SPANISH CINEMA NOW 2011

Quim Gutierrez, Raúl Arévalo (Counsinhood)

The Film Society of Lincoln Center has organized this year again Spanish Cinema Now, the annual exhibition series of the  Spanish film industry in the Walter Reade Theater of New York from 8th to 22nd of December. The event, that has the support of the Instituto Cervantes New York, the Spanish Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts and the Institut Ramon Llull of Catalan Language and Culture, exhibits in this year's series around 20 new Spanish films and a retrospective on the Spanish director that recently passed away, Luis García Berlanga.

Yon González, Santiago Segura (Torrente)

The series, that has been running since 1992, presented this year films from directors such as Santiago Segura, Daniel Sánchez-Arévalo, Mireia Ros, Nacho Vigalondo, Chema de la Peña, Esteban and José Miguel Ibarretxe, Agustí Villaronga, Enrique Otero, Montxo Armendáriz, José Luis Garcia Sánchez, Isaki Lacuesta, Jonas Trueba, Carlos Iglesias, Miguel Gonçalves Mendes or Ventura Pons.

J. Merino,J. Ariño & Emilia Uutinen (An Almost Perfect World)

We would most warmly recommend some pretty good pieces seen at this year's edition such as the comedies from Daniel Sánchez Arévalo "Cousinhood" (Primos), starring Quim Gutiérrez, Raúl Arévalo, Adrián Lastra, Inma Cuesta and Antonio de la Torre, Santiago Segura's "Torrente 4: Lethal Crisis" with this crazy policeman, starring Santiago Segura, Carlos Areces, Kiko Rivera, Tony Leblanc, Enrique Villén, Francisco González and Emma Ozores, and Esteban and José Miguel Ibarretxe's "An Almost Perfect World" (Un Mundo Casi Perfecto), another crazy comedy, starring Javier Merino, Antonio Dechent, Álex Angulo, Velilla Valbuena, Mairim Pérez, Jon Ariño, Emilia Uutinen, Leire Berrocal, Jon Inciarte and Javivi.

We really liked some of the dramas screened this year, like the Carlos Iglesias' beautiful "Ispansi", starring Isabel Blanco, Esther Regina, Carlos Iglesias, Eloisa Vargas, Iñaki Guevara and Bruto Pomeroy, Agustí Villaronga's impressive "Black Bread", starring Francesc Colomer, Nora Navas, Roger Casamajor, Marina Comas, Marina Gatell, Laia Marull,  Eduard Fernández and Sergi López, or Montxo Armendáriz's "Don´t be Afraid", starring Belén Rueda, Lluis Homar and Michelle Jenner.

Marina Comas, Francesc Colomer, Nora Navas  (Black Bread)

The Jonas Trueba's "Every Song Talks About Me" offered a nice fresh spirit and Miguel Gonçalves Mendes' documentary "José and Pilar" a beautiful  portrait of the Nobel-winning writer José Saramago.

In general the spanish films, specially the comical ones, often seem to turn out quite different and exotic to the U.S. spectators. The Spanish film industry always has  something new and exciting to offer and we are sure this year's Spanish Cinema Now was a real pleasure to all the New York spectators who could attend the series.

Here is the list of all the movies programmed this year:

23-F
Chema de la Peña, 2011

An Almost Perfect World
Esteban Ibarretxe, José Miguel Ibarretxe, 2011

Barcelona Before
Mireia Ros, 2011

Black Bread
Agustí Villaronga, 2010

Contacts
Paulino Viota, 1970

Cousinhood
Daniel Sanchez Arevalo, 2011

Crebinsky
Enrique Otero, 2011

Don’t Be Afraid
Montxo Armendáriz, 2011

Don’t Touch the Dead, Kid
Jose Luis Garcia Sánchez, 2011

Double Steps
Isaki Lacuesta, 2011

Every Song Talks About Me
Jonás Trueba, 2011

Everyone Off to Jail
Luis García Berlanga, 1993

Extraterrestrial
Nacho Vigalondo, 2011

Ispansi
Carlos Iglesias, 2011

José y Pilar
Miguel Gonçalves Mendes, 2011

Life Size
Luis García Berlanga, 1976

Long Live the Bride and Groom
Luis García Berlanga, 1970

Plácido
Luis García Berlanga, 1961

Shortmetraje

That Happy Couple
Juan Antonio Bardem, Luis García Berlanga, 1953

The Executioner
Luis García Berlanga, 1963

The Heifer
Luis García Berlanga, 1985

The National Shotgun
Luis García Berlanga, 1978

The Rocket from Calabuch
Luis García Berlanga, 1956

The Waves
Alberto Morais, 2011

Torrente 4: Lethal Crisis
Santiago Segura, 2011

Welcome Mr. Marshall!
Luis García Berlanga, 1953

Year of Grace
Ventura Pons, 2011

THE SKIN I LIVE IN: Golden Globe Nominee 2011

Pedro Almodóvar's last film "The Skin I Live In" has received a Golden Globe Nomination this year in the Foreign Language Film - category.

The film will be competing together with the chinese "The Flowers of War", the american "In The Land of Blood and Honey", the belgian "Yhe Kid With a Bike" and the iranian film  "A Separation".

We hope all the luck to the Spanish representation  in this year's Golden Globes, which also include the nominations of the partially Spanish produced films "Midnight in Paris" by Woody Allen and "Carnage" by Roman Polanski.  The awards will be presented on January 15th 2012 in Los Angeles.

SPANISH PREMIERES for the month of December 2011

The month of December offers a bunch of new premieres from the Spanish film industry.

On one hand the directors and actors Vladimir Cruz and Jorge Perugorría open the month  with their "Affinities", a story based on the novel "" by Reinaldo Montero that presents characters who face the rational problems of the today's society by escaping to the irrational world of the pleasure. Finally their solution to life doesn´t seem to be so simple and ephimeral. This Spanish-Cuban co-production is sterred by Vladimir Cruz, Cuca Escribano, Gabriela Griffith and Jorge Perugorría and produced by Esther Pou and Roberto Barrachina.

Premiere: 2 of December.

On the other hand Paco Arango opens his first feature film "Maktub", a christmas comedy that tells the story of how a family father's life changes from a chaos to something better when he meets a 15 year-old boy with cancer and happier than anyone. Starring Diego Peretti, Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, Goya Toledo, Rosa Maria Sardà, Enrique Villén, Jorge García Laura Esquivel and Amparo Baró.

Premiere: 16th of December.

"The Door of No Return" by Santiago Zannou, athough opened in November is worth emphasizing in this post, is an interesting  documentary about the director's father Alphonse Zannou who left his African home country Benin 40 years ago with the promise to return. Until now he hadn' gone back, and in this journey after his roots and the peace of mind, he will face all the fears that kept him away so long, see the family that still is alive and see how Africa has changed in all these years he passed in Europe. Produced by Víctor Martí and Benjamín Arraou.

Premiere: 25th of November

The SPANISH FILM ACADEMY screens the Latin American films candidates for the GOYA AWARDS

The poster of "Violeta Went to Heaven"

The Spanish Film Academy screens from 16th of December until the 22nd of December the Latin American films that are presented as candidates for the every year Spanish Goya film awards. The various movies from countries such as Cuba, Uruguay, Columbia, Peru, Mexico, Venezuela, Argentina and Chile will be screened in open sessions to the public.

