Ugly Me / Pretendiendo

Barbara Mori, before and after in Ugly Me (Arcangelo Entertainment)

The Chilean comedy Ugly Me screened at this year's San Diego Latino Film Festival and now returns as part of the Festival's monthly film series Cinema Tu Idioma at the Ultrastar Mission Valley Theaters at Hazard Center. I passed on the film at the Festival because I had such a hefty list of titles I wanted to see that I let my bias against romantic comedies get the better of me and I crossed this one off to see something darker or more substantial. But I should have known that a romantic comedy from Chile would have more going on that the average Hollywood romantic comedy.

NOTE: Filmmaker Claudio Dabed will be present at the opening night screening on Friday, August 22. Founder and executive director of Media Arts Center San Diego and San Diego Latino Film Festival, Ethan van Thillo, states, "It's an honor to bring back Mr. Dabed and his fun film after its very successful screening at the recent 15th anniversary San Diego Latino Film Festival. The film is a great date film and Barbara Mori puts in a not-to-be-missed performance."

MoPA Movies: Charulata and El Mariachi

MoPA Movies: Satyajit Ray's Charulata (Ray Family Collection) and Robert Rodriguez' El Mariachi (Columbia)

The diversity of the Musuem of Photographic Arts' film prgoram is clearly diplayed in this week's two film offerings. On May 13 at 7pm, the Indian Film Festival continues with another Satyajit Ray film, 1964's Charulata. Then on May 15 at 7pm, head off to Mexico for POP Thursday's offering of Robert Rodriguez' El Mariachi.

Charulata, as with last week's Ray film Teen Kanya/Two Daughters, is based on a story by Rabindranath Tagore. Set in Calcutta in the late nineteenth century (while India was still under British rule), the film centers on Charulata (Madhabi Mukherjee), the intelligent, beautiful but childless wife of Bhupati (Sailen Mukherjee), the publisher of a political newspaper. Bhupati has an interest in politics and the freedom movement while his wife prefers the arts and poetry. Since Bhupati is busy with work, he invites Charu's older brother and wife to stay at the house. In addition, Bhupati's younger cousin Amal (Soumitra Chatterjee) arrives. He's young, handsome and shares Charu's interest in poetry. Complications arise from here. Charulata was Ray's twelfth feature film, and reportedly the director's favorite apparently because he saw it as one with the least defects.

In contrast to Ray's mature, quiet eloquence is the brash, over the top debut feature of Robert Rodriguez, El Mariachi. Rodriguez used to watch John Woo's heroic bloodshed films in the late 80s and early 90s. These Hong Kong flicks made him wish he was Asian like the Chow Yun, whom he saw sliding down banisters and firing two guns at a time. That's why he decided to make El Mariachi as his first feature film. It was an action film featuring Latino talent. His hope was that he could make being Mexican cool. And he's succeeded. Rodriguez made three installments in his saga of a guitar-toting, gun-slinging lone Mariachi. The first chapter, El Mariachi, was made for a mere $7000 in 1992. Desperado upped the ante to 7 million in 1995. And Once Upon a Time in Mexico, a film that mixes Asian action with the epic scope of an Italian spaghetti western and sets it all to a distinctly Latin beat, cost $30 million, which is cheap by today's bloated budget standard. What makes all these films such fun rides is that Rodriguez doesn't take himself too seriously. There's not an ounce of pretension here, just a guy in love with filmmaking. And that's hard to resist.

So enjoy MoPA's eclectic film offerings this week.

Del Toro Confirmed to Direct The Hobbit

Guillermo Del Toro (here directing Picturehouse' Pan's Labyrinth) is set to direct The Hobbit.

