Hello again, dear readers! We’re back with another batch of Blu-ray and DVD releases for you this week, which includes one of my favorite festival films of 2020, The Stylist from Jill Gevargizian. Other titles being released on Tuesday, June 8th include The Howl of the Devil and Hunting Ground from Mondo Macabro, Scream (1981), Lover of the Monster, Deadly Delivery, Baphomet, The Devil’s Child, Snuff Kill, and Grand Guignol Madness.
The Howl of the Devil
Spanish horror star Paul Naschy plays a multitude of roles in a tour-de-force performance in one of his last great films. He plays Hector Doriani, a stage and screen actor who feels himself living in the shadow of his dead twin brother, Alex Doriani, the latter once a famous star of horror movies. Alex's young son, Adrian, now lives with Hector in his brother's isolated mansion in the countryside. To keep alive the memory of his father,...
The Howl of the Devil
Spanish horror star Paul Naschy plays a multitude of roles in a tour-de-force performance in one of his last great films. He plays Hector Doriani, a stage and screen actor who feels himself living in the shadow of his dead twin brother, Alex Doriani, the latter once a famous star of horror movies. Alex's young son, Adrian, now lives with Hector in his brother's isolated mansion in the countryside. To keep alive the memory of his father,...
- 6/7/2021
- by Heather Wixson
- DailyDead
An icon of Latin American genre movie production, Crudo Films, the Buenos Aires-based production house headed by Jimena Monteoliva and Florencia Franco, will diverge from the fantastic with the upcoming production “La Virgen Cabeza,” a big screen adaptation of the hit debut novel from local author Gabriela Cabezón Cámara.
Director of Fantaspoa and Morbido competition player “Clementina” and 2019’s “To Kill a Dragon,” Monteoliva is attached to fill the director’s chair once again.
Narrated largely by a journalist, Qüity, “La Virgen Cabeza” – Slum Virgin in English – is set in the El Poso shanty slum of Buenos Aires, where a transvestite prostitute, Cleo, begins to hear divine messages whispered to her via a cement Virgen Mary statuette. The figure instructs her, promising to alter the community’s fortunes for the better. A miraculously cleaned up El Poso is, however, destroyed by the police who move in with bulldozers, massacring much of its population.
Director of Fantaspoa and Morbido competition player “Clementina” and 2019’s “To Kill a Dragon,” Monteoliva is attached to fill the director’s chair once again.
Narrated largely by a journalist, Qüity, “La Virgen Cabeza” – Slum Virgin in English – is set in the El Poso shanty slum of Buenos Aires, where a transvestite prostitute, Cleo, begins to hear divine messages whispered to her via a cement Virgen Mary statuette. The figure instructs her, promising to alter the community’s fortunes for the better. A miraculously cleaned up El Poso is, however, destroyed by the police who move in with bulldozers, massacring much of its population.
- 12/2/2020
- by John Hopewell and Jamie Lang
- Variety Film + TV
At this point, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ governors election looks more like a round-up than a race; more than 180 members have declared their interest in filling 17 contested spots on the 54-member Board of Governors.
Voting in the run-off round starts on Monday and ends May 18. That will narrow the present field to a maximum of four nominees per branch in the final round, which follows.
For now, there are on average about 11 candidates in the running for each slot. In the casting directors and costume design branches, only three members have declared for each slot. But not so in the actors branch, where 17 members — including Brie Larson, Jacki Weaver and Meg Ryan — are vying for the spot being vacated by termed-out Tom Hanks; or the producers, executives, and public relations branches, all of which have a bumper crop of candidates. Marvin Levy, currently a governor in the public relations branch,...
Voting in the run-off round starts on Monday and ends May 18. That will narrow the present field to a maximum of four nominees per branch in the final round, which follows.
For now, there are on average about 11 candidates in the running for each slot. In the casting directors and costume design branches, only three members have declared for each slot. But not so in the actors branch, where 17 members — including Brie Larson, Jacki Weaver and Meg Ryan — are vying for the spot being vacated by termed-out Tom Hanks; or the producers, executives, and public relations branches, all of which have a bumper crop of candidates. Marvin Levy, currently a governor in the public relations branch,...
