Nominaciones a los Globo de Oro: mejor película extranjera

-La nana, de Sebastián Silva

-Baaria, de Giuseppe Tornatore

-Un profeta, de Jacques Audiard

-The White Ribbon, de Michael Haneke

-Los abrazos rotos, de Pedro Almodóvar

"Los abrazos rotos", de Pedro Almodóvar (Clarín)

Link

Oscar: Spanish Film Academy excludes Almodóvar from Oscar race (Cineuropa)

Gordos (“Fat People”), The Dancer and the Thief or Map of the Sounds of Tokyo will represent Spain in the nomination race for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, according to an announcement by Film Academy president Álex de la Iglesia.

The group of hopefuls comprises, respectively, a promising young director in tune with modern times (Daniel Sánchez Arévalo); a mature filmmaker and previous Oscar-winner (Fernando Trueba); and a sophisticated, acclaimed star of auteur cinema (Isabel Coixet).

However, what is most surprising is not the choice of films (although Sánchez Arévalo’s film wasn’t strongly tipped for selection), but the ones left out. Clearly, we are referring to Pedro Almodóvar’s latest work Broken Embraces. This setback adds to a relatively disappointing performance, after the film went home empty-handed from Cannes, grossed just under €4m in Spain (Almodóvar’s worst result in recent years), and the director was involved in a seething public row with El País film critic Carlos Boyero.

The Spanish candidate will be announced on September 29. However, few critics believe that the chosen title will have a chance of making it to the five finalists set to vie for the coveted statuette.

Map of the Sounds of Tokyo received rather poor reviews on the whole, both on its Cannes premiere and its theatrical release. Presented last week at the San Sebastian Film Festival, The Dancer and the Thief didn’t meet with critical enthusiasm either. Gordos received a much warmer reaction but is still considered by many as an overly personal choice by a little-established filmmaker.

Toronto Film Festival 2009 - Preview 2: "Los abrazos rotos", de Pedro Almodóvar

No puedo con Pedro, no puedo, no puedo. Veo una película suya, lo odio, al rato me reconcilio, luego vuelvo a odiarlo, al rato me culpo a mí y creo que no lo entiendo, luego vuelvo a odiarlo, un día le hago una entrevista y me convence, pero lo odio otra vez. Y así... Me gusta, no me gusta, me importa, no me importa. Juro que cada vez pienso menos en Almodóvar y en su cine, no registra en mi lista de intereses principales, así que me puse a ver "Los abrazos rotos" más por una sensación de deber que otra cosa.

Y me gustó, la muy perra. Me gustó bastante. No llega a ser lo mejor de Pedro (guardo recuerdos muy gratos "Atame!", "La flor de mi secreto" y "Hable con ella", aunque no me atrevo a reverlas), pero se ubica en su Top Five, sin dudas. ¿Por qué? ¿Qué hay en ella de nuevo, bueno, sorprendente y genial? Nada, en realidad. Es el mismo Almodóvar de siempre, en este caso en su vertiente más cinéfila, noir, oscura, metiéndose entre géneros y usándose a sí mismo como un género más del que apropiarse.

Pueden chequear por ahí de qué va la película (explicar una trama de Almodóvar es algo muy tedioso de hacer y aburridísimo de leer), yo aquí sólo podré decir que me sedujo su oscuridad, su sequedad, las pocas veces que me sonó el radar del "exceso almodovariano" (hay dos o tres momentos en los que, ay que dolor, pero pasa rápido), su sentido trágico y su costado autorreferencial, pero no ya desde lo estilístico, sino directamente desde lo narrativo.

La ceguera trucha del protagonista (Lluis Homar), las extrañas pelucas (de Ochandiano, de la Pe), el momento Carmen Machi, el paisaje lunar de Lanzarote, esa escultura extraña que recuerda las tramas de sus películas, el cruce de los tiempos, el choque ficción-documental-ficción, las tetas de Penélope, las fotos rotas, el beso robado en la playa gris, el título "Chicas y maletas" y el sentido de pérdida que transmite la película --más allá de la teatral confesión del final-- me hicieron sentir que estaba ante una de las buenas de Pedro. De las buenas de verdad.

Eso. Lo escribí. Probablemente no vuelva a pensar en Almodóvar hasta que tenga que hacerlo... Esto es así.

"Los abrazos rotos/Broken Embraces", de Pedro Almodóvar (Promedio: 5,90)

Competencia oficial

Violeta Kovacsics (Lumiere, España) - 8
Alvaro Arroba (Crítica, Argentina) - 9
Cristina Nord (Taz, Germany) - 5
Dana Linssen (De Filmkrant, Holland) - 4
Luciano Monteagudo (Página/12, Argentina) - 6
Diego Batlle (La Nación, Otroscines, Argentina) - 7
Markus Keuschnigg (Die Presse, Austria) - 2
Manu Yáñez (Fotogramas, España) - 6
Roger Alan Koza (La Voz del Interior, Argentina) - 6
Ernesto Garratt (El Mercurio, Chile) - 6

Promedio: 5,90

Siguen llegando los votos de los no-españoles y la supremacía de Almodóvar se acaba.

