RELEASES! Life of Pi (2012); Le Capital (2012) | BASIC CLASSICS! Sunset Boulevard (1950)
November 28, 2012After a two horrifying weeks (I am talking about releases) the Spanish cinemas present two interesting films because these movies are created by two acclaimed filmmakers, Ang Lee and Constantin Costa-Gavras, curiously, no one of them are British or American. The recommendation of the week is completed with one of my prefer movie ever: Sunset Boulevard. The most perfect film that I have ever seen. Good weekend!
LIFE OF PI (2012) by Ang Lee
Ang Lee is this kind of director who falls well. He has rolled some of the most successful movies of the last years as Crouching Tiger & Hidden Dragon (2000), Sense and Sensibility (1995) or Brokeback Mountain (2005). He can realized blockbusters but with a special touch of sensibility that it could get the difficult harmony between box-office and criticism. In this occasion, Lee presents a nice best seller’s adaptation, Life of Pi, the amazing story of a boy who needs to survive in a boat after a shipwreck with a wild tiger in it. The gossips from Hollywood talk about it as the favourite film in the next Oscars Ceremony.
Life of Pi [Vida de Pi, 2012] Directed by Ang Lee
Screenplay: David Magee (Novel by Yann Martel)
Cast: Suraj Sharma, Irrfan Khan, Gérard Depardieu, Tabu…
Genre: Drama | Adventures | Survival
Nationality: USA
Length: 127 min.
Synopsis: A young man who survives a disaster at sea is hurtled into an epic journey of adventure and discovery. While cast away, he forms an unexpected connection with another survivor … a fearsome Bengal tiger.IMDb
Time has written: http://entertainment.time.com/2012/09/28/ang-lees-life-of-pi-the-next-avatar/?iid=ent-main-lede
Theatrical Trailer (VOSE):
LE CAPITAL (2012) by Constantin Costa-Gavras
He is the man associated with a cinematographic subgenre: Politic Cinema. The veteran Costa-Gavras is again here because he wants to show us her particular vision of this crisis. All his films are about great themes (especially about historic conflicts) as Missing (1982) about the Chilean dictatorship or Hanna K. (1983) about the Middle East conflict. Le Capital is a particular film because it is talked in English and French. This is one of the more attractive releases of the month!
Le Capital [El Capital, 2012] Directed by Constantin Costa-Gavras
Screenplay: Constantin Costa-Gavras, Karim Boukercha, Jean-Claude Grumberg (Novel by Stéphane Osmont)
Cast: Gad Elmaleh, Gabriel Byrne, Jordana DePaula, Hyppolyte Girardot…
Genre: Thriller | Drama | Crisis
Nationality: French
Length: 114min.
Synopsis: The head of a giant European investment bank desperately clings to power when an American hedge fund company tries to buy them out.IMDb
Theatrical Trailer (VOSI):
The Hollywood Reporter has written: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/capital-le-capital-370572
BASIC CLASSICS! SUNSET BOULEVARD (1950) by Billy Wilder
A very inspired Billy Wilder rolled this spectacular film in the Golden Age of American Cinema at 50s. A ironic and corrosive portrait of the Hollywood underworld, with a fantastic rhythm, brilliant dialogues, superb interpretations and a script with any error. Simply perfect!
Sunset Boulevard [El crepúsculo de los dioses, 1950] Directed by Billy Wilder
Screenplay: Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder, D.M. Marshman Jr.
Cast: Gloria Swanson, William Holden, Erich von Stroheim, Nancy Olson…
Genre: Drama | Satire
Nationality: USA
Length: 110min.
Synopsis: A hack screenwriter writes a screenplay for a former silent-film star who has faded into Hollywood obscurity.IMDb
The New York Times has written: http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/47703/Sunset-Boulevard/overview
Scene from the original film (VOSE):
EOI Goya Film Club 
A single word: masterpiece.
By the way, the bed which appears in one of the sequencies of the film, was used in the silent version of The Phantom of the Opera (another masterpiece).
Thank you, I love these trivia, I had no idea!
What version are you talking about, Rosa, there are a lot.
Well, the silent version of The Phantom, there is only a single silent version:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Phantom_of_the_Opera_(1925_film)
Ah, ok. I thought that the version could be this one from 1943: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSkaaxETDC8
I have watched the silent movie and It is very nice, Long Chaney is the perfect “Phantom of the Opera”!
No, no. The silent version is the 1925, with Lon Chaney, and, by the way, is the best film about the Phantom ever made (I am a huge Phan). The 1943, with Claude Rains (the first film in color about the Phantom), is, in my opinion, a failed film. There is no horror. There is no romance. The mystique of the Phantom is totally missing. The Phantom is there neither terryfing nor pitiable. He is just a loser. Claude Rains was a fantastic actor, but to cast him as the Phantom was, in my opinion, a total mistake. Boris Karloff or Conrad Veidt would have been much more suitable. The music numbers are annoying, kitsch, without any grandeur. The photography and the camera work are gorgeous, but they don’t fix the flaws in this film, that are too many, in my opinion. The magnificent sets, by the way, were re-used from the silent film.