Alejandro Amenabar Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Scenes We Love: The Others
Filed under: Horror », Nicole Kidman », Scenes We Love »
There's just not enough ghost movies made these days, and certainly not enough good ones. Few filmmakers opt for Gothic manors, fog, and squeaky doors over the flashy "ghost" splatter-fests on display in The House on Haunted Hill and the 13 Ghosts remakes. I'm not sure why more directors don't opt to play in the spirit world, as I think movies like The Changeling, Paranormal Activity, and even The Blair Witch Project show that audiences can be scared with very little. As Jaws famously proved, it's what you don't see that's frightening, especially when you're dealing with the world of the living and the dead.
I think Alejandro Amenabar's The Others is one of the finest "haunted house" movies ever made. I watched it again last night, and I'm surprised at how little actually happens in this movie. When I first saw it in the theater, it seemed to be a symphony of voices, slamming doors, and moving objects. It's not, all of its chills come from the oppressive darkness, the fog, and a trio of grimly determined servants. Even though it relies heavily on the "twist" factor (and I still feel like Christopher Eccleston's appearance is an annoying red herring), it remains chilling for one of its final lines: "But now what does this all mean? Where are we?"
Below the jump is another scene that still gets me every time. On first glance, you're in the role of Nicholas, and unsure whether it's all an elaborate trick by sneaky Anne. But the hand that touches his cheek belongs to a little boy -- and nothing is scarier in the dark than footsteps from an unseen companion.
'Agora' Quickly Becomes Spain's Top-Grossing Film of the Year
Filed under: Drama », Box Office »
Between Cannes and the Toronto International Film Festival, Agora cooked up a good deal of praise, and a lot of speculation that it would struggle at the box office and most likely not make back its price tag. It wasn't exactly unwarranted guessing -- the film had one of the biggest budgets for a European production, costing 50 million euros ($73 million). But so far, so good.The Hollywood Reporter posts that after getting released on Friday in Spain, Alejandro Amenabar's epic has grabbed the top earning spot for Spanish films after only 4 days, and the best opening weekend for 2009. So far, the film has earned roughly $10.4 million, dethroning Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs for the #1 spot. In fact, it only missed the all-time high by $.3 million -- an honor held by Torrente 3: El Protector. THR says this comes after "an unusually aggressive advertising campaign," but even with that, this is an impressive feat. It's not every day that a cerebral and beautiful epic can surpass Hollywood family films, and almost beat the record box office of a crime comedy.
Will this mean good things for the U.S. as well? I'd hope a North American release date hits soon, with an equally prevalent marketing campaign. I completely adored this film when I saw it at TIFF, and this is the sort of fare we need to embrace of we expect moviemaking to be more than Hollywood spectacle. Or hell, if we want some solid female fare on the big screen.
TIFF Review: Agora
Filed under: Drama », Theatrical Reviews », Festival Reports », Exhibition », Religious »
"If you choose to do nothing, though, you will continue to do the same thing over and over again."
Hypatia (Rachel Weisz), Agora
Hypatia (Rachel Weisz), Agora
To some, the name Alejandro Amenábar sparks instant interest. But if it does not, let me refresh your memory. In 1997, he wrote (with Mateo Gil) and directed the Spanish film Open Your Eyes -- which North American audiences know better by its ultra-strange U.S. remake Vanilla Sky. 2001 marked his English film premiere, the eerie Nicole Kidman thriller The Others (the only feature Gil hasn't co-written). And then in 2004, he went back to Spanish filmmaking with the Javier Bardem-starring Oscar winner The Sea Inside. Now he's grabbed the likes of Rachel Weisz, Max Minghella, and Oscar Isaac for a film that doesn't journey through facial reconstruction, ghosts, or euthanasia. It's a gorgeous, thought-provoking Roman epic called Agora.
The film focuses on one of the most impressive female figures in history – Hypatia, a leading thinker in the Rome-governed Alexandria, considered to be the first notable woman of mathematics. She studied philosophy and astronomy, and both pagan and Christian students from far and wide came together to study under her. "For all men on account of her extraordinary dignity and virtue admired her the more."
