Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by tinear (A) on November 02, 2009 at 18:45:42

Here's a very good article which appears to have hit most of the targets:
"Latin America's new wave
A distinctive storytelling voice is scoring hits worldwide

When Walter Salles's Central Station won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in 1998, it heralded much more than the return of Brazilian cinema to the world stage. A year later Crane World, by Argentine boy wonder Pablo Trapero, was scooping up awards all over the world. Then, in 2001 and 2002, the glorious Mexican wave of Amores Perros and Y Tu Mamá También sealed the deal: this was a Latin American film renaissance.

Mexico's buena onda has had the biggest impact overseas. Alejandro González Iñárritu's Amores Perros was an electric shock of a film: visceral, exciting, structurally ambitious, it launched the international careers of Iñárritu, Gael García Bernal and writer Guillermo Arriaga. Bernal quickly followed with Y Tu Mamá También, co-starring with fellow Mexican heart-throb Diego Luna. Alfonso Cuarón's hit was rollicking road movie, coming-of-age comedy and state-of-the-nation address, all rolled into one seriously sexy package.

Two other fine Mexican directors are Guillermo del Toro, whose command of fantasy allows for the jolly escapism of Hellboy, as well as the frightening, yet moving Pan's Labyrinth (see feature); and Carlos Reygadas, whose rigorously arthouse blend of sex, religion and gorgeous aesthetics, in Japón, Battle in Heaven and Silent Light, have elicited controversy and praise in equal measure.

In contrast, young Fernando Eimbcke's Duck Season was a wonderful and wise study of adolescence, with a very light touch. We can look forward to more youthful fare from Mexico, courtesy of Bernal and Luna, who have set up a production company together and are now directing their own movies.

In South America, the re-emergence of cinema has coincided with the tide of genuine political democracy, and improving economies, across the continent. After years of dictatorship, film-makers are rediscovering their voice.

In Argentina the prolific Trapero epitomises the resourceful new generation emerging from film schools. His vérité approach uses non-actors and draws its subjects from everyday life: from Crane World's study of a man trying to rebuild his life in middle-age, to family comedy Rolling Family and this year's Cannes favourite, women's prison drama Leonera.

Older hand Carlos Sorin also casts non-actors, in warm-hearted comedies about poor, provincial Argentines propped up by dreams. His best-known film, Bombón, El Perro, about an out-of-work mechanic entering the world of dog shows, starred a man who for years had parked Sorin's car. And he's brilliant.

A more polished style is offered by Daniel Burman, dubbed the Woody Allen of Buenos Aires. Burman has a screen alter ego: Uruguayan Daniel Hendler, one of the signature actors of the new Latin American cinema. His wry investigations of Jewish identity and father-son relationships - Waiting for the Messiah, Lost Embrace and Family Law - have been both local hits and prize-winners on the festival circuit.

But the director's director of Latin America could well be Argentina's Lucrecia Martel. An iconoclast, Martel's films The Swamp and The Holy Girl are atmospheric and mysterious, offering delicious observations on family, sexuality, religion and, particularly, the country's stagnating bourgeoisie.

Chile has an even younger generation of directors, excelling with low-budget digital films, notably Alicia Scherson, whose Play, a film at once about Santiago, indigenous culture and the iPod age, signals a bright new talent. Andrés Wood's more traditional Machuca, about events leading to the Pinochet coup in Chile, also screened successfully in the UK, as did delightful Uruguayan misfit comedy Whiskey.

And all the while, President Chávez is ploughing money into the Venezuelan film industry, even building a state-owned film studio. It can't be long before Venezuelan movies follow the Latin trail to an international audience.

· Demetrios Matheou is writing a book on South American cinema for Faber and Faber, to be published in 2009"
The same author, at the beginning of this article, has a long piece on Brazil's new film movement well worth seeking out (the article and the movies!).