Mix Tape: "Porque Te Vas" in Cría Cuervos

Andreas from Pussy Goes Grrr here, to talk about one of my absolute favorite uses of popular music in film.

It's from Carlos Saura's Cría Cuervos, an underseen but beautiful film about three orphaned sisters being raised by their aunt in the twilight years of Franco's Spain. The whole film is seen from the (often distorted) perspective of the sensitive 8-year-old Ana, played by Spirit of the Beehive's precocious Ana Torrent, as she reckons with the loss of her adultering Fascist father and her sick, emotionally fragile mother, whose ghost is played by Geraldine Chaplin.

As she retreats into her inner world of memory and fantasy, away from the mundane realities of school and her strait-laced aunt, Ana has one major ally: the song "Porque Te Vas" ("Because You're Leaving") recorded by the British-Spanish musician Jeanette in 1974. It's a surprisingly downbeat pop song, but still fairly generic, and that suits Saura's purposes perfectly. After all, a song doesn't need to be perfect to be the cultural centerpiece of a small child's world.

For Ana, "Porque Te Vas" is special. It speaks to her. It's not profound, but it boasts a catchy beat and unapologetically emotive lyrics, including a refrain that roughly translates to, "All the promises of my love will go with you...", and that's more than enough.

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April Showers: "Single White Female"

waterworks each weeknight at 11 in April

Have you ever had a flatmate you just didn't trust? Bridget Fonda as "Allie" thought she'd found a good one in Jennifer Jason Leigh "Hedy" after placing an ad in Single White Female (1992). But once JJL moved in, things got so weird. Any of us could've told Bridget that'd happen since JJL is rarely "right" in the head onscreen, yknow? So Hedy gets weirdly needy and steals Allie's whole look, complete with ginger helmet bob! So Bridget, who is pretty damn stupid even as thriller heroines still has enough functioning brain cells to know a good snooping opportunity when she hears one.

I'm going to take a shower."

Now's your chance, Fonda. 3...2...1... SNOOP, BRIDGET, SNOOP!!!

Oh, don't pretend like you haven't snooped on a roommate before! The Film Experience is a safe space. You can say. Show of hands? I thought so. And, besides, all ethical bets are off once someone starts stealing your identity, right?

At first Allie seems like she understands the danger she's in as she does a little stealth jog to JJL's room where she discovers a box of personal things in the closet. All people, crazy or otherwise, keep shoeboxes filled with secrets in their closets. Known Fact. What she finds in this shoebox is those very secrets as well as proof that Hedy has been intercepting her boyfriend's mail. That Bitch!

Single White Female was shot by Italian cinematographer Luciano Tovoli. It's beautiful.

Oh and Allie, get the hell out of there. That bitch who steals your mail also takes really short showers.

More after the jump. NSFW

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Unsung Heroes: The Technical Advisor on 'The Hustler'

Willie MosconiSerious Film's Michael C. here. 2011 will mark the 50th anniversary of Robert Rossen's classic The Hustler, so in this episode of Unsung Heroes I thought it a great opportunity to tip my hat to a man who is a large part of why the film is still watched and loved five decades later.

There is a vibe you get from certain films, a vibe that tells you “this movie knows what it’s talking about. This is how it really is.” The film's subject may be totally unfamiliar, space travel or gourmet cooking, but you can still sense when a film has done its homework and when it’s faking it. It’s the difference between the poker movie which simply gives the hero a royal flush, and the poker movie that knows it is more impressive to watch the hero play an average hand brilliantly.

Robert Rossen’s The Hustler is a movie you can feel knows its business cold from its first seconds. The Hustler had as technical advisor pool playing great Willie Mosconi, a man whose impact on the game of pool is comparable to Wayne Gretzky’s on hockey. His mastery seeps into every frame of this movie.

