What is good? What is evil? In Chris Nolan's Batman, what separates one from the other are convictions which fluctuate as characters plod on with life. Villains and heroes are either side of the same coin. In the last installment of the trilogy, Nolan's message is clear. There is evil in all of us, even when we are good.
If we must continually battle with these warring tendencies, then what separates Batman from Bane? Both fight for a cause. Batman's heroism and Bane's anarchism both warrant a belief in humanity's capacity for redemption. Both have sacrificed their lives for their ideologies. Both teeter on that precarious divide between rule and order. Both act in the name of justice. So how is Batman different from Bane?
The answer, I think, is that he isn't. What separates the two are contingencies - differences in matter of degrees. Perhaps Bane has experienced just that bit more of pain and despair in his life. By accident he has met such and such people who have influenced him in this or that way. The film's surprise at the end highlights the similarities even more. Bane is Batman, in substance and in form.
If we acknowledge that there is in us both good and evil, that we are capable of both care and harm, then I think we would be more far more forgiving of others and of ourselves. An intolerance of this duality leads to impossible expectations. Idealism is cynicism's twin.
Showing posts with label Film. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Film. Show all posts
Saturday, July 21, 2012
Friday, July 16, 2010
Inception - not so much a review as a blubbering fan-girl rave
I didn't bother to read the plot, I just knew it was Chris Nolan and that it was some type of sci-fi flick. From the moment I discovered Memento, I was hooked. For the more Hollywood-friendly flicks he revived the Batman franchise. I've seen The Prestige thrice, and I don't rewatch films often. But this is the first film I've ever seen where half-way through I thought I needed to see it again. Nolan makes you work hard. I had my brows creased a good majority of the movie. If you drop your concentration you'll lose the thread of the narrative but rest assured you will be rewarded for your efforts.
This is a thinking man's film. It references psychoanalysis, physics, principles of art, postmodern philosophy and god knows what else. Its ambitious in scope and in the technicalities of film making. I don't know who Nolan's editor is but he or she should win an award for this one. In hands less adept this could've turned out to be a first class disaster. Ask M. Night Shyamalan.
Watch Inception. This film will literally blow your mind.
Friday, February 12, 2010
Agora: a film review
(Spoiler free!!!)
"You do not question what you believe. You cannot. I must."
One pithy line neatly illustrates the tensions in Alejandro Amenabar's latest - Agora.
The "robe and sandal" epic portrays the ancient city of Alexandria in the twilight years of the Roman empire. The fraying political hold of the Romans leave a vacuum for religious factions to take over. Christians, Jews and Pagans all struggle to maintain influence over the city's governors and governed. And in the middle of the maelstrom, Hypatia, Neoplatonist philosopher/mathematician and part-time political advisor.
Based on real characters and events from the fifth century, the themes tackled in Agora are still very much contemporary. Amenabar's directorial eye casts reflections on humankind's search for meaning and order in the universe. The film also depicts the problematic posed by the intersection of the religious and political realms. And at the heart of it all, the struggle to reconcile faith with reason.
Oh, and let me say, atheists, agnostics, feminists, scientists, mathematicians, philosophers, RH advocates and people with non-universalizing tendencies will probably love this film. :-)
"You do not question what you believe. You cannot. I must."
One pithy line neatly illustrates the tensions in Alejandro Amenabar's latest - Agora.
The "robe and sandal" epic portrays the ancient city of Alexandria in the twilight years of the Roman empire. The fraying political hold of the Romans leave a vacuum for religious factions to take over. Christians, Jews and Pagans all struggle to maintain influence over the city's governors and governed. And in the middle of the maelstrom, Hypatia, Neoplatonist philosopher/mathematician and part-time political advisor.
Based on real characters and events from the fifth century, the themes tackled in Agora are still very much contemporary. Amenabar's directorial eye casts reflections on humankind's search for meaning and order in the universe. The film also depicts the problematic posed by the intersection of the religious and political realms. And at the heart of it all, the struggle to reconcile faith with reason.
Oh, and let me say, atheists, agnostics, feminists, scientists, mathematicians, philosophers, RH advocates and people with non-universalizing tendencies will probably love this film. :-)
Friday, December 18, 2009
Avatar's Fantasmagorical, Hegemonic Apologies
In the year 2009, the peoples of the Earth convened in a country called Denmark. Over one hundred world leaders met to save the world's atmosphere from man-made pollutants. Due to much dickering, short-sightedness, pride and old-fashioned greed, the climate summit failed. Peoples of Earth carry on as they have for over a hundred years. They continue to reproduce their ways of living on carbon-based energy.
It is the year 2154 in James Cameron's cinematic tour de force. Human beings have gutted the world for all it's worth and is exploring the universe for resources. A mining company from Earth is on planet Pandora to harvest a 20-million dollar per kilo mineral called 'Unobtainium.' The only catch - the planet has a resistant indigenous population.
Ten minutes into the film, I thought, no American will have written this movie. "Is James Cameron Australian?" I whispered to my friend. "I'm not sure. Or Kiwi," he whispered back. True enough, later I found out Cameron is Canadian. And much of the CG work is done by a Kiwi visual effects studio WETA (of Lord of the Rings fame).
The film is a thinly veiled self-recrimination over America's imperial posturings this past decade. Had an American made the film, he'd have been accused of treason. Had this been 2003 instead of 2009, this film would never have been made! As the corporate suit, played by Giovanni Ribisi, coldly explains, the mining company isn't on Pandora to make nice or to bring enlightenment. They are there for the precious mineral unobtanium. In case the audience don't catch on, Cameron uses the terms 'pre-emptive strike' and 'shock and awe' near the end of the film, evidently alluding to the decision to invade Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003.
Avatar is a social artifact of the times, much as the Star Wars trilogy was a product of the Cold War. This time however, Cameron's evil empire is not another country, but greed in the heart of the rich industrial West. The green message is also pretty clear. As my friend says, the humans are plugged-in to machines while the Nabi are quite literally plugged-in to nature.
And because this is the age of the 'glocal' (global + local), the film also reminded me of the uphill battle being waged by the Mangyan in Mindoro against evil Norwegian mining company Intex. The animated version of lead character JakeSully resembled Mangyan leader Kuya P., long braid and all. Like the film, their story has so far ended happily.
The film is over two hours long but one never notices. A visual feast, the film's narrative grabs viewers and never lets go until the very last bombastic end. One almost forgets those are moving pixels 'acting' on the screen. I particularly loved the voice acting of Zoe Saldana. I even shed tears during a moving moment. The only false note was the love scene between the animated characters. I wasn't the only one who snickered. In all, I recommend you see this film. Even if the geo-political (over?)undertones escape you, Avatar is a rip-roaring fantasmagorical extravaganza.
It is the year 2154 in James Cameron's cinematic tour de force. Human beings have gutted the world for all it's worth and is exploring the universe for resources. A mining company from Earth is on planet Pandora to harvest a 20-million dollar per kilo mineral called 'Unobtainium.' The only catch - the planet has a resistant indigenous population.
