Che Guevara Tagged Articles at Cinematical

I don't need much of an excuse to visit Austin, Texas. Find me an event that A) strings more than four movies together, and B) takes place at one of the Alamo Drafthouse movie theaters, and there's a good chance I'm checking my bank account, desperately scrambling for flight money. But despite the fact that I've done five SXSW visits, three Fantastic Fest trips, and a few more Austin journeys just for the heck of it ... I'd never attended a BNAT shindig. But I made it to the tenth annual Butt-Numb-a-Thon, and of course I had a damn good time once it got rolling.

Let's just do a quick run-through, chronologically speaking, and I'm listing just the FULL movies here. At the end I'll go over the various clips we were treated to...

On the heels of some high-profile NYFF announcements, the Toronto International Film Festival has unveiled its fair share of titles scheduled to premiere there next month. According to Variety, the list includes:

• The North American premieres of Charlie Kaufman's directorial debut, Synecdoche, New York (pictured), which has been picked up for distribution by Sony Pictures Classics since we last heard of (still) possible trims, and Steven Soderbergh's epic Che, which remains without a distributor -- James Rocchi reviewed both films at Cannes.
  
• The world premieres of Rian Johnson's Brick follow-up, The Brothers Bloom, which looks to be a special sort of con movie, and Kevin Smith's Zack and Miri Make a Porno, which looks to be a special sort of, well, romantic comedy.
  
• The North American premieres of Darren Aronofsky's sports drama The Wrestler and Gavin O'Connor's oft-delayed cop drama Pride and Glory .
  
• The world premieres of Genova, Slumdog Millionaire and Me and Orson Welles, the latest from the ever-unpredictable likes of Michael Winterbottom, Danny Boyle and Richard Linklater, respectively.

Cinematical will bring you early reviews on as many of these as we can, so stay tuned. TIFF runs from September 4th through the 13th.

There's good news and bad news, Soderbergh fans: The bad news is that the director's two-part, Benicio Del Toro-starring Che Guevara biopic Che, as noted in a recent piece in The Hollywood Reporter, still doesn't have a U.S. distributor. Gregg Goldstein's piece (which also looks at the similar challenges faced by Cannes '08 films Synedoche, New York and Two Lovers) notes that there are four offers on the table from independent distributors, but no deal has yet been signed.

For many who saw Che at Cannes (including myself), this is vexing news. Goldstein also relates that one distributor's hopes to purchase Che as a single film with a three-hour running time has been roundly rebuffed. However, in case anyone would like to see what all the fuss is about -- albeit in blurry, bootleg fashion -- a grainy, blurry bootleg of the trailer (in all Spanish with no subtitles) for the first half of Che, The Argentine, has hit YouTube (see above) -- and while the bootlegged trailer may lack clarity and definition, it also gives a great sense of the look and the feel of the film.

Does The Argentine's trailer make you hunger for all of Soderbergh's Che? Or does it just make you appreciate how hard it's going to be to get a distributor to back a four-hour long historical drama in Spanish?

Plenty of people are going to be talking about Steven Soderbergh's Che Guevara biographical films -- The Argentine and Guerrilla, screened at Cannes tonight as one presentation simply called Che -- over the next few months. There will be arguments about the politics of the films; there will be discussions of whether or not the films have any emotional center; there will be questions around, when the films get some kind of U.S. distribution deal, exactly how they should be released -- two films released staggered throughout the last half of the year or cut down to one three-hour film or shown as a long, big double bill that presents the separate films back-to-back. There will be talk of if Benicio Del Toro deserves a Best Actor nomination for his work as Guevara, or if Soderbergh's portrait of Che is too flat to engage us; I can easily imagine discussions of the look and feel of the film, shot in high-resolution digital with all the craft and care Soderbergh usually brings to shooting on film. I can't predict how all of these questions and possibilities will play out, but I can say -- and will say -- what a rare pleasure it is to have a film (or films) that, in our box-office obsessed, event-movie, Oscar-craving age, is actually worth talking about on so many levels.

We just walked in the door after the four-and-a-half hour screening of Steven Soderbergh's Che, one of the most anticipated films at the Cannes Film Festival, and I just had to bang out a quick post to say ... wow. The film is just amazing, in every possible way. I went into it a bit trepidatiously; four-plus hours of guerrilla warfare was either going to be awesome or very, very bad. I walked out feeling like I'd just had the cinematic equivalent of winning the Lotto, and I'm still on a high from the film.

James will have a full review up soon (yeah, he won the coin toss on that one), but for now, here's my immediate reaction. Consensus among many of the very smart people I know here at Cannes (well, except for Variety, apparently) is that Che will almost definitely win the Palm d'Or, and if Benecio del Toro doesn't win the Best Actor Oscar come January, there's something wrong with the world.

If you thought leading a revolution was easy, try filming one. In The Huffington Post, Jeffrey Wells of Hollywood Elsewhere discusses Steven Soderbergh's two-part Che Guevara biopic, comprised of The Argentine and Guerilla. Despite earlier rumors to the contrary, it appears that both movies will definitely screen next month at the Cannes Film Festival, where Soderbergh was warmly welcomed last year for the premiere of Ocean's Thirteen. The reception of his latest project could be even more positive, but its distribution prospects are another story: As Wells explains, Soderbergh's project guarantees to offend some people for its apparent exclusion of Che's stint as the overlord at La Cabana fortress, where he ordered the execution of over 600 political prisoners. Add to that the heavy amount of Spanish dialog and the director's insistence that the two movies should be enjoyed as a four hour-plus package, and you've got enough red flags to send even the bravest U.S. distributors packing.

