Crutch (2004)

Crutch (2004)


Director: Rob Moretti
Writers: Paul Jacks, Rob Moretti
Genre: Drama,  Biography
Country: USA
Language: English 
Duration: 88 min
Year: 2004




Stars: Eben Gordon, Rob Moretti, Juanita Walsh






By Don Willmott on Tuesday 1st November 2005

Two facts to ponder: Crutch is "based on a true story," and Rob Moretti is not only one of the lead actors but also the writer, director, editor, and producer. The result: Crutch comes across as an extremely personal exorcism of Moretti's suburban gothic adolescence, for better and for worse. Like the scribblings in a teenager's diary, the film vacillates between insight and exaggeration.

Moretti has quite a story to tell. Sixteen-year-old David (Eben Gordon), the surrogate for Moretti, lives in a broken home with his rapidly deteriorating alcoholic mother (Juanita Walsh) and two sullen siblings. Dad (James Earley) lives across town with another woman, and the family's method for coping with all this drama is to maintain a chilly silence. When not scribbling frantically in his well-worn diary, David finds distractions with his pretty girlfriend Julia (Jennifer Laine Williams). Together, they sign up for an acting class led by new-in-town thirtysomething Kenny (Moretti) and his sidekick Maryann (Jennifer J. Katz). Within minutes, Kenny starts a not-so-subtle dance of seduction with David, who is too distracted by his family problems to pick up on the signals... at first.

Once David's mom is tossed into rehab, David, feeling adrift, starts clinging to Kenny, and before long, the two are happily intertwined in a drug-fueled affair. "I was impressionable," David says in his retrospective narration. Meanwhile, Maryann tells Kenny, "All I'm saying is that you should be careful."

Indeed. Kenny, who we learn was a successful actor who lost it all in a shameful spiral of drugs and self-hatred, is an utterly unsympathetic (but good-looking) lout, a sexual predator who spends half the film committing various felonies and misdemeanors, albeit with the consent of young David. Looking for advice as the relationship sours, David turns to Zack (Tim Loftus), a local bookshop clerk whose over-the-top swishiness, the likes of which hasn't been seen on screen since The Boys in the Band, stops the film dead in its tracks not once but twice. It's an egregious directorial mistake in a film that otherwise does a great job of capturing the gritty textures of a typical middle-class New Jersey suburb.

How strange it must have been for Moretti to write and then play the role of the man who seduced him as a teenager. Unlike the other characters in the film, the Kenny he's created is one-dimensional, a troublemaker who keeps making trouble and who doesn't earn a bit of understanding or forgiveness from the audience. You have to wonder if the man who inspired the character of Kenny will see this film and what he'll think of it. (For a much more nuanced portrayal of a suburban pedophile on the loose, see the fascinating L.I.E.)

Crutch does succeed in creating an intimacy with the audience. The story is so personal that you can't help but feel like a voyeur trapped in the small houses and apartments where most of the action takes place. When Mom splits open her chin in a drunken stupor and blood spreads everywhere as David helps her down the stairs, you almost want to wipe the blood off your own hands.

It's hard to believe that Moretti's real-life experience was quite as dramatic as the melodrama he's written, but Crutch has its moments, and at least you know that Moretti made it through his troubles and became a productive moviemaker. There could have been far unhappier endings.

Crutch in the clutch.

The Circle (2014)

The Circle (2014)
"Der Kreis" (original title)


Director: Stefan Haupt
Writers: Stefan Haupt (screenplay), Christian Felix (screenplay), Urs Frey, Ivan Madeo, Sabine Pochhammer
Genres: Documentary, Biography, Drama
Country: Switzerland
Language: Swiss German, German, French
Year: 2014
Duration: 102 min



Stars: Matthias Hungerbühler, Sven Schelker, Anatole Taubman, Marianne Sägebrecht, Stefan Witschi

Stefan Haupt potpisuje režiju i scenarij filma čija se radnja odvija 1958. godine u Zurichu.
Stidljivi, mladi nastavnik  Ernst Ostertag zaljubljuje se u cross-dressersku zvijezdu Robija, no iako su istospolni odnosi bili legalni u to doba u Švicarskoj, bila je potrebna određena diskrecija. Oboje su bili članovi organizacije Der Krajs“ („Der Kreis“) koja je organizovala  događaje za gej muškarce u nekom polutajnom istoimenom klubu, izdavala gej časopis i bavila se gej aktivizmom prikladnim za to doba.  No nakon nekoliko ubistava koja su se dogodila u gej zajednici policija je počela raditi probleme – prekidati događaje, privoditi nedužne osobe i praviti spiskove gej osoba.Uz neviđeno maltretiranje gejeva raspadali su se brakovi, dešavala samoubistva, otkazi sa posla...

Ovaj film prati razvitak situacije oko "Kruga" tokom tih dešavanja te daje dokumentarni presjek borbe za LGBTIQ prava. Film je ovjenčan dvjema nagradama na Berlinaleu 2014. godine – osvojio je nagradu Teddy, kao i nagradu publike Panorama. Dobitnik je i mnoštva nagrada na raznim festivalim gej filma.

Stephan Haupt rođen je u Zurichu te od 1989. godine radi kao filmski reditelj nakon završetka Dramske akademije te je istaknuta ličnost na švajcarskoj filmskoj sceni.

