ROME -- Italian broadcast giant Mediaset is making its first significant foray into the U.S. market by taking a $32 million stake in Spanish-language broadcaster CaribeVision, which broadcasts to the East Coast out of Miami, New York, and San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Telecinco, Mediaset's Spanish-language subsidiary in Spain, will hold the stake. Mediaset's main partner in the venture will be Mexico's Burillo-Azcarraga family, owners of the world's leading Spanish-language content producer, Televisa. With its investment, Mediaset will indirectly control 28.3% of CaribeVision.
Faced with the prospect of limited growth within Italy as a result of the country's media reform initiatives, Mediaset has been working to diversify its business interests outside the country.
In addition to Telecinco, the Milan, Italy-based broadcaster has significant foreign holdings including Dutch reality television producer Endemol, which it acquired last year. Additionally, the company has been reported to be looking for other acquisitions outside Italy in recent months.
Telecinco, Mediaset's Spanish-language subsidiary in Spain, will hold the stake. Mediaset's main partner in the venture will be Mexico's Burillo-Azcarraga family, owners of the world's leading Spanish-language content producer, Televisa. With its investment, Mediaset will indirectly control 28.3% of CaribeVision.
Faced with the prospect of limited growth within Italy as a result of the country's media reform initiatives, Mediaset has been working to diversify its business interests outside the country.
In addition to Telecinco, the Milan, Italy-based broadcaster has significant foreign holdings including Dutch reality television producer Endemol, which it acquired last year. Additionally, the company has been reported to be looking for other acquisitions outside Italy in recent months.
- 1/18/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
NEW YORK -- NBC Universal is getting in touch with its feminine side, snapping up cable network Oxygen on Tuesday for $925 million.
The seven-year-old, female-focused independent cable channel will complement what NBC Uni is calling a "virtual women's network" of assets that will be shopped to Madison Avenue, including online acquisition iVillage, NBC morning franchise Today and cable channel Bravo.
"Oxygen fits in perfectly and will really give us a great leadership position in the female demographic category," NBC Uni president and CEO Jeff Zucker said in a conference call with reporters.
Oxygen owners including Oprah Winfrey, Paul Allen, Marcy Carsey, Tom Werner and Caryn Mandabach were reported to have been interested in unloading the property given the challenges indie cable operations face. News of negotiations between the two companies was first reported in The Hollywood Reporter .
NBC Uni said it will finance the Oxygen deal mostly by selling two independent Telemundo stations, KWHY Los Angeles and WKAQ San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Oxygen CEO Geraldine Laybourne, who founded the network and also had an ownership stake, will leave the company by year's end. She declined to discuss her plans.
Oxygen will come under the portfolio of Jeff Gaspin, president of NBC Universal Television Group.
The seven-year-old, female-focused independent cable channel will complement what NBC Uni is calling a "virtual women's network" of assets that will be shopped to Madison Avenue, including online acquisition iVillage, NBC morning franchise Today and cable channel Bravo.
"Oxygen fits in perfectly and will really give us a great leadership position in the female demographic category," NBC Uni president and CEO Jeff Zucker said in a conference call with reporters.
Oxygen owners including Oprah Winfrey, Paul Allen, Marcy Carsey, Tom Werner and Caryn Mandabach were reported to have been interested in unloading the property given the challenges indie cable operations face. News of negotiations between the two companies was first reported in The Hollywood Reporter .
NBC Uni said it will finance the Oxygen deal mostly by selling two independent Telemundo stations, KWHY Los Angeles and WKAQ San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Oxygen CEO Geraldine Laybourne, who founded the network and also had an ownership stake, will leave the company by year's end. She declined to discuss her plans.
Oxygen will come under the portfolio of Jeff Gaspin, president of NBC Universal Television Group.
- 10/10/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Women in Film and General Motors. on Thursday announced the five recipients of their second annual grant for emerging Latina filmmakers.
This year's recipients -- Sarah Duran, Xochitl Gonzalez and Brenda Zuniga of Los Angeles, Erika Bagnarello of Heredia, Costa Rica, and Michelle Malley-Campos of San Juan, Puerto Rico -- will take part in a six-day mentoring program from Oct. 15-21 led by members of New York Women in Film & Television, the New York-based chapter of WIF.
