“The past is an animal that can’t be tamed…”

Synopsis:
Mariana (42) is part of that Chilean upper class that takes privilege for granted. Despised by both her father and her husband, she feels a strange attraction towards her riding teacher, Juan (60), a former colonel suspected of human rights abuses during the dictatorship.

Los.Perros.2017.1080p.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1 h 39 min
Size: 	2.95 GiB
Video
Codec: 	h264
Resolution: 	1920x1080 
Aspect ratio:  	16:9
Frame rate: 	25.000 fps
Bit rate: 	3 910 kb/s
BPP: 	0.075
Audio
#1:  	Spanish 2.0ch AAC LC @ 317 kb/s

https://nitro.download/view/06C61DA7E95EA52/Los.Perros.2017.1080p.mkv
https://nitro.download/view/E09827E80549F2F/Los.Perros.2017.1080p.EN.srt

Language(s):Spanish
Subtitles:English

The post Marcela Said – Los Perros AKA The Dogs (2017) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Quote:
Stunningly lensed around a homespun mafia tragi-comedy, but lacking even a shred of sympathy for its grotesque characters, It Was the Son (a.k.a. The Son Did It) describes a dysfunctional family from the underbelly of Palermo as monstrous stereotypes whose future is as dead-end as the highway leading to their gray housing block. There are some rueful smiles along the way but look for no heart-felt comedy in this adaptation of a novel by Roberto Alajmo. This cruel satire on the Italian South certainly has curiosity value, but it ends up feeling too flat and bleak to make a serious splash at the boxoffice after its Venice and Toronto bows.

The film marks the first solo feature directed by Palermo-born writer, filmmaker and cinematographer Daniele Cipri, best known for co-directing angry, paradoxical tales like The Uncle From Brooklyn with Franco Maresco. Here again he takes a big bite into the bitter fruit of Sicily.

The film is told as a story within a story recounted by a glassy-eyed old-timer in the post office while he waits to pay some bills. Outside, a car crash suggests another tragedy unfolding, but the man (Alfredo Castro) has the ear of his listeners. He begins by saying he knows a boy who killed his father over a scratched car. Flashback to the family in question – grandma and grandpa, mother (Gisella Volodi) and father (Toni Servillo), two kids – who share a small apartment in a dilapidated housing project. Money is tight and the frazzled father Nicola tries to teach his gaping 20-year-old son Busu (Alfredo Castro) the ropes of the family business: stripping the rusty hulls of wrecked ships while trying to beat other scavengers to their copper and iron.

As the characters define themselves, they seem to parody a human family. Self-interest is the name of the game, and Busu’s arrogant cousin (Piero Misuraca) who supports his family with crime is admired by all. The decisive scene is a relaxing day at the beach, where the camera lingers over obese bathers displaying rolls of fat with the same empathy as Ulrich Seidl filming his fellow Austrians. The father’s verbal abuse of his son rhymes with his being overly physical with his young daughter, whom he adores but fails to protect. That very afternoon, she’s caught in the cross-fire of two mafia killers.

This tragedy has a silver lining, however, because the family can claim government compensation for the girl’s death, money that will permit Nicola to realize a lifelong dream. But this dream inevitably leads to the tragedy promised by the story-spinner in the post office – with a terrible, well-hidden twist.

It’s a poisonous tale whose underlying absurdity could be taken as social commentary, had the characters been given any semblance of human feeling. They are actually the source of their own undoing, people who shield the Mafioso next door and let their kids play with fire. The wrap-up scene in which Granny (Aurora Quattrocchi) becomes the unexpected protagonist is a small jewel, but it reinforces the idea that poor Southerners are monsters. Political correctness aside, a little more affection for these characters could have put their dreams and desires in a recognizable emotional context and made a much stronger film.

On the plus side, top-drawer acting does a fine job balancing the tone between comic and tragic. Servillo delivers another bravura turn as the permanently disgruntled Nicola, keeping him at a high pitch throughout. As his better half, the gaunt Volodi expresses the mother’s reactions in silent theatrical mannerisms, and Chilean actor Alfredo Castro (Tony Manero, Post Mortem) does a ghostly guest turn as the unkempt storyteller.

The director’s own bold lighting choices give character to the retro-but-timeless Palermo setting (which was actually shot in the southern region of Apulia.) An inventive cinematographer who has photographed the last two Marco Bellocchio pictures, Cipri likes to view the action from high, unsettling angles like divine judgement, which works well with Maestro Carlo Crivelli’s formal score.

Daniele Cipri - (2012) It Was the Son.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1 h 33 min
Size: 	2.38 GiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	1024x436 
Aspect ratio:  	2.35:1
Frame rate: 	24.000 fps
Bit rate: 	3 200 kb/s
BPP: 	0.299
Audio
#1:  	Italian 5.1ch AC-3 @ 448 kb/s (Surround)

https://nitro.download/view/71A4269D3C3B8F4/Daniele_Cipri_-_(2012)_It_Was_the_Son.mkv

Language(s):Italian
Subtitles:English

The post Daniele Ciprì – È stato il figlio AKA It Was the Son (2012) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Among gunshots and boleros, a passionate relationship flourishes between a lonely transvestite and a young guerrilla during the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile.

3 wins & 4 nominations.

Quote:
In this beguiling feature Sepulveda lifts the lid on the gay scene of Pinochet’s Chile when transvestites and other sexual ‘deviants’ were much frowned upon by communists and their class enemies – especially in Castro’s Cuba. As La Loca points out to Carlos: “there are no gay communists”. Both neither Carlos or La Loca are winners. Carlos has to flee the country after the failed attempt on Pinochet’s life, not knowing the event would eventually be the end of the end of the dictatorship. La Loca knows very well that in the macho terrain of South America, sexual orientation is not a matter of choice.

DoP Sergio Armstrong plays with a bold palette of prime colours; the subdued lighting chez La Loca echoing the psychological state of its inhabitant: shutting out the day and just living for Carlos’ nightly visits. A classical melodrama, very much in the vein of the great Mexican director Emilio Fernandez. – Meredith Taylor : Filmuforia

5GB | 1h 34m | 1920×816 | mkv

https://nitro.download/view/55930AECCFC2E09/My.Tender.Matador.2020.SPANISH.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP5.1.H.264-PAAI.mkv

Language(s):Spanish
Subtitles:English/Spanish/Portugese .srt MUX

The post Rodrigo Sepúlveda – Tengo Miedo Torero AKA My Tender Matador (2020) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Quote:
A crisis counselor is sent by the Catholic Church to a small Chilean beach town where disgraced priests and nuns, suspected of crimes ranging from child abuse to baby-snatching from unwed mothers, live secluded, after an incident occurs.

1.89GB | 1 h 37 min | 1024×428 | mkv

https://nitro.download/view/13BFB24660F6E29/Pablo_Larrain_-_(2015)_The_Club.mkv

Language:Spanish
Subtitles:English, Spanish, French

The post Pablo Larraín – El Club AKA The Club (2015) first appeared on Cinema of the World.