A man determined to not just emulate the character of Tony Manero portrayed by John Travolta in the 1977 film ‘Saturday Night Fever‘ but become the misogynistic screen presence doesn’t naturally come to one’s mind when thinking of viable movie plots. But in Pablo Larrain’s 2008 film ‘Tony Manero‘, he somehow weaves a world surrounding this 52 year old with a peppery grey pompadour, striving to win a contest as the “Tony Manero of Chile”.
Raul Peralta (Alfredo Castro) frequents the often abandoned movie theater nearby, re-watching the film, mouthing off the words in English that Tony Manero speaks, almost becoming one with his own personal celluloid god. He steals and deals with a neighborhood criminal to get glass bricks for a dance floor to properly present the disco dancing scenes from the movie for an upcoming show at the cantina he is staying at.
The movie deals with a...
Raul Peralta (Alfredo Castro) frequents the often abandoned movie theater nearby, re-watching the film, mouthing off the words in English that Tony Manero speaks, almost becoming one with his own personal celluloid god. He steals and deals with a neighborhood criminal to get glass bricks for a dance floor to properly present the disco dancing scenes from the movie for an upcoming show at the cantina he is staying at.
The movie deals with a...
- 6/18/2010
- by James McCormick
- CriterionCast
Film Review: 'Tony Manero'
Cannes Film Festival Directors FortnightNot for the faint of heart, or for those who like their protagonists all warm and cuddly, this second feature of Chilean director Pablo Larrain, despite its various forms of crudeness, is vital and strangely arresting. Even better, its political critique of the Pinochet dictatorship is indirect and subtle, and thus all the more welcome and fresh.
Awkwardly photographed and obviously made on the tiniest of budgets, it's hard to imagine much theatrical play beyond Chile, if there, and TV buyers will be put off by its violence and a few disgusting images. However, festival programrs searching for something intense and very different from Latin America should definitely take a look.
It's 1978, and Raul Peralta is a fiftysomething loser and petty criminal who is obsessed with John Travolta and his performance as Tony Manero in "Saturday Night Fever". Raul regularly attends screenings whenever possible, and has memorized all the dialogue. He even bests all rivals in his knowledge of the minutiae of the film's costuming. The problem is that he becomes so intent on winning a John Travolta look-alike contest on television that he starts killing people who get in his way. And not very prettily either.
Virtually every character in the film, including Raul, is a low-life driven by the basest of motives and desires. Even the middle-class owner of the bar where Raul and his little group perform every weekend is an unappealing Pinochet supporter. Complicating things, and unbeknownst to her or to Raul, Goyo, a young male dancer in Raul's group, is also clandestinely distributing anti-Pinochet pamphlets.
Heads are routinely bashed in, the sexual encounters are gross and supremely unsexy, and in one memorable scene, Raul defecates all over Goyo's white Travolta suit in order to keep him out of the running in the television contest. There is also something supremely grotesque, yet also powerful, in the image of Raul imitating Travolta's dance moves while in tight (and probably dirty) briefs.
The camera work is all hand-held and seemingly full of the greatest possible number of jump cuts, and several scenes are, perhaps purposely, completely out of focus. Yet the film also gives you the feeling that you have no idea what's going to happen next, or what new outrage Raul and his gang are going to inflict on us. And that in itself is cause for some cheer.
The political critique is nowhere and everywhere. Pinochet's secret police regularly pop up to harass dissenters, and we occasionally see the esteemed dictator on television. Director Larrain doesn't seem to be implying any cause-and-effect relationship between the dictatorship and a unique phenomenon like Raul, but the mere juxtaposition of the two speaks volumes.
Cast: Alfredo Castro, Amparo Noguera, Hector Morales, Paola Lattus, Elsa Poblete. Director: Pablo Larrain. Screenwriter: Pablo Larrain, Alfredo Castro, Mateo Iribarren. No rating, 99 minutes.
Awkwardly photographed and obviously made on the tiniest of budgets, it's hard to imagine much theatrical play beyond Chile, if there, and TV buyers will be put off by its violence and a few disgusting images. However, festival programrs searching for something intense and very different from Latin America should definitely take a look.
It's 1978, and Raul Peralta is a fiftysomething loser and petty criminal who is obsessed with John Travolta and his performance as Tony Manero in "Saturday Night Fever". Raul regularly attends screenings whenever possible, and has memorized all the dialogue. He even bests all rivals in his knowledge of the minutiae of the film's costuming. The problem is that he becomes so intent on winning a John Travolta look-alike contest on television that he starts killing people who get in his way. And not very prettily either.
Virtually every character in the film, including Raul, is a low-life driven by the basest of motives and desires. Even the middle-class owner of the bar where Raul and his little group perform every weekend is an unappealing Pinochet supporter. Complicating things, and unbeknownst to her or to Raul, Goyo, a young male dancer in Raul's group, is also clandestinely distributing anti-Pinochet pamphlets.
