SFIFF54—LATINBEAT

San Francisco's film snobs and film sluts have been abuzz all weekend privy to the advance announcement offered San Francisco Film Society (SFFS) members of this year's lineup for the 54th edition of the San Francisco International Film Festival (SFIFF54). It's been hard to keep quiet about this year's offerings but—with yesterday's official press conference, held in the spectacular Alexandra Room on the 32nd floor of the Westin St. Francis overlooking Union Square—the embargo has been lifted, though unfortunately there remain glaring omissions with regard to some of the festival's key events, namely who will be the recipient of the Founder's Directing Award, the Peter J. Owens Acting Award, and the Midnight Awards? Securing talent is specifically the issue here, Executive Director Graham Leggat admitted, adding that this is perhaps one of the most difficult tasks of his position. Let it be known that the all-important spectacular dimension of an international film festival—which all too often comes under fire from cinephilic diehards—is fraught with administrative complications like any other infrastructural arm of the festival that supports its architecture.

Leaving aside that minor disappointment in favor of anticipation, let's take at look at what we have available; first off with SFIFF54's Latin slate. A caveat: the short descriptions have been lifted directly from the SFIFF54 mini-guide, with expanded descriptions linked to the films' titles.

Asleep in the Sun / Dormir Al Sol (Dir. Alejandro Chomski, Argentina 2010, 83 min)—Every dog has his day in this beguiling metaphysical mystery set within the labyrinthine Buenos Aires neighborhood of Parque Chas, where a hapless watchmaker and his canine-crazed wife go soul-deep into a Kafkaesque world of pseudo scientists and self-possessed pooches amid period-perfect '50s decor. IMDb.

When Asleep in the Sun played at last Fall's Chicago International Film Festival (CIFF), Marilyn Ferdinand described the film as "a charming, unnerving film whose picture-postcard, 1950s setting lulls viewers into a sweet dream of nostalgia, only to turn a character's moderate neurosis into a nightmare for all those in her circle." She reported on Chomski's attendance at CIFF, where he advised that the film's genesis "arose from his friendship with Argentine writer Adolfo Bioy Casares and his admiration for his novel Asleep in the Sun. The pair talked about adapting the book for the cinema, and when Casares died, Chomski decided to push on. He retained the spirit of the book, though many plot points had to be added ... to render the story coherent. And he decided to film it as a period piece, as originally written, instead of updating it to the present because he felt the story was too delicate to stand up to today's information-soaked scrutiny. ...Chomski added a very slight political agenda to the film by showing that people often are powerless to stop bad things from happening in their countries and communities. He used the examples of Americans who opposed the invasion of Iraq and Argentinians who did not want a military dictatorship who had these things foisted upon them with no recourse. Of course, history catches up with every event."

At The Parallax View, D.B. Bates counters that Asleep in the Sun "stumbles" in achieving its dream logic by making "two grave miscalculations that undermine the film's dream-like qualities: too much foreshadowing, and too much 'realism.' " But even he admits that "the film is loaded with elements worth admiring", boasting great performances, gorgeous cinematography and impressive evocations of the absurd, circular illogic of Franz Kafka and Albert Camus.

Black Bread / Pa Negre (Dir. Agustí Villaronga, (Spain 2010, 108 min)—In the dark days following the Spanish Civil War, a young boy witnesses a brutal murder by mysterious hooded figures. When his own father is accused of the crime, he sets out to exonerate him, but the facts he uncovers in this twisted gothic underworld are far from comforting. Official website [Spanish]. IMDb. Wikipedia. Facebook.

Dispatching to The Jigsaw Lounge from the film's San Sebastian premiere, Neil Young noted Nora Navas's win as Best Actress for her role as the put-upon wife of an anti-Francoist farmer in 1944 Catalonia. Over all, however, he found Black Bread to be "a fairly stodgy tearjerker with mild supernatural touches that nod to Spanish-language forerunners such as Guillermo Del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth and Erice's enduringly seminal 1970s classic The Spirit of the Beehive." Young makes it clear, however, that "such comparisons are decidedly not to the advantage of Black Bread." Ronald Bergan suffered the same comparisons at MUBI, where he noted those movies "say much more in a less obvious and direct way" and complained that Black Bread was a "never-ending rambling melodrama which pretends to be making a statement on Franco's Spain, but muddies the water with a rights-of-passage drama, 'shocking' sequences, a folk tale of a monster, and a boy that wants to fly. Unfortunately, the film never lives up to its first impressive sequence of someone being killed by a hooded man, and a horse toppling over a cliff."

Jonathan Holland's Variety review from San Sebastian was decidedly more favorable. He characterized Black Bread as "grim and gripping" and noted that "Agustí Villaronga's most mainstream film retains his trademark subversive edge, quickly evolving from rites-of-passage yarn into a complex, challenging item that is both dark to its heart and breathlessly watchable." He added that the film's depiction of rural poverty was "impressive" and that "several scenes, including a dream sequence, are shot through with a raw, unsettling power." As later reported at Variety, Black Bread went on to win nine Goyas, including Best Film, Director and Actress. Notwithstanding, I can't help but wonder if this dramatic sweep wasn't by default due to the well-publicized contention between Icíar Bollain's Even the Rain and Álex de la Iglesia's The Last Circus, whose enmity appeared to cancel out each others' chances. I wonder about this because everyone I know who caught Black Bread at its Palm Springs International screening expressed disappointment and outright amazement when the film went on to do so well at the Goyas. My expectations are low.

