—FRANCISCO KRUEGER—

007: From Chile With Revenge

2008-03-20T16:33:00.010-03:00

Quantum of Solace is the 22nd spy film in EON Productions' James Bond film series, due for release in the United Kingdom on 31 October 2008. It is the sequel to the 2006 film Casino Royale, which rebooted the series. It is directed by Marc Forster, and features Daniel Craig's second performance as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Paul Haggis, Neal Purvis and Robert Wade returned as writers. In the film, Bond battles environmentalist Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric), a member of a cover organisation called Green Planet, seeking revenge for the death of Vesper Lynd. Greene intends to stage a coup d'état in a Latin American country. Bond is assisted by Camille (Olga Kurylenko), who also wants revenge against Greene. The title was chosen from an unrelated short story in Ian Fleming's For Your Eyes Only (1960).

Producer Michael G. Wilson created the film's story whilst Casino Royale was shooting. The film was originally scheduled for a 2 May 2008 release, but it was pushed back to allow more time when Roger Michell dropped out as director. Second unit filming began in August 2007 at Siena and Madrid, before principal photography began in January 2008 at Pinewood Studios. Production designer Dennis Gassner took over from Peter Lamont, who retired after working on eighteen Bond films. He designed the five major Pinewood sets, which stand in for Siena, Bolivia and the MI6 headquarters. Gassner's designs are close to the modernism of Ken Adam, the first Bond production designer. Location filming will take place at Panama, Chile, Peru, Italy and Austria, before moving back to Pinewood in June. There will be more gadgets than in Casino Royale, though they will still aim to be realistic.

Filming

Dan Bradley was hired as second unit director because of his work on the Jason Bourne films, so the film would continue the gritty action style begun in Casino Royale. The town council of Siena gave permission to shoot at the Palio di Siena horse race on 16 August 2007. Fourteen cameras were placed around the arena, for shots which would be edited into the main sequence, shot during 2008. Aerial shots using helicopters were banned, and the crew were also forbidden from showing any violence "involving either people or animals". From 23-29 August, the second unit shot at Madrid. They spent three weeks (up until 15 February 2007) in Baja California, Mexico, filming planes in flight. Old propeller planes were used for a retro feel. From March 15-March 21, they were returned to Italy, to film at Malcesine and Limone sul Garda for a chase scene.

Principal photography was going to begin on 10 December 2007,but was pushed back to 3 January 2008. Production designer Peter Lamont, a crew member on eighteen Bond films, retired after Casino Royale. Dennis Gassner, who worked on Road to Perdition (2002) and The Golden Compass (2007), both which also featured Daniel Craig, was hired in Lamont's stead. Craig said the film will be "more of a classical Bond movie", with "a touch of Ken Adam," referring to the production designer most famous for creating the lairs of the villains in several of the early films. Michael G. Wilson also called Gassner's designs "a postmodern look at modernism".The rebuilt 007 Stage is being used to house three replicas of buildings in Siena. These include an art gallery used for a fight scene, and an MI6 safehouse hidden within the city's cisterns. Other soundstages feature Bond's "honeymoon" suite in a Bolivian hotel, and the MI6 headquarters with M's office.

Shooting at Panama City began on 7 February 2008 at Howard Air Force Base. The country doubles for Bolivia, with the National Institute of Culture of Panama standing in for the Grand Andean Hotel. A sequence requiring several hundred extras will also be shot at nearby Colón. Officials in the country will work with the locals to "minimise inconvenience" for the cast and crew, and hope the city's exposure in the film will increase tourism. The crew was going to move to Cusco, Peru for ten days of filming on 2 March, but the location was cancelled because of bad weather predictions. Twelve days of filming in Chile will begin on 24 March. Locations include the Paranal Observatory and Atacama Desert.

The first and second units will combine on April 15 in areas around Lake Garda for the opening chase sequence. The Siena officials have supplied €1 million to the filmmakers, to build four camera cranes, alter rooftops, and hire 300 extras needed for the scene. A cable camera is being used for the first time in a feature film. Filming will take place at the floating opera stage at the lake in Bregenz, Austria from 28 April-9 May 2008. The sequence, in which Bond chases a villain on to the stage during a performance of Tosca, will use 1500 extras. A short driving sequence will shoot at the nearby Feldkirch, Vorarlberg. By June, the crew will return to Pinewood, when new sets have been finished.

The Joker's Last Playing Card

2008-01-25T21:47:00.001-03:00

Heathcliff Andrew Ledger (April 4, 1979 – January 22, 2008) was an Academy Award-nominated Australian actor. After appearing in television roles during the 1990s, Ledger developed a Hollywood career. He starred in both critical and financial successes, including Ten Things I Hate About You, The Patriot, Monster's Ball, A Knight's Tale and Brokeback Mountain, and completed the role of the Joker in the forthcoming movie The Dark Knight shortly before his death.

— "Absolutely Thanks, Soda!"

2007-11-01T03:49:00.000-03:00

Soda Stereo is an influential Argentine rock power trio formed in 1982 (see 1982 in music) consisting of guitarist and vocalist Gustavo Cerati, bassist Zeta Bosio and drummer Charly Alberti. The band established what would become the template for many other popular Spanish-speaking pop and rock music groups: clever, often mysterious lyrics, pleasing musical arrangements and an elaborate and glamorous aesthetic image. In 1997, after a farewell tour through Mexico, Venezuela, Chile, and finally Argentina, they disbanded due to personal problems between the members and different artistic criteria. On September 20, Soda Stereo played their last show, in front of 75,000 people at the Estadio Monumental (or River Plate Stadium) in Buenos Aires. On June 9, 2007, amid rumours about a reunion, a tour named "Me Verás Volver" was announced, which started on October 19 at the River Plate stadium.

Overview

Formed in Buenos Aires, Argentina in early 1980. Gustavo Cerati, Charly Alberti and Zeta Bosio decided to create a power trio and a year later they released two demos and started to play regularly in a bar called "Bar Zero". After a few shows, a CBS producer decided to give the band a chance. In 1984, their eponymic debut album, Soda Stereo was released, produced by Federico Moura, lead singer of the band Virus. In October, 1984 they played at the Rock & Pop festival with INXS, Nina Hagen and Charly García.
Their second Album, Nada Personal was released in 1985 and afirmed the popularity of the band with some instantaneous classics such as "Nada Personal" and "Cuando Pase el Temblor".The video of the single "Cuando Pase el Temblor" was nominated in the category "Finalist Video" on the 12° World Festival of Video and TV.

Audio samples:
"Persiana Americana" (1986)
"Persiana Americana" was the first single released for the 1986 album Signos.
"En la Ciudad de la Furia" (1988)
The second song of Doble Vida was the opening track on their last album, El Último Concierto.
"(En) El Séptimo Día" (1990)
The opening track of Canción Animal is one of the few songs in the Argentine rock entirely composed in an odd time signature (7/4).

Released in 1986, Signos represented the breakthrough from Argentina to the rest of Latin America: this was the first Argentine rock album to be released on compact disc, although this version was released in 1988. Signos contained songs such as "Persiana Americana", "Signos" and "Profugos" that gave the band the possibility to conquer wider audiences. Soda Stereo embarked in an extensive tour through Latin America to promote the album, they gave 22 concerts in 17 cities. A live album called Ruido Blanco was released, it contained the songs recorded in the Signos supporting tour without the intention to be published.
After over a year recording new material, Doble Vida was released in 1988. The album, produced by David Bowie's guitarist Carlos Alomar, was recorded and mixed in New York. The first three songs of the album were released as singles, "Picnic en el 4B", "En la Ciudad de la Furia" and "Lo que Sangra (La Cúpula)". Languis was released as an EP in the next year, and contained only one new song, "Mundo de Quimeras".
It was their sixth album, Canción Animal, released in 1990 that represented the band's peak: the songs are among the band's strongest and most popular, the album contained the instant hit "De Música Ligera", the single "Un Millón de Años Luz", the exquisite "Té para Tres" and the anthem "(En) El Séptimo Día". Overall, the album is considered as the most consisted work by the band, along with Signos. On December 14, 1991 (see 1991 in music) they played a concert in front of 250.000 people on the 9 de Julio Avenue.
In late 1992 Soda Stereo released Dynamo, their least popular album. This LP was Soda's most ignored, and most experimental work. The band played the album almost in its entirety in Nicolás Reppeto's talk-show, Fax. This was the first stereophonic TV transmission in Argentina. Shortly after the release, bassist Zeta Bosio suffered the loss of his son in a car accident which pushed the band to stop touring and promoting the album and go into a hiatus during which singer Gustavo Cerati started his solo career with his debut album Amor Amarillo.
Their last studio album, Sueño Stereo was released in 1995 after a few years of silence. Three singles became hits after being released, "Ella Usó mi Cabeza como un Revolver", "Paseando por Roma" and "Zoom". Sueño Stereo reached platinum disc after only 15 days of the release. MTV Unplugged's Comfort y Música Para Volar was released a year later, and contained not only unplugged songs, it also contained outtakes. On 1 May 1997, personal problems between the members and different artistic criteria led the band to announce its end and started the final tour on July 1997. Their last concert given on 20 September at the River Plate Stadium was recorded and released in two parts, El Último Concierto A and El Último Concierto B.

Comeback

During 2007, after 10 years of their dissolution, rumours stated that Soda Stereo would tour South America before the end of the year. A reunion tour was finally announced on June 9, 2007 as the "Me Verás Volver" tour (referring to lyrics on Doble Vida's "Ciudad de la Furia"). The tour started at the River Plate stadium on October 19, 2007, where they played "El Último Concierto" in 1997.
Me Verás Volver will feature concerts in different countries of America, and will end before 2008. After the tour, the members of the band plan to continue with their individual careers.90.000 tickets were sold in only 24 hours, and the band added one more show to the schedule, and after three days, the tickets for the first three shows were sold out, and the band added two more shows to the tour. The expected amount of fans attending the five shows is more than 300,000, making Soda Stereo one of the most wached public events, and the only Argentine band to play five times in the Estadio Monumental.
As of 20 October 2007, 21 shows have been confirmed, including one show in Ecuador, Venezuela, Colombia and Panama; two shows in Peru's Estadio Nacional and in Chile's Estadio Nacional; three shows in the United States, one on The Home Depot Center (Los Angeles, California) and two in the AmericanAirlines Arena (Miami, Florida); four in Mexico and five in Argentina. Together with the new comeback tour, a compilation album was released, entitled Me Verás Volver (Hits & +). On the band's official website is available exclusive content to download using a special code featured on the CDs booklet.

Gustavo Cerati

Cerati worked with Daniel Melero in his 1992 album Colores Santos, he co-wrote and produced most of the songs and although the album was never formally presented, two singles were released, "Vuelta por el Universo" and "Hoy ya no Soy Yo". Cerati's first solo album was Amor Amarillo (1993), it contained collaborations by Zeta Bosio and his wife Cecilia Amenábar. After Soda's separation, Cerati released the studio albums Bocanada (1999), +Bien (2001) and Siempre Es Hoy (2002). He also released 11 Episodios Sinfónicos in 2002 and contained some Soda Stereo and solo songs played live with a symphony orchestra. Cerati's last release, Ahí Vamos!, is considered as a back-to-basics return.

Zeta Bosio

Bosio has had a low profile over the years. He is working with Proyecto Under, an online portal for musicians. He also produced albums with many bands, such as Aguirre and Peligrosos Gorriones. In a recent interview, he declared that he has no interest to play in a band. He is also the artistic director of an independient label, Alerta Records. In 1997 he produced Nacion Hip Hop, a CD compilation of local underground rap artists that's considered the founding stone of Argentine's hip hop scene. He also worked closely with hip hop act Tumbas (who opened for Soda Stereo in their last concert) and DJ Tortuga who later became part of the experimental hip-hop trio Koxmoz.

Charly Alberti

Alberti released only one studio album without Soda Stereo in 1994, Plum, along with his then girlfriend, supermodel Deborah de Corral, and since 1997 Alberti became interested in informatics, he was involved in running his company Cybrel Digital Entertainment, that aimed at generating and implementing content based technologies. He was named an Applemaster for his contributions to the music world. In 1998, he started two new projects, URL Magazine, a culture magazine, and URL Records, a discographic label. He is also the founder of YeYeYe and Musike, two portals about music and entertainment. Alberti recently formed another rock band with his brother, Andrés Alberti, and recorded their first album named as the band, MOLE. Alberti stated that he does not want Mole's sound to sound like Soda Stereo, he wants "Mole to live by itself."

― "A Night To Remember, Ten Years Ago"

2007-10-19T15:29:00.000-03:00

James Cameron's Titanic is a 1997 American romantic drama film directed, written, and co-produced by James Cameron about the sinking of the RMS Titanic. It stars Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio as Rose DeWitt Bukater and Jack Dawson respectively, members of different social classes who fall in love aboard the ill-fated 1912 maiden voyage of the ship. Bill Paxton plays Brock Lovett, the leader of a treasure hunting expedition, while Gloria Stuart has the role of the elderly Rose, who narrates the story in 1996. The film was both a critical and commercial success, winning eleven Academy Awards including Best Picture, and became the highest grossing film of all time, with a total worldwide gross of US$1.8 billion.

Plot

In 1997, treasure hunter Brock Lovett and his team explore the wreck of the RMS Titanic searching for a necklace called “Heart of the Ocean”. They discover a drawing of a young woman reclining nude, wearing the Heart of the Ocean, dated the day the Titanic sank. News of this drawing on television attracts the interest of the woman in question, Rose Dawson Calvert, now 100, who claims to be the nude woman in the drawing. She and her granddaughter Lizzy visit Lovett on his ship, and recalls her memories as 17-year-old Rose DeWitt Bukater aboard the Titanic. In 1912, young Rose boards the departing ship with the upper-class passengers and her mother, Ruth DeWitt Bukater, and her fiancé, Caledon Hockley. Distraught and frustrated with her engagement to Cal and controlled life, Rose attempts to commit suicide, but a drifter and artist named Jack Dawson intervenes. They strike up a tentative friendship as he shares stories of his adventures traveling and sketching, and their bond deepens when they leave the first-class formal dinner for a much livelier gathering in third-class.

