\n<\/p>\n
\n\tArgentine director Luis Ortega, whose last feature \u201cKill the Jockey\u201d premiered in competition at the 2024 Venice Film Festival, returns to the Lido with his next film, \u201cMagnetized,\u201d which he\u2019ll be presenting during the Venice Gap-Financing Market running Aug. 29 \u2013 31.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tWith a nod to films like John Cassavetes\u2019 \u201cMinnie and Moskowitz\u201d and Paul Thomas Anderson\u2019s \u201cPunch-Drunk Love,\u201d \u201cMagnetized\u201d is Ortega\u2019s vision of a \u201ccrazy love story\u201d that finds its protagonist, the young libertine priest\u00a0Ram\u00f3n, falling into a passionate but destructive relationship with the actress Eva, a woman who\u2019s in the midst of a nervous breakdown.<\/p>\n
\n\tBefore long,\u00a0Ram\u00f3n is drawn into a dark world where, driven by hard drugs, he finds himself pushed to the brink of madness. When Eva suddenly disappears without a trace, the priest despairs, leading him to commit a series of shocking and violent crimes. Yet the murderous rampage has the strange consequence of leaving him with a mysterious gift, as Ram\u00f3n\u2019s body develops magnetic powers.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe priest soon finds himself exiled to a remote mining town, where his powers attract a Christ-like following among the impoverished, superstitious and desperate populace. It is there that he\u2019ll commit an explosive act that could lead to his self-destruction \u2014 or his redemption.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cMagnetized\u201d is based on the book \u201cMagnetizado,\u201d by Carlos Busqued, and produced by Ortega and Esteban Perroud for Buenos Aires-based production company El Despacho. <\/p>\n
\n\tSpeaking to\u00a0Variety<\/em>\u00a0ahead of the Venice Gap-Financing Market, Ortega described his initial reluctance to adapt Busqued\u2019s true-crime book, which was based on a string of killings in Buenos Aires in the 1980s. Having just made the arresting Cannes drama \u201cEl \u00c1ngel\u201d \u2014 a film \u201cthat\u2019s based on true events and about a serial killer,\u201d as he described it \u2014 he passed when \u201cMagnetized\u201d was offered to him after that film\u2019s 2018 release.<\/p>\n \n\tBut coming on the heels of \u201cKill the Jockey,\u201d an absurdist comedy that saw him working in a very different vein, Ortega said he suddenly felt the story\u2019s, well, magnetic pull.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIt sounds surreal, but it has some poetry also,\u201d he said. \u201cThis idea of being magnetized explains a lot of things. It can explain destiny. It can explain synchronicity. It can explain why you fall in love with certain people, why you have certain friends, why you do certain things.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tA precocious talent from Buenos Aires, Ortega directed his first feature, the indie drama \u201cBlack Box,\u201d at the age of 19. In recent years he\u2019s developed a signature style through films including \u201cEl \u00c1ngel,\u201d which premiered in the Cannes Film Festival\u2019s Un Certain Regard section and was Argentina\u2019s submission for the Academy Awards in 2018, and his most recent film, the eccentric comedy \u201cKill the Jockey,\u201d which competed for the Golden Lion in Venice last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tDescribed by\u00a0Variety<\/em>\u2019s Guy Lodge as \u201calternately dark and daffy\u201d and a \u201ccolorful Argentine oddity,\u201d the film solidified Ortega\u2019s rising status and was also selected to represent the Latin American nation in the best international feature Oscar race.<\/p>\n \n\tWith \u201cMagnetized,\u201d the director said he\u2019s turning to a more \u201cnaturalistic\u201d style. \u201cIt\u2019s a little rougher. It\u2019s not so neat. It\u2019s more physical,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m going all the way with the actors in more of a Cassavetes mood than in \u2018Kill the Jockey,\u2019 which is a little pickier with framing and the stylistic [elements]. I\u2019m just going with a stronger feeling here, with passion.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tValent\u00edn Oliva, a singer and hip-hop artist known professionally as Wos,\u00a0will star as\u00a0Ram\u00f3n, while Ortega is still searching for an actress to play the role of Eva.\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m just looking for the right face. The right person with the right energy,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m into the characters and the faces \u2014 just being carried away by impulses.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tDespite the success of his previous films, the director said \u201cMagnetized\u201d is clearly pushing him \u201cin a different direction.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI like when you can\u2019t touch the ground and there\u2019s nothing really secure,\u201d Ortega said. \u201cI don\u2019t like going \u2014 artistically, creatively \u2014 to places I\u2019ve already visited. I like to feel this kind of suicidal [impulse] career-wise. It just feels more inspiring when you\u2019re not so secure, in terms of the language and just repeating something you know, you\u2019ve done.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI\u2019ve never done this kind of crazy love story,\u201d he added. \u201cI don\u2019t know what the hell is going to come out of it. But I\u2019m really fascinated with the idea.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Argentine director Luis Ortega, whose last feature \u201cKill the Jockey\u201d premiered in competition at the 2024 Venice Film Festival, returns to the Lido with his next film, \u201cMagnetized,\u201d which he\u2019ll be presenting during the Venice Gap-Financing Market running Aug. 29 \u2013 31.\u00a0 With a nod to films like John Cassavetes\u2019 \u201cMinnie and Moskowitz\u201d and Paul<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18164,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[10439,11047,2107,1253,3336,11048,3097,1522],"class_list":{"0":"post-18163","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-argentine","9":"tag-crazy","10":"tag-director","11":"tag-love","12":"tag-luis","13":"tag-magnetized","14":"tag-ortega","15":"tag-story"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}