The goal of the grant -- officially dubbed the WIF/GM 2007 Opening Doors/Abriendo Puertas: The Acceleration Grant for Emerging Latina Filmmakers -- is to assist promising filmmakers from Latin and Hispanic communities and other under-represented groups in becoming more established in the film industry.
"Once again, we are tremendously impressed with the depth of talent among Latina women across the country and in other territories and countries," said Judith James, chair of the WIF/GM Alliance chair Judith James said.
This year's recipients -- Sarah Duran, Xochitl Gonzalez and Brenda Zuniga of Los Angeles, Erika Bagnarello of Heredia, Costa Rica, and Michelle Malley-Campos of San Juan, Puerto Rico -- will take part in a six-day mentoring program from Oct. 15-21 led by members of New York Women in Film & Television, the New York-based chapter of WIF.
The goal of the grant -- officially dubbed the WIF/GM 2007 Opening Doors/Abriendo Puertas: The Acceleration Grant for Emerging Latina Filmmakers -- is to assist promising filmmakers from Latin and Hispanic communities and other under-represented groups in becoming more established in the film industry.
"Once again, we are tremendously impressed with the depth of talent among Latina women across the country and in other territories and countries," said Judith James, chair of the WIF/GM Alliance chair Judith James said.
- 9/14/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
NEW YORK -- Recently acquired Adelphia Communications Corp. said Monday that it will sell its Puerto Rico cable operations to two private equity firms for $520 million. London-based MidOcean Partners and New York-based Crestview Partners will buy the cable systems in Puerto Rico, owned jointly by Adelphia and ML Media Partners. The deal will give the private equity groups 137,000 subscribers in the San Juan area. The operations in Puerto Rico, like those of parent company Adelphia, filed for bankruptcy protection in a separate filing in 2002, three years after Adelphia picked up its 50%-ownership of the systems through an acquisition. Being a separately run entity, the Puerto Rico system was not included in the proposed sale of Adelphia's assets to Comcast Corp. and Time Warner Inc.'s Time Warner Cable for $17.6 billion.
Opens
Friday, Feb. 27
"Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights" is an all-too-conventional romantic drama with hot Latin music and dance, which Lions Gate and Miramax Films are enterprising enough to release with the "Dirty Dancing" imprint. The film bears no relationship to the 1987 hit film other than the resemblance of the sultry salsa dancing in 1958 Cuba to that film's American dirty dancing in the 1960s. Given the ingredients thrown into the mix here -- interracial romance, the Cuban Revolution, clashes of culture, the fusing of different '50s dance styles and the social ferment on the Havana streets -- it's disappointing the film is so sketchy and underdeveloped. The filmmakers may have sold their story short.
Diego Luna, the young star of "Y Tu Mama Tambien", demonstrates again that he has the makings of an international star while Romola Garai, who previously starred in "I Capture the Castle", brings freshness and vivacity to the role of a bookish high school student who discovers life and love Cuban-style on the eve of Castro's Revolution. With a hot soundtrack of Afro-Cuban and Latin music and a range of dance styles from choreographer JoAnn Jansen, director Guy Ferland pretty much delivers on the promise of "dirty dancing." But the film fritters away its dramatic punch with unrealized characters and a lackluster ending. Consequently, boxoffice prospects are only fair.
Katey Miller (Garai), 18, reluctantly moves with her parents and kid sister to Havana in 1958 when her dad gets a job there with Ford. Suddenly installed in a suite at a luxury hotel, Katey is expected to hang out with the country club set, which is definitely not her scene.
Her parents, Jeannie (an unusually stiff Sela Ward) and Bert (John Slattery), are former professional dancers, who gave that up to pursue the more middle-class goals of business exec and housewife. Two young men take an immediate shine to Katey. James (Jonathan Jackson), the son of her dad's boss, eagerly invites her to a country club dance. But it is Javier Luna), a hotel waiter, who catches Katey's eye.
Javier introduces her to a style of sexy dancing unlike anything she has ever seen before. Intrigued, she suggests they team up to win a dance contest by combining the structure of ballroom dance with the sensuality of the local dance. Since Javier has been fired for consorting with a hotel guest -- namely, Katey -- he agrees, to the disgust of older brother Carlos (Rene Lavan), a car thief and committed Castro-ite.
