News

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said Tuesday that it is extending invitations to 487 to join the membership ranks of the Oscar organizer. If all accept, it will bring the Academy’s total membership to 10,910, of which 9,934 would be voting members.

This year’s list across 19 branches include 2024 Oscar winners Da’Vine Joy Randolph from The Holdovers; Poor Things costume designer Holly Waddington and production design team James Price, Shona Heath and Zsuzsa Mihalek; 20 Days in Mariupol director Mstyslav Chernov, War Is Over! producer Brad Booker; The Zone of Interest sound duo Tarn Willers and Johnnie Burn; the Godzilla Minus One VFX team Tatsuji Nojima, Kiyoko Shibuya, Masaki Takahashi and Takashi Yamazaki; American Fiction writer-director Cord Jefferson; and Anatomy of a Fall writing duo Justine Triet and Arthur Harari.

Jefferson and Triet are among eight names on the list who were invited to more than one branch (noted...

Cinematographer Ed Lachman doesn’t often work with new directors, but for someone he considers “the most important filmmaker in South America,” he’ll make an exception. El Conde marks the first collaboration between Lachman and Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larraín, but Lachman had followed his career dating back to his Pinochet trilogy: Tony Manero (2008), Post Mortem (2010) and No (2012). Lachman clocked similarities to Larraín and a frequent collaborator of his: “Pablo always finds the subtext in the story through the language of how he tells the story through images. That’s something I’ve done with Todd Haynes. Those are the directors I’m drawn to, directors looking to create a language that’s unique to that story.”

This trilogy introduced Lachman to Augusto Pinochet, the Chilean dictator who ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990. While those films dealt with his reign indirectly, El Conde, is Larraín’s first to tackle Pinochet head on.

Born on Nov. 25, 1915, Augusto José Ramón Pinochet would rise through the ranks of the Chilean military and, having become commander-in-chief of the nation’s army, lead a coup against the country’s president Salvador Allende in 1973. This would kick off Pinochet’s political reign — and reign of terror — for the next 17 years. He’d escape persecution for the countless crimes committed during his regime and was unrepentant about his dictatorship (what were mass graves of dissidents but more “efficient ways of burials?”) up until his death in 2006.

This is what the history books tell us.

If Chilean auteur Pablo Larraín displayed one constant over the course of a stunningly multifarious filmography since his breakout sophomore feature “Tony Manero” (2006), it’s his inquisitiveness pitched at the fault lines of politics and family. He sinks his teeth deep—so deep—into that curiosity in his luminous and pensively funny political satire “El Conde,” a fiercely original genre outing that imagines notorious Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet as a centuries-old vampire and inventively considers the perpetual, shape-shifting nature of evil that goes unpunished.

A long-dead dictator who’s in fact undead and still poisoning the veins of the nation while his kin pecks at his wealth like voracious vultures? What a perfectly gothic playground for Larraín, one that aptly dwells in the shadows of a nondescript stony mansion and liberally draws blood out of the director’s own greatest hits. Expect the sardonic humor of Larraín’s political period masterwork “No” here,...

Everyone knows that Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet died in December 2006 at the age of 91, more than 30 years after he seized power from Salvador Allende in a coup d’état that was followed by censorship, torture, mass internments, and forced disappearances at the pleasure of an unelected regime that drained the country of its lifeblood for generations to come. What Pablo Larraín’s cheeky and grotesque “El Conde” (or “The Count”) presupposes is… what if he didn’t?

Directly addressing a figure whose dark shadow has fringed some of the director’s previous work, this fanged satire about the persistence of evil imagines that Pinochet is still alive and kicking. Or, more accurately: undead and loathing it. In Larraín’s conception, Pinochet is a 250-year-old vampire who first developed his lust for blood during the French Revolution, during which he so fetishized Marie Antoinette’s indifference towards the common man that...

As Chile prepares to mark 50 years since the Sept. 11, 1973 coup by Augusto Pinochet, Chilean auteur Pablo Larraín is back in Venice – following “Spencer” in 2021 – with scathing satire “El Conde,” in which Pinochet, a symbol of global fascism, resurfaces as a 250-year old vampire living in a rundown rural mansion after faking his death.

“Pinochet had never been portrayed in film or TV before,” Larrain said. “The approach we chose led us to combine elements of farce and satire,” he added. “It’s probably the only way. If you avoid satire there is a risk of creating empathy, and that’s not acceptable.”

A local journalist asked how the cast thinks the potent allegorical film will play in Chile. In a vote last May, Chileans rejected a proposal to rewrite the country’s dictatorship-era constitution. In other words, Pinochet still seems to have a lot of local fans.

“It will either...

The Chilean filmmaker’s dark satire premieres in Venice competition.

It has been more than a decade since No, Pablo Larraín’s last feature about former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, and the filmmaker returns to the territory with his dark satire El Conde, which receives its world premiere in Venice today (August 31).

The territory was familiar and uncharted. Whereas 2012’s No and the two earlier films in Larraín’s Pinochet trilogy – Tony Manero (2008) and Post Mortem (2010) – steered clear of depicting the tyrant on screen and focused on how his violent rule (1973-1990) bled into the psyche of Chileans, El Conde is something very different.

