Coluna Claquete - December 26th, 2016 - Movie of the Week: "Rocky"

 

 

Newton Ramalho

 

colunaclaquete@gmail.com - www.colunaclaquete.blogspot.com - @colunaclaquete

 

Movie of the Week: "Rocky"

In December 2016 the movie "Rocky" completed forty years since its debut in the United States. The film generated five sequels and one derivative, and led to stardom Sylvester Stallone, a limited actor who knew how anyone grab the most important chance of his life - and transform the character into an icon that will survive in much the its creator.

It is curious that a film with a simple story, unknown actors and a very low budget has achieved such phenomenal success. To understand it, we must see that the character's story is intertwined with that of its creator, the protagonist and author of the script, Stallone himself.

Born in one of the poorest neighborhoods of New York City, Stallone was placed by his mother in a school for problematic children in the city of Philadelphia, where he devoted himself to boxing, riding and fencing, which would be very useful later.With his privileged body and sport skills, he got to study in Switzerland, and later returned to the United States, eager to break into the movie industry.

To survive, he did some roles on cheap movies and even erotic films.His big break was through the script of "Rocky," which he wrote in just three days, after watching a boxing match in which the unknown Chuck Wepner could withstand fifteen rounds before being knocked out by the champion Muhammad Ali.

Producers Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff were so interested in the script that offered $ 350,000 for Stallone sold it to them.But as he insisted on being the protagonist, Stallone then proposed deliver the script for a nominal fee in exchange for the title role and participation at the box office.This has revealed to be the great victory of his life.

The film's story is well known. Rocky (Stallone) is a semi-professional boxer, who works as a debt collector from a local moneylender. Thirty years old, he was considered old for fighting career, but due to an accident with an opponent, the world champion Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) decided to fight with a local boxer, to keep the event scheduled in the city.

With scarce resources, Rocky begins its reconstruction as a fighter, with the help of his old coach Mike (Jimmy Gambina), his friend Paulie (Burt Young) and his girlfriend Adrian (Talia Shire).

The film is very engaging, with a fantastic music, and has created millions of fans around the world, who copied the character even in his extravagant breakfast of raw eggs.Especially for boys, who always dream of being beautiful and muscular, Rocky represented the realization of these dreams, even if only on the big screen.

It was not difficult for the viewers to identify with Rocky. White, poor and uneducated, Rocky would be the image of millions of Americans. If it were today, he would certainly vote in Trump. But this identification has exceeded the borders, creating fans on all continents, of all races, creeds and intellectual levels.

Even now the Philadelphia Museum of Art responsibles resent the fact that thousands of people go to the site every day just to run up the steps of the staircase and imitate the gesture of victory of Rocky.In the credits of the film "Rocky Balboa" you can see scenes of real people doing it.

The most interesting - and little known - is that Stallone himself was in a similar situation to that of his character. Thirty years old, he was considered old to start an acting career, further with his limitations.

To live the character, Stallone also had to reinvent himself. At the beginning of filming he was significantly overweight, and with the discreet intervention of the director John G. Avildsen, who recorded the trainings, Stallone realized that he would have to imitate the character, building the magnificent body that appeared on the screens.

Transformed into success worldwide thanks to the character, Stallone also embodied another icon, the veteran of the Vietnam war John Rambo, which also yield four films of big box office.

Shot in only 28 days with a small budget of one million dollars, "Rocky" won the Academy Award for Best Film, Best Director and Best Editing, plus nominations for the categories of Best Actor (Stallone), Best Actress (Talia Shire), Best Supporting Actor (Burt Young and Burgess Meredith), Best Original Screenplay, Best Original Song and Best Sound. The film also won the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture - Drama, and had other five nominations.

After "Rocky" in 1976, it was followed by "Rocky II" (1979), "Rocky III" (1982), "Rocky IV" (1985), "Rocky V" (1990) and "Rocky Balboa" (2006) . In 2015 the character returned to the screen in "Creed", a remake of "Rocky" where Rocky faces the responsibility to train the son of his first opponent, Apollo Creed.

Even after forty years, it is impossible to hear the first chords of the song "Gonna Fly Now" and not want to leave running the streets like Rocky did.Long live the champ!

Coluna Claquete - December 5th, 2016 - Movie of the Week: "Sully"

 

 

Newton Ramalho

 

colunaclaquete@gmail.com - www.colunaclaquete.blogspot.com - @colunaclaquete

 

Movie of the Week: "Sully"

In one of those strange situations when Life imitates Art, at the time of the premiere of the film "Sully" happened the tragic crash of Chapecoense's plane, forcing exhibitor postpone the launch. After the shock of the moment, the premiere has been rescheduled for this week for the luck of spectators, as it is a great movie.

