My absence of faith

ab·sence
1. The state of being away.
2. The time during which one is away.
3. Lack; want: an absence of leadership.
4. The state of being absent-minded; inattentiveness: absence of mind.

Its incredible it´s been 20 years...

1994....it was an ERA.

Not too long ago....In a time where the internet did exist, but mostly to do home work. One of the most important years in my life. I turned 16 and entered high school. My life was about to change.

In an over exposure of images and sounds going from pop culture to film making. I became hungry for music videos,  magazines & comic books, movie TRIVIA and playing Metallica riffs on my guitar. Smoking cigarrettes and drinking dark coffee.

Everyday i wanted more. A change was in fruition.

As Jules Winnfield and Vincent Vega discuss foot massages in Pulp Fiction , the sound of Alice in Chains "No excuses " on the radio and Kurt Loder saying KURT COBAIN IS DEAD. Oliver Stone´s Natural Born Killers was called our GENERATION´S "A Clock Work Orange", Alex Proyas directed The Crow and Trent Reznor sang "I ...hurt... myself today. to see... if i still feel !!! "

It was the year when ... Superman died and Batman was broken. John Candy played James Harlow in his last movie Wagon´s East. while Cypress Hill´s B-REAL screams "they say we are generation X..,.well i say we are generation FUCK YOU!!!"

All of this during a commercial break. The visual language was evolving. And it began to influence me in a lot of ways. Morphing into the unknown. The way I saw & understand EVERYTHING HAD CHANGED. We became faster viewers, demanding attention and visual literacy in every entertainment offer.

These are 3 examples of movies that made 94 a year to remember.

Pop Quiz Hot Shot!

SPEED is Jan De Bont´s masterpiece. Because it is flawless. I didn´t liked it too much at first. But as i´ve watched it over the years i find myself DRAWN to it. Watching it several times and saying it´s PERFECT. The good guy who saves  the nice girl from a bus where the bad guy put a bomb. That simple. Destroy everybody.

"Visions are worth fighting for"

To me Tim Burton´s best movie is ED WOOD. Because it is not about a troubled fictional character, its about a trully disturbed movie director. A man who had a lot to say and express but a secret so dark, he couldn´t be himself everywhere. Brilliantly filmed in exquisit Black and white.  Johnny Depp´s portrayal of Hollywood´s worst horror/sci fi director  is a life time role for him.

As Ed Wood serches for Bela Lugosi ( Martin Landau) to bring credibility to his work films. It resembles the life of Tim Burton as he searched for Vincent Price to do a role in Edward Scissorhands.

Johnny Depp most complex role and multi-dimensional character. by far. With such a brilliant cast, i love it is so underrated. It was always for rent at the video store.

"The gift of PAIN"

In BLOWN AWAY Tommy Lee Jones plays an irish terrorist living in Boston. Planting explosives and morbidly finding inspiration by singing U2´s... "With or Without you".

Starring Jeff Bridges as a bomb squad leader. A villain with a slogan " to create a new country called Chaos and a new goverment called Anarchy"

1994 meant  the beginning of my love for editing and the attention to detail in every aspect of television  & movies. It was a musical revolution also.  I always loved movies but i began to respect their makers. Realizing it was a team effort. Music videos introduced me to a lot of bands i wasn´t aware of or hadn´t listened yet. I realized both music and films could embrace. I had found my true calling in life. Whatever i was going to study ...It had to be something with sound and image. I had to love it. Not  because i wanted a job. But because i needed to be happy. 

Not only in films have i learned the visual language.

I also must recognize my favorite MTV teachers: 

 Anton Corbjin, Matt Mahurin, Wyne Isham, Samuel Bayer and Mark Pellington. Who directed some of my favorite music videos the backbone of my visual culture.  

I proudly can say  images & sounds remain to this day on my life, 20 years later.

My absence is gone.

light can be psychology

"When I was an AC, a gaffer told me, ‘Don’t run on a set,’ because you show everyone that you probably forgot something. I still don’t run on set, and I try not to forget too many things."
Bruno Delbonnel  AFC ASC 

Cinematographer (Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince  & Inside Llewyn Davis)

Movies have power.