Paula Hernández’s “A Ravaging Wind” (“El viento que arrasa”) has debuted a poster and trailer ahead of its premieres at Toronto and San Sebastian.

Based on the novel by Selva Almada – and written by Hernández and Leonel D’Agostino – “A Ravishing Wind” will play Toronto’s Centrepiece program, before opening San Sebastian’s Horizontes Latinos, a showcase of many of the best Latin American movies of the last year. It sees Alfredo Castro as Reverend Pearson, an evangelical pastor who travels Argentina by car in the 1990s with his daughter Leni. When it breaks down, they end up at the auto repair shop run by Gringo (Sergi López) and his son (Joaquín Acebo).

Hernán Musaluppi, Santiago López Rodríguez, Diego Robino, Lilia Scenna, Natacha Cervi and Sandino Saravia Vinay produce for Cimarron, Rizoma and Cinevinay, while Film Factory Entertainment handles sales.

“When I was offered to adapt Selva Almada’s book,...

Alfredo Castro, an absolute lead or co-star in seven Pablo Larraín films and one of the highest-regarded of actors in Latin America, is set to head the choral cast of “Three Dark Nights” (“Tres noches negras”), the third feature from Spanish-Chilean Theo Court.

“Three Dark Nights” follows up Court’s “White on White,” also starring Castro, an actor described by Variety as “reliably superb,” which won a best director and Fipresci Prize at 2019’s Venice Horizons. It went on to become Chile’s submission for the international feature Oscar, establishing Court as a talent to track.

In further news, Samuel M. Delgado, co-writer and co-director of “They Carry Death” and a writer with Court of “White on White,” has been brought on board as script consultant.

“Three Dark Nights” is one of the highest-profile of 15 projects which will be brought to market at September’s Europe-Latin American Co-Production Forum.

Like “White on White,...

On September 11, 1973, Chilean military commander Agosto Pinochet orchestrated a coup and seized power over President Salvador Allende. Nearly 50 years later, the undead vampire Pinochet has absconded to the countryside, having faked his death after the end of his regime.

It didn’t quite happen that way, but it’s the fantastic twist of director Pablo Larraín’s gothic satire “El Conde” (“The Count”), the filmmaker’s latest and most ambitious response to the lingering trauma of the Pinochet years. A black-and-white blend of atmospheric silent-era horror and dark humor, the movie confronts the impact of the Pinochet years by transforming the man into a literal bloodsucker who drained the life out of his country.

The Netflix production, which premieres in competition at the Venice Film Festival later this month, adds a provocative new angle to Chile’s relationship with its former ruler. The scope of that history is so vast...

Pablo Larraín is in Italy where the prolific Chilean auteur – whose body of work comprises “Spencer” with Kristen Stewart as Princess Diana and “Jackie,” in which Natalie Portman portrayed Jackie Kennedy, as well as scathing criticisms of the Chilean dictatorship “Post Mortem,” “No,” and “Neruda” – is being honored by Italy’s National Museum of Cinema with a lifetime achievement award.

Prior to his masterclass on Tuesday Larraín spoke to Variety about his two latest projects: Netflix movie “El Conde” which is tipped to launch from Venice, and “Maria,” the biopic of late great soprano Maria Callas, to be played by Angelina Jolie, which is now in prep.

I’d like to start by asking you about your ties to Torino, where as part of the tribute there has been a screening of “Tony Manero,” your second film, which won two prizes at the Torino Film Festival in 2008.

It’s very beautiful to me.

Starring Pablo Larraín regular Alfredo Castro, Chilean-Spanish writer-director Theo Court’s “White on White” (“Blanco en Blanco”) has been acquired for distribution in North America by Outsider Pictures.

The deal follows on the film’s world premiere this September at the Venice Film Festival’s Horizons sidebar, where Court won a Silver Lion for the section’s best director and a film writers’ Fipresci Prize. “White on White” was selected earlier this month as Chile’s submission for 2022’s Academy Awards in the international best feature film category.

Starring in Pablo Larrain’s 2008 breakthrough, “Tony Manero,” as well as his 2015 Berlin Grand Jury Prize winner “The Club,” Castro also headed Lorenzo Vigas’ 2015 Venice Golden Lion laureate “From Afar.”

It takes an actor of his stature to tease out the contradictions of his character, Pedro, in “White and White.” Set in the late 19th century, it begins with a portrait photographer,...

The director of Spencer, Pablo Larraín, discusses a few of his favorite movies with host Josh Olson.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Spencer (2021)

Jackie (2016)

Tony Manero (2008)

Eyes of Laura Mars (1978) – David DeCoteau’s trailer commentary

Back To The Future (1985) – Tfh’s time-traveling quiz

Fitzcarraldo (1982) – Dennis Cozzalio’s Herzog guide

Burden of Dreams (1982)

Aguirre: The Wrath Of God (1972)

Paris, Texas (1984) – Karyn Kusama’s trailer commentary

Eyes Wide Shut (1999) – Dan Ireland’s trailer commentary

Barry Lyndon (1975) – Glenn Erickson’s Criterion Blu-ray review

The Shining (1980) – Adam Rifkin’s trailer commentary

Dr. Strangelove (1964) – Michael Lehman’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Full Metal Jacket (1987)

A Woman Under The Influence (1974)

Salò, Or The 120 Days of Sodom (1975) – Larry Karaszewski’s trailer commentary

Theorem (1968)

Medea (1969)

Naked (1993)

Secrets And Lies (1996) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Vera Drake (2004)

Topsy-Turvy (1999)

Happy-Go-Lucky (2008)

A History Of Violence (2005)

There Will Be Blood (2007)

The Master (2012)

Phantom Thread (2017) – Dennis...

