DVDebut -- Justin Webster's documentary, GABO: The Creation of Gabriel García Márquez

Among the most internationally popular novelists of the 20th and early 21st centuries would have to be included the Colombian-by-way-of-Mexico writer and Nobel Prize winner, Gabriel García Márquez. As well-known as is his writing, I wonder how many of his fans know much about his history. That can now be easily remedied via the new documentary, GABO: THE CREATION OF GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ ("Gabo" is the nickname by which the writer was lovingly known).

Written and directed by Justin Webster (shown as right), the movie's subtitle, "The Creation of Gabriel García Márquez," may at first sound a bit off-putting, as though Márquez was somehow "manufactured," in the way that so much of what is given us culturally these days seems to be. But, no, the subtitle makes very good sense because this fine documentary explores so much that went into the life experience of this man that led him down the path to becoming the excep-tional writer he was.

So, yes, we get history -- of family, politics, economics and the like -- and plenty of talking-head interviews of friends, family, along some rather important people (did you know that former President Bill Clinton was a huge fan, claiming One Hundred Years of Solitude as his all-time favorite novel?). Mr. Webster  blends the personal and political quite adeptly, letting us see and better understand Márquez's strong connection to everything from his native Colombia to Cuba and Fidel Castro.

Can  you imagine the American populace turning out in droves to honor a mere writer?  (Maybe, but not since the death of Sholem Aleichem.) That's how Latin American responded to this man when he was alive, and the movie offers up plenty of clues as to why this should be so.

The documentary is indeed an appreciation, but, as one friend notes about Márquez early in his career, "He had come under the influence of Bogotá," cultural capital of Colombia. Which meant that he'd become snobbish, sexist and full of himself. But this was simply one more progression along the way and probably not much different from the experience of many talented South American men of the day. (On the movie's plentiful extras, an actress and former lover of Márquez fondly recalls her time with the man.)

His regard for and ability at journalism, captured beautifully here, stayed with Márquez for life. Despite Cuba's human rights abuses, so did his love and respect for Fidel Castro. (There's a wonderful shot of Fidel, Márquez and Ted Turner included in the terrific archival and newsreel footage.) We watch in wonder as each new book appears, and Webster gives us plenty of ammunition to better understand from where and how these works arrived. (Among the many lovely anecdotes included here is one about his wife, some back rent, and a fortunately trusting landlord.)

If you're a Márquez fan, unless you already know a lot about the man, the documentary would seem a "must." If you're a newcomer to his work and life, Gabo: The Creation of Gabriel García Márquez will make a fine introduction that will very probably set you to reading that work. From Icarus Films the documentary hits the street this Tuesday, May 10, for purchase or rental.

PAULO COELHO'S BEST STORY is a pretty good one--particularly if you're already a Coelho fan

If the name Paulo Coelho sets your heart ablaze, then this may be the movie for you. If you've never heard of the guy (my spouse had not; for me, his was just a literary name I'd seen bandied about), then who knows what you may think of this odd but oddly compelling movie -- which appears to be based a good deal on the writer's own life. Well, then: Of course it ought to be his best story!

What kind of a tale is PAULO COELHO'S BEST STORY? A pretty good one that spans the now famous author in triplicate: as a very young man, during the middle-age period in which things come together in the fashion he has long desired, and finally as the aged and successful writer looking back on it all.

As written by Carolina Kotscho (on whose original screenplay Reaching for the Moon was based) and directed by Daniel Augusto (shown at left), the film flits back and forth reapeatedly between these time periods, but it does so with enough gusto and smarts that we can easily follow and enjoy things. (These changing time periods needn't have been spelled out for us as often as they are, as the actors playing the various Paulos make the decades immediately clear).

If this story -- which, as they used to say, offers pretty much everything - - is to be believed, Coelho's life was one hell of a rich and varied one. From his would-be suicide early on to careers as an actor/playwright, factory worker, songwriter/singer and more (all leading up to his first and farthest-off desire to become a writer), Coelho bounces and twists like a veritable whirligig whose years manage to encompass everything from various love stories to electroshock treatments (below) and torture under those usual and typical South American dictators.

The torture scene, in fact, is one of the film's most unusual, as this writer's gift for performance and exaggeration comes most helpfully to the fore. The Paulo of the middle years is the one we observe most often, and as played by Júlio Andrade (above and below), this multifaceted actor fearlessly brings the man to confused, compulsive life.

As we bounce around the map from location to location, Coelho comes more clearly into focus, and our questions (how did he first meet the woman he finally chooses as his mate?) are answered at last. The trip is colorful, exciting, surprising, occasionally funny and sometimes moving. If the movie never coa-lesces into greatness, it certainly provides a fascinating trip into the mind and spirit of a man who truly, desperately wanted to become a writer -- and did.

