no fijarse en "las cosas tecnicas"
Al azar, encontre estas declaraciones de Guillermo Arriaga. Tengo muchas ganas de ver (me la perdi en Mar del Plata) su nueva pelicula, dirigida x Tommy Lee Jones. Arriaga lleva ya varios guiones de alto-perfil mediatico, dos de los cuales se tradujieron al ingles y eso q el escribe en castellano: Amores perros, x cierto, y luego, en USA, 21 Gramos y ahora The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
Arriaga habla bien aqui de la cinta de Faith Akin (q tb me la perdi, pero esta en Blockbuster, asi que ire a arrendarla)
interesante su mirada, pues Arriaga partio como escritor y tiene claro que, al final de cuentas, en el cine, lo que importa, es
historia, los personajes y la emocion. Como bien dice, si uno empieza a fijar en lo otro, si las otras areas empiezan a robar escena, es que el director-guionista se está dejando asaltar.
Tb dice cosas interesantes en cto a los temas de la peliculas. Arriaga sostiene que, al final, las unicas historias que importan
son las que tienen que ver con el amor.
Guillermo Arriaga talks to Alastair Sooke about Fatih Akin's Head-On (2004)
Guillermo Arriaga, the Mexican screenwriter, has become known for the frenetic, chopped-up style of his films Amores perros and 21 Grams. So it feels appropriate that, for this series, he has chosen a stylistically similar movie. Head-On, by the Turkish-German director Fatih Akin, is a violent and visceral love story that switches at speed between scenes of high drama, leaving its audience exhausted yet exhilarated.
Arriaga first saw Akin's movie, which won the Golden Bear at Berlin two years ago, at a film festival in Mexico. "I was part of the jury," he recalls. "There were two movies that I liked a lot: the Iranian film Turtles Can Fly, and Head-On. We gave Fatih the best director award."
The film tells the story of a raw and bloody relationship between two second-generation German Turks: Cahit, a punk in his late thirties who scrapes a living collecting empties in a grubby bar and whose life is in a tailspin following the death of his wife, and Sibel, a fresh-faced 18-year-old desperate to escape her stiflingly traditional family. They meet in a clinic after each has half-heartedly attempted to commit suicide, and Sibel brightly suggests that they marry, so that she can escape her father's beady eye. Cahit agrees to the marriage of convenience, providing an alibi for Sibel's hedonistic, self-destructive lifestyle in Berlin. Despite the age gap, perhaps a little predictably, the two begin to fall for each other.
"Head-On is a love story," says Arriaga. "Love is the ultimate story in human relationships, the thing that gives sense to our lives. And it gives sense to the lives of these two very pained persons who are on the verge of committing suicide. Through their pain, they understand that love is the only thing that can save them."
Central to the success of Akin's film are the performances of his two leads. Calling to mind Bob Geldof on a particularly bad hair day, Birol Ünel gives a husky, drained but complex performance as Cahit, his stubbly, washed-out features revealed in the many close-ups of his face. Sibel Kekilli, a former porn actress with a wonky nose, also brings a touch of darkness to the screen.
"What struck me most about the movie were these two new faces," explains Arriaga. "We always see the same faces coming through American cinema, and suddenly seeing these strong faces was very appealing. They contain a range of contradictions: they're not perfect or beautiful, but they are interesting. Kekilli's past lends her performance a certain power. I imagine she had a painful life, and she gives that to the character."
Much like Arriaga's screenplays for Amores perros and 21 Grams, Head-On has a jolting style, and Akin surprises his audience with a number of short, sharp shocks: at one point, Sibel smashes a beer bottle and starts slashing her wrists.
"Sure, that's shocking," says Arriaga. "But the scene where Cahit goes to tell Sibel's family that he wants to marry her is far more subtle. This tough guy with no hopes in life is suddenly asking a very conservative father if he can marry his daughter, and the exchange of glances between everyone in the room is very powerful. That seems more dramatically interesting than Sibel cutting her wrists."
Indeed, Arriaga doesn't remember Head-On for its shock-tactic direction. "You don't notice the photography or the soundtrack," he says. "You're immersed in the lives on screen more than in the cinematic experience. If ever your attention begins to wander towards technical stuff, for me, that means it's a bad movie."
Last year, Akin was part of the Cannes jury that awarded Arriaga the best screenplay gong for The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, the Tommy Lee Jones-directed Tex-Mex Western that comes to British cinemas next Friday.
At the time, Arriaga was working on El Bufalo de la noche, a film based on his novel The Night Buffalo, out in Britain on Monday (Sceptre, £7.99). "I told Fatih, 'You know, Head-On is an influence for a film I'm producing at the moment.' And he said, 'Well, your film will be the grandson of Amores perros, because Amores perros was an influence for Head-On.' Isn't that funny? One of the films that I have liked the most in recent years was influenced by my own work."