Festival

The 65th BFI London Film Festival (Oct. 6 – 17) has added George Clooney’s “The Tender Bar,” starring Ben Affleck, Tye Sheridan and Lily Rabe, to the program. Clooney is expected to be in attendance. The film follows a boy growing up on Long Island who seeks out father figures among the patrons at his uncle’s bar.

Also added to the programme is Indonesian filmmaker Edwin‘s film adaptation of Eka Kurniawan’s acclaimed novel about an impotent aspiring assassin – “Vengeance is Mine, All Others Pay Cash.”

The festival has also revealed the first of its 2021 Screen Talk line-up, which is supported by The Liberation Initiatives, with acclaimed directors Jane Campion, Ryusuke Hamaguchi and Asghar Farhadi joining “Succession” creator Jesse Armstrong and Norwegian actor Anders Danielsen Lie for a series of in-person talks.

Meanwhile, the surprise film at the ongoing San Sebastian Film Festival is Pablo Larraín‘s “Spencer,” with Kristen Stewart playing Diana,...

The protagonist of Pablo Larraín’s “Tony Manero” was a man obsessed to the point of insanity with achieving celebrity as the replication of someone else. So there’s a sort of inverse symmetry at work in the Larraín-produced “Nobody Knows I’m Here,” the strange little debut from Gaspar Antillo, about a man whose celebrity was stolen from him, and given to another. He is Memo, a taciturn recluse nourishing secret singing talent, played with tremendous grace by Jorge Garcia. Still best known as Hurley from “Lost,” Garcia quietly electrifies here in a role that feels like a breakout;

As a child, the pure-voiced Memo (played in home-movie-style flashbacks by Lukas Vergara), managed by his rapacious father (Alexander Goic), seemed on the cusp of pop-singing success when a producer suggested instead that his voice be recorded for Angelo, a more telegenic boy, to mime to. The song, “Nobody Knows I’m Here...

Ten years have passed since Jorge Garcia wrapped his breakthrough role as the scene-stealing goofball on ABC’s “Lost,” and the world hasn’t seen much of him since then. The same can be said for Memo Garrido, the soft-spoken recluse portrayed by Garcia in what amounts to his first lead role with the Chilean drama “Nobody Knows I’m Here,” which makes up for missed time. Gaspar Antillo’s directorial debut is a curious and intriguing mixed bag that meshes “A Star Is Born” with “Searching for Sugarman” to craft the sullen backwoods story of a talented singer hiding from the world that rejected his talent long ago. Despite a bumpy screenplay and some odd tonal choices, .

Despite the mysterious aura, “Nobody Knows I’m Here” wastes little time establishing Memo’s backstory: Grainy video recounts the melodic voice of his childhood, and how his father struggled to make a buck...

Ten years have passed since Jorge Garcia wrapped his breakthrough role as the scene-stealing goofball on ABC’s “Lost,” and the world hasn’t seen much of him since then. The same can be said for Memo Garrido, the soft-spoken recluse portrayed by Garcia in what amounts to his first lead role with the Chilean drama “Nobody Knows I’m Here,” which makes up for missed time. Gaspar Antillo’s directorial debut is a curious and intriguing mixed bag that meshes “A Star Is Born” with “Searching for Sugarman” to craft the sullen backwoods story of a talented singer hiding from the world that rejected his talent long ago. Despite a bumpy screenplay and some odd tonal choices, .

Despite the mysterious aura, “Nobody Knows I’m Here” wastes little time establishing Memo’s backstory: Grainy video recounts the melodic voice of his childhood, and how his father struggled to make a buck...

With the recent news that David Ayer has dropped out of the latest attempt to remake “Scarface,” IndieWire’s editors traded emails on whether or not this troubled project is worth the effort at all.

Anne Thompson: Over the past decade, the studios have become accustomed to booking release dates before they even have a final script. This creates a rushed urgency to move forward, even when a movie is far from ready. Catherine Hardwicke, after the first “Twilight” had soared to the highest opening ever for a female filmmaker, wasn’t immediately ready to throw herself back into the fray with the second “Twilight.” She wanted more time to nurture the follow-up. So Summit Entertainment left her behind. And the end result a year later, “The Twilight Saga: New Moon,” directed by Chris Weitz, was arguably the weakest of the franchise.

Examples abound, but clearly Universal is in a...

With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’ve taken it upon ourselves to highlight the titles that have recently hit platforms. Every week, one will be able to see the cream of the crop (or perhaps some simply interesting picks) of streaming titles (new and old) across platforms such as Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, and more (note: U.S. only). Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below.