The movies to be exhibited are:

"Artigas-La redota" (URUGUAY), by César Charlone

"Ticket to Paradise" (CUBA) by Gerardo Chijona

"The Squad" (COLUMBIA) by Jaime Osorio Márquez

"The Bad Intentions" (PERU), by Rosario García-Montero

"Miss Bullet" (MÉJICO) by Gerardo Naranjo

"Reveron" (VENEZUELA) by Diego Rísquez

"A Chinese Tale" (ARGENTINA) by Ricardo Darín

"Violeta went to Heaven" (CHILE) by Andrés Wood

Shooting in Spain: DANNY GLOVER and ROBERT ENGLUND

Robert Englund

The American actors Danny Glover (Lethal Weapon, Dreamgirls, The Color Purple) and Robert Englund (A Nightmare on Elmstreet, V, The Final Battle) have recently been working in Spain. In spite of their huge careers as both actors and directors they are mostly known for the popular characters of Roger Murtaugh from the blockbuster "Lethal Weapon" (Glover) and of the mythic Freddy Krueger from "Nightmare on Elm Street" or as Willie in "V" (Englund). Well, now these two big actors are lending their talent to the Spanish Film Industry by shooting together "I Want to Be a Soldier", a Spanish production shot in English and directed by the Catalan director Christian Molina. The film was opened in Spain first at the Sitges Film Festival on the 12th of October and officially in Madrid the 21st of October. 

Danny Glover

The movie supported by the Spanish Minor's Ombudsman tells the story of a 10 year-old American boy who is influenced by a problematic familiar situation and at the same time is distracted by the negative sides of the new technologies and the influence of the Mass Media.  The kid, Alex ( Fergus Riordan) develops an obsession for the war games and for the idea of becoming a soldier, as he is seduced by an imaginary military friend inviting him to experience violence and destruction. A school psychologist (Robert Englund) tries to help the child to get out of the situation by convincing his reluctant parents (Jo Kelly, Andrew Tarbet) about the need of putting and defining the limits of what a child can do and what not. In spite of their will to make their child follow the path of the correct behavior and goodness, Alex's parents have their own problems and do not always see the minor's crisis until it explodes.

The Premiere of the movie was held in Madrid on Wednesday 19th of October with the presence of, in addition to Danny Glover and Robert Englund, the director Christian Molina, the actors Fergus Riordan, Cassandra Gava, Valeria Marini and Ben Temple.

Valeria Marini, Robert Englund and Ben Temple

All of them had only beautiful and thankful words for the director, the crew and the audience. The Premiere was also supported by many other  Spanish professionals.

According to Danny Glover's contribution to this film as the UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, the movie is a brilliant reflection about  the Mass media impact on our children's lives and about the consequences of the unlimited and uncontrolled use of the new technologies in young people. In fact Glover's character in the film as the school principal is the narrator of an important part of the message the movie wants to send.

Emilia Uutinen and Danny Glover

In the photo Danny Glover has just been enjoying the premiere of the film in the Capitol Cinema of Madrid. Next to him the Finnish actress Emilia Uutinen, who is working now in  tv and films in Spain, also attended the event.

The participation of Robert Englund in "I want to be a Soldier"is equally magnificent. The actor who had actually worked in a Spanish production before shooting "Killer Tongue"in 1996 with Alberto Sciamma, plays with absolute conviction the role of the school psychologist worried about the young child.

R.Englund, Ben Temple, Fergus Riordan and Ch.Molina

It is worth highlighting also the characters of the young boy played by Fergus Riordan, the character of the mother played by an amazing Jo Kelly, the kid's father played by Andrew Tarbet, the part of the imaginary friend of the young boy played by Ben Temple and the two professors played by Cassandra Gava and Valeria Marini.

Danny Glover speaks to the audience with Cassandra Gava.

We hope to see these great actors work again soon in the Spanish Film Industry and will be following their interesting careers as actors, filmmakers or activists. 

We are sure the kind of collaborations by artists like Robert Englund or Danny Glover can only enrich the European film panorama, and together with brilliant directors like Christian Molina, can contribute to the increase of a new kind of universal filmmaking.

SITGES international Fantastic Film Festival 2011

 

The 44th edition of the oldest and one of most important fantastic genre film festivals SITGES took place in the Spanish Catalonia between the 6th and the 16th of October 2011.

Ryoo Seung-wan

 The traditional festival awarded this year as the Best Film "Red State" by Kevin Smith, awarding also the director Na Hong-jin for his film "The Yellow Sea" and the actors  Brit Marling for "Another Earth" and Michael Parks for "Red State".