Then Patrick Swayze of the original "Dirty Dancing" turns up as a hotel dance instructor, who encourages Katey but takes no real role in developing her dance or choreography. Like so many of the movie's characters, he floats on the periphery of the story without contributing much to the complexity of the portrait of pre-Revolution Havana.
The Puerto Rican cities of San Juan and Ponce make a convincing old Havana. The soundtrack neatly mixes Latin beats with the high energy rock of that era. The costumes, too, are eye-catching especially the colors and styles in steamy club scenes.
DIRTY DANCING: HAVANA NIGHTS
Lions Gate Films
Lions Gate Films and Miramax Films
Credits:
Director: Guy Ferland
Screenwriters: Boaz Yakin, Victoria Arch
Story by: Kate Gunzinger, Peter Sagal
Producers: Lawrence Bender, Sarah Green
Executive producers: Bob Osher, Meryl Poster, Jennifer Berman, Amir Malin, Rachel Cohen
Director of photography: Anthony Richmond
Production designer: Hugo Luczyc-Wyhowski
Music: Heitor Pererira
Choreography: JoAnn Jansen
Costume designer: Isis Mussenden
Editors: Scott Richter, Luis Colina
Cast:
Juvier Suarez: Diego Luna
Katey Miller: Romola Garai
Jeannie Miller: Sela Ward
Bert Miller: John Slattery
James Phelps: Jonathan Jackson
Eve: January Jones
Susie Miller: Mika Boorem
Dance instructor: Patrick Swayze
Running time -- 86 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
Friday, Feb. 27
"Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights" is an all-too-conventional romantic drama with hot Latin music and dance, which Lions Gate and Miramax Films are enterprising enough to release with the "Dirty Dancing" imprint. The film bears no relationship to the 1987 hit film other than the resemblance of the sultry salsa dancing in 1958 Cuba to that film's American dirty dancing in the 1960s. Given the ingredients thrown into the mix here -- interracial romance, the Cuban Revolution, clashes of culture, the fusing of different '50s dance styles and the social ferment on the Havana streets -- it's disappointing the film is so sketchy and underdeveloped. The filmmakers may have sold their story short.
Diego Luna, the young star of "Y Tu Mama Tambien", demonstrates again that he has the makings of an international star while Romola Garai, who previously starred in "I Capture the Castle", brings freshness and vivacity to the role of a bookish high school student who discovers life and love Cuban-style on the eve of Castro's Revolution. With a hot soundtrack of Afro-Cuban and Latin music and a range of dance styles from choreographer JoAnn Jansen, director Guy Ferland pretty much delivers on the promise of "dirty dancing." But the film fritters away its dramatic punch with unrealized characters and a lackluster ending. Consequently, boxoffice prospects are only fair.
Katey Miller (Garai), 18, reluctantly moves with her parents and kid sister to Havana in 1958 when her dad gets a job there with Ford. Suddenly installed in a suite at a luxury hotel, Katey is expected to hang out with the country club set, which is definitely not her scene.
Her parents, Jeannie (an unusually stiff Sela Ward) and Bert (John Slattery), are former professional dancers, who gave that up to pursue the more middle-class goals of business exec and housewife. Two young men take an immediate shine to Katey. James (Jonathan Jackson), the son of her dad's boss, eagerly invites her to a country club dance. But it is Javier Luna), a hotel waiter, who catches Katey's eye.
Javier introduces her to a style of sexy dancing unlike anything she has ever seen before. Intrigued, she suggests they team up to win a dance contest by combining the structure of ballroom dance with the sensuality of the local dance. Since Javier has been fired for consorting with a hotel guest -- namely, Katey -- he agrees, to the disgust of older brother Carlos (Rene Lavan), a car thief and committed Castro-ite.
Then Patrick Swayze of the original "Dirty Dancing" turns up as a hotel dance instructor, who encourages Katey but takes no real role in developing her dance or choreography. Like so many of the movie's characters, he floats on the periphery of the story without contributing much to the complexity of the portrait of pre-Revolution Havana.
The Puerto Rican cities of San Juan and Ponce make a convincing old Havana. The soundtrack neatly mixes Latin beats with the high energy rock of that era. The costumes, too, are eye-catching especially the colors and styles in steamy club scenes.