Ten minutes into the film, I thought, no American will have written this movie. "Is James Cameron Australian?" I whispered to my friend. "I'm not sure. Or Kiwi," he whispered back. True enough, later I found out Cameron is Canadian. And much of the CG work is done by a Kiwi visual effects studio WETA (of Lord of the Rings fame).
The film is a thinly veiled self-recrimination over America's imperial posturings this past decade. Had an American made the film, he'd have been accused of treason. Had this been 2003 instead of 2009, this film would never have been made! As the corporate suit, played by Giovanni Ribisi, coldly explains, the mining company isn't on Pandora to make nice or to bring enlightenment. They are there for the precious mineral unobtanium. In case the audience don't catch on, Cameron uses the terms 'pre-emptive strike' and 'shock and awe' near the end of the film, evidently alluding to the decision to invade Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003.
Avatar is a social artifact of the times, much as the Star Wars trilogy was a product of the Cold War. This time however, Cameron's evil empire is not another country, but greed in the heart of the rich industrial West. The green message is also pretty clear. As my friend says, the humans are plugged-in to machines while the Nabi are quite literally plugged-in to nature.
And because this is the age of the 'glocal' (global + local), the film also reminded me of the uphill battle being waged by the Mangyan in Mindoro against evil Norwegian mining company Intex. The animated version of lead character JakeSully resembled Mangyan leader Kuya P., long braid and all. Like the film, their story has so far ended happily.
The film is over two hours long but one never notices. A visual feast, the film's narrative grabs viewers and never lets go until the very last bombastic end. One almost forgets those are moving pixels 'acting' on the screen. I particularly loved the voice acting of Zoe Saldana. I even shed tears during a moving moment. The only false note was the love scene between the animated characters. I wasn't the only one who snickered. In all, I recommend you see this film. Even if the geo-political (over?)undertones escape you, Avatar is a rip-roaring fantasmagorical extravaganza.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Monday, May 25, 2009
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Abre Los Ojos
Emancipation is a well-trodden theme in pop culture. Off the top of my head I think of classic cult hit "The Matrix." Neo, having glimpsed the truth behind the human condition, had the choice to down the blue pill which would make him forget what he saw and revert to his life of habit. He would forget his encounter with Morpheus and his crew, forget the sinister Mr. Anderson and go on with living out his life.
This same choice was offered to David in "Vanilla Sky." Near the end of the film he finds out that in grief for losing a loved one, he chose to be cryogenically preserved, living his simulated perfect life indefinitely. Upon learning the truth, he chose to jump off the building and wake up to face his painful reality.
I remember these pop culture references as I read this article entitled "Barrel of worms" by Rene Azurin. In it he depicts the hesitance of officialdom in digging too deep:
But what of the depositors?
It is probably in their interest to believe in the credibility of the institution which houses their fortune, their hopes, their fate. Believing otherwise would trigger a crisis. Given a choice between reality and the comfort of ignorance or even the relative discomfort of innuendo - do we take the blue pill or the red?
We go about our daily lives in varying levels of consciousness. Most of us probably prefer to sleepwalk. Reality may be too much to take. For those who see a glimmer of light behind closed eyelids, I dedicate "Anino" by Wolfgang.
Morpheus: This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill - the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill - you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.But Neo chose to swallow the red pill - in pursuit of truth. He later on found out that he, and all of humanity, have been living simulated, fantasy lives as their bodies served to power the world created by machines. Later on another character Cypher, expressed deep regret in forgoing the blue pill. Knowing what he knew then, he would have gladly reverted to his simulated life - back in the blissful arms of ignorance.
This same choice was offered to David in "Vanilla Sky." Near the end of the film he finds out that in grief for losing a loved one, he chose to be cryogenically preserved, living his simulated perfect life indefinitely. Upon learning the truth, he chose to jump off the building and wake up to face his painful reality.
I remember these pop culture references as I read this article entitled "Barrel of worms" by Rene Azurin. In it he depicts the hesitance of officialdom in digging too deep:
If nothing else, congressional zarzuelas on the World Bank’s findings of bid rigging and "kickbacking" in public works projects highlight the fact that no agency in this government — not the Department of Public Works and Highways (obviously), not the Senate, not the House of Representatives, not the Department of Justice, not the Ombudsman — is interested in opening up the whole barrel of worms. A logical conclusion is that everyone has an interest in keeping this barrel sealed.Thieves guarding the bank can be expected to deflect attention from the intricate ways in which wealth is siphoned off the bank.
But what of the depositors?
It is probably in their interest to believe in the credibility of the institution which houses their fortune, their hopes, their fate. Believing otherwise would trigger a crisis. Given a choice between reality and the comfort of ignorance or even the relative discomfort of innuendo - do we take the blue pill or the red?
We go about our daily lives in varying levels of consciousness. Most of us probably prefer to sleepwalk. Reality may be too much to take. For those who see a glimmer of light behind closed eyelids, I dedicate "Anino" by Wolfgang.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Lupang Hinirang
Lupang Hinarang is a film in two parts about a fierce and deadly battle raging between farmers and landowners in the Philippines. The documentary opens with the tribal Sumilao farmers, Ka Rene, Linda and Bajekjek, who, inspired by Gandhi’s protest march, journey on foot for two months from their mountain village in Bukidnon to the presidential palace in Manila.
It is a gruelling 1,700 kilometer journey through scorching heat, rains, fatigue, and great uncertainty. After weeks of walking, the farmers reach Manila, rally at the corporate offices of San Miguel, confront the agrarian reform secretary and grapple with anti-riot police before finally meeting the President.
The second part tells the story of the sugarcane workers from Negros. When the landowner’s armed guards kill one of the farmers in 2007, Chay Lindy, Chay Gamay, and Chay Biray go on a harrowing 29-day hunger strike with other farmers on the steps of the agrarian reform office in Manila. The hunger strike results in victory for the farmers until the film ends in a shocking climax.
Lupang Hinarang is a timely documentary set against ongoing debates in Congress to extend and reform CARP (CARPer) or to kill it.
Thursday, December 04, 2008
Friday, October 17, 2008
Cinemanila 2008 Screening Schedule
Hat tip to Pelikula76 who helmed the camera of one of the entries: The Amazing Truth About Queen Raquela. Please do see it. After 3 years, Raquela has come home to the Philippines.
