America house musician Roy Davis jr grew up in Chicago, Illinois, and was turned on to house music at an early age by Lil' Louis. Davis began his own production company named Phuture in the late 1980s. In the 1990s, Davis teamed with Chicago vocalist Peven Everett and recorded the hit single, "Gabriel" (Large/XL). The track garnered airplay, and was played in nightclubs around the world. It peaked at #22 in the UK Singles Chart in November 1997. The single sold over 200,000 copies, and has appeared on thousands of compilation albums including Desert Island Mix from Gilles Peterson.
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Πέμπτη 29 Νοεμβρίου 2012
Πέμπτη 1 Νοεμβρίου 2012
Tesis – Amenabar’s first long film
Being only
22 years old, Amenabar made his official debut as director in Spanish cinema
with a brilliant and entertaining psychological thriller, called “Tesis”
(Thesis, 1996). The film, that explores the power of image in contemporary
societies, is about a student of Art&Cinema (named Ángela and played by Ana
Torrent), writing her thesis about violence in films. Her professor wanting to
help her find a movie that fulfils her request of “images as violent as
possible”, unexpectedly dies while watching the movie he discovers in
University’s film library. Ángela steals the mysterious tape and together with Chema
(Fele Martínez), a classmate obsessed with horror and violent movies, discover
that this snuff film presents the torture and death of one of their classmates
that disappeared two years ago. How is this tape connected with Ángela’s new
professor, Castro (Xabier Elorriaga) who insists on “giving the audience what
it wants to see”, a suspicious but handsome classmate that attracts Ángela
(Bosco, played by Eduardo Norriega) and
even Chema? And how is Ángela going to be involved in this deadly game?
The film
not only was a box-office success, but also gave Amenabar numerous prestigious
international awards including the Audience Award at the Annecy Festival and seven
awards in Goya Festival (1996, including Best Picture, Best New Director and
Best Original Screenplay), an absolute triumf. Amenabar wanted to address the
issue of violence in cinema and television, dirrecting a movie that is not
obviously violent, but that it does provoke terror that is “psychological,
suggested through music and sound effects, but not seen”(as Amenabar said when
asked about the purpose of the film).
Notes
Snuff film; a genre of movies depicting the
actual murder of a person(s), without the aid of special effects
*Amenabar does not have a role in this movie,
yet you can notice his name on a computer screen when Angela is searching for
the possible buyers of the camera
*Castro, the name of the bad professor, is the
actual name of the professor that made Amenabar stop his University studies
Δευτέρα 29 Οκτωβρίου 2012
“Himenoptero” and “Luna”- The short films of Alejandro Amenabar
On 1991 and
at the age of 19, Amenabar wrote, directed and produced his first short film,
“La cabeza”(The head), that only a few ever noticed and had access to. That was
a 15-minute horror film where a woman, coming back from work finds a note from
her husband saying that he was going to be late. Strangely enough, she notices
a person in the house that turns out to be the husband who remains silent. The
phone rings, police tells her that her husband died in an accident and
immediately the figure disappears. That was the original story, but later
Alejandro Amenabar and Mateo Gil decided to extend it, keeping the figure in
the house and disfiguring his face. The wife, seeing this horrifying change,
cuts of the head of the figure, which turned to skull stars bouncing in the
house. The cartoon-like ending made the audience burst into laughter and
completely destroyed the atmosphere, making the film simply unknown.
His second short film,
“Himenoptero” (Hymenopterous,1992), is actually the one that made Amenabar
noticeable to some critics and film-addicts of that time. Amenabar, who also
did the scriptwriting, combines a provocative theme with a clever trick; snuff
films and film within a film. The story takes place in the corridors of a
college where a group of cinema students gather up in order to shoot a horror
film. The lead actress (played by Nieves Herranz) is not motivated enough, so
the director, a pretty hard and ambitious girl, decides to take advantage of
the strange relationship between the actress and the psychopathic camera-man
(played by himself, Amenabar). From there starts a pretty interesting and
well-filmed “game”, where the audience together with the cast doubt whether
what is happening is true or not, acting or life (but that is what a snuff film
is, isn’t it?). As about the actors, it is true that they are all young, yet there
is not a really distinguishing talent.
On his
third and last short film, “Luna” (Moon,1995), Amenabar has once again (as at
the previous two) the role of writer, director (together with Mateo Gil this
time), producer, actor and soundtrack-composer. The story refers to how
dangerous hitchhiking can be. Alberto (Eduardo
Noriega, excellent, though at the beginning of his career) is hitchhiking at
the highway when a girl decides to take him along. Nothing could tell that this
girl (Nieves Herranz) is a lunatic, desperately asking for attention and ready
to reach till the edge to get it. This short horror-film is not that
interesting as the first one, and as critics refer it suffers from bad script,
moderate direction and photography. Moreover, it seems that the lead actress is
exaggerating in a character that is already extreme, yet quite indifferent.