This isn't exactly breaking news (sorry I was a little slow to catch this one) but... The upcoming film version of The Hobbit has stirred a lot of buzz and debate as rumors have been circulating about exactly who would be involved. Since Peter Jackson did such a kick ass job bringing J.R.R. Tolkein's Lord of the Rings to the screen, fans were hoping that the New Zealand director would take on The Hobbit, the novel that precedes the storyline of the LOTR Trilogy. But negotiations, scheduling issues, and what not made it seem like Jackson would not be at the helm. A few days ago that was confirmed. But the good news is that Mexico's Guillermo Del Toro (director of Hellboy and Pan's Labyrinth) has been signed on with Jackson producing. So the idea of Jackson and Del Toro collaborating should make fans happy. If anyone doubts Del Toro's ability to tackle this fantasy classic, just check out any of his films: Cronos, Mimic, The Devil's Backbone, Blade II, Hellboy or Pan's Labyrinth. Del Toro definitely has a flair for the fantastical and for finding the humanity in any story -- even if it involves bizarre monsters and creatures. The only down side of this is that Del Toro will aparently be moving to New Zealand where it will take four years to make two films back-to-back. The first film is slated to be a straight adaptation of The Hobbit. But the second is reported to be  "an entirely original film, set between the end of The Hobbit and the beginning of The Lord of the Rings trilogy." That means Del Toro will be focused on Hobbits for the next four years. Not terrible news, but I always liked the way Del Toro alternated between big productions and small personal works (Cronos, The Devil's Backbone). So this means we're unlikely to see a personal film from Del Toro for a few years. Oh well. But here's looking forward to what the fertile imaginations of Del Toro and Jackson can come up with. This is a creative marriage made in heaven... or at the very least in the Shire. I can't wait.

The Ruins

On vacation and having fun... but not for long. The Ruins (Dreamworks)

I am soooo gullible! I love horror movies and every time a new horror film comes out I get my hopes up that this will be the one, the one that scares me. No matter how bad it may look, I eagerly seek them all out, naively hoping they will deliver. You’d think after all the disappointments I’ve experienced (because there actually are only a small percentage of good horror films out there) I would have become more jaded. But no. So it was with high expectations yet again that I headed off to the screening of The Ruins (opening April 4 throughout San Diego).

Under the Same Moon

Adrian Alonso hits the road in search of his mom in Under the Same Moon (Fox Searchlight)

Under the Same Moon/La Misma Luna is the kind of film I hate to review because it's a small, independent work that is earnest and sincere with an adorable child performance at the heart of its warm family tale. Yet it's also seriously flawed. But to criticize it just seems mean-spirited. Under the Same Moon (opening March 19 in limited release in San Diego) was the opening night feature for the San Diego Latino Film Festival earlier this month. It played to an embracing full house but surprisingly did not nab the Audience Award, which instead went to another heart-warming tale of parents and offspring, El Brindis from Chile.

SDLFF Highlight: Lorena Velazquez

Last chance to see Lorena Velazquez on the big screen at the SDLFF. (UNAM)

If you weren't at the San Diego Latino Film Festival last Friday for the 1966 sci-fi cult classic El Planeta de las Mujeres Invasoras/Planet of Invading Women then you missed seeing its star Lorena Velazquez in person. The statuesque Mexican actress still looked great at 68 and draped in multiple strands of pearls. In her comments after the film, she said that we need "the old Mexican glamour back." Well she certainly provided a dose of that glamour at the festival as she accepted an award from SDLFF founder Ethan Van Thillo. Although she will not appear at the festival again, you do have the chance to catch her in the 1960 film La Nave de Los Monstruos/Ship of Monsters Friday March 14 at 10pm. (Listen to her description of the film.) This film surpasses El Planeta de las Mujeres Invasoras to deliver a delightful sci-fi romp complete with space babes in bathing suits, robots, assorted monsters and a singing Mexican cowboy. I had a chance to interview her before the screening.

SDLFF: Festival Update

 
An accident leads to strange happenings in Kilometro 31 (DistriMax)

I have spent the last few days watching films at the San Diego Latino Film Festival's opening weekend. Films continue through March 16 at the Ultrastar Mission Valley Theaters at Hazard Center with a closing night tribute to Cheech Marin. Marin's Born in East L.A. celebrates it 20th anniversary and the festival will honor Marin with an award. Executive director Ethan Van Thillo says, "there is so much focus on Spanish language films and filmmakers like Gael Garcia Bernal and Alejandro González Iñárritu, but we also have to support U.S. produced Latino films and Born in East L.A. was a very important Chicano film, starring a Chicano, directed by a Chicano, and we want to keep on supporting U.S. Latino filmmakers too." The Festival was a bustling place with a number of sellout screenings, including the one for Gael Garcia Bernal's directorial debut Deficit. But you can catch the Mexican star in Hector Babenco's new film O Passado on Thursday night. But I suggest getting there early. Listen to my Film Chat for an update on the festival.