Colors of the Mountain, The / Los colores de la montana (Dir. Carlos César Arbeláez, Colombia / Panama 2010, 88 min)—A motley crew of young boys in Colombia lives only for one passion: soccer. But when their precious new ball rolls into a minefield, their dreams are suddenly on hold. Even as the village becomes the center of a tug-of-war between right-wing paramilitary groups and leftist guerrillas, the idea of a rescue attempt is too tempting to resist. IMDb.

Dispatching further from San Sebastian, Variety critic Jonathan Holland noted that—though The Colors of the Mountain appeared "deceptively lightweight"—it was actually a "no-frills, sincere if sometimes cliched drama" that "nicely sidesteps sentimentality and haranguing social criticism, and its wobbly dramatics are compensated for by a wonderful central perf from kid thesp Hernán [Mauricio] Ocampo." Neil Young, in turn, dispatched that The Colors of the Mountain was "a more pungent examination of war's effects on young, innocent victims" than the aforementioned Black Bread. He noted that Arbeláez won the festival's "lucrative" €90,000 New Directors Award and concurred that Ocampo's performance was outstanding and "as good as anything I saw from an adult actor during my spell in San Sebastian."

At Eye For Film, Amber Wilkinson emphasizes the film's "hidden but very real threats" and writes: "Shot almost entirely from the children's perspective, Arbeláez tackles universal themes of conflict and its impact on ordinary people without getting mired in specific politics. He deftly shows how quickly normality can disintegrate when conflict appears on the horizon. And despite having serious subject matter, he has a lightness of touch, an avoidance of outright displays of violence and an eye for the comedic that means older children could enjoy this as much as adults." The Colors of the Mountain has been picked up by Film Movement and is already available on DVD. Their press kit includes a director's statement that, interestingly, acknowledges the film's Iranian influences.

Jean Gentil (Dirs. Laura Amelia Guzmán, Israel Cárdenas, Dominican Republic / Mexico/ Germany 2010, 84 min)—Jean Remy is a Haitian man struggling to find employment in the Dominican Republic. Confronted with rejection and discrimination in the city, he sets off to try his luck in the countryside. Imbued with a naturalistic grace, this deeply sympathetic portrait speaks eloquently to the trials of humanity. IMDb. Facebook.

Following up on their debut feature Cochochi—one of my favorite films at the 2007 Toronto International—Guzmán and Cárdenas received a Horizons special mention at the Venice Film Festival and a jury award at Thessaloniki for Jean Gentil, yet Variety critic Boyd van Hoeij still found their most recent effort "relentlessly dour."

Joy, The / A Alegria (Dirs. Marina Meliande, Felipe Bragança, Brazil 2010, 106 min)—In Rio, a group of young students (played by a memorable cast of nonprofessionals) transcends the hard truths of their lives through spirit and imagination in this magical realist urban teen adventure. Led by the charismatic Luiza, the group creates poetry and mirth in a collapsing world.

Jay Weissberg's Variety review is unapologetically dismissive. Not a good sign. This might fall under what Jonathan Marlow terms a "dodgy" entry.

Mysteries of Lisbon / Mistérios de Lisboa (Dir. Raúl Ruiz, (Portugal/France 2010, TRT 272 min w. intermission)—Counts and Fathers, Marquis and Madames, orphans and nobility all spin their yarns in Ruiz's magisterial new gambit on the art of storytelling, based on a 19th-century Portuguese novel [by Camilo Castelo Branco] yet more like Dickens filtered through a surrealist's gaze. This costume meta-drama from the director of Time Regained (SFIFF 2000) is set in a decadent, baroque old-world Portugal. Official website. IMDb. Facebook.

My favorite film of 2010! I am thrilled to have the chance to experience this masterpiece again. As I wrote earlier, my first Ruiz film arrived as a guest and took a cinephilic slave. A sensual conquest has never been more swift and predetermined. I'm afraid I had little choice but to be overtaken by Ruiz's masterful amusement on the ambitious follies of youth and the nostalgic recapitulations of the elderly. I've resisted writing about the film since its world premiere at the Toronto International only because I felt it warranted at least one more screening before committing myself to such a pleasurable—if challenging—task; but, the truth remains that Mysteries of Lisbon might require multiple viewings. It's that rich and multi-layered.

Souls more informed—and infinitely more prepared than I am—have already weighed in, however. Not only has Rouge provided the definitive online primer for Ruiz, but at MUBI David Hudson has rounded up the first reviews from the TIFF world premiere, the New York Film Festival, plus commentary on the welcome announcement that Mysteries of Lisbon won France's prestigious Louis Delluc Prize. Eventually, I'll get around to drafting a critical overview of those entries; but, for now, am impressed with how Ruiz has crafted a film with a running time of four hours plus that feels breathtakingly only a little over two. Comporting with programmer Rachel Rosen's observation that—if there is any trend to be seen in this year's roster of films—it's that these films seem to find their own lengths. This length is not to be missed!

Nostalgia for the Light (Dir. Patricio Guzmán, (France / Chile / Germany 2010, 90 min)—The renowned Chilean documentarian goes to one of the highest, driest places on earth, the Atacama Desert, to examine the work of astronomers who search the skies to understand our universe at the same time that relatives of those disappeared under the Pinochet dictatorship search the sands for the bodies of the victims. IMDb. Facebook.