Bryan Singer

The Special Jury Prize went to Joe Cornish for his "Attack the Block",

the Best Screenplay for Lucky Mckee and Jack Ketchum for "The Woman" and the Best Cinematography for Markus Förderer and Tim Fehlbaum for "Hell".

The Korean director Ryoo Seung-wan won the Casa Asia Award for his movie "The Unjust" and 

the Grang Honorary Prize of this traditional festival went to the American producer and director Bryan Singer. 

Actors Daniel Brúhl, Alberto Amman, Lluis Homar from " Eva" 

The "Máquina del Temps" Prizes (Time Machine) went to Jaume Balagueró, Michael Biehn, Ching Siu-Tung and Michael Ironside.

The María Honorary Prizes went to Bigas Luna,  Xavier Pérez, Mar Targarona, Caroline Williams, Gonzalo Suárez and Pedro Olea. The Nosferatu Prize was given to Luigi Cozzi.

The Spanish representation at this year's Sitges festival includes the opening movie "Eva" by Kike Maillo, a science fiction story starring Daniel Brühl.

American visitors at the Sitges Festival: the young actor Booboo Stewart and the screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg at the photocall.

San Sebastián International Film Festival 2011

The 59th edition of the San Sebastián International Film Festival took place between the 16th and the 24th of September 2011. As every year, this traditional and prestigious Spanish Film Festival supported Spanish, Latin American and Basque Cinema sections in it's program, in addition to the international Official Selection.

Glenn Close with the Donosti Award

This year  the festival decided to honour the American actress Glenn Close by asigning her the Donostia lifetime achievement award. The actress came to collect the award as well as she presented her newest film "Albert Nobbs" that was opened in Europe in this year's San Sebastian Festival.

Los Pasos Dobles crew with Isaki Lacuesta

The winner of the Golden Shell this year in the Official Section was the Spanish  film "Los Pasos Dobles" (The Double Steps) by Isaki Lacuesta, where as the Special Jury Prize went to the French film "Skylab" by Julie Delpy. The Jury of the official selection presided by Frances McNormand decided to asign the Silver Shell for Best Director to the greek Filippos Tsitos, and the actors' awards went to Antonis Kafetzopoulos and María León for Benito Zambrano's "The Sleeping Voice". The Prize for the Best Cinematography was won by Ulf Brantas and the Best Screenplay by Hirokazu Kore-eda.

The rest of the Spanish presentation in the Official Selection "No Rest for the Wicked" by Enrique Urbizu or "The Intruders" by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo didn't receive prizes, although, according to the audience's reactions it seems the two movies are really good.

Enrique Urbizu

As far as the Spanish and Basque film selections are concerned I would distinguish Mateo Gil's "Blackthorn", starring Sam Shepard, Eduardo Noriega, Stephen Rea, Magaly Solier and Nicolak Coster-Waldau and Daniel Sánchez Arévalo's "Primos"(Cousinhood) starring Quim Gutiérrez, Raúl Arévalo, Adrián Lastra, Inma Cuesta, Antonio de la Torre in the Made in Spain- section. From the basque Zinemira- section we liked Alberto Gorritiberea's "The Stone" (Arriya, la Piedra) starring Iban Garate, Begoña Maestre, Sara Casanovas and Ramón Agirre.

As every year the San Sebastian Festival had a friendly and festive atmosphere. According to the new festival director José Luis Rebordinos, the intention of the Festival this year was to magnify the presence of the international film industry and press.
In fact the festival seeks an interactive approach between the filmmakers and the audience.
After every showing actors and directors answer the questions asked by the spectators.

In the photo the Finnish actress Emilia Uutinen speaking with Esteban & J. Miguel Ibarretxe.

We look forward to participating again next year in this traditional and cosy festival which, together with the Cannes Festival, has become a sort of a rundown of the Spanish film tendencies of the year.