This film is based on a real 2009 incident when a US Airways plane, carrying a total of 155 people collided with a flock of birds and even without any engine running, it managed to land in the Hudson River, the river that borders the island of Manhattan in New York.That incident caught the world's attention, mainly because no one died or was seriously injured.

There was no doubt about the key role of pilot Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, who would be played by Tom Hanks in the movie.Any filmmaker certainly would focus on the accident itself, and the pilot experienced skill that made the risky landing in the water, in one of the most densely populated areas of the planet.

But the director Clint Eastwood has taken a different approach, starting from the time after the event, when a rigorous inquiry commission investigated the accident, putting in doubt whether the pilot's decision had been the right one, since occasioned the loss of the aircraft.

The film is exceptionally built, because even knowing the event, the viewer does identify with the protagonists and anger with the "bad guys", the inquiry committee, the manufacturer of the aircraft and insurance company.

The story is shown by Sully's optic, which along with the co-pilot Jeff Skiles (Aaron Eckhart), lives a strange pop-star routine, with appearances on TV and acclamations of the public, while struggling to prove his innocence in the investigation committee.After all, the script was based on the book of Sully own memories, already available in Brazil, with the same title of the film.

It is remarkable the physical resemblance of the main actors with real characters, as can be seen in a post-credits scene in a commemorative meeting of the survivors of the accident. And it was the right choice casting Tom Hanks to represent Sully, as the actor, with his eternal good boy look, fit like a glove in the personification of the experienced pilot.

Once again it is clear the geniality of Clint Eastwood, who managed to turn a five-minute event in a film full of emotion, showing the human side of the accident without slipping into sentimentality or undue glorification.Furthermore, he showed how the human factor is important in this world increasingly dehumanized.

In fact, the human factor is a common point between the accident shown in the movie and the one that killed the Chapecoense team. While in the case of New York it was shown that humans were more important than machines, in Chapecoense case was the corruption and greed of men who caused the crash, forcing a suicide flight without sufficient fuel to arrive safely.

"Sully" is a film well done with the necessary elements to hold viewer's attention and create identification with the characters, showing the stunning details of a real event. Moreover, the film suggests how terrible the tragedy could have been if the plane had hit any place in the city, in a disaster that would be worse then 9/11.

Original title: "Sully"

Coluna Claquete - December 5th, 2016 - Movie of the Week: "Once In A Lifetime"

 

 

Newton Ramalho

 

colunaclaquete@gmail.com - www.colunaclaquete.blogspot.com - @colunaclaquete

 

Movie of the Week: "Once In A Lifetime"

The movie industry has many films based on education, and groups of unruly teenagers who are "saved" by a brilliant teacher, like anthologique "To Sir With Love," starring Sidney Poitier. But it is always good to see successful stories like the one shown in the excellent French film "Once In A Lifetime" ( "Les Heritiers", 2014).

The Lycée Léon Blum is a French public school like many others, located in the banlieue, the suburb of Paris, a poor region, inhabited mainly by immigrants and descendants.Unlike countries such as Canada, where immigration is very selective, France historically has housed countless groups of immigrants from many places of the world, notably from its former African and Asian colonies.

So this is the small universe of one of the rooms of the junior year of high school, formed by young people from different ethnicities, backgrounds and religions. The group, one of the most problematics in school, is under the direction of Ms. Guéguen (Ariane Ascaride), which also gives lessons of History, Geography and History of Art.

The living is not easy, especially with the clash of cultures. France, very proud of separation between religion and State, since the Revolution of 1789, has laws preventing religious expression in schools and public buildings, including crucifixes and the veil worn by Muslims, what is illustrated in one of the opening scenes of movie.

The dissatisfaction of young people is exacerbated by the age where the last infantile traits still shock with perspective of the arrival of adulthood.

It is in this ambiance of permanent tension that Ms. Guéguen arrives with a proposal that at first sounds like an impossible task.She proposes to her students the participation in the National Concours of Resistance and Deportation, exploring the theme "children and adolescents in the Nazi concentration camps."

The first reaction of the students is of stupefaction. Everyone knew vaguely that World War II had been against the Nazis, a few knew about the Holocaust, but no one imagined the real involvement of France, especially in regard to the subject.

Accepting the job with reluctancy, they researched the way they were used to: copying pages of Wikipedia and Google images.Encouraged by Ms. Guéguen and by librarian Yvette (Geneviève Mnich), who always answer their questions with more questions, the young people gradually plunged deeply into the theme, discovering the victims, their testimonies, and what happened to them after war.

Some scenes of the film are anthological, such as the testimony of Léon Zyguel, a Holocaust survivor who died shortly after the film's release.To some concepts were given prominence, as the idea that every image has a purpose, and that no joke is innocent, especially when it exploits race, religion or sexual orientation.