DEKADA CINEMANILA
Oct. 16-29, 2008
Gateway Cineplex 10
Araneta Center
SCREENING SCHEDULE OCT. 17 - 21
Friday, Oct. 17, 2008
Cinema 1
6:00 p m West 32nd (Korea)
8:30 pm Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone (Japan)
Cinema 2
1:00 pm You, the Living (Sweden)
3:00 pm Sparrow (Hong Kong)
5:00 pm Sukiyaki Western Django (Japan)
7:30 pm I'm a Cyborg but that's OK (South Korea)
9:30 pm Love of Siam (Thailand) SEA Competition
Cinema 4
12:00 pm 12 Lotus (Singapore) SEA Competition
2:30 pm The Band's Visit (Israel) Main Competition
4:30 pm Noise (Australia)
6:30 pm California Dreamin' (Romania)
Cinema 7
12:30 pm Shahida: Brides of Allah (Israel) Docs in Competition
2:00 pm Dreams from the Third World (Singapore)
4:00 pm Sita Sings the Blues (USA)
Saturday, Oct. 18, 2008
Cinema 1
Digital Lokal Competition Films
6:30 pm Ala Pobre Ala Suerte (Briccio Santos)
9:00 pm Sisa (CJ Andaluz)
Cinema 2
12:30 pm Confessional (Philippines) SEA Competition
2:00 pm Invisible City (Singapore) (Q&A with director)
3:30 pm United Red Army (Japan) Main Competition
7:00 pm Love of Siam (Thailand) SEA Competition
Cinema 4
12:00 pm 10 Canoes (Australia) Part of 6th Australian Film Festival
2:00 pm Sukiyaki Western Django (Japan)
5:00 pm Evangelion 1.0: You are Not Alone (Japan)
Cinema 5
Young Cinema Night: Shorts in Competition (7:00 pm)
* Amihan (Joanna Vasquez Arong)
* Bunot (Ivy Universe Baldoza)
* Esbat (Carlo Obispo)
* Frou Frou… Shh, Wag Mo Sabihin Kay Itay (Michael Juat)
* Inday Wanda (Nelson Caliguia Jr.)
* Kalawang na Ginto (Vic Acedillo Jr.)
* Kamera (Mikhail Red)
* Surreal Randon MMS Texts Para Ed Ina, Agui, Tan Kaamong Ya Makaiiliw Ed Sika: Gurgurlis Ed Banua (Christopher Gozum)
* Tumbang Preso (Antoinette Jadaone)
* Undertakers (Emmanuel Quindo Palo)
Cinema 7
1:00 pm Vanished Empire (Russia) Main Competition
3:00 pm Sparrow (Hong Kong)
5:00 pm Noise (Australia)
7:00 pm I'm A Cyborg But That's OK (South Korea)
9:00 pm Night Bus (Iran) Main Competition
FILM SYNOPSES CAN BE VIEWED AT THIS PAGE :
http://www.cinemanila.org.ph/films.htm
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Cinema 1
Digital Lokal Competition Films
6:30 pm Ang Manghuhula (Paolo Herras)
9:00 pm Carnivore (Ato Bautista)
Cinema 2
12:00 pm Storm Boy (Australia) Part of 6th Australian Film Festival
2:00 pm Sukiyaki Western Django (Japan)
4:30 pm 4 Minutes (Germany)
7:00 pm Blind Pig Who Wants To Fly (Q&A with director) SEA Competition
9:00 pm West 32nd (South Korea)
Cinema 4
12:00 pm The Photograph (Indonesia) SEA Competition
2:00 pm It's A Free World (UK)
4:00 pm Youth Without Youth (USA)
6:30 pm Lucky Miles (Q*A with director and actor) (Australia) Main Competition
9:30 pm Diving Bell & the Butterfly by Julian Schnabel (France)
Cinema 7
1:00 pm Sita Sings the Blues (USA)
3:00 pm Adela (Philippines) SEA Competition
5:30 pm PVC 1 (Colombia)
Monday, October 20, 2008
Cinema 1
12:30pm With A Girl of Black Soil (South Korea)
2:30 pm Boxing Day (Australia)
4:30 pm Shahida - Brides Of Allah (Israel)
6:30 pm Be Like Others (Iran)
8:30 pm The Amazing Truth About Queen Raquela (Iceland/Philippines/France/Thailand) Main Competition
Cinema 2
1:00 pm Sparrow (Hong Kong)
3:00 pm Diving Bell & the Butterfly (France)
5:30 pm Night Bus (Iran) Main Competition
7:30 pm Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone (Japan)
9:30 pm I'm A Cyborg But That's OK (South Korea)
Cinema 4
12:00 pm Love Of Siam (Thailand) SEA Competition
3:00 pm The Mirror (Russia)
5:00 pm Not Quite Hollywood (Australia)
7:00 pm Susuk (Malaysia)
9:00 pm It's A Free World by Ken Loach (UK)
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Cinema 1
Digital Lokal Competition Films
7:00PM Next Attraction (Raya Martin)
9:00 pm Imburnal (Sherad Anthony Sanchez)
Cinema 2
12:00 pm California Dreamin' (Romania)
3:00 pm God Man Dog (Taiwan)
5:00 pm Noise (Australia)
7:00 pm Diving Bell and the Butterfly (France)
9:30 pm Youth Without Youth by Francis Ford Coppola (USA)
Cinema 4
11:30 pm The Amazing Truth About Queen Raquela Main Competition
2:00 -5:00 pm Master Class In Script Writing (Bing Lao)
Cinema 7
1:00 pm Vanished Empire (Russia) Main Competition
3:00 pm West 32nd (Korea/USA)
5:00 pm The Photograph (Indonesia) SEA Competition
7:00 pm Noise (Australia)
9:00 pm The Bands Visit (Israel) Main Competition
MASTER CLASSES
Tuesday, Oct. 21 Scriptwriting Master Class with Bing Lao
2:00 – 5:00 pm
Wednesday, Oct. 22 SEA Indie Filmmaking: With Lav Diaz (Philippines)
Amir Muhammad (Malaysia) and Raymond Red (Philippines)
2:00 - 5:00 pm
Thursday, Oct. 23 Cinematography Master Class
2:00 – 5:00 pm
Monday, Oct. 27 Editing Master Class with Miranamedina
2:00 – 5:00 pm
OTHER EVENTS
Saturday, October 25 Young Cinema Night II: Shorts in Exhibition 7:00 – 9:00 pm
* #cafe (Leo Valencia)
* Bulong (Pedro Valdes)
* Pass (Vicente Garcia Groyon)
* Walong Linggo (Ana Isabelle Matutina)
* Trails of Water (Sheron Dayoc)
* Pagtakas sa Kawalan (Richard Soriano Legaspi)
DEKADA CINEMANILA
Oct. 16-29, 2008
Gateway Cineplex 10
Araneta Center
SCREENING SCHEDULE OCT. 17 - 21
Friday, Oct. 17, 2008
Cinema 1
6:00 p m West 32nd (Korea)
8:30 pm Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone (Japan)
Cinema 2
1:00 pm You, the Living (Sweden)
3:00 pm Sparrow (Hong Kong)
5:00 pm Sukiyaki Western Django (Japan)
7:30 pm I'm a Cyborg but that's OK (South Korea)
9:30 pm Love of Siam (Thailand) SEA Competition
Cinema 4
12:00 pm 12 Lotus (Singapore) SEA Competition
2:30 pm The Band's Visit (Israel) Main Competition
4:30 pm Noise (Australia)
6:30 pm California Dreamin' (Romania)
Cinema 7
12:30 pm Shahida: Brides of Allah (Israel) Docs in Competition
2:00 pm Dreams from the Third World (Singapore)
4:00 pm Sita Sings the Blues (USA)
Saturday, Oct. 18, 2008
Cinema 1
Digital Lokal Competition Films
6:30 pm Ala Pobre Ala Suerte (Briccio Santos)
9:00 pm Sisa (CJ Andaluz)
Cinema 2
12:30 pm Confessional (Philippines) SEA Competition
2:00 pm Invisible City (Singapore) (Q&A with director)
3:30 pm United Red Army (Japan) Main Competition
7:00 pm Love of Siam (Thailand) SEA Competition
Cinema 4
12:00 pm 10 Canoes (Australia) Part of 6th Australian Film Festival
2:00 pm Sukiyaki Western Django (Japan)
5:00 pm Evangelion 1.0: You are Not Alone (Japan)
Cinema 5
Young Cinema Night: Shorts in Competition (7:00 pm)
* Amihan (Joanna Vasquez Arong)
* Bunot (Ivy Universe Baldoza)
* Esbat (Carlo Obispo)
* Frou Frou… Shh, Wag Mo Sabihin Kay Itay (Michael Juat)
* Inday Wanda (Nelson Caliguia Jr.)
