Vidas Privadas

Starring:Cecilia Roth, Gael GarcÃa Bernal, Luis Ziembrowsky, Chunchuna VillafaÃ±e, Lito Cruz, Carola Reyna, HÃ©ctor Alterio, Audry Gutierrez Alea, Dolores Fonzi, Luis MachÃn, Eusebio Poncela, Fena della Maggiora, Yasmin Elias, Fabiana Cantilo, Javier Olmedo, MartÃn Pavlovsky, Monica Gonzaga, Azul LombardÃa, Vivi Tellas, Lucrecia Capello
Director: Fito PÃ¡ez
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Product Type: DVD

Average customer rating:

Pantaleon y las Visitadores / Vidas Privadas
Starring: Salvador del Solar , Angie Cepeda , Mónica Sánchez (II) , Pilar Bardem , and Gianfranco Brero
Director: Francisco J. Lombardi , and Fito Páez
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Art House & International | Genres | DVD | Video

DVDs Under $7.49 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

( P ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

General | Foreign & International | Stores | DVD | Video

Todo el Poder / La Ley de Herodes (Spanish)
Dila a Laura Que La Quiero/En La Pu.. Vida
Dias de Santiago
Cilantro Y Perejil (Recipes to Stay Together)
Polvo Enamorado

ASIN: B000GETTJS
Release Date: 2006-09-05

Average customer rating:

This film could've of been way better
achieves little, despite the great acting...
Really Shocking
This could of been way better.
"Anyone who survives has to change."

Vidas Privadas
Starring: Cecilia Roth , Gael García Bernal , Luis Ziembrowsky , Chunchuna Villafañe , and Lito Cruz
Director: Fito Páez
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Art House & International | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Foreign & International | Stores | DVD | Video

DVDs Under $14.99 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

( V ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

Dot the I
Don't Tempt Me
The Crime of Padre Amaro
El Dia Que Me Amen
En la Puta Vida (Tricky Life)

ASIN: B00066FBEI
Release Date: 2005-01-11

Customer Reviews:

This film could've of been way better.......2006-08-26

'Vidas privadas', by first-time director Fito Paez, is the most pretentious and boring movie I've ever seen. The movie suffers from an unconvincing plot and pseudo-intellectual banter that result in a very forced and ridiculous ending. The sex and the final revelation are only there for shock value, and nothing else. The acting is really good, but I don't think it has anything to do with Paez's direction; he just hired some really good actors. Gael García Bernal's fake Argentinean accent is alright, but he still gives a good performance. Cecilia Roth is always great, and the movie is not a complete fiasco only because of her performance.

This movie tries, very unsuccessfully, to be tragic. It's the story of an Argentinean woman who lived the tortures of the dictatorship, she has spent the last years in Spain but returns to her country to see her dad, who is about to die...the trauma of the tortures has left her unable to maintain sexual contact with anyone, and she satisfies her needs by watching others having sex or, as in the movie, hiring a young model to read her dirty novels while she masturbates...All this, believe me, it's OK...The story is not that bad until it transforms into a semi tragedy of edipian proportions, like out of a Venezuelan soap opera...the directing touches of Paez don't help at all...we have horrible music (like from a Hitchcock film, completely out of place), a ridiculous atmosphere of mistrust and thriller that has nothing to do with the theme of this movie...and a bunch of supporting characters that in their attempts to portray a heartbreaking inner pain will make you laugh...

The twist near the end is so unbelievable (or at least so bad executed that you just don't believe it), If you want to see Cecilia Roth, get an Almodovar film and if you want to see Gael, get any other film he's been in.

achieves little, despite the great acting..........2006-07-16

this movie is dissapointing, albeit the great perfomances by both Garcia Bernal and Cecilia Roth. Cecilia Roth plays the role of a mentally unstable woman in her 40s who falls in love with 22 year old Garcia Bernal. The movie fails in giving the audience enough to make the story-line believable. Never understood why/how Garcia Bernal falls in love to a woman that only gave orders, didn't show her face and almost didn't talk. This just an example of many other events that come out of nowhere. The ending is abrupt and one is left with the feeling of having wasted 2 hours.

