inventions have a sort of proto-steampunk aesthetic, fusing the industrial with the weirdly aesthetic. Here - of course! - listening devices are shaped like ears and a scientist has replaced his hand with an excellent, brass-gleaming multi-tool.

If the film weren't told in the tone of a farce, it would actually be a macabre story about two men who can't cope with the death of a beloved woman and do immoral things to keep her with them in what has clear hints of necrophilia; as it stands, it's a very funny film that contains mad science, death, destruction and (in good Vernesian tradition) many a funny beard.

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Il conte Teleke vaga nei Carpazi in cerca della sua fidanzata Salsa Verde, una famosa cantante lirica scomparsa misteriosamente dopo un concerto. Giunto in un villaggio in compagnia di un boscaiolo chiamato Vilja, Teleke sente raccontare dalla gente strane superstizioni a proposito del vicino castello del barone Gorc e, come guidato dall'istinto, si convince che la sua amata sia prigioniera tra quelle mura. Gorc, infatti, è il vero responsabile della scomparsa di Salsa Verde, ma la ragazza, è in realtà, morta: il barone ne conserva amorosamente il corpo preservandolo dagli insulti del tempo con dei procedimenti chimici ideati dal professor Orfanik. Il castello, simile ad un tempio fortificato dedicato all'amore e alla bellezza, è protetto da trappole e straordinari congegni ottici e meccanici che simulano fantasmi e melodie incantate per tenere lontani visitatori indiscreti.
Ispirato ad uno dei romanzi meno conosciuti di Jules Verne, il film conserva il fascino di una favola gotica modulata sui temi dell'amore, della morte, della musica, della scienza e dell'infelicità dell'uomo.

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Karins Ansikte (Il volto di Karin) - Ingmar Bergman

Hanna K. - Costa-Gavras

un film del 1983, l'ultima sceneggiatura di Franco Solinas, attore Mohammed Bakri, suona l'oud Anouar Brahem.
film di difficile reperibilità, mostrato poco o niente, dentro c'è tutto il dramma originario palestinese, che si è sempre più aggravato, ci sono alcune storie che si fondono e camminano insieme, grande cinema in un piccolo capolavoro imperfetto da non perdere - Ismaele

…Such a film could only have been made by Europeans, since the consensus on Palestinians there is much closer to the international view than it is to the U.S.-South African one.

Salim Bakri, the Palestinian in the film, is a Palestinian so forcefully as to lift the level of the film from that of a dispiriting and finally trivial love story to that of a political argument. Like Melville's Bartelby, he seems to be saying, "deal with me if you can, but I most certainly would prefer not to go away." No, Salim is not all Palestinians, he is not a militant, he is not the forces of history. He is one Palestinian whose basic drive concerns his house, his life, his destiny. That Costa-Gavras has built a film around these concerns is, in the current aesthetic and socio-political setting, an act of profoundly courageous human and political solidarity. For Hanna K. to accomplish its real mission, however, it must open further discussion and debate. But alas, that may not be allow moviegoers who may not get a chance to see the film if, for political reasons, it is either closed quickly or nor widely shown.

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Un’avvocatessa ebrea di trentacinque anni lascia il marito e la Francia e va a vivere a Gerusalemme. Qui si unisce ad un magistrato, da cui aspetta un figlio. La donna decide di difendere, in un processo, un palestinese accusato di terrorismo e vince la causa. Il giovane, salvato dal carcere, viene deportato in Giordania, ma torna illegalmente in Israele e rivendica il diritto di riottenere la casa confiscata durante la Naqba. Chiede nuovamente di farsi difendere dalla donna con la quale si instaura una profonda amicizia. La donna, abbandonata dal magistrato geloso e incapace di comprendere le sue problematiche e la sue incertezze, sceglierà alla fine la solitudine.