- 5/11/2018
- by Michael Cieply
- Deadline Film + TV
Writer, producer and director Pedro Almodóvar is arguably the most well-known and well-regarded Spanish filmmaker in the country’s colourful history. With eighteen feature films under his belt, and another currently in post-production, Almodovar has gone from strength to strength in his 30-odd year career, creating films that not only entertain, but also educate and captivate.
Whether it’s in his depiction of pain and loss in All About My Mother, the extremes of human passion in The Skin I Live In or sexual abuse in Bad Education, Almodóvar is not only celebrated for constantly breaking trends and subverting societal norms, but also idolised for his courageous determination in encouraging freedom in post-Franco era Spain, particularly in his representation of sexuality and strong female figures.
It’s not all seriousness, however, as many of Almodóvar’s most successful films strike a perfect balance between drama and comedy, with the director using outlandish characters (lesbian divas,...
Whether it’s in his depiction of pain and loss in All About My Mother, the extremes of human passion in The Skin I Live In or sexual abuse in Bad Education, Almodóvar is not only celebrated for constantly breaking trends and subverting societal norms, but also idolised for his courageous determination in encouraging freedom in post-Franco era Spain, particularly in his representation of sexuality and strong female figures.
It’s not all seriousness, however, as many of Almodóvar’s most successful films strike a perfect balance between drama and comedy, with the director using outlandish characters (lesbian divas,...
- 1/8/2013
- by Jamie Neish
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Assumpta Serna attends Miptv 2011 Borgia Photocall. Photo copyright Pixplanete / PR Photos. Stanley Weber, Assumpta Serna, Andrea Sawatzki, Oliver Hirschbiegel, Marta Gastini, John Doman, Isolda Dychaud and Mark Ryder attend Miptv 2011 Borgia Photocall. Photo copyright Pixplanete / PR Photos. Stanley Weber attends Miptv 2011 Borgia Photocall. Photo copyright Pixplanete / PR Photos. Assumpta Serna attends Miptv 2011 Borgia Photocall. Photo copyright Pixplanete / PR Photos. Stanley Weber attends Miptv 2011 Borgia Photocall. Photo copyright Pixplanete / PR Photos. 04/05/2011 - Stanley Weber - Miptv 2011 - "Borgia" Photocall - Hotel Majestic Swimming Pool - Cannes, France © Pixplanete / PR Photos 04/05/2011 - John Doman - Miptv 2011 - "Borgia" Photocall -...
- 4/8/2011
- by Michelle Wray
- Monsters and Critics
Arnold Schwarzenegger is set to announce details on his new TV series at Miptv. There are no details on the project, which will be revealed on April 4th at a press conference held at the Rivera-side Majestic hotel, reports The Hollywood Reporter. TV sales market runs in Cannes from April 4 through 8 and will include Joseph Fiennes, Jamie Campbell Bower and Eva Green, out promoting who are promoting Camelot created by Michael Hirst and Chris Chibnaill as well as John Barrowman, promoting Torchwood and John Doman, Oliver Hershbiegel and Assumpta Serna for The Borgias starring David Oakes, Jeremy Irons, Ronan Vibert, Luke Pasqualino, Peter Sullivan and François Arnaud.
- 3/21/2011
- Upcoming-Movies.com
Arnold Schwarzenegger is set to announce details on his new TV series at Miptv. There are no details on the project, which will be revealed on April 4th at a press conference held at the Rivera-side Majestic hotel, reports The Hollywood Reporter. TV sales market runs in Cannes from April 4 through 8 and will include Joseph Fiennes, Jamie Campbell Bower and Eva Green, out promoting who are promoting Camelot created by Michael Hirst and Chris Chibnaill as well as John Barrowman, promoting Torchwood and John Doman, Oliver Hershbiegel and Assumpta Serna for The Borgias starring David Oakes, Jeremy Irons, Ronan Vibert, Luke Pasqualino, Peter Sullivan and François Arnaud.
