Durano

Objavljam svoj izbor kvalitetnih, večinoma neholivudskih filmov. Vsak mesec bom objavil novih 10 naslovov. Opisi so v angleščini.

Ogled je obvezen.

Maria Full of Grace

Awards: Nominated for Oscar. Another 27 wins & 21 nominations

(2004, Spanish title: María Llena Eres de Gracia, lit. Maria, you are full of grace) is a joint Colombian-American film, written and directed by Joshua Marston. The title is a reference to the Hail Mary and a reference to what Maria carries in her into the United States.

The main actress, Catalina Sandino Moreno, was nominated for “Best Actress” in the 77th Academy Awards.

María Álvarez, a 17-year-old Colombian girl (played by Catalina Sandino Moreno), works in sweat shop-like conditions at a flower plantation to help support her family. However, after finding herself pregnant by her boyfriend, whom she does not love, and being unjustly treated by her boss, she quits and decides to find another job, despite her family’s disapproval. On her way to Bogotá to find a new job, she gets offered a position as a mule–one who smuggles drugs by way of swallowing drug-filled pellets. Desperate, she accepts the risky offer and swallows 62 wrapped pellets of heroin and flies to New York. After a close call at the US Customs, she is set free and sent to a hotel where she is to remove the pellets from her body. She soon discovers, however, the ruthless world of international drug trafficking when her friend, Lucy, dies and is cut open. She decides to escape, and her mission becomes one of determination and survival until she finally emerges with the grace that will carry her forward into a new life. In the end Maria decides not to go back to Colombia, but stay in the United States where she is offered more opportunities than the life she would have led had she gone back to Colombia.

At the end of the film, as Maria walks and the camera fades to black, an advertisement in the background reads, “It’s what’s on the inside that counts.”

 

2.

 

My Summer of Love

 

(2004) is a British film written and directed by Pawel Pawlikowski. Based on a novel by Helen Cross, My Summer of Love explores the relationship between two young women from different classes and backgrounds. Mona (Press), whose once-hotheaded brother (Considine) became a born-again Christian in prison, meets upper-class Tamsin (Blunt) who suffers from a lack of love in her family. Filmed in West-Yorkshire largely in the beautiful country surroundings of a small town, the film displays a sun-dappled innocence illuminating Mona’s relationship with Tamsin. The movie went on to win a BAFTA.

3.

Lords of Dogtown

is a 2005 film directed by Catherine Hardwicke, written by Stacy Peralta. The film is based on the story of “The Z-Boys“, an influential group of skateboarders who revolutionized the sport. Mitch Hedberg, a famous stand-up comedian who appears in the movie, died before the film was released. The movie is dedicated to his memory.The tagline for the film is: “They came from nothing to change everything.”

In the 1970’s, a group of teen surfers from a rough neighbourhood known as “Dogtown” in Venice, California, created a cultural revolution by transforming skateboarding from a recreational activity into an extreme sport.

When a shipment of polyurethane wheels arrives at Venice Beach’s Zephyr Surf Shop, the owner, Skip Engblom, played by Heath Ledger, puts together a team of local layabouts to test his new invention.

Known as the Zephyr Skateboard Team, the boys transferred their surf skills to drain pipes and empty swimming pools with stunning results. Their acrobatic manoeuvres inspired generations of teens and catapulted them to fame and fortune.

This real life story follows the character development of Stacy, Jay and Tony as they negotiate the benefits and pitfalls of superstardom.

Lords of Dogtown highlights the sensitive balance between bravado and insecurity of adolescence in a moving rags-to riches story.

4.

Ed Wood

Awards: Won 2 Oscars. Another 19 wins & 11 nominations

is a biopic directed by Tim Burton, starring Johnny Depp as the cross-dressing cult movie maker Edward D. Wood Jr. The film, shot in black and white, was made in 1994 and based in large part on Rudolph Grey’s biography Nightmare of Ecstasy. The film focuses on the period in Ed’s life when he made his best-known films, and also his relationship with Bela Lugosi (Oscar winner Martin Landau), the down-on-his luck actor who had starred as Dracula in the film of the same name. Though a box office failure at the time of its release, it was critically hailed[1] and has subsequently been voted onto IMDB’s “top 250″ by its users. It also resulted in a 1994 Best Supporting Actor Academy Award win for Martin Landau.

• Johnny Depp – Ed Wood, Jr.
• Martin Landau – Bela Lugosi
• Sarah Jessica Parker – Dolores Fuller
• Bill Murray – Bunny Breckinridge
• Patricia Arquette – Kathy O’Hara
• Jeffrey Jones – Criswell
• Lisa Marie – Vampira
• George “The Animal” Steele – Tor Johnson
• Juliet Landau – Loretta King
• Vincent D’Onofrio – Orson Welles

5.

Czech Dream (Český sen in Czech)

is a documentary film directed by two young Czech directors: Vít Klusák and Filip Remunda. The film was released in February 2004. It recorded a large-scale hoax perpetuated by Klusák and Remunda on the advertising industries and the Czech public, culminating in the “opening event” of a fake “hypermarket“. The film was their final project for film school.