DIRTY DANCING: HAVANA NIGHTS
Lions Gate Films
Lions Gate Films and Miramax Films
Credits:
Director: Guy Ferland
Screenwriters: Boaz Yakin, Victoria Arch
Story by: Kate Gunzinger, Peter Sagal
Producers: Lawrence Bender, Sarah Green
Executive producers: Bob Osher, Meryl Poster, Jennifer Berman, Amir Malin, Rachel Cohen
Director of photography: Anthony Richmond
Production designer: Hugo Luczyc-Wyhowski
Music: Heitor Pererira
Choreography: JoAnn Jansen
Costume designer: Isis Mussenden
Editors: Scott Richter, Luis Colina
Cast:
Juvier Suarez: Diego Luna
Katey Miller: Romola Garai
Jeannie Miller: Sela Ward
Bert Miller: John Slattery
James Phelps: Jonathan Jackson
Eve: January Jones
Susie Miller: Mika Boorem
Dance instructor: Patrick Swayze
Running time -- 86 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
Latin sensation Jennifer Lopez is set to wed her new beau Ben Affleck in a lavish $1.5 million Valentine's Day Puerto Rican extravaganza. Just a month after the "My Love Don't Cost A Thing" singer filed for divorce from dancer Cris Judd, J.Lo plans to return to her roots for the lavish nuptials - taking over San Juan's luxurious Ritz-carlton resort in the island of her parents' birth. A source says of the upcoming star-studded ceremony, "This will be one of the most glorious weddings in Hollywood history. Jennifer is telling friends that she wants to go all out for this wedding ... and money is no object." The Wedding Planner star J.Lo, whose previous marriages to Judd and restaurateur Ojani Noa ended after very brief unions, plans to fly in her family from New York, while Affleck will transport his from Boston by private jet for the ceremony. The Los Angeles celebrities will arrive in another private jet, while remaining guests will be flown in first class, setting the couple back by tens of thousands of dollars. The adds, "There will be at least a half-dozen designers and decorators who will transform the hotel ballroom into a white fantasy land with silks and chiffons." There will also be top-notch security costing $100,000 at the bash and Lopez and Affleck are set to arrive at their reception in a horse-drawn carriage. But the couple have yet to decide on where they will honeymoon, although pals tell American tabloid the Star that they're currently leaning towards the idea of a Caribbean cruise. The Valentine's Day nuptials will also mark two years to the very day that Lopez' split from hip-hop mogul Sean 'P Diddy' Combs was officially announced.
- 8/30/2002
- WENN
Ramon Salazar's "Piedras" (Stones) is an artful soap opera about five women in Madrid linked by circumstance, coincidence and chance, not to mention feet and shoes. The protracted film takes a long time to kick in, but eventually the characters' overwrought emotional lives give the story lines enough dramatic urgency to provoke interest.
"Piedras" is a natural for the festival circuit, but chances of distribution deals outside Europe are slim. An adventurous North American distributor could pitch the film to older women while playing up the similarities between "Piedras" and ensemble films by such directors as Robert Altman, Paul Thomas Anderson and even fellow Spaniard Pedro Almodovar.
Initially, shoes link the characters. Isabel (Angela Molina) has a collection that fills a walk-in closet. Maricarmen (Vicky Pena), a taxi driver, suffers from bunions, so she wears slippers. Leire (Najwa Nimri) once dreamed of designing shoes but gave that up for her boyfriend.
Mildly retarded Anita (Monica Cervera) tramps around the block daily in training shoes while her mom, Adela Antonia San Juan), works in a brothel, where shoes are seldom needed.
Soon other things connect the women. Toughened by life, Adela to her astonishment finds herself falling in love with an older businessman, Leonardo Rodolfo De Souza). Adela's ardent admirer turns out to be the estranged husband of Isabel, who punishes him for his disinterest by spending money and conducting sordid affairs.
When Adela hires nursing student Joaquin (Enrique Alcides) to look after her daughter, Joaquin decides to expand Anita's world beyond her one city block. Then when Leire's boyfriend, Kun (Daniele Liotti), dumps her, he moves in with Joaquin.
Maricarmen is raising her deceased husband's son and daughter despite the fact the latter hates her. Leire, in despair with heartbreak, seeks out her estranged father, which turns out to be Maricarmen's dead husband.