- 3/21/2011
- Upcoming-Movies.com
Assumpta Serna: Viva Wikileaks Today we've got the British Academy Awards, the American Society of Cinematographers Awards and the Spanish Academy Awards. You can watch live streaming online of the Goya Awards (that's the Spanish Academy's trophy) from Madrid's Teatro Real at Rtve.es. (British Academy, why don't you do the same next year instead of this year's absurd two-hour tape delay?) Protesters against Spain's new anti-piracy law are outside the theater. Right-wingers in the United States may call Wikileaks a "terrorist" organization, but many around the world think otherwise. Thanks to Wikileaks, Spaniards found out that their new anti-piracy law proposed by Minister of Culture Ángeles González Sinde was apparently a result of pressure from the Us government, itself working as an agent for the Hollywood majors and the top record labels. Many have seen the Sinde Law not as an attack on piracy, but as an attack on the Free Internet.
- 2/13/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Veuillez installer Flash Player pour lire la vidéoBORGIA - Tom Fontana présente la série
The Canadian TV series The Borgias will compete in 2011 with the French TV series Borgia. Tom Fontana, the show's creator, talks about what we should expect from it.
The series Borgia, which was created by Tom Fontana (Oz; The Philantropist) will be aired in France on CanalPlus, a French premium cable network. As for the Canadian series, it will be on Showtime and CTV, which are respectively an American premium cable network and a Canadian TV network.
The series takes place during the Renaissance in Italy. It follows Rodrigo Borgia (John Doman), who will be the most corrupt pope in history. He will also go down in history with his children: Juan (Stanley Weber), the oldest, a prideful, a sexual predator with no shame; Cesare (Mark Ryder), a violent man; Lucretia (Isolda Dychauk), a young girl...
The Canadian TV series The Borgias will compete in 2011 with the French TV series Borgia. Tom Fontana, the show's creator, talks about what we should expect from it.
The series Borgia, which was created by Tom Fontana (Oz; The Philantropist) will be aired in France on CanalPlus, a French premium cable network. As for the Canadian series, it will be on Showtime and CTV, which are respectively an American premium cable network and a Canadian TV network.
The series takes place during the Renaissance in Italy. It follows Rodrigo Borgia (John Doman), who will be the most corrupt pope in history. He will also go down in history with his children: Juan (Stanley Weber), the oldest, a prideful, a sexual predator with no shame; Cesare (Mark Ryder), a violent man; Lucretia (Isolda Dychauk), a young girl...
- 10/19/2010
- by anhkhoido@hotmail.com (Anh Khoi Do)
- The Cultural Post
Uncertainty is the most recent in a long line of films that demonstrate how one decision can alter the course of a life. However, the film takes a new twist on this concept as the audience gets to see what would happen in either scenario. In one reality, Bobby (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt of (500) Days of Summer) and Kate (Lynn Collins from X-Men Origins: Wolverine), a young couple living in New York City, discover a cell phone in the back of a cab and opt to return it to the original owner, resulting in a dangerous chase through the city. In the other, Kate and Bobby attend a 4th of July party thrown by Kate’s parents at their Brooklyn home.
The transitions between the two storylines are well done, as the bottom of the screen carefully denotes “yellow” for any scenes that occur in Manhattan (as Kate and Bobby...
The transitions between the two storylines are well done, as the bottom of the screen carefully denotes “yellow” for any scenes that occur in Manhattan (as Kate and Bobby...
- 4/22/2010
- by Jessica Guerrasio
- JustPressPlay.net
San Sebastian, Spain -- Homegrown heroes Antonio Banderas and Javier Bardem were the stars of the fuchsia-colored carpet as the 56th annual San Sebastian International Film Festival kicked off Thursday night.
Banderas, due to receive the festival's Donostia Lifetime Achievement award Friday, accompanied director Richard Eyre, presenting the Official Section's opening film, "The Other Man."
Bardem joined Woody Allen and Rebecca Hall at the ceremony to present the director's Spanish film "Vicky Cristina Barcelona," which opens the Zabaltegi Pearls section. Allen, one of the country's most revered directors, said he was looking forward to showing the film -- shot in Spain -- to Spanish audiences.
"It is a pleasure to show the film here. I take every opportunity to visit Spain and enjoyed the three months shooting the film in Spain, with a gifted cast and crew," Allen said.
