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LatinAICN: THE MEXICAN; Uma Hist
Father Geek here with Latin-AICN for this week along with Coffin Joe, and a note from Alejandro Jodorowsky that crossed my desk today. Latin-AICN covered the autheur's problems of access to his own films in several columns over the last year including the screenings that lead to the problem he talks about here. Just Click Here to see LOBO's original report. It is a real crime when the person who writes and directs a masterful film as he has on several occasions cannot even show those films at a festival of his chosing. I remember when Harry appeared on a special Roger Ebert show on cult movies in Jan, of 2000. Roger wanted to show clips from EL TOPO, but couldn't find a print of it in any form at all. He asked Harry about it and luckly we had seen the movie a few weeks before at Director Guillermo del Toro's house here in Austin. Harry called up Guillermo, who immediately sent his Japanese Laser Disc to Roger's producer so they could get the clips they needed for the show. Imagine, you create one of history's great films and a few years later no one, not even one of the most famous and powerful film critics in the world can get hold of a copy even for review purposes. Here's what the man has to say about it himself...
Subject: JODOROWSKY vs KLEIN
Date: Sun, 18 Feb 2001 17:27:41 +0100
From: "Jodorowsky-Costa"
Allen Klein insists to prevent my movies from being shown. Now
he's trying
to bring me into a trial for having shown my movies in some
festivals and
pirat copies. It would be good that all the people who admire
my work demand
life-time jail for Klein, under the charge of cultural murder.
Killing a
work of art is as monstruous as killing a human being. For 25
years now,
Klein has prohibited the public to see El Topo and the Holy
Mountain. He has
destroyed the orginal negatives. It would be necessary to have
a worldwide
campaign against him and his crimes.
Please translate this
message in all
possible languages and send it to as many people as you can.
We will
establish the existence of cultural crime against humanity.
Allen Klein is a
criminal, together with his accomplice lawyers. All of them
deserve
punishment and prison.
Alejandro Jodorowsky
Contact: Anne Caisson anne.caisson@humano.com
Father Geek back with this review of the new Brad Pitt flick THE MEXICAN. We've covered this film alot in this column for about 6 months now. If you remember it was being filmed on location in the central Mexican ghost town of Real Catorce. A very very remote and atmospheric spot I took Harry to when he was about 7 years old. We stayed there about 5 days one November back in the 70's. That adventure was detailed in the very 1st Latin-AICN column Click Here if you missed it.
Today I had the pleasure of watching a sneak of The Mexican somewhere in the city of Vancouver, BC.
Well I will admit that I was quite looking forward to this movie. Julia Roberts. Brad Pitt. James Gandolfini! What more could you ask for.
To start off it is a comedy of sorts. It's part romantic, part action and all cool (Julia shoots a gun! How cool is that?)
Brad Pitt's character Jerry is recruited by his bosses for one last job. To retreive a fabled gun named the Mexican. He tries to explain the situation to Sam (Julia Roberts), who is less than amused. She tells him she won't be there when he comes back. She's going to Las Vegas.
And so off to Mexico Jerry goes and Sam begins her drive to Nevada.
In Mexico Jerry gets a car (a hilarious exchange of goods and services) then hooks up w/ the bosses grandson and gets the gun but promptly loses it when his car 'El Comino' is stolen. Meanwhile Sam is kidnapped by Leroy (James Gandolfini) who has saved her life from an apparant hitman. Leroy wants to trade Sam to Jerry for the gun (as seen in the trailer).
Sam and Leroy become buddies sharing their different takes on relationships and love. And Jerry is looking for the gun calling Sam every once and again leaving desperate messages. The gun changes hands many times and even one of Jerry's friends comes to help but is really there for other purposes.
The movie has good execution for the most part. All of the characters relationships made sense to me. My only complaint would be that when finally Jerry and Sam have the gun and are together the story takes a twist just when you thought it was all over. Of course once the payoff of seeing the great actor (a certain little unforgivable lawman - totally wasn't expecting him - added to coolness) who plays Jerry's boss, then I wasn't upset. It ended up making sense in the long run. If they could only make the twist flow a little better I would say it was a close to perfect story. All in all the script was great though. Smart and thoughtful about life.
I really liked how everyone had a different story of why the gun was cursed and the one that is finally made gospel truth is beautiful and tragic. Kinda haunting.
Overall I'd reccommend it strongly. It's got a lot of good comedy. Something I don't see that often. Believe me I work at a theater...there's been a lotta crap comedy lately (Down to Earth anyone?) and this is a more pleasent alternative to Hannibal (not a comedy but popular). And guys your date will thank you too. Gals too. I won't be surprised if this is numero uno next week.
Call me.......
Movie Theater Guy
Father Geek back again only to welcome our South American Editor/reporter Coffin Joe...
