Latin Beat: MALDITO AMOR, VOLANTIN CORTAO, And More In Chile, Award-Winning Films In Mexico

Out Today in Chile: MALDITO AMOR
By Jaime Grijalba Gomez

Directed by the Sebadilla brothers, this movie went to Sitges this year, but due to the track record of the directors and the trailers (constant ripoffs of Scream and other films), it doesn't look good at all. It will come out just for Halloween.

Also Out Today in Chile: VOLANTIN CORTAO (KITE ADRIFT)
By Jaime Grijalba Gomez

Directed by Diego Ayala and Anibal Jofre, this movie is part of their graduate project of the Film School they attended. The film plays with the contrast between the two characters and how a relationship can form itself.

Out Next Week in Chile: VER Y ESCUCHAR (SEE AND LISTEN)
By Jaime Grijalba Gomez

From my review last year:

"José Luis Torres Leiva has managed to make a name for himself in the reflective-contemplative advocates among those who study the new trends of modern cinema. Among his film projects are festival winners like The Sky, the Earth and the Rain and Summer, which played in last year's edition of the Rotterdam Film Festival.

...

"With gorgeous black and white cinematography and a stupendous direction, this movie works more like an experiment, in which Torres Leiva tries to find beauty in the denial of the senses. He wants to be closer to the social reality of certain groups of society, yet he still finds more interesting topics and pure filmmaking moments, such as the beauty of describing the sound of a rock hitting the water."

Also Out Next Week in Chile: AURORA
By Jaime Grijalba Gomez

Winner of Best Picture at the Santiago Film Festival, the story revolves around a woman and the unborn child she wants to bury. Forbidden to do so, complications arise.

DVD Collection ARIEL AWARD WINNING FILMS Hits Shelves
By Eric Ortiz Garcia

This one is for those who - like myself - continue to consume physical media. An effort made by the Mexican Academy of Film Arts and Sciences (AMACC), Alfhaville Cinema, and Mundo DVD, the DVD collection “Ariel Award Winning Films” gathers 10 classics that won the so-called Mexican Oscar, with the intention of “rescuing and diffusing Mexican cinema.”

The collection is not a boxset, and two individual titles will be released per month, starting this October and ending in February 2015. Each DVD contains attractive bonus material, like essays by such Mexican film critics as Rafael Aviña, Carlos Bonfil, Nelsón Carro, and José Xavier Navar.

The list of titles is conformed by: El Principio (Gonzalo Martínez, 1973); La Otra Virginidad, (Juan Manuel Torres, 1974); Naufragio (Jaime Humberto Hermosillo, 1977); Mecánica Nacional (Luis Alcoriza, 1972); Las Puertas del Paraíso (Salomón Laiter, 1971); El Rebozo de Soledad (Roberto Gavaldón, 1952); Veneno Para las Hadas (Carlos Enrique Taboada, 1985); Mariana, Mariana (Alberto Isaac, 1987); Desiertos Mares (José Luis García Agraz, 1994); and Los Fernández de Peralvillo (Alejandro Galindo, 1954).

The DVDs will be available in Mexico at such stores as Gandhi, El Sótano, Fondo de Cultura Económica, Mixup, El Pendulo, and Blockbuster.