CLIPPINGS
ENTREVISTA NO FILMSTEW LOS ANGELES (CLIQUE PARA LER)
CINTHIA ALBUQUERQUE ENTREVISTA JOAO MACHADO
TV COM - 2007
THE JOAN QUINN PROFILES
Warner TV a Cabo - Los Angeles USA 2007
MADAME
Texto de Manuela Dias. Direção de Daniela Amorim.
Com Suzana Faini, Suzana Pires, Carla Ribas e Luciana Borghi.
Cenografia: Joao Machado
Figurino: Joao Machado & Eliane Carvalho
Iluminacao:Wagner Pinto
Trecho da critica de Lionel Fischer para o Jornal "A Tribuna" 18/05/05
"Na equipe técnica, João Machado assina uma cenografia interessante,
cabendo destacar os espelhos, que talvez sugiram a
impossibilidade da protagonista escapar de si mesma, e os móbiles, quem
sabe um símbolo de sua imaturidade ou nostalgia de
uma infância feliz. Wagner Pinto ilumina a cena com expressividade, sendo
muito criativos os figurinos de João Machado e Eliane
Carvalho."
review "OS AMPUTADOS", 6 páginas
nov/dez2004- Revista Vizoo
"THE ART OF CANNIBALISM"
THE CHAMPAGNE CLUB
Brazilian Joao Machado's indie debut feature, and winner of the Seattle Underground Film Festival, has been doing the rounds since 2002 and gathering all manner of outrage - which promptly made our ears perk up. The Champagne Club locks a quartet of LA's young art-scene nouveau rich in a remote tropical estate and watches 'em fester with their snobby discomfort over the "pendulum between art and commerce"(they owe their wealth and privilege to exploitation rather than creation) A weekend of excesses eventually tips the see-saw from boredom, narcissism, alienation and despair to self-degradation, self-mutilation, madness, coprophilia, cannibalism, and beyond - all in the name of art. So far, so good; nothing like watching a bunch of yuppies kill and eat each other! The Champagne Club is based on letters by Jonothan Hacke, an artist and mental patient at a psychiatric institution, where he wrote about a shocking and profoundly innovative journey into the heart of madness. When all is said, done, and eaten - this is gross shit but Machado's chronicles ground-zero emotional auto-cannibalism with exquisite clarity. Direction, photography, art direction, music, and performances are perfectly attuned to this upscale production's nihilistic descent into a messily scripted, but effective, self made hell.
Machado's artistic credentials allow him to plunder from a stellar pantheon of art (charnel) house horrors: Luis Bunuel's THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL, Marco Ferreri's LA GRANDE BOUFFE, Pasolini's SALO and Peter Greenway's films along with echoes of Kubrick's THE SHINING, Argento's SUSPIRIA, the anarchic "lost" Brazilian masterpiece MACUNAIMA. I'd keep an eye out for future Machado mayhem.
review por Steven Bissette
março/abril 2004 - Rue Morgue Magazine
THE CHAMPAGNE CLUB
Movies are always better when they have something interesting and insightful to say. They are even more resonant when their message completely obliterates all expectations and fuses with the medium so seamlessly that it turns into a unique creature by its own right. That is the kind of film that viewers need to see; no, not see, experience. The Champagne Club is a luscious vision that pushes the envelope as far as it will go, but it does so with so much skill, that the heart of the movie is left intact. The film is set in the posh art scene of Los Angeles in what appears to be the peak of the 1980's. We meet Tim, his girlfriend May, and their two friends Bruce and Connie. The four friends go to a large mansion to spend a few weeks of vacation and to push the limits of their decadence. It's there we witness their harrowing downward spiral into the darkest recesses of the mind. This is where a lesser movie would stray. This is where Tim would begin acting erratic and for some contrived reason, go insane and murder his friends. What we get instead is so frightening, and so beautifully disturbing, that we don't want to miss any detail. I will not reveal any more of the plot, because really it becomes secondary to the culmination of the film.
Each character is very delicately crafted. It is amazing to see how they develop and transform as the movie progresses. Their gluttony and decadence harkens to the ideal of the 80's blind and disgusting consumerism, but it is far more universal then that. It offers relentless social commentary on the elite, on the consumerist society, and on the people that maintain it by turning everything into a commodity(even art). The skill of both the cinematographer and the director is superb. The movie is filled with beautifully composed shots, so succulently arranged that they become palpable. The four actors deliver some of the bravest performances I have ever seen. They all embody their characters so well, they become them so convincingly, that to think back and consider the things they had to do and the places they had to go, mentally, one cannot help but admire them. If you think David Lynch and Peter Greenway make weird movies, you've seen nothing yet. Visually mesmerizing, intelectually evocative, gorgeously grotesque, The Champagne Club is one of the best films I've seen.
