Father Geek here posting the new Latin-AICN report for this week... On a sad note; the great Spanish Voice Actor CARLOS REVILLA has died. Lobo has more on this below... We've also got info on the Cine de Mexico, Brasil, Chile, Colombia, Peru, and Spain this time, so sit back and enjoy a dose of South of the Border film news... check it out...

LOBO'S Report...

What'zp Cinejunkies, niÑos y niÑas..LOBO is back again and as I usually say...Welcome - Bienvenidos again to LATIN-AICN the side of AICN where you can find all kinds of stuff related with the Latin cinema and more than that...Adelante..!!

QUICKIES / RAPIDINES...

*** Here's Wakko from Spain. I have VERY sad news. CARLOS REVILLA has died. He was the voice of Homer in the Spanish version of The Simpsons. He died last week, at 67, of a heart attack. He was not only the superb voice of Homer, but the director of the dubbing of the series. We´ve lost a brilliant voice (he dubbed Bill Cosby in his series and was the voice of the magnetophone in the first EVIL DEAD, only to mention some works) and a very good guy, who loved The Simpsons as a fan. Here in Spain we think we´ve lost almost a father. Bye, Homer. It was a very good beer. Wakko

LOBO Note: Here's just a few of his film works: Lorca y La Barraca (1977) .... Camelamos naquerar (1976) .... Queremos hablar (1976) .... Mágica aventura (1974) .... Operación Luna (1974) .... John Poon, el agente 017 (1974).... ¿Por qué morir en Madrid? (1966) .... Vidas que tú no conoces, Las (1965)

*** Do you want to get a ELIZABETH TAYLOR doll ?... all you have to do is buy the perfume White diamonds and you can get one made by MATTEL.

*** The movie "CHACALES" an Epic that was going to start shooting this Fall, has moved the filming to summer next year because the crew wants to ad more action to the script and they also want to make it a 3 hours feature.

*** STEVEN SEAGAL is right now doing a movie called "Exit Wound" with DMX and he is also ready to release his debut CD in February..we'll see how that works for him !?..

*** TOM CRUISE wants to be IRON-MAN in the movie that New Line is about to make written by Tim McCanlies, this is the same writer as the movie "THE IRON GIANT" (El Gigante de Acero)

EL TRI...

This folks is something really cool in my opinion since I am really into Rock en Español but I know that all of those Rockeros who listen to this great Banda de Mexico "EL TRI" will be with me on this. Well Raza Rockera this time "EL TRI" that is right now on tour in the U.S. besides their new CD called "No Podemos Volar" (We can't fly), ALEX LORA and crew are working on the project of making a movie. This movie is going to be full of Dark comedy and some situations somehow similar to the movie "AMORES PERROS" and a lot of the songs that have made this Banda one of the greatest, if not the best, of Mexico. ALEX is also thinking about adding a little bit of the biography of the Band and experiences that they had as a group and as friends. I hope this movie gets to be as good as the music of "EL TRI"..ALEX also has written two books in his career..but by know all I can tell you about what is going on with this movie is that "Los Niños" de "EL TRI" are thinking that it might be ready for the summer of 2001...'til then just keep Rocking !!.

XTRA COSAS...

DONOSTIA - SAN SEBASTIAN FEST...

The Festival of San Sebastian that took place already for its 48th time, end it up having as the winners "La Perdicion de los hombres" from Mexico getting the award "Concha de Oro" for the Best Film who makes the Director ARTURO RIPSTEIN get this award for a second time, CARMEN MAURA got la "Concha de Plata" for Best actress with the movie "La Comunidad"(The Community) from Spain, GIAFRANCO BRERO also got la "Concha de Plata" but he did for Best actor with the movie "Tinta Roja"(Red Ink) a Peru-Spain production and PAZ ALICIA GARCIADIEGO got the award "Concha de Plata" for the Best script with the movie "La Perdicion de los hombres" from Mexico.

PACHITO REX...

This my friends is a follow-up of what I wrote last week about this flick, So let me tell you that FABIAN HOFMAN the Director of this movie wrote me and told me that they are going to show this movie in a Movie-Fest next year called GUADALAJARA 2001 that is going to take place in the month of April next year..So now you have it and if I can get more info... I'll be sure to let you all know abou it..IF YOU WANT TO READ THE PIECE OF LAST WEEK CLICK HERE

Well MovieLocozzzz that's all from me (LOBO) this time and don't forget to order Nachos with a lot of cheese and jalapeños when you go to the movies okay...Later chamacos!!

