Latest news with #GoyaAwards
San Francisco Chronicle
11-07-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
Loved ‘Brick' on Netflix? Here's how to find global thrillers like it
There's an effective German thriller streaming on Netflix called 'Brick,' about a couple that wakes up one morning to find that their windows and doors have been replaced by brick. They have no running water, no access to food, and their only possible means of escape is to team up with their neighbors in their apartment building, who are similarly trapped. The movie is fascinating enough in its own right, but it gets even better once you realize its source of inspiration: the worldwide lockdown brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. It's one of the first movies to deal poetically and imaginatively with the sense of panic that was everywhere in those days. But 'Brick' is just one of many new international films that are easily streamable that you probably don't know about. That's OK — to a large extent, neither do I. There's an understandable tendency to look back on the 1950s, '60s and '70s as the good old days for foreign cinema, when movies by directors such as François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Michelangelo Antonioni, Federico Fellini, Vittorio De Sica, Luis Bunuel, Akira Kurosawa, Sergei Bondarchuk and Rainer Werner Fassbinder were not only seen but also highly influential. Yet for the average viewer, were the old days really better? Yes, those films got released, but only in major cities. They were influential only within a small circle. And once films played for a few weeks or a month, they disappeared, only to show up — occasionally — at repertory houses. Basically, we've traded in one set of problems for a new set of problems. But I like our problems better. Today, there are thousands of films from around the globe available on streaming services, such as Netflix, Prime Video and Apple TV+. Indeed, we are in a golden age of accessibility, and our only problem now is one of curation, which is barely a problem at all. With just a little effort, we can do our own curating. This is how I do it (feel free to try this at home): Let's say I want to find out what's going on in Spanish cinema. I get on the internet and look up the Goya Awards, Spain's equivalent of the Oscars. I will write down which films won the award for either best actor, best actress or best picture. Then I look up the titles on to see if any of the streaming services have them. They usually do. It was in this way, I discovered ' The Fury of the Patient Man ' (2016), an amazing Spanish thriller that's only about 90 minutes long and is absolutely riveting. (It's now on Apple TV+.) I follow the same process with regard to the Cesar Awards in France, the Donatello Awards in Italy, etc. Another way to find movies worth watching is to follow a performer you might like. For example, I got interested in the French actress Virginie Efira after reviewing her in ' Benedetta ' (2021) and ' Sibyl ' (2019). So I went on and discovered more than a dozen of her films available for streaming, including 'Revoir Paris.' Available on Prime Video, among other streamers, it's a really good movie about a woman recovering from the terror of a mass shooting. I made the same search for Sophie Marceau and found 'Anthony Zimmer' (2005), a brilliant thriller (on Apple TV+) that became the awful 2010 American remake, ' The Tourist.' Or maybe there's a director you find interesting. Catherine Corsini has made a number of films I've liked (1999's ' The New Eve,' 2009's ' Leaving '), so I watched 'Summertime' (2015), which I've since shown to classes of students, who've loved it. I did the same with Dutch director Paul Verhoeven, the maker of not only "Benedetta" but 'Elle' (2016), and got to see a terrific film called 'Tricked' (2012). It never gets played in theaters because it's only 55-minutes long, but it's available to stream on Apple TV+ and other platforms. So, this is my instruction to you: Follow the trail of what you already like, and it will lead you to more things you'll like. There are insights to be gained from watching movies from outside one's own culture that you just can't get from domestic products. Great movies are rare, in every country and in every language. And you can start tonight.
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Richard Gere Doubles Down on Fierce Criticism of Donald Trump as He Opens Up About Life in Spain—7 Months After Quitting U.S.