As you can see, these two films are just showing a spark of what Amenabar showed some years after, yet it was enough to award “Himenoptero” with the prize of “Best short film” at Elche and Carabanchel Film Festival (1992), and “Luna” with “Luis Garcia Berlanga Award for best director”(1994) and “Best Music Award” of AICA (1994). But, even more importantly, these two films drew the attention of Jose Luis Cuerda (famous Spanish director), who fascinated by Amenabar’s work at his first steps (the tapes were actually sent to Cuerda to get familiar with the job of Nieves Herranz) decided to invest his money to Amenabar’s first long film “Tesis” (Thesis, 1996).
Κυριακή 28 Οκτωβρίου 2012
Alejandro Amenabar
My movies are not movies of answers but of questions
Counting 7
titles and starting his career at the age of 19, Amenabar is considered as a
promising new-age director. Being also the writer, soundtrack composer and enjoying
small roles from time to time, he truly seems multi-talented, yet now raises
the question whether or not he keeps his personal style after his premier in
Hollywood.
Amenabar
made his first steps in film-directing with two short horror films,
“Himenoptero”(1992) and “Luna”(1995). His first short film, “Himenoptero” was a
33-minute surprising thriller with the basic idea of snuff films and Amenabar
as director, writer, music-composer and actor (he played a silent role, a
camera-man). His second short film “Luna” had a mediocre script, with a
pretentious, yet indifferent woman-character (played by Nieves Herranz in one
of her first and last films), moderate direction and photography. Nevertheless,
it did introduce a great Spanish actor Eduardo Noriega (Tesis, Abre los ojos,
Plata quemada, Che Guevara).
Just one
year after his second short film, Amenabar did not hasitate making his debut in
Spanish cinema with his first movie, “Tesis”(Thesis,1996) and was immediately
thought to be a promising new director, often compared to Alfred Hitchcock for
the pure cruelty of his horror films. The main idea of the film (the concept of
enjoying an otherwise horrible spectacle of a snuff film) was also, as mentioned
above, the idea of his first short film “Himenoptero”. “Tesis” won several Spanish Academy awards and
even reached Berlin Film Festival, preparing the audience for his Spanish
blockbuster “Abre los ojos” (Open your eyes, 1997). “Abre los Ojos” did not
catch Hollywood’s attention, though clearly impressed Tom Cruise, who starred
in the Hollywood remake of the film “Vanilla Sky”, which, missing Amenabar’s
direction and having Hollywood’s aesthetics, partially loses the novelty and atmosphere of the original.
Yet,
“Vanilla Sky” opened Hollywood doors for Amenabar who literally scored with his
English-debut horror film “The others” (2001), receiving only good critiques
worldwide. The spine-tingling chills, produced by the dark, foggy atmosphere
created by Amenabar’s direction, the mysterious soundtrack, also composed by
him, the outstanding performance of N.Kidman as a 1940’s semi-lunatic
mother of two light-allergic kids, and
most-of-all the unexpected end were more than enough to characterize the film
as remarkable.
Considered
to be at the top of his career Amenabar went back to Spanish films with “Mar
adentro” (Sea within,2004), staring Javier Bardem as the true-life character of
Ramon Sapedro, a quadriplegic who fought
for 30 years to win his right to end his life the way he wanted. The film
shocked, and divided the critics, who either thought it was extremely true and sentimental,
or just extravagant, with the sole intention of provoking the audience. The
truth is J.Bardem was great in his role, Amenabar did a good job in the
atmospheric scenes, especially the one with Ramon “flying” over the sea, and
the soundtrack was well-chosen.
After all
that success, Amenabar decided to try for second time an English-language film,
directing “Agora” (2009), which with its Spanish director, British actors,
Hollywood-standard production, set in Roman Alexandria of 391AD, criticizing
the crimes and destructions in the name of Christianity was promising to be
really provocative and extra-ordinary, but, surprisingly enough, can be immediately
forgotten after each screening and does raise the question ‘where is
Amenabar?’. Rumor has it, he faces the results of his last-film’s failure, yet,
he is just 30 years old. Maybe we have to be more optimistic when criticizing a
promising talent and expect a stunning come-back from him in the future.
Τρίτη 2 Οκτωβρίου 2012
Abre Los Ojos
From a prison cell in Madrid, Cesar, a 25-year-old in a prosthetic mask, tells his story to his psychiatrist in the form of flash-backs.Everything starts when a spoiled playboy meets an interesting girl at one of his private parties, but that doesn't go unnoticed by his obsessed stalker. After that point the plot loses its linearity and we get a succession of dreams and "reality" shuffling through a dark, dream-like atmosphere until the "apocalyptic" ending, when all questions are answered (or aren't they?). Amenabar's steady style with his surreal artistic references, excellent soundtrack (including Massive Attack's Risingson), and fresh acting from a bunch of talented cast make up for a puzzling yet really appealing film, which was remade in hollywood standards in 2001.
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