David Lynch: The Art Life (Jon Nguyen, Rick Barnes, and Olivia Neergaard-Holm)

Before David Lynch was a filmmaker, he was a struggling painter, whose lifeblood was to “drink coffee, smoke cigarettes, and paint.” That’s what he dubbed “the art life,” and what an image – as featured in the many contemporary photos seen in this new documentary – it is, the bequiffed 20-something Lynch sitting back in his Philadelphia studio,...

With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’ve taken it upon ourselves to highlight the titles that have recently hit platforms. Every week, one will be able to see the cream of the crop (or perhaps some simply interesting picks) of streaming titles (new and old) across platforms such as Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, and more (note: U.S. only). Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below.

Evolution (Lucile Hadžihalilovic)

Near the beginning of Evolution, there’s a shot that hangs underwater, showing a seemingly harmonious aquatic eco-system that’s glimpsed just long enough to create the sense of something that, while somewhat familiar, is distinctly outside the human world. This fleeting image though shows the promise of the film Evolution could’ve been. – Ethan V. (full review)

Where to Stream: Netflix

Fire at Sea and...

Last week, Pablo Larraín’s “Jackie,” starring Natalie Portman as the embattled, shellshocked and grieving First Lady in the days immediately following the assassination of her husband JFK, came to Blu-ray. It’s a stunning film, one that marks the English-language debut of one of our favorite working filmmakers and that picked up three Oscar nominations. It’s also the highest-profile Larraín film to date, but really it only represents the crystallization of his building buzz, which dates back to his “Tony Manero” (2008), “Post Mortem” (2010) and “No” (2012) days.

Continue reading Beyond Larraín: 6 Chilean Directors You Should Know at The Playlist.

Portman and Pablo at the premiere of Jackie (2016)by Nathaniel R

Pablo Larraín, currently Chile's most celebrated director, first broke into the festival circuit via his second film, the violent and disturbing Tony Manero (2008). I found it so upsetting that I thought I'd never risk another one of his features. That resolve didn't last long. His international breakthrough No (2012), was a hit with audiences, critics, and the Oscars and surprisingly enjoyable too. But due to the always unpredictable release dates of movies, we didn't see his work again until 2016 and then there were three movies at once, the sex predator priest drama El Club, the playful writer on the lam whatsit Neruda, and of course the outstanding Oscar hopeful Jackie.

You might call this Pablo's Year but for the fact that he doesn't coddle the audience and his films are as likely to unsettle and challenge as they are to...

Holding the festival is an incredibly difficult task especially after the recent attempted military coup in Turkey. The West cannot lose Turkey, a modern and western nation which is also Islamic and is the literal bridge between the West and the East. The Antalya Film Festival feels it is imperative to show that life still goes on after the coup, and the creative and recreative power of entertainment leads the show.Military Coup Blocks Bridge Over the Bosphorus — bbc.co.ukInspired by the failed July 15th coup, films about life under coups suggest what might have happened had the July attempt succeeded. The Sun’s Eclipse program is a powerful testament to the importance of democracy and human rights, and includes films from Turkey, Brazil, USA, Chile, Argentina.

We in the west often regard Turkey more as Eastern than Western…understanding why leads us to recognize the power of our...

There are several pivotal moments in Pablo Larraín’s “Jackie,” but one truly epitomizes the director’s primary obsession. Days after she sat next to her husband as a bullet struck his brain, the bereaved Jacqueline Kennedy (Natalie Portman) peers out a tinted window. Even in the midst of tumultuous grief, she recognizes the need to solidify his legacy with an elaborate funeral march. She’s completing his story while keeping her own in the shadows, but in a single powerful moment, the two collide.

With the former First Lady’s reflection on the window, Larraín superimposes archival images of the crowds that showed up to salute their dead president. The intimate experiences of a single traumatized character collide with the public’s absorption of the mythology surrounding her. As viewers, we’re left to sort out the truth.

From the melding of anti-Pinochet campaign propaganda and a scripted narrative in “No,...

Pablo Larraín really and seriously screws up for the first time with Neruda. Few saw or recall the existence of his debut, 2006’s Fuga, which received a middling response on the festival circuit; I seem to recall interviews around the time of 2008’s amusingly appalling (and vice-versa) reputation-establisher Tony Manero where Larraín said Fuga‘s indifferent reception prompted him to rethink a rather conventional aesthetic and come up with something inescapably different. Each film since his coming-out has, in variously scabrous ways, dealt with Pinochet’s legacy: Manero and Post Mortem taking place at the moment of his coup, the late-’80s-set No a crowdpleasingly cynical comedy re: the political machinations around the dictator’s removal via referendum. Jumping to the present, The […]...

Pablo Larrain has been a constant source of cinematic pleasure from the entertaining Tony Manero via the more intense Post Mortem to his recent oneiric Neruda. Jackie is Larrain’s first foray into English-language film and his first attempt to tackle non-Chilean political issues. The result is supremely accomplished and fascinating. The film recounts JFK’s assassination, […]

The post Venice 2016: Jackie Review appeared first on HeyUGuys.

