Latin American Cinema + Disney Classics
The Chester Fritz Library will be hosting a movie night on Monday, September 16 showing Encanto, Disney’s hit musical about a family gifted with magical enchantments living in the Colombian jungle. If “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” and those mysterious yellow butterflies caught your imagination, we have many other Disney movies and films from across Latin America!
The Adventures of Oswald, the Lucky Rabbit
Before Mickey Mouse, Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks created Oswald the rabbit. Lost for decades to Universal Pictures in a copyright dispute, Oswald and his series of cartoon shorts have been gathered together again by Walt Disney Pictures. Included on a second disk are a documentary about pioneering animator Ub Iwerks and other early Disney cartoons. (1927-1928, dir. Ub Iwerks & Walt Disney, 98 minutes)
Tali (Mercedes Morán) is minding four small children with little help from her husband, who is preoccupied with the opening of hunting season, as a record heat wave bakes Argentina. Things aren’t much better for her cousin Mecha (Graciela Borges), who is looking after four teenagers and an unhelpful husband (Martín Adjemián), but Mecha does have a pool, even if it hasn’t been cleaned in quite a while. Tali and her tots spend much of the summer with Mecha as the town is riveted by the appearance of the Virgin Carmen on the city’s water tower, and thunderstorms add an awful humidity to the heat. (2001, dir. Lucrecia Martel, 100 minutes)
Opposing his family’s baffling generations-old ban on music, Miguel (Anthony Gonzalez) dreams of becoming an accomplished musician like his idol, Ernesto de la Cruz (Benjamin Bratt). Miguel’s desperation to prove his talent takes him to the colorful Land of the Dead. Along the way, he meets charming trickster Héctor (Gael García Bernal) and together they set off on a journey to unlock the real story behind Miguel’s family history. (2017, dir. Lee Unkrich & Adrian Molina, 106 minutes)
El Coronel No Tiene Quien Le Escriba
aka No One Writes to the Colonel
Every Friday, the Colonel (Fernando Luján) puts on his only suit and goes to the dock to await a letter announcing the arrival of his pension. The townsfolk of their Colombian jungle village all know that this will never come. His asthmatic wife (Marisa Paredes) also knows it, and even he knows it. But he is still waiting, living with the pain of the death of his son. Adapted from a novella by Gabriel García Márquez. (1999, dir. Arturo Ripstein, 118 minutes)
Deus e o Diabo na Terra do Sol
aka Black God, White Devil
It is the 1940s, another drought has struck the Brazilian sertão, and ranch hand Manuel (Geraldo del Rey) is fed up with his situation. Manuel kills his boss after being cheated of his wages, fleeing with his wife, Rosa (Yoná Magalhães). Now an outlaw, Manuel joins up with a self-proclaimed saint who preaches revolutionary violence (Lidio Silva). With a bounty hunter (Maurício do Valle) gunning for the saint and a cangaço leader (Othon Bastos), Manuel and Rosa run from one allegiance to the next, following the words of others as they attempt to find their place in the ruthless land. (1964, dir. Glauber Rocha, 120 minutes)
Ensayo de un Crimen
aka The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz
As a well-heeled young boy, Archibaldo de la Cruz (Ernesto Alonso) is given a supposedly magical music box. When he plays it, his nanny is killed by a stray bullet in a freak accident. Thrilled by his “power”, he grows into adult thinking he is destined to become a notorious serial killer. He plots and fantasizes about slaying beautiful women, yet fate has other plans. Every time Archibaldo attempts to commit a crime, external forces intervene, with his “targets” escaping obliviously or dying from unrelated circumstances. (1955, dir. Luis Buñuel, 89 minutes)
Fearless optimist Anna (Kristen Bell) collaborates with mountain man Kristoff (Jonathan Groff) and his reindeer Sven to find Anna’s sister Elsa (Idina Menzel), whose icy magic has trapped the kingdom of Arendelle in eternal winter. Encountering blizzards, mystical trolls and a talking snowman named Olaf (Josh Gad), will the team reconcile with Elsa in time to save Arendelle? (2013, dir. Chris Buck & Jennifer Lee, 106 minutes)
A lion cub named Simba (Jonathan Taylor Thomas/Matthew Broderick) is sent into exile after his father, Mustafa (James Earl Jones), king of the lions, is usurped by his treacherous uncle, Scar (Jeremy Irons). The little hero finds his way into the “circle of life” with some new friends and eventually returns to the Pride Lands to reclaim his proper place as king. (1994, dir. Roger Allers & Rob Minkoff, 88 minutes)
Ariel (Jodi Benson), a fun-loving and mischievous mermaid princess, is enchanted with all things human. Disregarding her father, King Triton (Kenneth Mars), Ariel seeks to visit the world above the sea and strikes a bargain with the sea witch Ursula (Pat Carroll) to trade her beautiful voice for legs. With only three days before the spell breaks, can Ariel win the heart of Prince Eric (Christopher Daniel Barnes) in time? Or will she become Ursula’s latest debtor? (1989, dir. John Musker & Ron Clements, 83 minutes)
Memorias del Subdesarrollo
aka Memories of Underdevelopment
Bourgeois Sergio (Sergio Correri) happily sends off his wife and friends as they flee Cuba in the wake of the Bay of Pigs invasion. Sergio is cynical about the potential of the revolution: his family business may have been seized by the state, but he earns enough money as a landlord to continue to live a life of leisure. He spends his days people-watching from his balcony and takes an interest in Elena (Daisy Granados), an inexperienced young woman. And yet his interest wanes, and as the Cuban Missile Crisis begins, Sergio finally must accept being within– not above– the flow of history. (1968, dir. Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, 97 minutes).
After his latest theft, the Kingdom of Corona’s most wanted – and most charming – bandit Flynn Rider (Zachary Levi) hides in a isolated tower in the woods. There, he discovers Rapunzel (Mandy Moore), a spirited young woman with 70 feet of magical golden hair. Having spent her life confined to the tower by her controlling “mother” (Donna Murphy), Rapunzel makes a deal with Flynn: she will return his loot to him if he takes her on an adventure to the outside world. (2010, dir. Nathan Greno & Byron Howard, 100 minutes)
With their girlfriends off on a trip to Italy, Julio (Gael García Bernal) and his richer friend Tenoch (Diego Luna) are looking forward to a debauched summer as “bachelors”. During a wedding, they meet Luisa (Maribel Verdú) — the 28-year-old wife of Tenoch’s cousin — and try to convince her to go on a road trip a fictional beach on the Oaxacan coast. To their surprise, Luisa agrees to go along in order to get away from her troubles. Tensions mount after Luisa has sex with both boys and jealousy threatens to destroy their friendship. (2001, dir. Alfonso Cuarón, 106 minutes)