Hollywood A-lister Richard Gere has once again hit out at President Donald Trump's political agenda—claiming that he has created a 'violent, crude, and ignorant' world—while opening up about his own decision to quit life in the U.S. in favor of relocating to Spain. Gere, 75, moved to the European country with his wife, Alejandra Silva, 42, and three of their four shared children in November, after offloading their stunning Connecticut mansion in an off-market deal. The actor—who is best known for his roles in 'Pretty Woman' and ' An Officer and a Gentleman'—first announced their plans in an April 2024 interview with Vanity Fair Spain, explaining that he wanted his wife to have the chance to return to her home country, so she could spend more time with her family and loved ones. However, in the months since their move was made official, Gere has been outspoken in his criticism of Trump and the policies that he is implementing in the U.S., criticism that he has now doubled down on in a new interview with local Spanish outlet, El Pais. 'If each of us were kind to each other, the world would be different and better. Not all of us respond to wisdom, but we all respond to kindness,' Gere told the publication. 'Even in the case of Trump, I'm sure there is something kind about him. People say he's charming in private. 'Yet the world he's created around himself is violent, crude, and ignorant. Many of the things he's doing we've never seen before.' When asked whether he believes that Trump's second term in office could 'irreversibly change the values of U.S. society,' the actor admitted that he 'worries' about it—claiming that the president is 'cut off from' society's natural sense of empathy. Gere's latest comments echo those he made at the annual Goya Awards ceremony in February, when he slammed Trump as a 'bully and a thug' while accepting the International Goya Award in recognition of his ongoing humanitarian work. 'We're all part of a universe of overlapping pain and sadness and joy. … I see this world that we're in now forgetting that,' he said at the time. 'This very foolish tribalism is starting to take us over, where we think that we're all separate from each other. 'And we have unfortunately elected officials that don't inspire us in the way that we want to be inspired. I'm coming from a place now … we're in a very dark place in America where we have a bully and a thug who is the president of the United States. 'But it's not just in the U.S., it's everywhere.' Still, Gere admits that there are plenty of things he misses about his life in the U.S.—specifically, the people he left behind, including his adult son, Homer, telling El Pais that he wants to ensure he maintains a close connection to his heritage in his home country, even if he's living overseas. 'I miss my family and friends. I was just in New York visiting my friends and my oldest son,' he shared. 'We went to Pennsylvania, to the small town where my father and mother came from, and we visited their grave. I need to somehow feel connected to my history, to my best friends, to stay in contact with all of it.' But the actor noted that watching his wife 'blossoming' in Spain has been reward enough for making the move—explaining that he wanted to return the favor she did for him in upping sticks and joining him in the U.S. when they began their romance. 'Alejandra gave me six or seven years in the U.S.; she dropped everything to be with me and create a life together,' he said. 'But I could see it was important for her to come back, that she really missed her family and friends. She's blossoming here.' Although Gere noted that he has never lived permanently abroad, he said that he has created a sense of belonging in his new Madrid dwelling by ensuring that he has access to the creature comforts he needs most—specifically his 'office, piano, guitars, and books.' 'In a way, I've taken my world and put it here,' he said. While the family has quickly laid down roots in what El Pais described as a 'chalet in the exclusive Madrid neighborhood of La Moraleja,' Gere's wife noted that they are not set on spending the rest of their days in the city. She told the publication that they plan to 'stay … for a few years,' describing Madrid as a 'city that has … a very special energy.' However, she has previously revealed that the family had always planned to 'come back' to the U.S., telling the Daily Mail that they were already spending their time going 'back and forth' between the two countries in order to visit their loved ones regularly. 'For a few years [we'll live in Spain], and then come back. But we're always coming back. We'll come back here in the summer because we have the kids at camp. We just have to balance our lives there and here,' she said. Luckily, the family has retained a home base in the U.S., despite selling their permanent residence in New Canaan, CT. That home is now set to be torn down in order to make room for a nine-plot subdivision. In his April 2024 interview with Vanity Fair, Gere revealed that he planned to keep a property 'in the countryside in New York,' although he hesitated to share specific details about its location. 'I Appealed My Property Taxes and Got $4,500 Knocked Off My Bill' Home Price Growth Slows to Weakest Pace in 2 Years as Buyer Demand Remains Soft Fresh Out of College? These Are the 10 Best Cities Where Graduates Can Actually Afford To Rent
