Watched Today: Driving Mr. Pink (1995)

HEAVY METAL:

Evil glowing orb

Tells its tales of destruction

Fan service movie

why I'm happysad that they let Numa be the narrator in Society of the Snow.

So if you, like me, have been more than a little obsessed with the story of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 for a very, very long time, your stomach probably dropped like mine did when the narrator introduced himself as Numa Turcatti. (My immediate thought was, "why would you do this to us?!") If you went in blind, I feel for you!

But while the film gave us a version of Numa, since it's from his perspective what it doesn't really give us is the group's perspective on him. He comes across a bit like an outsider, and although, yes, his only surviving friend was Pancho Delgado, he wasn’t an outsider for long at all. On the contrary. So, here are a few excerpts from the books that tell you more about what he was like and how much they all loved him, because I feel like that’s important.

From Alive, Piers Paul Read:

Next to Parrado, Numa Turcatti was the most generally beloved of the boys. [...] Since he had known few of the boys before leaving Montevideo, it was proof of his strength, simplicity and complete lack of malice that he became so loved and respected by them.

On celebrating Numa's birthday while trapped under the avalanche:

The boys gave him an extra cigarette and made a birthday cake out of snow. [...] Many would have liked to give him a better time on his birthday, but instead it was he who improved their spirits. "We have survived the worst," he said. "From now on, things can only get better."

From Society of the Snow, Pablo Vierci:

‘When I talk about Numa, I can’t help but cry,’ says Coche Inciarte. ‘He’s the best person I’ve ever met in my life. However tenderly I cared for those who were losing heart, Numa did it much better because he never got tired. He was constantly aware of everyone else’s distress. He radiated peace, he never gave up, and when he came near me, I felt like Jesus Christ himself was among us, with such mercy and compassion in his eyes. I don’t know where he got his strength.’ ‘I could never imagine him living in everyday life, because I met him and I loved him in that torment of the Andes,’ says Coche. ‘He had a hard time eating, like I did. We ate the bare minimum in order to survive. I lost one hundred pounds, he lost more. And just like me, his leg became infected after the avalanche. We operated on our legs together with a razor blade. But he deteriorated more quickly than I did, because he had given so much more; he had been too generous.’

Moncho Sabella:

Numa taught us about the anonymous heroism of giving more of himself to others than he reserved for himself. In that balance between solidarity and selfishness, which decided whether you lived or died, he tilted the balance in favour of the others to the detriment of himself. [...] And when the avalanche came and covered the plane, the one who worked the hardest, the one who removed the most snow so that we could come back to life, was Numa. Again, he was exceeding his own limits. [...] In the end, his immune system was so devastated that he got one infection after another. We gave him antibiotics and the doctors on the mountain attended to him every day, but finally he left us. And with him, we all died a little more.

Gustavo Zerbino:

I always remember Numa up there, full of despair, when he told us that he would rather die watching the sky, walking, instead of ending life immobilised in a cave of broken metal. For that reason, after the avalanche, he kept digging and removing snow without rest until he burned himself out with exhaustion. He always thought that his time had come but he wanted to work until the final moment, doing whatever he could to help. I cared for him all those days; I saw how he was hurried to the brink of death, with no defences, getting one infection after another. I went up to him and first I gave him a kiss on the cheek to greet him and asked him how he was doing. He just stared at me with a kind of infinite peace. He never complained. But Numa was quickly deteriorating: from that physical strength and vigour he had had at the beginning, he finished as a skeletal dying boy. He held on to his characteristic qualities until the end though. He was that same stoic guy when he was strong and when he was wasting away.

‘Gustavo Zerbino didn’t tell us the whole truth [about the expedition] because he didn’t want us to be discouraged. When I asked Numa about it, he couldn’t lie and he told me: “As far as we went, all you could see were more mountains.” But even so, he always wanted to be an expeditionary. “I want to go,” he told me, even though I knew at once he could never go, he was too exhausted and too hurt.’ So Numa approached Daniel Fernández, knowing that he had influence over the others, and he tried to convince him: ‘I can do it, Daniel, please believe me. I can do it.’ Daniel recalls, ‘When I told him that his injury made it impossible, he started working even harder than ever, like a bull, shovelling snow to unbury the plane after the avalanche to show that yes, he could do it.’