Cal is informed of her partying in the steerage and forbids Rose to meet Jack again. Eventually, Jack confronts Rose alone, but she is inclined to ignore their growing affection because of her engagement and responsibilities. However, Rose later changes her mind and decides to offer her heart to Jack in a forbidden romance. As a sign of her affection, she asks him to sketch her nude wearing only the "Heart of the Ocean." Afterward the two run away from Hockley's manservant, Spicer Lovejoy, where they go below decks to the cargo hold. They enter a car and have sex, and afterwards escape up to the ship's forward well deck. Rose decides that she will leave the ship with Jack. They then witness the ship's collision with an iceberg. Cal discovers Rose's nude drawing. He plots revenge, deciding to frame Jack for stealing the "Heart of the Ocean", and bribes the master-at-arms to handcuff and trap Jack in a room. Although Rose is at first indecisive, she later runs away from Cal, risking her chances of getting on a lifeboat with her mother, in order to find and rescue Jack.

Rose manages to free Jack with a fire axe, and finds that the third-class passengers are trapped below decks. Frustrated, Jack breaks through a gate, allowing Rose and others to make their way to the boat deck. Cal and Jack manage to persuade Rose to board a lifeboat, but after realizing that she cannot leave Jack, Rose jumps back on the ship and reunites with Jack in the ship's first class staircase. Infuriated, Cal takes Lovejoy's pistol and chases Jack and Rose down the decks and into the first class dining saloon. After running out of ammunition, he angrily shouts at them to die and realizes that he unintentionally gave Rose the diamond. Hockley returns to the boat deck and gets aboard Collapsible A by pretending to look after an abandoned child. This is one of only two lifeboats remaining on the ship. Although Jack and Rose manage to avoid Cal's fury, they find that the lifeboats are gone. With no other options, they decide to head after and stay on the ship for as long as possible before it sinks completely. Eventually, the ship breaks in half and begins its final descent, washing everyone into the freezing Atlantic waters. Jack and Rose are separated under the water, but eventually reunite. Around them, well over a thousand people are dying a painful death from hypothermia. Meanwhile, in Lifeboat 6,

Margaret "Molly" Brown tries to convince Quartermaster Robert Hichens to go back and rescue people, as there is plenty of room, but he refuses, thinking the boat will be swamped. Jack manages to grab hold of a wall paneling, and gets Rose to lie on it. While lying on the wall paneling, Jack makes Rose promise that, whatever happens, she gets out alive. When Fifth Officer Harold Lowe returns with an empty Lifeboat 14 to rescue several people from the water, Rose tries to wake Jack, but then realizes that he has frozen to death. Upon this realization, she begins to lose hope and wants to stay there to die with Jack, but remembers her promise. She does her best to call out to Lowe, but he does not hear her and rows away, seemingly leaving her to die. Still remembering her promise to "never to let go," Rose manages to unclasp Jack's frozen hand from her own, letting his body disappear into the sea. Throwing herself into the water, Rose takes a whistle from a dead Chief Officer Wilde and blows it. She is pulled to safety, joining the 5 other survivors from the water, and boards the RMS Carpathia. On the Carpathia's deck, Rose notices Cal looking for her. When he turns in her direction, she turns away, not letting him see her face. This is the last time she ever sees Hockley. Upon arrival in New York City, Rose registers her name as "Rose Dawson".

After completing her story, the elderly Rose alone travels to the stern of Lovett's ship. After she steps onto the railing, it is revealed she had the "Heart of the Ocean" all along, as Cal had slipped into her coat. She then drops the diamond into the water. Rose lies in a bed, next to photographs of her life's achievements, as the shot pans across her into darkness. The film ends with a vision of young Rose reuniting with Jack at the Grand Staircase, surrounded by those who perished with Jack on the ship. They embrace, and the people on the staircase start to applaud. It is left up to the viewer to dictate the meaning of the ending, specifically whether it is truly a vision or Rose reuniting with her love, Jack in the afterlife.

Cast

Kate Winslet as Rose DeWitt Bukater: A first-class socialite, seventeen-year-old Rose is forced to become engaged to Caledon Hockley so she and her mother can maintain their high status after the death of her father. Feeling trapped, Rose becomes suicidal, but she soon discovers a whole new lease on life when she meets Jack Dawson.

Leonardo DiCaprio as Jack Dawson: A penniless artist who travels the world, Jack wins tickets to the RMS Titanic in a card game. He is attracted to Rose's beauty and convinces her out of an attempted suicide. His saving of her life brings him into first-class society, and he shows her a carefree way of life of which she had often fantasized but never realized of doing.

Billy Zane as Caledon "Cal" Nathan Hockley: The quintessential arrogant and snobbish first-class man, Rose's fiancé Cal becomes increasingly embarrassed, jealous, and cruel over Rose's friendship with Jack. He gives Rose the diamond The Heart of the Ocean as a reminder of her feelings for him.

Frances Fisher as Ruth DeWitt Bukater: Rose's widowed mother, who is marrying her off to ensure their high-class status. She loves her daughter but believes marriage to Cal is the right thing to do. The epitome of the shallowness and hypocrisies of high-class society, she scorns Jack, even though he saved her daughter's life.

Kathy Bates as Margaret Tobin "Molly" Brown: Brown is depicted as being frowned upon by other first-class women, including Ruth, as "new money" due to her sudden wealth. She is friendly to Jack and gives him a dining-suit when he is invited to dinner in the first-class saloon.

Victor Garber as Thomas Andrews, Jr.: The ship's designer, Andrews is depicted during the sinking of the ship as standing next to the clock in the first class smoking room. He gives Rose a life jacket so she doesn't drown in the icy water, and is last seen looking at his watch and adjusting the clock in the same room, accepting his fate.

Bernard Hill as Captain Edward John Smith: The film depicts the captain of the RMS Titanic as retiring to his quarters when the ships hits the iceberg. He goes into wheelhouse as it sinks, dying when the water bursts through the windows.

Jonathan Hyde as J. Bruce Ismay: Ismay is portrayed as an ignorant first-class rich man, who does not know who Sigmund Freud is. He cowardly takes the opportunity to get into a lifeboat, and looks back, guilt-stricken, as his ship sinks.

David Warner as Spicer Lovejoy: An ex-Pinkerton constable, Lovejoy is Cal's English bodyguard who keeps an eye on Rose and is suspicious of the circumstances of Jack's rescue of her.

Danny Nucci as Fabrizio De Rossi: Jack's Italian friend who comes aboard the RMS Titanic after winning a card game.

Jason Barry as Tommy Ryan: An Irish third-class passenger who befriends Jack and Fabrizio.

Bill Paxton as Brock Lovett: A treasure hunter looking for The Heart of the Ocean in the wreck of the RMS Titanic in the present. Time and funding to his expedition is running out.

Gloria Stuart plays the 100-year old Rose Dawson Calvert: She comes to give Lovett information regarding The Heart of the Ocean, after he discovers a nude drawing of her in the wreck of the RMS Titanic. She narrates the story of her time aboard the ship, mentioning Jack for the first time since.

Suzy Amis as Lizzy Calvert: Rose's granddaughter, who accompanies her on her visit to Lovett.
Lewis Abernathy as Lewis Bodine: Lovett's geeky friend, who expresses doubt at first whether Rose is telling the truth.

Eric Braeden as Colonel John Jacob Astor IV: A first-class passenger whom Rose calls "the richest man on the ship". The film depicts him and his 19-year-old wife Madeleine as being introduced to Jack by Rose in the first-class saloon.

Bernard Fox as Colonel Archibald Gracie: The film depicts Gracie making a comment to Cal that "women and machinery don't mix," and congratulating Jack for saving Rose from committing suicide.

Ewan Stewart as First Officer William McMaster Murdoch: The film's most controversial depiction, Murdoch shoots and kills men who try to enter a lifeboat under Smith's order of women and children first, before committing suicide out of guilt.

Jonathan Phillips as Second Officer Charles Lightoller: The film depicts him arguing with Captain Smith that it would be difficult to see the icebergs with no breaking water.

Ioan Gruffudd as Fifth Officer Harold Lowe, the only officer who led a lifeboat to retrieve survivors of the sinking.

LOST in Friendship Island of Chile?...

2007-10-08T03:00:00.000-04:00

LOST is an American serial drama television series that follows the lives of plane crash survivors on a mysterious tropical island, after a passenger jet flying between Australia and the United States crashes somewhere in the South Pacific. Each episode typically features a primary storyline on the island as well as a secondary storyline from another point in a character's life. The show was created by Damon Lindelof, J. J. Abrams and Jeffrey Lieber, and is filmed primarily on location in Oahu, Hawaii. The pilot episode was first broadcast on September 22, 2004. Since then, three seasons have aired. The show is produced by ABC Studios, Bad Robot Productions and Grass Skirt Productions and airs on the ABC Network in the United States. Its incidental music is composed by Michael Giacchino. The current executive producers are Abrams, Lindelof, Carlton Cuse, Jack Bender, Jeff Pinkner and Bryan Burk. Because of its large ensemble cast and the cost of filming in Hawaii, the series is one of the most expensive on television.

A critical and popular success, Lost garnered an average of 16 million viewers per episode on ABC during its first year, and won numerous industry awards including the Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series in 2005, Best American Import at the British Academy Television Awards, also in 2005, and the Golden Globe for Best Drama in 2006. Reflecting its devoted fan base, the show has become a staple of American popular culture with references to the story and its elements appearing in other television shows, commercials, comic books, webcomics, humor magazines and song lyrics. The show's fictional universe has also been explored through tie-in novels, board and video games, and an alternative reality game, The Lost Experience. In May 2007 it was announced that Lost will continue for its fourth, fifth, and sixth seasons, concluding with the 117th produced episode in May 2010. These three final seasons will consist of 16 episodes each, running weekly in the spring uninterrupted by repeats.

Secrets of Friendship Island
by Josep Guijarro

Since 1984, a group of ham radio operators has claimed to be in contact with a strange congregation known as "the Friendship"--composed of beings of a Nordic aspect and having strange accents who have considerable technical knowledge and have also predicted important scientific, political and social events, aside from forecasting UFO sightings. Could "the Friendship" be extraterrestrial in nature? Many believe that this is the case and that their bases are scattered around the world at seven different locations.
It rained intensely throughout the afternoon--an entirely normal event in that small coastal settlement in southern Chile. For many hours now, the dominant colors in Puerto Montt were shades of gray. Everything seemed enshrouded by a dense fog: the humble wooden homes, the fishermen's wharf, the pier. The scent of wet earth, the mud of the streets and the dampness of my clothes, above all else, brought me back to reality. Standing in front of the bus terminal I saw the last vehicle to board the ferry that crossed the Chacao Channel, the one slated to take me to Chile's southernmost point and to the gates of a mysterious island that does not appear on sea charts and which according to rumor, houses an alien base. The exciting adventure had to wait still one more day, although my research had started long before in Santiago, the Chilean capital.

The Origin--A UFO Incident

Santiago is the home of Octavio Ortiz--married, father of three daughters and a business agent who matches his professional and family life with his devotion to radio. He owns a 27 megacycle CB base station with which he shares comradeship with other ham operators. His handle is Lucero ("bright star"). In mid-1984, while manning his station, Octavio would receive a distress call from the Mitilus II, a ship working for the Department of Oceanography of the University of Chile, and which was apparently cruising in the vicinity of the Mitagüe lighthouse in the southern reaches of the country. Alberto, the ship's master, was anxious to reach Iquique because he was in the thrall of a mysterious light that inflicted damage to the ship's electronic gear. The strange object began to descend and hovered over the ship. It must have radiated a great deal of energy, because some of the sailors began to experience considerable hair loss.
But the strangeness was not circumscribed to the above. Hector, captain of the Black Web, which sailed in the vicinity of Mitiagüe Light and witnessed the UFO incident in astonishment, also noticed that an incredibly powerful radio station broke into the communications underway. The VU meter's needles jumped past the +30 mark and a tense silence followed. the object disappeared soon after.
Octavio could not believe what he was hearing, and being willing to serve as a "bridge" to eventual communications with Iquique, he took the microphone decisively and rendered assistance. "That was how I met the mysterious Alberto," he reminisced, sitting in a rocking chair in his home. "We struck up a good friendship and less than a year later, he told us that some gringos who'd hired him had taken him to an island and outfitted his ship with strange equipment."
Alberto had acquired his vessel through a loan from CORFO (Chile's development corporation) and like may others, he was unable to withstand the jump in interest rates during the economic crunch of the '80s. Mired in terrible debts, he ran south and became a pirate. There he met Ernesto de la Fuente, a sound engineer taken by the winds of fate to the small town of Quemchi and who had just recently met some strange gringos who claimed to belong to a shadowy congregation dubbed the Friendship. De la Fuente recommended Alberto's services to these curious characters, who needed supplies brought in, and in return, they would liquidate his debts and would also rearrange his life.

The Mystery of the Friendship

The gringos looked nothing like Americans: they were handsome, tall beings with blond hair and dressed in curious outfits. Who were they, indeed?. They professed ignorance about the most elementary items of our society, but were gifted with a remarkable knowledge of physics, biology and mathematics. Their speeches were swathed in spiritualism and they concealed their identities by taking the names of angels as their own. The Friendship claimed to have its headquarters on a base lost amid the Chonos and Guaytecas Archipelago, consisting of over 3,800 islands, and also claimed to possess highly advanced technology in the fields of medicine and astronautics.

UFO Sightings By Appointment

Over the course of a year, Alberto and Octavio would have frequent discussions about life in the disquieting island and its mysterious occupants over their ham radios. A while went by without the skipper of the Milius II taking to the air, but when he reappeared, he introduced Octavio and his family to Ariel, one of the island's quizzical occupants, who clearly possessed an amazing grasp of medicine, architecture and communications. "Whenever this happens," Octavio explains, seated in front of his base station, "the needle indicates the maximum--a tremendously powerful broadcaster." Curiosity over the true identities of those who conceal themselves under the guise of "angels of the Lord" disrupts the Ortiz family's life: the radio remains on at all hours and Cristina, Octavio's wife--a shrewd and restless woman--makes an effort at getting to the bottom of the greatest question: the origins of their interlocutors.

"We are not of this world," they reply, "but we are part of Humankind."

It isn't until August 17, 1985 that the Ortiz family realizes that they are truly facing the extraordinary. Around 2:30 p.m., Cristina, who was glued to the radio along with her daughter Claudia, heard a call from the Friendship, saying: "Come out! Come out!" Cristina went out to the patio of their farm in La Florida and looked heavenward. In a matter of minutes, she was able to make out a shining object suspended in the sky. Excitedly, she made contact with Ariel and suggested certain movements which were obediently carried out by the shining object. Was the Friendship controlling that flying saucer? That is what can be deduced by reading the transcript of the communications. Thousands of citizens were made aware of the object's presence. A crew from Televisión Nacional (TVN) even managed to capture it on film. Elsa Marina, an eyewitness, stated that she "felt like weeping and felt insignificant in the face of what was taking place in the sky over her home..."
Gustavo Rodríguez, who subsequently became assistant director of the air traffic department of the Dirección de Aeronáutica [Chile's equivalent of the FAA---Ed.] was at the home of one of his siblings celebrating a nephew's birthday when he witnessed the event: "It was a light having the apparent size of an orange and which gave the impression of spinning on its axis. It was hanging in space and exhibited little or no movement."