Pablo Larrain has been a constant source of cinematic pleasure from the entertaining Tony Manero via the more intense Post Mortem to his recent oneiric Neruda. Jackie is Larrain’s first foray into English-language film and his first attempt to tackle non-Chilean political issues. The result is supremely accomplished and fascinating. The film recounts JFK’s assassination, […]

The post Venice 2016: Jackie Review appeared first on HeyUGuys.

Later this week, 2016 will cross the halfway mark, so now’s the time to take a look back at its first six months and round up our favorite films thus far. While the end of this year will bring personal favorites from all of our writers, think of the below 30 entries as a comprehensive rundown of what should be seen before heading into a promising fall line-up.

As a note, this feature is based solely on U.S. theatrical releases from 2016, with many currently widely available on home video, streaming platforms, or theatrically. Check them out below, as organized alphabetically, followed by honorable mentions and films to keep on your radar for the remaining summer months. One can also see the full list on Letterboxd.

10 Cloverfield Lane (Dan Trachtenberg)

Forget the Cloverfield connection. The actors who were in this film didn’t even know what the title was until moments before the first trailer dropped.

After nearly two weeks of viewing some of the best that cinema will have to offer this year, the 69th Cannes Film Festival has concluded. With Ken Loach‘s I, Daniel Blake taking the top jury prize of Palme d’Or (full list of winners here), we’ve set out to wrap up our experience with our 10 favorite films from the festival, which extends to the Un Certain Regard and Directors’ Fortnight side bars.

It should be noted that The Nice Guys, which screened out of competition, was among our favorites of the festival (review here), but, considering it’s now in wide release, we’ve elected to give room to other titles. Check out our top 13 films below, followed by the rest of the reviews and all of our features. One can also return in the coming months as we learn of distribution news for all of the mentioned films.

Pablo Larraín is not finished wrestling with his nation’s psyche. His first three films, Tony Manero, Post Mortem, and No, formed a loose triptych that confronted the trauma of the Augusto Pinochet years from different angles. His fourth, The Club, was a blistering attack against the contemporary institution of the Catholic Church in Chile, which accused it of deep-seated corruption and of collusion with the Pinochet regime. With Neruda he returns to the past, back to 1948, the year the eminent poet and Communist senator Pablo Neruda (Luis Gnecco) went into hiding after the Chilean president outlawed Communism in the country.

As radical a reinvention of the biopic as Todd Haynes’ I’m Not There, Neruda is Larraín’s most conceptual and also his most demanding film yet. Like Haynes, Larraín attempts to create a hybrid between his subject’s art and biography, and, like Haynes’ film, Larraín’s is...

The North American deal on the true-life drama follows the world premiere of Pablo Larraín’s film in Directors’ Fortnight on Friday.

The Orchard plans an autumn release and will mount an awards campaign on the film starring Gael Garcia Bernal, Luis Gnecco and Mercedes Moran.

Larraín’s return to the Croisette after 2012 Competition selection No (Tony Manero premiered in Director’s Fortnight in 2007) tells of how the Chilean poet and Nobel Prize-winner Pablo Neruda took on the Chilean government in Cold War 1948 and engaged in a game of cat-and-mouse with a police inspector.

Participant Media co-financed Neruda in association with Chile’s Fabula, France’s Funny Balloons, which also represents international sales, as well as Argentina’s Az Films, and Spain’s Setembro Cine.

Juan de Dios Larraín produced with Peter Danner, Renan Artukmaç, Alex Zito, Juan Pablo García, Ignacio Rey, Gastón Rothschild, and Fernanda del Nido.

Executive producers are Jeff Skoll and Jonathan King of [link...

There may be no greater ambassador for Chile's complex historical identity than Pablo Larrain, the writer-director whose diverse filmography explores his country's struggles from a variety of inventive directions. While "Tony Manero" and "Post Mortem" offered bleak, subversive allegorical statements on life under dictatorship, the Oscar-nominated "No" explored the climax of the Pinochet dictatorship in thrillingly immediate terms, while "The Club" took a minimalist approach to examining disgraced members of Catholic Church.  Now comes his most ambitious storytelling effort to date, "Neruda," which begins as a straightforward period piece before evolving into something far more intriguing: a meditation on the country's mythological relationship to heroes and villains told from two sides at once. While at times uneven, it's a constantly surprising consolidation of the projects leading up to it. The titular focus is Chilean poet...

The conflicting forces that shape the Chilean national identity have been an overarching theme in the work of Pablo Larrain, whether it’s the festering chaos and violence of the Pinochet regime in Tony Manero, Post Mortem and No, or the moral bankruptcy of the Catholic church in The Club. The slyly subversive originality of those films made it a safe bet that the director was never going to be backed into a conventional bio-drama corner, even by a subject as colossal as that cultural giant of his homeland, the Nobel Prize-winning poet Pablo Neruda. Focusing on the period

read more...

With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’ve taken it upon ourselves to highlight the titles that have recently hit the interwebs. Every week, one will be able to see the cream of the crop (or perhaps some simply interesting picks) of streaming titles (new and old) across platforms such as Netflix, iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, and more (note: U.S. only). Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below.