Film me je na neki način podsjetio na događaje u Beogradu početkom 90-tih godina. U sred balkanskog rata u kojem se krvavo raspadala Jugoslavija u Beogradu su u kojekakvim podrumima ili u iznajmljenim lokalima nicali gej barovi i klubovi. Među prvim je bio otvoren bar "Farma", a nakon toga su se počeli ređati "Prestige" , Xl itd.
Uz obaveznu gej frendly muziku i gomilu turbo folka, mladi ali i stariji pederi su vikendom mogli sebi priuštiti da budu preponosni, uobraženi, ženstveni, drski i naravno sebi važni u tom prilično dekadentnom vremenu.
Danas ti klubovi izgledaju sasvim drugačije, uz obavezne dark sobe u kojima se zamračene persone otimaju oko parčeta kurca, uz tematske večeri dešavaju i stvari koje su odraz kulturološkog miljea u kojem živimo. Mada istini za volju, performase kabaretskog tipa zamjenili su razni striperi i glatki dečkići koji se suludo vrte oko neke šipke u nadi da će ih zgrabiti neki alfa mužjak ako već ne može neki prebogati princ.

Source: http://variety.com/2014/film/reviews/film-review-the-circle-1201148858/

The true-life gay-rights battle at the heart of “The Circle” is an unusual, underexposed one that merits either substantial documentary or riveting narrative treatment, so one can hardly blame practiced docu helmer Stefan Haupt for attempting to have it both ways. In telling the story of a shy young teacher and his drag-artist lover caught in the shifting social currents of 1950s Zurich, Haupt has chosen to stage proceedings mostly as handsomely mounted period drama, interspersed with present-day talking heads that include the now-septuagenarian protagonists themselves. The results, while never less than compelling, are predictably uneven: Affecting in themselves, the talking heads come to play as interruptions, holding the narrative back from deeper historical scrutiny. Still, its unconventional construction — and multiple Berlinale prizes — will make this an attractive option to LGBT-friendly fests and distribs.

Whatever their aesthetic limitations, the documentary interludes prevent “The Circle” from playing entirely as a period piece, which makes sense given the still-burning political currency of its subject matter. Would that its impressions of homosexual persecution and censorship in Europe half a century ago were more dated than recent events in Russia and Uganda make them seem.

The back-and-forth over Proposition 8 in California also comes to mind in a study of rights permitted before being retracted. In the wake of WWII, Switzerland was viewed as something of a safe haven for gay men, with no laws denying them sexual or social activity. Gay clubs flourished happily, notably the eponymous Circle, a “self-help organization” for gay intellectual and bohemian types, founded in 1942 by actor Karl Meier, that also published a multilingual, frequently provocative magazine. It’s at a Circle ball in the mid-1950s that naive literature teacher Ernst Ostertag (Matthias Hungerbuehler) becomes smitten with 18-year-old barber and moonlighting transvestite Robi Rapp (Sven Schelker), and the two fall swiftly into a profoundly affectionate relationship.

The present-day footage of the still-besotted Ernst and Robi — the film opens with the latter performing one of his signature drag numbers with creaky gusto — means the outcome of the film’s personal narrative is never in doubt. (Indeed, their romance dovetails nicely with a closing message celebrating the contemporary legalization of gay marriage.)

But there’s plenty of external tension elsewhere, as a spate of brutal murders within the gay community lead the authorities to an about-face on their once-liberal attitude to same-sex behavior. When the Circle’s income-generating socials are declared illegal in 1960, with the police placing increasing pressure on its leaders to reveal the personal details of all members, the organization becomes impossible to maintain. Surprisingly, it’s the formerly cautious Ernst who persists with dangerous acts of activism against the will of the more domestically inclined Robi. Their romance is sweetly articulated by the subjects and actors alike, but is most gripping as a catalyst for Ernst’s own self-acceptance and political awakening.

Even when the stakes are at their highest, there’s a gentle tone to the dramatic proceedings that is unexpected but not unwelcome — Haupt’s emphasis throughout is on the benevolent, supportive virtues of the gay community, even at its most threatened and compromised. (Though Ernst’s coming-out process was a long-term one, there’s refreshingly little angst in this department; Marianne Sagrebrecht is delightful as Robi’s sage, thoroughly accepting mother.) That prevailing tenderness is also suggested by Tobias Dengler’s softly burnished lensing and Federico Bettini’s pretty, mildly over-sugared score.

The opportunity for harder tonal contrast provided by the film’s documentary portions, however, go largely untaken: The testimonies of the elderly lovers are touching, but don’t reveal many circumstantial details or emotional nuances beyond those played by the capable, appealing leads. Other, more academic talking heads add little; at a tidy 100 minutes, the film’s portrayal of the Circle’s complex, intriguing social network could easily have been fleshed out at their expense.

Sal (I) (2011)

Sal (I) (2011)

Director: James Franco
Writers: James Franco (story), Vince Jolivette (story),Val Lauren ( story), Michael Gregg Michaud
Genre: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Language: English
Year: 2011
Duration: 85 min


Stars: Val Lauren, Jim Parrack, James Franco,Vince Jolivette, Trevor Neuhoff

Film "Sal" režisera James Franka govori o poslednjim danima holivudskog glumca Sal Minea ( Val Lauren) koji je 50-tih godina kao tinejdžerski idol bio nominovan za Academy Award nagradu za ulogu u filmu "Rebel Without a Cause and Exsodus" (1955).
Dvadeset godina nakon toga (1976), kada je njegova popularnost sasvim izblijedela, ubijen je u jednoj garaži kao outovani homoseksualac.