Arriaga habla bien aqui de la cinta de Faith Akin (q tb me la perdi, pero esta en Blockbuster, asi que ire a arrendarla)
interesante su mirada, pues Arriaga partio como escritor y tiene claro que, al final de cuentas, en el cine, lo que importa, es
historia, los personajes y la emocion. Como bien dice, si uno empieza a fijar en lo otro, si las otras areas empiezan a robar escena, es que el director-guionista se está dejando asaltar.
Tb dice cosas interesantes en cto a los temas de la peliculas. Arriaga sostiene que, al final, las unicas historias que importan
son las que tienen que ver con el amor.
Guillermo Arriaga talks to Alastair Sooke about Fatih Akin's Head-On (2004)
Guillermo Arriaga, the Mexican screenwriter, has become known for the frenetic, chopped-up style of his films Amores perros and 21 Grams. So it feels appropriate that, for this series, he has chosen a stylistically similar movie. Head-On, by the Turkish-German director Fatih Akin, is a violent and visceral love story that switches at speed between scenes of high drama, leaving its audience exhausted yet exhilarated.
Arriaga first saw Akin's movie, which won the Golden Bear at Berlin two years ago, at a film festival in Mexico. "I was part of the jury," he recalls. "There were two movies that I liked a lot: the Iranian film Turtles Can Fly, and Head-On. We gave Fatih the best director award."
The film tells the story of a raw and bloody relationship between two second-generation German Turks: Cahit, a punk in his late thirties who scrapes a living collecting empties in a grubby bar and whose life is in a tailspin following the death of his wife, and Sibel, a fresh-faced 18-year-old desperate to escape her stiflingly traditional family. They meet in a clinic after each has half-heartedly attempted to commit suicide, and Sibel brightly suggests that they marry, so that she can escape her father's beady eye. Cahit agrees to the marriage of convenience, providing an alibi for Sibel's hedonistic, self-destructive lifestyle in Berlin. Despite the age gap, perhaps a little predictably, the two begin to fall for each other.
"Head-On is a love story," says Arriaga. "Love is the ultimate story in human relationships, the thing that gives sense to our lives. And it gives sense to the lives of these two very pained persons who are on the verge of committing suicide. Through their pain, they understand that love is the only thing that can save them."
Central to the success of Akin's film are the performances of his two leads. Calling to mind Bob Geldof on a particularly bad hair day, Birol Ünel gives a husky, drained but complex performance as Cahit, his stubbly, washed-out features revealed in the many close-ups of his face. Sibel Kekilli, a former porn actress with a wonky nose, also brings a touch of darkness to the screen.
"What struck me most about the movie were these two new faces," explains Arriaga. "We always see the same faces coming through American cinema, and suddenly seeing these strong faces was very appealing. They contain a range of contradictions: they're not perfect or beautiful, but they are interesting. Kekilli's past lends her performance a certain power. I imagine she had a painful life, and she gives that to the character."
Much like Arriaga's screenplays for Amores perros and 21 Grams, Head-On has a jolting style, and Akin surprises his audience with a number of short, sharp shocks: at one point, Sibel smashes a beer bottle and starts slashing her wrists.
"Sure, that's shocking," says Arriaga. "But the scene where Cahit goes to tell Sibel's family that he wants to marry her is far more subtle. This tough guy with no hopes in life is suddenly asking a very conservative father if he can marry his daughter, and the exchange of glances between everyone in the room is very powerful. That seems more dramatically interesting than Sibel cutting her wrists."
Indeed, Arriaga doesn't remember Head-On for its shock-tactic direction. "You don't notice the photography or the soundtrack," he says. "You're immersed in the lives on screen more than in the cinematic experience. If ever your attention begins to wander towards technical stuff, for me, that means it's a bad movie."
Last year, Akin was part of the Cannes jury that awarded Arriaga the best screenplay gong for The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, the Tommy Lee Jones-directed Tex-Mex Western that comes to British cinemas next Friday.
At the time, Arriaga was working on El Bufalo de la noche, a film based on his novel The Night Buffalo, out in Britain on Monday (Sceptre, £7.99). "I told Fatih, 'You know, Head-On is an influence for a film I'm producing at the moment.' And he said, 'Well, your film will be the grandson of Amores perros, because Amores perros was an influence for Head-On.' Isn't that funny? One of the films that I have liked the most in recent years was influenced by my own work."
posted by Alberto Fuguet at 10:18 p. m.
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