The power to take us to far far places, back in time or very near inside ourselves and our every day life. One of the most important aspects of filmmaking is cinematography. The way every frame is composed and orchestrated. It helps the story to get across. Not a single element is random. There is nothing left to chance. Whenever you see a movie for the second time, take a look around the frame of a film. Not at the center where the director wants you to look the first time you watch a film. Get a glimpse of the sides, the colors, the shapes…what does the light say?

Light is not only an entrance or exit (as Spielberg tells us in all his movies and J.J. Abrahams often does his flares) Light sets moods and makes a room full or empty. Light is contemplation and psychology. 

This three films were made by the same cinematographer. 

'You can't learn how to be inspired, that has to come from yourself.' BRUNO DELBONNEL

Amélie is a classic movie. It is classic not because it has beautiful colors. Not because it is in French. Not because it is filmed in Paris. Not because it has awesome performances. Or a narrative so delicious you can almost smell the croissants. Not because the Perfect lightning . Or the wonderful world of imaginative concepts it takes us in. It marks a before and after in all cinema, because it needs no translation. It needs no closed caption for the hearing impared. Its Images are unique. It is a perfect blend of story and color.IT´S INNOCENCE.

Harry Potter and The Half BloodPrince. Potter´s adventures never appealed to me. The books seem enormous and the movies even longer. But J.K. Rowling´s fantasy caught a different kind of color palette in “The Half BloodPrince”. Making it the one that stands out the most of all 8 films. If you can watch it again see how much loneliness each and every frame transpires to you . As the series has become closer to Voldemort´s and Harry´s final conflict the mood of this movie series has changed. From the childrens RATED G to a PG-13 involving deaths. It gets darker.The cinematography is a character on its own. It is simply astounding. IT´S MAGICAL.

The third Movie is called Inside Llewyn Davis by the Coen

Brothers. I haven´t seen it. I don’t like to talk about movies I haven’t seen but in this case i will just say I want to see it because of the images the trailer has shown me, the cinematography inside it. The soft blur in every frame takes us back in time as if it was a memory.  IT´S MYSTERY.

'It's always about what I can do with the script. If I think I can do nothing with the Cinematography I will not do it.' 

BRUNO DELBONNEL

BEING BOURNE

Doug Liman was born in 1965 in New York City.
In 2002, he directed a movie based on a Robert Ludlum´s Novel. That movie made such an impression on Hollywood filmmakers, Actors and most importantly the audience…that the standards on action movies were about to change forever. Just a regular guy being able to kill, run, drive using only his intelligence and not gadgets. Not even James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) could defeat.
Forget the flying cars or dinning with royalty. Girls in Bikinis and Martinis. The predictable plots( As Austin Powers parodied) of the super agent against the evil villain ended.
I´m talking about The Bourne Identity.

Starring Matt Damon (Good Will Hunting) as Jason Bourne. "A man is picked up by a fishing boat, bullet-riddled and without memory, then races to elude assassins and recover from amnesia." IMDB Hitchhiking a ride with (Run Lola Run) Franka Potente. This movie escapes from every day ordinary U.S.A. and takes Bourne from Italy to Barcelona from Zurich to Rome and Paris . Using every day things as weapons: a towel, a mini cooper, the yellow pages, a pen, a magazine, an exit map, a toaster, a cell phone, trains and subways … but most importantly his common sense. He is not betrayed by the importance of being in her Majesties Secret Service; he is not after one evil tyrant villain. He only wants to know who he really is.
A new genre was Bourne.

This FILM changed everything. Saar Klein´s EDITING introduced us the 4 seconds per shot (an apprentice to David Brenner and Sally Menke), Oliver Wood´s wonderful CINEMATOGRAPHY & the MUSIC of composer John Powell  (a Hans Zimmer alumni) The team effort made for this film was incredible. The breaking barriers did not stop in the acting or directing. Bourne cut straight to asking before killing. No romantic inuendos, no lame action. Not even a joke. Bourne spawned so many bad imitations as the new James Bond (CASINO ROYALE, QUANTUM OF SOLACE and SKYFALL) Daniel Craig as the Famous 007. Even Liam Neeson in (TAKEN and TAKEN 2)or MISSION IMPOSSIBLE´S (3 and GHOST PROTOCOL) Ethan Hunt solo movies, seem weak. So Tom Cruise tried to do his Bourneish film with JACK REACHER. Not even close. Kevin Costner is doing “3 DAYS TO KILL” his character name is Ethan Runner….“EH?” The normal guy /bad ass he didn´t know he was. Even James Macavoy did it in "WANTED". Star Trek star Chris Pine is doing “JACK RYAN: SHADOW RECRUIT”. Even the poster art is the same. Ha ha ha!


