Sweet Land- a great movie

Last night I saw one of the most wonderful movies I have seen in years. Maybe the most wonderful. It's a small movie called "Sweet Land". It tells the story of Inge, a mail order bride from Germany who arrives in Minnesota in 1920 and faces discrimination because of her nationality. She meets the man who sent for her, a shy, hard working farmer but can't consummate the marriage because authorities don't want to give her a marriage certificate. I know this makes the movie seem heavy handed, but it isn't. This is a sweet, simple, touching story about love. The acting is great, the photography, breathtaking. This is such a special movie. It's on DVD now. Dont miss it for the world.

about forced vacations

I am obssesive with my vacation days. I want every one of them to be special. Which means that I want to spend every one of them traveling. Just being away from home. And I had already made my vacation plans so I wouldn't have to spend a single day at home. But this week, the company that I work at forced me to take two days off. Something that made me really upset. I tried fighting it. I said I would work both days and that this way I could keep my plans unaltered. Slowly I realized you can't fight City Hall. The administration's silence on the matter of my complaint meant one thing. Hey buddy, you take the two days off was the message. And I acted accordingly.

Strangely enough I have enjoyed the time away from work. I have been going to the beach. I have been doing some reading and here I am doing a little bit of writing. Every day has been a lazy one. It's been nice to see the hours go by. In peace and quiet. It's also been great that San Juan is basically empty these days, everyone is on vacation elsewhere. So taking the days off was good, after all. Maybe it's better not to plan things so much and just go with the flow and enjoy.
Still, taking a plane somewhere would have been nice.

about movie crushes

I must have seen Kay Lenz in "Breezy"on tv when I was 11 or 12. I remember not noticing at all the middle age crisis theme of the movie and being simply fixated on actress Kay Lenz. I thought she was everything I would want in a girlfriend when I was old enough to have one. So to me, it was more much of a "pre teen" crisis movie.

I had totally forgotten about this movie, until I saw it pop up in an Encore premium channel the other day. So many years later, the whole feeling of the movie changed so much. Now being in the early stages of middle age, the movie becomes much more relevant. And Kay Lenz becomes the girlfriend I cannot have because, well, I would be old enough to be her father.

Still, this is a very cool movie. It was directed by Clint Eastwood, not especially know for romantic flicks. And he shows here the low key approach and beautiful subtleness he would show decades later in movies like "Letters from Iwo Jima". William Holden and Kay Lenz are very good in it. And the whole hippie era environment gives it a sort of naive, romantic feeling. This is a really special little movie.
And it has Kay Lenz in it (did I mention that?)

Movies- "The Hospital"

I made my mind to write again. First up,movies. I recently saw two interesting movies from the early 1970's who dealt with a theme seldom touched by today's high adrenaline cinema": the plight of the middle aged man. First, "The Hospital" a movie starring George C. Scott that talks about the plight of our health care system decades before "Sicko" did. In a NYC hospital, chaos reigns, patients are mistreated and there may even be a serial killer loose. The movie also deals with the middle age crisis of a man who relializes that his life has gonewrong in so many ways. Alcohol seems to be the way out. He even considers suicide...until he meets a woman who makes him realize life is worth living. Kind of a corny way out. But still the movie is brave enough to deal with depression, impotence (pre-Viagra days) and divorce.

1970's movies

I have been watching a lot of movies from the 1970's again. Thanks to the Onelink DVR I am able to record these movies when they are shown at odd hours in the morning or really late at night. I have watched a couple of George C. Scott movies (nobody under 40 will know who he is) and I saw an amazing romantic film directed by Clint Eastwood in 1973.

I will write in detail about them later tonight. I have to be going to work now.

Dunbar's closes doors July 31

An Ocean Park institution is gone by the end of the month. Good ol' Dunbars closes down. Someone told me the owners of the site (Dunbars rents from them) want to build a huge building that will take most of the block. So the owner of Dunbars had to close it. A real shame. So go there this month and enjoy their amazing wings for the last time.