Yahoo
29-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Puerto Rican film claims the Navy turned Vieques into a cancer hotspot
For over six decades, the Navy occupied the Puerto Rican island of Vieques, off the coast of the main territory, to carry out military exercises. When it finally left in 2003, locals alleged that it failed to follow proper cleaning protocols, either opting for dangerous open detonation to get rid of old bombs or simply leaving behind munitions and toxic waste. "The U.S. has paid no attention to the issue,' filmmaker Glorimar Marrero in Spanish claimed during a recent videoconference interview with De Los. 'For example, the Navy said it would take care of cleaning the water in Vieques and that hasn't happened yet.' Marrero's emotionally charged and politically relevant drama 'The Fishbowl' ("La Pecera") — playing in select theaters until Sunday and coming soon to video on demand — explores the human consequences of these activities. It follows Noelia (Isel Rodriguez), a young artist from Vieques who has cancer. After her illness metastasizes, making her chances of survival slim, she decides to return to the island, initially to spend time with her mother, but eventually she joins the cleanup efforts despite her increasingly frail physical condition. The director's debut feature has already made history as the first Puerto Rican film nominated at the Goya Awards (Spain's equivalent to the Oscars) for best Ibero-American film, and the first to premiere at the Sundance Film Festival back in 2023. But while the significance of these victories of visibility can't be overstated, 'The Fishbowl' offers only a glimpse into the injustices that the Puerto Rican people continue to endure. 'It's great that in this moment of struggle, because of what's happening at the presidential level in the U.S., we can show the film in these cities so the population can learn about what's happening in our country and about the films we make in Puerto Rico,' Marrero says about her film finally getting a theatrical release in the U.S. This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity. Since you are originally from the main island of Puerto Rico, how did your relationship with Vieques develop? When I was in college, a detonation of a bomb killed David Sanes Rodríguez, a Vieques resident who was working at one of the U.S. Navy bases. This started a huge social movement. I was very attentive to what was happening in Vieques and participated in activism in the civil movement that resulted in a halt to the detonations. That was a story very close to me. When I began researching for my feature film, I had already decided to focus on colorectal cancer because it was the disease my mother had experienced, but I didn't want to do it in Barranquitas, the town where I'm from, because it would have been too biographical. I asked myself, 'What matters to me as much as my town?' And then I say, "Vieques." Prior to 'The Fishbowl,' you made a short film titled 'Biopsia' about the experiences of women in Vieques. How was this useful to prepare for 'The Fishbowl'? It was during my initial investigation on the island municipality that I discovered the history of what happens to women there and the process they have to follow after their mammograms to get breast biopsies in San Juan. I used that short film to prepare for 'The Fishbowl,' because at the time, I was only the screenwriter on the project and didn't necessarily have a body of work as a director, so I directed 'Biopsia' to test myself and make sure I was capable of taking on directing a feature film. And that's how I continued the research and developed the narrative arc of 'The Fishbowl.' What did your research entail in order to get a full picture of the consequences of the military activities there? It first consisted of collecting the local oral history and the memories of the inhabitants of the island of Vieques regarding the time the U.S. Navy was there, all those decades of detonations and the recollections of different generations. There were the stories of people who lost their lands because the civilian population was displaced and concentrated on one-quarter of the island, leaving three-quarters for military exercises. I wanted to know what it was like to live so close to the military exercises, what it sounded like, how people acted. People would tell me about how their house shook or how, if you were outside and heard the detonations, everyone acted as if it were so normal. Then there were the stories of illnesses. There are families in which everyone has died of cancer. Vieques is one of the places with the highest incidence of cancer in the entire Puerto Rican archipelago. But there are also many rare diseases because there is contamination with mercury or uranium. Since the U.S. has neglected to take full responsibility of the cleanup, it seems, based on your film, that local residents have taken it upon themselves to restore their island. I also discovered how the current cleanup is being done by viequenses themselves, who are risking their health. While I