review por Antonio Del Toro
Junho 2004 - Hacker's Source Magazine
LAS VEGAS CITYLIFE
The Champagne Club
Brazilian-born director Joao Machado contributes what will probably be the most controversial film of the BSIFF. The Champagne Club is based on actual letters written by a mental patient, detailing the descent into madness experienced by four Los Angeles art-scene insiders who retreat to a secluded villa for some decadent R&R. Tim (Brian Donovan) is an artist-turned-art dealer who is tortured by the career choice he's made. His girlfriend May (Sara Rinde) is supportive but unable to reciprocate his sexual advances. Bruce (Robert Ripley) glories in his role as a businessman and tries to make Tim see things his way, while his significant other Connie (Jaqueline Meyer) gets her kicks by pretending to be a certain marine-life animal.
The partying begins to take on sinister tones as May discovers her more libertine side and Tim begins to dress himself like a bird (with palm fronds for wings and a funnel for a beak). Bruce, meanwhile, finds some really disgusting uses for food, leading the quartet into gruesome territory.
The Champagne Club seems to take place in the early '80s (no cellphones or computers here), and would come off as incoherent if not for prior knowledge of the source material. If Whit Stillman (Ripley looks like a cross between Stillman regular Chris Eigeman and Sam Raimi fave Bruce Campbell) tried to emulate Pier Paolo Pasolini's gross-out flick Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom (Spoiler: There's a shit-eating scene), the result would turn out to be something like The Champagne Club. A strong stomach is required, but Machado shows promise as a visionary filmmaker.
Matt Kelemen
Las Vegas CityLife
sept 2003
DIRETOR
Recém formado pela Arts Center Cinema e Design, em Los Angeles, na Califórnia, o jovem João Manoel de Joinville Carvalho Machado veio ao Brasil para dirigir seu primeiro longa metragem, "Champagne Club", com atores e técnicos norte-americanos. Já em fase de finalização em estúdios brasileiros, a fita está recebendo trilha sonora. João de Joinville, o nome não nega, segue a trilha do famoso pai, o artista plástico joinvilense Juarez Machado.
RAUL SARTORI
JORNAL A NOTICIA
abril 2002
PREMIER
O cineasta Joao Machado produziu uma pelicula impar, repleta de excessos, decadencia e insanidade. Estrelado por por Juarez Machado que vive um fantasma, “The Champagne Club” ainda nao foi apresentado no Brasil. O jovem diretor de apenas 27 anos, ja prepara outro filme. “A Ilha”, onde um casal vive em um apartamento vazio de frente para o mar.
Leo Coelho
O Estado
fevereiro 2005
Controversial Film, 'The Champagne Club',
to Open eKsperim[E]nto Filmfest 2004
Manila, Philippines (3/05/04) –
Proving to be consistent of its reputation, the eKsperim[E]nto Film & Video Festival will open this year with the controversial full-length film by Joao Machado subtlely titled 'The Champagne Club '.
LAUSANNE UNDERGROUND FILM FESTIVAL
THE CHAMPAGNE CLUB
USA - 2002 - 35mm - couleur - 85 min.
Version originale
Quatre aristocrates de la scène artistique de Los Angeles se retirent dans une belle villa exotique pour se reposer, mais leurs vacances décadentes prennent un tournant dévastateur quand ils décident de se lâcher à fond sur la drogue, la bouffe et le sexe jusqu’au dernier niveau et tout ceci par amour de l’art.
Ce film est admirablement servi par une très belle photographie, des plans soignés et une belle mise en scène. Le film prend son temps pour s’enfoncer dans les sombres perversités que les personnages développent au fur et à mesure de l’histoire. On notera une belle distribution et l’inventivité surréaliste de certaines séquences qui ne sont pas dépourvues d’humour et de poésie. On peut envisager ce film comme un remix contemporain et SM soft de la Grande Bouffe.
SWINGERS & SALESMEN
Estetyka
Dir: Joao Machado / Nar / 16mm / 1999 / USA / 11:00 / Canadian Premiere
Estetyka is a noir travelogue on the way to a magic (un)reality. Sal, an introverted limo driver, hooks up with Shirley, who needs to get across the country to bail out her delinquent kid. In need of cash, and necessity being the mother of invention, Shirley turns Sal's limo into a travelling truck stop bordello, and the story shifts yet again. Machado delves deep into madness and desire in the supersaturated landscape of the wild west.