Iako je Val Lauren sjajno odglumio ovog glumca iz filma o James Deanu, film je najkraće aaarečeno dosadan. Gomila bespotrebnih scena i beskonači telefonski razgovori će vas naprosto natjerati da film premotavate skoro do samog kraja.

James Franco's Sal chronicles the final day in the life of actor Sal Mineo (Val Lauren), 1950s teen idol and an Academy Award (R) nominee for his roles in Rebel Without a Cause and Exodus. Almost two decades later, Mineo is no longer the marquee sensation he had once been - but he has become open about his homosexuality and is finding his way to becoming the actor and director he has always wanted to be. Featuring a magnetic performance by Lauren, Franco's intimate portrait finds the human details in a larger-than-life Hollywood story.

Howl (2010)

Howl (2010)


Directors: Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman 
Writers: Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman
Genre: Biography 
Country: USA 
Year: 2010 
Language: English 
Duration: 84 min


Stars: James Franco, Todd Rotondi and Jon Prescot 

Od producenata i redatelja filmova ”Celluloid Closet”, ”Common Threads” i ”Paragraf 175” dolazi biografija pjesnika i pisca Allena Ginsberga kojeg je majstorski utjelovio James Franco.

Film je fokusiran na 1957. godinu, odnosno na suđenje koje je pokrenuto zbog tužbe protiv izdavača knjige ”Howl and other poems” (Urlik i druge pjesme) zbog opscenosti. Zbirka poezije ”Howl and other poems” okarakterizirana je da promiče promiskuitet i sodomiju. No, promiskuitet misli i pisma bio je jedan od ciljeva Ginsberga i drugih pjesnika, poput Jacka Kerouaca, koji su 50-ih godina prošlog stoljeća u New Yorku stvarali, tzv. ”beat” generaciju pisaca. Karakteristike pisaca te generacije i podneblja bile su eksperimentiranje s drogom, seksualnim iskustvima, interes za istočne religije te odbacivanje materijalizma.

Allen Ginsber je bio gay, te u pjesmi ”Urlik” govori o svojim seksualnim maštarijama, iskustvima te ljubavi prema drugom piscu Jacku Kerouacu. Ginsbergova ”Howl and other poems” i roman još jednog pisca ”beat” generacije, Williama Burroughsa ”Naked Lunch”, su književna djela čiji su izdavači tuženi zbog promocije promiskuiteta i opscenosti. Popularno zvana ‘suđenja zbog opscenosti’ bila su početak liberalizacije izdavaštva u SAD-u. ( tekst preuzet sa http://www.gay.hr/magazin/7422)

Tekst poeme možete naći OVDJE.

Nothing Is Holy (Holy! Holy!) in Howl
By J. Hoberman Wednesday, Sep 22 2010

As suggested by its title, Allen Ginsberg's game-changing poem "Howl" is essentially performative—and so is Howl, the Sundance-opening quasi-biographical movie by Oscar-winning documentarians Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman. Howl the movie—which, in addition to touching on Ginsberg's early life (and successful coming out), dramatizes the poem's obscenity trial, the talk of San Francisco in late 1957—is broadly played by a number of name actors: David Strathairn (baffled prosecuting attorney), Jon Hamm (cool defense attorney), Bob Balaban (Solomonic judge), Jeff Daniels (laughable expert witness for the prosecution), Mary-Louise Parker (ditto), and Treat Williams (professorial defense witness Mark Schorer). Most compelling by far is James Franco as Ginsberg, successfully nailing the poet's incantatory style, even while providing that voice with a movie star's glamorous vessel. Splendid as Franco's literal characterization and overheated line readings can be, art director Eric Drooker's literal-minded animated interpretation of "Howl" (haunted vortex of lonely crowd alienation, "what now little man?" monochromatic fascist madness) are as sodden as a cold latke—as well as a distraction. (I kept wondering how a neo-beatnik like R. Crumb would have illustrated Ginsberg's epochal spritz.) Basically, Epstein and Friedman are feel-good filmmakers—their Ginsberg has one of the shortest, most successful bouts of psychotherapy in history. But is it really necessary to affirm the poem's ecstatic footnote ("Holy! Holy! Holy!") with a montage of smiling reaction shots?

Text is HERE

- MOLIM TE MAESTRO (text)
- PLEASE MASTER TEXT
- About Allen Ginsberg
- HOWL (2010)

Visit : Orvel.me

Cazuza - O Tempo Não Pára (2004)

Cazuza: Time Doesn't Stop (2004)
Cazuza - O Tempo Nao Pára (original title)

Director: Walter Carvalho, Sandra Werneck
Writers:: Lúcia Araújo, Fernando Bonassi 
Genre: Biography 
Country: Brazil
Year: 2004 
Duration: 98 min (Mar del Plata Film Festival) Rating: 7.3/10

Stars: Daniel de Oliveira, Marieta Severo, Reginaldo Farias, Andréa Beltrăo, Leandra Leal, Emílio de Melo, Cadu Fávero, André Gonçalves, Arlindo Lopes, Dudu Azevedo, André Pfeffer, Eduardo Pires, Maria Flor, Fernanda Boechat, Pierre Sant

Ne volim filmove sa tužnim krajem, al ovaj sam odgledao sa posebnom pažnjom. Snimljen na jedan polu dokumentarni način ima i priču i dušu. Cazuza je brazilski pjevač koji je u svoje vrijeme bio izuzetno popularan. Na žalost umro je od side 1990. god, a iza sebe je ostavio Brazil liberalniji nego što je bio. Kad je saznao da ima AIDS nije krio bolest što izazvalo zaprepašćenje širom Brazila i motivisalo mnoge ljude da se suprostave neznanju u borbi protiv te pošasti.
Nakon što sam odgledao ovaj film skinuo sam muziku iz filma i posebno mi se dopala pjesma O Tempo Nao Para. Slušajuci je nazvao sam jednog prijatelja, inače brazilca koji živi u Parizu i pitao ga da li zna ko ovo pjeva. Rekao mi je da obožava tu pjesmu i da je pjeva jedan brazilski pjevač koji je umro od side! Naravno dao sam mu link da pogleda ovaj film.