Encouraged by Boyd van Hoeij's Variety review from Cannes, I made a point of catching Nostalgia for the Light at the 2010 Toronto International. It rapidly ascended as one of my favorite films of the festival let alone the year and I maintain that this searing and poetic documentary should be a leading Oscar®-contender for 2012. If it's not acknowledged with at least a nomination, it will merely be further confirmation that Americans have not only forgotten their own recent history, but how to judge a work of documentary art that will achieve relevance over time. I remain grateful for having had the opportunity to talk to Guzmán about the film. That conversation is up at MUBI, where David Hudson has been customarily thorough in monitoring the critical response to the film, first from Cannes, then Toronto, then its New York Run at the IFC Center.

I wish more mention had been made at the SFIFF press conference regarding Guzmán's attendance at the festival, by way of the Pacific Film Archive retrospective Afterimage: The Films of Patricio Guzmán. B. Ruby Rich and I agreed that it's an unfortunate embarrassment of riches that SFIFF's master class with Jean-Michel Frodon has been programmed against Guzmán's on-stage conversation with Jorge Ruffinelli at PFA. "I now have a conflict," I bemoaned to Ruby. "Yes, you do!" she confirmed.

Tiniest Place, The / El lugar mas pequeño (Dir. Tatiana Huezo, Mexico 2011, 100 min)—Years after the Salvadoran military destroyed the village of Cinquera in that country's civil war, survivors have returned to rebuild their community. This amazing debut is an evocative testament to place, memory and the power of life to rebound from tragedy. International Premiere. GGA Documentary Feature Contender. IMDb. Facebook [Spanish].

Ulysses / Ulises (Dir. Oscar Godoy, Chile / Argentina 2011, 85 min)—The emotional life of a Peruvian immigrant in Chile is the subject of this nuanced character study of a man uprooted from home by economic necessity and suffering loneliness and dislocation. Higher wages can't fill the void created by separation from everything that is important to him. World Premiere. New Directors Prize Contender. IMDb.

Useful Life, A / La vida útil (Dir. Federico Veiroj, Uruguay 2010, 67 min)—A man who has spent his entire adult life working in a film archive faces a new beginning with the threatened closure of the institution in this loving black and white ode to a life lived among the reels, a deadpan comedy of cinema and obsolescence from the director of Acne. (With short Protoparticles (7 min).) IMDb. Wikipedia. Facebook.

This is one more gem I caught at TIFF 2010 that I can heartily recommend to SFIFF audiences. It's a heartfelt valentine to cinephiles everywhere. My interview with Federico Veiroj is up at MUBI, where Dave Hudson has likewise gathered up reviews from the film's run in New York. I feel a shout-out is in order here to San Francisco's own Global Film Initiative whose prescience to pick up the film for distribution presumably provided SFIFF the print to show at their festival.

Cross-published on Twitch.

TIFF09: TO DIE LIKE A MAN—The Evening Class Interview With João Pedro Rodrigues & Alexander David

"There are no secrets; only shame."—Tonia.

[This entry is dedicated to Johnny Ray Huston, whose Cinema Scope article "Double 'O' Heaven: The Vertigo Pop and Phantom Desires of João Pedro Rodrigues" provided some of the first working language to appreciate this Portuguese maverick's films more fully. Thanks, Johnny! João Pedro says hi and looks forward to seeing you in Vancouver. This entry is not for the spoiler-wary!!]

In his most recent vision Morrer Como Um Homem (To Die Like A Man, 2009), Portuguese filmmaker João Pedro Rodrigues has staged some uneasy equations. The film begins with a close-up of a soldier's face applying camouflage paint. You hear the voice of another soldier—who you will later learn is Zé Maria (Chandra Malatitch), the son of drag queen Tonia (Fernando Santos)—complimenting his friend on how he looks, adding some finishing touches to his lids and cheeks. The parallel to how women apply their daily war paint is obvious and these militarized men are tainted by a suggestion of femininity. They break away from their patrol to wander AWOL in the night. Zé Maria leans his feminized friend against a tree, pushes down his pants and spitfucks him hard. At this point, you realize this is not your father's war movie. Their lust satiated, the two soldiers continue exploring this dark enchanted forest of the night that they have entered. They come across a house brightly lit in the darkness wherein two men dressed as women are singing at the piano. The sodomized soldier suggests candidly to Zé Maria that perhaps his father knows these two? Zé Maria hardens, mutters, "My father is dead" and shoots his friend in the chest. Rarely has a spit-stiff dick and a rifle penetrated flesh with such enraged and internalized homophobia.

This violent act initiates To Die Like A Man's portrait of transgendered Tonia, a veteran drag queen in Lisbon circles whose life has begun to unravel. The drag queens are getting younger and more competitive. Audiences want a different style of performance. Her son Zé Maria has become a deserter and a murderer and her boyfriend Rosario (Alexander David) is pressuring her to have a sex change operation. Her silicone breast implants have poisoned her body and she is dying of cancer. Sometimes it's just not worth waking up in the morning. In order to forgive and be forgiven for the slights endured over a long life as a drag queen performer, Tonia devolves her body back into a male form and seeks reconciliation with her estranged son, even if it be by way of dementia.

To Die Like A Man arrived for its North American premiere at the Toronto International after competing in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes. David Hudson gathered those decidedly mixed reviews at The Daily @ IFC. At Toronto—where day after day I caught one adequate film after another—To Die Like A Man stood out as a uniquely energized and distinct vision, strange and special. As indicated at Wikipedia, the story of Tonia was allegedly inspired by the life of Joaquim Centúrio de Almeida (artistic name: Ruth Bryden), and has motivated a lawsuit by Carlos Castro, the author of de Almeida's biography. I welcomed the opportunity to sit down with João Pedro Rodrigues and one of his actors Alexander David to discuss the film.