Like one of the countercultural anthologies put out by Feral House or Re/Search press, the four short films in MediaHead's unbeatable film series traffic in conspiracy, paranoia, fringe culture, meta-filmic fugues and all around freaky mayhem. It's rare to see a collection of short films that work so well together, and without one clunker to spoil the batch. A hard-boiled noir send-up with the aesthetics and tawdry subject matter of a grindhouse exploitation film, Joao Machado's "Estetyka" is the story of a man, a woman and a limousine, narrated by a cabby with a Charles Bukowski-meets-Homer Simpson turn of phrase. The crusty cab driver recounts his life-altering run-in with a road-worn hooker named Shirley Valentine who convinces the hack to transport her from California to New York to bail her son out of prison, earning money along the way by turning tricks in the limo's backseat. But the cabby soon discovers, after Shirley has a disastrous run-in with a kinky cowboy in a gas station bathroom, that madness "is constructed much like a pyramid." If Abel Ferrara and Ed Wood had a love child, "Estetyka" would be its name.
Felicia feaster/creative loafing atlanta /march 2000
B-MOVIE THEATER FILM FEST NOMINEES 2002
- BEST B-MOVIE DIRECTOR
RUTLAND, USA - Chad Meserve
THE CHAMPAGNE CLUB - Joao Machado
JANE WHITE IS SICK AND TWISTED - David Michael Latt
LUCKY - Steven Cuden
HEY, STOP STABBING ME! - Worm Miller
- BEST B-MOVIE ACTRESS
MAGDALEN - Jo Anna Scott
ELVIRA'S HAUNTED HILLS - Elvira
RUTLAND, USA - Andrea Ajemian
THE CHAMPAGNE CLUB - Sara Rinde
JANE WHITE IS SICK AND TWISTED - Kim Little
- BEST B-MOVIE SUPPORTING ACTRESS
SUMMER RAIN - Lara Clancy
THE CHAMPAGNE CLUB - Jacqueline Meyer
JANE WHITE IS SICK AND TWISTED - Debra Wilson
1ST TESTAMENT - Kimmarie Johnson
1ST TESTAMENT - Jasmine Jong Ok Kang
- BEST B-MOVIE PHOTOGRAPHY
SUMMER RAIN
THE JEKYLL & HYDE ROCK 'N ROLL MUSICAL
ELVIRA'S HAUNTED HILLS
THE CHAMPAGNE CLUB
JANE WHITE IS SICK AND TWISTED
- BEST B-MOVIE SET DESIGN
BOX HEAD REVOLUTION
THE JEKYLL & HYDE ROCK 'N ROLL MUSICAL
ELVIRA'S HAUNTED HILLS
I'LL BURY YOU TOMORROW
THE CHAMPAGNE CLUB
- BEST B-MOVIE MAKE-UP
WHEN HEAVEN COMES DOWN
I'LL BURY YOU TOMORROW
THE CHAMPAGNE CLUB
IN THE DARKNESS... WAITING
FILTHY MCNASTY
Titel: The Champagne Club
Originaltitel: The Champagne Club
År: 2002
Från: U.S.A. / Brasilien
Längd: 90 min Regi: Joao Machado
Sett på: Bio
Kategori: Bisarrt
Skådespelare: Brian Donovan, Sara Rinde, Robert Ripley, Jaqueline Meyer m.fl.
Läsarnas Betyg:
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Skriv egen recension!!
Fyra aristrokater beger sig till en 52-rums villa för semester. De är två par och kunde vid en första anblick vara normala bortskämda rikemanspersoner. Men vid en djupare granskning inser man snart att något är fel på dessa unga människor, så oerhört fel.
De fyller poolen med tomma champagneflaskor, drar kokainlinor på flera meter längs golvet, ägnar sig åt allt mer bisarra sexlekar och glider längre och längre in i galenskapen.
Vad har hänt med hushållerskan? Vad är det de äter egentligen? Hur mycket av det som händer är på riktigt och vad är bara resultatet av deras sjuka hjärnor?
Endast tiden kommer att visa vad de egentligen hänger sig åt och hur det skall sluta.
Denna film bygger tydligen på brev skrivna av Jonathan Hacke, som var konstnär och mentalpatient. Skrev han om dyligt kan jag förstå om killen var inspärrad. Från vissa helt bisarra saker glider filmen över till sjukt äckliga scener och går verkligen på djupet i galenskapen. Ibland kan man skratta åt början av en scen, för att avbrytas helt abrupt av att man blir äcklad av det man ser.
För att nämna lite av det man får se eller får beskrivit för sig äts det bajs, kannibalism, sex med spannmål, samt en hel del annat som kanske vanligen inte finns med i en film…
För mig gränsar filmen mellan betyg 1 och 2, men till slut får den ändå 1, får det är inte direkt mycket i filmen som egentligen var något att ha. Vill man verkligen se någonting totalt annorlunda och bisarrt är detta en given succé, men annars kan man gott undvika den.