A Mighty Heart -the other movie playing in San Juan

Contrary to popular belief, there was another movie playing in town besides "Transformers".It was "A Mighty Heart", the kind of intelligent, wellmade movie that in the 1970's would have played in first run, mainstream theaters but now only plays at Fine Arts. So thousands miss out on seeing a thought provoking movie. Angelina Jolie plays Marianne Pearl, the wife of Daniel Pearl, a journalist kidnapped in Pakistan. The movie is shot documentary style and there are moments in which you forget you are watching a movie and beleive you are watching the actual thing. It reminds me of "United 93", although that film was superior. The movie has suspense (althogh we know the final outcome and it is entertaining.
Try to catch it. And yes, Angelina Jolie is excellent in it.

Black Snake Moan. Not your average movie.

Like everyone else, I was hoping to go the beach on the 4th of July. But I have a bad cold and am spending the day in bed, watching movies on DVD. First one watched was this
offbeat movie. A black man. A sexually obsessed white woman. chains. The Deep South. The Blues. Justin Timberlake. Add them all and you have a pretty entertaining movie about the reddeming power of love. Samuel Jackson, Christina Ricci and Justin are all excellent. And the movie keeps you guessing as towhere it is heading. Of course, the movie was a flop at theaters (it was never released in Puerto Rico). Audiences accostumed to cookie cutter movies would not know what to make of a strange movie like this.

Ratattouille and Army of Shadows

After the nightmarish workdays I've had, I was finally able to sit down and watch a couple of movies. First I saw "Army of Shadows", an excellent 1969 movie abour the French Resistance during the Second World War. Being true to life, this movie is not a series of action scenes, but a study about living under occupation. The paranoia. The suspicion. The fear. This movie was directed by Jean Pierre Melville, one of the best European directors of all time. A thoughtful, suspenseful and well made movie.

Then I saw "Ratatouille", quite possibly the best Pixar movie ever. This is such a sweet, funny, exciting movie. It puts to shame all the Shrek movies. This is not about cheap, obvious jokes but about wonderful storytelling. The animation is also outstanding, one is in awe of such magnificent work. Go see it.

Bye, Bye DMAX/ I am so happy

Last Friday I changed from DMAX to Onelink Internet. And I am enjoying the Internet with the wonder that I felt the first day I went online. Onelink is so amazingly fast.
I realized how I was wasting my money with a DSL connection that sometimes never reached beyond 180 kbps. And I was tired of calling DMAX and have them tell me that there was nothing wrong with their system, that it was my computer's fault, when I knew friends that were going through similar slow conections. So fuck DMAX and Telefonica or however it is called these days.

writing

It's been quite a couple of weeks. Working until late(had a record saetting 26 hour workday) and basically had no desire to get home and write. I didn't see any moves during this time because I was too tired to be able to enjoy one. But today I feel like writing.

Remembering Mr. Softee

It was 4pm, I was watching Pacheco on tv and looking forward to the Three Stooges. When it all was interrupted by the sounds of the Mister Softee truck. And suddenly time would stand still. I had to stop the truck and get an ice cream cone. I felt such an amazing mix of happiness and anticipation. Get the fifty cents!!!! Call out the truck so it would not go away. Then my mother would give the money and I would run down the stairs as if the fate of the whole world depended on it. I don't think I ever feel that exhilaration again. Yes, I was going to get my Mr. Softee cone. Life was good. Everything was right. True happiness achieved.

My day at the Parada

One week before leaving for a few days vacation in New York I learned that my visit would coincide with the annual Puerto Rican Day Parade. So I found myself last Sunday in the midst of it. My observations

1. I had no idea so many people attended it. Midtown Manhattan was swarmed with paradegoers.Forget about going to the MOMA.

2. I saw way too many alcaldes and batuteras from Puerto Rico there. In the tough times we are in, why on earth are they there?

3. I heard very little Spanish.

4. Which brings me to Latino women and a sexist statement. The idea that Puerto Rican women are sexy does not apply to the ones attending the parade. I don't think I saw one good looking woman there. And there must have been half a million attending. Then again, maybe they were not around 44th street.

5. Finally, I got the sense that Puerto Ricans living in New York are the biggest outcasts in the city. From the weird glances they received from whites, asians, hindus, arabs and even some Afro-Americans, I got the sense that they are considered as "odd people out". There was a sense that they don't belong there. The glances they were getting would scream "Oh, God. Here they come."