Un aspetto sempre trascurato della lettura critica di questo film sta nello sviluppo didattico incentrato sul disvelamento dell'impronta sionistica che condiziona la vita individuale e collettiva, nonché la storia di Israele. Il giovane profugo palestinese arrestato (Mohammad Bakri) e poi ripetutamente processato fino a trasformare, lui innocente, in un presunto pericoloso attentatore, diviene per l'avvocatessa (Jill Clayburgh) la guida che le permette di scoprire un mondo culturale e fisico nel quale viene rimosso tutto ciò che, essendo palestinese, rappresenta un pericolo per la conservazione di uno stato artificialmente ottenuto a spese della sofferenza altrui.

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…Hanna K., filme premonitorio del desastre palestino, que fue rodada hace dos décadas y sigue casi inédita, a causa del falso anatema de antisemita que le colgó la extrema derecha sionista. Recuerda el cineasta: "Todos mis filmes se han estrenado más o menos regularmente en las salas, tanto de Francia como de todo el mundo.Hanna K. no se estrenó casi en ningún país salvo Francia, donde recibió amenazas de bomba que obligaron a desalojar los cines. Aunque con respaldo de la Universal, en EE UU se estrenó en una sola sala, una semana". Fue este silencio peaje de la osadía de presagiar la inmensa tragedia de Palestina, lo que da hoy a este viejo filme inédito una desazonadora vigencia.

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…Costa-Gavras had a unique way with political films, one that has never been duplicated or bettered, in my opinion. Hanna K. is not one of his best works. It mainly interesting now from a historic perspective – Hanna K. is really a very mild political statement, guilty only of human honesty, and it’s interesting to ponder why at the time the American people could not be allowed to see it under any circumstances. It’s also incredible to watch this film and realize that nothing about the issues portrayed has changed in the last 30 years; it’s only gotten worse…

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El Bola - Achero Mañas

un film di bambini (e genitori), Alfredo soffre (anche noi) per el Bola, sono amici, e in un finale teso si arriva a una qualche liberazione, bravi i due ragazzini, e non solo.
un film che merita e che mai è passato da noi, peccato.
ma voi, che potete, recuperatelo, non ve ne pentirete - Ismaele

Director Francois Truffaut and long-time star/cinematic alter ego Jean Pierre-Leaud would be proud of Achero Mañas’s El Bola, a wonderful tale of a difficult childhood in Spain. Featuring amazing portrayals by its young cast, El Bola earned four Goya awards (including Best Film and Best Emerging Director) for its heartbreaking story of twelve-year-old Pablo (nicknamed Pellet) who endures intense abuse from his father and lashes out at his cruel surroundings with a dangerous daredevil game on the railroad tracks with his friends…

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Sous des allures de " Stand by me " ibérique, " El Bola " cache un drame social prenant. Comme tout le monde, les enfants jouent à des jeux dangereux, permettant un affrontement et une affirmation indirect de chacun. Ici, ils tentent d'attraper une bouteille vide, posée au milieu des rails, au nez et à la barbe des locomotives qui passent. Jeu idiot, mais révélateur de désœuvrement et d'un manque de prise avec la société adulte.
Et ce n'est pas le secret de El Bola qui lui donnera envie de passer à cet âge adulte. Pour cela, il lui faudra cet ami étranger et le nouveau modèle de cellule familiale que représente le foyer de celui-ci, avec ce deuxième père, qui saura peut être le protéger. Une chronique d'une jeunesse en état d'équilibre précaire.

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El primer largometraje del actor Achero Mañas centra su trama en la denuncia de la violencia doméstica, en especial del abuso físico de padres contra hijos.
En el desarrollo de la misma emplea el contraste entre ambientes familiares muy diferentes, derivados de actitudes personales y distintos ámbitos socioculturales, uno significado por el respeto con autoridad, que provoca un sano crecimiento personal vinculado a su contexto familiar, y otra por el autoritarismo vehemente, que deriva en rebeldía y desencuentro generacional.