Really Shocking.......2006-02-27

Ok the movie is the first one from director Fito Paez a great musician from Argentina, and you realize that. I think that the plot and music are not strong at all. On the other hand the cast is really good. Cecilia Roth and Jael Garcia are the best of the movie. The history is kind of shocking and by end you know what is going to happen but keep crossing your fingers for that not to happen. For people that is not from south or central america maybe this movies is a 2 or a 3 but people who really know what happen in those years there know that this could be a new door that open to finally find the truth so stories like these wont happen.
In the overall i think is good begining for Fito Paez and right now he is rolling his second movie so we will see how much he improve

This could of been way better........2006-02-19

'Vidas privadas', by first-time director Fito Paez, is the most pretentious and boring movie I've ever seen. The movie suffers from an unconvincing plot and pseudo-intellectual banter that result in a very forced and ridiculous ending. The sex and the final revelation are only there for shock value, and nothing else. The acting is really good, but I don't think it has anything to do with Paez's direction; he just hired some really good actors. Gael García Bernal's fake Argentinean accent is alright, but he still gives a good performance. Cecilia Roth is always great, and the movie is not a complete fiasco only because of her performance.

This movie tries, very unsuccessfully, to be tragic. It's the story of an Argentinean woman who lived the tortures of the dictatorship, she has spent the last years in Spain but returns to her country to see her dad, who is about to die...the trauma of the tortures has left her unable to maintain sexual contact with anyone, and she satisfies her needs by watching others having sex or, as in the movie, hiring a young model to read her dirty novels while she masturbates...All this, believe me, it's ok...The story is not that bad until it transforms into a semi tragedy of edipian proportions, like out of a Venezuelan soap opera...the directing touches of Paez don't help at all...we have horrible music (like from a Hitchcock film, completely out of place), a ridiculous atmosphere of mistrust and thriller that has nothing to do with the theme of this movie...and a bunch of supporting characters that in their attempts to portray a heartbreaking inner pain will make you laugh...

The twist near the end is so unbelievable (or at least so bad executed that you just don't believe it), If you want to see Cecilia Roth, get an Almodovar film and if you want to see Gael, get any other film he's been in.

"Anyone who survives has to change.".......2005-09-02

42-year-old Carmen (Cecilia Roth) leaves Madrid and returns home to her native Argentina to visit her dying father. She's lived in Spain for the past twenty years with infrequent, brief trips home.

Carmen has arranged to rent an apartment during her two-week stay, and she's also arranged for the services of a young male model Gustavo (Gael Garcia Bernal) and a female companion. While Gustavo wants to get to know Carmen better, she holds him and everyone else at a distance. Carmen clearly has emotional problems, but her family is very adept at hiding secrets. Younger sister Ana (Dolores Fonzi) is determined to extract Carmen's secrets from her brother-in-law Dr Rossemberg (Luis Ziembrowsky).

Part kinkfest, "Private Lives" fails to adequately explore many issues dragged front and centre by the script. Several scenes cover Carmen's erotic fetishes, but there's little substance--beyond the moaning and the grinding--to explain Carmen's past. Instead the emphasis is on kink--at least for the scenes in Carmen's apartment. The film shifts focus between Carmen's fetishes and Ana's determination to discover the truth about Carmen's past. The result is a film that addresses Carmen's kinkiness, but fails to delve into Carmen's political past. There's so much here politically that could be explored, but it isn't. The sense remains, however, that both Gustavo and Ana are amazingly ignorant about life in Argentina before they were born. Ultimately, the most interesting aspect of the film is Carmen's need to recreate a cell-like structure for gratification. "Private Lives" is a tepid drama made a little steamier with Cecilia Roth's charged sexuality. In Spanish with English subtitles--displacedhuman

Private Lives / Vidas Privadas [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Spain ]

Average customer rating:

An Urgent, Controversial, Challenging Film from Argentina

Private Lives / Vidas Privadas [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Spain ]
Director: Fito Páez
Manufacturer: Lauren Films
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Art House & International | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Foreign & International | Stores | DVD | Video
ASIN: B000FMU0YY

Product Description

Spain released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada. LANGUAGES: Spanish (Dolby Digital 5.1), English (Subtitles), WIDESCREEN, SYNOPSIS: Carmen Uranga is a 42 year-old woman who after 20 years jurisdiction of her native country (Argentina), she returns to solve a family problem related with the inheritance that her sick father wants to leave him. Their return trip results in the unavoidable memories of the torture that that was object during the dictatorship and a dramatic revelation.
SPECIAL FEATURES: Scene Access, Photo Gallery, Music Video, Interactive Menu, Filmographies, Biographies,

Customer Reviews:

An Urgent, Controversial, Challenging Film from Argentina.......2006-12-03

Though the essence of this story goes all the way back to Greek plays, the theme of this radiant film has rarely seemed more cogent and contemporary. It is always refreshing to learn some occult historical information from a fictional movie and that is another reason to view this important film written by Alan Pauls and Fito Paez (an accomplished and respected musician in his directorial debut). The fact that Paez is the husband of the brilliant actress Cecilia Roth is another indicator that the collaboration of these two artists promises, and delivers, much!

The cruelty of the dictatorships in Argentina during the 1970s (and into the 1980s) may not be widely known yet, so this film is revealing in its references to that period. Carmen Uranga (Cecilia Roth) has been living in Madrid for 20 years, following her 10-month imprisonment in Buenos Aires as a political undesirable. While in prison she endured rape, delivered a baby which was taken from her and put up for adoption, and became so psychically bruised that she has been unable to form close relationships in the interim years. She returns to Buenos Aires at the request of her family: her father (Hector Alterio) is dying and her younger sister Ana (Dolores Fonzi), a lawyer, is trying to put their father's estate in order, and care for their mother Sofia (Chunchuna Villafane) The physician Alejandro Rosenberg (Luis Ziembrowsky) attending their father has mysterious connections to Carmen and when she arrives in this strange household she is confronted with the nightmares of the past which she has never emotionally resolved.

One of Carmen's old friends Roxana (Carola Reyes) is grooming a young, handsome model/hustler Gustavo (Gael Garcia Bernal) and when Carmen confides to Roxana that she is in need of a sexual outlet while in Buenos Aires, Gustavo is the chosen one. At first summoned to Carmen's apartment with a female trick to perform audible sex acts for Carmen's hidden voyeuristic sexual gratification, Gustavo is gradually moved to the role of reading scintillating novels behind closed doors while Carmen pursues her self satisfaction in the adjacent darkened room. Eventually Gustavo (much younger than Carmen) becomes curious then obsessed with meeting Carmen face to face and this gradual change in their 'relationship' tips the scales of the story of the remainder of the film.

To say more would destroy the unraveling of this drama. Suffice it to say that Carmen's past while in prison surfaces in its entirety and the results alter the lives of every character in the film. The story has many more sidebars that add to the intrigue, but they are disparate and too numerous to mention.

The acting by these fine artists is consistently excellent: Cecilia Roth and Gael Garcia Bernal are extraordinary together and separately. In addition to the actors mentioned above, Lito Cruz stands out as Gustavo's 'father', opening a whole different study of father/son, genetic/adopted issues. The cinematography by Andres Mazzon finds the center of every scene and creates beautiful visual effects. The musical score by the director Fito Paez with Gerardo Gandini is stridently piercing, adding to the tension of the story.

This is not an easy film to watch, but for those who appreciated 'The Piano Teacher', 'The Mother', The Crime of Padre Amaro', 'Amores Perros' and other edgy films that dare to explore taboo subjects, this is a film that informs as well as provides a strangely fine tale. Grady Harp, December 06

DVD:

DVD

Witchcraft 10: Mistress of the Craft

DVD: New York Firefighters: The Brotherhood of 9/11

Black Sabbath - Inside 1970-1992: An Independent Critical Re