Category: Spanish

  • TheAuteurs Turns into MUBI

    First reaction was a shriek. What the hell had happened to my TheAuteurs.com account? Well, it had just turned into a MUBI account instead.

    From indieWIRE;

    It had to happen. The cinephile site The Auteurs has changed its name.

    …

    Cakarel wants to grow members into the millions. So he went on a quest for a new name. He called on ad agencies all over the world to find a simple, easily-typed name. “Find me my global brand, my Sony,” he told them. It took nine months, but finally an agency in Tokyo knew they had found the name. Mubi.

    The word “movie” is mispronounced in many cultures that have trouble with the letter V. It isn’t a word in any language. It is a city in Nigeria. And Cakarel plans to make that city the movie-lover capital of the world.

    Even if finding out about the change of names through indieWIRE and not TheAuteurs itself is just a little offensive, I could understand a change in branding. However, the change in brand seems to be a complete move towards the mainstream market to attract more members, who aren’t necessarily interested in auteur-driven films, and hence wouldn’t know how to type “auteur” in the first place… than a re-brand to actually make the product better for its core audience. It’s like Inca Kola trying to be hip and cool, when it doesn’t taste the same.

    With this “strategic” branding idea, they have stirred up their community by having many users complaining about the change of name, and those who aren’t complaining? Well, they are indifferent to the change. Overall feedback seems to be quite negative so it has prompted forum boards by now-MUBI Efe (Cakarel) titled “Why did we change our name to MUBI”

    The most interesting part of it all, is their deals with the Sao Paulo Film Fest to stream their films — and possible future deals with the likes of Tribeca — and deals with Cannes.

    Let’s just hope they continue to focus on Silents, Foreign Films, Classic Films and other hard to watch films, and/or other hard to find for people to share with, than mainstream Hollywood films.

  • Let’s Pimp Some Amy Wong

    We know all Amy Wongs around the world must compete against Amy Wong for attention, so while doing my random google search for tracking my stuff online, I ended up cyber-meeting Amy Wong.

    Amy is the owner of Creative Melancholic.

    And if I didn’t know I have my own WordPress account, I could have sworn I could be blogging there. Why? Well, because Amy is a designer. And Amy and I blog about some very similar things. She is even blogging about Peruvian director Ricardo de Montreuil (who made Mancora).

    And I swear, this is not me talking in the 3rd person.

  • yay computer! and more book talk!

    It’s alive~~~~~~~~

    re-fitted my computer this afternoon… man, those things can keep so much dust and other nasty stuff. And damn these Windows stuff, not saying that the new card is compatible… and then saying my audio driver wasn’t found, when it was RIGHT THERE where it’s supposed to be.

    Then funny thing, after I put the video card in, Windows didn’t want to start. Looked it up online after typing the error number, and one of the tips was to take the hard disk out, and put it back in… and it worked. PCs are such weird phenomena. But now is finally over…

    I kept the laptop my dad lent me, ha!

    And, as you can see from one of my posts before, I listened to a LOT of music online.

    And I also bought more books… LOL. I found the third tome of the Millennium trilogy – The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest [Paperback][Kindle Version]… and the original Swedish title, Luftslottet som Sprängdes which is The Air Castle that Blew Up. *sighs* translations… translations.

    I also bought Åsa Larsson’s Aurora Boreal (wtf?) from the original Swedish title Solstorm… which is literally Sun Storm like the actual English title. *sighs* anyway…

    I also bought Yasunari Kawabata’s En el Lago (Mizuumi, The Lake), which I’m about to start. And… Cuentos Inolvidables according to Julio Cortazar, which included shorts by Capote, Borges, Edgar Allan Poe, Ambrose Bierce, Henry James, Tolstoi, Juan Carlos Onetti, Felisberto Hernandez, Leonora Carrington and Katherine Mansfield… which well, I found kind of boring.