Posle mi je još i rekao da se Cazusove poeme uče u školama i da su obavezna literatura, da je cjeli Brazil počeo da razmišlja dugačije nakon njegove smrti. Nakon Cazuzove smrti pjevač Renato Russo je napravio koncert na kojemu je pjevao Cazuzove pjesme. Na koncertu je bilo suza i plača, al svi su pjevali! Dvije godine kasnije Renato Russo je takođe umro od side.

Brazil danas ima jednu od najjačih kampanja edukacije u prevenciji AIDS-a i zahvaljući tome ta država nema veći broj HIV pozitivnih. Sam Cazuza je prilično razuzdano živio, biseksualac, umjetnik , poeta, provokator… to su sve epiteti koje je dobio za života. Za sebe je jednom rekao : -Rodjen sam bez osjećaja srama!

Cazuzo i danas živi u sjećanjima mnogih brazilaca kao umjetnik koji je ostavio traga u mnogim životima običnih ranjivih ljudi! Inače malo se na ovim prostorima zna o mentalitetu brazilaca, uopšte o mentalitetu ljudi sa južnoameričkog kontinenta. Izuzetno temperamentni, strastveni u ljubavi i mržnji i beskompromisno tvrdoglavi podsjećaju na mediteran. Ovaj brazilac kojeg pominjem u tekstu živi u Parisu, oženjen je i ima dijete. Na jedan internetski način održavamo kontakte i zarekao se da će doći u Crnu Goru da me vidi. Tvrdi da me voli i često dok se gledamo preko kamera to i vidim u njegovim očima. Uplašim se toga. Šta da kažem ako dođe? “Ovo mi je rođak ” sigurno ne može da prođe jer je crnac!

Cazuza – O Tempo Nao Pára (Cazuza – Time Doesn’t Stop) is a 2004 Brazilian movie about the life of singer Cazuza. The film is directed by Walter Carvalho and Sandra Werneck. It stars Daniel de Oliveira as Cazuza. The film is based on the book by Cazuza’s mother, Lucia Araujo. Cazuza – O Tempo Nao Pára won a best actor award from the Sao Paulo Association of Art Critics Awards. Agenor Miranda Araújo Neto, better known as Cazuza (4 April 1958 – 7 July 1990) was a Brazilian composer, singer and poet, born in Rio de Janeiro.

Along with Raul Seixas, Renato Russo and Os Mutantes, Cazuza is considered one of the best exponents of Brazilian rock music. In 1989, he admitted publicly for the first time that he had AIDS and released his last album: Burguesia. Cazuza was openly bisexual but was not active in the gay movement. However his openness about being a person with AIDS helped to change public perceptions and attitudes about HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment.

Cazuza died in Rio de Janeiro on July 7, 1990 at the age of 31 from an AIDS related illness. He was buried at the Cemitério Sao Joao Batista Botafogo, in Rio de Janeiro. Cazuza’s mother set up the Viva Cazuza Society (Sociedade Viva Cazuza), a charity which sponsors AIDS prevention and provides a home for HIV-positive children.
The movie was one of the most successful of the year in Brazil.

Focusing on Cazuza’s personal life, the film chronicles his early career, his subsequent success, his drug use and his promiscuous lifestyle. It starts out in the early 1980s in Rio de Janeiro, showing his usual day-to-day life until he joins the band which would become Barao Vermelho. It then shows the band’s rise to fame and its frequent “mutinies” which led him to pursue a solo career. Later, it depicts his struggle against the AIDS virus and his final days.












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Little Ashes (2008)

Little Ashes (2008)

Director: Paul Morrison
Scenario: Philippa Goslett
Genre: Biography, Drama
Country: UK
Year: 2008
Duration: 112 min
Rating: 7.0/10

Actors: Javier Beltrán, Robert Pattinson, Matthew McNulty, Marina Gatell, Adria Allue, Simón Andreu, Rubén Arroyo, Ferran Audí, Adrian Devant, Ramón Enrich Borrellas, Sue Flack, Diana Gómez, Arly Jover, Ferran Lahoz, Esther Nubiola, Bruno Oro, Vicky Peńa, Joan Pico, Marc Pujol, Christian Rodrigo, Pep Sais, Xavi Siles

Drama o snovima, ljubavi i životu Salvador Dalija, Federika Garsije Lorke i Luisa Bunjelija.

Vjerujem da su svi čuli za ova tri genijalca 20 - tih godina prošlog vijeka! Ako kojim slučajem niste odmah da ste pošli na wikipediju i pročitali sve što nađete o njima. Nejmote samo da se obrukate pa kada vas neko pita da li vam se dopada Salvador Dali odgovorite:

" super je parfem!"

