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Entries in Fernando Meirelles (5)

Get an Eyeful of the New 'Blindness' Posters

I've been tracking the progress of Blindness since word first broke that Fernando Meirelles would adapt the Jose Saramago novel. I think in today's movie climate, we might look at this is as somehow being similar to Children of Men or even The Happening because of the imprint the natural world makes on its citizens, and in this case, our fair city populated by the likes of Mark Ruffalo, Julianne Moore, Gael Garcia Bernal, Danny Glover, and Alice Braga. We like to do that: "Oh, it's just like (movie that came out four months ago)."

Of course, the novel goes back a dozen years or so, which means that if you were making that leap, you'd probably be more justified drawing a parallel between this story and, say, The Trigger Effect, about a massive west coast blackout creating havoc for a world that doesn't know how to function without electricity. The inciting occurrence in Blindness is exactly that, an unexplained pandemic of "white blindness" and all of humanity just goes nuts. That's not an unlikely effect for that cause.

Julianne Moore, though, doesn't lose her sight, so without acknowledging that she can still see, she accompanies her husband, a blinded Ruffalo, to the hospital where his kind is being quarantined. Then they break out of the hospital to find that their city, as Chrissy Hynde once so poignantly said in song, was gone.

So while I hope this is good and I really like the major players, it could be a lot like The Happening, I guess. Let's hope not, but there is that possibility. I think we'll see a lot of comparisons to Night Shyamalan's latest if the general reaction to Blindness was as so-so as the Cannes reaction.

We do have some new posters, a day after we had the new trailer, and I just have to say, Photoshop is an amazing product. Look at the black-and-white contrast here. That's very solid.

Click to read more ...

Posted on Friday, July 4, 2008 at 04:26PM by Registered CommenterColin Boyd in , , , , | Comments1 Comment

Movie Trailer - 'Blindness' from 'City of God' Director Fernando Meirelles

blindnessposter3.jpgI would put it to you, sir or madam, that 29 years from now, City of God will ascend to the upper ranks of the greatest films ever made. Its reputation will move it past quite a few international and American films alike for one reason: It's simply better than almost any other movie ever made.

So director Fernando Meirelles has that to live up to. His follow-up, The Constant Gardener, was not an instant smash and didn't create anything new and different. It was very good, though, and Meirelles' position as one of the better up-and-coming filmmakers was undeniable.

It makes sense, then, that his next film would open the competition at this year's Cannes Film Festival. But Blindness was not warmly received there. I wouldn't worry just because of that, though; they have made many bad choices over the years. (Fahrenheit 9/11 wins the Palme D'Or? Really? Go back and watch it again. It's not that good, even as a shrieking polemic.)

We will try to keep an open mind about it despite or admiration for the director and the less-than-overwhelming festival press it has recieved. As you can tell from the trailer, it's still a doozy of a plot:

We'll get an eyeful of Blindness on September 19th.

Posted on Thursday, July 3, 2008 at 08:55AM by Registered CommenterColin Boyd in , , , | Comments1 Comment

'Blindness' Movie Poster Immediately Follows New Trailer

I don't know if Miramax is planning to move up the release date for Blindness or not, but early April seems like odd timing to throw out both a new trailer and a new poster if the plan is to kick off the studio's awards hunt in October.

You won't find too many people more excited about the new Fernando Meirelles film than yours truly, but with the overwhelming marketing we're about to endure for all the summer movies, you would think Miramax might wait until at least late June to get the ball rolling here. I'd hate to think that they overspent early and had nothing left to push Blindness later in the year.

Then again, there's no real cost involved with online poster and trailer releases. But it is odd to see the two major components of film advertising already out there when there are movies coming our way between now and then that we haven't seen anything for.

Earlier today, we presented the trailer for Blindness, and then, tooling around the net, I stumbled onto the poster at IMP Awards. So, you know, since we were on the subject and all...


Do yourself a favor and watch the trailer and if you haven't seen either of Fernando Meirelles' major releases in the past six years, well, I've got sympathy for you.

Posted on Sunday, April 6, 2008 at 03:52PM by Registered CommenterColin Boyd in , , , | CommentsPost a Comment

Movie Trailer - 'Blindness', From the Director of 'City of God'

Though his fame and acclaim have arrived fairly late in life, 52-year-old director Fernando Meirelles is nonetheless one of the world's great filmmakers and a definite leader in the recent downpour of fantastic films from Latin America.

His City of God has been well documented here; it's our top movie of the decade. In 2002, The Contant Gardener won Rachel Weisz an Oscar and it, too, was a sensational motion picture.

Now Meirelles is back with Blindness, starring Mark Ruffalo and Julianne Moore. It sounds like a trippy Twilight Zone episode: A doctor's wife is the only person left with the ability to see after an unidentifiable wave of blindness sweeps through a small town.


Blindness is scheduled to be released on October 3rd.

Posted on Sunday, April 6, 2008 at 10:43AM by Registered CommenterColin Boyd in , , , | CommentsPost a Comment

Camilla Belle Is Set 'Adrift'

camillabelle.jpgThe lovely Camilla Belle, who flew a little under the ingenue radar until a couple months ago with the release of 10,000 B.C. will return to her Brazilian roots in the Portuguese-language Adrift, to be produced by Fernando Meirelles' 02 Films.

The Hollywood Reporter says that Belle will be in front of the camera for director Heitor Dhalia and that Universal International will distribute Adrift next year.

It covers a pretty salacious subject: "Set in the 1980s, the movie, written by Dhalia, centers on a 14-year-old girl who struggles with her life when she learns of the infidelities of her father (Vincent Cassel) while un�dergoing her own sexual awakening."

Camilla will play one of the women having an affair with the teen's father. And you might be asking herself why she's going to learn Portuguese for the film, but Belle, who was born in the U.S., speaks both Portuguese and Spanish and her mother is Brazilian.

Between now and the release of Adrift, you can check out Camilla in the sci-fi flick, Push, expected later this year.

Posted on Saturday, April 5, 2008 at 12:10PM by Registered CommenterColin Boyd in , , , , | CommentsPost a Comment