Finally, from Alive, after Numa died:

On this particular afternoon, Javier Methol lay at the back of the plane. "Be careful," he said to Coche as he rose and stepped over Numa's body. "Be careful not to step on Numa." "But Numa's dead," said Parrado. Javier had not realised what had happened, and now that he understood his spirits dropped completely. He wept as he had wept at the death of Liliana, for he had grown to love the shy and simple Numa Turcatti as though he were his brother or son.

I'm not sure the Numa we see in the film is quite the same person that he actually was on that mountain, but I'm so, so glad that he got a voice. He fought so hard for them all.

So, yeah. In the immortal words of Jake Peralta,

MOTIONPICTURESOURCE’S 25 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS

16/25 🎄⛄ AN ALL DOGS CHRISTMAS CAROL (1998) dir. Paul Sabella, Gary Selvaggio

La Sociedad de la Nieve (2023)

La tan esperada obra del director español Juan Antonio García Bayona por fin llegó el pasado 14 de diciembre de 2023. Yo la pude ver hace unos días y tengo muchas cosas para comentar.

La película, basada en el libro homónimo del escritor uruguayo Pablo Vierci, relata los acontecimientos del accidente del vuelo 571 de la Fuerza Aérea Uruguaya que se estrelló en la cordillera de los Andes el viernes 13 de octubre de 1972. La historia, que es otro ejemplo más de que la realidad supera la ficción, fue anteriormente llevada a la gran pantalla en Alive (1993) o como se conoció en hispanoamérica "Viven". La película del director Frank Marshall fue una adaptación del libro homónimo del escritor británico Piers Paul Read.

Sin embargo, la película de Bayona fue especial debido a que pudimos escuchar a los protagonistas en su idioma y acento original, además de que cuenta con la participación de algunos de los sobrevivientes:

Carlitos Páez como su propio padre; Fernando Parrado haciendo de extra que le abre la puerta a si mismo;

Roberto Canessa como uno de los médicos del hospital tras el rescate, justo detrás del actor que le interpreta;

Ramón Sabella, tiene una breve aparición como uno de los extras que aparecen en el aeropuerto antes del viaje;

Daniel Fernández Strauch aparece sentado en la segunda fila en el lado izquierdo de uno de los planos generales;

José Luis Inciarte, quien murió antes de que se estrenara la cinta, se lo puede ver leyendo el periódico en la escena del bar en el que

Numa se reúne con Gastón Costemalle; y por último Joaquin de Freitas Turcatti, quien no es un sobreviviente sino el sobrino real de Numa, interpreta al vecino de su tío en una escena en la que Numa vuelve a su casa en bici.

Otra cosa que hace especial a esta adaptación además de los cameos, es el enfoque que le otorgó Bayona a la historia, que fué relatarla desde el lado de los que no pudieron volver, pero lograron que los que sí lo hicieron volvieran. Por lo que resulta especialmente emotiva y logra volver a la vida a los fallecidos.

Es por esta decisión artística que el narrador de la historia es Numa Turcatti, quien murió en la tragedia, debido a que es recordado por los sobrevivientes como un pilar fundamental en aquella "sociedad de la nieve" por su enorme nobleza y servicio. En su libro Milagro en los Andes, Parrado lo recordó así:

“Aunque la mayoría no lo conocíamos antes del accidente, se había ganado rápidamente la amistad y la admiración de todos los supervivientes. Numa dejaba sentir su presencia a través de actos heroicos silenciosos: nadie luchó tanto por que sobreviviéramos, nadie nos inspiró tanta esperanza y nadie mostró tanta compasión por quienes más sufrían”.

Enzo Vogrincic Roldán fue quien tuvo la tarea de interpretar a Numa. Me quiero detener en este punto porque, aunque no considero que el joven actor uruguayo haya tenido un pésimo o si quiera mal desempeño en la película, no logró transmitirme esa esperanza, compasión y luz que tanto caracterizó a Numa. Muchas veces lo sentí inexpresivo para la circunstancia y en otras opacado de más por otros actores. No pude sentir esa conexión con Numa, no pude sentir que era el faro de luz del grupo.