* Kalawang na Ginto (Vic Acedillo Jr.)
* Kamera (Mikhail Red)
* Surreal Randon MMS Texts Para Ed Ina, Agui, Tan Kaamong Ya Makaiiliw Ed Sika: Gurgurlis Ed Banua (Christopher Gozum)
* Tumbang Preso (Antoinette Jadaone)
* Undertakers (Emmanuel Quindo Palo)
Cinema 7
1:00 pm Vanished Empire (Russia) Main Competition
3:00 pm Sparrow (Hong Kong)
5:00 pm Noise (Australia)
7:00 pm I'm A Cyborg But That's OK (South Korea)
9:00 pm Night Bus (Iran) Main Competition
FILM SYNOPSES CAN BE VIEWED AT THIS PAGE :
http://www.cinemanila.org.ph/films.htm
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Cinema 1
Digital Lokal Competition Films
6:30 pm Ang Manghuhula (Paolo Herras)
9:00 pm Carnivore (Ato Bautista)
Cinema 2
12:00 pm Storm Boy (Australia) Part of 6th Australian Film Festival
2:00 pm Sukiyaki Western Django (Japan)
4:30 pm 4 Minutes (Germany)
7:00 pm Blind Pig Who Wants To Fly (Q&A with director) SEA Competition
9:00 pm West 32nd (South Korea)
Cinema 4
12:00 pm The Photograph (Indonesia) SEA Competition
2:00 pm It's A Free World (UK)
4:00 pm Youth Without Youth (USA)
6:30 pm Lucky Miles (Q*A with director and actor) (Australia) Main Competition
9:30 pm Diving Bell & the Butterfly by Julian Schnabel (France)
Cinema 7
1:00 pm Sita Sings the Blues (USA)
3:00 pm Adela (Philippines) SEA Competition
5:30 pm PVC 1 (Colombia)
Monday, October 20, 2008
Cinema 1
12:30pm With A Girl of Black Soil (South Korea)
2:30 pm Boxing Day (Australia)
4:30 pm Shahida - Brides Of Allah (Israel)
6:30 pm Be Like Others (Iran)
8:30 pm The Amazing Truth About Queen Raquela (Iceland/Philippines/France/Thailand) Main Competition
Cinema 2
1:00 pm Sparrow (Hong Kong)
3:00 pm Diving Bell & the Butterfly (France)
5:30 pm Night Bus (Iran) Main Competition
7:30 pm Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone (Japan)
9:30 pm I'm A Cyborg But That's OK (South Korea)
Cinema 4
12:00 pm Love Of Siam (Thailand) SEA Competition
3:00 pm The Mirror (Russia)
5:00 pm Not Quite Hollywood (Australia)
7:00 pm Susuk (Malaysia)
9:00 pm It's A Free World by Ken Loach (UK)
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Cinema 1
Digital Lokal Competition Films
7:00PM Next Attraction (Raya Martin)
9:00 pm Imburnal (Sherad Anthony Sanchez)
Cinema 2
12:00 pm California Dreamin' (Romania)
3:00 pm God Man Dog (Taiwan)
5:00 pm Noise (Australia)
7:00 pm Diving Bell and the Butterfly (France)
9:30 pm Youth Without Youth by Francis Ford Coppola (USA)
Cinema 4
11:30 pm The Amazing Truth About Queen Raquela Main Competition
2:00 -5:00 pm Master Class In Script Writing (Bing Lao)
Cinema 7
1:00 pm Vanished Empire (Russia) Main Competition
3:00 pm West 32nd (Korea/USA)
5:00 pm The Photograph (Indonesia) SEA Competition
7:00 pm Noise (Australia)
9:00 pm The Bands Visit (Israel) Main Competition
MASTER CLASSES
Tuesday, Oct. 21 Scriptwriting Master Class with Bing Lao
2:00 – 5:00 pm
Wednesday, Oct. 22 SEA Indie Filmmaking: With Lav Diaz (Philippines)
Amir Muhammad (Malaysia) and Raymond Red (Philippines)
2:00 - 5:00 pm
Thursday, Oct. 23 Cinematography Master Class
2:00 – 5:00 pm
Monday, Oct. 27 Editing Master Class with Miranamedina
2:00 – 5:00 pm
OTHER EVENTS
Saturday, October 25 Young Cinema Night II: Shorts in Exhibition 7:00 – 9:00 pm
* #cafe (Leo Valencia)
* Bulong (Pedro Valdes)
* Pass (Vicente Garcia Groyon)
* Walong Linggo (Ana Isabelle Matutina)
* Trails of Water (Sheron Dayoc)
* Pagtakas sa Kawalan (Richard Soriano Legaspi)
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Kritika Kultura Lectures
Department of English
Ateneo de Manila University
School of Humanities
“QUIAPO MON AMOUR”: THE GLOBAL MAPPING OF A STREET CINEMATHEQUE
by
Jasmine Nadua Trice
18 July 2008, Friday
4:30 – 6:00 p.m.