* * *

Michael Guillén: João, To Die Like A Man is a fascinating film and difficult to talk about because it operates on multiple registers: it's sublime, it's ridiculous, at times sad and frequently hilarious. Perhaps it would help me more if we start at the end of the film?—that closing fado?—whose lyrics synopsized what I had just witnessed and perhaps not fully understood. For starters, who sings that fado?

João Pedro Rodrigues: That fado is sung by Fernando Santos, who plays the transvestite Tonia; but, the song is a fado from the '80s from a singer who is not very well regarded in Portugal. He was a rebellious maverick of the fados in the '80s. As a man, he would wear skirts in the streets—quite the crazy guy!—but, he wrote strong lyrics. That closing song is a particularly beautiful fado. Fados aren't what I listen to most; but, especially that song expressed a lot about the film and sublimated Tonia's character. I wanted Tonia to have the aura of the grande dame of the drag show. At the same time, in this film I tried to go against the usual films that feature drag queens. I wanted to do something different. I wasn't interested in shooting Tonia's stage performance, at least not until the end of the film when it becomes a special moment; when it becomes something different.

Guillén: As far as I'm concerned, To Die Like A Man is now the definitive transgender movie and has set the bar for subsequent transcinema. Not only does it speak uniquely for the transgender community; but, it has a "formal audacity"—as Eye Weekly's Jason Anderson phrases it—that is downright thrilling, precisely for its difference. You dalliance with some stunning visual flairs.

I suppose why the fado struck me so much was because it desirously expressed what I have long felt is the underlying fear of gay people: the confrontation with their unapologetic androgyny; that they suffer no façade of what is male and female and operate at their best when remaining true to both. Their particular desire might be argued to be a longing—in fact—to remain both male and female, to remain—as the fado puts it—plural. "I want to be plural," Santos sings. He wants to be understood for being more than what he appears to be; that the singularity of his appearance might deceive his true plurality. For the singular, unfortunately, plurality is judged as an abomination, something supranatural exceeding division. Its excess is suspect. In the face of such inexplicable androgyny, a single sex suffers deficit.

That being said, I guess my true question is who is this movie for? Who do you imagine to be your audience? Or do you imagine your audience?

Rodrigues: I don't think about it. I'm the first audience of the film. I think of myself first as a viewer; but then, it's hard to tell. But I don't mean that I only want to do films for myself. The way the film is shot and the way it resembles my other films, I suspect you either like it and understand it or you don't. Even in terms of space. When I think of filming a room, I prefer filming pieces of the room. If you then try to combine the pieces to see how the room looks as a whole, you can't. In my films I try to build a space that—though not real space—is close to reality. Reality comes first. I like films that are real even as I try to arrive at some imaginary space. Of course, any film is about building an imaginary space constructed from shots and sounds, all the more so because the film also goes into the direction of a fairy tale. It's hard for me to know a priori what kind of reactions audiences will have toward the film.

Guillén: You're no stranger to controversy so I'm sure you're used to mixed-to-negative reviews?

Rodrigues: I am.

Guillén: Now, I want to be clear that I am wholly respectful of your singularly unique vision; but—as I was preparing how I wanted to approach this interview—I found I could understand To Die Like A Man better by comparing it to the work of other filmmakers. If I mention other filmmakers, I don't want you to interpret that in any way as some judgment that you're derivative because that's not what I mean at all. And nothing could be further from the truth. It's more that I find your films to be in the same domain of energy as certain other filmmakers.

Rodrigues: I do that too. I watch a lot of films so it's normal. Although I went to film school, I learned how to make films mostly by watching other films.

Guillén: As To Die Like A Man starts out, two AWOL soldiers have separated from their patrol and are alone together in the dark forest. This reminded me of how you claim night's terrain as a mise en scène within which to frame the fractured passions of obsessed psyches, which I wrote about when I reviewed your last film Two Drifters. As with that film, because To Die Like A Man starts with a night sequence, I am once again reminded of Djuna Barnes' Nightwood query: "Watchman, what of the night?" This seems to be the presiding question that addresses your films. Within your films, we watch the night. In this, they remind me of the films of Apichatpong Weerasethakul and the "Plaisirs de la forêt" series of photographs by Pierre and Gilles. All three of you share a fairy tale element to the night. Can you speak to what night means for you in your films and why you use it so frequently?

Rodrigues: This might not be at all what you're thinking, but I wanted the movie to start as a war movie in the style of classic Hollywood cinema, like Raoul Walsh's Objective Burma (1945). In that film you follow an abandoned troop of soldiers. I wanted To Die Like A Man to start as one thing so that it could turn into something else altogether, though of course you return to characters in the film that you glimpsed in the beginning. I wanted the film to be always changing and surprising, even if only little surprises.

As for the night, well, first, it's mysterious of course. Sex is connected to the night. Though To Die Like A Man starts as a war movie, the two AWOL soldiers start fucking. While I was writing the script, it seemed obvious to start it that way. Sometimes I don't know how to put into words or to explain my choices. Sometimes they're instinctive. Through the film work, things come up and I don't know exactly why sometimes.

Guillén: Inversely, as spectator, those who do understand what you're filming experience a commensurate instinctual response. As a filmmaker, you tap into something spectators instinctively recognize. I found it difficult to explain to myself why I was reacting to the film the way I was. But that's your gift. You have a knack for the numinous.