I´m sure Liman was influenced by many, many movies such as: The French Connection, Bullit, Ronin, Pulp Fiction, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Reservoir Dogs, Dobermann, The Last Boy Scout, Killing Zoe, Die Hard, True Romance, Memento and Irréversible. Instead of doing a REMAKE. He broke the mold and told an action movie differently. 

LOST & FOUND

"The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude." 
-Friedrich Nietzsche

Captain Philips is a movie that deals with issues of control.
Self control, control of others, everything is under control.

A responsibility.
A ship .
A life 

On December 23 rd 2010 I fainted, convulsed and lost memory and track of time for 5 mins. It has been the scariest moment in my life. Every day we do so many things and take so much for granted. Walking, speaking, opening a door, driving to work or drinking coffee. Imagine just for a second your crossing the street and in a blink of an eye darkness. Total darkness. Suddenly light! You are laying on the side walk. 10 people around you asking you “are you are all right?”. But when you try to find an answer your brain says nothing. You have a head ache and your whole body hurts. You are completely helpess. You cannot think. You cannot remember anything. Your arms hurt ,your legs hurt. Suddenly a friendly face tells me “I called your wife she´s coming over”

For five minutes I couldn’t recall my name, my age, what I was doing there, where I was going. Nothing. My brain was blank. As a white piece of paper. Nothing. I spent a night at the hospital, feeling numb, weird, I had no strength no way of walking without aid. I couldn´t speak perfectly. Everything was "yes" or "no" I felt so trapped and alone in this foggy mind. My loved ones arrived at my aid. Believe it or not I began feeling better just watching their familiar faces. Your mind becomes this  endless passage way. Your memories are not so focused and are a little blurry. You think everything 30 times. It was a slow process to get to today. Speaking again fluently, thinking again quickly, remembering people and anecdotes. I was so hopeful of getting my strength back. Being able to do things on my own. The Horror.

I spent 2 weeks with a lot of clouds in my mind. I slept all day. I couldn’t drive or work, couldn’t drink coffee. Couldn’t remember a lot. You feel like crying all the time. I was helpless. My life had changed. What I wouldn’t give for a chance to run, to go for a walk, to grab a cup of coffee. To eat popcorn watching a movie. I couldn´t move properly I couldn’t speak correctly. Making sentences was so hard. To this day there isn’t a day I don’t cherish my wife, my parents, my sister, my brother, my friends all my loved ones. To be able to move, speak, laug, drive, being thankful for those who help me every day basically just the whole experience being alive is.  I recall the first movie we went to see was TRON LEGACY. I was so happy. I am so  happy.

Captain Philips touched something very deep inside me. It made me remember how this ilussion of control is just that. An ilussion. And how fortunate we are of being able to help others. To make the Lost... Found.

Emotional Strain

"A non-writing  writer  is a monster courting insanity"
-Franz Kafka

Everybody has two sides. One we show the world. The other side we hide. In many movies the main character is troubled with desires, power or obsessed by a terrible PAST. I love characters trapped in their DEEP minds and that the director has the ability to show us that perspective. What if we could see, for a few frames per second... what he is feeling. A soul so confused and tormented feeling no one can help.  A REGULAR person that tries to explain to everyone why life is so wrong with him. Does that make him a villain? That person is aware of the damage they can inflict on their loved ones or strangers. Some times it takes two actors to portray one twisted mind. They all have triggers that make them snap. This are  my favorites.

THE FAN (1996) Robert De Niro

For Gil Renard (a hunting knives sales man) The San Francisco Giants are EVERYTHING. Fueled by anger and solitude, De niro portrays a man hunted by mistakes and faults. He demands RESPECT from his ex wife, his little son and Bobby Rayburn the new player of the GIANTS. Gil is scary and abusive. No stranger to acting a solitaire mad man, De niro inspires true fear as an abusive dad, a terrible sales man and worst of all a true fan from hell. Waiting for that perfect moment (good or bad )when he becomes part of Rayburn´s life. Directed by Tony Scott, mixing Hans Zimmer chilling soundtrack with The Rolling Stones and Corrosion of Conformity. A very scary and real movie.
MEMORABLE QUOTE “Baseball is better than LIFE… it´s fair!”