Throw in drug overdoses, alcoholic binges and a near suicide, and you have a pretty good go at "Days of Our Lives, Spanish-style." Fortunately, Salazar, a first-time writer-director, does plant agreeable surprises in his story lines. Best of all, though, is his wonderful cast.
Molina is appropriately brittle and bitter as the discarded upper-class wife. Cervera gives her mentally challenged character a childlike wonder, forever searching the world for something to call her own. Neither happy hooker nor downtrodden victim, San Juan's prostitute is a matter-of-fact working mom, shorn of sentimentality. Having little to work with, Nimri nonetheless conveys the pain of her lover's rejection. Despairing of a life of work, work and more work, Pena's taxi driver finds an outlet in nonstop, stream-of-consciousness monologues whether passengers like it nor not.
The movie, too, rambles. Subplots wander and characters dither as the tyro director gets lost in his own self-indulgence. Behind-the-camera credits are decent, especially David Carretero's night cinematography. However, not much is made of Madrid as a location, which might reflect the film's budgetary limitations.
PIEDRAS
Alquimia Cinema presents in association with
Ensueno Films and Telemadrid
and the collaboration of Via Digital
and the participation of Antena 3 Television
a Francisco Ramos production
Producer: Francisco Ramos
Screenwriter-director: Ramon Salazar
Director of photography: David Carretero
Production designer: Montse Sanz
Music: Pascal Gaigne
Costume designer: Estibaliz Markiegi
Editor: Teresa Font
Color/stereo
Cast:
Adela: Antonia San Juan
Leire: Najwa Nimri
Maricarmen: Vicky Pena
Anita: Monica Cervera
Isabel: Angela Molina
Joaquin: Enrique Alcides
Kun: Daniele Liotti
Leonardo: Rodolfo de Souza
Running time -- 136 minutes
No MPAA rating...
"Piedras" is a natural for the festival circuit, but chances of distribution deals outside Europe are slim. An adventurous North American distributor could pitch the film to older women while playing up the similarities between "Piedras" and ensemble films by such directors as Robert Altman, Paul Thomas Anderson and even fellow Spaniard Pedro Almodovar.
Initially, shoes link the characters. Isabel (Angela Molina) has a collection that fills a walk-in closet. Maricarmen (Vicky Pena), a taxi driver, suffers from bunions, so she wears slippers. Leire (Najwa Nimri) once dreamed of designing shoes but gave that up for her boyfriend.
Mildly retarded Anita (Monica Cervera) tramps around the block daily in training shoes while her mom, Adela Antonia San Juan), works in a brothel, where shoes are seldom needed.
Soon other things connect the women. Toughened by life, Adela to her astonishment finds herself falling in love with an older businessman, Leonardo Rodolfo De Souza). Adela's ardent admirer turns out to be the estranged husband of Isabel, who punishes him for his disinterest by spending money and conducting sordid affairs.
When Adela hires nursing student Joaquin (Enrique Alcides) to look after her daughter, Joaquin decides to expand Anita's world beyond her one city block. Then when Leire's boyfriend, Kun (Daniele Liotti), dumps her, he moves in with Joaquin.
Maricarmen is raising her deceased husband's son and daughter despite the fact the latter hates her. Leire, in despair with heartbreak, seeks out her estranged father, which turns out to be Maricarmen's dead husband.
Throw in drug overdoses, alcoholic binges and a near suicide, and you have a pretty good go at "Days of Our Lives, Spanish-style." Fortunately, Salazar, a first-time writer-director, does plant agreeable surprises in his story lines. Best of all, though, is his wonderful cast.
Molina is appropriately brittle and bitter as the discarded upper-class wife. Cervera gives her mentally challenged character a childlike wonder, forever searching the world for something to call her own. Neither happy hooker nor downtrodden victim, San Juan's prostitute is a matter-of-fact working mom, shorn of sentimentality. Having little to work with, Nimri nonetheless conveys the pain of her lover's rejection. Despairing of a life of work, work and more work, Pena's taxi driver finds an outlet in nonstop, stream-of-consciousness monologues whether passengers like it nor not.
