The Fifth Estate - Trailer

Always wanted to know more about Julian Assange - the appalling American spy - and apparently there's a movie about him I never heard before. It is called " The Fifth Estate" and has as the main character Benedict Cumberbatch ( strangely beauty English actor). I will see it for sure. Curious? Biography fan? Yeah, I'm all that but, in addition, I'm looking forward to see how Josh Singer use the material of " Inside Julian Assange's War on Secrecy" and "My Time With Julian Assange at The World Most Dangerous Website".

Princess Diana Movie vs Reality

"A woman's instinct" and " a husband who loves someone else", two shark quotes of the following interview Diana did for BBC in 1995. I got curious about this interview after seeing the latest biography movie Diana, from the German director Oliver Hirschbiegel, in which she opens up about her bulimia and mutilation problems, and she talks about how unhappy she was with a man who never really loved her. 

On the top of that there was the media, royal family and politics pressures. Luckily, for her and the whole world, she had found a role in charity that suited her perfectly, more than being a princess she was the humanitarian princess.

Princess Diana interview for BBC (1995) - she was 34 - used as a source for the recent movie Diana (2013)

It seems to be always hard to make a biography movie. "The Iron Lady" is that one I can remember that can go to the good box of biography movies. "Diana" is in the opposite box. A plot focused too much on the love story between Diana and the heart doctor Hasnat Khan and a very poor achievement of actress Naomi Watts (voice, gestures and physical appearance not even close, sorry). 

Princess Diana's casual outfits

Movie of the week: Blue Jasmine

Yesterday I saw Woody latest movie. From all the critics I read about it I was expecting a big thing and it really was. Time passes and I just become more and more addicted to his work, not only he is a genius director but a fantastic writer. I guess he sees the world and human relations as I do, that's why it’s worth watch it in a theater.

To bear in mind:

1.       Cate Blanchett is absolutely fantastic

2.       Amazing sights of San Francisco

3.       The soundtrack is all that jazz! Best track:

To The Wonder

 Recommended Movie.

The best of The Bling Ring

Sofia Coppola is a great GREAT director. I don't have any critics to her films. She moved from the loneliness lives to criticized the superficial empty society of Vanity Fair so well. An ambiguous movie based on the real story: The Suspects Wore Louboutins. What an aesthetic sensibility, tasteful, glamorous, well-done Coppola, clap! clap! clap!

1. Emma Watson, the "English Rose" surprising role. Keep an eye on her, she has the potential to win an Oscar soon.

2. Lucid quotes about Facebook generation and celebrity culture

3. Super cool soundtrack, as always.

Movie of the Week – III Movies of João Salaviza

Cinema. There’s a new generation of young Portuguese directors playing the game, Gonçalo Tocha (É na Terra não na Lua), Miguel Gomes (Tabu) and João Salaviza (Arena and Rafa), that after a couple of awards in Berlin and Cannes have achieved a gorgeous reputation among cinema critics.

Midas Films just launched a DVD with Salaviza’s three short movies and its available in French and English as well, so exportable. In an interview for a Portuguese radio show the young director shared his witty thoughs about his work “my flat mates say my emotional intelligence is all focused on cinema”. He grow up in Lisbon and the pictures he captures in his movies are true, in a way that they exist just like they are in reality, with the same people around, same color, same essentia.

 “Arena”, 2009, won Golden Palm in Cannes, is a short movie and tells a story of Mauro. He’s arrested and lives with an electronic bracelet at his home. He likes to tattoo people. It’s mid-day, the sun is hot and strong, and three kids of the area come near Mauro’s window.

In “Cerro Negro”, 2011, Anajara comes back from its work in the jingle-jangle morning. She cannot leave Iuri at school. Seventy kilometers from home Allison waits his wife and son. It’s the visiting day in Santarém’s prison.

The plot of Rafa, 2012, Golden Bear in Berlin, is about a child named Rafa. At 6AM he found out his mother was detained at the police station. He leaves his home in the Southbank of Tejo River, crosses the bridge with a friend in a motorbike and arrives to inner Lisbon.