Wells, who read both scripts, analogizes the project to Lawrence of Arabia. "Hey, how about presenting the two films as a single, gargantuan Lawrence of Arabia-styled deal with an intermission, running between four or four and a half hours?" he suggests, perhaps somewhat tongue-in-cheek.

Jon Stewart had it right during the Oscars this year when he ironically geeked out over Lawrence of Arabia on an iPod. If most audiences can't appreciate that movie on the big screen now, why would they turn up for something like this?

Even if you don't have any idea who Che Guevara is, you probably know what he looks like. His face has graced everything from t-shirts to bikinis to cigarette packs to beer. You know he's a symbol of ... something. But you're just not quite sure what.

So, who is Che Guevara? And how did that picture of him become so damned famous? Those questions, and other issues, are addressed in the excellent documentary Chevolution, which debuted at Tribeca on Friday.

In the documentary, producer/director Trisha Ziff and director Luis Lopez explore the Che phenomenon from all angles, including the revolutionary's early life, his fateful encounter with Castro, the Cuban revolution he helped make happen, to his life trying to foment revolutions in other countries. But it also examines how he crossed paths with photographer Alberto Korda, the fashion photographer/photojournalist who took the famous picture of Guevara that was the basis for the icon we know today.

Back in 2006, Javier Bardem was going to play Fidel Castro in Steven Soderbergh's double Che Guevara pics -- The Argentine and Guerrilla. But then Mr. Director had to go and make Ocean's 13 first, for whatever reason, which made Bardem move on. For Javier, that wasn't so much of a bad thing. Instead of playing the famous President of Cuba, he's been wowing everyone with his portrayal of Anton Chigurh in No Country for Old Men, and has a slew of interesting projects on the way. As for Soderbergh, he had to find someone else, and settled on Mexican actor Demián Bichir.

While we won't be able to tell how well Bichir does with the role until the movies hit the screen, AICN did nab some photos of the actor in full Fidel attire. If photos are any indication, Demián is destined to impress. There are three shots -- a close-up on his face, one with a pipe, and a full-body pipe shot that could almost be confused with the infamous Cuban himself -- if the pictures weren't so crisp and new. Between these and the image of Benicio del Toro as Che, which came out in October, I'm pretty excited.

The films also star the likes of Franka Potente, Benjamin Bratt, Catalina Sandino Moreno... the list goes on and on. The Argentine follows Che and a group of Cuban exiles led by Castro who topple the regime of Fulgencio Batista. Guerilla then jumps into the '60s as Guevara makes a trip to New York City to address the United Nations. Both films are set to come out some time this year.

I'm still waiting for the day when we get Benicio Del Toro as Che Guevara t-shirts -- you know it would be a good promotional item -- but for now we must settle on this bright image put up by Jeff Wells over at Hollywood Elsewhere. It's a photograph taken on location in the Andalusian section of Spain, subbing for Bolivia, and it features Del Toro just chillin' with a big pipe, a flat cap (not the iconic black beret with a star on it!) and some books. Behind him are some fellow guerrillas with guns, also just hangin' out. The scene comes from, Guerrilla, the second installment of Steven Soderbergh's double-dip look at the legendary revolutionary. If it's any indication of how exciting the film will be, then Wells is certainly right by predicting that the first film, The Argentine, will be the more engaging.

Apparently this shot was also taken a little while ago, because The Argentine is now filming in Puerto Rico. Or is it just part of that film being shot now? Are the films being shot simultaneously? If not, I think it's strange that Soderbergh shot the second one first and vice versa. If you were to believe what the Daily News wrote about the films yesterday, you'd think Guerrilla hadn't even begun production yet. So, who knows? (Surely somebody does and can help me out in the comment section). I guess it doesn't matter how the shooting is going. All that is important is that both films are due sometime late next year.

Bit by slow, lingering, snail-like bit, we've gotten news on Steven Soderbergh's upcoming $70 million (approximately) Ernesto Che Guevara films -- The Argentine and Guerrilla. It all started back in November of 2005, with one film and Benicio Del Toro. Then, the team had to scramble to shoot footage before some refurbishing at the UN, some pics were released, Julia Ormond joined the cast and the film got split in two. After a long wait, production is finally scheduled to begin next week in Spain, and we've got another name to add to the cast -- Columbian actress Catalina Sandino Moreno.

Of course, the actress is best known for her starring, Oscar-nominated role in Maria Full of Grace, but she's also spent time in Richard Linklater's world of Fast Food Nation, and the Ethan Hawke-helmed The Hottest State, which is getting released next month. Unfortunately, there is no word about who she is going to play. Whoever it is, she's a great addition to an already intriguing cast. Really, you could throw almost any name at me, and I'd still pay to see Del Toro as Che and Franke Potente as Tamara Bunke -- the only woman to fight alongside communist rebels under Guevara. Shooting is scheduled to continue for nine weeks in Madrid and Andalusia, and hopefully once the cameras begin to officially roll, we'll have some more information on just what Soderbergh has up his sleeve for the epic man of t-shirts.