Arabian Nights (Miguel Gomes)

In lauding Miguel Gomes‘ three-part, six-and-a-half hour behemoth, it’s perhaps important to consider his background as a critic. Not just in terms of the trilogy’s cinephilic engagement with Rossellini, Alonso, Oliveira, etc.; also in its defiant nature. While it’s easy to assign the trilogy certain humanist and satirical labels from the get-go and just praise these films for following through on them,...

Chicago – The 32nd edition of the Chicago Latino Film Festival Kicks Off on Friday, April 8, 2016, with the Mexican film “Illusions S.A.” (“Illusiones S.A.”). All films are at the AMC River East 21 in Chicago.

This year’s festival promises another huge array of films originating from Latino countries all over the world, and runs from April 8th through the 21st. The kick-off film “Illusions S.A.” will be followed by a reception at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Chicago. For details and to purchase tickets click here.

’Illusions S.A.’ is the Opening Night Film at the 32ndst Chicago Latino Film Festival

Photo credit: Chicago Latino Film Festival

The Opening Night Capsule and the highlights of Week One are as follows…

Opening Night: “Illusions S.A.”

Starring Jaime Camil (“Jane the Virgin”) and set in Campeche, México in the 1950s, “Illusions S.A.” centers around an agency that turns your deepest fantasies,...

Abuse in the Catholic church is viewed from the other side of the altar in a directing masterclass from Pablo Larraín

“God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness…” This bitingly sardonic tale of hypocrisy and abuse within the Catholic church from Chilean director Pablo Larraín (Tony Manero; Post Mortem; No) archly quotes Genesis 1:4 before introducing us to the residents of a “house for repentance” – a remote dwelling where the church has hidden its dirty secrets. Here, a motley crew of scandal-beset former priests live isolated from the world, until a new arrival prompts the attentions of a local abuse survivor – with genuinely shocking results. What follows is a masterclass in shifting dramatic tones, as Larraín moves deftly between dark tragicomic colours.

Continue reading...

Living Under Your Spotlight: Larrain Paints it Black with Catholic Crisis Comedy

For his first film following the finale of his narrative trilogy documenting the virulence of the Pinochet dictatorship (Tony Manero; Post Mortem; No), Chilean auteur Pablo Larrain returns with a macabre tale of sacerdotal infringements within the Catholic Church in the ludicrous, perverse, and vibrantly entertaining The Club. Starring his usual collaborator, Alfredo Castro, Larrain, along with screenwriters Daniel Villalobos and Guillermo Calderon (2011’s Violeta Went to Heaven) concoct a bizarre tale concerning a cloister of ex-Catholic priests holed up within the confines of an isolated seaside monastery. Relocated out of circulation as punishment by the church, the disparate men languish in all the comforts of an unassuming retirement home community on the church’s dime.

On the coastal extremity of Chile, four men (Alfredo Castro; Jaime Vadell; Alejandro Goic; Alejandro Sieveking) reside together in a home under...

This is a reprint of our review from the 2015 Berlin International Film Festival. A series of controlled demolitions laid with meticulous care to undermine and ultimately explode the rottenness of institutional authority, particularly that of the Catholic church, Pablo Larrain's "The Club" burst onto the screen this morning in Berlin, and still now, debris rains down all around. A bold, blunt, yet clinically intelligent film that provokes as much for its dark humor as for its righteous outrage, it's all at once a gripping thriller, an incendiary social critique and a mordant moral fable. The confidence on display from Larrain, who broadens the purview of his already excellent "Pinochet Trilogy" ("Tony Manero," "Post Mortem," "No") is impossible to overstate: this film is his finest hour to date. Read More: Interview: Pablo Larrain On Catholicism, 'The Club' And Keeping His Actors In The Dark Five men and one woman live in a.

Films in Progress, a joint initiative between Cinélatino, Rencontres de Toulouse and the San Sebastian Festival, serves to facilitate the completion of rigorously selected independent Latin American films that might be facing difficulties in funding their way into the post-production stage.

Since 2002, this double event presents an annual selection of 12 works-in-progress in two sessions: 6 films in Toulouse in march and 6 films in September in San Sebastián.

Films in Progress allows for these films to be finished, it gives them an international visibility among professionals and promotes their circulation and exhibition.

Films in Progress encourages the meeting and cooperation between the producers of the selected works-in-progress and European partners to help the films reach more screens and audiences. <ore than 300 professionals, among the most influential on the European and international industries take part each year in these two sessions. Films in Progress is the unmissable and strategic meeting point for Latin American films and the rest of the world.

In the last few years, Films in Progress has contributed efficiently to the completion, exposition and commercialization of the most remarkable Latin American films: "Tony Manero" by Pablo Larraín, "Gloria" by Sebastián Lelio, "Sangre" by Amat Escalante, "Infancia Clandestina" by Benjamín Ávila, "La Sirga" by William Vega, "La Playa" by Juan Andrés Arango, "Bad Hair" by Mariana Rondón, "Historia del Miedo" by Benjamin Naishtat, "To Kill a Man" by Alejandro Fernández Almendras, "Ixcanul" by Jayro Bustamente, "From Afar" by Lorenzo Vigas among others.