Faura Audio-Visual Room
About the lecture:
This lecture provides an overview of my dissertation project, tentatively entitled Imagined Communities, Imagined Cosmopolitanisms: Spaces of Cinema Circulation in Manila, Philippines, 2006-2008. Grounded in cinema studies, the work examines the circulation of independent cinema in Manila, Philippines, focusing on "alternative" sites of exhibition and their positions within the overlapping arenas of art and politics. Combining participant-observation with analysis of cinema texts and their surrounding discourses in media and institutional documents, the project argues that examining the processes of these works' production, distribution, and exhibition within a specific, urban setting offers new frames for studying local cinematic cultures in the contexts of globalization, frameworks usually approached through audience reception ("resistant" readings of global mass culture) or production (textual analysis of radical works). Rather, by viewing the circulation of small scale works whose experimental aesthetics or radical politics place them at a distance from the more commonly examined global mass culture, the project aims to develop a new approach to cultural goods' local and transnational flows. It examines the ways this model operates within a distinctive system of cultural capital driven by aesthetics, politics and the cachet of internationalism, but ultimately, committed to local artistic communities and political solidarities.
About the speaker:
Jasmine Nadua Trice, a PhD candidate of the Department of Communication and Culture/American Studies Program of Indiana University, takes research interest on cinema theory, history and production, globality, cinema exhibition, new media, reception and audience studies, national cinema, experimental cinema, third cinema, post-coloniality, media spaces, ethnography, gender, and the everyday. She was also an associate instructor in the Department of Communication and Culture, Indiana University.
-----------------
Kritika Kultura Lecture Series
invites you to a lecture
Time Passante: From Forensic to Interrogation Modernity
by
David Lloyd
Professor of English, University of Southern California
22 July 2008, Tuesday
1:30 – 3:00 p.m.
Faculty Lounge, De la Costa G/F
Ateneo de Manila University
About the lecture:
The lecture will discuss Walter Benjamin on Baudelaire, Bobby Sands's prison ballads and contemporary techniques of in-depth interrogation. It will draws on the experience of Irish political prisoners to explore the way in which interrogation has become a generalized mode of subjectification in late modernity (as opposed to the forensic mode of earlier periods).
About the speaker:
David Lloyd, Professor of English at the University of Southern California , is the author of Nationalism and Minor Literature (1987); Anomalous States (1993); Ireland After History (2000) and Irish Times: Essays on the History and Temporality of Irish Modernity (forthcoming 2008). He is currently at work on two further books, A History of the Irish Orifice: the Irish Body and Modernity and a study of Samuel Beckett’s visual aesthetics. He has co-published several other books: Culture and the State, co-authored with Paul Thomas (1997), The Politics of Culture in the Shadow of Capital (1997), with Lisa Lowe, and The Nature and Context of Minority Discourse (1991), with Abdul JanMohamed. A poet and playwright, he is in the International Board of Editors of Kritika Kultura. His major publications easily mark Prof. Lloyd as an important intellectual in literary and cultural studies today.
Ateneo de Manila University
School of Humanities
“QUIAPO MON AMOUR”: THE GLOBAL MAPPING OF A STREET CINEMATHEQUE
by
Jasmine Nadua Trice
18 July 2008, Friday
4:30 – 6:00 p.m.
Faura Audio-Visual Room
About the lecture:
This lecture provides an overview of my dissertation project, tentatively entitled Imagined Communities, Imagined Cosmopolitanisms: Spaces of Cinema Circulation in Manila, Philippines, 2006-2008. Grounded in cinema studies, the work examines the circulation of independent cinema in Manila, Philippines, focusing on "alternative" sites of exhibition and their positions within the overlapping arenas of art and politics. Combining participant-observation with analysis of cinema texts and their surrounding discourses in media and institutional documents, the project argues that examining the processes of these works' production, distribution, and exhibition within a specific, urban setting offers new frames for studying local cinematic cultures in the contexts of globalization, frameworks usually approached through audience reception ("resistant" readings of global mass culture) or production (textual analysis of radical works). Rather, by viewing the circulation of small scale works whose experimental aesthetics or radical politics place them at a distance from the more commonly examined global mass culture, the project aims to develop a new approach to cultural goods' local and transnational flows. It examines the ways this model operates within a distinctive system of cultural capital driven by aesthetics, politics and the cachet of internationalism, but ultimately, committed to local artistic communities and political solidarities.
About the speaker:
Jasmine Nadua Trice, a PhD candidate of the Department of Communication and Culture/American Studies Program of Indiana University, takes research interest on cinema theory, history and production, globality, cinema exhibition, new media, reception and audience studies, national cinema, experimental cinema, third cinema, post-coloniality, media spaces, ethnography, gender, and the everyday. She was also an associate instructor in the Department of Communication and Culture, Indiana University.
-----------------
Kritika Kultura Lecture Series
invites you to a lecture
Time Passante: From Forensic to Interrogation Modernity
by
David Lloyd
Professor of English, University of Southern California
22 July 2008, Tuesday
1:30 – 3:00 p.m.
Faculty Lounge, De la Costa G/F
Ateneo de Manila University
About the lecture:
The lecture will discuss Walter Benjamin on Baudelaire, Bobby Sands's prison ballads and contemporary techniques of in-depth interrogation. It will draws on the experience of Irish political prisoners to explore the way in which interrogation has become a generalized mode of subjectification in late modernity (as opposed to the forensic mode of earlier periods).
About the speaker:
David Lloyd, Professor of English at the University of Southern California , is the author of Nationalism and Minor Literature (1987); Anomalous States (1993); Ireland After History (2000) and Irish Times: Essays on the History and Temporality of Irish Modernity (forthcoming 2008). He is currently at work on two further books, A History of the Irish Orifice: the Irish Body and Modernity and a study of Samuel Beckett’s visual aesthetics. He has co-published several other books: Culture and the State, co-authored with Paul Thomas (1997), The Politics of Culture in the Shadow of Capital (1997), with Lisa Lowe, and The Nature and Context of Minority Discourse (1991), with Abdul JanMohamed. A poet and playwright, he is in the International Board of Editors of Kritika Kultura. His major publications easily mark Prof. Lloyd as an important intellectual in literary and cultural studies today.
I am Harvey Dent
I believe in signposts. While I know I craft my future, because I have a choice, there is still a part of me that feels the cosmos aligns itself once in a while to show me where to next.I stepped out of the perfect allegory today. Almost three hours of Chris Nolan's philosophising brilliantly packaged in a multi-million dollar Hollywood summer flick. Batman's good battling with Joker's evil. Batman's order duking it out with Joker's chaos. And Harvey Dent, caught in the middle. The ordinary bloke who struggles to do good. Two-face, he is called. He has in him both the capacity to be heroic and to do harm.
I got an important call today. A call to arms. Is this it? Time to climb down my cherished Ivory Tower - where it is safe, far above the din below. From where I perch the bigger picture is clear. Goodness and order are crystal. But the reality on the ground has long been beckoning. On Monday begins the end. I am afraid reality up close might look uglier than expected. Time to test your mettle Sparks. Time to grow a pair. Butch asks me why I am scared shitless. I tell him I fear not reality. I fear myself.