Salaviza’s technique and photography are remarkable, and also the ends - everyone can give a future to his characters. He's working on a new film to be lanched in 2013, a film with more than 60 minutes, shot in Lisbon, because he is a big-city man.  3.5/5

Movie of the week – “Band of Outsiders”

Without a doubt Godard had found the formula for what I call a true cinema with his nouvelle vague histories. In Godard’s “Band of Outsiders” two friends (Arthur and Franz) try to robber a parisien madame and her money they think come from unpaid taxes. Odile (Anna Karina) is helping them, a young girl they met at English class. The part where they actually met her is genius, their teacher is reading Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet in French for a translation assignment. The three speak poor English. Odile doesn’t love the cinema nor the theater – funny and ironic the way Godard plays with the emotions between people and the cinema – she prefers “la nature”. She is in love with Arthur but he is unreadable and Franz is in love with her.

Best scene – Dance in the café; Worst scene – Arthur assaults Olive, putting the blame of their failed plan on her.

My first incursion into Godard’s movies was“Vivre sa Vie” (1962), then “À Boute de Suffle” (1960), “Le Mépris” (1963), “Pierrot Le Fou” (1965) and at last “Band of Outsiders” (1964), wholly random choices and what impresses me the most is that he directed nearly a movie per year and all of them quality, wary, superior master-pieces. I just couldn't stop watching, I was emotionally engaged. As a woman, I look different to his approach, especially the scripts. Even before I read Godard used Anna Karina as an object of creation for his films, he had been aggressive to her, though I really didn’t mind to check if it is only gossip or an accurate fact, even then I had the opinion about his conception of women characters: naïve, curious, emotional, beautiful, and free, for it bothers me seeing this kind of violence in his movies. 4/5

Movie of the week – “The Iron Lady”

In the month where the citizens of the world woke up by the sound of Margaret Thatcher’s death it’s mandatory to watch / re-watch her autobiographic movie "The Iron Lady", directed by Phyllida Lloyd, praised for her work in opera and the movies Mamma Mia! and Abba. There’re those who might know her career enough: her politics ideology and the way she had run England over 11 years ( 1979 – 1990), but this movie is a great opportunity to see first an amazing actress Meryl Streep, who won the oscar in 2012 for the role, second London’s street frames and the parliament in the 80’s marked by the end of Cold War.

Also, the script is fairly-good: Maggie the grocer’s daughter who became Secretary of State for Education, Leader of the Conservative Party and the first and only woman Prime Minister in the country’s history.

Though not all measures were popular, quite normal as far as politics concerns - she was harshly criticized during Falklands War - the movie articulates her foremost politics and sociological memoirs. Maggie’s weaknesses and strengths are revealed in a strong movie as the character itself, with roundtrips from youth to mental illness. 4/5.

Little Cannes awards 1

Un été brûlant, in my words. Last night was movie time and I think I have made a great choice. Philippe Garrel, tipical French cinema, with Monica Bellucci and Louis Garrel also as main actors. The movie starts how it ends, with a car crash, a suicide. However is far from being a Cronenberg movie (though you remember Crash). It talks about the complex relationship between women and men, with a sensual, Monica Bellucci breaking her marriage with love affairs. According to the character Frédéric, played by Louis Garrel, life only makes sense if it is lived within art and love, which is kind of beautiful to think of. Although, the script is full of idealist and romantic idea, everybody should watch it. Good cinema and good photography. It is not fresh the way Paris or Rome both are filmed but overall your brain retains useful information about human beings, therefore, two words: worth seeing. // Habemus Papam. Nanni Moretti knows how to break the stereotypy. Once again he presented a gorgeous movie, very warm in the way it describes Catholic Church’s rules. In my point of view the script was written to trigger contradictory narrative, say, the rules can be cold but a great character can disrupt them. The movie was inspired by author’s own life, marked by an Italian society full of religious dogmas. The bulk of reviews have praised “Habemus Papam” and it deserves it. This film was thought in that time Catholics had to replace their old time figure Pope John Paul II. His power has lasted over 25 years (1978-2005) and so it was a long period of time, maybe relief, where nobody had to think much about catholic elections methods. Then a dead arrived and suddenly the whole world started to write and speculate about the new Pope and this mysterious way of announcement: the white smoke. Is a ritual, kind of exoteric as well, isn´t it? Catholic cardinals are meeting in one of S. Peter cathedral’s historical and majestic room (looks like a trial court) to elect a the new Pope . The thing Nanni Moretti reflects about is this moment. What if this Pope, deliberately chosen, isn’t sure on accepting this title? What if after the moment he hears its name he starts to question himself on existential issues. Can you imagine? Is lovely to see how it ends and how you learn about unhappy ending. Over and out.