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Reviews
Belle toujours (2006)
A Modern Masterpiece
I remember reading somewhere that Oliveira's film works as a symbol of the impossible reconciliation between past and present, between cinema (with its passion for manipulation) and reality (with its relentless curiosity for the truth), two dimensions that clash irremediably in modern times.
Personally, I found this to be a excellent comedy, full of delicious winks to symbolic surrealism (the Joan of arc statue, the rooster scene!), a mayor work in Oliveiras impressive catalog and a proper tribute to Buñuel's work. It's a bit sad that it has been terribly underrated by "major" critics around the globe (Cahiers, etc.) *Taken from a comment I made to filmref.com
Beteta, episodio 3.1 - En busca del video perdido (2005)
Great Campy Short from Lima, Peru
This is a blast. If you can get your hands on a copy, you'll find true trashy humor in Beteta's episode 3.1. This is currently in Spanish, so let's hope an English version will appear sometime. To summarize the movie, you can say it's a mix between Ed Wood clumsy films and low budget (very low budget) sci-fi films... don't miss it!.
Anyway, Gianmarco Gardella has being doing interesting shorts for a couple of years now, away from the campy style of this one. Try "El Lienzo De Espaldas", for a long-take, deeply abstract film about the process of art creation, or "Frame", a short movie about a depart. Hopefully some day Perú will have the filmmakers that it deserves.