Michael Cera has been very busy promoting the theatrical release of his new Chilean film Crystal Fairy. He did an awesomely awkward interview with David Letterman and spent some time in bed discussing the film with his co-star Gabby Hoffman and the writer/director Sebastián Silva. Also in theaters this week is Viola, a charming Argentinian adaption of Shakespeare, directed by Matías Piñeiro. Check out the trailers below.
And for a striking look at the similarities between the two young South American directors read Cinema Tropical’s side-by-side comparison of these cineastes.
Crystal Fairy
Director: Sebastián Silva
Cast: Michael Cera, Gaby Hoffman, Juan Andrés Silva, José Miguel Silva, Agustín Silva
Country: Chile | 100 min
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SYNOPSIS: On a trip through Chile a boorish American expat named Jamie (Michael Cera) and three Chilean brothers plan to set off in search of the prized San Pedro cactus and its promise of beachy hallucinations. But in the previous night’s drunken stupor Jamie invites a free-spirited fellow American (Gaby Hoffmann) along on their mescaline-driven road trip and her devil-may-care worldview gives them more of an adventure than any of them had bargained for.
Crystal Fairy is playing at the IFC Center in NYC and the Nuart Theater in LA as well as being available On Demand.
Michael Cera and Sebastián Silva will appear in person on Friday, July 12 and Saturday, July 13 at the IFC Center for a Q&A after the 7:20 p.m. show and and to introduce the 9:35 p.m. show.
Actress Gaby Hoffmann will appear in person on Friday, July 12 at the Nuart Theater for a Q&A after the 7:30 p.m. show and to introduce the 9:45 p.m. show.
Viola
Director: Matías Piñeiro
Country: Argentina | 65 min
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SYNOPSIS: In his latest film, Viola, Matías Piñeiro ingeniously fashions out of Shakepeare’s Twelfth Night a seductive roundelay among young actors and lovers in present-day Buenos Aires. Mixing melodrama with sentimental comedy, philosophical conundrum with matters of the heart, Viola bears all the signature traits of a Piñeiro film: serpentine camera movements and slippages of language, an elliptical narrative and a playful confusion of reality and artifice.
Screening with:
Rosalinda
Director: Matías Piñeiro
Country: Argentina | 43 min
SYNOPSIS: A group of actors travel to an island in Tigre to rehearse William Shakespeare’s As You Like It. Luisa, who plays Rosalind in the play, terminates a current romantic relationship over her cell phone. During preparations she alternates between rehearsing and daydreaming, and starts to slowly embody Rosalind, transforming into the object of desire of other cast members on the island. During those sun-soaked hours, love strikes between the players and the roles between actress and character confuse themselves in a rare mixing of joyful artifice and anguishing uncertainty. But once rehearsals are over and everyone returns to reality, the romantic bliss between the cast members and their own partners awakens in her a, foolish and irrepressible, desire to long and hope for a phone call.
Viola and Rosalinda are playing as part of a spotlight on the films of Matías Piñeiro during Latinbeat, the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s week-long showcase of Latin American movies.
Q&A with director Matías Piñeiro at Friday and Saturday’s 6:45 p.m. screenings and Sunday’s 4:15 p.m. screening.