"San Sebastian brings together the best of all the world's festivals,...
Banderas, due to receive the festival's Donostia Lifetime Achievement award Friday, accompanied director Richard Eyre, presenting the Official Section's opening film, "The Other Man."
Bardem joined Woody Allen and Rebecca Hall at the ceremony to present the director's Spanish film "Vicky Cristina Barcelona," which opens the Zabaltegi Pearls section. Allen, one of the country's most revered directors, said he was looking forward to showing the film -- shot in Spain -- to Spanish audiences.
"It is a pleasure to show the film here. I take every opportunity to visit Spain and enjoyed the three months shooting the film in Spain, with a gifted cast and crew," Allen said.
"San Sebastian brings together the best of all the world's festivals,...
- 9/18/2008
- by By Pamela Rolfe
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Screened at Locarno International Film Festival In Competition
The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes, directed by the Quay Brothers, is a finely crafted horror film with a devious storyline and hauntingly beautiful production design that together are the stuff of nightmares.
Integrating puppetry, animation and live action, the film has echoes of Phantom of the Opera and Jules Verne's subterranean adventures, and with Terry Gilliam's name on the credits as executive producer it should attract those with a taste for something more than slightly twisted.
As the film opens, opera star Malvina (Amira Cast), who is about to marry her beloved Adolfo (Cesar Sarachu), collapses dead during a performance and her body is whisked away by the mysterious Dr. Droz (Gottfried John) to his villa on a remote island. There, in a baroque grotto, he brings Malvina back to life.
The piano tuner of the title, Felisberto (also Cesar Sarachu) arrives at the decaying Villa Azucena to find there are no pianos to tune. A drippingly carnal housekeeper named Assumpta (Assumpta Serna) shows him a mural in which he is depicted with her on the island. It has a crack across it like the jagged scar of a fault line.
Droz explains that Felisberto is to tune seven automata that he has built on the grounds of the villa so that on the night of an upcoming lunar eclipse he may use them in a masterpiece featuring Malvina that will provide vengeance against the opera world that has rejected him.
The automata are machines that play music with encased figures that move repeatedly, such as a woodsman who cuts his leg while chopping a tree and bleeds into a pond over and over again.
They are moist and have small cogs and intricate flywheels, complex gears and tiny bells, with moving parts that vaguely appear to have been once human. The impression is of stagnant water dripping on the filigreed entrails of a clock with a fungus of spores leaking over remnants of teeth and bone and mucous membrane.
Droz pushes Felisberto/Adolfo to complete his work while the piano tuner seeks a way to flee with Malvina before they are captured forever.
The film is about vanity and pride, and the caging of beauty. Its elaborate fabrication has an intoxicating quality that captures the imagination like all good horror stories.
The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes, directed by the Quay Brothers, is a finely crafted horror film with a devious storyline and hauntingly beautiful production design that together are the stuff of nightmares.
Integrating puppetry, animation and live action, the film has echoes of Phantom of the Opera and Jules Verne's subterranean adventures, and with Terry Gilliam's name on the credits as executive producer it should attract those with a taste for something more than slightly twisted.
As the film opens, opera star Malvina (Amira Cast), who is about to marry her beloved Adolfo (Cesar Sarachu), collapses dead during a performance and her body is whisked away by the mysterious Dr. Droz (Gottfried John) to his villa on a remote island. There, in a baroque grotto, he brings Malvina back to life.
The piano tuner of the title, Felisberto (also Cesar Sarachu) arrives at the decaying Villa Azucena to find there are no pianos to tune. A drippingly carnal housekeeper named Assumpta (Assumpta Serna) shows him a mural in which he is depicted with her on the island. It has a crack across it like the jagged scar of a fault line.
Droz explains that Felisberto is to tune seven automata that he has built on the grounds of the villa so that on the night of an upcoming lunar eclipse he may use them in a masterpiece featuring Malvina that will provide vengeance against the opera world that has rejected him.
The automata are machines that play music with encased figures that move repeatedly, such as a woodsman who cuts his leg while chopping a tree and bleeds into a pond over and over again.