Aunque no soy una gran admiradora de la utilización de narradores en off en las películas, creo que la escritura de sus diálogos es correcta. Sin embargo, sentí el protagonismo que le dieron a Numa como algo pesado y que distraía de los demás sobrevivientes. Tratándose de una historia en la que el trabajo en equipo lo fue todo, encuentro incorrecto poner el foco en un único protagonista. Como afirman los mismos sobrevivientes, todos eran importantes en esta historia y todos, inclusive quienes dieron su vida, fueron causantes del rescate.

Este detalle fue lo único que me resultó fuera de lugar dentro de la cinta y por ello quise detenerme en él. No creo que fuese un error enteramente del guión como lo dije anteriormente, sino que tanto la dirección actoral como el desempeño del actor no lograron transmitir esa esperanza y luz que buscaron. Si así lo hubiesen hecho, probablemente me hubiera encantado con esa decisión artística.

Si algo tengo que destacar de la película y que me dejó completamente fascinada fue la producción y el montaje. Se nota que la cinta fue preparada con mucha dedicación y talento, y que quienes se involucraron en ella son unos enamorados de esta historia. Tanto el guión, la construcción de las escenas plano por plano, el maquillaje y el vestuario, los efectos especiales, como el montaje fotográfico y de sonido son de una calidad impresionante. Me encanta que las grandes productoras apuesten por proyectos que requieren una larga y hardua preparación, y la paciencia y pasión de quienes trabajaron en esta producción se nota en cada plano.

Estas son las cosas que me apasionan de este medio, ver el fruto del trabajo de un equipo y la película, paradójicamente, habla mucho de ello. Así como sucedió en aquellos 72 días en la nieve, en esta producción se siente el aporte y trabajo de cada persona involucrada. Todos los apartados artísticos y de producción que mencione antes exigen una dedicación, talento, pasión y trabajo de un montón de personas. Lo hermoso de las producciones cinematográficas es la complejidad detrás de cada obra, todo el trabajo y tiempo detrás, eso me apasiona.

Hay escenas de la película que quedarán grabadas en mi memoria para siempre. Una de ellas es la del accidente en el avión, que busca alejarse de todas las escenas de accidentes aereos que hayamos visto antes y construye una identidad y narrativa propias. En ella vemos todo el trabajo que mencionaba antes. La escena fue construida de una manera meticulosa. Una de las decisiones que me encantaron de esta escena, que el mismo Bayona mencionó en un análisis, fue la desición de que la cámara no entrara en la cabina del avión, debido a varios motivos. El primero explica que, aunque se cree con mucha seguridad de que se trató de un error humano, no se sabe a ciencia cierta cual fue ni que pasó dentro de esa cabina, y por respeto a la memoria del piloto y el copiloto y también porque la película busca ser lo más fiel a la realidad posible, se tomo esta decisión de no ingresar en la cabina. Por otro lado, el centrar completamente la escena en los pasajeros y hacer primeros planos de ellos crea mayor conexión emocional entre el espectador y ellos. Uno se siente dentro de ese avión y siente la empatía por ellos desde un primer momento.

Otro momento que me quedó grabado de la película fue una escena en donde una enfermera esta examinando a uno de los sobrevivientes (ahora no recuerdo de quién se trataba) y por un breve momento ella le busca la mirada y se la encuentra. Este breve momento me parece espectacular. Se siente a través de ese cruce de miradas la curiosidad por saber que vieron esos ojos y que ven después de todo lo que ocurrió.

La sociedad de la nieve es una película excelente, con escenas y diálogos memorables que estuvo a la altura de las circunstancias y le hizo honor a la historia que decide contar. Son dos horas de emociones fuertes, pero que al terminarla te deja una sensación de paz y satisfacción completa. Sin lugar a dudas, una de las mejores películas del año pasado y me encanta que el cine hispanohablante le siga presentando batalla a los productos cinematográficos anglosajones. Ver una colaboración y trabajo entre talento español, argentino y uruguayo me hace recordar aquellos gloriosos años de transnacionalización cinematográfica. Sigamos demostrando el talento que existe y se cultiva en nuestra tierra y sigamos contando grandes historias con esta hermosa lengua nuestra.

