Friday, April 06, 2007

Friday Five: Gael Garcia Bernal

I watched the Science of Sleep last night, Gael Garcia Bernal's first English-language film. I like him. I thought he would be the subject of my Friday Five, but first I had to make sure I'd actually seen five movies Bernal acted in. I have seen eight. You may have seen him in Babel. He played the son/nephew of the nanny that caused the problem at immigration. Without further ado, my five favorite movies with Gael Garcia Bernal.
  1. The Crime of Father Amaro. This is where I discovered Bernal. He was so cute in this movie, but the crime was not the crime in all the headlines. He was a young, attractive priest in love with a girl. Should he break his vow of celibacy?
  2. The Motorcycle Diaries. He played Che on the motorcycle ride that led him to become a revolutionary.
  3. The Science of Sleep. Bernal's first English language film. The movie was wacky, written and directed by the guy that helped write the story for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind with Charlie Kaufman. His scenes with the neighbor that shared his interests were great.
  4. Bad Education. A film by Pedro Almodovar, so you know it's strange. Bernal plays three "characters" in this film. And this being a Pedro film, he is a transvestite.
  5. Y tu mama tambien, aka And Your Mama Too. This is an Alfonso Cuaron (HP and the Prisoner Azkaban, Children of Men) film, so it gets bonus points for a director I like. This is probably the hardest of the five movies to watch because it's a coming of age road trip, foreign language film style. Foreign films almost always have more language, nudity, sex, alcohol and drugs than American movies.

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