stayed in the central character's point of view, the character of Noelia's mother is one of those locals cleaning what was left behind. There are viequenses who dive in the water and document and publicize what they find so people know that, even though the U.S. Navy stopped the detonations, the pollution is still present and has been neglected. All this research also led me to delve into the nature, the sounds and the landscapes of this island, which is a paradise and super photogenic. That helped us tell the story of the crisis in the political relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States. How do you think the situation in Vieques exemplifies the relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States? It is a direct snapshot of an unequal political relationship in which the Puerto Rican population is considered second- or even third-class citizens. As a colony, we do not have the same rights, and we are also neglected as a nation. I personally believe in Puerto Rico's sovereignty, because the colonial relationship has always been unequal. There has never been justice in that relationship. There has been a bond of oppression, of violence, of human rights violations. Puerto Rico was also a guinea pig in the development of the birth control pill and in the Agent Orange tests. There's also how they use our country for cheap labor with incentives for U.S. corporations — that's a very long story. The U.S. has always exploited Puerto Rican resources and ignored our human rights. There has never been a healthy relationship between the empire and the colony. On a more practical note, how difficult is it to make films in Puerto Rico from a financial standpoint? This is another snapshot of this disproportionate relationship with the United States. Currently, there's a tax credit that offers 40% for foreign productions, which is what Netflix, Amazon, Sony and Disney use, for example. And there's a sector of the Puerto Rican filmmaking community that offers services to these productions. Then there are the independent filmmakers like me, who, if we were to apply for the tax credit, would be entitled to an additional 15%, a tax credit of 55%. But the problem is coming with the 45% gap, which isn't necessarily money that exists in Puerto Rico, and that's why we have to opt for co-productions with other countries; in my case it was with Spain. 'The Fishbowl' is the first Puerto Rican feature to premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. Were you surprised that your film finally broke through? Our Spanish producers fought so that Sundance would consider our film for the world dramatic competition, and not alongside the U.S.-produced films, which is what had usually happened. They would consider us for the U.S. section and our chances were significantly reduced. By being a co-production between Spain and Puerto Rico, there was a stronger justification for them to consider it for the world dramatic competition, and we made it. Politically, that helped us a lot, since the rest of the festivals put us in Ibero-American competitions. They recognized us as a country, including the Goya Awards. In a small way, "The Fishbowl" is also sowing a seed to reiterate that we are a nation. Since 2012, Puerto Rico has not been allowed to submit a film for the Oscars in the international feature category. Are Puerto Rican filmmakers pushing for this to change? We sent a letter complaining about the 2012 rule change to the academy, and they responded with a very standard template stating that the rule stands. However, we've been working for several months on a one-pager asking them to return to the previous rule, because there's a need for us to be able to compete as what we are: a nation, not as part of the U.S., because we would be competing with the likes of 'Barbie' and 'Oppenheimer.' We want to shift that conversation in order to venture forward, and we have support from the Puerto Rican members of the academy. If Puerto Rico is able to participate and submit to the Oscars, that has a huge impact on distribution. For example, if your film makes the shortlist, even if it doesn't get nominated, the impact at the box office is enormous. We were in theaters in Puerto Rico for 17 weeks, but after we were nominated for a Goya, we returned to theaters and stayed for a total of 32 weeks. These things are important for the sustainability of our careers, for the dissemination of the work and for the justice we need. Get our Latinx Files newsletter for stories that capture the complexity of our communities. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
29-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Puerto Rican film claims the Navy turned Vieques into a cancer hotspot