The Chills-Inducing Trailer for 'Agora'
Filed under: Drama », Religious », Trailers and Clips »
Suffering through films like Troy, which is akin to being cinematically stabbed in one's Achilles' Heel, it's easy to be wary of the ancient period pieces. All too often, epic legends crumble due to Hollywood's obsession with spectacle -- falling to epic looks rather than an epic heart. But just sometimes ... a film can have both.I will be writing more about the film later, but for now, I implore you to hit the jump and watch the trailer for Alejandro Amenabar's Agora. This is the sort of trailer every film needs: It balances exposition (helped along by a great narrator rather than deep-disembodied typical trailer voice) and explanation with passion -- outlining what exactly the film is focusing on before exploding into a rising crescendo that will tap into your skin and unleash the goosebumps and chills.
Agora focuses on Hypatia (Rachel Weisz), a female scholar from Alexandria in 370-415 AD. Well ahead of her time, she was a well-respected philosopher dedicated to studies of math and astronomy. Christianity was spreading through Egypt, however, and it was only a matter of time before her incredibly advanced status (for a woman in that era) became her downfall.
Amenabar Recreates Ancient Egypt
Filed under: Drama », Thrillers », Images »
Nowadays, computer-generated imagery makes it possible to create just about anything the mind can conceive, but there is nothing quite like a man-made recreation of an ancient civilization to inspire awe. As Monika Bartyzel told us last month, Alejandro Amenabar has been busy preparing his next film, Agora, which takes place in Ancient Egypt. Rachel Weisz will star as an astrologer/philosopher battling to save "the collected wisdom of the world" as religious riots flare and threaten the fabled Library of Alexandria. Max Minghella will also star as her slave (nice work if you can get it).Agora is being filmed on the island of Malta, and Times of Malta has a picture of one of the giant sets. (Click through for a large photo.) The article says that the production marks a series of firsts for the island, including the fact that "many Maltese are being employed in roles and crew positions that are usually taken up by foreigners."
Pre-production on the island began last October, with 76 shooting days scheduled. The English-language film is due to wrap by the end of June. Agora marks the long-awaited return to directing for Amenabar, who last made The Sea Inside. That claustrophobic drama was a change of pace for Amenabar, who previously had been known for making thrillers like Open Your Eyes and The Others. Agora is definitely his most ambitious production to date, but it sounds like it could be a promising combination of intelligent thrills and historical drama.
[ Via Latino Review ]
Weisz & Minghella Head to Ancient Egypt
Filed under: Action », Drama », Casting », Deals », Scripts », Religious »
Back in February, I briefly mentioned through a casting bite that Alejandro Amenabar was gearing up for his next film, and had cast Rachel Weisz and Homayoun Ershadi from The Kite Runner. Now Variety has fleshed out the whole project. It's called Agora, the filmmaker wrote it with Mateo Gil, and it will be Amenabar's second English-language feature, after The Others.Rachel Weisz and Max Minghella (Art School Confidential) star in the film, which takes place in Ancient Egypt. More specifically, Weisz will play the astrologer-philosopher Hypatia of Alexandria, in Roman Egypt during the fourth century. "Trapped in the Library of Alexandria as religious riots flare on the city's streets, Hypatia battles to save the collected wisdom of the ancient world. Meanwhile, her slave Davus (Minghella) is torn between his love for his mistress and the freedom he could attain by joining the rising tide of Christianity." Aside from Ershadi, Oscar Isaac, Ashraf Barhom, Michael Lonsdale, and Rupert Evans have roles.
Amenabar plans to use a "hyper-realist approach" to bring Alexandria to life, and says: "We want the audience to see, feel and smell a remote civilization as if it were as real as the present day." To me, it definitely sounds worth is, and is certainly better than Weisz doing a million Mummy sequels. Are you ready to get dirty in Ancient Egypt?
Casting Bites: Oquendo, Cashman, and Ershadi
Filed under: Comedy », Documentary », Drama », Foreign Language », Casting »
Bits of casting for the new week, all courtesy of Variety:- Last year, Angel Oquendo had bit parts in 3 films -- King of California, Ocean's Thirteen, and 1408. Now he's picked up a gig with Michael Keaton in The Post Grad Survival Guide. This is the pic I told you about back in December, which stars Alexis Bledel as a college grad who moves home trying to figure out her life -- and while that doesn't sound like the most original premise, the movie also cast Michael Keaton and Carol Burnett (who will be playing her family), which makes it all a heck of a lot more interesting... Almost as interesting as another film Oquendo is working on -- The Slammin' Salmon. I really, really love that title for some reason.