In the measure that the sun went down, Rodríguez noticed the presence of a darker sphere. The second object was opaque and appeared to follow the same trajectory as the first, heading toward the mountains. In fact, the phenomenon was witnessed in Argentina, as shown by newspaper clippings of the time. Were those objects UFO's?
Agents of the Weather Bureau, who confessed having seen the mystery object, noted that no rational explanation could be ascribed to the phenomenon--at least not from the perspective of their profession. Astronomers at the Cerro Calán observatory--Carlos Torres, Guillermo Carrasco and Herbert Wroblewsky--managed to photograph the object through their telescope and discarded the possibility that it might have been a weather balloon. "First of all, it had an entirely different configuration," recalls astronomer Torres. "Nor could it have been an artificial satellite, because it would have had to have been massive in size to resemble what was seen."
All three astronomers agreed on the fact that the object was surrounded by a shining "ring" and some sort of antenna!
Renowned ufologist Jorge E. Anfruns made note of a highly important detail: "Some of the ham operators were phoning the newspapers to report interference with their sophisticated equipment." The Friendship at work?
It was imperative to find out if a CB broadcast could cover the more than three thousand kilometers which separate the archipelago from Santiago. In the opinion of analyst and DX'er Gabriel Osses Valdés, "with a properly calibrated antenna, meaning one that is on the frequency one intends to use, it is possible to have a small setup and communicate properly across long distances," adding that "long distance communication is much more feasible from the small islands of the south than from anywhere else, since the ocean acts as a reflector for the waves and there's nothing to get in their way." Cristina and Octavio, however, believe that Ariel was aboard that object. "If not, how could they have seen the airplanes approaching the object? How could they remotely guide that object at a distance of thousands of miles?"

The Official Investigation Begins

The excitement caused by the sighting was such that on the following day, Aeronáutica's director, Sergio Piñeiro, ordered Rodríguez to begin an investigation. As the official report (to which I had access) indicates, at 15:40 LMT, radar picked up an unidentified object located 20 nautical miles to the west of the El Tabón beacon and moving slowly toward the west. "The radar return," explains Rodríguez, "is fair to poor, and only the raw primary signal can be seen." At 16:00 LMT, a number of flights make contact with the object. On the one hand, a Boeing 727 coming in from the north, and on the other, Ladeco Flight 061 and the CC-LHL flying between Limache to Tobalaba. According to eyewitness accounts, the UFOs were at a considerable altitude and were moving very slowly in an eastward direction, remaining visible until 19:30 hours. Might they have been balloons?
Despite the fact that some newspapers latched on to the weather balloon explanation, such a device is unable to remain static in the same location for five hours. The report of the Dirección General de Aeronáutica Civil, on the other hand, concluded that: "the manifestations of that day, until the closing of this investigation, remain an enigma and go on to enlarge the file on unexplained phenomena."

To dispel any doubts, a few days later, Melbourne, Australia's chief meteorologist, Dr. J.W. Zillman, issued a press release regarding the possibility that the objects belonged to his country. "They do not form part of any project of the Australian weather bureau...the endurance of these balloons is not sufficient to allow them to fly as far as Chile." "At the time," explains Anfruns, "the U.S. Navy was holding exercises off Valparaiso," making reference to the UNITAS maneuvers conducted with allied countries in the Pacific Ocean. "If we monitor airspace with over seven thousand satellites, why can't extraterrestrials monitor our war games?"
The fact of the matter is that at the time that this extraordinary event took place, a number of sightings occurred throughout the length of the country. But what was their connection to the mysterious island? And if so, what were they up to? It would seem that the object, in fact, had come up out of the south. This is confirmed by the photograph acquired by Jorge E. Anfruns from a man who was travelling in the interior aboard a rural bus: he pointed his camera out the window in the vicinity of San Fernando, a town located 140 km. south of Santiago.
According to the trigonometry study which took into consideration the distance and size of telephone poles and automobiles, the UFO was located barely 370 meters over the surface.

A One-Way Ticket

What did the Friendship want to prove with this show of force? According to veteran researcher Hugo Pacheco, the Friendship carefully selects its contacts and after a trial period, invites them to their mysterious island and readies them to travel to another planet.
Pacheco, 73, remains youthful. He is a public administrator, an engineer and glider pilot. One of the pioneer ufologists in his country, his beliefs leaned more toward radical scientism than the current mystical trend. On Saturdays, he holds a small group of people at his home to read and discuss biblical texts from a ufological perspective. According to the rumors that reached me, Pacheco's meetings welcomed an individual who chose members of the group to visit the mysterious island. Meeting this person was imperative...

Josep Guijarro is another outstanding member of Spain's "third generation" of UFO researchers and has the distinction of being one of the few investigators to have witnessed one of the so-called Grey aliens during the course of researching an abduction case. Today, Josep is the senior writer for KHARMA-7 magazine (very similar name to DHARMA-6), his country's longest-running paranormal publication.

Chilean Castaway in Hollywood

2007-10-08T02:41:00.000-04:00

Jorge Garcia (born April 28, 1973) is an American comedian and actor. He first came to public attention with his performance as Hector Lopez on the show Becker, and currently stars as Hugo "Hurley" Reyes in the American television series Lost. Garcia also performs as a stand-up comic.
Garcia was born in Omaha, Nebraska to a Chilean father and Cuban mother. He grew up in Southern California and went to San Clemente High School. As a senior, he was selected by the faculty as "Triton of the Year", the highest award given to a graduating senior.
Garcia was the first actor to be cast on Lost. He was cast on Lost because producers saw him on Curb Your Enthusiasm the night before casting began. The creators wrote in a character specifically for him. Garcia had to miss his sister's wedding back on the mainland because he was shooting Lost over in Hawaii. He was also a prominent character in Troma Studio's film, Tales from the Crapper. The film is notable for Garcia's portrayal of a raccoon-headed young man who is unlucky in love.
Garcia has appeared in the second episode of the eighth season of Celebrity Poker Showdown. He went on to lose to Michael Ian Black.
Garcia was a contestant on an episode of Russian Roulette on Game Show Network. He missed a question about the Boxers Rebellion of 1900 and fell through the trap door.

Filmography

Deck the Halls (2006) — Wallace
Little Athens (2005) — Pedro
The Good Humor Man (2005) — Mt. Rushmore
Our Time Is Up (2004) — Gardener
Happily Ever After (2004) — Chris
Lost (2004-present) — Hugo "Hurley" Reyes
Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004) — Drug dealer
Tales from the Crapper (2004) — Raccoon Head
Becker (2003-2004) — Hector Lopez
Columbo: Columbo Likes the Nightlife (2003) — Julius
The Slow and the Cautious (2002) — Teddy
Spin City (2001) — Cabbie
King of the Open Mic's (2000) — Meatloag
Tomorrow by Midnight (1999) — Jay
Raven's Ridge (1997) — Monty

Is Diana Really Dead?...

2007-10-04T15:50:00.000-04:00

New video of Diana's last hours shows her relaxed, smiling...

DAILY NEWS STAFF
Wednesday, October 3rd 2007, 7:50 PM

Poignant images showing Princess Diana relaxed and smiling in the last hours of her life were screened for the jury hearing the inquest into her death today. The previously unreleased footage was captured by security cameras in the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Paris on Aug. 30, 1997 - just hours before Diana and Dodi Fayed set out on their final journey. Fayed's father, billionaire mogul Mohamed Al Fayed, contends his son and the princess were murdered by British intelligence services at the behest of Prince Philip, Diana's ex-father-in-law.
Al Fayed believes the royal family wanted to eliminate Diana because she was pregnant and planning to marry Dodi - thus giving Princes William and Harry a Muslim half-sibling and stepfather.In one of the video sequences, Diana and Fayed are shown entering the hotel at 4:35 p.m., walking through a lobby and then entering a mirrored elevator. The 36-year-old princess, wearing a casual light gray pants suit with her sunglasses pushed on top of her head, seems comfortable and happy. At one point, she looks up at the security camera and flashes the smile that captured the hearts of millions around the world. The video, compiled from 43 hotel cameras, also shows paparazzi gathering outside the Ritz-Carlton. A pack of photographers was chasing the couple when their car slammed into a tunnel wall, killing Diana, Fayed and driver Henri Paul. Earlier in the inquest, the coroner told the 11-member jury they would hear "intimate" details of the princess's life as part of an exhaustive look at the last hours of her life. Lord Justice Scott Baker opened Day 2 of the inquest in London's High Court by telling jurors that Diana was taking birth control pills at the time of her death - making it highly unlikely she was pregnant.
Though Baker said it was probably not possible to prove or disprove the pregnancy claims scientifically, he said the question was relevant beacuse it "is said to have provided the motive or part of the motive for killing Diana."
Previous inquiries by French authorities and Scotland Yard have found the crash was an accident caused because Paul was intoxicated and speeding. The inquest, which finally got under way more than 10 years after the fatal crash, is expected to last six months.

Above: Diana: Princess of Zombies captured by the The Sizemore McCabe Project

SANFIC3 2007

2007-07-28T20:02:00.000-04:00

SANFIC, Santiago Festival Internacional de Cine, es una plataforma cinematográfica, cultural, industrial, educativa y un símbolo privilegiado de la ciudad.En la tercera versión del festival, SANFIC3, convergen productores, directores, distribuidores, críticos de cine, actores y público en torno a las más recientes y destacadas producciones nacionales e internacionales, entregándole a Santiago y al país un marco único de encuentro, calidad y actualidad.

Los excelentes resultados obtenidos en SANFIC2 –gran afluencia de público, visitas internacionales, calidad de los films exhibidos, amplia cobertura de prensa, diversidad de actividades conexas de alta convocatoria– confirmaron que Santiago se está convirtiendo en un referente de la cinematografía nacional e internacional: una ventana de cultura por la que Chile se asoma y se abre al mundo.En este marco, uno de los objetivos es complementar y potenciar la explosiva industria audiovisual chilena abriendo un espacio para su desarrollo y promoción. Asimismo, SANFIC3 es una vitrina para apreciar primicias y pre-estrenos de películas internacionales de reciente factura y de calidad, tanto de directores de prestigio como de jóvenes talentos.

SANFIC3 tiene dos competencias: una internacional, en la que se incluyen películas de todo el orbe y otra latinoamericana, en la que sólo participan películas de la región. Además hay secciones de cine chileno, asiático, latinoamericano, francés, alemán, estadounidense, del medio oriente y un completo panorama internacional.Las actividades paralelas incluyen paneles, exposiciones y charlas dictadas por destacadas personalidades del quehacer cinematográfico nacional e internacional relacionadas al universo del cine, la industria y la cultura. También se sumarán proyecciones de cine en centros culturales periféricos de la ciudad.

En este contexto, SANFIC3 incluirá secciones como Talento Nacional, con una selección de cortometrajes nacionales realizados por las futuras promesas del cine chileno; una muestra-homenaje de siete videos de Juan Downey, denominada “Shoot the Shooter”; premieres especiales de cine chileno; una selección de películas premiadas con el fondo de coproducción alemán World Cinema Fund; un laboratorio de proyectos documentales; y un “work in progress” de cine chileno. ¡Los invitamos a vivir y disfrutar de SANFIC3!

The 11th Hour

2007-07-25T22:02:00.001-04:00

The 11th Hour is a 2007 feature film documentary created, produced and narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio on the state of the natural environment. Directed by Leila Conners Petersen and Nadia Conners. Financed by Adam Lewis, Pierre André Senizergues and Doyle Brunson. Distributed by Warner Independent Pictures. World premiere at the 60th Annual Cannes Film Festival. To be released August 17th 2007.

Leonardo DiCaprio's The 11th Hour is a feature length documentary concerning the environmental crises caused by human actions and their impact on the planet. The film documents the cumulative impact of these actions upon the planet's life systems and calls for restorative action through a reshaping of human activity.
With the help of over fifty of the world's most prominent thinkers and activists, including reformer Mikhail Gorbachev, physicist Stephen Hawking, and Nobel Prize winner Wangari Maathai, the film documents the grave problems facing the planet's life systems. Global warming, deforestation, mass species extinction, and depletion of the oceans' habitats are all addressed, and their causes rooted in human activity. The combination of these crises call into question the very future not of the planet, but of humanity.
However, the most powerful element of The 11th Hour is not a portrait of a planet in crisis, but the offering of hope and solutions. Scientists and environmental advocates such as David Orr and Gloria Flora paint a portrait for a radically new and exciting future in which humanity seeks not to dominate the earth's life systems, but to mimic them and coexist. The 11th Hour calls for a future now within our grasp that is both sustainable and healthier.

"Global warming is not only the number one environmental challenge we face today, but one of the most important issues facing all of humanity ... We all have to do our part to raise awareness about global warming and the problems we as a people face in promoting a sustainable environmental future for our planet." said DiCaprio.

Our World Will Be Transformed

2007-07-15T14:55:00.000-04:00

Transformers is a 2007 live action film based on the Transformers franchise, directed by Michael Bay and executive produced by Steven Spielberg. It stars Shia LaBeouf as Sam Witwicky, who has the map to the Allspark, the center of the war between the heroic Autobots and the evil Decepticons. The film also stars Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, Jon Voight and John Turturro, as well as Peter Cullen as the voice of Optimus Prime and Hugo Weaving as the voice of Megatron. Cullen voiced Optimus in the 1980s cartoon.
Producers Don Murphy and Tom DeSanto developed the film, and Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman wrote the script, aiming for a realistic interpretation of the characters. Though not a fan, Bay was convinced by Spielberg to direct, and he created an intricate design aesthetic for the computer-generated Transformers. Bay had support from General Motors and the United States military during filming, keeping the budget under $150 million. Armed with an enormous marketing campaign including comics, toys and tie-in deals, Transformers opened in the United States on July 2, 2007, and broke the box office record for the highest-grossing opening week for a non-sequel. Critics praised the special effects, but found the characterization lacking.

The film begins with the history of Cybertron's destruction at the hands of Megatron, and his quest to obtain the Allspark. Megatron discovers the Allspark on Earth, but crash-lands in the Arctic Circle, becoming frozen in the ice. Captain Archibald Witwicky and his crew of explorers stumble upon Megatron's body in 1897. Megatron's navigational system is unintentionally activated, and Archibald's eye glasses are imprinted with the coordinates to the Allspark's location. Sector 7, a secret organization of the United States government, discovers the Allspark and builds the Hoover Dam around it to mask the energy signal. The still-frozen Megatron is moved into this facility, and is reverse engineered to further advance human technology.

