Fairtrade Fortnight 2015

We decide to use this space for promoting not only a cause but also the Cinema who chooses to say something to the world. Watch Fairtrade Matters.

It won't take much of your time. It is good to know where you are standing in this world. Discover #Fairtrade, discover #change. 

This is the link to the website: http://fortnight.fairtrade.org.uk/ 

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Oscars 2015: our forecast!

Oscars are coming up! This sunday will be the night where Hollywood's glamour shine. There is always a certain degree of suspense. Who are the winners? Who are the losers? Red Curtain Cinema gives a forecast of the main categories. It is hard and challenging to do it but sometimes, you need to put your hands into the fire. We would be delighted to have your forecast, share it with us!

• Best Actor: 

Michael Keaton- Birdman    

• Best actress

                                                                                                                                                                                                     

Julianne Moore- Still Alice

• Best supporting actor

                                                                                                                                                                                                       

J.K. Simmons- Whiplash      

• Best supporting actress

                                                

Patricia Arquette-Boyhood

• Best Cinematography 

                               

Emanuel Lubezki- Birdman 

• Best Original Score 

                                 

Johan Johansson- The theory of everything

• Best Foreign Film

                                 

Ida- Poland

• Best Animated film                   

                           

How to train your dragon 2 

• Best Director

                              

Richard Linklater-Boyhood  

                                              Best Film

We finally voted for Birdman because we don't think that Hollywood has the guts to vote for an experimental film such as Boyhood. Our heart goes with Boyhood, idem for Wild Tales in Best Foreign Film. So what do you think? Verdict this Sunday night!

Selma (5/5, Very good)

A compelling and thought-provoking film led by David Oyelowo who took the responsibility to portray a person who defied the establishment and cried out to the sky : "enough is enough".

This is a biopic of Martin Luther King. No much details are necessary to understand the fight that he led along with other black people to demand for equal civil rights. However every fight stumbles with violence. Luther King (very well portrayed by Oyelowo) made everything to keep his campaigns the most pacific. The balance is delicate especially in times where another black leader known as Malcolm X is more prone to radical campaigns. The film focuses in one of the most symbolic campaigns from Luther King: the demand for the right to vote for black people in the city of Selma, Alabama. It will be a great struggle, full of love and courage but surrounded by a threatening cold hate.

Directed by Ava duVernay (Middle of Nowhere) this film puts it's love and admiration to a man who was the face of millions of black people affected by racism and discrimination. Instead of putting a profound emphasis on Luther King's personal life, we assist more the Selma campaign and the matters involved in it. Nevertheless duVernay achieves to makes us feel close to King. We walk besides him and we suffer with him. But as he is the personification of millions of people, we suffer with the martyrs. Every hit with a stick is felt in our chest, every gun shot makes a hole in our soul. Thanks to duVernay, we can experience such events that way.

  Soundtrack is a masterpiece: a mix of old gospels songs whose voices cry for the martyrs but also beg for love and peace. The acting by Oyelowo is marvelous: he is Luther King. However he lacks the adequate acting support to shine much more. We reckon though that it is hard to put actors at the same level of quality. The script encompasses most of Selma's campaign and we have a glimpse of Luther King's complicated personal life (adultery, absent father). Considering it is the only (!!!) film about Luther King so far, we praise and we applaud that finally someone had the courage of telling a story with this incredibly inspiring man.

Movies that you should have seen in the cinema and you haven't: Episode I

                                                             Empire Records (1996)

Indie director Allan Moyle continued his alternative film style (he directed Pump up the Volume led by Christian Slater) with the underrated Empire Records. Filmed in 1995, it gathered many actors which at that time were unknown to the general public (with the exception of Anthony Lapaglia and Liv Tyler-especially for her appearances in Aerosmith videoclips). Both music and script are pillars to a film who gives an homage to the ending music of the 1980s and the beginning of grunge-rock movement. 

Empire Records tells the story of a crazy group of US suburb teenagers working in a funky record store managed by former musician Joe (Anthony Lapaglia). One night, the employee Lucas (Rory Cochrane) steals money from the store's safe for personal reasons and loses everything in the casino. Knowing that he has to face the consequences of his act, a new day start in Empire Records where people meet to embrace the love of music, to reveal their deepest fears and doubts and continue building a life full of expectations. 