El tratamiento del tema no evita un esquematismo general y una insuficiente penetración psicológica en la figura del padre maltratador, lo que termina minuscabando un conjunto al que se pretende dotar del adecuado realismo en diálogos y situaciones para que este tipo de proyectos ostenten mayor fuerza en su mensaje.
También le falta mayor riqueza emocional, mayor maestría dramática y mayor complejidad en la trama, personajes y relación entre los mismos, y le sobran algunas escenas superfluas que poco aportan al asunto al margen de redundancias.

No obstante se trata de un film bien narrado, con la construcción de un par de interesantes personajes y con destacadas interpretaciones de Alberto Jiménez y del niño Juan José Ballesta.

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One Day in the Life of Andrei Arsenevich - Chris Marker

dopo questo bellissimo documentario vedere (o rivedere) i film di Tarkovsky è il minimo, non sarà tempo perso, è sicuro - Ismaele



…It’s very hard to fail with such strong material, but Marker deserves credit for cutting together such a superb greatest hits compilation of indelible Tarkovsky moments One Day is an ideal introduction to a director whose name remains, in some circles, a byword for highbrow inaccessibility. Marker concentrates on certain recurring images (horses and dogs; houses; trees; paintings), techniques (camera placement; use of music) and themes (passage between zones of existence; Russia itself), building a strong argument in support of Tarkovskys stated claim that he tried to place cinema on a par with the other arts…

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…Marker shows clips of all Tarkovsky's films and analyzes his unique way of filming, giving the viewer valuable insights into his art. There are also behind-the-scenes footage of Tarkovsky on the set of The Sacrifice, visits by family and friends in his hospice deathbed, and scenes that were video recorded of his London staging of Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov. 

A great film on one of the world's great filmmakers. It's a don't miss film for Tarkovsky fans, and for others a chance to become acquainted with someone they should know if they want to call themselves cinephiles.

Marker profoundly says: "some filmmakers deliver sermons, but the greats leave us with our freedom."

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This documentary, apparently excerpted from a French TV series ("film makers of our time") combines footage of Andrei Tarkovsky (Arsenevich) during the shooting of The Sacrifice and its post-production - by which time the director was dying of cancer - with clips from the director's seven features.

Alexandra Stewart's voice-over commentary, penned by writer-director-editor Chris Marker, provides insights into the dominant themes and images within Tarkovsky's work: the elemental forces of nature, paintings, mirrors, the "alien shore" or "zone" and the Dostoyevskian holy fool or "innocent".

Marker is also critical of the Soviet authorities for their censuring of his films, refusal to let his family join him in exile until the very last days of his life, and their fulsome praise once he was dead…

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…The film essentially compiles rare footage of Tarkovsky in his final years from the making of The Sacrifice to footage as he lies on his deathbed editing his final film and meeting his family. Told in narration by Alexandra Stewart, the film is a visual essay of sorts on the works of Tarkovsky as well as telling the story of those final days and its aftermath. Through the narration, the film reveals a lot of what Tarkovsky has done with his films and how similar they are in his themes where some of the images of his films are inter-cut with the man in real life.

Through clips of his films as well as clips of an opera he staged in the 1980s, Chris Marker allows these clips to exemplify Tarkovsky’s desire to make films as something more than just films. Even as Marker would compare some of Tarkovsky’s characters to himself as this dreamer who is willing to create something that is unique. Marker also revels in the way Tarkovsky would use similar ideas and visual traits from all of his films to state Tarkovsky’s love for nature and the divine mysteries of the world. Some of which are accompanied by pieces of music from his films.

One Day in the Life of Andrei Arsenevich is an extraordinary film from Chris Marker about Andrei Tarkovsky. The 55-minute documentary is definitely a captivating essay about one of the great filmmakers told by someone as unique as Chris Marker. For fans of Andrei Tarkovsky, the documentary is a must-see for anyone interested in the filmmaker. Overall, One Day in the Life of Andrei Arsenevich is a mesmerizing documentary from Chris Marker.