    And finally read Benjamin Button… but I enjoyed the movie better. To be honest, Benjamin Button was kind of a jerk in the book. I didn’t like him at all, but the story started out much more logical than in the film. How do people manage to make a 3hr film of a barely 50pg. book? LOL

  • Seldom Book Talk

    I don’t read as many books as I watch films, tv series or listen to albums… but I think that reading subtitles count on as part as the word count of how much I actually read… as well as reading lyrics xD

    At the moment I’m reading — being trying to finish for the last month or so — Cronica del Pajaro que da Cuerda al Mundo (The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, aka Nejimaki-dori KURONIKURU) by Haruki Murakami, but really can’t blame me for taking so long. It’s 900 pages long, and I know Harry Potter 5 is as long and it only took me 3 days to finish that one. But Cronica began really slow, and I left it there for a long long time until about 3 days ago, when I picked it up again. xD

    I’m actually devouring any Murakami novel I ran into the bookstore. I have already bought Sputnik, mi Amor (Sputnik Sweetheart, aka SUPU-TONIKU no Koibito), and El Fin del Mundo y un Despiadado Pais de las Maravillas (Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, aka Sekai no Owari to HA-DOBOIRUDO WANDA-RANDO).

    I’m looking for Kafka on the Shore, which I saw at a bookstore’s listing, but when they checked… it was gone. Highly suspicious… I never believe things like books, cds or dvds ever get sold out here.

    Julz will also be surprised to find out that I ran into copies of Män som Hatar Kvinnor… which wasn’t literally translated, as the book in Spanish is called Los Hombres que no Amaban a las Mujeres [literally, Men Who Didn’t Love Women for those of you non-Spanish readers] – I guess Odiar/Hate is too-strong a word? At least it beats “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” [Hardcover][Kindle Version]. Gosh. I was disappointed with the title in English when I saw the film. xD I also found a copy of Flickan som Lekte med Elden, which was translated to La Chica que Soñaba con una Cerilla y un Bidon de Gasolina [literally, The Girl who Dreamed with a Match and an Oil Drum] but the Swedish title means The Girl who Played with Fire [Hardcover][Kindle Version], right Julz? Which is exactly like the English title. Wonder who picks the titles…

    However, I couldn’t find a copy of the third part. I will probably look for it after I finish all of the above, or buy it if I ran into it… – I wonder why they only had the two tomes.

    Also, why are books so effing expensive here? I paid a bit over $30 for each Stieg Larsson book, and they’re not even hardcover editions. Frak, I even complained when that stupid Dan Brown book was $16 USD on Amazon… while they were selling it for nearly $35 USD in bookstores here. FRAK, I tell you!

  • Music Overload

    I just spent all day yesterday (and still) listening to music at Haoting.

    Yay for keeping updated!

    (more…)

  • Parallel Lines: Five Films, One Piece of Dialog

    While presenting their new fancy television screen, Philips is showing 5 very different short films that were made with the same piece of dialog. The visions are varied, but my favorite was The Gift ^^

    You can check them out at the Cinema Philips website.

  • I don’t like the 13th, and it’s not the 15th…

    but it sure is time for YAM009 =D

    is the cover kowaii??? [scary??] I would love to hear your opinion on fansubbing, as well as distribution, which are two topics I always bring up one way or the other.

    You are also welcomed to comment on reviews and give suggestions.

    With no further ado, go over here for download.

  • Teens of the 90’s

    I watched all sorts of crap in the 90s, like… I could really be your teen comedy viewer. I’m still a sucker for a good love story… but, I think… I’m a little more picky now.

    So I’ve made yet another list in The Auteurs~~~

    Of course, no particular order~

    Specifically to Julz, since we’re nearly the same age. What movies did you watch? Anyone else who was a teen in the 90s… early or late 90s. What movies?

    I would watch teen comedies… like I’m pretty sure I could be ashamed of the things I’ve watched regarding teen comedies from Can’t Hardly Wait [listed] to things like Drive me Crazy [yes, with Melissa Joan Hart… and that Crazy Britney music video xD] to everything around and in-between teen romcoms.