For over six decades, the Navy occupied the Puerto Rican island of Vieques, off the coast of the main territory, to carry out military exercises. When it finally left in 2003, locals alleged that it failed to follow proper cleaning protocols, either opting for dangerous open detonation to get rid of old bombs or simply leaving behind munitions and toxic waste. 'The U.S. has paid no attention to the issue,' filmmaker Glorimar Marrero in Spanish claimed during a recent videoconference interview with De Los. 'For example, the Navy said it would take care of cleaning the water in Vieques and that hasn't happened yet.' Marrero's emotionally charged and politically relevant drama 'The Fishbowl' ('La Pecera') — playing in select theaters until Sunday and coming soon to video on demand — explores the human consequences of these activities. It follows Noelia (Isel Rodriguez), a young artist from Vieques who has cancer. After her illness metastasizes, making her chances of survival slim, she decides to return to the island, initially to spend time with her mother, but eventually she joins the cleanup efforts despite her increasingly frail physical condition. The director's debut feature has already made history as the first Puerto Rican film nominated at the Goya Awards (Spain's equivalent to the Oscars) for best Ibero-American film, and the first to premiere at the Sundance Film Festival back in 2023. But while the significance of these victories of visibility can't be overstated, 'The Fishbowl' offers only a glimpse into the injustices that the Puerto Rican people continue to endure. 'It's great that in this moment of struggle, because of what's happening at the presidential level in the U.S., we can show the film in these cities so the population can learn about what's happening in our country and about the films we make in Puerto Rico,' Marrero says about her film finally getting a theatrical release in the U.S. This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity. Since you are originally from the main island of Puerto Rico, how did your relationship with Vieques develop? When I was in college, a detonation of a bomb killed David Sanes Rodríguez, a Vieques resident who was working at one of the U.S. Navy bases. This started a huge social movement. I was very attentive to what was happening in Vieques and participated in activism in the civil movement that resulted in a halt to the detonations. That was a story very close to me. When I began researching for my feature film, I had already decided to focus on colorectal cancer because it was the disease my mother had experienced, but I didn't want to do it in Barranquitas, the town where I'm from, because it would have been too biographical. I asked myself, 'What matters to me as much as my town?' And then I say, 'Vieques.' Prior to 'The Fishbowl,' you made a short film titled 'Biopsia' about the experiences of women in Vieques. How was this useful to prepare for 'The Fishbowl'? It was during my initial investigation on the island municipality that I discovered the history of what happens to women there and the process they have to follow after their mammograms to get breast biopsies in San Juan. I used that short film to prepare for 'The Fishbowl,' because at the time, I was only the screenwriter on the project and didn't necessarily have a body of work as a director, so I directed 'Biopsia' to test myself and make sure I was capable of taking on directing a feature film. And that's how I continued the research and developed the narrative arc of 'The Fishbowl.' What did your research entail in order to get a full picture of the consequences of the military activities there? It first consisted of collecting the local oral history and the memories of the inhabitants of the island of Vieques regarding the time the U.S. Navy was there, all those decades of detonations and the recollections of different generations. There were the stories of people who lost their lands because the civilian population was displaced and concentrated on one-quarter of the island, leaving three-quarters for military exercises. I wanted to know what it was like to live so close to the military exercises, what it sounded like, how people acted. People would tell me about how their house shook or how, if you were outside and heard the detonations, everyone acted as if it were so normal. Then there were the stories of illnesses. There are families in which everyone has died of cancer. Vieques is one of the places with the highest incidence of cancer in the entire Puerto Rican archipelago. But there are also many rare diseases because there is contamination with mercury or uranium. Since the U.S. has neglected to take full responsibility of the cleanup, it seems, based on your film, that local residents have taken it upon themselves to restore their island. I also discovered how the current cleanup is being done by viequenses themselves, who are risking their health. While I stayed in the central character's point of view, the character of Noelia's mother is one of those locals cleaning what was left behind. There are viequenses who dive in the water and document and publicize what they find so people know that, even though the U.S. Navy stopped the detonations, the pollution is still present and has been neglected. All this research also led me to delve into the nature, the sounds and the landscapes of this island, which is a paradise and super photogenic. That helped us tell the story of the crisis in the political relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States. How do you think the situation in Vieques exemplifies the relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States? It is a direct snapshot of an unequal political relationship