REVIEW OF AMORES PERROS (LOVE IS A BITCH)by Alexander De Large

Hi. This is my first review, so I must ask you to bear with me.

I am Mexican, and I saw AMORES PERROS about three months ago, or so. I must tell you, despite what your reviewers have said about it, I wasn't touched by it in any way. I was actually very mad that Cannes would give a prize to this movie.

The movie leaves you with a feeling of "I've-seen-that-too-many-times-before" that you can't shake for a while. I was angry at the movie, and at the people who promoted it as a "TRUE" portrayal of Mexican society.All I saw was a self-important two and a half hours soap opera. The acting is not even worthy of a sitcom, and the dialogue was beyond hammy. It sounded really fake. I live in Mexico, I am a Mexican, and that is not how

Mexicans talk. Some expressions, like "ojete" (could be translated as a**hole) is just not common at all...it sounds pretty forced, and it is hard for someone to believe a movie with forced dialogue. This might not show to non-spanish speaking audiences, because they don't know the difference, but it really helped to ruin the experience for me.

The dog-loving thing was a shameless rip-off of a french film called Doberman. Only Doberman seemed to pull it off nicely, which this movie didn't. The photography was that of a bad 80's metal band video. Somehow, this movie's photographer seems to think that when something is barely lit the movie becomes much deeper. Well, it doesn't.

The direction by Alejandro Gonzales Iñarritu is nothing new, a re-hash of Quentin Tarantino combined with Robert Rodriguez and a little Guy Ritchie thrown into the mix. One of the lead actors (Gael Garcia) is from Mexican soap opera school, and it shows. I don't know if any other actors were from soap operas, but it sure seemed like that.

Amores Perros is the kind of movie that has very little subtext (if any). It tries to be provocative by showing us gruesome images of dog fights (which are very gratuitous by the way) and hoping that we feel revolted and think "oh, this must be really deep". Some of the story ideas are good, but they are not well developed, specially a highly annoying part involving a model and a small dog trapped beneath the floor tiles. And if Gael's character wasn't inspired in Mark Renton from Trainspotting, then I guess this is a pretty huge coincidence (You know, the Guy Ritchie "never seen Pulp Fiction" kind of coincidence)It is shock cinema at it's best. I am not against shocking movies per se, as long as the shock serves the story, but the problem with Amores Perros is that it just goes from one shocking image to the other, just for shocking's sake. And the conclusion was cheesy like few others I've seen.

Amores Perros has a very "play it safe" kind of soundtrack. Composed by popular Mexican musicians (it may be a stretch to call them musicians but what the hell) such as Control Machete and Ely Guerra. It was made for the airwaves, commercial at it's very core, and it really draws emotional strength from the movie.

This movie tries to tell us how violent Mexico City is. It tries to shock us with the urban tales of the biggest city in the world. But we already knew that. It's about as useless as saying "you know, in parts of Canada, we have snow sometimes...". The movie was tamed. It held back where it shouldn't have. And didn't hold back in showing us stuff that didn't really matter to the story.

This highly sterotypical movie doesn't deserve to represent Mexico, a country with far better movies in my opinion, like Herod's Law. It is small-minded and could have been something really better in the hands of a more confident and daring artist, instead of a tamed advertising director like Iñarritu.

But don't believe me, see for yourself. After all, this is only my opinion.

AlexanderDeLarge.

P.S. Excuse my English.

Edgard reviews LA VIRGEN DE LOS SICARIOS shot in COLOMBIA...

Also known as LA VIERGE DES TUEURS, this co-production between France and Colombia has been directed in video HD by Barbet Schroeder (yes, him of SINGLE WHITE FEMALE, KISS OF DEATH and other films). The story ? After 30 years, Fernando, a writer comes home to Medellin, Colombia. As a "welcome gift" he receives Alexis, a 16 years old street boy. The two become lovers and start learning to know each other in a city ruled by guns, death and drugs.

As you can read, this ain't fun material... you have to be in a certain mood to see that and do not repeat my mistake : I saw that film at 10.00 am on a Sunday... worst I saw just after VIRGIN SUICIDES.... I learn a good lesson : keep your sunday to walk around Paris and go to the movie like everyone else on Friday evening ! Anyway, back to LA VIRGEN.... I really liked that film, but it's the kind of film that makes you feel uncomfortable, and you try to forget about it afterwards (last time it happened to me was with BOY'S DON'T CRY). Two things make you uncomfortable here.