I don't mean to be overly literal, but I'm curious what the blue swing means in your film? Not only that it's there in your night scenes but that it's also pushed and set swinging each time it's passed?

Rodrigues: That came from a book called Casa Susanna, which is a bunch of photographs of men dressed as women that were found in a flea market. The pictures are from the '50s and the '60s. The two men who edited the book [Robert Swope and Michel Hurst] didn't know who the individuals were in the photos, but were intrigued by these men dressed as women drinking tea or walking in the woods. They're a bit like William Eggleston's pictures sometimes. They possess that mystery of finding images of people who you don't know who they are. One photo shows a transvestite in front of a tree on which a sign is nailed: Casa Susanna. You can just imagine their social encounters in the middle of the woods somewhere in America.

Guillén: We used to be able to have social encounters in the woods. It's all been privatized now so we can't do it anymore for fear of prosecution. But it was fun while it lasted!

Rodrigues: [Laughs.] Anyway, there's one very beautiful image of a man dressed up as a woman in a swing. That's where the image of the swing came from. Also, because I framed that shot exactly the same way the two times you see it, it's like a doorway into another world; a swinging door into a fairy tale world.

Guillén: One interesting visual flourish with Alexander's character Rosario is that you take this broken young man whose masculinity is frail and contingent and you dress him in macho t-shirts. I often see this on public transit—scrawny kids wearing Conan the Barbarian t-shirts—it's their way of expressing a masculinity that is not readily evident. Which leads me to ask about the performance of gender. Acting like a man. Acting like a woman. Passing for either. Sometimes possessing masculine attributes through feminine gestures.

Rodrigues: That idea was built with João Rui Guerra da Mata, the art director of the film, who's worked with me on all my films. Everything is constructed—the clothes, the décor—everything is worked out even at the writing stage. The idea was that there are these young guys like Rosario in Portugal who go out to the clubs with drag queens. I don't even know if they're gay or not. They pretend to be with their women. That's the idea behind their wearing—what you call—macho shirts. Also, there's a playfulness in that. Rosario wears a Robin Boy Wonder shirt too. We were playing with the idea of Rosario as an eternal child, not a feminized young man, but a playful, childish one. Rosario's relationship with Tonia, they're more than lovers, they're almost mother and child.

Guillén: There's also a slightly sadomasochistic co-dependency going on. An almost necessary cruelty passes between them. Much in the same way that a teenage son would rebel against his parents by punishing them with juvenile behavior. Further, there's also another quality that I've come to think a lot about in my middle years that was introduced to me during the Men's Movement some years past: that there is a specific male nurturance that is not an imitation of female nurturance; a male nurturance that is paternal, not maternal, and specific to the male gender, where some older guy helps a younger incomplete guy get along with life, much as Tonia did with Rosario. I sometimes question whether the unhappiness of drag queens like Tonia might have something to do with their misunderstanding this nurturing impulse within themselves, defining it as feminine and maternal when in fact it's one of the best masculine qualities they have: an ability to guide, to take care of others, to provide, to make decisions.

Alexander David: With them also there's something of a shared survival instinct. She helps Rosario but Rosario helps Tonia too. I'm not exactly sure in which way; perhaps just by being with her, providing companionship. I imagine they were in love when they first met; but, that faded away as they lived together.

Rodrigues: Tonia is also a very lonely person. That echoes my other characters in my other films, as someone who doesn't really know how to deal with that and who can't face that she's really lonely.

Guillén: That I understood, unfortunately, through personal experience. [Rodrigues laughs.] My partner of 12 years passed during the AIDS pandemic. It's now been 13 years since his death and I've, of course, had to move on with life; but, the truth is that since him, I've never been able to fall in love again in the way that I loved him. I have found and lost other lovers and have now discovered—in my middle years—that all I can do is to unconditionally further love in others. If I know there's something I can do for someone else, that's the only kind of love I have left. I don't feel the passion I used to have for my partner. So in my experience I have, like Tonia, taken young men under wing who frequently remind me that they believe they have stolen from me what I have offered freely. But there is still enough power and love within me to absorb such slights and to help them achieve their goals in life.

I agree with you, Alexander, that Tonia and Rosario give each other reasons to keep going, even though they're a bit abusive to each other. The relationship between Maria and her partner Paula likewise has a level of abuse going on, much like a diva with her stagehand. Can we speak about Maria Bakker (Gonçalo Ferreira De Almeida), who—in my estimation—took your film into Fassbinder territory: unapologetically melodramatic, over the top, chewing the scenery.

Rodrigues: [Chuckles.] That character Maria Bakker pre-existed my writing of the script, even though Gonçalo Ferreira De Almeida usually plays Maria Bakker in English. For Gonçalo, Maria Bakker is a fantasy character. He does shows and sings songs. At first, he didn't want to do it in Portuguese because for him it didn't make sense that Maria Bakker would speak Portuguese. For a while we considered that Maria could speak in English and Tonia in Portuguese and that they would somehow understand each other. Perhaps in this strange world people could understand each other even if they didn't speak the same language? But then we decided it would be too strange. [The idea of something being too strange in a João Pedro Rodrigues film made me chuckle under my breath.] Maria Bakker in my film, her hair, all of that comes from the character that Gonçalo already created. Also, it's a little past the halfway point in the film when Tonia and Rosario arrive at Maria's house. At that point, I wanted the film to go towards the direction of comedy.

