Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
This is one of the films I’m really curious about this year. I’m hearing strong stuff across the board, and today’s review is no different...
Hey, Harry.
Straight from the sunny Brazil, here I come to let all fellow geeks know
about a cinematic gem: The Motorcycle Diaries, the new movie from Central
Station's and Behind the Sun's Walter Salles. I just saw the premiere of
the
movie in São Paulo, and he was there chocked with raw emotion. Granted,
Central Station is way too deep in sacaryne, and Behind the Sun just had
no
emotional impact on me whatsoever. But, my friend, The Motorcycle Diaries
is
the real deal. Walter Salles is all grown up as a director now.
The movie, for everybody who hasn't read a line on the latest Sundance
Festival, follows the journey of a young medicine student, Ernesto
Guevara,
and his friend, Alfredo Granada, from Buenos Aires to Caracas riding "La
Poderosa", a 1939 Nexus 500. To quote from Larry Mullen Jr. in the U2
film,
Rattle and Hum, it's an "emotional journey". You better believe it. What
started as a trip of two friends who wanted to see their continent (and
bed
a lot of women) ended up as a portrait of a boy becoming a man. After all,
Ernesto was 23 at the time, but the places he's been and the people he saw
planted the seed of what his life would become. Yes, Ernesto "Che" Guevara
is the name the whole world came to know and respect.
But we don't see Fidel's buddy here, not a revolutionary, not a guy who
relies on guns. On The Motorcycle Diaries, Che is a real person, not a
myth.
He's down-to-his-heart honest, and we witness ths change in his eyes when
the road gets to him. Really, guys, I won't spoil any of the movie moments
here. Helmer Walter Salles, who alongside with cast and crew recreated the
long journay of Guevara and Granada, wants you to take the experience in
the
raw. From the innocenco of the Buenos Aires streets, to the last goodbye
with his girlfriend, Ernesto - or "Fuser", the nickname Granada gives him
-
comes to see poverty, social disbalance, the power of money and the
pleasures of helping people. Gael Garcia Bernal - who, believe me, is to
become a big star after this thing of beauty is released - has it all, and
is in such command of his craft that you can't help yourself but pack your
things and tag along. It's all in the eyes, and his innocence is crashed
under the weight of sheer reality, what he sees changes the man he wanted
to
become and, as history taught us well, makes him rethink his future, once
a
very well drawn path, now a blurred line lost in the mist.
Salles, with his visual flair and smooth storytelling - the movie was
edited
by City of God's Academy Award nominated Daniel Rezende -, has just shown
to
the whole world what Brazil - and Latin America - has to show the old
farts
who makes movies what new blood can do to the experience of going to the
theater and having your perception of life forever altered. It's Salles,
and
Alfonso Cuarón, and Fernando Meirelles, and Guillermo del Toro, and
Alessandro Iñarritú (fuck, did I just mispelled it?). Man, I can't wait to
see Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Or The Constant Gardener.
And
the remake of the japanese fright fest Dark Water, in the hands os Salles
himself. He showed it to me. When the lights are back on after The
Motorcycle Diaries, you'll all see it too.
If you use it, just call me Nathan da Silva
Thanks, Nathan.
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