First, there's this love story between a 50 years old man and a 16 years old boy. But while it could have been really shocking in the hands of another director, Schroeder manages to make you accept it. Because you feel there's a real love and complicity between the two characters. And mainly because everything surrounding Fernando and Alexis is worst. Everything around them makes you think about death, while their love is maybe the only sign of life in Medellin. The second uncomfortable thing is of course the violence. In Medellin you get killed for no reason, just because you looked at someone you should not have. Like Fernando, the viewer is stunned to see how easy it is for Alexis to kill 2, 3 or 4 persons a day without any remorse. And worst : at one point, after killing several persons in the street, Alexis can't kill a dog badly injured. The fact that this film was shot on video HD makes it even more realistic. Add also that it's a true fact that Medellin is one of the most dangerous place on earth (Schroeder had to be protected during the making of this film) and you just want to stay away from Colombia ! (I wonder though if, as they show it twice in the movie, there's a big firework above Medellin every time a drug cargo made it succesfully to the States !).

The strength of this movie lay in the relationship between the two lovers. Fernando is a bitter man, who seems disgusted by his own hometown, but still he's very cynical about it and in one way takes full advantage of it. He also tries to give Alexis some taste for "good education" (you shall not kill, you will listen to opera,...) but without much conviction nor success. On the other hand Alexis, although being a murderer with no conscience, appears likeable because of his way of protecting Fernando. But also because he's just a kid in the middle of a terrible world, world where death is a way of living (on a hill above Medellin there's a sign that says : "Do not throw any corpses"... maybe it's just a joke from Schroeder, but it does seem real in such an environment).

If you're curious and interested in seeing something different, I highly recommend this one... but be prepared : it's quite hard to be in a "happy happy" mood after that...

Edgard out

BRAZIL & Coffin Joe...

Hello once more Coffin Joe here for yet another installment of the Brazilian news section in Latin-AICN . Here we go :

-As promised last week , here´s the e-mail ( the English translation anyway ) , I received from Pablo Villaça , who runs the " Cinema em cena " website over at www.cinema.art.br , last week regarding Walter Salles´ latest movie " Broken April " :

"Dear Coffin Joe ,

Filmmaker Walter Salles is already shooting his next project : it´s " Broken April " based on the novel of the same name written by Albanian writer Isamil Kadaré .

The film tells the story of two rival families , the Breves and the Ferreiras , who have fought for several years and whenever a member of one of the families is murdered , a revenge is immediately put in motion , forever cursing both families to lifetimes of killings . When the plot begins in the twenties , the Breve family is preparing to avenge the death of Inácio . The crime has to be commited as soon as the blood on the deceased family member´s shirt , which is hung on the Breve family backyard , turns yellow . As the moment of the murder approaches , a boy from the Breve clan dreams of ending this killings ( he fears for the life of his brother , Tonho , who has to execute the Ferreira family member , which will put him , Tonho , as next on the Ferreira hit list . When he began working on the script , Walter Salles had the intention of asking actor Vinícius de Oliveira ( the kid from Walter´s own Central Station ) , to play the boy . However the kid grew up too fast in the last two years , and Walter had to change his initial idea and replace Vinícius with Ravi Lacerda . " This is the biggest frustration I have " said Walter Salles in an interview to local newspaper Folha de São Paulo " Writing a story for an actor I can´t use " .

In order to choose the right locations for the project , Walter Salles asked his assistant Sérgio Machado , and the director of photography Walter Carvalho , to travel around Brazil researching landscapes that matched the one in the story . When the duo returned , Walter liked one of the pictures taken by Machado , which showed a fence with a mountain in the background . Unfortunately , Machado didn´t know where he took that picture , because he just wanted to portray the arcane fence , not really worried about the rest .

Luckly , the production director , Marcelo Torres , was able to find a clue about the whereabouts of the location : inspecting the image closer with a magnifying glass , he observed the presence of a tree called Carnaúba , which indicated the presence of water , something rare in the region between the cities of Lençóis and Barreiras ( the only reference Machado had about the place ) .With that clue , the fence was once again located , and Walter decided to build in that exact spot the the Breve family residence .

The film is expected to be ready to debut in September of 2001 .

Best wishes , Pablo Villaça

Cinema em Cena "www.cinema.art.br"

How cool is that ? Pretty cool if you ask me . Thanks Pablo .

On that happy note I say : bye .

Coffin Joe