All Dogs Go to Heaven 2 Directors: Larry Leker & Paul Sabella | Studio: MGM | USA, 1996

Kisses Like Rain Cover Reveal!

Kisses Like Rain, an arranged marriage, enemies to lovers romance, and the highly anticipated fourth and final book in the dark mafia Corsican Crime Lord Series from USA Today Charmaine Pauls, is coming December 5th, and today I have the cover reveal for you!

▪️Blurb:

I gave him my innocence and my virtue. I gave him my love and my hate. Is there anything left to give?

Angelo Russo came like a storm into my life and left destruction in his trail. The man who hates me beyond measure is the man who put a ring on my finger and gave me his name. My husband is my worst enemy.

There’s nothing left to salvage from the wreckage of our lives. He married me to destroy me, and he did an outstanding job. He took my innocence and my virtue. I gave him my love and my hate. And just when I think there’s nothing else to give, I realize how wrong I am. What Angelo wants most is the promise of life I carry inside my body. When he’s taken that last piece of me, he’ll crush me with a smile on his beautiful face and wipe my existence from his memory forever.

Note: Kisses Like Rain is the 4th and final book in the Corsican Crime Lord series and concludes Sabella and Angelo’s story. You must read Love Like Poison (Book 1), Hate Like Honey (Book 2), and Tears Like Acid (Book 3) first. The story contains scenes not recommended for sensitive readers. Reader discretion is advised.

📌 Preorder Today→

https://bit.ly/45BmSv3

*Available wide for ONE WEEK only before going into KU.

➕ Add to your Goodreads→ 

https://bit.ly/3ZKydXX

Start the series with Love Like Poison today (Available in KU) → https://bit.ly/LoveLikePoison

Hate Like Honey Book 2 (Available in KU) → 

https://bit.ly/3QMxKCa

Pre-order Tears Like Acid Book 3, releasing November 7th → 

https://bit.ly/3EgMgdL

Sign up for a reminder when the book is available→ https://charmainepauls.com/subscribe

Cover Designed by: Book Cover By Design 

Photography by: Wander Aguiar

Steffiana de la Cruz: The Queen by Kevin James' Side

Image: IMDB / Steffiana de la Cruz Steffiana de la Cruz, known as the beloved wife of actor and comedian Kevin James, has carved her own place in the spotlight with her grace, charm, and talents. Born in the early 2000s, their love story has captured the hearts of many, blossoming into a beautiful union that has stood the test of time. Their journey began in 2001, when James and de la Cruz were set up on a blind date. Sparks flew instantly, and their connection only deepened as they embarked on a journey of love and companionship. Their relationship flourished over the years, culminating in a heartfelt proposal in October 2003. The couple exchanged vows on June 19, 2004, in a picturesque ceremony surrounded by family and friends. Their love-filled celebration was a testament to their unwavering commitment to each other, with James visibly nervous yet overjoyed to begin this new chapter of their lives together. Since then, their love has only grown stronger, evidenced by the arrival of their four beautiful children. Sienna-Marie, Shea Joelle, Kannon Valentine, and Sistine Sabella complete their loving family, bringing joy and laughter into their home each day. Despite their busy lives in the entertainment industry, James and de la Cruz prioritize their family above all else. Their children bring them immense pride and joy, with James often drawing inspiration from his real-life experiences when creating his iconic characters. De la Cruz's own talents shine through in her acting career, where she has graced both the big and small screens with her captivating performances. From roles in "The King of Queens" to appearances in "Paul Blart: Mall Cop" and "Zookeeper," her versatility as an actress is truly remarkable. But beyond her professional achievements, de la Cruz is cherished for her warmth, kindness, and unwavering support for her husband. Their enduring love and mutual respect serve as an inspiration to many, reminding us all of the power of love and devotion. While de la Cruz prefers to keep a low profile on social media, James often takes to Instagram to share heartfelt tributes and sweet moments with his beloved wife. Their love story continues to captivate audiences worldwide, proving that true love knows no bounds. As James humorously quips in his comedy specials, their bond transcends words, with gestures and glances speaking volumes of their deep connection. Together, they navigate life's ups and downs with grace and humor, standing as a shining example of love's enduring power. Read the full article

Tears Like Acid is the 3rd book in the dark mafia romance series, Corsican Crime Lord by USA Today bestselling author, Charmaine Pauls is Live!

