agora Tagged Articles at Cinematical

As the film prepares to take flight tomorrow, reviews are starting to pour in for Hilary Swank's Amelia. It's quite the mixed bag, from Roger Ebert's praise to Keith Uhlich's description of the film as a "colorfully hollow biopic about America's beloved aviatrix." Should more chime in with Ebert's positivity, the film could get decent buzz, but as it stands while writing this on Thursday afternoon, out of 13 reviews, it's got a paltry 23% fresh rating.

The negative sentiments aren't really a surprise. The early pictures of the film weren't exactly promising, and the trailer induced skeptical responses. But rather than rant about dreams of Amelia Earhart getting one of those biopics that mesmerizes from the get-go, I'm going to try and stay positive. Not every biopic has to struggle to find footing. In fact, some manage to capture the magic of their subject and make for a damn fine film.

Catch seven of my favorites after the jump, and since such a small number can't begin to cover them all, please weigh in with your own in the comments.

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.

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 Toronto International Film Festival is definitely starting off with a bang this year. First,we learned that TIFF was ignoring the tradition of opening the fest with a Canadian film when Jon Amiel's Creation was selected to kick things off. (Even though there are a few free screenings earlier on Thursday's Day One, plus Lone Scherfig's An Education, which is starting a half hour before Creation around the corner from the opening-night Elgin Theatre.) But at least, while not official, the first TIFF film is actually a screening of Lian Lunson's Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man, so some Can-Con informally starts things off.

But this twist was only step one. Next came the protests.

See, the festival is starting a new program this year called City to City, which showcases a group of films that are focused on a particular locale. The inaugural location: Tel Aviv. Soon, many began to protest the lack of Palestinians in the program, likening the choice as part of "the Israeli propaganda machine," and inspiring a group of famous names from Jane Fonda to Danny Glover to sign a statement against the choice. Toronto documentarian John Greyson withdrew his film Covered. Jon Voight spoke out against the statement and Jane Fonda. A Jewish professor in Halifax praised the protest, while others site it as a step towards more Anti-Semitism. And a press conference for the protest is scheduled to compete with the festival's opening day.

Nevertheless, TIFF soldiers on...

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.

And on the fifth day of the Cannes Film Festival, it snowed (actually, part of a promotion for Robert Zemeckis' A Christmas Carol, starring Jim Carrey, due out in November). Meanwhile, Rachel Weisz walked the red carpet and talked about her role as a fourth century astronomer, and Lars Von Trier's Antichrist provoked both boos and applause.

Key Screenings. Out of Competition: Alejandro Amenabar's Egyptian historical epic Agora (with the aforementioned Rachel Weisz). Press screening: Lars Von Trier's polarizing Antichrist. Competition: Johnny To's Vengeance (with Johnny Hallyday as a French chef with a murderous past), Brillante Mendoza's crime-themed drama Kinatay. Robert Guediguian's tale of Nazi resistance during World War II, The Army of Crime. Un Certain Regard: Pavel Lounguine's Russian historical drama Tzar. Directors' Fortnight: Denis Villeneuve's school shooting recreation Polytechnique, Riad Sattouf's teen coming of age flick Les Beaux Gosses.

Films Sold. The festival is a great time to conclude and/or announce distribution deals. indieWIRE brings word that Regent Releasing / Here Media have acquired Lucia Puenzo's The Fish Child and Eran Merav's Zion and His Brother. The former, from the director of XXY, tells of a romance between an upper-class teenage girl in Argentina who falls in love with her family's 20-year-old Paraguayan maid. The latter, from a debut director, is a coming-of-age drama about two brothers, "set in a gritty neighborhood in Haifa, Israel." Look for both films in theaters early next year.

Thomas Balmes' doc Baby(ies) is still in post-production, but Focus Features has seen enough; they picked up US and other rights to the film in a deal announced today. They plan a release in 2010. The film "simultaneously follows four babies, in Mongolia, Namibia, San Francisco, and Tokyo, respectively, from birth to first steps," according to indieWIRE.

After the jump: The critics divide on Antichrist.

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 ]

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?

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.