According to the end credits, Coelho is the only writer in history to be translated into more languages more often than Shakespeare. I think I shall have to read something by the guy, if only to determine just why this is.

Meanwhile, Paulo Coelho's Best Story -- from Music Box Films, in Portuguese with English subtitles and running 112 minutes -- opens this Friday, July 31, in New York City, Los Angeles, Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Portland (Oregon). In the weeks to come, Santa Fe, New Orleans, Chicago and Cleveland will also be showing the film. You can see all playdates, with cities and theaters listed, by clicking here, then clicking on the word THEATERS and scrolling down.

The film is also available simultaneously on Amazon Instant Video -- so Coelho fans across the USA should be able to access it double quick. 

Martin Provost tackles his second creative French woman of time past, and Emmanuelle Devos triumphs in the lead role of VIOLETTE

He's back with the broads. That is to say: one of France's very fine filmmakers, Martin Provost, is again doing what it appears he does best -- tackling a tale of an artistic and talented French woman who was not conventionally beautiful or possessing many social skills who nonetheless managed to create a collection of exemplary and important work. He did this first five years ago with his award-winning film Séraphine, about the turn-of-the-century painter Séraphine Louis, which introduced many of us to the amazing actress, Yolande Moreau. Now he is back with VIOLETTE, a movie about the famous/infamous French writer and bastard (literally), Violette Leduc, with the well-known French actress, Emmanuelle Devos, in what is, so far, the performance of her exceptional career.

In between time, Provost, shown at left, gave us another interesting movie starring Ms Moreau as a woman who murders her abusive husband and then goes on the lam. It was quite well done. Still, viewing the results of his two films about creative and unusual historic French women, one must say that this seems to be his "perfect fit." His new film begins with a quote by Leduc regarding women, beauty and mortal sin-- a sad but generally truthful observation, so far as humanity as we know it appears to believe and behave.

I confess to having found Ms Devos (above and below, right), over the years that I've viewed her in film after film, to be an alternately enchanting and glamorous entity, filled with a vast reservoir of emotion, intellect and possibilites. From a small role in La Sentinelle to the deaf girl in love (Read My Lips) to the famous actress who gives Coco Chanel her first design opportunity in Coco Before Chanel to that wonderful interloper in a tight-knit dysfunctional family in A Christmas Tale to the mayor of a town that is the target of a major scam (In the Beginning: click and scroll down) to a very surprised mother overflowing with love in The Other Son, she was generally exotic and beautiful even -- maybe particularly -- when she wasn't trying.

Suddenly, here she is, portraying a lower class woman so needy that she utterly embarrases us -- though not herself -- as she grasps to keep a clearly unworthy man (Olivier Py, above, left) as part of her life.

Devos so absolutely inhabits and defines this woman that it's as though we're seeing the actress for the first time (maybe, indeed, we are). In any case, she has found depth and characteristics here -- not to mention an appearance that removes any trace of glamour -- that I have never seen in her previously.

The film deals in large part with her relationship with the much more famous, intelligent and celebrated woman, Simone de Beauvoir, here played by Sandrine Kiberlain (below, left). I have seen de Beauvoir depicted on film before, but never as well as Kiberlain manages it. This is the Simone to remember.

We watch, entranced, as Violette, under the guidance of de Beauvoir, learns how to free herself in order to simply write and do it honestly. Which she does, and very well. And this begins to free her to live. Along the way, via de Beauvoir, we meet a number of other famous French entities -- from Jean Genet (Jacques Bonnaffé, below, left -- good choice!) and Jacques Guérin (Olivier Gourmet, below, right, giving another fine performance).

The film begins toward the end of WWII, when Violette is dealing on the Black Market, and moves ahead from there, showing a very well-detailed and awfully drab France of the post-war period. (A scene is which Violette scraps maggots off a slab of meat and then washes it and gives it to her not-so-beloved mother to cook is one for the books.)

Provost has divided his film into sections (six or seven of them, I believe) that deal with people or subjects most important to Violette. An intelligent filmmaker, he has really looked into the period and the people, the behavior and culture, in about as encompassing a manner as one can manage within the film's 138-minute running time. Smartly, he has left the heavy-lifting, emotionally-speaking, to Devos, who comes through in spades. She keeps us glued -- embarrassed, hopeful, surprised, devastated, and thrilled from first to last -- bringing the woman, Violette, to grand life and making Violette the movie a must-see experience.

From Adopt Films, Provost's latest opens tomorrow in New York City at the Angelika Film Center and the Lincoln Plaza Cinema. It will expand to the boroughs and elsewhere in New York the following Friday, June 20, and then hit the Los Angeles area on June 27 as it rolls out across the country in a limited release. You can view currently scheduled play-dates by first clicking here then clicking on View Theaters and Showtimes.