CHILE

ENTHUSIASM [El entusiasmo] Director Ricardo Larraín

PRODUCTION CO Cine XXI/Cartel/Paraiso Production Diffusion PRODUCER Eduardo Campoy, Nathalie Trafford, and Larraín SCREENPLAY Jorge Goldenberg and Larraín CINEMATOGRAPHY Esteban Courtalón EDITOR Danièle Fillois ART DIRECTION Patricio Aguilar COSTUME DESIGN María Isabel Ossul MUSIC Jorge Arriagada CAST Alvaro Escobar, Maribel Verdú, Alvaro Rudolphyi. 1999, Color, 116 min. Spanish with titles.

Under Pinochet, idealists Alvaro Escobar, Maribel Verdú, and Alvaro Rudolphi dream of the "Independent Republic." But ten years later, Escobar and Verdú, with little boy in tow, actually get married while running bilingual adventure tours even as Rudolphi shoots phony TV spots. But when Escobar starts up a tacky real estate development by the sea with visiting Almodóvar regular Carmen Maura, those dreams of youth hit the fan. Exciting filmmaking from the director of THE FRONTIER [AFI, 9/97]. Toronto Festival.

 

THE SENTIMENTAL TEASER--THE MOVIE [El chacotera sentimental, la pelicula] Director Cristián Galaz

PRODUCTION CO Cebra Producciones PRODUCER Alejandro Castillo SCREENPLAY Mateo Iribarren CINEMATOGRAPHY Antonio Farías EDITOR Soledad Salfate MUSIC Carlos Cabezas CAST Daniel Muñoz, Lorene Prieto, Sergio Schmied. 1999, Color, 90 min. Spanish with titles.

In three anonymous true stories from the eponymous tell-all radio call-in show, all three sides of an eternal triangle end up at a family reunion. Big-mouthed little brother "the Flea" decides to make an announcement; after a vicious sisterly battle, one sibling remembers the horror she saw when hiding in the wardrobe as a child; and a young couple, jammed into a multi-generational, too-paper-walled-for-love flat, find themselves a solution. Chile's biggest native box-office hit in years, with the actual radio host, Roberto Artiagoitía ["Rumpy"], alternately bawdy and sympathetic as himself.