On both interviews I did my best to dissuade them not to take me. In what job interview do you admit your inexperience? In what job interview do you admit knowing nothing? On feeling intimidated? On being way in over your head? And still they took me. Butch says it might be because I am young. Not quite jaded. Not yet battle-weary. Still full of bright shining light.
Stay the course Sparky. Stay the course no matter what.
Sunday, June 08, 2008
French Film Fest 2008
The foreign film fest season has begun. From this month all the way to December, denizens of the city will be treated to films they will usually only encounter at their friendly neighbourhood pirate. See the French offerings and screening schedule at the Alliance website. Hopefully its still free! They will also be screening Brillante Mendoza's Serbis. Hopefully no cuts.
Thursday, November 09, 2006
Pro-Digital Filmmaker, Anti-Filipino Film-goer
In a feedback article in the Inquirer today, a film student from Cebu is quick to defend Filipino digital filmmakers such as himself, but paradoxically declares his loss of faith in Filipino moviegoers.
Either Eric Tan Florentino has been living under a rock for the past five years, or like my boyfriend, has tendencies to be a "purist" when it comes to his definition of "art."
I don't know about you, but I can barely keep tabs on all sorts of film festivals we have yearly. That these festivals have been wildly popular in the past five years is a clear indication that there is an audience willing to either queue for a long time or pay to see "artsy-fartsy" films.
Film Fest season begins with the French Film fest in July-August and ends with a few more in December. While the French embassy pioneered free film screenings nine or eight years ago, many other embassies have followed suit. The Canadian, Spanish, German, Australian, Italian and the European Union all hold film fests, most for free. We now have the Cinemalaya, the CinemaOne and the Cinemanila.
Now why have these fests become wildly popular in the past few years? Perhaps the Filipino is sick and tired of the usual fare offered by the likes of Mother Lily. Perhaps the Filipino has become more exposed to "exotic" cinema courtesy of piracy.
One thing is for sure Mr. Florentino, don't count the public out. Our definition of "art" may not be as high-brow as yours, but I assure you, we appreciate good film when we see it.
What is "art" anyway? I had an argument once with my boyfriend, an alumnus of Mowelfund, about art films vs. Hollywood flicks. If your film sells like hotcakes does that mean you've sold out? Does it compromise your vision as an artist? On the other hand, if nobody sees your film, what's the point of making it? If your "art" doesn't speak to an audience, then you certainly have a strange notion of what it means to be an "artist."
Is the Filipino audience still worthy of such a sacrifice? To me, this is the true dark night of Philippine Cinema today, an issue that requires another devil’s advocate.
Me? I have never given up on the Filipino artist, but I have long since given up on the Filipino as a public for art.
Either Eric Tan Florentino has been living under a rock for the past five years, or like my boyfriend, has tendencies to be a "purist" when it comes to his definition of "art."
I don't know about you, but I can barely keep tabs on all sorts of film festivals we have yearly. That these festivals have been wildly popular in the past five years is a clear indication that there is an audience willing to either queue for a long time or pay to see "artsy-fartsy" films.
Film Fest season begins with the French Film fest in July-August and ends with a few more in December. While the French embassy pioneered free film screenings nine or eight years ago, many other embassies have followed suit. The Canadian, Spanish, German, Australian, Italian and the European Union all hold film fests, most for free. We now have the Cinemalaya, the CinemaOne and the Cinemanila.
Now why have these fests become wildly popular in the past few years? Perhaps the Filipino is sick and tired of the usual fare offered by the likes of Mother Lily. Perhaps the Filipino has become more exposed to "exotic" cinema courtesy of piracy.
One thing is for sure Mr. Florentino, don't count the public out. Our definition of "art" may not be as high-brow as yours, but I assure you, we appreciate good film when we see it.
What is "art" anyway? I had an argument once with my boyfriend, an alumnus of Mowelfund, about art films vs. Hollywood flicks. If your film sells like hotcakes does that mean you've sold out? Does it compromise your vision as an artist? On the other hand, if nobody sees your film, what's the point of making it? If your "art" doesn't speak to an audience, then you certainly have a strange notion of what it means to be an "artist."
Sunday, August 27, 2006
Ils (They) Film Review
Unlike many pompously self-important French films, Ils (They) has a surprisingly sparse script. Full of one-liners like Qu-est-ce que tu fais? (What are you doing) or Qu'est-ce qu'il y a? (Whats the matter) repeated over and over and over, my beginner's French students would love this film. The simplicity of the characters' dialogue pretty much mirrors the simplicity of the production - set in a huge old house in the woods, and the story - two French expats in Romania victimized by an unseen force bent on doing them harm. There are no big budget special effects and only about a couple of ounces of blood shed shown on screen, but this film nevertheless delivers the goods.Directors David Moreau and Xavier Palud opt to make the film look like a documentary. Supposedly "inspired by true events" Ils opens with an especially tense scene of a mother and daughter stranded on the side of a dark, empty road. After almost hitting something or someone, the car swerves wildly and hits a post. Thankfully mother and daughter are unharmed...but only for a few minutes. Mom pops open the hood and checks the engine while Daughter stays in the car. A clicking sound is heard from the woods nearby. And Mom is gone. Daughter gets off the car, calling for her mysteriously disappeared mother. This scene is so scary I couldn't believe there wasn't anything actually happening on screen! Just this girl looking around the car, framed by the dark road/woods calling out "Mama" with some swooshing, clicking sounds in the background. Brilliant.
Spoiler starts here....
I can't say the ending was a total shock to me, halfway through I figured out "they" weren't exactly supernatural. Its a bunch of kids who hunt and kill people for sport, for fun. If this film was actually based on true events then it seems to be go right along a filmmaking trend portraying countries in Central and Eastern Europe as morally bankrupt. Tarantino's The Hostel showed Bratislava, Slovakia to be some run-down city full of abandoned factories where absolutely anything - including the joys of torturing backpackers - can be had for a price.
Rationally, there could be some truth to these stories. The collapse of communism and the dominance of Russia over these countries left a "moral vacuum" of sorts. Communism banned religion, a mechanism to make people "behave." Order was enforced by completely human, secular laws. And so you have roughly two generations of former Soviets who don't have an all-seeing God to censor their actions. Couple this with the kind of poverty this region has had to battle as it adjusts to the rest of the capitalist world, then you've got the perfect social conditions which would render events depicted in these films entirely feasible.
Friday, July 28, 2006
Cinemalaya 2006
The Cinemalaya Film Festival is in UP Film Center in Diliman from July 31 to August 3.
3pm, 5pm and 7.30pm screenings. Try to catch them!
ANG HULING ARAW NG LINGGO
(The Last Day)
by: Nick Joseph Olanka
Finalist, Full Length Films Category
Ang Huling Araw ng Linggo spans a week in a life of seven individuals with interconnected narratives. The film illustrates the interconnectedness of our lives, a cycle of random events in which the decisions we make are as important as the choices we didn't take.