    From all the romcoms I have seen during those years, the only one that comes to mind at the moment that I don’t feel guilty about liking… and own on DVD is 10 Things I Hate About You. You could say I have a huge Ledger, Levitt and Julia Stiles bias~~~

    There’s also the teenage “horror” flicks… from The Faculty [listed] to things like The Blair Witch Project [also listed] and those I Know What You Did movies also with Jennifer Love Hewitt… which I shamefully own. Those I own shamefully. LOL

    And… oh god~ Cruel Intentions. I obviously rented the film [I don’t even know if it opened in theaters in here], so I rented it. I couldn’t have been older than 14 years old, so I was with my dad doing some grocery shopping when I stopped by the video store~~~ Me being the biggest Buffy fan — hence Sarah Michelle Gellar fan — caught the cover of the film and wanted to get it for the weekend. I’m telling you, it’s not such a good idea to rent a film Spanish-titled Juegos Sexuales (sexual games) with your father paying the bill.

    I love Ryan Phillippe’s smugness on that role, and it’s not a shameful admission this one. I like Cruel Intentions, it’s just so satisfying to watch that last scene with The Verve’s Bittersweet Symphony. Obviously, I was a girl with a crush on Phillippe… but THANK GOD it only lasted those years.

    And… thank god for quiver killers? LOL

  • Watched on Feb and this March~

    I think… it feels like I watched a lot of films.
    Mainly because I don’t think I listened to too much music…
    or watched much TV xD

    … or read. LOL

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  • Chinese Movie Industry’s Ambitions Tempered by Realism

    I don’t get the title.

    But this is coming from Aiya They Didn’t.

    GT: Do you see many Chinese films in US cinemas?

    Rosen: There are not many Chinese films in the US, and the few Chinese films that are available in the US were directed by famous directors, such as Zhang Yimou, Ang Lee, and so on. There are several types of Chinese films that have played here.

    Martial arts films are one type, such as Hero (Yingxiong) by Zhang Yimou and The Promise (Wuji) by Chen Kaige. The other type would be art films, such as those by Jia Zhangke, but these only get a limited release.

    However, most Chinese films will never be shown in theaters here, because I think there simply isn’t enough of an audience for them. This is also true for most foreign language films. They are more likely to appear on DVD than to be shown in theaters.

    Up to now, the most successful Chinese film has been Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Wohu Canglong), the second most successful was Hero, and then Fearless (Huo Yuanjia).

    The most successful Chinese films at the box office in the West have all been martial arts films, where language is less important than the action on the screen.

    These are some of my comments,

    Instead of Rosen suggesting China focus on big historical blockbuster to compete with Hollywood films, he should have only suggested “you should dub your films in English” – I mean, even great films produced and directed by American fave Clint Eastwood suffered from the “why no dub version” threads online.

    Just look at the percentage of Chinese films on the Top Grossing Foreign films. I think they’re doing pretty great as far a top grossing in the US compared to other foreign films.

    What I would like to see is more Chinese films (and over all Asian films) being distributed more in cinemas… in my country. LOL The last Chinese film released here was Yimou’s Curse of the Golden Flower. AGES ago. So if China wants to have more distribution of their films, they could use their own embassies and consulates around the world to actually screen films locally, instead of the Beijing Screening for international distributors.

    I bet most distributors watch them, like them but see no market for them unless they have action sequences. So in the end those distribution screenings are for nothing. China should take distribution of their films in their own hands, I’m sure a lot of people would go to the movies instead of watching online (at least many of you) if the films you want to watch are available locally.

    Like I’ve said, I’m not trying to be biased, since I do watch films made in America. But if you take a look at what a Blockbuster is in America, which they are discussing in the interview, films like Transformers 2 and Twilight made big bucks. China’s productions just wonder how they can get that many people to watch their films… and not only martial art films, but other types of films too.

    The fact is many foreign films don’t get wide releases because they aren’t mass-appealing (worldwide), most markets just are filled with a lot of crappy American films, and I’m not talking about District 9 or Up… but with things like Transformers 2 and All About Steve or any Jennifer Aniston rom-com. While crappy foreign films (because everyone has their crappy films) can’t even make it outside their country.

    The other question is… why does Hollywood remake My Sassy Girl, when My Sassy Girl is a fine film. Why can’t they just release it with subtitles. What does China need to get a film like Internal Affairs in theaters in America, instead of getting The Departed winning Best Film at the Oscar?

    Why is there a Best Foreign Film category?