Guillén: And that's where it went!

Rodrigues: But it's very difficult to play comedy. Still, I wanted to try. Did people laugh during your press screening?

Guillén: There were these two buffed up butch dudes who I presumed were straight laughing their asses off. They got it. It became interesting to me to watch when people would leave the screening, at what point, at what scene. Mainly it was women who left. I don't know if they felt they were being travestized, perhaps? I've known women who have admitted they don't like drag queens because they don't feel that they perform women; they feel they perform travesties of women, which insults them. I don't know how across-the-board that sentiment is.

Can we talk about things buried in the garden?! First, there's the soldier buried in Maria's garden, which startled me at first. I kept thinking, "What is that soldier doing buried in Maria's garden?! Wouldn't they have come looking for him precisely because he'd gone AWOL? And isn't this a dead giveaway with the soldier's helmet perched on the cross on the grave?" Then there was that wonderful sequence that actually moved me quite a bit where Tonia and Rosario dig up her memories from the backyard garden where her little dog has buried them. Perhaps as someone whose heart's cargo consists of memories frequently recapitulated, I once again identified with Tonia. I am often reminded of how important my memories are to me; they're like seeds buried in my garden.

Rodrigues: The idea was that—just before she falls ill—Tonia has a flashback of symbolic moments in her life. You got exactly what that scene meant. As for the soldier buried in Maria's garden … [Rodrigues starts laughing] … sometimes I can only answer you with silly answers. The soldier died in Maria's garden and there was no undertaker to remove him to a morgue and bury him in a cemetery, so they buried him in the garden. I wanted it to be like an Indian burial from the cowboy movies.

Guillén: So before we wrap up here, let me ask you Alexander how you approached your characterization of Rosario in the film? I didn't much like your character at first. He reminded me a little too much of the kind of young man I was talking about earlier who feel they have stolen what has been given freely.

David: I tried to follow the kind of acting style from Robert Bresson. João Pedro gave me some of Bresson's films so I could gain a sense of his style.

Rodrigues: But you're also naturally like that. That's what I liked about you. You're natural for what interests me in an actor.

Guillén: So what exactly is that? Is it a lack of affect that you're going for? What is it that interested you in Alexander?

Rodrigues: Again, it's instinctive. It was instinctive to play the character in a sotto voce tone. Basically [addressing Alexander]—not that you acted like you are; you're not like that addict at all—but, we talked about this: you were playing yourself a lot of the time.

David: I strived for low profile acting. There was no psychological construction of my character.

Rodrigues: We didn't talk much about psychology.

David: He didn't want that, so I didn't do that.

Guillén: Rosario was so angry, though. Where did the anger come from? Wasn't there some psychological motivation for that?

Rodrigues: The role was written that way.

David: Yes. Why was he angry? The stuff with the girlfriend. [He grins.]

Cross-published on Twitch.

INDEX—Latino, Latin American, & Spanish/Portuguese Cinemas

Argentine Cinema

Aerial, The (La Antena, 2007; Esteban Sapir)—Critical Overview/Review

Dignity of the Nobodies, The (La dignidad de los nadies, 2005; Fernando Solanas)—Festival Capsule

Dignity of the Nobodies, The (La dignidad de los nadies, 2005; Fernando Solanas)—Interview With Fernando Solanas

Dignity of the Nobodies, The (La dignidad de los nadies, 2005; Fernando Solanas)—Review

Latent Argentina (Argentina latente, 2007; Fernando Solanas)—Critical Overview/Review

Liverpool (2008; Lisandro Alonso)—Critical Overview/Review

Northeast (Nordeste, 2005; Juan Diego Solanas)—Festival Capsule

Northeast (Nordeste, 2005; Juan Diego Solanas)—Introductory Remarks by Aymará Rovera and Q&A With Juan Solanas

Paranoids, The (Los Paranoicos, 2008; Gabriel Medina)—Critical Overview/Hold Review

Possible Lives (Las vidas posibles, 2006; Sandra Gugliotta)—Critical Overview

Week Alone, A (Una semana solos, 2007; Celina Murga)—Hold Review (for The Auteurs Notebook)

Window, The (La Ventana, 2008; Carlos Sorín)—Interview with Carlos Sorín

Without Title (Sin Título, 2007; Matt Losada)—Interview with Matt Losada

Stray Girlfriend, A (Una Novia Errante, 2007; Ana Katz)—Critical Overview/Review

Latino/Argentine American Cinema

Cartoneros (2006; Ernesto Livon-Grosman)—Interview With Ernesto Livon-Grosman

Brazilian Cinema

Best of Me, The (Lo mejor de mí, 2007; Roser Aguilar)—Critical Overview

Cinema, Aspirin & Vultures (Cinema, Aspirinas E Urubus, 2005; Marcelo Gomes)—Critical Overview/Review

Cinema, Aspirin & Vultures (Cinema, Aspirinas E Urubus, 2005; Marcelo Gomes)—Interview With Peter Ketnath

City of Men (Cidade dos Homens, 2007; Paulo Morelli)—Critical Overview

Delicate Crime (Crime Delicado, 2005; Beto Brant)—Festival Capsule

Favela Rising (2005; Matt Mochary & Jeff Zimbalist)—Festival Capsule

Germano (2007; Vicente Ferraz)—Capsule

House of Sand, The (Casa de Areia, 2005; Andrucha Waddington)—Festival Capsule

House of Sand, The (Casa de Areia, 2005; Andrucha Waddington)—Interview with Andrucha Waddington