in which the Puerto Rican population is considered second- or even third-class citizens. As a colony, we do not have the same rights, and we are also neglected as a nation. I personally believe in Puerto Rico's sovereignty, because the colonial relationship has always been unequal. There has never been justice in that relationship. There has been a bond of oppression, of violence, of human rights violations. Puerto Rico was also a guinea pig in the development of the birth control pill and in the Agent Orange tests. There's also how they use our country for cheap labor with incentives for U.S. corporations — that's a very long story. The U.S. has always exploited Puerto Rican resources and ignored our human rights. There has never been a healthy relationship between the empire and the colony. On a more practical note, how difficult is it to make films in Puerto Rico from a financial standpoint? This is another snapshot of this disproportionate relationship with the United States. Currently, there's a tax credit that offers 40% for foreign productions, which is what Netflix, Amazon, Sony and Disney use, for example. And there's a sector of the Puerto Rican filmmaking community that offers services to these productions. Then there are the independent filmmakers like me, who, if we were to apply for the tax credit, would be entitled to an additional 15%, a tax credit of 55%. But the problem is coming with the 45% gap, which isn't necessarily money that exists in Puerto Rico, and that's why we have to opt for co-productions with other countries; in my case it was with Spain. 'The Fishbowl' is the first Puerto Rican feature to premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. Were you surprised that your film finally broke through? Our Spanish producers fought so that Sundance would consider our film for the world dramatic competition, and not alongside the U.S.-produced films, which is what had usually happened. They would consider us for the U.S. section and our chances were significantly reduced. By being a co-production between Spain and Puerto Rico, there was a stronger justification for them to consider it for the world dramatic competition, and we made it. Politically, that helped us a lot, since the rest of the festivals put us in Ibero-American competitions. They recognized us as a country, including the Goya Awards. In a small way, 'The Fishbowl' is also sowing a seed to reiterate that we are a nation. Since 2012, Puerto Rico has not been allowed to submit a film for the Oscars in the international feature category. Are Puerto Rican filmmakers pushing for this to change? We sent a letter complaining about the 2012 rule change to the academy, and they responded with a very standard template stating that the rule stands. However, we've been working for several months on a one-pager asking them to return to the previous rule, because there's a need for us to be able to compete as what we are: a nation, not as part of the U.S., because we would be competing with the likes of 'Barbie' and 'Oppenheimer.' We want to shift that conversation in order to venture forward, and we have support from the Puerto Rican members of the academy. If Puerto Rico is able to participate and submit to the Oscars, that has a huge impact on distribution. For example, if your film makes the shortlist, even if it doesn't get nominated, the impact at the box office is enormous. We were in theaters in Puerto Rico for 17 weeks, but after we were nominated for a Goya, we returned to theaters and stayed for a total of 32 weeks. These things are important for the sustainability of our careers, for the dissemination of the work and for the justice we need.
Yahoo
10-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Richard Gere Delivers 'Dark' Warning About 'Thug' Trump As Awards Speech Takes A Turn
Film star Richard Gere slammed President Donald Trump and warned of the rise of authoritarianism globally during an awards show in Spain over the weekend. 'I'm coming from a place now that we're in a very dark place in America, where we have a bully and a thug who is the president of the United States,' Gere, 75, said as he accepted a lifetime achievement trophy at Spain's Goya Awards on Saturday. The crowd cheered. But Gere ― who last year announced he was moving to Spain, where his wife, Alejandra Silva, is from ― said the problem isn't confined to his homeland. 'It's everywhere,' he said. 'Everywhere.' He said he read a 'moving letter' in the New York Times from a writer in Hungary who warned of the 'slippery slope.' 'Authoritarianism takes us all over,' he said. 'We have to be vigilant. We have to be alert. We have to be energetic. We have to be brave. We have to be courageous. And everyone who's watching this ― in the Spanish-speaking world and elsewhere ― we have to be willing to stand up, tell the truth, be honest. And there's a place in all of our lives for basic kindness, for basic love and understanding.' Variety noted that Gere made similar comments at a news conference on Friday where he warned that the 'dark marriage of money and power' in the United States is a danger to the entire planet. 'The millionaire clowns surrounding Trump are immature and narcissistic, a deadly mix,' he said.