The movie, too, rambles. Subplots wander and characters dither as the tyro director gets lost in his own self-indulgence. Behind-the-camera credits are decent, especially David Carretero's night cinematography. However, not much is made of Madrid as a location, which might reflect the film's budgetary limitations.
PIEDRAS
Alquimia Cinema presents in association with
Ensueno Films and Telemadrid
and the collaboration of Via Digital
and the participation of Antena 3 Television
a Francisco Ramos production
Producer: Francisco Ramos
Screenwriter-director: Ramon Salazar
Director of photography: David Carretero
Production designer: Montse Sanz
Music: Pascal Gaigne
Costume designer: Estibaliz Markiegi
Editor: Teresa Font
Color/stereo
Cast:
Adela: Antonia San Juan
Leire: Najwa Nimri
Maricarmen: Vicky Pena
Anita: Monica Cervera
Isabel: Angela Molina
Joaquin: Enrique Alcides
Kun: Daniele Liotti
Leonardo: Rodolfo de Souza
Running time -- 136 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 2/27/2002
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Never exactly a stylist, known more for the insouciant attitudes and moods his movies contain than for their formal complexity, Spanish director Pedro Almodovar has created his finest and most absorbing work to date with "All About My Mother", a strong contender for top awards in the main competition. Almodovar has found the perfect range of expression, balancing his flair for melodrama and Hollywood recreation with his deep, non-judgmental treatment of character and personality.
The film's plot is ostensibly lifted from John Cassavetes' seminal 1977 work "Opening Night", where Gena Rowlands' character, a Broadway actor, is haunted by the accidental death of an idolatrous young woman. "All About My Mother" subtly reworks the same idea, charting the emotional recovery of Manuela (Cecilia Roth) following her son's death when the 18-year-old aspiring writer pursued an autograph from Huma Rojo (Marisa Paredes), an actress performing in a Madrid production of "A Streetcar Named Desire". Honoring her son's wish to learn more about the father he never knew, Manuela returns to her native Barcelona in an attempt to locate the man she fled from nearly 20 years earlier.
Visiting a desolate stretch frequented by drug addicts and transvestite hookers, Manuela intervenes in helping another former companion, Agrado (a fantastic Antonio San Juan) in a nasty encounter with a brutally aggressive client. Perhaps the most inspired and memorable in Almodovar's gallery of distinctive female characters, Agrado facilitates Manuela's emotional healing. She introduces Manuela to Sister Rosa (an excellent Penelope Cruz), whose own secret tie to Manuela is subtly interwoven into the tapestry of interconnections and ironic coincidences.
If the Cassavetes film sets the plot in motion, what sustains the film's criss-crossing, rhyming narrative threads is its extended variation of Joseph Mankiewitz's "All About Eve", vividly evoked when the production of "A Streetcar Named Desire", with Huma Rojo, begins its extended run in Barcelona. As Manuela is quickly drawn into the turmoil of the actress' own life, "All About My Mother" evolves into a deep and beautiful meditation on female solidarity and emotional connection. Though the film is frequently and devastatingly funny, Almodovar never achieves that laughter through the pain and torment of his characters. Instead it is summoned through observation, wit and inflection.
Where in the past Almodovar's work as a director was primarily an act of appropriation (particularly of the films of Douglas Sirk), "All About My Mother" is his most visually fluent, beautifully synthesizing artifice and naturalism. Shooting in widescreen, Almodovar uses the frame to explore the range of human expression without sacrificing his particularly skill for color patterns and stylized decor. Except for one abrupt transition in the final act, the pacing and shape are just right. The acting, it goes without saying, is uniformly fine. The movie is a dedication to great women performers (including Rowlands, Bette Davis and Romy Schneider). The film, acquired by Sony Pictures Classics, honors their brilliance while earning the right for special status on its own.
ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER
A El Deseo S.A. production,
in association with Renn Productions and France 2 Cinema
Credits
Director/screenwriter:Pedro Almodovar
Producer:Esther Garcia
Executive producer:Agustin Almodovar
Cinematographer:Affonso Beato
Editor:Jose Salcedo
Music:Alberto Iglesias
Art director:Antxon Gomez
Costumes:Jose Maria de Cossio, Sabine Daigeler
Cast:
Manuela:Cecilia Roth
Huma Rojo:Marisa Paredes
Rosa:Penelope Cruz
Agrado:Antonio San Juan
Nina:Candela Pena
Rosa's mother:Rosa Maria Sarda
Running time: 101 minutes...