They are moist and have small cogs and intricate flywheels, complex gears and tiny bells, with moving parts that vaguely appear to have been once human. The impression is of stagnant water dripping on the filigreed entrails of a clock with a fungus of spores leaking over remnants of teeth and bone and mucous membrane.
Droz pushes Felisberto/Adolfo to complete his work while the piano tuner seeks a way to flee with Malvina before they are captured forever.
The film is about vanity and pride, and the caging of beauty. Its elaborate fabrication has an intoxicating quality that captures the imagination like all good horror stories.
- 8/10/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
LONDON -- Veteran Italian director Mario Monicelli will head the Venice International Film Festival's main competition jury, organizers said Tuesday. The festival runs Aug. 27-Sept. 6. Monicelli, who received the festival's Golden Lion for The Great War in 1959, will preside over a seven-person jury that includes U.S. producer Monty Montgomery (The Portrait of a Lady) and German cinematographer Michael Ballhaus, (GoodFellas, Dracula). Also on the jury are Italian actor Stefano Accorsi, French writer-director Pierre Jolivet, Spanish actress Assumpta Serna and Hong Kong director Ann Hui.
- 8/13/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
This is a warped whodunit with a serial killer whose method of dispatching victims is so nasty it shows hilariously how far one has to go to keep up with big-budget Hollywood thrillers.
"Kiss & Tell" is a winning independent film from writer-director Jordan Alan ("Terminal Bliss", "Love & Happiness") that features a large and entertaining cast, including four Arquette family members (but not Rosanna or Patricia).
A candidate for eventual cult status, the Phaedra Cinema release should generate moderate interest in limited engagements before heading to video. Hip and breezily unconcerned with making sense, the improvisational "Kiss & Tell" feels like a story written by a roomful of people, with everyone taking turns adding a new scene and then passing it on.
"Kiss & Tell" stars Justine Bateman, Heather Graham and Peter Greene, and boasts bit players Traci Lind, Lukas Haas, Assumpta Serna, Alexandra Paul, Rose McGowan, Teresa Hill, Jill Hennessey, Roxana Zal, Mickey Cottrell, Nina Siemaszko and co-producer Pamela Gidley as the dreaded Betty "Beta" Carotene. Throw in Alexis, Richmond, David and father Lewis Arquette, and you have one strange brew.
Imagine Gregg Araki making "L.A. Confidential" and you can get a sense of the atmosphere and general punchiness of "Kiss & Tell," which pits lesbians against detectives against shifty suspects against wigged-out murderers in a willy-nilly noir fable that simultaneously makes use of and mocks many Los Angeles landmarks.
The ratio of good gags to so-so jokes is about 3-to-1 in this feast of up-and-coming stars, which achieves its best results with epiphanous events in many of the comic vignettes, moments when the characters come alive and their conflicts are intriguing.
But overall the wacky plot couldn't be more lurid and loaded with sin-city cliches that have been twisted into amusing satirical elements. Here's a sampling: an armless coroner eating a restaurant meal, a group therapy session attended exclusively by murderers, a hit man from New York named Lollypop Man and a psychopath using poisoned carrots to leave a trail of corpses.
Shocks and twists are frequent, but what's surprising is how well Alan and crew keep control of the project when it easily could have become too incoherent and unfunny. There are even a few scenes that are downright spooky, not an easy thing to pull off when the movie as a whole is impossible to take seriously.
By and large, the performances are on the money. Along with some great tongue-in-cheek moments from Greene and Richmond Arquette as grumpy detectives, Graham is memorable as a witchy friend of the most prominent murder victim (Bateman).
KISS & TELL
Phaedra Cinema
A Terminal Bliss production
in association with
Ron Travisano and Pamela Gidley
Writer-director Jordan Alan
Producers Pamela Gidley,
Ron Travisano, Jordan Alan
Executive producer Adam Fast
Director of photography Ron Travisano
Music Michael Mattioli
Editors Ed Marx, Chris Keenan, Jordan Alan
Color/stereo
Cast:
Molly McMannis Justine Bateman
Suzan Pretsel Heather Graham
Detective Finnigan Peter Greene
Detective Starr Richmond Arquette
Detective Furbal Lewis Arquette
Betty "Beta" Carotene Pamela Gidley
Ivy Roberts Teresa Hill
Jasmine Rose McGowan
Running time -- 90 minutes
No MPAA rating...