We’re destined to destroy each other, but we’re going to finish this game, no matter how long or what it takes.

In my line of business, every day dawns with the smell of death in the air. But it’s not a bullet that’s going to slay me. It’s Sabella, the woman who was promised to me, the woman who betrayed me.

I hate and want her in equal measure, an agonizing situation of my own making. We’re heading down a path of destruction, but there’s no turning back. At the first chance she gets, she’ll stab me in the back again. She’s a dangerous risk and a threat to my family. If I were wise, I’d eliminate that risk and leave her funeral to the sharks. I must be an idiot, because I’m going to finish what I started, no matter the cost.

My Little Pony DTV Episode 1: A Charming Birthday

Written by Jeanne Romano

Storyboard by Dan Kuenster

Directed by Paul Sabella & Dan Kuenster

Art directed by Matt Mattus

All Dogs Go to Heaven 2: An Under-appreciated Sequel

Doesn’t anyone care about the beautiful piece of art and animation that is All Dogs Go to Heaven 2?

Not to forget about the original done by Don Bluth, but the sequel put so much effort into the art and animation that I can’t help but make a big deal about it.

This film SERIOUSLY NEEDS TO BE SUPPORTED! If you want to see this beautiful, amazing, inspiring piece of animation, you can officially buy the movie on YouTube for starters.

Some of us know David Feiss (The Ren & Stimpy Show, I Am Weasel) and Deane Taylor best for Cow and Chicken, but what they did for All Dogs Go to Heaven 2 is almost equal to Don Bluth and his team on All Dogs Go to Heaven. I mean the creator of Cow and Chicken pulling Don Bluth style off! This sequel, though, isn’t as dark, the designs are more cartoon-y, and there’s more great (and faster-paced) animation timing/balance in this one. There’s romance, too... which, in films like this, can be highly inspirational to me. The directors, Larry Leker & Paul Sabella worked on Disney movies, so there could be similar styles of influences. Some of these guys, however, worked on All Dogs Go to Heaven, from Don Bluth’s team, so that’s something.

The day I began this post was with The ATL/WATL’s 3rd airing of this film in syndication, from which I couldn’t record in 2018 or 2017, though I managed to record some stuff from the 1st (HD) airing in 2016. I first saw it on The CW69 in March 2011, and it was very foolish of me not to record it (though I saw it not before) as I found the film to be quite an inspirational work of art. Some of its elements could be considered to be cheesy, perhaps, but the All Dogs Go to Heaven films are one of my favorites (and certainly some of the most inspiring) of [traditionally] animated films / cartoons.

One thing I love about the film is its amazing score, composed by Mark Watters. There’s a great array of songs for this film, too, and Watters’ compositions in animation are very catchy (An All Dogs Christmas Carol, Winnie the Pooh: Springtime with Roo). 10 years after I saw it on WUPA, I listened to the score on YouTube from the rare (and I guess out-of-print) soundtrack. I am seriously feeling the feels with the score. “Battle for Gabriel’s Horn” is DOPE EPIC, man!

Relative to this film is An All Dogs Christmas Carol (1998), which I first saw on WATL (then The WB) in 2005. It aired on WALT (then MyATLTV) on 12/24 & 25/2011; I revisited the film and loved it, and it aired on WAGA (FOX 5) on Christmas in the early morning. The songs and music (still Mark Watters) are very rich, catchy and inspirational, like “Clean Up Your Act” and “I Always Get Emotional at Christmas Time”.

I’ll update this post with more of my pics and opinions.

Original shoutout tweets 1, 2 and 3

Hevy Metal (1981) Gerald Potterton.