House of Sand, The (Casa de Areia, 2005; Andrucha Waddington)—Q&A with Andrucha Waddington

Lower City (Cidade Baixa, 2005; Sérgio Machado)—Festival Capsule

Lower City (Cidade Baixa, 2005; Sérgio Machado)—Introductory Remarks by Alice Braga

Lower City (Cidade Baixa, 2005; Sérgio Machado)—Interview with Alice Braga

Margarette's Feast (A Festa de Margarette, 2003; Renato Falcão)—Critical Overview/Review

Mutum (2007; Sandra Kogut)—Critical Overview/Review

Not By Chance (Não Por Acaso, 2007; Philippe Barcinksi)—Critical Overview/Review

Underground Game (Jogo Subterrâneo, 2005; Roberto Gervitz)—Festival Capsule

Latino/Brazilian American Cinema

Send A Bullet (Manda Bala)—Sundance Dispatch

Send A Bullet (Manda Bala, 2007; Jason Kohn)—Q&A with Jason Kohn

Latino/Chicano Cinema

Don't Let Me Drown (2008; Cruz Angeles & Maria Topete)—Q&A With Cruz Angeles & Maria Topete

Gómez-Peña, Guillermo—"El Corazón de la Missión"

Lopez, Yolanda—Conversation Between Yolanda Lopez & Amalia Mesa-Bains

Mexican Museum / M.H. deYoung Museum Chicano Films Program: Yo Soy Chicano (1972; Jesús Treviño); Remember Los Siete (work-in-progress; Veronica Majano); Chronicle of a Being (Cronica de un ser, 1990; S.M. Peña); Asco (1994; Juan Garza); Pretty Vacant (1996, Jim Mendiola); Columbus on Trial (1992; Lourdes Portillo); Corn In The Front Yard (2001; Al Lujan); Why Cybraceros? (1998; Alex Rivera); Ozzy Goes to the Alamo (2001; Jim Mendiola and Ruben Ortiz Torres); Lupe & JuanDi from the Block (2003; Fulana Collective); Larry Landia (2005; Karim Scarlata). Curated by Tere Romo.

Missión, La (The Mission, 2008; Peter Bratt)—Q&A with Peter & Benjamin Bratt

Missión, La (The Mission, 2008; Peter Bratt)—Hold Review (for The Auteurs Notebook)

Noriega, Chon—TCM: Latino Images in Film Interview

Oddball Films Chicano Films Program: The Mexican American Speaks: Heritage in Bronze; Latino: A Cultural Conflict; Calle Chula; Two Four; Decision at Delano. Co-curated by Stephen Parr and Jesse Lerner.

Our Father (Padre Nuestro, 2007; Christopher Zalla)—Sundance Dispatch

Al Más Allá (2008; Lourdes Portillo)—On-Stage Conversation With Lourdes Portillo & John Anderson

Quinceañera (2006; Richard Glatzer & Wash Westmoreland)—Interview With Emily Rios & Jesse Garcia

Quinceañera (2006; Richard Glatzer & Wash Westmoreland)—Interview With Richard Glatzer & Wash Westmoreland

Sleep Dealer (2008; Alex Rivera)—Critical Overview/Review

Sleep Dealer (2008; Alex Rivera)—Interview with Alex Rivera (for SF360)

Chilean Cinema

Chilean Cinema SF360 Report by Miljenko Skoknik

In Bed (En La Cama, 2005; Matias Bize)—Festival Capsule

In Bed (En La Cama, 2005; Matias Bize)—Critical Overview/Review

Judge and the General, The (2008; Elizabeth Farnsworth & Patricio Lanfranco)—Critical Overview/Review

La Fuga Spotlight

Lost Domain, The (Le domaine perdu, 2005; Raoul Ruiz)—Festival Capsule

Mirageman (2007; Ernesto Diaz)—Critical Overview/Review

Play (2005; Alicia Scherson)—Festival Capsule

Play (2005; Alicia Scherson)—Critical Overview/Review

Play (2005; Alicia Scherson)—Interview With Alicia Scherson

Santa Fe Street (Calle Santa Fe, 2007; Carmen Castillo)—Critical Overview

Tony Manero (2008; Pablo Larraín)—Interview with Pablo Larraín

Cuban Cinema

Viva Cuba (2005; Juan Carlos Cremata Malberti & Iraida Malberti Cabrera)—Festival Capsule

Latino/Cuban American Cinema

How the Garcia Girls Spent Their Summer (2005; Georgina Garcia Riedel)—Interview with Elizabeth Peña

Mexican Cinema

Babel (2006; Alejandro González Iñárritu)—Q&A with Alejandro González Iñárritu

Battle in Heaven (Batalla en el cielo, 2005; Carlos Reygadas)—Q&A with Carlos Reygadas

Broken Sky (El Cielo Dividido, 2006; Julián Hernández)—Review

Charm School (Niñas Mal, 2007; Fernando Sariñana)—Critical Overview

Cochochi (2007; Israel Cárdenas & Laura Amelia Guzmán)—Critical Overview/Review

Covarrubias, Miguel & John Huston: A Friendship

Cumbia Connection (Cumbia Callera, 2007; René U. Villareal)—Critical Overview/Review

Desert Within, The (Disierto Adentro, 2008; Rodrigo Plá)—Sergio de la Mora's Review

Duck Season (Temporada de Patos, 2004; Fernando Eimbcke)—Critical Overview/Review