ONE HOUR PHOTO (2002) Robin Williams

Sy Parrish (an employee of a One hour photo) is punctual, organized and must of all cordial to all customers. Specially The Yorkin family. Knows their adress & birthdays Sy is lonely and sad. Sy has been making an extra set of copies for himself. An unforgettable scary performance. Written and directed by Mark Romanek its visual orchestration of every scene is worth watching. Using colors to add textures of sadness, anger, loneliness and a dream like quality. And the soundtrack is Reinhold Heil & Johnny Klimek´s thrilling masterpiece. 
Memorable Quote “pretend... this is all pretend!”

FALLING DOWN (1993) Michael Douglas

Rules are meant to be followed. Not for William Foster (unemployed). As he wants to get to his daughter’s birthday party, he enters a strange state of mind where he suddenly has no patience and begins challenging everything. Right or Wrong, Left or Right ...He has had enough. Confused and deranged he starts a one man war against everyone. Directed by Joel Schumacher to me , this is Schumacher´s best movie and a haunting performance by one of hollywood´s best actors.
MEMORABLE QUOTE: “I´m the bad guy?”

FACE OFF (1997)
John Travolta & Nicholas Cage

In this unrealistic plot and almost a satruday nigh live skit about a detective switching faces with a serial killer. John Woo wanted both actors to SHOW-OFF how well they can imitate one another. ENOUGH SAID.
MEMORABLE QUOTE: "Interception...ball is on our side!"

MR. BROOKS (2007)Kevin Costner &John Hurt

Originally planned as a trilogy. Mr Earl Brooks is a wealthy businessman. But he hides a secret. Him and his alter ego are being black mailed by someone who knows the truth. They are ONE Serial Killer. Contrary  to what one would assume, they get along pretty well, they even laugh at the same jokes. That is what makes this movie brilliant.  Costner and Hurt deliver a twisted  portrail of a Mr. Brooks who is just unpredictable. Written and Directed by 
Bruce A. Evans.MEMORABLE QUOTE "I... love... what you are thinking"


FIGHT CLUB (1999)
Edward Norton & Brad Pitt

If you havent seen it turn off your computer RIGHT NOW and go see it. (SPOILER ALERT) Sharing is one thing but co-existing is another completely different game. In one of Fincher´s Finest Films, we see two personas The Narrator and Tyler Durden. One complaints about everything he doesnt have. Tyler  just takes what he wants. 
MEMORABLE QUOTE :"First rule of FightClub is... you! do! not! talk! about! fight club!"

A good performance is the one that is convincing. The actor(s), the stage, the props, but most important the story. Too many sub plots can lead to disaster. All together tell a tale. Even if it were dragons and dwarfs. You have to make it convincing. All this performances enhance a complex mixture of actor/mind/character. 

"the true alchemist do not change lead into gold; they change the world into words." 
-William H. Gass

Behavior over dialogue

 “Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts.”
― Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

No facebook status, no biography can really tell us how someone really is. You can describe someone, see a picture or hear gossip. But it’s not the same as watching them behave. Behavior is our best way to explain ourselves. If we are calm or having a bad day. Human is simplicity, drama, thirst, gestures, inflections, connections, comedy, complications, exploring, ignoring, hunger. These are some of my favorite behavior-performances I’ve enjoyed at the movies. Worth watching them again.

JACK "FUCKING" TWIST- Michelle Williams - BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN
All lights went to the controversy this movie made. What a lot of people (myself included) missed was ALMA.  An extraordinary portrail of a woman living a mountain of lies. Broken hearted just watching her house. And how empty it is. Her life will never be the same  after finding out her husband is having an affair. That scene is so filled with emotions. You cannot describe them, except when you see her face. She is not acting she is trully suffering.  After that, every time she shares a scene with Heath Ledger they are a time bomb waiting to explode.

DOWN ON YOUR KNEES RIGHT NOW- Edward Norton - AMERICAN HISTORY X
Derek Vinyard´s life is about to change. Feeling superior and speaking racial insults has become an every day rutine. And the worst possible example for his little brother Danny. Danny becomes aware of  what a hatred driven man can do. He is speechless as he watches how Derek kills another man on the street. The police arrest him. Yelling The complexity of the scene is in Derek´s eyes a  choir chant, black and white photography and the smile in Derek´s face... unforgettable.  So proud of what he did. Until that moment, Danny realizes he is following the wrong steps.