In the present day, the rest of the Decepticons — Blackout, Scorponok, Frenzy, Barricade, Starscream, Bonecrusher, and Devastator — have already landed on Earth and assumed the disguise of Earth vehicles. Blackout and Scorponok attack a U.S. military base in Qatar in an effort to use the military database to discover the location of Megatron and the Allspark, but they do not succeed. A small group of survivors who survived the assault at the military base wander through the desert and are attacked by Scorponok. The Autonomous Robotic Life Form (shortened to "Autobot") known as Bumblebee is also on Earth, disguised as a 1977 Chevrolet Camaro, and looking for Sam Witwicky, the descendant of Captain Archibald Witwicky. As soon as he locates Sam, the two quickly begin to bond as Bumblebee helps Sam try and woo his crush, Mikaela Banes; Sam is unaware of the fact that Bumblebee is an alien, until he witnesses Bumblebee transform and send out a homing signal for the rest of the Autobots. After Blackout's failure, Frenzy infiltrates Air Force One and discovers that Sam possesses the map, imprinted on Captain Witwicky's glasses, that will lead the Decepticons to the Allspark. Frenzy and Barricade begin tracking Sam's location.

Barricade confronts Sam, demanding Archibald's glasses. Bumblebee, who is following Sam, transforms and battles Barricade. Mikaela, who is also following Sam, is caught in the crossfire, and leaves with Sam and Bumblebee to rendezvous with the rest of the Autobots. The Autobots — Optimus Prime, Jazz, Ironhide, and Ratchet — land on Earth and take on the forms of several Earth vehicles. Sam, Mikaela, and the Autobots return to Sam's home to retrieve the glasses. Although the Autobots managed to get the glasses, agents from Sector 7 arrive to take Sam and Mikaela into custody. Bumblebee is also apprehended, against the pleas of Sam who assures the agents - to no avail - that he means them no harm.

Frenzy secretly accompanies the group to the Hoover Dam, and releases Megatron from suspended animation. Locating the Allspark, he sends out an alert to the rest of the Decepticons. Megatron escapes, and Sam convinces the Sector 7 agents to release Bumblebee so that he can get the Allspark to Optimus Prime. The Decepticons chase the Autobots, who now possess the Allspark, into a neighboring city. An ensuing battle results in casualties for both sides, ending with Sam killing Megatron and the Allspark when he holds the cube to Megatron's chest. Optimus Prime mourns the loss of his comrade Jazz, who has been killed by Megatron. The remains of the Decepticons are cast into the Laurentian Abyss by the U.S. Armed Forces. With no other home to go to - Cybertron having been destroyed by Megatron - the Autobots decide to stay on Earth, and Optimus sends out a signal across space in an effort to locate any other surviving Autobots, while Sam and Mikaela begin a relationship. Starscream, one of the Decepticons that survived the battle, leaves Earth.

Broken Saints

2007-07-02T13:32:00.001-04:00

Broken Saints is an award-winning, partially animated, Flash-animated film series by Brooke Burgess, Ian Kirby, and Andrew West. First published in 2001, it is a hybrid of the comic and animation art forms that its creators refer to as a "cinematic novel." Like a comic, characters on the most part remain in static poses and dialogue is indicated by speech balloons. However, rather than exclusively using sequential panels, animated sequences are used to switch scenes and help advance the story, while music (composed by Tobias Tinker and Quentin Grey, as well as classical pieces by Mozart and others) and sound effects are included, lending a more cinematic experience than one would ordinarily achieve with a comic strip alone.Broken Saints is some 12 hours long, split into 24 chapters published online between 2001 and 2003. The chapters become progressively longer, many with two or three acts. The culmination of the series, chapter 24, is five acts long - plus prologue and epilogue - and runs for 1 hour and 23 minutes.
Centered on philosophical, religious, political and spiritual themes, it tells the story of four strangers from "the quiet corners of the globe" connected by a vision they all receive of a coming evil. Their search for the truth behind the vision leads them to each other and to far larger and more disturbing truths than they could have expected.
The details of their respective visions vary, but each one contains a giant red cat's eye (accompanied by a terrific electronic screech), the ubiquitous symbol of the series. After seeing it, the four main characters fall into a temporary coma. The Eye -- a red circle with a thin black slit in the middle -- can easily be mistaken for a simplified Eye of Sauron, yet it is worth noting that Broken Saints made its debut before the release of the first of the three The Lord of the Rings films.
Several haikus (somewhat of a trademark of Brooke's) are presented as each episode loads, as well as quotes at the beginning and end from various sources, both tying in with themes and events of the episode. Several chapters contain animated scenes which introduce and close the chapter, and allude to various pop culture media such as The Matrix, Donnie Darko, Fight Club and The Wizard of Oz. Samples of songs from Montreal based band Godspeed You! Black Emperor were looped extensively in the soundtrack, and much of the dialogue, particularly in Chapter 14, is taken from the spoken word portions of there songs (some directly, and some slightly altered). The group is listed in the credits at the end of chapter 14 under "Loop Worship."
Each of the chapters was written and directed by Burgess, with Kirby doing the technical direction and West providing the artwork. The site was originally hosted (for the first 6 chapters) by Switch Interactive.
In 2005, a DVD version was released in association with Budget Monks Productions and Telefilm Canada, featuring improved or wholly redrawn art for the first several chapters, numerous featurettes, and a voice track for practically all dialogue. The voice actors included William B. Davis, David Kaye, Kirby Morrow, and Emmy-award winner Janyse Jaud. Burgess himself provided a character voice as well.
Recently a new DVD release was in the works, for international retail release. A few changes have been made, including a reworking of Chapter 13's artwork and commentary for each chapter. It was released on August 1st 2006.

The Sixth Sense

2007-07-02T13:21:00.000-04:00

The Sixth Sense is a 1999 Academy Award-nominated Psychological thriller film written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan that tells the story of Cole, a troubled, isolated boy (played by Haley Joel Osment) who claims to be able to see and talk to the dead, and an equally troubled child psychologist (played by Bruce Willis) who tries to help him. The film, like much of Shyamalan's work, is known for its twist ending.

As the film opens, Dr. Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) a prominent child psychologist, returns home one night with his wife from an event in which he was honored for his efforts with children. The two discover they are not alone - a disturbed, nearly naked man named Vincent Gray (Donnie Wahlberg) appears in the doorway of their bathroom with a gun. He says, "I don't want to be afraid anymore." (Cole, a central character in the movie, later says the same thing.) Vincent is upset that Crowe has not helped him, and Crowe realizes that Vincent is a former patient he treated as a child for his hallucinations. He condemns Malcolm for his inability to help him and shoots him in the stomach, and seconds later turns the gun on himself. The scene fades away with Malcolm's wife by his side, aiding him.
Months later, next fall, Malcolm returns to work with another frightened boy, 9-year old Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment), with a condition similar to Vincent's. Malcolm becomes dedicated to this patient, though he is haunted by doubts over his ability to help him, after his failure with Vincent. Meanwhile, he begins to neglect his wife, with whom his relationship is falling apart. Malcolm earns Cole's trust and Cole ultimately confides in him that he is clairvoyant and can "see dead people". Though Malcolm is naturally skeptical at first, he eventually comes to believe that Cole is telling the truth, and that Vincent may have had the same ability as Cole. He suggests to Cole that he try to find a purpose for his gift by communicating with the ghosts, perhaps to aid them in their unfinished business on Earth. Cole is at first skeptical about this advice, as the ghosts terrify him, but soon decides to try it.
Cole communicates with the ghost of one girl who appears in his bedroom and appears to be sick. He finds out where the girl, Kyra Collins (Mischa Barton), lived and goes to her house, where a funeral reception is being held for her. Kyra's ghost gives Cole a videotape, which Cole gives to Kyra's father. The tape reveals that when Kyra was bedridden with illness, her mother was poisoning her food, which led to Kyra's death (this behavior has been suggested as Munchausen syndrome by proxy or Factitious Disorder).[1] Empowered now by his ability to use his gift to positive effect, Cole confesses his ability to his mother, Lynn (Toni Collette). Although his mother is troubled by his story, Cole tells Lynn that her mother (Cole's grandmother) went to see her perform in a dance recital one night when she was a child, though Lynn was not aware of this because her mother stayed in the back of the audience where she could not be seen; he also tells her the answer to a question she asked when alone at her mother's grave. Lynn accepts this as the truth, and her relationship with Cole is strengthened.
His faith in himself now restored as a result of his success with Cole, Malcolm returns to his home, where he finds his wife sleeping on the couch, watching their old wedding video. As she sleeps, Anna's hand releases Malcolm's wedding ring, revealing the twist ending of the film — that Malcolm himself is unwittingly one of Cole's ghosts, having been killed by his ex-patient in the opening scene. Due to Cole's efforts, Malcolm's unfinished business, of rectifying his failure to understand Vincent, is completed. Recalling Cole's advice about talking to his wife while she's asleep, so that she'll have to listen, Malcolm releases her to move on with her life and frees himself to leave behind the world of the living.

Freddy Krueger Is Back!

2007-06-04T04:32:00.000-04:00

Freddy Krueger, full name Frederick Charles Krueger — is the main fictional character from the Nightmare on Elm Street series of films. Created by Wes Craven and portrayed by actor Robert Englund in every film of the series, he is an undead serial killer [2] who can attack his victims supernaturally from within their own dreams when they are in a state of sleep. Freddy is commonly identified by his burnt disfigured face, red and green striped sweater, brown fedora hat, and trademark metal-clawed leather glove. Freddy Krueger’s origin has slowly evolved over the course of the film series. Each subsequent film revealed new information that intertwined with the backstory established in the original film A Nightmare on Elm Street.A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors and A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child provided the origin of Krueger’s birth; which began with a tragic incident involving his mother in the early 1940s. During a Christmas holiday, a young nun named Sister Mary Helena (a.k.a Amanda Krueger) was accidentally trapped inside “the Tower”, a wing containing the worst of the criminally insane at Westin Hills psychiatric hospital. Amanda was raped and tortured numerous times by the one hundred patients confined there. She was found days later, close to death and now pregnant. Frederick Charles Krueger was born months later after a breech birth and was given up for adoption.

The sequel Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare showed that Krueger was placed with an abusive alcoholic named Mr. Underwood (portrayed by Alice Cooper) who abused him physically and emotionally. As a child, Freddy exhibited sociopathic behavior, which included killing small animals. Socially, he was often ridiculed by his peers. In his late teens, Freddy practiced self-mutilation; learning the "secret of pain", he murdered Underwood.Later in adulthood, Krueger would go on to marry Loretta, with whom he would have his daughter Kathryn Krueger. The Krueger family resided in Freddy's childhood home at 1428 Elm Street.[3] Kathryn was shown to still be a child when children from the neighborhood went missing and were later found dead. Soon after, Loretta learned that in the basement of the house, Freddy had a secret room where he would keep devices of torture, newspaper clippings of his crimes, and different versions of his clawed glove. Promising that "she won't tell" she was strangled by Freddy in front of Kathryn, "for snooping in daddy's special work". Krueger worked at the local power plant, and it was there where he had taken and murdered twenty missing neighborhood children; killing them in the plant's boiler room. The police were unable to solve the cases and newspapers dubbed the mysterious killer the "Springwood Slasher".

In 1966, Freddy was arrested for the murders of the missing children. Young Kathryn was put into foster care and was later adopted. Due to the search warrant not being signed correctly, all evidence was considered inadmissible, and Krueger was released in 1968. Amanda Krueger, who had followed Freddy’s trial, heard of his release and hung herself in the tower where she was raped. The neighborhood parents of the children Freddy had murdered found him in his boiler room later that night and threw Molotov cocktails in the building, trapping Freddy within. Just moments before his death, Freddy was approached by three dream demons. These demons search the mortal world for the most evil soul and, in turn, give that person the power to turn dreams into reality. Freddy accepted their offer to "be forever" as the flames consumed him. Afterward, Freddy's remains were taken to Penny Brothers Auto Salvage and locked in the trunk of an old red Cadillac. Presumably to help erase Krueger's existence, the Thompson family moved into the house on 1428 Elm Street. Adopted by the Burroughs family, young Kathryn was taken away from Springwood and her records were sealed.

Most Beautiful Smile of The World

2007-06-04T00:21:00.000-04:00

Julia Fiona Roberts (October 28, 1967) is an actress with a famous smile and she is also Academy Award-winning American film actress and former fashion model. She shot to fame during the early 1990s after starring in the romantic comedy, Pretty Woman, opposite Richard Gere. Since then, Roberts has become the highest-paid actress in the world, topping the Hollywood Reporter's annual power list of top-earning female stars for four consecutive years (2002-2005). Her career includes films such as Pretty Woman, Runaway Bride, and Ocean's Eleven, which have collectively earned box office receipts well over $2 billion. She won the Best Actress Academy Award in 2001 for her critically praised turn as the title character in Erin Brockovich after two previous nominations during the 1990s. For her fame and wholesome image, she is often referred to as "America's Sweetheart". An unprecedented $25 million was paid to Roberts for her role in 2003's Mona Lisa Smile. As of 2007, Roberts' net worth was estimated around US$140,000,000.[2] She was also the first actress to appear on the cover of Vogue and the first woman to land on the cover of GQ. She has been named one of People magazine's "50 Most Beautiful People in the World" a record-setting eleven times, tied with Halle Berry. In 2001 Ladies Home Journal ranked her as the 11th most powerful woman in America beating out then national security advisor Condoleezza Rice and first lady Laura Bush.
She maintains a close friendship with actress-activist Susan Sarandon.