Figueroa, Gabriel—Overview & Interview with Steve Seid on "Hecho Por Mexico: The Films of Gabriel Figueroa"

2008 Guadalajara International Film Festival Preview by Sergio de la Mora

Hernández, Julián—Profile by Sergio de la Mora

In the Pit (En El Hoyo, 2005; Juan Carlos Rulfo)—Critical Overview/Review

Japón (Japan, 2002; Carlos Reygadas)—Q&A with Carlos Reygadas

Lake Tahoe (2008; Fernando Eimbcke)—Sergio de la Mora's Review

Lake Tahoe (2008; Fernando Eimbcke)—Hold Review Capsule (for The Auteurs Notebook)

Never On A Sunday (Morir$e En Domingo, 2006; Daniel Gruener)—Interview With Daniel Gruener

News From Afar (Noticias lejanas, 2004; Ricardo Benet)—Festival Capsule

Night Buffalo, The (El búfalo de la noche, 2007; Guillermo Arriga)—Interview with Guillermo Arriaga

Only God Knows (Sólo Dios Sabe, 2006; Carlos Bolado)—Festival Capsule

Only God Knows (Sólo Dios Sabe, 2006; Carlos Bolado)—Interview with Carlos Bolado

Only God Knows (Sólo Dios Sabe, 2006; Carlos Bolado)—Interview with Alice Braga

Pan's Labyrinth (El Laberinto del Fauno, 2006; Guillermo del Toro)—Review

Pan's Labyrinth (El Laberinto del Fauno, 2006; Guillermo del Toro)—Interview with Guillermo del Toro

Pan's Labyrinth (El Laberinto del Fauno, 2006; Guillermo del Toro)—Q&A with Guillermo del Toro

Rivera, Diego—Cargador de Flores

Rudo y Cursi (2009; Carlos Cuarón)—Hold Review (for The Auteurs Notebook)

Sergio de la Mora's Top Ten Favorite Mexican Films of 2007

Silent Light (Luz Silenciosa, 2007; Carlos Reygadas)—Critical Overview/Review

Silent Light (Luz Silenciosa, 2007; Carlos Reygadas)—Dim Sum with Carlos Reygadas

Silent Light (Luz Silenciosa, 2007; Carlos Reygadas)—Q&A with Carlos Reygadas

Tribute to Toña la Negra—Capsule

Violin, The (El Violin, 2005; Francisco Vargas)—Interview with Francisco Vargas

Mexican/U.S. Cinema

Cinemachismo—Q&A With Sergio de la Mora

Cinemachismo—Lambda Nomination

Cowboy del Amor (2005; Michèle Ohayon)—Review

Letters From the Other Side (2006; Heather Courtney)—Critical Overview/Review

Romántico (2005; Mark Becker)—Interview with Mark Becker, Pt. One

Romántico (2005; Mark Becker)—Interview with Mark Becker, Pt. Two

Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, The (2005; Tommy Lee Jones)—Critical Overview/Review

Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, The (2005; Tommy Lee Jones)—Q&A With Guillermo Arriaga

Miscellaneous

Oscars 2007 Hispanic Nominees

Peruvian Cinema

Madeinusa (2006; Claudia Llosa)—Critical Overview/Review

Máncora (2008;Ricardo de Montreuil)—Critical Overview/Review

Susana Baca: Memoria Viva (2003; Mark Dixon)—Capsule

Portuguese Cinema

Blood, The (O Sangue, 1989; Pedro Costa)—Critical Overview/Review

Casa de Lava (1994; Pedro Costa)—Critical Overview/Review

Costa, Pedro—Interview (for The Greencine Daily)

Costa, Pedro—Overview

Tarrafal (2007; Pedro Costa)—Capsule

Tarrafal (2007; Pedro Costa)—Critical Overview/Review

Two Drifters (Odete, 2005; João Pedro Rodrigues)—Review

Spanish Cinema

20 Centimeters (20 Centímetros, 2005; Ramón Salazar)—Critical Overview/Review

Almadovar, Pedro—An Overview of the "Viva Pedro" Retrospective (for The Greencine Daily)

Birdsong (El Cant dels Ocells, 2008; Albert Serra)—Interview With Albert Serra & Mark Peranson

Boystown (Chuecatown, 2007; Juan Flahn)—Critical Overview

Buñuel, Luis—My Last Sigh Review

Chaotic Ana (Caótica Ana, 2007; Julio Medem)—Critical Overview

Grönholm Method, The (El método, 2005; Marcelo Piñeyro)—Festival Capsule

Iberia (2005; Carlos Saura)—Festival Capsule

In the City of Sylvia (En la Ciudad de Sylvia, 2007; José Luis Guerín)—Critical Overview

Mataharis (2007;Icíar Bollaín)—Critical Overview

Me (Yo, 2007; Rafa Cortés)—Critical Overview

Nocturna (2007;Victor Maldonado & Adrià García)—Critical Overview/Review

Obaba (2005; Montxo Armendáriz)—Festival Capsule

Obaba (2005; Montxo Armendáriz)—Critical Overview/Review

Orphanage, The (El Orfanato, 2007; Juan Antonio Bayona)—Critical Overview/Review

Orphanage, The (El Orfanato, 2007; Juan Antonio Bayona)—Interview with Juan Antonio Bayona & Sergio Sánchez (for The Greencine Daily)

Shiver (Eskalofrío, 2008; Isidro Ortiz)—Critical Overview/Review

Solitary Fragments (La soledad, 2007; Jaime Rosales)—Critical Overview