Istini za volju ne bi me iznenadilo da tako nešto čujem! Ova današnja omladina je zapuštena totalno!
Film je pokušaj da se na jedan specifičan način opišu sanjarenja tri momka čija će imena biti upisana u knjige Španskih velikana.
Ako ništa drugo ono bar za Salvadora Dalija i Federika G. Lorke.
Međutim iako je film prijatan za oko , prepun simbolizma ugrađenog u predivne pokretne fotografije i ima lijpeu priču, nekako mi je ostao nedorečen. Definitivno , iako je Lorka bio omađijani homić, pisac stihova koji se ponavljaju kao neizostavni dio ljubavnih pisama, avangarda i svog i današnjeg vremena, u ovom filmu to nije dovoljno jako dočarano. Očito da je režiser nedovoljno upoznat sa univerzalnom prirodom gay paćenja i Lorkinom upornom borbom za oslobođenjem sopstvene ličnosti, pravednost i tolerantnost. Sve to ga je odvelo pod nož Frankovog krvavog režima.

Dalijevo eksperimentisanje sa svime što upadne u njegovo genijalno oko je dovelo do fantazija pretočenih na platno. Očito je da je Dali eksperimentisao i sa svojim i sa tuđim emocijama, tražeći u njima odgovore na svoje često zbrkane rebuse, za koje nisam siguran da je iko uspio razumjeti.
Fascinantna je njegova emotivna vezanost za Lorku koju nije mogao upotpuniti i fizičkom, ma kako se trudio i željeli i jedan i drugi!
Na kraju ostane rečenica: "Znam da sam ti povrijedio ponos, iskupiću ti se, a ti ćeš me naučiti kako!"

Artistički postavljen film, nam ipak kontinuirano priča svoju priču koja bi se do beskraja mogla pričati. Pogledajte pa će te znati o čemu pričam.

Vidim da sam zalutao u misli i slike koje su mi se pod uticajem filma naređale, pa bi bilo dobro da napravim otklon od filma i ispričam vam ponešto o mojim mladačkim sanjarenjima.

U to neko vrijeme sam imao druga ( nikada ga nisam nazvao dečkom ili momkom jer mi je to nekeko pederski) kojeg sam nekako smatrao prirodnim dijelom sebe. Naprosto nastavak mene u smjeru u kojem se nisam znao iskazati. Sve što nisam znao kako, on je znao! I obrnuto!
Jednom me je pitao da li me je ikada strah od budućnosti? Rekao sam mu da nije, nego svaki novi dan očekujem kao neki nepročitani roman! ( ili ti neodgledani film) On mi rećče da je njega jedino strah da me ne izgubi!
Nasmijao sam se i odgovorio mu: Nikada me nećeš izgubiti, ovo šti mi sada imamo je priča koju ćeš uvijek imati sa sobom! I čitav život če mo imati ponešto da dopišemo u nju!
I tako je zaista! Evo i nakon 20 godina često se sjetim neke nenapisane misli iz tog vremena!

Souce: www.channel4.com

By Ali Catterall

Drama about the lives and loves of the young Salvador Dalí, Luis Bun~uel and Federico García Lorca in 1920s Madrid
According to Salvador Dalí, Federico García Lorca, the gay poet and dramatist, had been "madly in love" with him. "He tried to screw me," said Dali. "Twice." But the affair was never consummated because, said the painter, "it hurts".

Whatever the truth of the matter (Dalí would say just about anything to get a reaction - or for money), Little Ashes screenwriter Philippa Goslett has taken this, and the pair's supposed innuendo-laced correspondence, as the starting block for a torrid melodrama about forbidden love and artistic integrity, sketching in the details until the facts become as pliant as one of Dalí's timepieces.

The year is 1922, the city is Madrid, and three creative geniuses just happen to be lodging together in student digs while unleashing a firestorm of modernity upon the world. The first act of the film has fun presenting a portrait of the artists as young dogs. Or in Federico's case, an Andalusian one; he later claimed surrealist wind-up Un Chien Andalou was a personal attack on him by his former chums.

Here's bolshie Bun~uel (Matthew McNulty), upbraiding Lorca (Javier Beltrán) for not being more of a modernist. And here's a "strategically placed copy of Freud" on somebody's desk. So which one's Dalí? Oh, there he is, a pale, effete lad, more stick insect than Catalan, pulling up to the doors of the Residencia in lace sleeves, knee-high boots and a poncy page-boy haircut. You can always spot those first-year art students a mile off, can't you?

If Lorca's the wound, Bun~uel's the scab. And Dalí (Robert Pattinson) is trying so hard to be edgy and out there ("how do you feel about communal defecation?" he drunkenly demands of a society hostess), he loses sight of the fact he naturally is. The three consolidate their friendships, and as is often the way with trios, Bun~uel pinballs between Lorca and Dalí, who have initially become far closer. How close? Well, let's just hope the queer-bashing Bun~uel doesn't find out about it. Caramba! Too late.

Although Little Ashes concerns artists and the artistic impulse, it's not what you'd call an 'art movie', sharing more DNA with, say, Lust For Life than 1991's Van Gogh. At its best, it does a good job of showing how it feels to navigate that tricky passage between late adolescence and early-twenties.

But as a would-be penetrating expose, it's too polite, too compromised and stagey. Perhaps owing to its modest ?1.4m budget, it looks - and sounds (everyone ees speekeeng like thees) like a teleplay, featuring stilted dialogue and heavy-handed symbolism, such as a scene of a heartbroken Lorca transposed with that of a slain bull in the ring.