Jaime Zavala's Virtuosity

2007-06-03T06:34:00.000-04:00

Nacido en 1976 en Viña del Mar, Jaime Zavala Benavente comenzó en 1988 sus estudios de guitarra y teoría. Aunque siempre se negó a tomar clases, sus propios métodos, altamente rigurosos y disciplinados, lo llevaron a transformarse en uno de los guitarristas más dotados técnica e interpretativamente, lo que habla de su gran capacidad musical y creativa.
Durante sus primeros años, Jaime Zavala se dedicó a absorber todo lo que llegaba a sus oídos: el rito diario lo constituían las 8 horas de estudio que cumplía religiosamente, donde analizaba la técnica de los guitarristas de bandas que sonaban en las radios en aquellos años, y estudiaba también Guitarra Clásica y Teoría Musical.
El esfuerzo de Zavala rápidamente daría que hablar. Ya en 1991, Jaime Zavala era permanentemente invitado a eventos en distintos colegios de Viña del Mar, donde deslumbraba a la audiencia por su virtuosismo y juventud. Pero Zavala, siempre en una posición extremadamente autocrítica, solía reprobar sus interpretaciones. Esto se debía a que recién durante ese tiempo tuvo la oportunidad de escuchar a algunos de los mejores guitarristas del mundo. Yngwie Malmsteen, Vinnie Moore y Joe Satriani se transformaron en la obsesión desde ese entonces para Zavala. Por ello estuvo ausente de todo evento hasta fines de 1992; sólo en ese entonces consideró que estaba en condiciones de presentarse. Pero la obra de los grandes maestros clásicos desde el comienzo acompañó a Zavala. Johann Sebastian Bach y Nicolò Paganini, sus preferidos, siempre tuvieron el más alto sitial en el concepto musical de Zavala. El problema era que no había forma de unir escuelas tan distintas, por ello Zavala se mantenía estudiando Guitarra Clásica, Guitarra Eléctrica y Teoría Musical en forma separada.
Definitivamente inclinado a estudiar Guitarra Eléctrica, pero sin intenciones de olvidar sus estudios paralelos, Zavala logró depurar su técnica hasta lograr un nivel jamás imaginado. En 1994, con sólo 18 años, se había transformado en uno de los mejores guitarristas de la región.
Al ingresar a la carrera de Ingeniería Civil Electrónica, en la Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Zavala debió ceder la mayor parte de su tiempo, antes dedicado a la música, al estudio científico. Pero eso no significó un obstáculo en la carrera musical Jaime Zavala, puesto que al verse limitado en el estudio y ejecución de la Guitarra Eléctrica, se dedicó a perfeccionar sus conocimientos de Teoría Musical, con el apoyo del músico Javier Pozo. En ese momento comienza a concretarse uno de los sueños más profundos de Jaime Zavala: componer música, bajo una sólida base teórica y una fuerte inspiración emocional. En 1994 se integra al staff de trabajo de Yngwie Malmsteen, lo que facilita de gran manera su difusión internacional. Durante el verano de 1995 Zavala se presentó con gran éxito en distintos eventos en Santiago. Su reputación de virtuoso, que siempre le ha molestado, comenzaba a conocerse. Pero en ese año Zavala estuvo muy complicado con su problema vocacional: Tenía mucho que entregar pero sus estudios de Ingeniería no lo dejaban rendir el cien por ciento. Y Zavala no estaba dispuesto a rendir menos que eso. Fue durante 1995 en que Jaime Zavala se dio cuenta que "hacer música es mucho más que interpretarla". En ese momento decidió dar prioridad al estudio y a la composición que al escenario.
En 1996 Zavala ya era reconocido como uno de los grandes guitarristas de Chile. En Mayo, el GIT del Musician's Institute of California, en Estados Unidos, publica durante un mes sus lecciones "Advanced Techniques for Electric Guitar". En ese año comienza a concebir la idea de transcribir obras doctas para ser interpretadas por instrumentos modernos, en su afán de lograr la perfecta comunión de sus dos tendencias musicales, y compone varias de las Sonatas que componen su Op.1. También se presenta con éxito en conciertos en Viña del Mar y Santiago.
1997 es uno los años más fructíferos para Zavala. Compone la gigantesca obra "Magno Himno CDP Op.2", para orquesta sinfónica y banda; termina de escribir las "7 Sonatas para Guitarra Clásica Op.1", comienza con sus primeras transcripciones de obras doctas, que finalmente conformarán el Op.4, y escribe un grupo de 4 estudios para Guitarra Eléctrica publicados como "The Electric Guitar Etudes Op.3", piezas que persiguen el afán instructivo de los 24 Capricci de Nicolò Paganini.
En 1998, crea el Tour de Force, nombre con el que bautizó sus conciertos de música docta para Guitarra Eléctrica (y el nombre que se daba en el siglo XVIII a los conciertos para violín de compleja ejecución). Decide dar prioridad al estudio y la composición, y realiza sólo 4 conciertos durante este año. Hace una magistral transcripción del Himno Nacional de Chile, para Guitarra Clásica, y del Himno Inglés "God Save The Queen", que forman "Transcriptions of National Anthems Op.5" y crea su primera obra para orquesta de cámara, "Concerto Nº1 in Sol maggiore Op.6". Trabaja inspirado en las composiciones de Jaime Barría, fundador de la banda chilena Bordemar, en un proyecto de folklore moderno, de donde aparecerá la "Cueca Progresiva". En Noviembre es aceptado como miembro del grupo mundial de Discusión y Análisis de la obra de Johann Sebastian Bach.
Durante 1999, compone un par de sonatas para Guitarra Clásica bautizadas como "Madre e Hija Op.7"; el "Concerto Nº2 in Mi minore Op.8", la "Overture Lorena Op.10" y "Allegro for Gabriela Op.11" (Obras para orquesta de cámara); el "Presto Op.9" (Obra para Clavecín), y varios experimentos musicales no catalogados. Realiza un par de conciertos en Santiago, fuera del concepto de Tour de Force.
El año 2000 momentos importantes suceden en la carrera de Jaime Zavala. Viaja a Estados Unidos, a buscar la magnífica guitarra que encargó a Ibanez, bautizada como "Ibanez Guarneri del Gesú", un verdadero lujo de instrumento que contribuye a realzar la técnica y calidad interpretativa de Jaime Zavala. En Mayo, el Istituto di Studi Paganiniani de Génova declara aprobada su transcripción para Guitarra Eléctrica de una de las sonatas para violín de Nicolò Paganini. Algunos críticos afirman que "hay muchos virtuosos pero Zavala es el único que logra hacer hablar su guitarra", por lo que la demanda por ver en vivo a Zavala, interpretando sus complejas transcripciones en su excepcional guitarra, se torna aún más alta cuando anuncia que el 2000 será el último año del Tour de Force. Finalmente, en los últimos días de Diciembre, en un pequeño lugar y acompañado por sus familiares y amistades más cercanas, realiza el Grand Finale del Tour de Force. En Febrero del año 2001, Jaime Zavala se incorpora como guitarrista estable al proyecto musical de MOMO. En una nueva faceta, totalmente ajena al virtuosismo que le valió el respeto de mucha gente y en muchos lugares del mundo, Zavala espera seguir con su objetivo: "más allá de la música, de la técnica y de lo que representa en sí la interpretación, están los sentimientos y los lugares mágicos a los cuales te puede llevar una melodía. Si yo, con mi música, soy capaz de llevar a alguien a esos lugares y de lograr que afloren los sentimientos, ese es el mejor premio que puedo recibir".

Antonio Jara, Kammermusic das Köln Orchester, Mayo 2001.

Contact: jzavalab@hotmail.com

Lisa Krueger's Cut

2007-06-03T05:03:00.000-04:00

Lisa Krueger directs Heather Graham on the set of Miramax's Committed - 2000

LISA KRUEGER (writer/director) grew up in the suburbs of San Francisco and attended the University of California at Berkeley. In her Junior year she was one of three undergraduates to be invited to the university's graduate-level Paris Film Program. After her year in Paris, Krueger returned to Berkeley, where she wrote an honors thesis on film music. After graduation, she returned to Paris, where she continued her studies under the direction of Christian Metz at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, and taught English at the University of Paris and at the American Center for Students and Artists. She began experimenting with the American Center's extensive video equipment, and was commissioned by the Center to create a series of video vignettes for use in its classrooms. Moving to New York City, Krueger worked briefly as an assistant to the video curator of the Museum of Modern Art, and then became a production manager for Academy Award-winning director Zbigniew Rybczynski. She also line-produced the American segments for Alain Tanner's "La Vallée Fantôme" and Pierre Granier Deferre's "La Couleur de Vent." Eager to move from production to directing, Krueger took up script supervision, or continuity, as a kind of "earn while your learn" film school. As a script supervisor, she worked closely with such directors as Jim Jarmusch (on "Mystery Train" and "Night on Earth"), Abel Ferrara ("King of New York") and James Ivory ("Mr. and Mrs. Bridge"), and was able to absorb first-hand the creative and technical aspects of movie-making. She then wrote, directed and co-edited "Best Offer," a half hour short described as a "coming of age story about a young girl's transition from four-legged love objects (horses) to two-legged ones (boys)." Featuring cinematography by her brother Tom and production design by her brother Mathew, "Best Offer" premiered at the 1993 Sundance Film Festival and went on to win awards at the San Francisco Film Festival, Chicago Film Festival, Houston Worldfest, Oberhausen and the CINE Golden Eagle, among others. "Best Offer" was also licensed for numerous television showings around the world. Krueger's first feature-length screenplay, "Manny & Lo," was honored by Robert Redford's Sundance Institute when it was chosen for its 1994 June Filmmakers and Writers Lab. As a "Sundance Fellow," Lisa was invited to rehearse, shoot on video and edit scenes from "Manny & Lo" with the actors of her choice (among them Mary Kay Place) over the course of four weeks in the mountains of Utah. Seasoned filmmakers/advisors were on hand to offer feedback, including Robert Redford, Arthur Penn, Alan Pakula, Paul Brickman, Richard Pierce, Morgan Freeman, Sally Field, and others. The institute also organized a stage reading of "Manny & Lo" with Morgan Freeman narrating. (Other films developed at the Sundance Filmmakers Lab include "Reservoir Dogs," "Impromptu," "Fresh," and "I Like It Like That.") Lisa Krueger currently divides her time among Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York.

9 Pirate Lords of The Brotherhood

2007-05-25T00:05:00.000-04:00

The film begins with Lord Cutler Beckett unmercifully executing mass amounts of people who are associated with piracy. Among them is an innocent looking young boy who starts singing a pirate song, Hoist the Colours. This song continues to be sung by the group who is waiting to be executed and it leads on to Elizabeth Swann, who is rowing a small sampan in Singapore. She arrives on shore with Captain Barbossa and they enter the bath house of Chinese pirate Sao Feng. Outside, Tia Dalma is disguised as a common hawker, and the rest of the crew break into the bath house for backup in case a fight breaks out. Inside, Captain Barbossa and Elizabeth reveal that they are here to ask for a ship and crew so they can rescue Jack Sparrow, who is trapped in Davy Jones' Locker. Sao Feng laughs as this request, claiming to be mortal enemies with Jack Sparrow, and revealing the coincidence that a thief had come to steal his navigational charts earlier that day. Will Turner, the thief, is pulled out of a tub of water and both Elizabeth and Barbossa look surprised, as they never expected Will to get caught. Sao Feng asks if the thief is part of theirs, and both of them deny it. But Elizabeth cries out just as Sao is about to stab Will. Sao Feng stops and spots a man with a fake dragon tattoo. Assuming that he is part of Barbossa's crew, Sao Feng's men pull out their swords, ready to fight and Barbossa and Elizabeth. Will points out the fake tattoo man isn't part of either party and suddenly, soldiers of the East India Trading Company burst in through the door firing their guns. A fight between the pirates and the Company ensue. Sao Feng and Will fight but negotiate a deal and Sao Feng offers them a junk and crew. Mr. Mercer, Beckett's right hand man in hiding overhears this but does not kill either of them.

Barbossa, Elizabeth, Will and the crew journey through a frozen ocean, with the help of Sao Feng's maps which Will stole after the fight. Tia Dalma explains that she couldn't revive Captain Jack Sparrow the same way as Barbossa as Barbossa was only killed, and his soul was taken to the land of the dead. As for Jack, he was taken both body and soul to Davy Jones' Locker. They continue sailing until Will spots at the horizon an enormous waterfall, which is the world's edge where all the sea ater pours over, and orders the crew to turn the ship around. However, Barbossa dismisses that order and shouts for the crew to let the ship be. They fall down the waterfall and into Davy Jones' Locker.
While imprisoned there, Jack Sparrow is confronted with the many facets of his character before jumping off his marooned Black Pearl. All around the ship is plain desert and with the help of some crabs, the Black Pearl is able to be dragged towards a beach. At that moment, the crew from the junk arrive and see the ship and Jack himself. They greet him warm heartedly, but Jack retorts that why should he sail with them, since four of them had tried to kill him, and one of them succeeded. Will turns around to see Elizabeth looking guilty as ever.
Despite their mutual animosity and distrust, Sparrow and Barbossa form an alliance when they discover Cutler Beckett possesses the heart of Davy Jones, has begun purging piracy with the commanded assistance of Davy Jones and the Flying Dutchman ship. The world's pirates must gather for a meeting of the brotherhood known as the Brethren of the Coast, consisting of nine pirate lords, and they should hurry, because the pirate song has already been sung.
During a squabble between Sparrow and Barbossa on board the Black Pearl, Sao Feng and his men appear claiming the ship and names Will as captain. Everyone is taken by surprise, especially Elizabeth. Barbossa tries to negotiate a deal, claiming he has Calypso, goddess of the sea, in her human form. Sao Feng looks at Elizabeth and captures her to his ship, the Empress. That evening Sao Feng pampers the captured Elizabeth and calls her Calypso. The Empress is suddenly attacked by the Flying Dutchman and Sao Feng is killed. Elizabeth is chosen by him to be the new captain of the Empress, due to his belief that she is Calypso, despite the revelation that Tia Dalma is. The Empress crew and Elizabeth is then held prisoner in the Flying Dutchman, controlled by Lord Beckett.
On board the Flying Dutchman, Elizabeth meets Will's father, Bootstrap Bill who appears to have amnesia. James Norrington, the East India Trading Company commander of the Flying Dutchman frees the Empress crew and Elizabeth. Bootstrap Bill realizes this, alarms others and then kills James Norrington.
At the Brethren of the Coast, eight of the nine pirate lords discuss the threat of Beckett and the release of Calypso from her imprisoned human form. Expecting Sao Feng to show up and reach a decision, they see Elizabeth instead. Every pirate argues over the matters at hand and Jack proposes they make a king. Since every pirate lord only has one vote, and that they would only vote for themselves, everyone is taken by awe when Jack votes for Elizabeth instead of himself, making her the Pirate King of the Brethren. Against Barbossa's persuasion, Elizabeth orders the pirates to fight against Beckett and leave Calypso be.
As all the pirates get ready to fight they see the horizon filled with Lord Beckett's massive fleet and are dumbstruck. Barbossa then frees Tia Dalma/Calypso and ask her to help in the battle between pirates, Davy Jones, the Royal Navy, and the East India Trading Company. In this climactic battle in a maelstrom, Elizabeth and Will are joined in matrimony by Captain Barbossa whilst fighting the crew of the Flying Dutchman. Soon after Davy Jones stabs Will in the heart, but Jack takes Davy Jones' heart and Will stabs it, killing Davy Jones.
He who kills the captain of the Flying Dutchman must replace the captain for eternity. Therefore Will is now the captain of the Flying Dutchman. Elizabeth is heartbroken, thinking Will is dead, but as the Flying Dutchman emerges from within the sea, Will is alive and the crew has returned to normal. The pirates of the Black Pearl and the Flying Dutchman then turn to face Cutler Beckett, and sink him and his ship to the depths.
The pirates emerge victorious, but learn that the Flying Dutchman must stay in the undersea-world and can only come to shore for one day, every ten years. Will and Elizabeth spend their "last day" together on a beach and she promises she will wait for him and keep his heart safe. Jack embarks on a quest to find the fountain of youth. After the credits, it is revealed that Will and Elizabeth have had a son, whose name is also William Turner, and the family is seen reuniting ten years later. Whether Will will have to stay on the Flying Dutchman, or whether Elizabeth's fidelity will allow them to be together, is unclear at the finale.