By involving film professionals capable of contributing to the film's post-production, and by encouraging distributors and promoters to diversify their offer, San Sebastian and Toulouse hope to develop and strengthen, with as much pragmatism and efficiency as possible, respect for and the promotion of cultural diversity based on a spirit of solidarity and cooperation.

Three Awards

-Toulouse's Films in Progress Award consists of 58.850 € in post-production services in France offered by prestigious organizations: a grant from the Cnc, a residence in Paris by the Ccas, audio post-production from Mactari, technical help from Titra Tvs, color correction program by Firelfly, an auditorium and other materials for the film's calibration from Commune Image and the coordination of the post-production from Eaux vives.

-Ciné + Award consists in the guaranteed purchase of the film by a French distributor for the amount of 15.000 euros by Ciné +

-European Distributors and Exhibitors Award consists in the promotion of the winning film in the network of 130 distributors part of Europa Distribution and in the 2.000 exhibitors part of Cicae.

Submission

The feature films presented must be a minority or major Latin American productionThe length of the feature film in its final version must be over 60 minutesThe film must be at the post-production stage (first cut at minimum)The cut submitted for evaluation must be subtitled in English or in Spanish if it is not in Spanish.

There is no charge of fees for the registrationDeadline : January 20th, 2016

In case the film is selected:The director and the producer have to be in Toulouse on March 16th, 17th and 18th, 2016The film must be subtitled in EnglishThe screening format is Blu Ray (" copies for back up)Selection will be announced in early March 2016

Online Submission Form...

Neruda

Director: Pablo Larrain

Writer: Guillermo Calderon

Pablo Larrain has quickly become one of the most important auteurs in the Chilean New Wave of the past decade thanks to his Pinochet trilogy (Tony Manero; Post Mortem; No) and his excellent 2015 film The Club, which won the Silver Bear in Berlin and recently received a Golden Globe nod for Best Foreign Language Film). He’s been incredibly busy, and his next film, Neruda, is a period biopic of Nobel prize winning poet Pablo Neruda. Penned by Guillermo Calderon (who wrote The Club and 2011’s Violeta Went to Heaven), the film stars Luis Gnecco as Neruda, hunted down in 1940s Chile for joining the Communist Party. Gael Garcia Bernal (who starred in No, 2012) and Larrain’s regular cast member Alfredo Castro also star.

Cast: Gael Garcia Bernal, Luis Gnecco, Alfredo Castro, Antonia Zegers, Mercedes Moran

Production Co.: Az Films, Fabula, Funny Balloons,...

All caught up with our top 50 films of 2015? It’s now time to look to the new year, and, ahead of our 100 most-anticipated films, we’re highlighting 50 titles we’ve enjoyed on the festival circuit this last year (and beyond) that will likely see a release in 2016. While the first batch have confirmed dates all the way through the summer, we’ve also included a handful that are awaiting a date and some we’re hopeful will get a release by year’s end pending acquisition. U.S. distributors: take note!

We’ve stuck to just 50 here, but we’ve also seen many other notable releases over the next twelve months that we were more mixed on (or worse). There’s The Benefactor, Mojave, Southbound, Remember, and Too Late this winter, as well as Hello, My Name is Doris, Green Room, Miles Ahead, I Saw the Light, The Bronze, Evolution,...

Two sets of international film awards were recently handed out and in the holiday flurry we haven't yet shared them, but since three Oscar submissions dominated, better late than never!

Alfred Castro in "El Club"

Fenix Awards

The Fenix awards are a Mexican based initiative to honor films and industry professionals of Latin America, Spain and Portugal.m They're only in their second year so it's too new to know if they'll make an impact but this year they gave Pablo Larraín's  El Club (Chile's tramautizing Oscar submission) Picture, Director, Screenplay and Actor prizes. Alfredo Castro was the acting recipient of the latter (it's a large cast of mostly men and fans of Larraín will know him well since he previously starred in Larraín's other Oscar submissions Tony Manero and No). Embrace of the Serpent (Colombia's mesmerizing Oscar submission for which we're heartily rooting) took Sound, Cinematography, and Music...

Three quick takes on foreign film competitors from the long list of eligible titles, all screened at AFI.

Mustang (France) Opens November 20th in select cities. Cohen Media Group.

Given that 2015's loudest topic may well be the need for fresh cinematic female voices, the French/Turkish production Mustang deserves $100 million blockbuster status instead of art house ghettoization with a $300,000 gross which is what they're infinitely more likely to get. Director Deniz Gamze Ergüven and screenwriter Alice Winocour, two very talented women, team up to tell the riveting story of five spirited sisters living with their hands-off grandma who keep colliding with the confines, literal and metaphoric, of the patriarchy. An innocent 'schools out for the summer' beach romp prompts the end of their adolescent abandon as their horrified conservative uncle steps in to shape them up, train them to be subservient wives, and marry them off to respectable families.

Over the course of a handful of films and largely under the radar, Chilean director Pablo Larraín has turned into a world class director. Around these parts, we've been following his career for some time. From Tony Manero, the tale of a serial killer obsessed with John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever) to No (review), the director's take on the 1987 Chilean election, Larraín continues to prove that he's not only one of the best, he's a director that never makes the same movie twice.