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Men with Guns (Angeli armati) - John Sayles

un'altro gioiellino di John Sayles, ambientato in un paese centro-americano, dove i deboli (contadini) sono in balia dei prepotenti (soldati, per esempio).
in certi momenti sembra di vedere un documentario, e però il "realismo magico" è sempre lì, e il dottor Fuentes siamo noi, che dalle nostre comode poltrone non sappiamo niente.
grande cinema da non perdere - Ismaele

L’umanità trasmessa dalle immagini di John Sayles è cosa più unica che rara. Questo autentico cineasta indipendente – e, per favore, dimentichiamoci i vari pupilli di “indiewood” -, che gira un film americano nel quale verranno pronunciate tre o quattro battute in inglese (il resto, anzi, “il più” è un misto di spagnolo e dialetti indios), è tra i pochissimi a riuscire nell’impresa di realizzare un cinema di denuncia - nel senso più alto e profondo del termine -, eludendo questioni banalmente fattuali, e componendo spaccati umani e sociali di realistica intensità.
In Men With Guns – discutibile, la “traduzione” pacchiana e melodrammatica del titolo italiano –, di pistole non ce ne sono molte, e di colpi sparati ancora meno: ma ogni colpo, ogni arma (presente o evocata) ha il peso tragico e drammatico della realtà. Una realtà che, nel racconto saylesiano, si confonde col mito e con la leggenda…

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…It is a credit to Sayles that he creates five vivid, three-dimensional characters in two hours. In actuality, the film runs a little long (this often happens when a director edits his own material, since he can be reluctant to cut certain potentially unnecessary scenes). The performances are all good, and, although the acting in many Spanish-language films tends towards over-the-top melodrama, Sayles keeps his actors focused so that their work is relatively low-key. Two Americans, Mandy Patinkin and Kathryn Grody, have small-but-important parts. Their characters serve a dual purpose -- to provide much-needed comic relief and to illustrate how it's possible to be focused on the past but oblivious to the present.

Reduced to broad generalizations, Men with Guns is an adventure story -- a sort of Don Quixote meets Heart of Darkness. What marks this film as special isn't just that the surface details are believable, but that there is great richness and breadth to the issues addressed within. Where does innocence end and ignorance begin? How much responsibility do we bear for circumstances when we hide from them? And, if we learn the truth, how do we respond when all roads lead to desperation, futility, and failure? While Men with Guns ends on an artificially uplifting note, the prevailing tone is one of bleak hopelessness. This is a thought-provoking motion picture that, like many of Sayles' other efforts, demands that we ponder complex questions.

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…El Dr. Fuentes, epónimo de todos nosotros, espectadores de la película, cómodamente sentados ante la pantalla, va conociendo lentamente unas realidades hasta el momento desconocidas; unas verdades incómodas, que desde su afamada consulta ignoraba, orgulloso al aquietar su conciencia con la creación de ese grupo de jóvenes médicos que iban a desarrollar muníficamente sus saberes en beneficio de una población indígena idealizada.

La realidad de los dolorosos hechos que irá descubriendo, descenso a los horrores de un infierno terráqueo, mientras asciende penosamente por los montes, aldea escondida tras otra, le hará tambalear éticamente, estupefacto al escuchar cómo los médicos han sido "desplazados" por inconvenientes, al devenir supuestamente en partidarios de la guerrilla popular contra el ejército regulador de la situación: los "hombres armados" del ejército consideran a los médicos como a sus enemigos, y la guerrilla los mira como representantes del mundo "civilizado", del mundo de "los blancos".

Dos mundos muy diferentes, como entenderá el Dr. al explicar, a la luz de la lumbre, los variadísimos sabores de helados que pueden degustarse en la ciudad, a unos guerrilleros que jamás han comido un helado.... soñando en comer uno un día...