300: Atlanteans versus Lemurians

2007-04-04T17:24:00.000-04:00

300 is a 2007 film adaptation of the graphic novel 300 by Frank Miller, itself partly inspired by another film, The 300 Spartans,[1] and is a fictional[2] account of the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC. The film is directed by Zack Snyder with Frank Miller attached as an executive producer and consultant, and was shot mostly with bluescreen to duplicate the imagery of the original comic book.

Spartan King Leonidas (Gerard Butler) and 300 Spartans fight to the last man against Persian King Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro) and his army of over one million soldiers, while in Sparta, Queen Gorgo (Lena Headey) attempts to rally support for her husband. The story is framed by a voice-over narrative by the Spartan soldier Dilios (David Wenham). Through this narrative technique, all manner of fantastical creatures are introduced, placing 300 within the genre of historical fantasy.
300 was released in both conventional and IMAX theaters in America on March 9, 2007. The film broke box office records, although critics were divided over its look and style. Some acclaimed it as an original achievement, while others accused it of favoring visuals over characterization. Controversy arose over its depiction of the ancient world. A group of Persian messengers arrive at Sparta, demanding Sparta's submission to King Xerxes. Outraged and offended at their behavior, King Leonidas and his guards throw the messengers into a pit, resolving to face the Persians. Leonidas then visits the Oracle, explaining his plan of war with the Persians and offers a customary payment in gold. The priests of the Oracle, having already been bribed by Xerxes, interpret her message to mean that Sparta should not go to war, so as to not interrupt the sacred Carneian festival.
Despite the warning, Leonidas gathers 300 of his best soldiers to fight the Persians, selecting only those who have already sired male children. As they march North, they are joined by a group of Arcadians and other Greeks. Arriving at the narrow cliffs of Thermopylae (referred to as the "Hot Gates"), in sight of the Persian army, they build a wall to halt the Persians' advance. Ephialtes, a hunchbacked Spartan whose parents had fled to save him from customary infanticide, approaches Leonidas, requesting to redeem his father's name in battle, and warning him about a secret goat path that the Persians could use to surround them. Leonidas turns him away as his inability to properly hold the shield would create a weak spot in the phalanx.
Before the battle starts, the Persians ask that the 300 drop their arms. Leonidas responds; "Persians! Come and take them!" The Spartans use the phalanx formation and hand to hand combat to fight off numerous waves of attackers including Xerxes's elite guard, the Immortals. The 300 defend their position while suffering relatively few losses. Xerxes, impressed, personally approaches Leonidas and promises him wealth and power in exchange for his surrender. The Spartan king declines, saying that he will instead make the "God King" bleed. Shortly thereafter, an embittered Ephialtes reveals the location of the goat path to Xerxes, having been promised a lucrative and powerful position in the Persian Empire.
Back in Sparta, Queen Gorgo, upon the advice of a councilman, attempts to enlist the influential Theron to help her persuade the Spartan council to send reinforcements to Leonidas. Theron agrees to help, but demands that Gorgo submit sexually to him; Gorgo reluctantly assents. Meanwhile, the Greeks realize that Ephialtes has betrayed them, and the Arcadians decide to retreat in the face of certain death. The Spartans refuse to follow, obedient to their law. Leonidas orders only one man, Dilios, to retreat and use his rhetorical skills to tell the story of the 300 to the Spartan people, ensuring that they be remembered. Dilios reluctantly leaves with the Arcadians. At Sparta, Queen Gorgo appears in front of the council, but is not supported by Theron, who furthermore accuses her of adultery. The Queen, enraged at this betrayal, snatches a sword from a nearby soldier and kills Theron. Persian coins fall from his purse, the Council denounces him as a traitor, and unites against Persia.
At Thermopylae, the Persians have surrounded the 300 on all sides. Xerxes's spokesman demands their surrender, saying that Leonidas may keep his title as King of Sparta and become warlord of all Greece, answerable only to Xerxes. In defiance, Leonidas throws his spear at Xerxes, cutting his cheek, delivering on his promise to "make the 'God King' bleed." Shaken at the reminder of his own mortality, Xerxes orders his archers to fire. The remaining Spartans are killed in the hail of arrows, with Leonidas dying last. Dilios eventually returns to Sparta and inspires the council with the bravery of the 300.
Dilios finishes his tale of the 300 on a new battlefield surrounded by raptly listening soldiers. He concludes that the Persian army, who defeated a mere 300 Spartans a year earlier with great difficulty, must now be terrified to face 10,000 Spartans and 30,000 Greeks from the other city-states. The roused Greek host heads off to fight the Persian army, beginning the Battle of Plataea.

Edward Abramovitz, The Alquimist

2007-04-04T16:32:00.002-04:00

"Mesmerizing; the Illusionist casts an exquisitely bewitching spell with its dreamy atmosphere and persuasive sense of suspense. Neil Burger has fashioned a beautifully shot mystery, with precise and elegant attention to period detail, which heightens the sense of intrigue in this romantic thriller. The well crafted tale is bolstered by the powerful performance of Edward Norton. Just as strong are Paul Giamatti and Rufus Sewell. This suspenseful and stylish film has a welcome sense of originality. The story is rendered fluidly, with gorgeous production design, and the haunting score by Philip Glass adds to the spellbinding quality. It is a pleasure to see Edward Norton deliver yet another remarkable performance."

Claudia Puig - USA TODAY

The film begins in medias res (in the middle of the story) as chief inspector Uhl (Giamatti) recounts the history of Eisenheim for Crown Prince Leopold, following Eisenheim's arrest during what appears to be necromancy passed off as a magic show. As a teenager, young Eisenheim (played by Aaron Johnson) is the son of a cabinetmaker. One day, he meets a traveling magician along a road. The magician performs several tricks for him and then, according to various accounts, both the magician and the tree he was sitting under vanish. Eisenheim becomes obsessed with magic tricks after this and also falls in love with Sophie von Teschen (Biel), a duchess well above his social standing, and the daughter of the parents that have hired Eisenheim's father as a cabinetmaker. Although the two are forbidden to see each other, they meet in a secret hideout in the woods, where Eisenheim tells of his plans to go to China to learn more magic and Sophie promises to go with him. On the day that they are going to leave, however, the police come looking for Sophie. The two hide in the secret room and Sophie begs Eisenheim to make them both disappear. He is unable to fulfill this request, however, and the two are separated. Eisenheim leaves his village to travel the world and perfect his magic after this. He returns a master illusionist. He meets Sophie at his performance when she volunteers as a participant in his trick. He soon learns that Sophie is expected to marry the ruthless Crown Prince Leopold (Sewell), who is well known for abusing his lady friends. After humiliating the crown prince during a private show, Eisenheim finds his hit performance shut out of Vienna. Eisenheim and Sophie, having recognized each other from his previous performance, meet privately and finally consummate their love. Their romance begun anew, they plan to elope; but first, Sophie points out, something must be done to stop Leopold, who, she reveals, is planning a coup d'etat to take control of Austria from his aging father, Emperor Franz Joseph, while using his engagement to her to win the support of Hungary. When Leopold finds out from Uhl, who was following the couple, he apparently kills Sophie in a drunken rage. Unfortunately, Leopold's aristocratic social standing makes any accusations against him unthinkable. As Eisenheim plunges into despair and the citizens of Vienna begin to suspect Leopold of murder, Uhl begins to observe Eisenheim's actions more closely.
Racked with grief, Eisenheim prepares a new kind of magic show, using mysterious equipment and Chinese stagehands. Eisenheim purchases a run-down theater and opens a new performance. During his show, Eisenheim apparently summons spirits, leading many to believe that he possesses supernatural powers. Uhl attempts to stop his show but is unsuccessful.
Leopold decides to attend one of Eisenheim's shows in disguise. During this show, Eisenheim summons the spirit of Sophie, who says someone in the theater murdered her, panicking Leopold. Uhl pleads with Eisenheim to stop, but Eisenheim refuses; he is bent on being with Sophie and ruining the crown prince and the ruling Habsburg house. Finally, Leopold orders Eisenheim's arrest, but when Uhl tries to arrest him during a live show, Eisenheim's body fades and disappears, implying that he did not perform the show as a corporeal human being that night but, rather, as a "spirit".
At this point, we return to the first scene of the movie. Uhl reveals to Leopold that he has found evidence which points to the crown prince as Sophie's murderer: a jewel from the prince's sword, and Sophie's locket that Eisenheim gave her when they were kids. After ordering, then begging Uhl to keep silent, Leopold discovers that Uhl has already informed the emperor's general staff not only of his findings but of Leopold's plans to usurp the Austrian throne. When the general staff arrives at his palace, Leopold shoots himself in despair after sadly reflecting on the state of Austria's corrupt government.

In the next scene, Uhl is shown leaving the imperial castle. After he takes a few steps, a boy runs up to hand him a folio labeled "Orange Tree" – the name of one of Eisenheim's illusions which had intrigued Uhl – and unlike before, it is filled with plans detailing a geared mechanism to make the tree "grow". Uhl demands to know where the child found the folio and is told that Eisenheim had given it to him. Uhl spots Eisenheim wearing a disguise and follows him to the train station. During his chase, Uhl begins to make mental connections, shown in the form of flashbacks. He realizes that Sophie's murder was in fact itself an illusion created by Eisenheim in order to escape with his love and bring down Leopold. After the flashbacks, Eisenheim is seen making his way to the country, where Sophie awaits him.

Family As A House

2007-04-02T04:48:00.000-04:00

Life as a House is a 2001 film starring Kevin Kline, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Hayden Christensen. Directed by Irwin Winkler and written by Mark Andrus, the film involves the metaphorical and emotional underpinnings of demolishing and reconstructing a house. The film is set in picturesque Rancho Palos Verdes, California and is notable for its dramatic use of the coast and of sunsets.Kevin Kline plays George Monroe, who is fired from his job as a designer of architectural models and is diagnosed with terminal cancer. He enlists the help of his reluctant and rebellious son Sam, played by Hayden Christensen, to demolish the shack that George inherited from his abusive father and build an elegant home in its place. During this experience, George reconnects with his son and his divorced wife Robin, played by Kristin Scott Thomas. The movie is a source of discovery both for George and Sam. Sam in particular changes from a rebellious drug taking teen into something more closely resembling his father. This is evident in the final sequence, in which Sam gives the house to a woman disabled by a car accident caused by George's father while driving under the influence.

"Life as a house seen from a distance, it's perfect."

Unbreakable

2007-03-31T13:39:00.000-04:00

Kevin's Invitation

2007-03-30T06:24:00.000-04:00

El Manto Sagrado

2007-03-28T04:23:00.000-04:00

The Secret

2007-03-21T19:13:00.000-04:00

In some place, Afrika keep hiding away the ark

The Body

2007-03-07T13:18:00.000-03:00

The Body is a 2001 film based on a novel by Richard Sapir, and starring Antonio Banderas and Olivia Williams.
The movie follows Father Matt Gutierrez (Banderas), a Jesuit priest sent by the Vatican to investigate an archaeologic finding by Dr. Sharon Golban (Williams) which is suspected to be the remains of the body of Jesus Christ. This finding puts Gutierrez' faith and his doubts in constant confrontation with Golban's scientific views. Also, the finding stirres the political problems between Palestine and Israel in the area, while also shaking the foundations of Christianity itself. Both of these problems put Dr. Golban, and Gutierrez himself, in danger. Dr. Sharon Golban (Williams) finds an ancient skeleton in Jerusalem in a rich man's tomb. Coloration of the wrist and leg bones indicates the cause of death was crucifixion. other signs, include a gold coin bearing the marks of Pontius Pilate and faint markings around the skull, lead authorities to suspect that these could be the bones of Christ. The different reactions of politicians, clerics, religious extremists—some prepared to use terror to gain their ends—to the religious, cultural and political implications of the find, make life difficult and dangerous for the investigators as they seek to unearth the truth.
Father Matt Gutierrez, is assigned by the Vatican to investigate the case and to protect the Christian faith. Troubled by his case, he comes to understand that it is the Church that he is protecting and not the faith.

The Body by James Cameron

2007-03-05T18:10:00.000-03:00

Write on Another Side of Paper

2007-02-02T04:07:00.000-03:00

Mel Columcille Gerard Gibson AO (born January 3, 1956) is an Australian raised American born actor, director, and producer. After establishing himself as a household name with the Mad Max and Lethal Weapon series, Gibson went on to direct and star in the Academy Award-winning Braveheart. Gibson's direction of Braveheart made him only the sixth actor-turned-filmmaker to receive an Oscar for Best Director.[1] In 2004, he directed and produced The Passion of the Christ, a blockbuster movie that portrayed the last hours of the life of Jesus.

Early life

Mel Gibson is the son of Hutton Gibson and Anne Reilly Gibson. His paternal grandmother was the Australian opera singer, Eva Mylott. He was born in Peekskill, New York, the sixth of eleven children. One of Mel's younger brothers, Donal, is also an actor. Gibson's first name comes from a 5th century Irish saint, Mel, founder of the diocese of Ardagh containing most of his mother's native county, while his second name, Columcille is also linked to an Irish saint.[2] Columcille is the name of the parish in County Longford where Anne Reilly was born and raised. Although Gibson is a native-born United States citizen, Gibson's father relocated the family to Australia in 1968, after his father won a work related injury lawsuit against New York Central after a seven day trial on February 14, 1968 where the jury awarded him $145,000.[3] The family moved when Gibson was twelve. This move was in protest of the Vietnam War for which Gibson's elder brothers risked being drafted. It is also because Gibson's father believed that changes in American society were immoral.