Remunda and Klusák invented the “Český sen” hypermarket and created a massive advertising campaign around it. Posing as businessmen, the two film students managed to persuade an ad agency and PR agency to create a campaign for them. Billboards appeared on Czech highways, and 200,000 pamphlets were distributed in Prague. A jingle was recorded and there was even a television commercial. The advertising campaign slogans were “don’t come” and “don’t spend”, etc.

Still, the filmmakers succeeded in attracting more than a thousand shoppers to an empty plain for their “grand opening” on May 31, 2003. What looked like a huge building from a distance was actually only a canvas facade backed by scaffolding.

When the “customers” finally realised that they had been deceived, they reacted in different ways. Some understood the filmmakers’ message, some tried to take it optimistically (At least we had some fresh air) but most were angry and many decided to blame the government.

The idea for the hoax came from a 2002 study by Incoma Research reporting that 30 percent of Czechs shop mainly at hypermarkets. There has been growing concern in the country about the growth of advertising and consumerism.

Other than holding a sort of a mirror up to consumer society the film also shows how advertising companies work, what methods and tricks they use.

How easily we can fool ourselves is summed up by a quote in the film. Somewhere in the middle of the advertising campaign, the employees of the advertising agency have some moral doubts about advertising untrue things. One of them says: “Maybe you filmmakers lie to people, but we advertisers don’t!”

6.

Battle in Heaven

2005, Runtime: 98 min / Argentina:98 min (Mar del Plata Film Festival)

Marcos and his wife kidnap a baby for ransom money, but it goes tragically wrong when the infant dies. In another world is Ana, the daughter of the general he drives for, who prostitutes herself for pleasure. Marcos confesses his guilt to her in his troubled search for relief. And then finds himself on his knees amidst the multitude of believers moving slowly towards the Basilica in honor of the Lady of Guadalupe.

Batalla en el cielo (Battle in Heaven in English-speaking markets) is a 2005 Mexican film. It is the second film by director Carlos Reygadas who previously directed the Mexican film Japon.

7.

Caché / Hidden

(marketed as Hidden in English) is a 2005 French-language film, written and directed by Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke. It stars Daniel Auteuil as Georges, and Juliette Binoche as Anne. It is the first film where Haneke uses High Definition video cameras. During a press conference at the Cannes film festival he expressed the now famous quote: I always say that a feature film is twenty-four lies per second; the lies may be told to serve a higher truth, but they aren’t always.

Georges (Daniel Auteuil) is a successful host of a TV book programme and lives what seems to be a good, bourgeois life with his wife Anne (Juliette Binoche) and their son Pierrot (Lester Makedonsky). Anne is a book publisher, and Pierrot seems to be a well adjusted 12-year-old boy. But some mysterious videotapes of surveillance of their home start showing up on their doorstep. These early scenes are very reminiscent of David Lynch’s 1997 film Lost Highway. At first, the tapes seem relatively harmless, perhaps made by a fan. But when later videos are strangely accompanied by disturbing bloody drawings in the style of children’s drawings, it suggests that they are more than they first appeared. Little by little, the tapes reveal that whoever is making them knows more about Georges’ past than he would like them to.

8.

Time to Leave / Le Temps Qui Reste

A successful fashion photographer (Poupaud) is a gay man with terminal cancer. Slowly coming to terms with his situation he is cruel to his lover, has refused chemotherapy, nasty to his pregnant sister and uncommunicative to his loving and supportive parents.

9.

Mean Creek

is a 2004 independent film directed by Jacob Aaron Estes. it was released to wide critical praise. It stars Rory Culkin, Ryan Kelley, Scott Mechlowicz, Trever Morgan, Josh Peck and Carly Schroeder.

It begins in a small Oregon town, when a shy kid named Sam confesses to his protective older brother Rocky that he is getting pummeled and bullied daily by the towering school bully, George. Together, they plan the perfect payback, inviting George on a birthday river trip tailor-made to end in the bully’s humiliation. Rocky’s pals Clyde and Marty and Sam’s young girlfriend Millie also join the journey, which starts almost immediately with misgivings. Seeing George in a whole new light, as a lonely kid desperate for friendship and attention, Sam wants to call the whole thing off. But the boat and the plot are already primed to happen, and no one can foresee the surprises and accidents that are to come.

10.

Room 6

is a 2006 horror film starring Christine Taylor, Shane Brolly, Jerry O’Connell, and Ellie Cornell.

The film is about a woman, Amy (Christine Taylor), who must face her greatest fears, when her fiancé, Nick (Shane Brolly), is taken to a mysterious hospital after a nearly fatal car crash. As mysterious events begin to transpire around her, she comes to realize she must confront her demons, figurative and literal, if she is to save her lover.

The film was directed and co-written by Michael Hurst. Mark A. Altman also helped pen the film. The film was released on DVD on June 13, 2006.

This entry was posted on Petek, februar 9th, 2007 at 01:23 and is filed under Moji neholivudski filmi. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.