In the reductive way of biopics, Lorca's a sap, Dalí's a brat, and Bun~uel's a yob. Beltrán elegantly conveys the poet's raw sensitivity ("like an animal that's been skinned" as Dalí puts it), though can't quite pull off his celebrated magnetism; the film would rather he fulfill his role as passive victim. Love interest Robert Pattinson is perhaps not yet old enough to play the bug-eyed dandy with the upside-down moustache, an exemplar of John Updike's aphorism that "Fame is a mask that eats into the face". Yet his grasp of Dalí-esque tics and gestures suggest natural comic ability. He's wasted on those fantasy movies; he should play Buster Keaton.

For his part, Matthew McNulty is saddled with the sketchiest, and for dramatic reasons, least sympathetic role as the bullish homophobe. Anyone wishing to get a fuller picture of his Residencia days should be directed to his autobiography 'My Last Breath', in which he says of Lorca, "Of all the human beings I've ever known, Federico was the finest."

For the sake of argument, let us suppose an affair did occur, outside of Dalí's febrile imagination. However, by getting bogged down in a tease of a romance (this is a gay film for straights; nothing to scare the donkeys here), the drama sidesteps the prevailing politics - vital to a real appreciation of the artists' anti-establishment stance, and all but cruises past the Spanish Civil War. Lorca's arrest and murder by fascist firing squad is predictably soft-pedalled, with the camera discretely pulling away from the forensics of his notorious dispatch; finished off with a pistol in his anus ("two shots up the bum, because he was a poof" an assassin later confessed).

Ultimately, Little Ashes, a piece of commercial entertainment made on the other side of the twentieth century, lacks the courage of its case studies' convictions. This is most clearly illustrated by how far it's prepared to go in one direction, but not the other. In the movie's most hysterical scene, a self-loathing Lorca beds his unhappy fag-hag Margarita (Marina Gatell) as a substitute Dalí, while the distraught painter voyeuristically watches. Whether the incident has any basis in reality or not, it's integral to the dramatic arc, and extremely graphic - nudging hardcore. Yet to portray this, in such prurient detail, but not its homosexual flipside - the poet attempting and failing to penetrate the painter (whether it happened or not), seems cowardly, and indicative of that bourgeois morality the film's subjects were doing their damndest to smash through.

Gods and Monsters (1998)

Gods and Monsters (1998)

Director: Bill Condon
Scenario: Christopher Bram, Bill Condon
Genre: Drama, Biography
Country: UK, USA
Year: 1998
Duration: 105 min
Rating: 7.5/10

Actors: Ian McKellen, Brendan Fraser, Lynn Redgrave, Lolita Davidovich, David Dukes, Kevin J. O'Connor, Mark Kiely, Jack Plotnick, Rosalind Ayres, Jack Betts, Matt McKenzie, Todd Babcock, Cornelia Hayes O'Herlihy, Brandon Kleyla, Pamela Salem

Description:
Dugo sam ovaj film čuvao na hard disku jer naprosto nisam bio raspoložen da ga gledam. Ipak sam danas nakon napornog posla odlučio da ga odgledam i stvaim na bolg. Obično filmove koji mi se ne sviđaju ne komentarišem, ali ovaj me se doista dojmio!
Idu godine naprosto lete i što smo stariji to imamo više priča iz sopstvenih života. Vremenom će mo sigurno ostati sa svojim uspomenama i pričati svoje priče u nadi da će ih možda ipak neko zapamtiti.

Tako je i ovaj režiser James Whale, predkaraj života ostao da živi među svojim slikama, pričama i filmovima. Stvari ponekad imaju svoje posebno značenje, kada ih uzmemo u ruku ili samo pogledamo vrate nas u neku našu priču i makar na trenutak probude u nama emocije koje smo davno zaboravili.

Ova priča o režiseru, prvaku filmova o Frankeštajnu, me je podsjetila na jednog starca kojeg sam volio na jedan poseban način.Pričao mi je priče iz svog života, o ratu, o ljubavi o strasti, o ljudima.... Sve sam upijao kao sunđer i od njega sam mnogo naučio. Pričao mi o svom braku, djeci, razvodu, ljubavi prema muškarcu i o tome kako moramo uvjek naći način da poslušamo svoje srce. Jednom prilikom mi je rekao da mu mnogo značim jer zna da će ipak neko znati njegovu priču koju nikome nikada nije ispričao. Na žalost on nije više živ, ali mnoge stvari o kojima mi je on pričao prenosim i ja vama!
Inače ovaj režiser James Whale, je živio uvijek onako kako je osjećao da mora i može. Snimao je filmove, živio u svojoj imaginaciji, putovao, slikao... Pred kraj života upoznaje mladog čovjeka, nesigurnog u sebe i u njemu vidi reinkarnaciju nekog ko je davno nestao iz njegovog života!
Bil Condon nam na jedan poseban način prikazuje odnos ovejanog matorog homoseksualca i mladog heteroseksualnog baštovana.
Zaista sjajna psihološka drama!

VARIETY.COM
By DENNIS HARVEY

Ian McKellen's brilliant performance as 1930s director James Whale highlights "Gods and Monsters." Historical Hollywood fiction drawn from Christopher Bram's book "Father of Frankenstein" doesn't always convince, particularly in the last lap. But it's an engrossing, unusual, imaginatively executed bit of psychological gamesmanship nonetheless. Director-scenarist Bill Condon's first-class production will need good reviews and strong marketing to cross over beyond gay and arthouse auds.