Film career

Gibson graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney in 1977. His acting career began in Australia with appearances in television series, including The Sullivans, Cop Shop and Punishment. Gibson's handsome boyish good looks made him a natural for leading male roles in action projects such as the "Mad Max" series of films, Peter Weir's Gallipoli, and the "Lethal Weapon" series of films. Later, Gibson expanded into a variety of acting projects including human dramas such as Hamlet, and comedic roles such as those in Maverick and What Women Want. His greatest artistic and financial success came with films where he expanded beyond acting into directing and producing, such as 1993's The Man Without a Face, 1995's Braveheart and 2004's Passion of the Christ.

Mad Max

Gibson made his film debut as the leather-clad post-apocalyptic survivor in George Miller's Mad Max. The film was totally independently financed and had a reported budget of $300,000 AUD — of which $15,000 was paid to Mel Gibson for his performance. The film achieved incredible success, and went on to earn $100 million world wide. It held a record in Guinness Book of Records as the highest profit-to-cost ratio of a motion picture, and only lost the record in 2000 to The Blair Witch Project. The film was awarded four Australian Film Institute Awards in 1979. When the film was first released in America, all the voices, including that of Mel Gibson's character, were dubbed with U.S. accents at the behest of the distributor, American International Pictures, for fear that audiences would not take warmly to actors speaking entirely with Australian accents. The original film spawned two larger sequels: Mad Max 2 (known in North America as The Road Warrior), and Mad Max 3 (known in North America as Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome). A fourth movie, Mad Max 4: Fury Road, has been considered but has not been produced.

The Bounty

In 1984, starred as Fletcher Christian in The Bounty. Reportedly, Gibson and Anthony Hopkins, his costar on the film, did not get along during the shoot. At the time, Anthony Hopkins was a teetotaler, and Mel Gibson was struggling with alcoholism. Gibson frequently spent his evenings in local saloons and took to mixing two shots of Scotch with his beer. He dubbed the concoction "Liquid Violence". In one incident, Gibson's face was severely cut up in a bar room brawl and the film's shooting schedule had to be rearranged while he was flown to a hospital in Papeete.

Lethal Weapon

Gibson moved into more mainstream commercial filmmaking with the popular Lethal Weapon series, in which he starred as LAPD Detective Martin Riggs, an emotionally unstable Vietnam veteran with a death wish and a penchant for violence and gunplay. In the films, he was partnered with the elder and more reserved Roger Murtaugh (played by Danny Glover). This series would come to exemplify the action genre's so-called buddy film. The two actors were trained in two different schools of acting. Gibson is classically trained and Glover is a method actor. Three sequels were produced.

Hamlet

Gibson made the unusual transition from the action to classical genres, playing the melancholy Danish prince in Franco Zeffirelli's Hamlet. Gibson was cast alongside such experienced Shakespearean actors as Ian Holm, Alan Bates, and Paul Scofield. He described working with his fellow cast members as similar to being "thrown into the ring with Mike Tyson". The film met with critical and marketing success and remains steady in DVD sales. It also marked the transformation of Mel Gibson from action hero to serious actor and filmmaker.

Braveheart

Gibson stated that when the Braveheart script arrived and was recommended by his agents, he rejected it outright because he thought he was too old to play the part. After careful thought, he decided to not only act in the film, but to direct it as well. Gibson received two Academy Awards, Best Director and Best Picture, for his 1995 direction of Braveheart. In the movie, Gibson starred as Sir William Wallace, a thirteenth-century Scottish freedom fighter. He said in interviews that he was attempting to make a film similar to the epics he had loved as a child, such as Stanley Kubrick's Spartacus and The Big Country. The filming began in the Scottish Highlands. After learning that the intended filming locations were among the rainiest spots in Europe, the shooting was moved to Ireland, where members of the Irish Army Reserve worked as extras in the battle scenes.

The Passion of the Christ

Gibson co-wrote, produced and directed the The Passion of the Christ. The 2004 film was based on the last twelve hours of the life of Jesus according to the most widely recognized Christian gospels, rendered multilingually in Aramaic, Hebrew, and Latin. Reviews were mixed, with critics ranging from praising the film for its realistic depiction of Jesus' final hours from a Catholic point of view and criticism of violence, manipulation and charges of anti-Semitism.[4][5] Asked if his movie would "upset Jews", Gibson responded, "It's not meant to. I think it's meant to just tell the truth. I want to be as truthful as possible."[6] Accusations of anti-Semitism were fueled by revelations that Mel Gibson's father Hutton Gibson is a vocal Holocaust denier who believes much of the Holocaust is "fiction".[7] On his decision to cut the scene in which Caiaphas says "his blood be on us and on our children" soon after Pontius Pilate washes his hands of Jesus, Gibson said:
I wanted it in. My brother said I was wimping out if I didn't include it. But, man, if I included that in there, they'd be coming after me at my house. They'd come to kill me.>[8][9][10] The movie grossed US$ 611,899,420 worldwide and $370,782,930 in the US alone. It became the eighth highest-grossing film in history and the highest-grossing rated R film of all time. The ticket sales were boosted by the film attracting viewers who generally do not attend theaters, including entire church congregations.[11] The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Original Music Score, Best Cinematography, and Best Makeup at the 77th Academy Awards and won the People's Choice Award for Best Drama. The movie was the subject of the feature documentary 'Impact: The Passion of the Christ' (http://www.Impactthemovie.com) by writer/director Tim Chey (http://www.TimChey.net) which was released into the theaters and is now on DVD.

Apocalypto

Gibson's next historical epic, Apocalypto, was released to theaters on December 8, 2006. The film is set in Mesoamerica, during the period immediately before the Spanish conquest. It focuses on the decline of the Maya civilization which reached its zenith around 600 AD. Dialogue is spoken in the Yucatec Maya language. It features a cast of unknown actors from Mexico City, the Yucatán, and some Native Americans from the United States. While Gibson financed the film himself, Disney released it in specific markets. The film is set against the turbulent end times of the once great Maya civilization. When a Maya man's idyllic existence is brutally disrupted by a violent invading force, he is taken on a perilous journey. Through a twist of fate and spurred by the power of his love for his woman and his family he will make a desperate break to return home and to ultimately save his way of life. The title is a Greek term which means "an unveiling" or "new beginning", but the movie is not religiously themed or connected to the biblical Apocalypse. Gibson pre-screened Apocalypto to two predominantly Native American audiences in Oklahoma, at the Riverwind Casino in Goldsby, owned by the Chickasaw Nation, and at Cameron University in Lawton [1].

Family

On June 7, 1980, Gibson married Robyn Moore, a nurse whom he met through a dating service, in a Catholic Church in Forestville, New South Wales. He has referred to his wife as "my Rock of Gibraltar, only much prettier." They have seven children, one daughter and six sons: Hannah (born 1980), twins Edward and Christian (born 1982), Willie (born 1985), Louis (born 1988), Milo (born 1990), and Tommy (born 1999). Gibson is Roman Catholic and his wife is Anglican. He holds to the Catholic doctrine of "Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus", and when asked how this doctrine would affect his wife, he said: "There is no salvation for those outside the Church; I believe it. My wife is a saint. She's a much better person than I am. Honestly. ... She prays, she believes in God, she knows Jesus, she believes in that stuff. And it's just not fair if she doesn't make it; she's better than I am. But that is a pronouncement from the chair. I go with it.” [12] Hannah Gibson, Mel's eldest child and only daughter, married the musician Kenny Wayne Shepherd on September 16th, 2006. [13] She had previously considered becoming a Catholic nun or religious sister. [citation needed] On December 17, 2006, British tabloid newspaper News of the World published claims by a 29 year-old Australian woman, Carmel Sloane, that Gibson is her father. The story reports that she intends to serve legal papers demanding a DNA paternity test if he refuses to admit to this relationship. [14]

Personal and Political Views

Religion

Based on many of his positions, Gibson can be considered a traditionalist Roman Catholic. In 2004, he publicly condemned taxpayer-funded embryonic stem-cell research that involves the cloning and destruction of human embryos. In March 2005, he issued a statement condemning the ending of Terri Schiavo's life, referring to her death as "state-sanctioned murder" on Sean Hannity's radio show.[15] He is a proponent of the death penalty, which the traditional doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church allows for under specific circumstances, but which post-Vatican II Popes have said is rarely justifiable in modern society.[16] Gibson has expressed the belief that God is pointing out his path, particularly with respect to the making of The Passion of the Christ. In 2003 he told The New Yorker "There are signals. Signal graces, they are called. It's as clear as a traffic light. Bing! I mean, it just grabs you and you know you have to listen to that and you have to follow it."[17] At a screening of the film for clergy, he stated that the Holy Spirit was making the film through him, "I was just directing traffic".[17]

Politics

While having never identified himself as being a conservative Republican, Gibson has been referred to as one in The Washington Times, and WorldNetDaily once reported that there was grassroots support among Republicans for "a presidential run".[18]. Gibson praised liberal director Michael Moore and his documentary film Fahrenheit 9/11.[19] Gibson's Icon Productions originally agreed to back Moore's film, but abruptly sold the rights to Miramax Films. Moore has claimed that "top Republicans" intimidated Mel Gibson into relinquishing the film.[20] In a July 1995 interview with Playboy magazine, Gibson said President Bill Clinton was a "low-level opportunist" because someone was "telling him what to do". He said he thought Clinton and other politicians who had won Rhodes Scholarships were part of a "stealth" trend of Rhodes scholars becoming politicians who were striving for a "new world order." He said this was a form of Marxism.[21][22] In 2006 Gibson told the UK film magazine EMPIRE that the "fearmongering" depicted in his film Apocalypto "reminds me a little of President Bush and his guys."[23] He has criticized the Iraq War in interviews. [2]

His critics

Gibson has expressed strong opinions of his critics. In an interview with Playboy, he said of the author of an unauthorized biography, "I don't think God will put him in my path. He deserves death."[21] After Frank Rich of the New York Times wrote that Gibson's Passion of the Christ would inflame anti-Semitism and accused Gibson of "protecting a Holocaust denier" by refusing to denounce his father, Gibson told The New Yorker, "I want to kill him. I want his intestines on a stick. I want to kill his dog."[17] Gibson's Traditionalist Catholic beliefs have also been the target of attacks, especially during the controversy over his film The Passion of the Christ. When the film premiered in France, the newspaper Libération, considered the voice of French Liberalism, dubbed Gibson's religious beliefs "the Shiite version of Christianity." Gibson recently stated in an interview with Diane Sawyer that he feels that his "human rights were violated," by the often vitriolic attacks on his person, his family, and his religion which were sparked by "The Passion."

Controversy

Accusations of homophobia

Some gay rights groups accused Gibson of homophobia, after a 1992 interview in the Spanish newspaper El País. Asked what he thought of gay people, he said, "They take it up the ass." Gibson gestured descriptively, continuing, "This is only for taking a shit." When the interviewer recalled that Gibson previously had expressed fear that people would think he is gay because he's an actor, Gibson replied, "Do I sound like a homosexual? Do I talk like them? Do I move like them? I think not." However, when reminded that he had worked closely with gay students at university, he said they were "kind people." Additionally, he later defended his comments on Good Morning America, saying, "[Those remarks were a response] to a direct question. If someone wants my opinion, I'll give it. What, am I supposed to lie to them?"[24][25] In the Playboy interview, he responded to GLAAD's protests over his comment with "I'll apologize when hell freezes over. They can fuck off".[21] Eventually, however, to make amends with the gay community and show he was not homophobic, Gibson joined GLAAD in hosting 10 lesbian and gay filmmakers for an on-location seminar on the set of the movie Conspiracy Theory.[26] Although Gibson did not write the screenplay for Braveheart [27], the depiction of a homosexual character in the film drew accusations of homophobia.[28] Although historians agree that Prince (later King) Edward II of England was a mere puppet of Piers Gaveston, Hugh Despenser and Isabella of France, they dispute the portrayal of Edward as effeminate. Edward's father, also, never threw his male lover out of a window as portrayed in the movie. Gibson was accused of homophobia once more in his movies with his portrayal of Herod Antipas in The Passion of the Christ. Antipas is portrayed as an effeminate homosexual wearing makeup and having 'boy-toys'. The character was a similar portrayal of the same character in the film Jesus Christ Superstar. Although this was a common caricature of Herod in medieval Passion plays, it is contrary to the historical record regarding Antipas. It is of note that the Greek text has Christ describing Herod as a "vixen", or female fox, rather than "fox" in the Gospel.

Accusations of anglophobia

Gibson was accused of anglophobia by English audiences and press based on his direction of Braveheart and the liberties taken with historical content in the film. In addition, Gibson was further criticized for The Patriot. Although he did not write the screenplay, in his film Braveheart Prince Edward of Carnarvon (later King Edward II of England) was depicted as an effete homosexual who was not the true father of his son, the future Edward III of England. The film also made use of the concept of Droit de seigneur although this is historically inaccurate. Gibson has stated that it was more cinematically compelling to falsely include the Droit de seigneur because it portrayed Edward Longshanks, the King of England played by Patrick McGoohan as a sinister tyrant. Gibson was further accused of anglophobia following the release of The Patriot in 2000, despite neither directing or writing the script for the film. The movie depicted the British in an extremely negative light and took many liberties in its depiction of the American character played by Gibson, who was loosely based on "The Swamp Fox," Francis Marion. According to Wensley Clarkson's unauthorized biography, the Gibsons, like many Irish-American families, have always been openly anti-British. Clarkson further cites family friends and relatives who allegedly told him that Gibson's maternal grandmother was raped by the Black and Tans during the Irish War of Independence. [33] However, Mel Gibson did voice a British character, John Smith, in Disney's Pocahontas.

Accusations of anti-Semitism

Gibson has been accused of anti-Semitism on at least two occasions

In 2004, his film The Passion of the Christ was criticized for alleged anti-Semitic imagery and overtones. Gibson strongly denied that the film was anti-Semitic, but critics remained divided. Many agreed that the film was consistent with a strict interpretation of the Gospels and traditional Catholic teachings, while others argued that it reflected a selective reading of the Gospels[34], and failed to comply with recommendations for dramatization of The Passion[35] issued by either the Vatican or the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.[36] On July 28, 2006, Gibson was arrested in California for speeding and on suspicion of drunk driving (see: Mel Gibson DUI incident). According to a leaked police report, he was abusive to the arresting officers and remarked "...Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world," asking one of them, “Are you a Jew?”[37] He later issued, through his publicist, two apologies for the incident. In his second statement, he specifically denied being an anti-Semite and apologized to the Jewish community.[38] Anti-Defamation League National Director Abraham Foxman issued a statement accepting Gibson's apology and expressing a willingness to help in Gibson's rehabilitation.[39]

Prankster

Gibson has a reputation for being a prankster on the set of his movies.