Heads are routinely bashed in, the sexual encounters are gross and supremely unsexy, and in one memorable scene, Raul defecates all over Goyo's white Travolta suit in order to keep him out of the running in the television contest. There is also something supremely grotesque, yet also powerful, in the image of Raul imitating Travolta's dance moves while in tight (and probably dirty) briefs.
The camera work is all hand-held and seemingly full of the greatest possible number of jump cuts, and several scenes are, perhaps purposely, completely out of focus. Yet the film also gives you the feeling that you have no idea what's going to happen next, or what new outrage Raul and his gang are going to inflict on us. And that in itself is cause for some cheer.
The political critique is nowhere and everywhere. Pinochet's secret police regularly pop up to harass dissenters, and we occasionally see the esteemed dictator on television. Director Larrain doesn't seem to be implying any cause-and-effect relationship between the dictatorship and a unique phenomenon like Raul, but the mere juxtaposition of the two speaks volumes.
Cast: Alfredo Castro, Amparo Noguera, Hector Morales, Paola Lattus, Elsa Poblete. Director: Pablo Larrain. Screenwriter: Pablo Larrain, Alfredo Castro, Mateo Iribarren. No rating, 99 minutes.
- 5/18/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Film review: 'Football Stories'
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Since this is a Chilean film, the football of the title refers to what North Americans call soccer, the subject of the short tales that make up Andres Wood's debut feature.
Although minor in terms of subject and execution, "Football Stories" (Historias de Futbol) is an engaging effort that was an audience-pleaser at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival. The film, amusingly divided into sections dubbed "First Half", "Second Half" and "Overtime", presents three vignettes relating to the sport.
In the first, a young player on a minor-league team is offered a bribe by a professional gambler to not score any goals in a big game. In the second O. Henryish tale, a boy wins a neighborhood soccer contest but as a result finds that he must give up his soccer ball, his most prized possession. The final segment is an amusing look at a hunky soccer fan who finds himself the object of attention by two middle-aged sisters who use their television as an enticement. Although he is only interested in watching the championship game, by the end of the tale everyone, from the Chilean team to each of the sisters, has managed to score.
The slightness of the stories is nicely offset by director Wood's assured and entertaining style, not to mention the utterly natural performances by the entire cast. Although there is an occasional straining for madcap humor (the young children engage in an extended belching contest; the hunky fan falls off a roof while trying to fix an antenna, etc.), in the whole the picture is genial and charming and nicely demonstrates the obsession this sport breeds in South America.
"Football Stories", which should do nicely on the festival circuit, is also valuable for its showcase of a country whose films have not been exposed much on these shores ("Johnny 100 Pesos" is a recent effort that comes to mind).
FOOTBALL STORIES
(Historias de Futbol)
Roos Nortesur Pictures
Director: Andres Wood
Screenplay: Andres Wood, Rene Arcos
Producer: Andres Honorato
Executive producer: J.J. Harting
Cinematography: Igor Jadue-Lillo
Editor: Andrea Chignoli
Music: J. Miguel Miranda, J. Miguel Tobar
Color/stereo
Cast: Maria Izquierdo, Elsa Poblete, Manuel Aravena, Daniel Munoz, Ximena Rivas, Pedro Villagra
Running time -- 87 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Although minor in terms of subject and execution, "Football Stories" (Historias de Futbol) is an engaging effort that was an audience-pleaser at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival. The film, amusingly divided into sections dubbed "First Half", "Second Half" and "Overtime", presents three vignettes relating to the sport.
In the first, a young player on a minor-league team is offered a bribe by a professional gambler to not score any goals in a big game. In the second O. Henryish tale, a boy wins a neighborhood soccer contest but as a result finds that he must give up his soccer ball, his most prized possession. The final segment is an amusing look at a hunky soccer fan who finds himself the object of attention by two middle-aged sisters who use their television as an enticement. Although he is only interested in watching the championship game, by the end of the tale everyone, from the Chilean team to each of the sisters, has managed to score.
The slightness of the stories is nicely offset by director Wood's assured and entertaining style, not to mention the utterly natural performances by the entire cast. Although there is an occasional straining for madcap humor (the young children engage in an extended belching contest; the hunky fan falls off a roof while trying to fix an antenna, etc.), in the whole the picture is genial and charming and nicely demonstrates the obsession this sport breeds in South America.
"Football Stories", which should do nicely on the festival circuit, is also valuable for its showcase of a country whose films have not been exposed much on these shores ("Johnny 100 Pesos" is a recent effort that comes to mind).
FOOTBALL STORIES
(Historias de Futbol)
Roos Nortesur Pictures
Director: Andres Wood
Screenplay: Andres Wood, Rene Arcos
Producer: Andres Honorato
Executive producer: J.J. Harting
Cinematography: Igor Jadue-Lillo
Editor: Andrea Chignoli
Music: J. Miguel Miranda, J. Miguel Tobar
Color/stereo
Cast: Maria Izquierdo, Elsa Poblete, Manuel Aravena, Daniel Munoz, Ximena Rivas, Pedro Villagra
Running time -- 87 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 11/14/1997
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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