"Kiss & Tell" is a winning independent film from writer-director Jordan Alan ("Terminal Bliss", "Love & Happiness") that features a large and entertaining cast, including four Arquette family members (but not Rosanna or Patricia).
A candidate for eventual cult status, the Phaedra Cinema release should generate moderate interest in limited engagements before heading to video. Hip and breezily unconcerned with making sense, the improvisational "Kiss & Tell" feels like a story written by a roomful of people, with everyone taking turns adding a new scene and then passing it on.
"Kiss & Tell" stars Justine Bateman, Heather Graham and Peter Greene, and boasts bit players Traci Lind, Lukas Haas, Assumpta Serna, Alexandra Paul, Rose McGowan, Teresa Hill, Jill Hennessey, Roxana Zal, Mickey Cottrell, Nina Siemaszko and co-producer Pamela Gidley as the dreaded Betty "Beta" Carotene. Throw in Alexis, Richmond, David and father Lewis Arquette, and you have one strange brew.
Imagine Gregg Araki making "L.A. Confidential" and you can get a sense of the atmosphere and general punchiness of "Kiss & Tell," which pits lesbians against detectives against shifty suspects against wigged-out murderers in a willy-nilly noir fable that simultaneously makes use of and mocks many Los Angeles landmarks.
The ratio of good gags to so-so jokes is about 3-to-1 in this feast of up-and-coming stars, which achieves its best results with epiphanous events in many of the comic vignettes, moments when the characters come alive and their conflicts are intriguing.
But overall the wacky plot couldn't be more lurid and loaded with sin-city cliches that have been twisted into amusing satirical elements. Here's a sampling: an armless coroner eating a restaurant meal, a group therapy session attended exclusively by murderers, a hit man from New York named Lollypop Man and a psychopath using poisoned carrots to leave a trail of corpses.
Shocks and twists are frequent, but what's surprising is how well Alan and crew keep control of the project when it easily could have become too incoherent and unfunny. There are even a few scenes that are downright spooky, not an easy thing to pull off when the movie as a whole is impossible to take seriously.
By and large, the performances are on the money. Along with some great tongue-in-cheek moments from Greene and Richmond Arquette as grumpy detectives, Graham is memorable as a witchy friend of the most prominent murder victim (Bateman).
KISS & TELL
Phaedra Cinema
A Terminal Bliss production
in association with
Ron Travisano and Pamela Gidley
Writer-director Jordan Alan
Producers Pamela Gidley,
Ron Travisano, Jordan Alan
Executive producer Adam Fast
Director of photography Ron Travisano
Music Michael Mattioli
Editors Ed Marx, Chris Keenan, Jordan Alan
Color/stereo
Cast:
Molly McMannis Justine Bateman
Suzan Pretsel Heather Graham
Detective Finnigan Peter Greene
Detective Starr Richmond Arquette
Detective Furbal Lewis Arquette
Betty "Beta" Carotene Pamela Gidley
Ivy Roberts Teresa Hill
Jasmine Rose McGowan
Running time -- 90 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 10/17/1997
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The film stars Mercedes Sampietro and Pedro Almodovar alumnus Carmen Maura as two nuns on the verge of a moral breakdown. Apparently these two have shared a religious experience together and are very much in love. We never actually see it, but we are to assume that they have committed some very major sins.
In a moment of guilt, Sister Angele (Sampietro) comes up with the idea of faking a stigmata (the hand wounds Christ suffered from being crucified) in order to help their poverty-stricken convent and gain absolution in the process. Even Lucy and Ethel came up with better plans than this one.
Even so, the plan works for a while, as the villagers and most of the other sisters believe that Angele is now an actual saint. Even the duke, the convent's benefactor, promises his eternal devotion to the order in response to this miracle.
In honor of the duke's generosity, they allow his daughter (Assumpta Serna) to become a novice there. However, this young duchess is no novice. She's a spoiled princess who intends to become prioress (i.e. head nun). Together with the former prioress (Aurora Bautista), recently ousted because of the new "saint'' in their midst, they conspire to get rid of the sinning sisters.