It is possible that at this point, the reader is thinking "I've seen this movie before". If he thought about "Freedom Writers," starring Hilary Swank, it is not without reason. But the commonalities are poor schools, challenging classes and research related to World War II - as well as creative and stimulating teachers.

In the case of the French school, in addition to the fact of been real and be portrayed with remarkable fidelity, the results were surprising because they not only got the prize, but most of the class finished school with distinction.One of these students, Ahmed Dramé, who dreamed of making movies, was the one who sought the director Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar with the idea of the film and the script was co-written by them.Ahmed and his sister Koro also acted in the roles of Malik and Léa.

When we see these cases of student success, the question is inevitable: Will we could do the same in Brazil? It is hard to say, because the educational reality of Brazil is totally different from France or the United States, places where public education is practically universal .

Although the problems of young people are universal, even more in a globalized world, in Brazil public education is poor and destined for the poors, with the exception of federal education institutes.

But regardless of rich or poor, young people lack the incentive to critical thinking, to questions that have no easy answers, to needs that go beyond the ESMS and a place in a public university.

As said in an interview with Professor Anne Anglès, the true master who was lived on the screens by Ariane Ascaride, "To me, the goal was that those students pass from "to have" to "to be". I wanted them to learn to be and be together, collectively, to appropriate the values ​​of those peoples who were lucky to survive this mass crime, this genocide, because it shakes with people, even being extremely heavy. "

"Once In A Lifetime" is a very interesting film, totally different from these silly high school movies, showing how the intolerance that surrounds and suffocates us day to day can be alleviated with the simple and good idea that we are together in the same boat and that unity and understanding are still the best way to solve problems.

Original title: "Les Heritiers"

Coluna Claquete - November 28, 2016 - Movie of the Week: "The Arrival"

 

 

Newton Ramalho

 

colunaclaquete@gmail.com - www.colunaclaquete.blogspot.com - @colunaclaquete

 

Movie of the Week: "The Arrival"

Whenever people ask me what is my favorite director, I answer that I do not have anyone, because each film should be analyzed individually. But I must confess that this conviction was shaken with Canadian director Denis Villeneuve, whose films always have surprised me positively, as is the recent case of "The Arrival".

Nowadays achieve an original idea, especially in the science fiction genre, it is very difficult. "The Arrival" brings something new to the genre, mainly by escaping the common-place of most blockbusters productions, seeking a deeper story and a message aligned to the needs of today's world.

In the story, the world is shocked to find that twelve alien ships appeared out of nowhere and pulled in different parts of the world. Without showing agressive or other nature intention, the ships simply hover a few meters above the ground, as if awaiting the initiative of humans.

Each country where hangs a ship, take their efforts to make contact with the newcomers. But their language seems incomprehensible, and the tension mounts among the civilian population.

The linguist Louise Banks (Amy Adams) is sought by Colonel Weber (Forest Whitaker) to help them in contact with the ship in the American space. Scientist Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner) is also called to work together, each in his specialty.

The first contact is a shock to Louise, used to the peaceful academic environment, and now exposed to an incomprehensible universe, strange even for experienced scientists.

The deadlock is broken when she seeks an approach using written language, and in response to words in English, she receives several extremely complex circular symbols, which will be the key to communication.

In addition to the difficult task with the aliens, Louise still lives a personal tragedy, and the world seems to be heading in maddened way for an interplanetary war. The main question still remains unanswered: Who are the aliens and what they came to do on earth?

In order for a movie to be good, besides a good director and a good screenwriter, there must be a good story as the basis for everything. In the case of this film, the idea came from a science fiction short story written by Ted Chiang in 1998, "The story of your life".Although working since 1989, the author of the collection has written about fifteen stories.The number seems small, but the writer has won a lot of awards, including the desired Nebula and Hugo Awards (four of each).

In the specific case of "The Arrival" and the original story, the interesting handling of information about language, the nature of time, and humanity is what makes the story (and the film) two treasures.

Villeneuve had the merit of carrying to the cinematic language the essence of the original story. Previous works of the director already demonstrated this brilliance, and among all, I highlight the fantastic "Incendies" (2010), that I always recommend to all movie lovers.

"The Arrival" is very well done from a technical point of view, with a well-constructed script, a perfect edition that leads to a surprising end, all this with the beautiful photography of Bradford Young, highlighting the beautiful locations in the Canadian province of Québec.

It is possible that viewers accustomed to the space-opera will not enjoy the slower pace of "The Arrival". However, I believe that those who like films that lead to a good discussion will be happy with this gem of the Seventh Art.

Original title: "Arrival"