BATAD, SA PAANG PALAY
(Batad)
by: Benji Garcia, Vic Acedillo, Jr.
Finalist, Full Length Films Category
A 14-year old Batad Boy, a high school dropout, is forced to sell produce in the Banawe market to augment the family income while his father pursues the philantrophic mission of repairing the rice terraces of adjoining Ifugao villages. Exposed to Western modernization in Banawe, the boy obsesses with owning a pair of rubber shoes that he does not really need. Upon possessing the long-desired rubber shoes, he attempts to leave his Ifugao roots and chase big city dreams.
DONSOL
by: Adolfo B. Alix Jr.
Finalist, Full Length Films Category
Daniel, a Butanding Interaction Officer who accompanies tourists on whale watching expeditions and assists them in interacting with the sharks, is a broken hearted man who meets an older woman, Teresa, a widow fighting breast cancer. The two share their miseries and discover that they like being together. Will their newfound bond be strong or will it be blown along with the amihan wind which signals the end of the butanding migratory visit to the small town?
IN DA RED KORNER
( In The Red Corner)
by: Dado C. Lumibao and Bong Ramos
Finalist, Full Length Films Category
Doring is a 24-year old girl who is engaged in a sport that is not common to Filipino women—boxing. This in her desire to alleviate her family from poverty which is slowly devouring them. Desperate and tired of living a miserable life and working in a palengke, Doring enters into amateur boxing in the hope of being discovered and go big time in the professional level. This is not just a fight for her dream but a battle of survival for her family.
MUDRAKS
(Mother)
by: Arah Jell G. Badayos and Margaret G. Guzman
Finalist, Full Length Films Category
Inside the Fernando house, nobody talks. Lives are kept to themselves; problems are not shared; questions are not entertained. The people living inside it have become used to leaving everything unstirred especially Margaret, the mother of the home. To get to know her family, she snoops around - entering rooms, opening cabinets, reading journals she is not supposed to read.
ROTONDA
by: Ron Bryant
Finalist, Full Length Films Category
Beginning at the break of dawn and ending the next morning, the story, set around a rugged city intersection, follows the path of a marked one-thousand-peso bill as it transfers from one character to another, returning to its originator in the end, blood-tainted. The money leads us to each of the five offbeat characters, all in desperate need of their soul’s redemption.
SAAN NAGTATAGO SI HAPPINESS?
(Where is Happiness?)
by: Florida Bautista and Real S. Florido
Finalist, Full Length Films Category
Finding happiness isn’t part of Tikyo’s everyday plan. For him, at the age of 50, nothing is as simple as selling sorbetes, his only source of living. Everything’s just perfectly fine. Until, breaking news comes—his mother, whom he believed, for so long, was already in heaven, is still alive.
TULAD NG DATI
( Just Like Before)
by: Michael Sandejas
Finalist, Full Length Films Category
Tulad ng Dati starts in 2006. It revolves around the character of Jett Pangan who is nearing his forties. Jett has lost his passion for music and life and entertains thoughts of retiring from the band. On a fateful night, Jett is assaulted by a burglar and goes into a coma. He wakes up with no memory of his life after 1988. He remembers that he is 20 years old and is at the peak of his career with The Dawn. Not satisfied with how things turned out with his life, he tries to change everything back to to the way it used to be. The path he takes while finding his place in this strange new world proves itself to be a tough, emotional, and sometimes hilarious journey—accompanied by the celebrated music of The Dawn, both past and present.
3pm, 5pm and 7.30pm screenings. Try to catch them!
ANG HULING ARAW NG LINGGO
(The Last Day)
by: Nick Joseph Olanka
Finalist, Full Length Films Category
Ang Huling Araw ng Linggo spans a week in a life of seven individuals with interconnected narratives. The film illustrates the interconnectedness of our lives, a cycle of random events in which the decisions we make are as important as the choices we didn't take.
BATAD, SA PAANG PALAY
(Batad)
by: Benji Garcia, Vic Acedillo, Jr.
Finalist, Full Length Films Category
A 14-year old Batad Boy, a high school dropout, is forced to sell produce in the Banawe market to augment the family income while his father pursues the philantrophic mission of repairing the rice terraces of adjoining Ifugao villages. Exposed to Western modernization in Banawe, the boy obsesses with owning a pair of rubber shoes that he does not really need. Upon possessing the long-desired rubber shoes, he attempts to leave his Ifugao roots and chase big city dreams.
DONSOL
by: Adolfo B. Alix Jr.
Finalist, Full Length Films Category
Daniel, a Butanding Interaction Officer who accompanies tourists on whale watching expeditions and assists them in interacting with the sharks, is a broken hearted man who meets an older woman, Teresa, a widow fighting breast cancer. The two share their miseries and discover that they like being together. Will their newfound bond be strong or will it be blown along with the amihan wind which signals the end of the butanding migratory visit to the small town?
IN DA RED KORNER
( In The Red Corner)
by: Dado C. Lumibao and Bong Ramos
Finalist, Full Length Films Category
Doring is a 24-year old girl who is engaged in a sport that is not common to Filipino women—boxing. This in her desire to alleviate her family from poverty which is slowly devouring them. Desperate and tired of living a miserable life and working in a palengke, Doring enters into amateur boxing in the hope of being discovered and go big time in the professional level. This is not just a fight for her dream but a battle of survival for her family.
MUDRAKS
(Mother)
by: Arah Jell G. Badayos and Margaret G. Guzman
Finalist, Full Length Films Category
Inside the Fernando house, nobody talks. Lives are kept to themselves; problems are not shared; questions are not entertained. The people living inside it have become used to leaving everything unstirred especially Margaret, the mother of the home. To get to know her family, she snoops around - entering rooms, opening cabinets, reading journals she is not supposed to read.
ROTONDA
by: Ron Bryant
Finalist, Full Length Films Category
Beginning at the break of dawn and ending the next morning, the story, set around a rugged city intersection, follows the path of a marked one-thousand-peso bill as it transfers from one character to another, returning to its originator in the end, blood-tainted. The money leads us to each of the five offbeat characters, all in desperate need of their soul’s redemption.
SAAN NAGTATAGO SI HAPPINESS?
(Where is Happiness?)
by: Florida Bautista and Real S. Florido
Finalist, Full Length Films Category
Finding happiness isn’t part of Tikyo’s everyday plan. For him, at the age of 50, nothing is as simple as selling sorbetes, his only source of living. Everything’s just perfectly fine. Until, breaking news comes—his mother, whom he believed, for so long, was already in heaven, is still alive.
TULAD NG DATI
( Just Like Before)
by: Michael Sandejas
Finalist, Full Length Films Category
Tulad ng Dati starts in 2006. It revolves around the character of Jett Pangan who is nearing his forties. Jett has lost his passion for music and life and entertains thoughts of retiring from the band. On a fateful night, Jett is assaulted by a burglar and goes into a coma. He wakes up with no memory of his life after 1988. He remembers that he is 20 years old and is at the peak of his career with The Dawn. Not satisfied with how things turned out with his life, he tries to change everything back to to the way it used to be. The path he takes while finding his place in this strange new world proves itself to be a tough, emotional, and sometimes hilarious journey—accompanied by the celebrated music of The Dawn, both past and present.
