CRIME Movies

" I always wanted to use the Mafia as a metaphor for America. Both...have roots in Europe. Basically, both... feel they are benevolent organizations. Both... have their hands stained with blood from that it´s necessary to do to protect their power and interests. Both are totally capitalistic phenomena and basically have a profit motive. Of course it´s a romantic conception of the Mafia.
-Francis Ford Coppola

Movie making is influence. Influence of life, influence of what we see, Influence of what we want. It was there before, it will be there tomorrow. Our amazement at that light in a dark room. An almost religious  affair. This movies are my favorite Crime Movies. They´ve influenced me in so many ways i can only try to mention a few. 

Movie genres are both, similar and different. They all have their distinct features. The western has the outdoors as atmosphere and the eternal conflict of good vs evil. Horror as atmosphere the unknown and features a darkness that hides in the shadows. And the Crime movies as atmosphere the Big City by featuring the greed of power and money of the human being. Few movies have made what this ones have. 

Become the standard.

I BELIEVE IN AMERICA

As Bonazera DEMANDS Vengance with Don Corleone. Don Corleone respectfully DEMANDS RESPECT. If you watch carefuly on Bonazera´s neck when he says(HER NOSE WAS BROKEN) you can see when he raises his hand a shadow made by the small lamp that lights him. As if we were watching a play at the theatre Bonazera asking The Devil for a favor. 

Made to resemble a memory or an old yellowish picture....Francis Ford Coppola´s masterpieces The Godfather & The Godfather Part II are the quintessential crime movies from 1972 &1974 to our days. As James Cagney & Humphrey Bogart were inmortalized in that genre. So was Brando, Pacino, De Niro, Duvall, Cazale and James Caan. 

The Godfather was born Vito Andolini, in the town of Corleone Sicily. We are witnessing both Michael´s and Vito´s  first murder. How by fate they turned their life towards crime and power.And how both of them eventually loose a child by the life they choose.

YOU BROKE MY HEART 

 Family is synonym for tradition. Such is cooking. Non other than FAT Clemenza is the best for that giving his spaghetti and meat balls recipe. Clemenza tells Michael after hanging up the phone with Kay. "why didn´t you tell that girl you loved her? ...I love you with all my heart" ...Years later Michael mentions his heart not to Kay but to Fredo at the new years party in Cuba. "You broke my heart" Both lines are opposites one of love and advice. The other one as a disappointment and hurtful reminder. As he gives him the kiss of death like Kirk Douglas did in the 1968 movie The Brotherhood.

AND THEN... THEY WILL FEAR YOU

In the Godfather part II, Coppola had the chance to tell his tale on a non linear way of both father and son.That is why the use of fade in´s and fade out´s work so beautiful. It works both ways as a sequel and a prequel. Telling the story of the head of the family, the DON that will not give up and will do everyhting to protect his family and his chair of power. 

IT´S NOT PERSONAL IT´S JUST BUSINESS

I´M GONNA MAKE HIM AN OFFER HE CAN´T REFUSE

DON´T EVER TAKE SIDES OUTSIDE THE FAMILY

WE DON´T TALK BUSINESS AT THE TABLE

KEEP YOUR FRIENDS CLOSE BUT YOUR ENEMIES CLOSER

To me the greatest  advise in movie history in one liners.

"Crime isn´t a disease, it´s a symptom"  

-Raymond Chandler (novelist)

"as a director you don´t have to do that... your job is to hire talented people that can do that. Your job is explaining what your vision is"- Terry Gilliam´s advice to Quentin Tarantino

Oliver Stone was inspired by his writing, bought one of his scripts and turned it into Natural Born Killers, about a husband and wife serial-killing duo, and Tony Scott did the same with True Romance, the story of another couple who uncover a cocaine cache.

Quentin Tarantino made a name for himself in 1992 with Reservoir Dogs. But his next movie was distinct, unique and has become an american classic by its style and sounds. As Singin' In The Rain in A Clockwork Orange or Ride Of The Valkyries in Apocalypse Now .

