Author Topic: Undertow - "Brokeback Peru"  (Read 24862 times)

Offline Andrew

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Re: Undertow - "Brokeback Peru"
« Reply #50 on: March 09, 2011, 09:25:35 am »
On the other hand, I doubt if many foreign-language films get much wider theatrical release in the US than this.  Can anyone think of examples where films in languages other than English got a wider release, or runs of longer than about a week?

Offline Front-Ranger

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Re: Undertow - "Brokeback Peru"
« Reply #51 on: March 09, 2011, 09:05:50 pm »
Not since Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Thanks for keeping this in our sights, friend.
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Offline Andrew

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Re: Undertow - "Brokeback Peru"
« Reply #52 on: March 09, 2011, 09:44:34 pm »
That's a great example, isn't it, Lee?  "In 2001, this became the first foreign language film to earn over $100 million in the United States. "

 It's often when people don't even care about the language, either because they know they like that director or actor or because they think of it mostly as an action movie.



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Cristian Mercado and Tatiana Astengo at the premiere in Lima, August 2010



(photo by Javier Fernandez)


My translations from an interview of Cristian Mercado with David Mamani Cartagena:

It was a lengthy casting process.  The first contact I had with this film was through Rodrigo Bellot a year before the filming.  First I sent two scenes which I prepared and filmed in La Paz with the help of friends, after which they invited me to Lima for a final screen test with the director, during which he decided to gamble on me for his project even though I am a 'famous unknown' and from a different country too [Bolivia]...

Cinema is a lottery, it also takes talent and hard work, a lot of luck, in the sense that many factors must coincide - physical and 'chemistry' factors, good scripts, good directors, roles which go with your physical type.  Sometimes there are people who would like to do a role and think they could do it really well but they are looking for someone younger, someone older, or darker or lighter-skinned or taller or fatter, who knows...in film unlike in theater, your physical type has a huge effect on the roles you can get...

I consider myself a man of the theater first, as it is the place where this whole voyage started and I think I could never abandon it, however in the cinema too I have found a space I find very congenial and where I feel I can also express something a little different, it's two worlds which I don't think of as distant from each other, the principles are the same, the processes and contexts may be different but the place you get to is the same.  The same is true with music, it's a space in which I discovered I could say a different type of thing, where I can relate to myself, dialog differently with the public and even with myself.  Music is a language which allows me to open other doors, facets, corners of myself I didn't know were there, lets me know myself under a different form.  The name of the band 'Reverso' reflects that a little, it's an "other side", a "Side B" which is part of who I am as well.




Offline Andrew

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Re: Undertow - "Brokeback Peru"
« Reply #53 on: May 31, 2011, 10:11:22 pm »
June 1 is here and this beautifully-made film is finally available on DVD.   Netflix has it and so do the stores.  I'm sorry its budget and distributor meant it had such a sorry career in the theaters, especially after the Sundance and other awards and the Oscar speculation,  but I will treasure the little outing Lynne, Paul and I had one icy night in February to the Kendall.  Given that, obviously, we did NOT see Brokeback Mountain together on its first release.    Sfericsf and oilgun are the only two others I know of on this forum who managed to see it in the theater.

I have a lot I want to write about it, but I just don't want to spoil its surprises by doing that before more people see it.   And I have a lot I want to read about it here too! 

Offline Front-Ranger

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Re: Undertow - "Brokeback Peru"
« Reply #54 on: May 31, 2011, 10:50:53 pm »
Thanks for reminding me...I will look for it!
"chewing gum and duct tape"

Offline southendmd

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Re: Undertow - "Brokeback Peru"
« Reply #55 on: May 31, 2011, 10:54:51 pm »
My copy is coming from Amazon!

Offline Andrew

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Re: Undertow - "Brokeback Peru"
« Reply #56 on: June 11, 2011, 11:20:37 am »
The film is here!

There are several good things in the extras, including nice interviews with Cristian Mercado and Tatiana Astengo.  There is a new revelation about the director's imagined backstory for Miguel and Santiago - that they met as boys when Santiago came to the village from Lima for summer vacations while his father was involved with his business at the nearby oil refineries, and that at a certain age they fell in love even before Mariela moved to the village.  Our information about this in the film itself comes only in the marketplace scene when Mariela confirms she did not grow up there, and Santiago says he knew because he came there when he was growing up.  Other than this, I just got a feeling Miguel and Santiago have been having the 'skipping stones on the waves' contest since they were little and it is one of the ways they have to relish their long history together.

The deleted scenes are mostly the usual - prosaic linking scenes.  You can understand why the director decided they were unnecessary, or that in some cases they diverted the main movement.  The film needs mystery and spareness, it needs us to engage with and question what is happening just as Miguel is forced to do at the critical moment in the story.  And omission is appropriate for the locale; the village itself could not be more spare.  The final cut of the film has much of the economy of the Greek classics.

There is one fantastic deleted moonlit scene without words I am glad shows up, for the purpose of being raided:






















Offline Front-Ranger

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Re: Undertow - "Brokeback Peru"
« Reply #57 on: June 11, 2011, 11:43:44 am »
What a moving scene, Andrew. Thank you!
"chewing gum and duct tape"

Offline Shakesthecoffecan

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Re: Undertow - "Brokeback Peru"
« Reply #58 on: June 11, 2011, 02:34:00 pm »
I watched it last weekend and hope to again tomorrow night. It is a really interesting concept I think, the two men being able to be "together" after one of them dies, and the temptations that come with it.

I liked the part when the wife starts to realize the connection with the husband uses the world "Whapo" which was translated into "Swell".
"It was only you in my life, and it will always be only you, Jack, I swear."

Offline oilgun

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Re: Undertow - "Brokeback Peru"
« Reply #59 on: June 11, 2011, 04:14:16 pm »
On the other hand, I doubt if many foreign-language films get much wider theatrical release in the US than this.  Can anyone think of examples where films in languages other than English got a wider release, or runs of longer than about a week?

I remember Amélie and the dreadful La Vie en Rose being quite popular.  I think they got wider releases.  Also, maybe the Almodovar films.