Sunday, July 02, 2006
Super! Bulge :)
So. It takes a simmering sex god in azure tights and crimson undershorts to finally rouse me from my blogging stupor.Over the last several weeks there have certainly been plenty of things to blog about; horrific and exciting personal experiences in abundance - including 3 harrowing LTO encounters, and certainly tons of bizaare political shenanigans. But a yummy 6'4 eye (nose, teeth, lips....) candy encased in blue wrapping has finally woken me up to blogging again. Sigh.
If you haven't seen or have no plans to see Superman Returns featuring a brand-new (and dare I say much HOTTTTTER) lead, I say go and indulge in this entirely "alien" sensual experience. The opening credits thunder the trade-mark taaan-ta-ta-ta-taaaaan....tan-tan-tan....taaan-ta-ta-ta-taaaaan. TAN-TA-TAAAAN and everyone in the cinema visibly settles down. They know they are in for a treat. Oh, and what a treat it is.
I don't really want to write a review ok? I just want to gush and moan about Brandon Routh. Sigh. Because there have been rumors that his "package" was digitally reduced, I paid an especially close attention to his crotch. But alas! His bulge was nothing if not modest throughout the film. I say, they fixed it not only to keep the audience from being unduly "distracted,"but more importantly, to keep all the females (and some males) from spontaneous combustion.
Monday, May 01, 2006
The Piano Teacher (La Pianiste)
Watching this film is not a bit like willingly inserting a sliver of wood under your fingernail then sitting back and stoically wait 'til it bleeds, hope that it bleeds. And when it does, willing the blood to seep out from under your nails and then marvel at the redness. Proof that you're human, proof that you're...Oh wait, here's a better analogy. Watching this film is not a bit like discovering an injured bird on your window sill. It is evidently suffering and you are torn between saving it and hastening its demise. You feel sorry for it because it is broken and yet you wonder if it won't do you and the bird better if you would just leave it alone to die. It is, after all, just an animal. And you are human. Healing it or killing it. Which is more humane?
Oh crap. No, no, no. Watching this film is not a bit like wishing you knew more about Freud and psychosexual disorders. If there are such things. Wishing you had taken some classes in pyschology to better situate yourself in the mind of the protagonist and the filmmaker. What the fuck is this movie saying? A beautfiul, middle-aged piano teacher whose sexual perversions simmer underneath her icy-cool demeanor. Her perversions are symptoms of a seriously unhappy life.
You also wonder what it means to know who the fuck is Schubert and wish you knew more about German composers and classical music and sacrificing your leisure for greatness.
Fuck. I'm running out of analogies. Just watch it.
This is a deliriously fascinating film about brokenness and being human. With the coolness and precision of a surgeon, director Michael Haneke slices open your chest and dares you look inside. A looong mindfuck with no proper ending. Absolutely brilliant.
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
V for Vendetta : The Wachowskis Strike Back
(I've endeavored to keep this review spoiler-free.)
I don't know whether it was because it was preaching to my choir or whether I'm having a bad case of PMS, but this movie was so good it made me sob. And no, not because anyone died a painful, tragic death, not because anyone was parted from anyone, not because an innocent was murdered or an injustice commited.
There I sat, seated alone in the midst of strangers, sobbing so hard my hands shook. I never thought the image of folks spilling out on the streets would cause the hairs to rise on my nape and arms and my chest to feel so burdened by a gravity indescribable. Well, maybe the soaring music helped. Or maybe my own prejudices helped. This is the story of the World. Right now. This is a story of purging fears, paralizing limits. This is a story of love and redemption and rebirth. Lovingly shot and colored, passionately written. The Wachowskis, with first-time director James McTeigue at the helm, redeem themselves as true mavericks of American cinema with V for Vendetta.
I don't know whether it was because it was preaching to my choir or whether I'm having a bad case of PMS, but this movie was so good it made me sob. And no, not because anyone died a painful, tragic death, not because anyone was parted from anyone, not because an innocent was murdered or an injustice commited.There I sat, seated alone in the midst of strangers, sobbing so hard my hands shook. I never thought the image of folks spilling out on the streets would cause the hairs to rise on my nape and arms and my chest to feel so burdened by a gravity indescribable. Well, maybe the soaring music helped. Or maybe my own prejudices helped. This is the story of the World. Right now. This is a story of purging fears, paralizing limits. This is a story of love and redemption and rebirth. Lovingly shot and colored, passionately written. The Wachowskis, with first-time director James McTeigue at the helm, redeem themselves as true mavericks of American cinema with V for Vendetta.
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
"Big Time" Reviewed
I'm sure I would've plenty liked this movie if I didn't have Maxi to compare it to (geddemit, am I doing my English prepositions right?). It was funny enough, entertaining for an hour and half. You won't walk out of the cineplex feeling robbed exactly, but you won't come out feeling like you've seen something that means anything either.
Inspired by funny crime capers à la Tarantino or Ritchie, Big Time follows the machinations of small-time and big-time criminals in Manila. It is doesn't show anything particularly original but the dialogue is full of Pinoy pop culture in-jokes. It is technically well-made and creative and the actors' performances are also laudable.
My beef is, Big Time doesn't say anything about anything. The belated "meaningful insights" at the end felt suspiciously contrived as though an after-thought. This kind of story seems watchable and "apt" in a differet social context (London in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Las Vegas in Ocean's 11, or wherever Reservoir Dogs was set). In the well-ordered universe of first world capitals, criminal activities made funny are so novel and improbable they are rendered humorous. But in a third world setting where we all cope with the kinds of shit we see in this film, what is left to "shock" us into laughing?
I hope this trend of empty-yet-cool-flashy indiemovies doesn't continue. Or I'm getting pissed off big time.
Inspired by funny crime capers à la Tarantino or Ritchie, Big Time follows the machinations of small-time and big-time criminals in Manila. It is doesn't show anything particularly original but the dialogue is full of Pinoy pop culture in-jokes. It is technically well-made and creative and the actors' performances are also laudable.
My beef is, Big Time doesn't say anything about anything. The belated "meaningful insights" at the end felt suspiciously contrived as though an after-thought. This kind of story seems watchable and "apt" in a differet social context (London in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Las Vegas in Ocean's 11, or wherever Reservoir Dogs was set). In the well-ordered universe of first world capitals, criminal activities made funny are so novel and improbable they are rendered humorous. But in a third world setting where we all cope with the kinds of shit we see in this film, what is left to "shock" us into laughing?
I hope this trend of empty-yet-cool-flashy indiemovies doesn't continue. Or I'm getting pissed off big time.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)