Misrilou is Pulp Fiction.

YOU READ THE BIBLE BRETT?

In 1994 Quentin Tarantino took us to a familiar place called the streets of L.A. in 3 short stories. About a watch,  a briefcase and a date with the bosses wife. Never the less Vincent Vega would say: "It´s not a date!!!"

Simple to match? it hasn´t been done in  20 years. What Tarantino learned on the set of Reservoir Dogs  he perfected it on Pulp Fiction.  He took his love for movies... Embrace it. And put it on FILM.

THE LITTLE DIFFERENCES

Influenced by Sergio Leone´s The Good The Bad and the Ugly, Hong Kong action films  and Mario Bava´s Black Sabbath.... Pulp Fiction is the result of almost 100 years of movie watching coming to fruition. It´s not just another heist movie. It is the very definition of the style of a decade. 

"And i will strike down UPON thee with great vengance and furious anger"-Jules

It was, it is, it will forever be an american tale of crime. Mixing AND BLENDING the american pop culture: hamburgers, milk shakes, cartoons and rock n roll. In such a cool way, within 5 mins of the movie we started to like all this bad guys. 

A FIVE DOLLAR SHAKE

Not for what they said but how they said it. Taratino´s epic crime movie is a colorful feast and rewachable at any time. It is both timeless and epic. Using the oldest trick in the book. As Coca Cola. He created a  product then the LOGO & then he sold it. It is PULP FICTION.

As Jules eats his big Kahuna burger i can´t help but wonder...how much i want a burger! It is visual food marketing. Featuring ICONIC figures as waiters  Marilyn Monroe and James Dean. And a memorable dance sequence with  Chuck Berry´s "You Never Can Tell ". 

WANAKI KEPT HIS WORD

As many movie directors before him,  George Lucas had Alec Guiness on STAR WARS. In the Godfather Francis Ford Coppola had Brando. As Harvey Keitel did on Reservoir Dogs to give credibility and respect to a movie.  Tarantino got for Pulp Fiction the one and only Christopher Walken. It almost seems as a tribute to The Deer Hunter. Timing mearly 4 and a half minutes of monologue(almost a mini movie on its own) that becomes  prologue  for what that WATCH means to the story of Butch´s Birth Right.

There are very few directors that inspire so much in just one movie. Orson Wells in Citizen Kane or David Fincher on Seven. This is a tale that proves every body is conected some how. And it doesn´t matter if it´s  at the beggining or at the end. We are all supporting roles in everyone elses story. Except our own.

" I wanted you to hear them say very ugly things, I also wanted you to hear them say profound things. I wanted them to come across like fucking idiots one moment and brilliant geniuses the next."

-Quentin Tarantino

The loneliness OF BILL MURRAY

Have you ever been to a job interview? And the loneliness one feels before it? Have you felt it too? 

Have you seen a Bill Murray film the last 10 or 15 years?

Have you ever noticed he appears so lonely?

Have you ever felt like him? A Stranger in his own world?

Worried, careless, selfish, antisocial, impatient & self obsessed.

He has played a clown, a cowboy, a zombie, a president...

William James Murray was born on Illinois, gained exposure on Saturday Night Live where he did 73 episodes, then came Meatballs, Caddy shack, Ghostbusters, What About Bob? and Groundhog Day. 

Murray gained critical acclaim in his career starring in Lost in Translation, which earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor, then the indie comedy-drama Broken Flowers and a series of films directed by Wes Anderson, including Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums , The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Moonrise Kingdom and The Grand Budapest Hotel

Since the movie Rushmore Bill Murray became a synonym of eclectic: different plots, different directors & different scripts. But there is one common denominator in all of his latest performances...he seems lonely. 

We started watching the world of Bill Murray as a hero or bigger than life  SUPERSTAR. Then became aware of what kind of actor he became. We forgot the comedian to begin watching the artist.