Hello , Coffin Joe here . You know I´m going to talk about a few things before we start this week´s column . First about my nick name . It seems that it truly confuses people . I get mail every now and then of people asking me quastions as if I were the real Coffin Joe , José Mojica Marins . I´M NOT . Recently a newspaper here in São Paulo ( the one I read by the way ) ran an article about AICN , and they talked about our work here at Latin-AICN , and guess what ? The guy who wrote the damn article thinks I´m the real Coffin Joe , which I´M NOT . I´m ranting here , don´t know if this is relevant or not , but I´ve been thinking of changing my nick name , so maybe next week I´ll have a new monniker . Enough of me thinking out loud , here´s what you came here for . Enjoy .
-Benicio del Toro won the Silver Bear at the Berlim Film Festival for Best Actor . Benicio was awarded for his role as the Mexican cop in the movie " Traffic " , directed by Steven Soderbergh .
-The Brazilian short film " Uma História de Futebol " , directed by Paulo Machline , was nominated for an Academy Award in the best live action short film category . The short is about the king of soccer , Pelé , and tells a few tales about his childhood in Bauru , here in the state of São Paulo . Actor Antônio Fagundes ( " Bossa Nova " ) is the narrator , playing a friend of pelé , who played soccer with him when they were kids . Good luck to Paulo Machline .
Latin America is also represented at this year´s Academy Awards with the amazing Mexican film " Amores Perros " , which is up for the Best Foreign Film category . There´s some stiff competition , but the movie is so good , that I hope that it can upset the juggernaut that is " Crouching Tiger , Hidden Dragon " .
-There´s a DVD of Hector Babenco´s " Pixote " being released in the U.S. this March 13th , by the people over at New Yorker , who did a decent job on their DVD of Takeshi Kitano´s " Hana-BI " . Pre-orders are already being taken at all the major web stores ( Amazon , Express.com , DVD Empire , etc ) . Among the extras there´ll be the theatrical trailer , filmographies and possibly other stuff too .
- " Tainá , uma Aventura na Amazônia " , a Brazilian film aimed at kids which got a decent release here this summer , directed by Tânia Lamarca and Sérgio Bloch , was recently screened at the New York International Children´s Film Festival ( February 2nd - 11th , 2001 ) . The copy they screened in N.Y. is dubbed , and both showings were sold out .
Check out the festival´s site at : www.gkids.com
-Another movie about real life events and famous figures of the past , has wrapped this last January ( recently here in Brazil there has been a flood of period pieces , all based on real notable figures of Brazilian history , including movies based on the lives of composer Villa-Lobos , revolutionary Tiradentes , and many others ) , and this one is called " Sonhos Tropicais " . It revolves around the incident known as the " Vacine Revolt " , and one of the main figures of Brazilian history , Osvaldo Cruz , who was involved in this affair , which happened in the beginning of the last century . Ignorance among the population in Rio , resulted in a massive fear of the vaccines the local authorities were manufacturing to prevent certain diseases . The mandatory nature of the vaccination , which was instituted by the government to sanitize the city of Rio , didn´t please the locals who refused to take the shots . The situation escalated to a point where both sides decided to resort to violence and so began the revolt .
Cast members include Bruno Giordano , soap opera star Carolina Kasting and veteran character actors Hugo Carvana , José Lewgoy and Cecil Thiré . The movie has been shot in Rio de janeiro and in the state of Paraná . Principal photography was supposed to end by January with the editing following shortly after . The movie is budgeted at 2.8 million reais ( US$ 1.4 million ) .
All right , that´s it this week , hope you enjoyed it . See you all next week .
Coffin Joe says : bye .
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El Topo and his others are amoung my favorite motion pictures. To keep prints of these masterpieces out of the hands of the creative force behind them is the worst of crimes. I know its happened before to other film makers, but it must stop and stop now. Hopefully when all is finished in court the ruling will establish clearly once and for all the right of the artist to at least have access to his work to show at schools, and universities, and film festivals, etc....
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That wasn't just celluloid that was lost. That was a man's work, his dreams, his vision. A person puts forth his imagination to be seen by the public and this FUCKING SUIT DESTROYS IT? WHAT LOGICAL REASON... THIS IS BULLSHIT! STEAMING FESTERING LUMPS OF BULLSHIT! SOMEONE STICK A HORSE HEAD IN THIS GUYS SHEETS! THIS... fuck I need some aspirin.
-
A poster on the previous (now deleted?) article about this mentioned that both The Holy Mountain and El Topo were easily available on PAL in the UK. This won't be true much longer, so I suggest if you see them for sale, buy them as soon as you can.