For his latest, Larraín returns to his dark roots with The Club. Set at a secluded beach town, it centers on a group of retired priests and nuns [Continued ...]...

The Club

Written by Guillermo Calderón, Pablo Larraín and Daniel Villalobos

Directed by Pablo Larraín

Chile, 2015

Director Pablo Larraín is known for his extremely fascinating social commentaries about his native Chile. Most famously, he tackled the Pinochet regime and its legacy with his trilogy comprising Tony Manero, Post-Mortem­ and ­No. With The Club, Larraín looks at Catholicism, another major Chilean institution, and the abuses of power that can occur within the priesthood. Interestingly, he doesn’t judge the actions of the characters but rather presents a portrait of a group of devastatingly corrupt and flawed human beings against a misty, almost dreamlike, backdrop. This effect allows a chance to look past the dark and troubling reality of these men’s lives and possibly witness a glimmer of something redeemable, even if that is just for one brief moment.

In a small Chilean town, unbeknownst to the townsfolk, disgraced priests are...

Berlinale Silver Bear winner secures UK/Ireland release date.

Network Releasing has set a March 25, 2016 release date in the UK and Ireland for Pablo Larrain’s The Club (El Club), which picked up the Silver Bear at the Berlinale and is Chile’s submission for the Oscars.

The Easter Friday release is apt for the story of four Catholic priests, shipped off to a seaside monastery for various venial transgressions. But the group have their cozy exile disturbed by charges of molestation, in Larrain’s blackly comic drama.

The film, screening at the Toronto International Film Festival this week, will receive its UK premiere at the BFI London Film Festival on Oct 8/9

Larraín is best known for films including Tony Manero (2008), Post-mortem (2010), and Oscar-nominated No (2012) starring Gael García Bernal - all previously released in the UK through Network Releasing.

The red carpet has been walked upon, the Spritz has been supped and the lion has roared. This year's Golden Lion selection is yet another surprise choice, the perfectly serviceable but by no means extraordinary Venezuelan-set drama From Afar, which follows the unlikely relationship between a maker of false teeth and a Caracas street tough. Lorenzo Vigas' film is an assured debut with two fine performances, especially from Alfredo Castro, familiar to world cinema-inclined audiences as Pablo Larraín's muse in Tony Manero and Post Mortem. Head of the Jury Alfonso Cuarón perhaps shows his generosity to another Latin American filmmaker in awarding the Silver Lion to Pablo Trapero for his Martin Scorsese-inspired true crime thriller The Clan.

The runner-up award in the Grand Jury was awarded to Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson for their superb R-rated stop motion masterpiece Anomalisa, for me the best film of the competition.

The Venezuelan film From Afar was a decent pick for Venice’s top award, even if some of the other prizes handed out were somewhat on the mysterious side

Jaws dropped, but Venezuelan national pride soared, as a low-profile film from an unknown first-time director scooped the Venice film festival’s top prize the Golden Lion. Lorenzo Vigas’s film From Afar (Desde Allá) wasn’t considered by many as a front runner in a competition that included works from such high-profile names as Charlie Kaufman, Tom Hooper, performer turned director Laurie Anderson and 2011 Golden Lion winner Alexander Sokurov. But Vigas’s dark drama, about the relationship between a middle-aged gay man and a violent young street tough, was certainly one of the discoveries of the festival, and had plenty to recommend it – not least an audaciously minimalist performance from Alfredo Castro, the Chilean actor who in the last few...

After tackling the Pinochet regime in his 2012 feature No, Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larraín is set to focus on the church molesting scandal in his new feature.

Titled The Club, the film now has a festival trailer. Larraín takes on directing and screenwriting duties once again, working with a cast that includes Alfredo Castro, Roberto Farías, Antonia Zegers, and Jaime Vadell.

The film’s synopsis is as follows.Shipped off to a seaside monastery for various venial transgressions, four Catholic priests have their cozy exile disturbed by charges of molestation, in this incendiary, blackly humorous drama from Chilean auteur Pablo Larraín (Tony Manero, No).

This is Larraín’s first film since No, which received an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Feature. It’s Larraín’s fifth feature as director, and fourth as screenwriter, with Larraín taking on the latter role once again after handing the reins to Pedro Peirano for No.

With apologies in advance to Patricio Guzmán and Alejandro Jodorowsky, Pablo Larraín might be Chile’s greatest working filmmaker today. Certainly in the narrative field (Guzmán is a documentary guy), Larraín is practically unparalleled, though it should be said with Sebastian Silva (“Nasty Baby,” “The Maid”), Sebastián Lelio (“Gloria”) and others doing terrific work, Chilean cinema has never been healthier. Read More: Berlin Review: Pablo Larrain's Mordant, Disturbing, Astounding 'The Club' Larraín is firing on all cylinders. After completing his Pincochet/Chilean ‘70s military coup trilogy (“Tony Manero,” “Post Mortem,” and “No”) and landing in Cannes or Venice for every picture, the filmmaker pivoted from developing American films (a “Scarface” remake) and knocked out “The Club” earlier this year which he wrote and shot in a matter of months, only to win the Grand Jury Prize in Berlin (our glowing review from Berlin called it...