Helena Bonham Carter, who appeared alongside him in Hamlet, said of him: "He has a very basic sense of humor. It's a bit lavatorial and not very sophisticated." [41] While filming Conspiracy Theory, he played several pranks on co-star Julia Roberts, one of which included gift wrapping a dead rat.[42]

Drug and Alcohol Abuse

According to Gibson biographer

Wensley Clarkson, Gibson's alcoholism dates to his teenage years. Clarkson also states that Gibson's repeated attempts to stop drinking have led to relapses whenever his stress level increased. A feature article on Gibson published on the DailyCatholic website March 17, 2004, described as having been written four years previously and before The Passion of The Christ, states, "He has made it known that from an early age he suffered from being manic depressive, but through his strong faith and appropriate medicines he has been able to overcome these shortcomings to attain the heights of stardom."[43] This disorder is often linked with alcohol abuse and/or self-destructive behavior.

Mugshot taken after arrest on DUI charges

In 1984, Gibson was arrested for drunk driving after he rear-ended a car in Toronto. According to Clarkson, when the other driver exited his vehicle and began shouting profanity at him, Mel Gibson laughed and offered him a drink. He was fined $400 and banned from driving in Canada for 3 months. [44] In a 2004 Primetime interview with Diane Sawyer, Gibson admitted to drug and alcohol abuse. He also said that his addictions have led him to contemplate suicide. [45] On July 28, 2006, Gibson was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said. According to the Sheriff's statement, Gibson was detained while driving along the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu at 2:36 am, and spouted expletives, sexist, and anti-Semitic comments. He was later released on his own recognizance.[3] He has since sent an apology alongside tickets to the Apocalypto premiere to the two Deputies who arrested him and a large bouquet of flowers to the female Deputy whom he lewdly insulted at the station. On August 17, 2006, he pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor drunken-driving charge and was sentenced to three years on probation. He could have been sentenced to as long as six months in jail. He admitted making anti-Semitic remarks during his arrest and apologized, saying the comments were "blurted out in a moment of insanity." When pressed for what his thoughts were at the time in a later interview with Diane Sawyer, he cited the vitriolic attacks on his film The Passion of the Christ and Israel's activities in Lebanon. He announced he was entering a recovery program to battle alcoholism, and he asked to meet with Jewish leaders to help him "discern the appropriate path for healing." Gibson did not appear in court, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office said. Superior Court Judge Lawrence Mira ordered Gibson to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings five times a week for four and a half months and three times a week for the remainder of the first year of his probation. He was fined $1,300 and his license was restricted for 90 days. He also volunteered to record a public service announcement on the dangers of driving drunk and volunteered to immediately enter into a rehabilitation program.

Philanthropy

Although the Gibsons have avoided publicity over their philanthropy, they are believed to spend much money on various charities. One known charity is Healing the Children. According to Cris Embleton, one of the founders, the Gibsons have given millions to provide lifesaving medical help to needy children worldwide. [47] [48] While filming the movie Apocalypto in the jungles of Mexico's Veracruz state, Mel Gibson donated money to build houses for poor people in the region after some severe flooding wiped out many homes, stating: "[T]hey had a lot of floods down there. It was like Louisiana down there in the southern regions. They had severe flooding and something like a million people were displaced and washed out. I've always been of the opinion that if you go into someone else's country to make a film you don't just go in there and stomp all over the place. You bring a gift. It's like going to somebody's house. You bring them a bottle of wine or a bunch of flowers or a box of chocolates and it's the same sort of thing on a big scale when you're going in to somebody's country and they are going to help you make your film. You help them first somehow or you give them a gift or you help in what way you can. So we sort of assisted with the flood relief stuff down there."

Quotations

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
Mel Gibson
"Vatican II corrupted the institution of the church. Look at the main fruits: dwindling numbers and pedophilia." — Time, January 27, 2003
On the Holocaust: "The thing with him [my father] was that he was talking about numbers. I mean when the war was over they said it was 12 million. Then it was six. Now it's four. I mean it's that kind of numbers game." Readers Digest 2004 [4]
"Hollywood is a factory. You have to realize that you are working in a factory and you're part of the mechanism. If you break down, you'll be replaced." On the nature of "the industry." Excerpted from Wensley Clarkson's "Mel Gibson; Living Dangerously," page 202.

Trivia

Gibson was born with a physical anomaly called "horseshoe kidney". His two kidneys are fused at the base into a U-shape. [50] In December 2004, Gibson purchased Mago Island from Tokyu Corporation of Japan for $15 million.[51] Descendants of the original native inhabitants of Mago (who were displaced in the 1860s) have protested the purchase. Prior to making The Passion of the Christ, Gibson constructed a traditionalist Catholic chapel on his California estate. Gibson almost did not get the role that made him a star. His agent got him an audition for Mad Max, but the night before, he got into a drunken brawl with three other men at a party, resulting in a swollen nose, a broken jawline, and various other bruises. Mel showed up at the audition the next day looking like a "black and blue pumpkin" (his own words). Mel did not expect to get the role and only went to accompany his friend. However, the casting agent told Mel to come back in two weeks, telling him "we need freaks." When Mel did come back, he was not recognized because his wounds had healed almost completely, and received the part. This incident is listed in Ripley's Believe It or Not![52]
Gibson was considered for roles in Batman, GoldenEye, Amadeus, Gladiator, The Golden Child, X-Men, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Runaway Bride and Primary Colors.[53]
The first person awarded People magazine's "Sexiest Man Alive".
Actor Sean Connery once suggested Gibson should play the next James Bond to Connery's M. Gibson turned down the role, reportedly because he feared being typecast. [54]
Gibson is an admirer of the Baroque works of Caravaggio. Much of the cinematography of The Passion of the Christ was done to evoke the painter's style.[55][56]
Gibson's height is disputed. Varied sources place him from 5'6" (170cm) to 5'11" (180cm).[57][58][59]
On July 25 1997, Mel Gibson was named an honorary Officer of the Order of Australia (AO), in recognition of his "service to the Australian film industry". The award was honorary because substantive awards are made only to Australian citizens. [60][61]
Gibson has multiple homes in Malibu, CA, an estate in Greenwich, Connecticut, a private island off the coast of Fiji and a ranch in Australia.[62][63]
Hole rocker Courtney Love praised Mel Gibson for saving her from a life of drugs after the Hollywood actor forced her into rehabilitation. Gibson sought to help the wild lady of rock at her home in Los Angeles when he realised she was hanging out with the wrong people. Love says, "I kept slamming the door in (Gibson's) face. There were two drug people with me who wouldn't leave, so they couldn't get me to rehab. But because of Mel, two drug people ran off to have a cheeseburger with him because he's Mel, and then Warren [Boyd] (her drug minder) could get me into rehab."

What The Bleep Do We Know?

2007-02-02T01:24:00.000-03:00

What the Bleep Do We Know!? (also written What the #$*! Do We Know!?) is a controversial 2004 film that combines documentary interviews and a fictional narrative to posit a connection between science and spirituality based upon the teachings of JZ Knight/Ramtha, of whom the three directors are devotees.[1] There is also an extended 2006 version, What the Bleep!?: Down the Rabbit Hole.[2]
The topics discussed in What the Bleep Do We Know!? include neurology, quantum physics, psychology, epistemology, ontology, metaphysics, magical thinking and spirituality. The film features interviews with individuals presented as experts in science and spirituality, interspersed with the story of a deaf photographer as she struggles with her situation. Computer-animated graphics feature heavily in the film. The film has received widespread criticism from the scientific community. Physicists, in particular, claim that the film grossly misrepresents the meaning of various principles of quantum mechanics, and is in fact pseudoscience.Filmed on location in Portland, Oregon, What the Bleep Do We Know (according to the makers "Bleep" is a bowdlerization of "fuck" — William Arntz has referred to the film as "WTFDWK" in a message to Bleeps' "Street Team") blends a fictional story line, documentary-style discussion, and computer animation to present a view of the physical universe and human life within it, with purported connections to neuroscience and quantum physics. Some ideas discussed in the film are:
The universe is best seen as constructed from thought (or ideas) rather than from substance (see idealism);
What has long been considered "empty space" is anything but empty (see vacuum energy);
Our beliefs about who we are and what is real are not simply observations, but rather form ourselves and our realities (see solipsism).
Peptides manufactured in the brain can cause a bodily reaction to an emotion, resulting in a new perspective to old adages such as "think positively" and "be careful what you wish for."
In the fictional part, Amanda, a deaf photographer (played by Marlee Matlin) acts as the viewer's avatar as she experiences her life from startlingly new and different perspectives.
In the documentary part of the film, a number of purported scientific experts in quantum physics, biology, medicine, psychiatry, and theology discuss the roots and meaning of Amanda's experiences. However, viewers are not told the credentials of the experts until the credits at the end of the film. The comments of the scientific experts converge on a single theme: "We all create our own reality." Although not widely held by the scientific community, this point of view correlates with the subjective experience. Authors arguing related viewpoints include Jane Roberts (the Seth books), Richard Bach (Jonathan Livingston Seagull and Illusions), the writings of Abraham-Hicks, and of Deepak Chopra, Dr. Wayne Dyer, and Dr. David R. Hawkins.

Featured Individuals

Amit Goswami "One of the rare scientists that do not leave out consciousness in explaining quantum physics."[6] He appears in What is Enlightenment magazine, authored the book The Self-Aware Universe: How Consciousness Creates the Material World (ISBN 0-87477-798-4), and has worked with Deepak Chopra.

John Hagelin was the head of the 1993 Transcendental Meditation project in Washington, D.C. (The Washington TM study[7] was mentioned in the film, but Hagelin was never identified as one of its authors.) He was awarded an Ig Nobel Prize, which honors achievements that "first make people laugh, and then make them think,"[1] for this project. He is chairman of the Physics Department at Maharishi International University in Fairfield, Iowa. The University was founded by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the Indian guru who vaulted to fame after becoming the spiritual advisor to the Beatles.

Stuart Hameroff, an anesthesiologist, author, and associate director of the Center for Consciousness Studies at the University of Arizona. He has worked with Oxford mathematician Roger Penrose, on a speculative quantum theory of consciousness.

JZ Knight/Ramtha appears frequently in the film as a scientist or spiritual teacher. By the end of the film, during the credits, she is identified as the spirit "Ramtha" who is being "channeled" by "JZ Knight". Knight was born Judith Darlene Hampton in Roswell, New Mexico. She claims to channel a spirit she calls Ramtha, "a 35,000 year-old warrior spirit from the lost continent of Lemuria and one of the Ascended Masters." (Knight says she speaks with an accent because English is not Ramtha's first language.)
Andrew Newberg, assistant professor of radiology at the University of Pennsylvania Hospital, and physician in nuclear medicine. He is coauthor of the book, Why God Won't Go Away: Brain Science & the Biology of Belief (ISBN 0-345-44034-X).

Candace Pert wrote the book Molecules of Emotion in 1997 (foreword written by Deepak Chopra) where she espoused views very similar to those of the film. Some aspects of the film appeared to be based on her book. For example, the first ten minutes of the movie can be summarized by a quote from pages 146–148 of Molecules of Emotion where she writes:
There is no objective reality! ... Emotions are constantly regulating what we experience as "reality." The decision about what sensory information travels to your brain and what gets filtered depends on what signals the receptors are receiving from the peptides ... For example, when the tall European ships first approached the early Native Americans, it was such an "impossible" vision in their reality that their highly filtered perceptions couldn't register what was happening, and they literally failed to "see" the ships.
Another point in the movie can be well summarized by page 285, where she writes:
The tendency to ignore emotions is oldthink, a remnant of the still-reigning paradigm that keeps us focused on the material level of health, the physicality of it. But the emotions are a key element in the self-care because they allow us to enter into the bodymind's conversation. By getting in touch with our emotions, both by listening to them and by directing them through the psychosomatic network, we gain access to the healing wisdom that is everyone's natural biological right.

Fred Alan Wolf, who recently wrote The Yoga of Time Travel: How the Mind Can Defeat Time. (Note: he says he is also known by the name "Captain Quantum" — an animated character that was created for the movie but not used in the released version.) He is also author of The Eagle's Quest, The Dreaming Universe and The Spiritual Universe.[8]

David Albert, a philosopher of physics and professor at Columbia University, speaks frequently throughout the movie. While it may appear as though he supports the ideas that are presented in the movie, according to a Popular Science article, he is "outraged at the final product."[9] The article states that Albert granted the filmmakers a near-four hour interview about quantum mechanics being unrelated to consciousness or spirituality. His interview was then edited and incorporated into the film in a way that he claims misrepresented his views. In the article, Albert also expresses his feelings of gullibility after having been "taken" by the filmmakers. Although Albert is listed as a scientist taking part in the sequel to What the Bleep, called "Down the Rabbit Hole",[10] this sequel is a "director's cut", composed of extra footage from the filming of the first movie.[11]
Other interviewees in the film include Joe Dispenza, a chiropractor, author, and a devotee of Ramtha's School of Enlightenment;[12] Miceal Ledwith, author and former professor of theology at Maynooth College in Ireland; Daniel Monti, physician and director of the Mind-Body Medicine Program at Thomas Jefferson University; Jeffery Satinover, psychiatrist and author; and William Tiller, Professor Emeritus of Material Science and Engineering at Stanford University, and author of over 250 scientific publications.
Amit Goswami and William Tiller are both employed by the Institute of Noetic Sciences.

Heroes

2007-01-18T18:39:00.000-03:00

Heroes is an American drama television series, created by Tim Kring, which premiered on NBC on September 25, 2006. The series tells the story of several people who "thought they were like everyone else... until they woke with incredible abilities" such as telepathy, time travel and flight. These people soon realize they have a role in preventing a catastrophe and saving mankind.[1] The series loosely follows the writing style of American comics by doing short, multi-episode story arcs that build upon a larger, more encompassing arc. Even with small story arcs that move the story forward, Kring said he mapped out where he intends the show to go for the next five seasons.[2] When the series premiered in the United States, it was the night's most-watched program among adults 18-49, attracting 14.3 million viewers overall and receiving the highest rating for any NBC drama premiere in five years.[3]
On October 6, 2006, NBC President Kevin Reilly announced Heroes had been picked up for a full season.[4] The show is currently on hiatus until January 22, 2007. On January 17, 2007, NBC President Kevin Reilly announced Heroes has been picked up for a second season.[5]