…Una película muy dura, que reúne todos los despropósitos anticomerciales que imaginarse puedan, pero que, pese a su largo metraje, más de dos horas, es de visión obligada para cualquier cinéfilo consciente que el cine no tan sólo ha de ser divertimento, constituyéndose al fin y al cabo Hombres Armados en un ejemplo sobresaliente de cine de autor, cine independiente con claro mensaje social, lo más alejado que se pueda considerar del denominado eufemísticamente "cine indie". Imprescindible.

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…"Men With Guns" is immensely moving and sad, and yet because it dares so much, it is an exhilarating film. It frees itself from specific stories about this villain or that strategy, to stand back and look at the big picture: at societies in collapse because power has been concentrated in the hands of small men made big with guns. I understand guns in war, in hunting, in sport. But when a man feels he needs a gun to leave his house in the morning, I fear that man. I fear his fear. He believes that the only man more powerless than himself is a dead man.

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Old Gringo – Luis Puenzo

un po' un'americanata, Gregory Peck è bravo ad interpretare Ambrose Bierce (chi non lo conosce avrà lo stimolo a leggere qualcosa), la storia è interessante, Luis Puenzo ci mette del suo.
non aspettatevi un capolavoro, ma un film senza infamia e qualche lode -Ismaele

This movie purports to tell the end of cynical journalist Ambrose Bierce (The Devil's Dictionary) but is actually Jane Fonda's coming out party, where she changed her screen portrayals from sex kitten to left wing political activist, more like her father, Henry. She plays opposite Gregory Peck, a man her father's age with similar leftist leanings, who plays Bierce, one of her lovers; and a Mexican peasant revolutionary, Gen. Tomas Arroyo (Jimmy Smits), who is also her lover. 
I was hoping for a good story about Ambrose Bierce, a salty, real life journalist of the late 19th - early 20th century, whose work makes fascinating reading for short periods; But I soon realized this was a Jane Fonda vehicle, which took all of five minutes running time.  I found this movie was not about the Old Gringo, or even the revolution; but Jane Fonda's slowing down her limousine just long enough to secure her bona fides as a credible leftist movie star showing her care for the huddled masses by banging a radical (and smelly) peasant while descended from her lofty pedestal among the elite, just for a moment.

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…The title comes from the identity of the old gringo in the movie, a weathered American (Gregory Peck) who walks fearlessly in the midst of battle because he has come to Mexico in search of death.

Harriet Winslow, the Fonda character, encounters him soon after she arrives in Mexico, and gradually comes to love his stoic acceptance and sardonic wit. She does not realize until late in the film that he is, in fact, Ambrose Bierce, the bitter, elusive American author who disappeared in Mexico in 1913 or 1914.

The audience for this movie may never realize who the gringo is - because Bierce, I fear, is little known to most moviegoers, and the screenplay is almost willful in its refusal to explain who the man is or what he accomplished. Under the circumstances, Peck does a manful job of investing Bierce's shadow with character and idiosyncrasy, although Peck, so straight-forward and stalwart, was a strange casting decision (I see Bierce as someone more like Harry Dean Stanton)…

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…The movie has an excellent beginning but stalls when it lingers too long in the hacienda. A dance scene lasts as long as the scene of the capture of the hacienda. My initial reaction was that a bit of editing could have greatly improved the movie, but the real problem was the decision to tell a story about a revolutionary leader who becomes what he fought against, rather than take the opportunity to examine the Mexican Revolution from the viewpoint of an outsider. The script needed to be completely rewritten to transform it from a work of art that happens to deal with the revolution into an actual movie on the revolution.

Aside from the script’s structural issues, the two American characters play too big a role. Bierce’s attempt to shock Arroyo back to sanity is well-intentioned, but all of the Mexican actors are confined to two-dimensional supporting roles. The focus on the three leads at the expense of the supporting actors was probably fallout caused by Sony’s purchase of Columbia. The top management was changed, and the new executives had little confidence in a movie about the Mexican Revolution, therefore the length of the movie was shortened…

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