- Next up is Christy Scott Cashman. It seems she's grabbed a role in Abel Ferrara's new film -- Chelsea on the Rocks. This is a tribute to the Chelsea Hotel in New York City -- a building that has already inspired a whole slew of films. (You can check out a description of the Hotel, plus some stills from production at Twitch.) It's listed as a documentary, but looks to be maybe a mixture of both drama and doc. Christy is playing Vera Mendelssoh according to IMDb, which I assume is a typo for sculptor Mendelssohn, which makes her the neighbor of Sid & Nancy, and who heard witnessed some of the events surrounding Spungen's death.
- Finally, we have Homayoun Ershadi. Most recently, he played Baba in The Kite Runner. Now he's going to star along with Rachel Weisz in Agora, the latest film from Alejandro Amenabar. Not too much is being said about the feature thus far, unless you can read Spanish and check out the myriad of links on Google. However, this has got two solid stars and comes from the man behind Abre los ojos, so I'm intrigued. Production begins next month in Malta.
Alejandro Amenabar Helping Filmmaker Friend Make 'El Mal Ajeno'
Filed under: Drama », Foreign Language », Independent », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Mystery & Suspense », Cinematical Indie »
Wouldn't you like to have Alejandro Amenabar as a friend? The award-winning director of Open Your Eyes, The Others and The Sea Inside has announced he will produce El Mal Ajeno, to be directed by his friend Oskar Santos. Actress Belen Rueda has been set as the female lead. She described the story to Variety as a "mixed-genre doctor's drama laced with fantasy and suspense elements." Rueda was very impressive in The Sea Inside as a lawyer fighting for quadriplegic Ramón Sampedro's (Javier Bardem) right to die, while battling her own medical problems. Her role in El Mal Ajeno is said to be a patient's wife, but I can't imagine she'll be any kind of wallflower; she has too strong a personality to blend easily into the background. The script is by Daniel Sanchez Arevalo, who recently made a splash on the festival circuit with DarkBlueAlmostBlack, due for a theatrical run in the US later this year. The Spanish title El Mal Ajeno translates word for word, depending on your free online translator of choice, as either 'the badly other people's one,' 'the badly strange, foreign' or 'the evil somebody else's.' Santos previously made A Trip to The Sea Inside, an 87-minute documentary that was included on the DVD of The Sea Inside. More germane to the making of a picture with fantasy elements, though, Santos also directed two fantasy shorts, Torre and El Sonador. The latter was based on an idea by Amenabar, who also served as producer. Between the making of those two shorts, Santos also contributed a short film to UrbanChillers.com. Filming on El Mal Ajeno is set to begin in early 2008, which means we have to wait until next year to find out if Santos can mix genres like his friend Amenabar -- and also what the heck that title really means.
Gael Garcia Bernal Is 'Pedro Páramo'
Filed under: Drama », Foreign Language », Casting », Remakes and Sequels »
I'm one of those people who was first introduced to Gael Garcia Bernal through Y tu mamá también. Unfortunately, I'm also one of those crazy, rare people who didn't like the film. Well, I probably would've liked it more if it wasn't hyped so much. Once I saw it, I just didn't get the wow factor. Luckily, he's also been in I'm with Lucy, so I saw him in some better material. Just kidding... Anyhow, he's just about to show his directorial debut, Déficit, to Cannes this week and he's also finalizing plans to star in another adaptation of Pedro Páramo, a famous short novel by Juan Rulfo.It's been a favorite of the big screen, having popped up in 1967, 1978 and 1981. In this current incarnation, I'm sniffing one hell of a Latin hit. This adaptation is under the pens of Mateo Gil and Alejandro Amenábar, who will also direct. Why is this a good thing? Because they're the ones who brought us Abre los ojos, the precursor to Vanilla Sky. Páramo is the story of a brutal man who married Juan Preciado's mother, stole her land and money, and destroyed her town -- Comala. Talking with the ghosts of the town, Preciado reveals its demise under Pedro's hands. To just sweeten the deal a little bit, the film will be art directed by Eugenio Caballero, who just won an Oscar for Pan's Labyrinth. I'm not sure how much they could sweeten this cinematic pot, but I'm anxious to see what they all will do with this latest adaptation. How about you?
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Exclusive: Poster Premiere for 'Extraordinary Measures'
