It seems The Terminator will be back, Arnold Schwarzenegger has said he will be appearing in Terminator 5.
Based upon Marcel Pagnol's reminiscences of a sun-drenched childhood in the hills of Provence, these two films were hailed as instant classics upon their release in 1990. Commercially, their path was smoothed no end by the earlier success of Claude Berri's Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources (also based on Pagnol stories, and blessed with a catchy, Verdi-inspired theme tune). They even follow the same tried and tested pattern – two books adapted as a pair of interlinked movies. But there the resemblance ends. Whereas the Berri films are so tragic they almost make you laugh, La Gloire de Mon Pere and Le Château de Ma Mere are so sweet they almost make you cry.
Much-lauded Gael Garcia Bernal (Amores Perros, The Motorcycle Diaries) is Rene Saavedra, the hotshot advertising man called in to rescue the ‘No’ campaign in Chile in 1988 – when Chileans, after 15 years of repressive military dictatorship, for the first time were able to vote in a referendum for or against allowing General Pinochet to continue in power.
After carving a successful niche for himself in TV animation, director Genndy Tartakovsky has finally released a cinematic feature, albeit one that has spent several years being bounced between five previous directors. It’s only fitting then that the end product has the bouncy, energetic quality associated with Tartakovsky. However, the core of the experience lacks the genuine emotion of a project that might normally have been close to the director’s heart.