I work for a small video company in the UK. We've been selling both videos for a couple of years now with no problems at all. However a week or two back, my boss recieved a narky phone call from Abkco Film (the copyright holders) who threatened legal action if we didn't take the titles off our catalogue. In the past, I've seen both titles for sale in high street chains (including Borders, HMV and Virgin) so I suggest you drop everything and go out and see if you can find them while they're still there. -
Harry and I (fathergeek) were both posting the Jodorowsky story at the same time, when Harry saw it was part of Latin-AICN he removed his coverage of it from the front page, it contained No additional info just his intro and a couple of talkbacks. One of those I had copied so I am posting it here. It was from user id FB and the subject line above was his. The following was his entire text: "never heard of this allen klein, who gives him the power to destroy the negatives, for whom did he work for, did anyone have his mail? let
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Feb 22, 2001 2:45:02 AM CST
"Killing a work of art is as monstruous as killing a human being
by atomoprime
Flame me all you want but I got to call an ass an ass when he's being an ass! I will not deny the brilliance of Mr. Jodorowsky's work or these fantastic films in question. I do have a problem with his audacity in comparing the burning of the negatives of his films to YOUR death. Yes you. Whoever you may be. He compares the tragic death of a human being (maybe you, maybe me) at the hands of another human being to be equal in weight to the loss of his work. I understand the anger and frustration of not having control over your work. I have encountered this MANY times since my days in the 'Industry'. I have lost creative control, I have lost ownership, and I have lost money in my days here. Yes, I would love to get back at some of the bastards that have violated my work and my trust. But, I would NOT and would NEVER compare anything I have ever lost to the violent death of your mother, father, son, daughter or random person of your choosing. To those who would cry that the artist (in this case a filmmaker) should have control of his own work, I wholeheartedly AGREE. But, unless the creator signs a contract that dictates such a thing, then the control will be in the hands of another. Usually the ones with the biggest chunk of change invested into the project. The 'artist' almost always makes concessions of some sort. Mr. Jodorowsky, I assume, made concessions to Mr. Klein or Mr. Klein came into rightful possession of Mr. Jodorowsky's work in some legal means. Therefore Mr. Klein can do as he pleases, whether morally right or wrong. The PRIVATE owner can display a work of art to the world, display it only in the privacy of his/her own home, or wipe their ass with it. It
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Allen Klein fucked over a lot of people in his time. Most recently he fucking sued The Verve for using an orchestra riff from This Could Be The Last Time. He sued the fucking shit of them, so much that the band credited Mick Jagger and Keith Richards with writing Bittersweet Symphony. What a bunch of fucking lies...
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I had no idea this was goin on. At the cinema around the corner from me here in Montreal they play Holy Mountain and El Topo fairly often on the weekends around midnight. So I'm guessing there is no chance of getting these two movies on DVD? I have just recently began purchasing many DVDs but, it looks like I'll have to settle with going to the theatre as long as their prints last.
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Well, saying that you cant find copies of Holy Mt. or El Topo, kind of shows some lack of knowledge of the underground. Its pretty easy if you know the right back alley video stores and vhs dubs from laserdisc bootleggers.....As far as the prints being destroyed, well remember that Jodorowsky thought the same of Fando Y Lis and a pristine print was found of it.
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I'm pretty sure Klein is the one I've met - I talked with one of Holy Mountain's producers at a friend's art opening. He had a cameo in Holy Mountain as the man at the base of the mountain who has the flies who supposedly can do tricks - one of the apostles tells him his flies are full of shit. He was a real classic business jerk, spoke grandly about the process of filming the movie but at the same time revealed that he had no appreciation for art of symbolism or Jodorowsky's genius. He completely misunderstood the entire film, and I don't think he realized the significance of the part he played - knowing the book it's based on that role I'm sure was meant to be an underhanded slap to the face. He's still friends with my artist friend, if Allen Klein is that producer, we can BRING THE BABY DOWN.
While Jodorowsky is my favorite filmmaker, as much for his Tarot work as his visionary films, I'm afraid the guy has to have some shadow at work that prevents his talent from seeing the light of day. Why isn't this guy doing more films? He's so creative and entertaining, yet at every turn it seems he encounters difficulty. -
I rented Holy Mountain a coupla months ago. They had several others, but I don't recall which. Also, I only saw VHS copies, but, hell, that's better than nothing.
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Feb 24, 2001 12:24:37 AM CST
Please forgive my misspelling of JODOROWSKY in the previous titl
by steppinrazor
uhm, ditto.
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Feb 24, 2001 2:05:01 AM CST
It was only last night we watched a great documentary on Joderow
by charlie & tex
Watching the UK documentary For One Week Only: Alexandro Joderowsky last night, it became clear that it will, sadly, only be small groups of people who will ever get to see the work of this cinematic genius/madman.
Pity that documentary is hosted by that slimy prick Jonathan Ross...
Still, it's a gas to hear Joderowsky proclaim: "I LOVE violence"!!! -
A.J. has a comics series out called 'the metabarons'from humanoids comics.it is f#$%^&g amazing.it is a cross between Dune,star wars,and excalibur.I think if you go on their website you can order the books online as for his movies,there is a website called revok.com that has a whole section dedicated to him.they have most of his movies on vhs for online ordering.
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