Brit-born Whale's career took off brilliantly in the talkies' first decade, starting with the transcription of his stage hit "Journey's End," then including the first "Waterloo Bridge" and "Show Boat." His name was made, however -- to a certain personal chagrin -- by three witty, visually peerless Universal horror classics: "Frankenstein," "The Invisible Man" and "Bride of Frankenstein" (the latter much-excerpted here).

Such success rendered even his fairly uncloseted homosexuality bearable to studio heads, who kept mum. But once their drastic recut of an expensive '39 war pic, "The Road Back," flopped, his career was finished. He was found at the bottom of his Pacific Palisades pool in 1957, under "mysterious circumstances."

Story is set in helmer's final days, painting a portrait of a physically frail, socially isolated has-been who feigns contentment hanging about his tony digs under the watchful eye of longtime Hungarian housekeeper Hanna (Lynn Redgrave). Just back from a stroke-induced hospital stay, he's heavily medicated, clearly at rope's end with his mental and bodily deterioration.

Yet a bit of leering prankishness remains alive yet, as demonstrated when Whale makes a fawning young film student (Jack Plotnick) shed a clothing article for each question answered.

A stronger lure is the new gardener Clayton (Fraser), a muscle-bound, rootless odd-jobber living in a trailer. Though suspicious, this unsophisticated hunk is flattered by the attention. Cat-and-mouse play ensues, as the elder uses his new, vehemently heterosexual protege by turns for leering amusement, companionship and possible fatal delivery from a once-dignified life ebbing toward undignified fade-out.

Whale's stroke-debilitated weavings in and out of reality provide vivid narrative punctuation. At times he recalls the working-class English childhood he'd fled (and falsified later for publicists); at others, scenes from his famed "Frankenstein" pics take on frightening immediacy. But the memory tugging hardest is of the great love he'd lost in World War I battle. That's one he'll take to -- and hopefully re-embrace in -- the grave, whether Clayton expedites matters or not.

Condon softens the harsher edges in Bram's novel. Latter painted Whale as too bitchily misanthropic to allow much sympathy, while the book's Clayton was an opportunist and quietly raging malcontent. Overall, changes from this cold playoff are to the good, making "Gods" more complex, more poignant than the "Sunset Boulevard"-style grotesque psychodrama it might have been.

Nonetheless, central character dynamic doesn't entirely work. One problem is that Fraser -- who's lent intelligence, sweetness and comic flair to even Neanderthal roles like "George of the Jungle" and "Encino Man" -- can't help but make Clayton's rudderlessness seem a bit improbable. We don't believe he'd be so easily manipulated, or that he'd fare so poorly with women (Lolita Davidovich plays a barkeep who gives him the brush-off). As usual, Fraser gives a polished perf, but he's miscast. He's also stuck with a poorly conceived, gratuitous coda.

McKellen, on the other hand, has seldom found such an ideal role. This Whale keeps a silvery, barbed wit sharp for his own entertainment -- in one memorable party scene, he embarrasses fellow gay helmer George Cukor in front of visiting Princess Margaret. Yet despair at his own helplessness, nostalgia and vague regret are ever-present. It's a bravura turn.

Redgrave does a rather broad job with the stern, loyal, disapproving housekeeper; at times she seems to be parodying Lotte Lenya. Support roles (including fleeting stand-ins for stars Boris Karloff, Elsa Lancaster and Elizabeth Taylor) are well handled.

Though the last 15 minutes or so falter, director Condon (best known for the cult pics "Strange Behavior" and "Strange Invaders") otherwise executes a demanding mix of intimate character drama and fantasy elements with imaginative grace.

Stephen M. Katz's widescreen lensing is tops; some B&W segs successfully mimic "Bride's" expressionist splendor, helped to no end by Richard Sherman's dexterous production design. Carter Burwell's score may be a tad earnest, but it does help ballast this curious story's reach toward pathos.

La Mujer de mi Hermano (2005) Aka My Brother's Wife

La Mujer de mi Hermano (2005) Aka My Brother's Wife

Director: Ricardo de Montreuil
Scenario: María Eugenia Argomedo, Jaime Bayly
Genre: Drama
Country: Argentina, Mexico, Peru, USA
Year: 2005
Duration: 89 min

Subtitle:English
Rating: 6.4/10

Actors: Bárbara Mori, Christian Meier, Manolo Cardona, Gaby Espino, Beto Cuevas, Bruno Bichir, Angélica Aragón

Description:

U mom životu ima već i previše priča o pederima koji su se oženili zbog blokada koje su sami sebi nametnuli. Uticaj naše konzervative sredine, tadicionalistickog vaspitanja i želja da budemo kao i drugi samo su neki od mnogih razloga koji mogu natjerati pedera da se oženi! Neki u tome vide samo način da prikriju svoju homoseksualnost. Uživaju u svom porodičnom domu, a koriste svaki trenutak da se iskradu i drkaju po javnim WC-ima, parkovima i sličnim mjestima. Malo vještiji koriste internet i gledaju da se na svaki nacčn docepaju kite! Pri tome žive u neviđenom strahu da im ne spadne vješto izrađena maska kojom kriju svoju pravu prirodu.
Vremenom svi trpe i nesretna žena koja ima sve manje seksa i nesretni peder koji doživljava noćne more u strahu da mu đeca ne saznaju da im je tata kurcopušac.