It is vibrant, it is very funny, it is entertaining, it is thought-provoking. Many adjectives can be found to describe this film, who was a big box-office flop, but today has gained a cult-following. It is a portrait of a young generation in the era of free-market where small independent labels were the first victims.It is not only a praise of self-identity ("music is the soundtrack of our lives") but also to stand for what your real passions are. In a context where everything is sold, there are things that are authentic and stand by themselves. The characters in Empire Records seek this whisper of a thrill and  evolve during this one-day story to be upfront with what they really want. 

We offer you a (very cool) glimpse of this rockie film! Tell us later if you enjoyed the film ;)

Birdman (5/5, Very Good)

Latest Iñarritú's film is an avalanche of sarcasm, irony and  about a man who once was a successful actor and wants to hit back the summit of fame.

Veteran actor Riggan Thompson (the unbeatable Michael Keaton) is setting a play in Broadway along with other performers (interpreted by Edward Norton, Naomi Watts) who have been forgotten by the glamorous world of fame. Riggan's fight against his faded hollywood figure faces numerous obstacles: a former junkie daughter (a superb Emma Stone) whose grudge against her father is a dagger that keeps on going deeper; a whole world of snobby critics that mock the intent of a 'celebrity' adapting a indie theatre play in Broadway. Nevertheless that is not Riggan's main problem.
He has been possessed by his most famous-role: Birdman. The spectrum of the superhero haunts Riggan by continuously talking to him. Having left the successful Birdman film franchise voluntarily, he will soon come to realise that he cannot escape from what he really is.

Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritú directed a masterpiece: it is, for sure, one of his most personal films. Keaton also gave the performance of his career. It is not only an ode to his personal career (he interpreted Batman with Tim Burton as a director and then both left the successful franchise) but also one of the greatest comebacks in contemporary cinema. His acting is Oscar-worth and the support of good actors as Norton and Stone adds more quality to it. The cinematography is simply stunning. Reminding a style previously seen in Hitchcock's The Rope (1948), the camera seems to be filming with no cut at all. A great care was taken for this optical effect and it is well achieved. The music accompanies the unbalanced rythm of the film: its minimalist one drum-composition fits perfectly in the film. 

 The story reminds us of a social pressure inherent in all societies: everyone wants to be somebody. If we are not, it is like loosing an identity. It is like fading away. Looking for that answer, we tend to go to other people and try to figure out who we really are. However the answer may lie in ourselves. Riggan is an actor but who realises who he really is in an inner process. Instead of projecting ourselves so much to the outside world and try to give an image, maybe we should try to project an image of ourselves to our mind and think about it: is that who I really am? Riggan found the answer and he flies with it. Recommended film!


Trailer:

Red Curtain's Music Selection!

Hi Cinema Lovers!


We selected a whole bunch of music themes for you to enjoy! We'll take you in different places, maybe in places you never heard of before. We'll make you taste the love of action and adventure, we'll make you live love stories, we'll make you cry and laugh, we'll make you dream. Just push play!


                     

The Gambler (4/5, Good)

Mark Wahlberg's greatest role since The Fighter whose character falls into a downward spiral where nothing is forgiven. All because of his favorite sin: gambling.

Jim Bennett (Mark Wahlberg) is a literature professor during the day. At night he is possessed by the love of gambling. He is eccentric and believes that people are here in this world for a reason. Some are here to be great writers such as one of his attractive students (Jessica Lange) with who he is loving. Some others are here to enjoy life like if it was a game. Luck is not always a respectful friend. Getting more debts, Jim tries to find a way out of his life's darkest labyrinths.

In his 3rd film director Rupert Wyatt meets again with Wahlberg since Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) and we are glad for that. Both men understand each other and know how to lead the story. It is thrilling, it is entertaining. We are being taken to dark places where money and luck only counts. Everyone is alienated by the adrenaline of their own fate: will their win or lose money? Wahlberg's character looks at that world with stranger's eye but however he is coopted by it. He has to gamble: it is his addiction. A shame that the film doesn't explore much the two-sided character that the script gives: a sensitive and romantic man to the world of literature and a cold and distant alienated gambler. 

Despite a few drawbacks in the script (cliché dialogues and an foreseeable ending) the movie aims to entertain and achieves it gratefully. This is definitely one of the best roles Wahlberg had ever had to take.We are disgusted and we feel empathy at the same time. That is something that good actors can only do and we never put Wahlberg in that category before.We are delighted with that surprise and look forward to see the duo Wyatt-Wahlberg again soon! 

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