NO! THERE IS NO ESCAPING HERE! -Woody Harrelson – NATURAL BORN KILLERS
"MICKEY AND MALLORY KILL SIX TEENS DURING SLUMBER PARTY"… reads the newspaper that Mickey is holding in his hands, while he eats pie at a local dinner. As Mallory dances, Mickey contemplates. As two men enter the dinner looking for cold beers and trouble. Mickey is one cool dude. Before engaging in a  killing conflict, he corrects one of the men by saying... “Her name, is Mallory”. Gently drinking his glass of milk (WHILE having thoughts of murder) Takes a moment to say "its not pollite to point your finger"…before cutting the man´s finger with a knife.


FOR THEY NOT KNOW WHAT THEY DO- Juliette Lewis – CAPE FEAR

Outside a Ginger bread house, It is almost inappropriate to watch Max Cady and Dannielle Bowden (Robert De Niro and Juliette Lewis) sharing the theatre scene on Martin Scorsese´s  remake of CAPE FEAR. (MOVIE TRIVIA : The two original cast members that appear are Robert Mitchum and Gregory Peck) . The sexual tension caught on those frames of film are to this day, alive. A young girl in the hands of a predator. She will believe anything. He will do whatever it takes for revenge. Having scenes with ONE Robert De Niro is no easy task. Juliette owns that part. To make it believable enough to get us scared and unaware that we are just watching a movie. 

BURGLAR - Martin Freeman –THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY 

As Bilbo (Martin Freeman ) wakes up happy to find there are no dwarfs, nor Gandalf in his house. At first he is  thankful he didn’t join the adventure. But as seconds go by...we begin to see how empty Bilbo´s house is, how little he becomes. Every corridor, every corner seems LARGER and lonelier. There is no more life in there. Without saying a word Bilbo suddenly realizes that not everything unexpected is bad and that going on an adventure, might be worth the risk. 

To me the feeling you put into a scene is the most important part of film making, it might not have the best music or the best dialogue. But the emotion it transpires from filming and editing, to that unique moment when i am seated at the movie theatre, eating popcorn and believing this story i am told. If that actor can take me close to feel what he or she is going thru : fear, anger, loneliness, or happiness . That is movie magic.

“An actor’s talent lies in their choices “
-Stella Adler

A + B = C?

Born in Latvia in 1898, Sergei Eisenstein´s legacy lives to this day. In every movie ever made his influence remains. Studied architecture and engineering. Began to work on a theatre company doing set design. Then Joined the Red Army in 1918. Unlike others privileged with a movie theatre or a film school. There was no cinematic language back then he had to create it. He had to mix theatre and photography skills to reach the transmission of a message to an unskilled society (the audience). Making them a part of the movie experience. Cinematographic techniques such as the choice of shot, and camera movement, can greatly influence the structure and meaning of a film.

The massacre on the steps of Odessa
BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN (1925)

The most celebrated scene in the film is the massacre of civilians on the Odessa Steps. This scene IS one of the most influential in the history of cinema, because it introduced concepts of film editing and montage to cinema. Shots “could be used to manipulate the emotions of the audience and create film metaphors “. In this scene, the Tsar's soldiers in their white summer tunics march down a seemingly endless flight of steps in a rhythmic, machine-like fashion. A separate detachment of mounted Cossacks charges the crowd at the bottom of the stairs. A mother pushing an infant in a baby carriage falls to the ground dying and the carriage rolls down the steps amidst the fleeing crowd. 

Eisenstein's idea that adjacent shots should relate to each other in such a way that A and B combine to produce another meaning, C, which is not actually recorded on the film. CALLED “the "collision of shots “


As in theatre, It knows no genre, its commonly an unseen prop. But not disguised. Used by many, dresses perfectly for every occasion. It is a vertical bridge that unites the plot line. As Father Merrin waits to see Regan (The Exorcist) I can almost hear Luca Brasi´s footsteps(The Godfather) waiting for Scarlett O'Hara (Gone with the wind) with my hands in the air (ROCKY) announce the Von Trapp family goodbye! (The Sound of music) All of this movies use the same dramatic device.
A staircase.

“The revolution gave me the most precious thing in life, it made an artist out of me…” -Sergei Eisenstein