By Benjamín Harguindey Damián Szifron’s “Wild Tales” (Relatos salvajes) made box-office history this weekend in Argentina, informed The Hollywood Reporter, opening with 450,000 tickets (an approximate $2.5 million dollars) and setting a new record not just for any movie launch of 2014 so far, but any Argentinian movie ever released as well. The movie launched … Continue reading
By Benjamín Harguindey It’s hard to define the genre to which Wild Tales (Relatos salvajes) belongs, but it’s probably something along the lines of dark satire. Writer/director Damián Szifron gathers an ensemble cast of A-listers and allots them an episode each, totaling six in all. While there’s no narrative connection between each episode, they share … Continue reading
By Benjamín Harguindey Wild Tales (Relatos Salvajes) is easily the most hyped movie of the year: an international big-budget co-production signed by Pedro Almodóvar, scored by Academy Award winner Gustavo Santaolalla, directed by the immensely popular TV showrunner Damián Szifron (in a comeback no less) and featuring a star-studded cast of A-list actors such as Ricardo … Continue reading
By contributing blogger Benjamín Harguindey The 2014 Cannes Film Festival (May 14 – May 25) offered a handsome spotlight to the 4 Argentinian movies selected for the official competition: Palm d’Or nominee Wild Tales (directed by Damián Szifron), Pablo Fendrik’s period Western The Ardor, FIPRESCI Prize winner Jauja (directed by Lisandro Alonso and starring Viggo … Continue reading
By contributing blogger Benjamín Harguindey It’s been no secret that Argentine crime thriller The Secret in Their Eyes (El secreto de sus ojos in Spanish) would be getting a US remake after winning the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2010. As of May 13th the cast and crew have been finally revealed: the … Continue reading
By contributing blogger Benjamín Harguindey There is exactly one grade-A international film festival in all of Latin America, and that is the Mar del Plata International Film Festival. The festival goes as far back as 1954 and is a regular source of pride to Argentinians as the most ancient and prestigious of its kind. The … Continue reading
By contributing blogger Benjamín Harguindey Director Alberto Lecchi is one of Argentina’s trusty filmmaking craftsmen and after a 5 year pause he’s back with a thriller going by the token name of Alone With You (Sola contigo, 2013), in which your average creepy, distorted, voice-behind-the-phone gives protagonist María Teresa 5 days to live before she’s … Continue reading
By contributing blogger Benjamín Harguindey In an unprecedented turn of events for Argentine cinema, this month’s movie-going Top 5 has been dominated by local productions: the 3D animated family movie Foosball (Metegol), the romantic comedy León’s Heart (Corazón de león), the thriller 7th Floor (Séptimo) and the drama Wakolda, recently nominated on the Oscar shortlist. Foosball … Continue reading
By contributing blogger Benjamín Harguindey Catalan filmmaker Patxi Amezcua makes his Argentine debut with 7th Floor (Séptimo, 2013), his second movie, an Argentine-Spanish co-production and vehicle for two of the highest-grossing actors in each country’s market, Ricardo Darín and Belén Rueda. They play a marriage on the rocks whose two kids vanish without a trace while … Continue reading
By contributing blogger Benjamín Harguindey There are two fatal flaws to León’s Heart (Corazón de león, 2013). The first is more than evident: here’s a movie about not discriminating, whose sole source of comedy is discriminating its dwarfish protagonist with off-key camera angles and sight gags. The second flaw is that this here is a … Continue reading
Filming in Argentina: The blog of San Telmo Productions 