Fortunately for them, they happen to be living during the height of the Spanish Inquisition, where just the whisper of an accusation gets one put in prison. This certainly isn't a comedy, so you can probably guess the outcome.
Perhaps the filmmakers intended that this film be so painful to watch so that we might better identify with the suffering heroines. In any event, it is painful to watch. There are certain scenes that seem interminable, as well as meandering monologues that make one dizzy.
Although she is quite convincing in a dramatic role, it is almost sad to see the usually lighthearted Maura look so miserable throughout the entire film. Sampietro, as the doomed pseudo-saint, gives an equally powerful performance, but she is so emotionally depressing and the story is so aimless, that it feels truly a waste of talent.
The love angle between the two women, which by far is the most fascinating aspect of this film, tragically gets lost among the heavy-handed religious material. There is a darkness to this piece that is truly oppressive. The lack of necessary music in many scenes only adds to its bleakness.
The most interesting scene, where we see people whipping themselves as they carry crosses, looks like it came out of "Night of the Living Dead'' and seems totally out of place here.
For the most part, "Extramuros, '' like the Spanish Inquisition, is a torturous experience.
EXTRAMUROS
A Frameline Release
Director-writer Miguel Picazo
Cinematographer Teo Escamilla
Actor Jose Luis Matesanz
Jose Nieto
Producer Antonio Martin
Color
In Spanish with subtitles
Cast:
M¯Sor AnaCarmen Maura
Angele Mercedes Sampietro
ressAurora Bautista
essAssumpta Serna
doctor Antonio Ferrandis
Running time 118 minutes
No MPAA rating
`Extramuros' continued from page
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
In a moment of guilt, Sister Angele (Sampietro) comes up with the idea of faking a stigmata (the hand wounds Christ suffered from being crucified) in order to help their poverty-stricken convent and gain absolution in the process. Even Lucy and Ethel came up with better plans than this one.
Even so, the plan works for a while, as the villagers and most of the other sisters believe that Angele is now an actual saint. Even the duke, the convent's benefactor, promises his eternal devotion to the order in response to this miracle.
In honor of the duke's generosity, they allow his daughter (Assumpta Serna) to become a novice there. However, this young duchess is no novice. She's a spoiled princess who intends to become prioress (i.e. head nun). Together with the former prioress (Aurora Bautista), recently ousted because of the new "saint'' in their midst, they conspire to get rid of the sinning sisters.
Fortunately for them, they happen to be living during the height of the Spanish Inquisition, where just the whisper of an accusation gets one put in prison. This certainly isn't a comedy, so you can probably guess the outcome.
Perhaps the filmmakers intended that this film be so painful to watch so that we might better identify with the suffering heroines. In any event, it is painful to watch. There are certain scenes that seem interminable, as well as meandering monologues that make one dizzy.
Although she is quite convincing in a dramatic role, it is almost sad to see the usually lighthearted Maura look so miserable throughout the entire film. Sampietro, as the doomed pseudo-saint, gives an equally powerful performance, but she is so emotionally depressing and the story is so aimless, that it feels truly a waste of talent.
The love angle between the two women, which by far is the most fascinating aspect of this film, tragically gets lost among the heavy-handed religious material. There is a darkness to this piece that is truly oppressive. The lack of necessary music in many scenes only adds to its bleakness.
The most interesting scene, where we see people whipping themselves as they carry crosses, looks like it came out of "Night of the Living Dead'' and seems totally out of place here.
For the most part, "Extramuros, '' like the Spanish Inquisition, is a torturous experience.
EXTRAMUROS
A Frameline Release
Director-writer Miguel Picazo
Cinematographer Teo Escamilla
Actor Jose Luis Matesanz
Jose Nieto
Producer Antonio Martin
Color
In Spanish with subtitles
Cast:
M¯Sor AnaCarmen Maura
Angele Mercedes Sampietro
ressAurora Bautista
essAssumpta Serna
doctor Antonio Ferrandis
Running time 118 minutes
No MPAA rating
`Extramuros' continued from page
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
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