We were expecting on each of his movies the same Bill Murray over and over again... Scrooged, Ghostbusters 2 or Quick Change....

But he chose not to do the same thing always. He started giving us hints of his drama skills. In real life he got rid of his movie agent. He has an answering machine. If he is interested he´ll call you back.

He always pauses... 

The ever wondering & doubtful human.

That mystery inside all of us.

Talking to himself... or maybe to us, the audience?

The masterful craft of drama

He makes us look inside him as we take a hard look on ourselves. Finding out we are not so different.

He is a superstar he doesn´t need to make us laugh nor an OSCAR. We´ve been sharing 40 years of cinema with him.In every movie he takes us on a journey with him as his companions. He always is full of people the movie crew, the director, the cameraman but he always can share with us the loneliness on set, on a corridor, on a side walk. That is what makes his acting so natural.

Between smiles, awkward situations and lonely places. He is  one of the finest actors TODAY. Maybe you like his acting maybe you don´t. But all of us have at least seen one of his films

Not every actor can make you experience what he is feeling as Bill Murray does. 

He is all of us

He is none of us

He is Bill Murray

"I have to be myself to do it correctly, it´s the hardest job there is, because it’s going to be on screen."

-Bill Murray

The recipe is you.

"I want to be surprised as a filmmaker. I was an audience member long before I was ever a director. And so as an audience member I know what I respond to: I like being surprised, I like being respected, I like being challenged, I like being instigated, I like movies that live for me on the screen, that are like friends of mine, and as I go back to them over the course of my life they actually seem to change, and I know that they’re not changing, I know I am changing, but the movies are made open enough that they let me participate in the imagination of the characters in the story." -DEREK CIANFRANCE DIRECTOR (Blue Valentine)


Before NETFLIX i remember when my brother, my sister and I had to wait for my dad on Fridays to take us to the video rental store. For me it was something almost religious. Better than going to buy candies and almost as fun as watching toys. Friday night picking a movie out to rent was something far off this world. Because of two things my dad let us pick any movie, but just one. And we got to buy popcorn and pizza!!! i love movies, popcorn & pizza!

That was the way me and my siblings grew & watched many films for 20 years!

Before IMDB, My dad usually had us playing movie-trivia in our living room without us noticing. Who is that actor? In what other movie I’ve seen her? Is that a remake? This film is too dark i can´t see anything!!! He also did it during a movie in the movie theatre.


My dad wanted WAR films or EPIC films or usually (Where Eagles Dare, The Ten Commandments or The Godfather.) My mom preferred musicals or Disney cartoons (Sound of Music or Wizard of OZ, DUMBO or BAMBI). Usually my brother, my sister and I had the same taste: sometimes a comedy or a Horror movie or a Western or Star Wars again and again. As a family sometimes we had to watch movies we didn´t like. But it gave us a wider perspective or a bigger color palette. This visual education had a deep impact in all of us.


It shaped me as someone who likes to watch any kind of film and then makes the comment. Never before. Having a better eye to make better judgments. Pacino, De Niro, Newman, Redford, Shelly Long, Shelly Duvall, Brando, Taylor, Sellers, Wilder. Today trailers have become spoilers. Here´s the money shot. Do we really need to see the whole #!%&ing movie in 3 mins.? just to want to go and see it???...


I remember a time walking inside the movie rental store. Just picking by the poster of the film. We were influenced by so many movies, actors, directors. It makes us realize that those days are gone. That innocence of picking without knowing. Nowadays on Oscar night my brother my sister my wife and I… print the whole list of nominees and we try to guess who will win. The one who gets more wins. Just for fun. Like when we picked movies in the Video Rental Store.


"Be yourself. Find your style, your way; find the border and cross it, or else you may be lost or, even worse, boring. Don’t forget what you really want to say. There is no recipe. The recipe is you." -BÉLA TARR DIRECTOR (Kárhozat)