The film's plot is ostensibly lifted from John Cassavetes' seminal 1977 work "Opening Night", where Gena Rowlands' character, a Broadway actor, is haunted by the accidental death of an idolatrous young woman. "All About My Mother" subtly reworks the same idea, charting the emotional recovery of Manuela (Cecilia Roth) following her son's death when the 18-year-old aspiring writer pursued an autograph from Huma Rojo (Marisa Paredes), an actress performing in a Madrid production of "A Streetcar Named Desire". Honoring her son's wish to learn more about the father he never knew, Manuela returns to her native Barcelona in an attempt to locate the man she fled from nearly 20 years earlier.
Visiting a desolate stretch frequented by drug addicts and transvestite hookers, Manuela intervenes in helping another former companion, Agrado (a fantastic Antonio San Juan) in a nasty encounter with a brutally aggressive client. Perhaps the most inspired and memorable in Almodovar's gallery of distinctive female characters, Agrado facilitates Manuela's emotional healing. She introduces Manuela to Sister Rosa (an excellent Penelope Cruz), whose own secret tie to Manuela is subtly interwoven into the tapestry of interconnections and ironic coincidences.
If the Cassavetes film sets the plot in motion, what sustains the film's criss-crossing, rhyming narrative threads is its extended variation of Joseph Mankiewitz's "All About Eve", vividly evoked when the production of "A Streetcar Named Desire", with Huma Rojo, begins its extended run in Barcelona. As Manuela is quickly drawn into the turmoil of the actress' own life, "All About My Mother" evolves into a deep and beautiful meditation on female solidarity and emotional connection. Though the film is frequently and devastatingly funny, Almodovar never achieves that laughter through the pain and torment of his characters. Instead it is summoned through observation, wit and inflection.
Where in the past Almodovar's work as a director was primarily an act of appropriation (particularly of the films of Douglas Sirk), "All About My Mother" is his most visually fluent, beautifully synthesizing artifice and naturalism. Shooting in widescreen, Almodovar uses the frame to explore the range of human expression without sacrificing his particularly skill for color patterns and stylized decor. Except for one abrupt transition in the final act, the pacing and shape are just right. The acting, it goes without saying, is uniformly fine. The movie is a dedication to great women performers (including Rowlands, Bette Davis and Romy Schneider). The film, acquired by Sony Pictures Classics, honors their brilliance while earning the right for special status on its own.
ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER
A El Deseo S.A. production,
in association with Renn Productions and France 2 Cinema
Credits
Director/screenwriter:Pedro Almodovar
Producer:Esther Garcia
Executive producer:Agustin Almodovar
Cinematographer:Affonso Beato
Editor:Jose Salcedo
Music:Alberto Iglesias
Art director:Antxon Gomez
Costumes:Jose Maria de Cossio, Sabine Daigeler
Cast:
Manuela:Cecilia Roth
Huma Rojo:Marisa Paredes
Rosa:Penelope Cruz
Agrado:Antonio San Juan
Nina:Candela Pena
Rosa's mother:Rosa Maria Sarda
Running time: 101 minutes...
- 5/17/1999
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Marcos Zurinaga's thriller about the assassination of the great Spanish poet-playwright Federico Garcia Lorca is ambitious in its conception and execution, boasts a impressive international cast, and deals with a heretofore unexamined and fascinating topic.
But "The Disappearance of Garcia Lorca" fumbles badly, suffering from awkward structure, unsatisfying script and direction and unsuccessful performances. As it lapses into 1940s-style melodrama by the time it finally reaches its conclusion, one half-expects Humphrey Bogart or Jimmy Cagney to appear and save the day; alas, they never do.
Andy Garcia plays the title role of Federico Garcia Lorca, but the story mainly revolves around young Ricardo Fernandez (Esai Morales), whom we first see as a young boy who has a life-changing encounter with Lorca in 1936 after a performance of the celebrated writer's "Yerma". The scene then shifts to 1954: Ricardo is now a journalist living and working in San Juan, Puerto Rico, obsessed with finding out exactly how his idol was murdered. Against his father's objections, he returns to Spain to investigate.