Anyway, there is only so much parade one can take. So when my Peruvian friend called me, we decided to escape the parade and go to the Village.Where we saw some great shops, listened to people playing jazz and doo-wop in the park and ate tapas. I hate saying this, but I felt much more at home there.

Sinfonica plays The Beatles

Last night I went to the Sinfonica de Puerto Rico's Beatles concert. And it was a wonderful night. There were people there from all ages. All sharing the magic of the greatest pop music of the 2oth century. As the orchestra played everything from "Michelle" to "Here, There and Everywhere", one realizes the amazing melodic genius that the group possesed. There was a moment when they played "Penny Lane" where I got goosebumps and my eyes got watery. There is such power in that music. And the fact that a symphonic orchestra can play it shows that at their prime Paul, John and George were up there with the great musical geniuses of all time.

vacation

I am a few days away from taking a week off. And I need it so badly. It seems everything is telling me I need a break. I am tired, unfocused and I need to see something different for a few days.

In praise of John Wayne

As I watched the movies being shown on TCM and Westerns Channel celebrating his 100the Birthday, I realize people from my generation and people from places like Latin America tend to hate John Wayne. To them he represented the Ugly American and American arrogance and imperialism. Well, they are wrong. He was simply one of the greatest movie icons of all time.

His reputation as a war mongering conservative was probably based on his pro-Vietnam war movie "The Green Berets". But forget about that one. Watch the beauty of "Red River", enjoy his great acting in "The Searchers" one of the great movies of all time. See his sense of humor in movies like "Hatari!", "True Grit" and even "Rio Bravo".

And say what you will, he was an actor who truly dominated the screen. He had charisma and such presence that any movie he was in inmediately became "a John Wayne movie". Ask that of Orlando Bloom.

movies I saw this weekend

This weekend I saw two very different but very interesting movies.
First, there was "Play Dirty" stariing Michael Caine, one of the most cynical war movies ever made. The kind of movie that a Hollywood focus group would hate. In it, a group of criminals are sent on a mission to destroy some oil deposits in North Africa during WWII. This sounds a lot like "The Dirty Dozen", but it isn't. There is not a sympathetic character here. These are real criminals doing the work. And the officers and generals don't fare any better. Everyone is "playing dirty". And the ending, I won't even begin to write about it.

I am a big fan of Somerset Maughm. "Of Human Bondage" is one of my favorite books. One of those books that you read at the right moment in your life and can change you. SO I was looking forward to this movie based on his lesser known "The Painted Veil". And I was not disappointed. This is one great movie with excellent acting. It's about love, marriage and simply being human. I wonder why this movie did not pick any Academy Awards (maybe because it is actually a good movie?). Anyone catch this one on DVD or Video On Demand.

yeahhhhh (she lost)

We don't have to deal with stupid parades this year.

"Black Book" -movie of the year- and it's only May

The director of "Showgirls" has made the most exciting, dramatic movie of the year. Yes, Paul Verhoeven has gone back to Europe and respectability with "Black Book", a terrific WWII movie about a Jewish woman who becomes a spy for the Dutch underground and faces all kinds of hardship and adventure. This is the kind of movie that keeps you guessing what is going to happen next. It is a thriller for adults. The movie is three hours long, but one doesn't feel it. This is great filmmaking and storytelling.
Don't miss it.

The Mystery of Picasso

One of the great mysteries in life is the process of creation. How a blank page or an empty canvas is transformed into something special by an artist. Many movies have dealt with that theme. But most of them, have failed to show that process in a realistic way.

Well, back in the 1950's French director Henri Georges Clouzot (Wages of Fear, Diabolique) decided to make a film on how Picasso would create a work of art. And suprisinghly Picasso agreed. So this movie consists on a series of empty canvas (the screen) in wich we see stroke by stroke how one of the 20th centuries most influential artists creates a painting or a sketch. No gimmicks. Just the real thing.

Sounds boring? Well, it isn't. It is fascinating. And as an extra touch, all the works that were created for this movie were destroyed, so that they would only exist in this movie.

This is just an amazing, unique movie. It played on Turner Classic Movies