From the way the players screw their cues together to the way they call their shots this film has every detail in place. The Hustler is especially skilled at showing what happens when two competitors at the top of the game come up against each other.  A lesser movie would simply have billiard balls spinning and hopping all over the table but The Hustler is wiser than that. Thanks to Mosconi’s know-how, and the great script by Rossen, it makes clear that the game is won or loss on stamina and concentration, not on show-off displays and trick shots.

Rather than bogging it down with technical info this level of detail opens the story as a battle of personalities. The Hustler understands not only how pool is played, but how different characters types manifest themselves on the table. In one memorable exchange George C. Scott informs Newman's Fast Eddie he has the talent to be the best. When Newman asks why it was he lost anyway, Scott smirks that it was a lack of character. It's a testaments to the depth of the film's portrait of the game that we know exactly what he’s talking about.

Beyond creating a fully realized battlefield for the characters to clash, the technical know-how achieves something even more crucial to the film’s lasting success: It makes the movie incredibly cool. This is what I responded to most strongly when I first found this film as a teenager. These guys weren’t just hotshots. They were religiously devoted to the game. The question of the best was as weighty in the pool hall as it was in the world of chess or dance. With the aide of Mosconi, Rossen was able to show, for the first time to most of the public, that the pool hall was a worthy arena for this level of drama.

Reader Spotlight: Andrew

The "Reader of the Day" was a popular feature during Reader Appreciation Month so we're going to share a Reader Spotlight a couple times a week now for another month. What'cha think about that? Get to know the Film Experience community!

Today's reader is Andrew, another Canadian. He's an actor, too. A lot of actors read The Film Experience. This makes me happy though I can't say that I knew it before starting these Reader Spotlights.

Nathaniel: So Andrew what's the first movie you remember seeing?
ANDREW: The first movie I can remember seeing in theatres was The Lion King, which I loved. I had a lot of Disney movies on VHS and I remember just watching them over and over again. Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, 101 Dalmatians, The Little Mermaid, and The Rescuers... obsessively.

We are all children of Disney, really. No matter what generation. It's kinda scary!

Three Greats: Andrea Arnold and slowpokes: Baz Luhrmann and Jane CampionNew Question. You're suddenly in charge of world cinema for a year. Name 5 directors you'd give big budgets to with a blank slate. Wield your power!

Where do I start?! I would end up being a bit selfish (how could you not be?!) and pick directors that I personally would like to see more films from. I would love to see what Lars von Trier would do with a big budget and completely blank slate. Derek Cianfrance, Jonathan Glazer and Andrea Arnold are all filmmakers I have a personal interest in making sure they stick around. And funds to Jane Campion and Baz Luhrmann to give them some incentive to work more frequently. I love their films so much, but I hate that they take so long in between projects. I know I picked six, but it was difficult narrowing it down!

Three Favorite Actresses?
Kate Winslet. Meryl Streep -the quality of work she puts out is absolutely top notch, and you can look at any time in her career and find work that is intriguing and just as strong as any other actress out there. She is also so compulsively watchable on and off  screen. However my absolute favourite actress has to be Nicole Kidman. Her film choices are so brave and unexpected, I would say she is definitely a risk-taker when it comes to her career and I love that about her. She really challenges herself as an actress.

Have you ever dressed as a movie character for Halloween?
I once went as "Bang Bang" from The Brothers Bloom for Halloween, but it didn't really last long because I got into the vodka and the costume came off pretty soon thereafter.

Bang Bang! And the awesome Joan Chen

LOL. Okay, the movie of your life. Cast it. Etcetera.
I am only 23 so I feel like my life has barely started. Actually it would just be a selfish excuse to work with Ang Lee who is one of my favourite directors. I would star in it myself. I am not Chinese but I think it would be a blast to have Joan Chen play my mother... her collaboration with Lee was so awesome in Lust, Caution so it would be a great reunion. I would also cast Chow Yun-Fat as my father because I think he is great and really underrated.

First and Last, Screen.

the first and last images and dialogue from motion pictures.

first image

last line

He freed the screen from all artificial barriers.

Can you guess the movie?

check your guess after the jump.

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