Agora Director: Alejandro Amenabar (2009) Call Number: LD11-0586
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Image courtesy of Mod Producciones, Himenóptero and Telecinco Cinema
Agora is a biopic about the life of Hypatia, a mathematician, philosopher and astronomer who lived in 4th century Roman Egypt.
The film has become a huge box office and critical hit in its native Spain; highest grossing film of the year and winner of 7 Goya awards. However, it did not have a proper international release although it received good reviews during its initial screening at 2009 Cannes Film Festival. Weisz’s incredible performance and a realistic creation of Alexandria with minimal use of CGI are the highlights of the film.
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Image courtesy of Mod Producciones, Himenóptero and Telecinco Cinema
Let Me In Director: Matt Reeves (2010) Call Number: LD11-0620
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Image courtesy of Overture Films and Exclusive Media Group
Let Me In is a remake of Let the Right One In [DVD-V LET], the Swedish film that is generally defined as redefining the vampire genre. The film is considered as one of the best respectful Hollywood adaptations; to the original film and to the John Ajvide Lindqvist novel the film is based on.
With a successful and recent original maybe there’s “no genuine need for this film to exist” (Burr, 2010), except “a deep-seated fear in America: subtitle-phobia” (Lacey, 2010); however, Travers’ Rolling Stones review explains the general sentiment towards this film: “I thought for sure that any Hollywood remake of Tomas Alfredson's artful Swedish vampire film, Let the Right One In, would be a crass desecration. Well, colour me blushing” (2010).
References:
Burr, Ty. “Let Me In”. Boston.com. 30 Sep. 2010.
Lacey, Liam. “Let Me In: Tender and creepy in any language”. Theglobeandmail.com. 1 Oct. 2010.
Travers, Peter. “Let Me In”. Rollingstone.com. 30 Sep. 2010.
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Image courtesy of Overture Films and Exclusive Media Group
Vulcan Demirkan-Martin
Audiovisual Library