There he encounters a wide gallery of friends and foes, although those classifications are ever-changeable. Among the former are a friendly cab driver (Giancarlo Giannini) who miraculously appears everywhere Ricardo goes, and the beautiful Maria (Marcela Walerstein), the beautiful daughter of family friend Col. Aguirre (Jeroen Krabbe). The latter include mysterious figures who may or may not have figured in Lorca's death, including a security officer for Franco's forces (Miguel Ferrer) and a mysterious former politician Edward James Olmos) now living in Madrid.
The story shifts, in jarring fashion, back and forth between Ricardo's increasingly dangerous inquiries and the events of 1936 when Lorca is harassed by dictator Francisco Franco's fascist forces.
Despite a moving and impressive portrayal of the poet by Garcia, we never fully get to know the character, and historical context is at a minimum. The segments involving Ricardo are even less satisfying; the filmmakers have attempted to create a harrowing political thriller, but the wildly unconvincing script and performances simply don't come off, with sometimes laughable results.
THE DISAPPEARANCE OF GARCIA LORCA
Triumph Releasing
Director-producer Marcos Zurinaga
Exec producers Moctesuma Esparza, Robert Katz
Producer Enrique Cerezo
Screenplay Marcos Zurinaga,
Juan Antonio Ramos, Neil Cohen
Director of photography Juan Ruiz Anchia
Editor Carole Kravetz
Color/stereo
Cast:
Ricardo Esai Morales
Lozano Edward James Olmos
Federico Garcia Lorca Andy Garcia
Col. Aguirre Jeroen Krabbe
Taxi driver Giancarlo Giannini
Centeno Miguel Ferrer
Maria Eugenia Marcela Walerstein
Running time -- 114 minutes
No MPAA rating...
But "The Disappearance of Garcia Lorca" fumbles badly, suffering from awkward structure, unsatisfying script and direction and unsuccessful performances. As it lapses into 1940s-style melodrama by the time it finally reaches its conclusion, one half-expects Humphrey Bogart or Jimmy Cagney to appear and save the day; alas, they never do.
Andy Garcia plays the title role of Federico Garcia Lorca, but the story mainly revolves around young Ricardo Fernandez (Esai Morales), whom we first see as a young boy who has a life-changing encounter with Lorca in 1936 after a performance of the celebrated writer's "Yerma". The scene then shifts to 1954: Ricardo is now a journalist living and working in San Juan, Puerto Rico, obsessed with finding out exactly how his idol was murdered. Against his father's objections, he returns to Spain to investigate.
There he encounters a wide gallery of friends and foes, although those classifications are ever-changeable. Among the former are a friendly cab driver (Giancarlo Giannini) who miraculously appears everywhere Ricardo goes, and the beautiful Maria (Marcela Walerstein), the beautiful daughter of family friend Col. Aguirre (Jeroen Krabbe). The latter include mysterious figures who may or may not have figured in Lorca's death, including a security officer for Franco's forces (Miguel Ferrer) and a mysterious former politician Edward James Olmos) now living in Madrid.
The story shifts, in jarring fashion, back and forth between Ricardo's increasingly dangerous inquiries and the events of 1936 when Lorca is harassed by dictator Francisco Franco's fascist forces.
Despite a moving and impressive portrayal of the poet by Garcia, we never fully get to know the character, and historical context is at a minimum. The segments involving Ricardo are even less satisfying; the filmmakers have attempted to create a harrowing political thriller, but the wildly unconvincing script and performances simply don't come off, with sometimes laughable results.
THE DISAPPEARANCE OF GARCIA LORCA
Triumph Releasing
Director-producer Marcos Zurinaga
Exec producers Moctesuma Esparza, Robert Katz
Producer Enrique Cerezo
Screenplay Marcos Zurinaga,
Juan Antonio Ramos, Neil Cohen
Director of photography Juan Ruiz Anchia
Editor Carole Kravetz
Color/stereo
Cast:
Ricardo Esai Morales
Lozano Edward James Olmos
Federico Garcia Lorca Andy Garcia
Col. Aguirre Jeroen Krabbe
Taxi driver Giancarlo Giannini
Centeno Miguel Ferrer
Maria Eugenia Marcela Walerstein
Running time -- 114 minutes
No MPAA rating...
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