15th Annual San Diego Latino Film Festival

Under the Same Moon kicks off the 15th San Diego Latino Film Festival (Fox Searchlight)

The San Diego Latino Film Festival celebrates its Quinceanera this year, and how wonderfully it has come of age. It has grown up into a stellar event, this year showcasing more than a hundred films with some 120 guests. That's a long way from its humble beginnings as a small student festival. The festival is sponsored by the Media Arts Center San Diego, which, through its Golden Hill home base, also provides facilities to train young people in filmmaking so that they can tell their stories. The festival kicks off tonight with the San Diego premiere of Under the Same Moon/La Misma Luna on its big Macy's screen at the Ultrastar Mission Valley Cinemas at Hazard Center). Directed by Patricia Riggen, the film concerns a young boy who comes to the U.S. from Mexico in order to find his mother after his grandma dies. This film will open theatrically in San Diego after the festival, but many of the other films playing have no U.S. release planned so this will be your only opportunity to catch some of these great movies. You will also have an opportunity to see the works of the Media Art Center's Teen Producers, who are poised to be the filmmakers of tomorrow. Listen to the festival's executive director Ethan Van Thillo and I talk about this year's event with Tom Fudge on These Days.

Touch of Evil

Orson Welles in Touch of Evil screening at MCASD La Jolla (Universal)

I was watching the new film In Bruges when I noticed that the movie being viewed by an Irish hitman stuck in Belguim was none other that Orson Welles' Touch of Evil. The scene playing was the famous extended, single take, opening tracking shot that plays out to Henry Mancini's music. The reason I mention this is that you have the rare opportunity to see the entire Touch of Evil on the big screen Thursday January 31 at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego's La Jolla location. But the version MCASD is showing will not have Mancini's music in the opening credits. That version of the film was the one Welles did not approve of. After he was removed from the production during the editing, the film no longer adhered to his vision. He ended up writing a 58 page memo outlining all the things that did not meet with his approval. That memo provided the basis for the re-issue of the film decades later. In his version, there's no music over that opening sequence. Instead, you hear the ambient sounds of the places you pass by as the camera moves from one side of teh border to the other.

Orson Welles' 1958 film noir classic festering with police corruption, and jolted by violent outbursts. Welles was initially hired just to play seedy detective Hank Quinlan. But because of a misunderstanding, star Charleton Heston had thought that Welles would be directing the film as well. To appease its star, the studio brought Welles on as director (but would end up removing him from the film in post-production). The resulting film serves up a mouth-watering feast of cameoes, noir elements and visual bravado. Among the memorable cameos are Meecedes McCambridge in a black leather jacket and ominously demanding "I wanna watch" when Janet Leigh is being terrroized; Joseph Cotton as a detective who utters the blunt appraisal "Now you can strain him through a sieve;" and of course the great Marlene Dietrich who gets to sum up Welles' Quinlan at the end of teh films with "He was some kind of man." Touch of Evil is some kind of film. I wish I had more time to do this film justice here but I at least wanted to make sure to highlight this screening. See Touch of Evil on the big screen and revel in Welles' genius. Plus, how often do you have the opportunity to see Charleton Heston play a Mexican! 

Companion viewing: Citizen Kane, The Magnificent Ambersons, Lady From Shanghai 

The Orphanage

The Orphanage (Picturehouse) 

If you have ever seen or met Guillermo Del Toro at the San Diego Comic-Con, then you know he's a filmmaker who is sincere about two things: championing the horror genre and helping young filmmakers. I was meeting up with Del Toro at the Comic-Con for an interview a few years back and was impressed by the fact that he took time to speak with filmmakers who came up to him after his panel. He also willingly accepted DVDs of their work. In fact, at one point he turned to his assistant and asked, in reference to the DVDs that had just been handed to him, "where are my treasures?" Now I've seen filmmakers toss the DVDs handed to them at the Comic-Con, but not Del Toro. And he apparently even watches them as well, although he says it may take some time before he gets to each. Now Del Toro shows his support for both horror and neophyte filmmakers by producing the feature debut of Spainish director J.A. Bayona and writer Sergio G. Snchez, El Orphanato/The Orphanage (opening January 4 at Landmark's Hillcrest Cinemas).

If you are familiar with Del Toro's work then you can immediately see why he would be eager to support Bayona, Snchez and The Orphanage. Snchez' story has much in common with Del Toro's The Devil's Backbone. Both deal with orphan children and the supernatural in unexpected ways. Both Bayona and Snchez then approach this ghost story with the same kind of humanism as Del Toro. But The Orphanage does not come off as a Del Toro imitation. Bayona and Snchez imprint their own unique stamp on the film and reveal themselves as promising filmmakers.