A kada se sve to uplete i još jedna veza, nastaje priča za film. Ne jedan nego stotine filmova. Nekako svo vrijeme koegzistiram sa pričama na tu temu. Valjda zato jer me privlace jaki i muževni muškarci, a zbog moje potrebe da sakrijem svoje homoseksualne nagone najrađe izaberem oženjenog čovjeka! Možda zato jer mislim da će čuvajuci sebe, sačuvati i mene. I tako vremenom upadnem u mrežu ispletenu od sopstvenih laži da bude momenata kada jedva raspletem put do istine!
Svaki ukradeni trenutak kada se vidim sa voljenom osobom smatram darom od boga i budem zahvalan za to! A kad ostanem sam u četiri zida trudim se da ne razmišljam o tome koga grli kada mene nema!

Druga priča je kada se nesretnik koji je zasnovao porodicu i ima djecu zaljubi u muškarca. Na šta je sve spreman da udovolji svom srcu?! Koliko rizikuje time? I šta na kraju može očekivati od te veze?

Treća priča je žena! Vremenom osjeti pomanjkanje strasti , vidi kod muža neku osdsutnost a ne zna u čemu je problem! Kasnije nauči da je to tako u većini brakova i sve pređe u naviku.

I još milion prica, ispricanih i ne ispricanih. Svodi se na trougao u kojem svako ima svoj cošak i sa teškom mukom bar na momenat prede u susjedni.
Ako se otkrije zabranjena posjeta, trougao se raspada i postane predmet pogleda ljudi kojih se u biti to uopšte ne tice!

U ovom filmu, nesretna žena ima avanturu sa muževljevim bratom sa kojim na kraju ostaje trudna. Pri svemu tome i muž ima svoje tajne, a kako se sve završava kada istina rasplete laži vidite sami. Nemojte ocekivati mnogo, nema nekih seksi scena i velikih romansi! Ovo je samo još jedna u nizu mnogih prica.

Medju linkovima imate i titl na engleskom jeziku. Na žalost na Ex Yu jezicima ga još nema!

La Mujer de mi Hermano Aka My Brother's Wife

By PETER DEBRUGE

A Lionsgate release of a Lionsgate, Panamax Films and Stan Jakubowicz presentation of a Shallow Entertainment production. Produced by Jakubowicz. Executive producers, Jakubowicz, James M. McNamara, Benjamin Odell. Co-producer, Jaime Bayly. Directed by Ricardo de Montreuil. Screenplay, Jamie Bayly.

Zoe Edwards - Barbara Mori
Ignacio Edwards - Christian Meier
Gonzalo Edwards - Manolo Cardona
Boris - Bruno Bichir
Cristina - Angelica Aragon
Padre Santiago - Beto Cuevas

If you strip "Unfaithful" of Adrian Lyne's touch or filter Kubrick out of "Eyes Wide Shut," they remain provocative looks at adultery. But, if you deprive desperate-housewife yarn "La mujer de mi hermano" of helmer Ricardo de Montreuil's polished approach, all that remains is a tawdry Telenovela. Soapy melodrama and a small-screen cast undermine the first-time director's efforts to dress up screenwriter Jaime Bayly's adaptation of his novel about a sexually unfulfilled married woman who beds her hubby's brother. Successful South-of-border run suggests Latin interest with limited crossover potential if Lionsgate positions the pic properly.

Although Uruguayan-born beauty Barbara Mori, a Spanish-speaking TV star, could easily cross over to English-language roles, this revealing lead perf does more to showcase the skills that landed her in the January 2004 issue of Maxim than those needed to put her in competition with Salma Hayek or Penelope Cruz.

The way Mori plays it, the title phrase -- which translates to "My Brother's Wife" -- conveys the same off-limits appeal reflected in the word "MILF."

Zoe Edwards (Mori) grows tired of her rich husband Ignacio (Christian Meier) and finds passion in the arms of his spontaneous younger brother Gonzalo (Manolo Cardona).

For at least the first half hour, pic sustains the illusion of artistic ambitions thanks to an elegant opening-credits sequence in which fallen leaves and doomed insects float adrift on water. Those images correspond to Ignacio's routine of cleaning his designer swimming pool, going out of his way to rescue a drowning beetle.

The pool provides a symbol (so does the impressive modern "glass house") as de Montreuil tries to bring class to a story destined to drown in its own suds.

Viewers needn't wait long for the hanky panky to commence: Things are already tense between brothers Ignacio and Gonzalo, while Zoe resents that her disinterested husband can't have children. There's little to suggest why Zoe and Ignacio are together in the first place, much less how they have lasted for nearly 10 years of marriage.

She is, as her gay best friend Boris (Bruno Bichir) suggests, far too beautiful to be ignored.

This daytime-TV-caliber setup favors shallow titillation over deeper psychology. The lovers are perpetually on the brink of discovery, but it's Zoe's inevitable pregnancy that thrusts everything out in the open.

For a modest South American melodrama, "La mujer de mi hermano" manages to tackle everything from adultery to incest to abortion and homosexuality, spanning roughly a year in the lives of its characters in 89 overcrowded minutes. A mesmerizing score from Angelo Milli ("Secuestro Express") and polished cinematography by d.p. Andres E. Sanchez (who also lensed de Montreuil's award-winning short "Amiga") give Zoe's marriage an almost chlorinated feel, but heat up when Gonzalo is around.