Trailer de "Los abrazos rotos", de Pedro Almodóvar (Cannes, en competencia)

"Los abrazos rotos/Broken Embraces", de Pedro Almodóvar (Variety)

Los abrazos rotos
(Spain) A Warner Sogefilms (in Spain)/Sony Pictures Classics (in U.S.) release of an El Deseo, Universal Intl. Pictures Spain production, with participation of Canal Plus. (International sales: Focus Features Intl., London.). Produced by Esther Garcia. Executive producer, Agustin Almodovar.
Directed, written by Pedro Almodovar.

With: Penelope Cruz, Lluis Homar, Jose Luis Gomez, Blanca Portillo, Lola Duenas, Ruben Ochandiano, Tamar Novas, Kira Miro, Chus Lampreave, Carmen Machi.

By Jonathan Holland

Partly a film about films and partly a film about love, Pedro Almodovar's "Broken Embraces" can't quite decide where its allegiances lie. A restless, rangy and frankly enjoyable genre-juggler that combines melodrama, comedy and more noir-hued darkness than ever before, the pic is held together by the extraordinary force of Almodovar's cinematic personality. But while its four-way in extremis love story dazzles, it never really catches fire. The Spanish helmer's biggest-budgeted and longest movie to date will get warm hugs from local auds on release March 18; headed for Cannes in May, it goes out Stateside via Sony Pictures Classics later this year.

There's a sense here that Almodovar, who's now a stylistic law unto himself, may be more interested in stretching himself technically than in engaging with issues of the wider world. Card-carrying fans can prepare themselves for a rare treat. But those who hoped the pic would extend the quieter, more personal mood shown in "Volver," as the 59-year-old helmer moves into the late phase of his career, will be disappointed to find that "Embraces" is made not of flesh and blood, but of celluloid.

Harry Caine (Lluis Homar, "Bad Education") is a blind screenwriter and former director whose real name, which he abandoned after losing his sight in a car crash, is Mateo Blanco. News arrives of the death of corrupt stockbroker Ernesto Martel (Jose Luis Gomez), who once produced a movie Blanco directed, "Girls and Suitcases."

Blanco's former production manager, Judit (Blanca Portillo), who holds a candle for him, seems nervous at the news. And then a pretentious young man calling himself Ray X (Ruben Ochandiano), who turns out to be Martel's son, asks Blanco to help write a script that's intended as an act of vengeance against his neglectful father.

The film now flashes back to 1992, when Martel fell for his secretary, a wannabe actress-cum-part-time call girl, Lena (Penelope Cruz). By 1994, he and Lena are an item. However, when Lena auditions for "Girls and Suitcases," Blanco also falls for her.

Chagrined, Martel gets his son (also Ochandiano, here as a wildly gauche, camp teenager) to spy on Blanco and Lena under the guise of making a docu about the shoot. Watching Martel's life fall apart, as a lip reader (Lola Duenas) decodes Lena and Blanco's conversations in the boy's footage, is hilarious. But any compassion for Martel evaporates in the laughter -- one of several moments when the film deliberately undermines a particular mood.

Following a disastrous trip to Ibiza, Martel and Lena break up, and Martel initiates a slow, costly revenge designed to destroy Blanco. Hereon, much of the action takes place amid the volcanic landscapes of Lanzarote, opening things visually even as the drama becomes more and more claustrophobic.

Script moves fluidly back and forth in time, with superb editing by regular Jose Salcedo, and some of the witty, pointed dialogue is among Almodovar's best. The labyrinthine plot is thick with twists, turns and resonances. But a couple of questions linger -- especially that the revelations in the final reel would hardly have remained under wraps for 14 years, given Blanco's suspicions.

Cruz delivers a compelling, subtle perf as a woman continually aware that the shadow of tragedy hovers over her. But because her character is effectively split into three -- Magdalena the grieving daughter, Lena the actress and lover, and Pina in "Girls and Suitcases" -- auds will struggle to locate an emotional center behind the thesp's dizzying range of costumes and wigs.

Homar, who literally wears Almodovar's own '90s wardrobe, makes a commanding screen presence as Caine/Blanco, but the character's reactions to his multiple tragedies (including being blinded) seem stoical to the point of catatonia. Gomez and Portillo are solid in theslightly smaller roles of Martel and Judit, respectively. Multiple cameos -- including one by the helmer's producer brother, Agustin -- are enjoyable, though none help move the story forward.

Visually, the pic is an exquisite treat. Every richly hued wall is covered with eye-candy artwork, every doorway reps a second level of framing, and there is beauty even in the scattered contents of a drawer or in a pile of torn-up photos. Closeups are regularly used, particularly of Cruz's hypnotically photogenic features.

Cinematic references abound. Several scenes featuring dangerous staircases recall Henry Hathaway's '40s noir "Kiss of Death." Pic's title alludes to the Pompeii scene in Roberto Rossellini's 1954 classic, "Voyage to Italy," which Lena and Blanco watch in Lanzarote. And the entertaining "Girls and Suitcases" is a clear homage to Almodovar's 1988 hit, "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown." Score by longtime collaborator Alberto Iglesias superbly evokes the moods and movies "Embraces" is so in thrall to.

Camera (color, widescreen), Rodrigo Prieto; editor, Jose Salcedo; music, Alberto Iglesias; art director, Antxon Gomez, sound (Dolby Digital), Miguel Rejas. Reviewed at Kinepolis, Madrid, March 13, 2009. Running time: 128 MIN.