Posts Tagged ‘Movies’
Diego Luna: On the other side of the camera
2:36 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Celebrities|Entertainment|Movies|Sports · 3 Comments
16 May 2007
Most of us know Diego Luna from his role in Y tu mamá también (and, if you are a connoisseur of bad telenovelas like me, from Televisa’s El Premio Mayor), but now the actor is branching out and becoming a film maker, and his first film, JC Chávez, explores the life of Mexican boxer Julio César Chávez. Why Chávez? According to Luna:
“…because for 14 years he never lost a fight and for 11 and a half years, he maintained his title as champion of the world.”
The documentary, which chronicles the life of the “greatest living Mexican athlete” will debut on Friday in Mexico City, Guadalajara, Tijuana, Monterrey and Culiacán (Chávez’s hometown). There’s still no word on if and when it will make it the U.S.
Mexican “Simpsons” up in arms
6:33 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · language|mexico|Movies|TV · 1 Comment
14 Mar 2007
Anyone who has watched The Simpsons in Mexico knows that the casting for the voices (unlike in other dubbed U.S. programs) is quite good. But apparently the production company responsible for casting the new Simpsons movie isn’t of the same opinion, as they’ve jilted the original Mexican voice actors and picked up new ones for the Mexican version of the film (which, incidentally, is the version that will run throughout Latin America). Now the actors are calling for a boycott of the movie:
Gabriel Chavez, the voice of Homer Simpson’s boss Mr. Burns, told the Mexican newspaper El Universal that his union’s voice-over actors were told they could work on “The Simpsons Movie” — to be released worldwide this summer — as a condition to the end of their strike in 2005.“Gentlemen keep their word,” Chavez told the newspaper.
He said that if Mexico’s National Actors Association is not allowed to dub the film into Spanish, “there will be a boycott across Latin America of the film.”
You might remember ANDA, the National Actors Association, wielding quite a bit of weight back during the Tiziano Ferro incident. Let’s see if their pressure will be enough to save these guys’ jobs. Personally I hate it when voices are changed on cartoons, so I don’t see they would recast at this point.
Via / Yahoo! News – AP
The biggest Latino box office hit in U.S. history
12:02 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · mexico|Movies · Comments Off
6 Feb 2007
Latinos swept the Golden Globes and then the Oscar nominations, and after this past weekend, Latinos have some more entertainment news to crow about: Mexican Guillermo Del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth beat a record previously held by Like Water for Chocolate to become the biggest Latino box office hit in U.S. film history, raking in a whopping $21 million dollars. And it seems that’s only the beginning:
Box office previsions for this week say that the film will take in $3 million dollars more, leaving way behind the 1992 film by Mexican Alfonso Arau with screenplay by Laura Esquivel, which took in $20 million.
In total, Pan’s Labyrinth has taken home 9 Goya awards (Spanish equivalent of the Oscar — the movie was a Mexico-Spain coproduction), received 8 BAFTA nominations in the U.K., and 6 Oscar nominations.
Via / 20 Minutos
Image: Reuters
Latino recognition in Hollywood
4:05 pm By Maegan La Mala · Entertainment|Movies · 2 Comments
23 Jan 2007
So the topic on everyone’s mind in Hollywood today is just how many Latinos (yes, I’m including Penelope) are nominated for an Academy Award this year. While this may be refreshing for some Oscar followers, I have to say that it is about time that we level off the playing field a bit.
It all started with Rita Moreno in 1961, winning for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Anita in West Side Story. Nobody knew that it would be years, make that decades, before another Latino graced the red carpet nominated for an Oscar, let alone win one.
It got to a point where no Latinos were ever recognized for their acting. Even Cher and Oprah Winfrey were being honored, but nope, no Latinos. Finally, in 1990, we saw Andy Garcia nominated for his role in Godfather III only to be followed up a few years later by Rosie Perez in 1993 for her portrayal in the film Fearless. They didn’t win, but that didn’t matter so much. Honest.
Latinos and blacks looked over for acting gigs
11:51 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Entertainment|race · 1 Comment
30 Nov 2006
No hoorays for Hollywood. Hispanic Tips linked to a story today with the headline “Study: Whites get majority of acting jobs” and added “is anyone surprised by these findings?” My answer is no, not surprising. Even with more Latino, blacks and Asians in television and film these days, it’s clear to anyone that whites dominate the entertainment business. According to the UCLA study:
Ethnic minorities were not cast in about 80 percent of first-, second- and third-billed leading roles in Hollywood films last year, according to a study released Wednesday.This level of representation of Latino, black, Asian-American and American Indian actors is based on a review of the 171 commercially released films in 2005 that reported a gross of at least $1 million.
In addition, the first-time study from the UCLA School of Law and the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center showed that 69 percent of all casting notices for three months this summer specifically asked for white actors. Roles advertised for a specific ethnicity other than whites ranged from 0.5 percent to 8 percent of the total, it found.
Also during that three-month period, white actors could compete with minorities for an additional 8.5 percent of total parts – beyond the nearly 70 percent that specifically sought white actors.
Viva Pedro!
12:24 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Celebrities|Movies|Spain · 1 Comment
11 Aug 2006
I remember seeing my first Pedro Almodóvar film and being transformed. Not by dramatism or genius photography, but by the keen insight he had into his culture and the wit and care with which he presented the characters — mostly women — in his works.
Pedro’s urban stories of impossible coincidences, shattered relationships and absurd predicaments made me fall in love not only with him but with the films’ backdrop: Spain. How many Americans’ first look into Spain was through the eyes of Almodóvar? For many, he was the first modern director of international acclaim to present Spain in a light we as Americans had never seen it before: modern, avant-garde, intellectual, urban, liberated.
Some people I knew had never seen a foreign film before seeing an Almodóvar movie. Others began to travel to Spain compelled in part by their love for the Madrid (real or imagined) that Almodóvar created in his films. I’m not sure what he’s done concretely for American tourism to Spain, but I can say that he’s a lot done as an ambassador (and critic) of his country abroad.
Argentine director dies suddenly
1:02 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Argentina|Celebrities|Movies · Comments Off
30 Jun 2006
Acclaimed Argentine director Fabian Bielinsky, 47, died in his sleep on Wednesday in Sao Paulo of what appears to have been a heart attack.
Bielinsky was, after directing only two feature length films, one of Argentina’s most acclaimed directors, most notable for his film Nueve Reinas:
…winner of 21 international awards, and later for the police story El Aura (2005), for which he had just won six awards at the Cóndor de Plata awards ceremony.
Nacho Libre: Racist?
6:42 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Movies|race · 15 Comments
19 Jun 2006
There’s lots of buzz right now around the new movie Nacho Libre”, in which comedian Jack Black portrays a Mexican lucha libre hero. I first heard about the movie a few months ago when a friend sent me the trailer, and I have to admit that the thought “racist” did cross my mind. I haven’t seen the movie and probably won’t, not because of the racism issue, but because it doesn’t look all that funny to me. But others have, and are commenting on the issue of whether the movie is to be taken as racist against Mexicans or just good clean fun:
The Orlando Sentinel’s movie blog says:
We’re on tricky ground, here. The movie could be accused of Catholic bashing, wrestling fan bashing (mouth-breathing morons, even in Mexico, it suggests) and a serious case of political incorrectness. But I don’t think it reaches the level of racism.Put-on accents can be racist. What is Apu of The Simpsons but a week-in, week-out stereotype?
Mexican actor to play…Michael Jackson?
1:50 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Celebrities|mexico|Movies · 4 Comments
16 Jun 2006
No, your eyes don’t deceive you. Mexican actor Diego Luna is slated to play a young Michael Jackson in a new film directed by Harmony Korine called “Mister Lonely”, according to Univision.com:
It sounds incredible but it’s true: according to the Reforma newspaper, Diego Luna will play the role of Michael Jackson during his youth, though we don’t have a clue as to how he will do it. Presumably it wil be in the time after he started lightening his skin.
The premise of the film? Not easily explained, but according to Univision.com:
According to reports from the European daily Screen, Diego Luna’s character meets Marilyn Monroe (Samantha Morton) in Paris and follows her to a commune in Scotland, where they both meet Charlie Chaplin and Shirley Temple. The action eventually move to Brazil, where some missionaries get wrapped up in the comedy.
Put down the crack pipe.
Via / Univision.com
Almodovar gets high honors in Spain
5:17 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Arts|Celebrities|Events|Movies|Spain · Comments Off
17 May 2006
Famed Spanish cineasta Pedro Almodóvar, one of Spain’s most recognizable personalities, has been awarded the prestigious “Premio Principe de Asturias” prize for excellence in the arts.
Almodovar was chosen “both for his expertise and the honesty of his work, and for the joy and vitality of his scripts, and above all for implanting his roots, which are ours, too, into the society of a planet on the verge of a nervous breakdown and which straddles two centuries,” said the jury that awards the arts prize.“His work, rooted in a Spanish society which was opening up to deep changes, has gained a universal dimension through original language which is richly expressive and capable of synthesizing human complexity,” the jury added.
Almodovar described himself as “overwhelmed” and “undeserving” of the prize when he received the news at the Cannes Film Festival in France, where his latest film, “Volver” is competing for the festival’s top prize, the Palm D’or.
Previous Principe de Asturias prize winners include Woody Allen, JK Rowling, Nelson Mandela, and Arthur Miller. Almodóvar’s co-winners this year include Bill and Melinda Gates and the National Geographic Society.
Related:
Premio Principe de Asturias website
Via / Washington Post and 20 Minutos
Hola!
VivirLatino is a daily publication published by Mamita Mala Media, dedicated to featuring all the latest politics, culture, entertainment of interest to the diverse Latin@ diaspora.
About | Advertise with us | Contact | Twitter
blog advertising is good for you
blog advertising is good for you
- Scrying Nicki Minaj, Stupid Hoe, and #Afrofutures | Nuñez Daughter: [...] forest of things that seem to matter a lot–like  fingers waving in presidential faces [...]
- Karen: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/01/09/120109fa_fact_auletta [...]
- Karen: I just read this about Rubio. Let's see the GOP make him a VP nominee. LOL http://www.democraticu [...]
- Martes Media Minute : Roe v. Wade Anniversary, Medicaid Mama y Midwife Victory, Cervical Cancer Awareness month, & Mala’s Mami Closeup, | VivirLatino: [...] last week’s liveblog of a conversation on cervical cancer and Latin@s, Bianca Laureano s [...]
- Emiliano: thanks for your reviews. i feel like you tell it like you really feel. [...]
- Sexy Singing and Scary Primetime TV Latino Stereotypes : Glee & The River
- Explaining the Sudden Hiatus
- Eye on the Florida Primary : Mirror on the Wall, Who is the Most Anti-Immigrant of All?
- Live Blog/Tweet of Obama’s SOTU Address Tonight 8:45 EST
- Martes Media Minute : Roe v. Wade Anniversary, Medicaid Mama y Midwife Victory, Cervical Cancer Awareness month, & Mala’s Mami Closeup,
- VL Pelicula Giveaway!
- Today at 1 pm EST : Conversation on Latinas and Cervical Cancer
- Today in Latin@ History : Birthday of Martha P. Cotera
- Mistaking Immigration Proposals for Policy in an Election Year
- Casa Blanca Camino 2012: DREAMing of Hypocrisy in Iowa
