until buksan ng kapitbahay ang tv. at tumambad na naman ang samu't saring tunog mula sa mga teleserye sa gabi. hay... thin walls. i swear. inis.
so peaceful co-existence na lang. kaya here we are.
cine chichiryahan muna ulit.
LIE WITH ME
d. clement virgo
s. tamara berger from her novel of the same title
this is a very interesting film. i saw it when i was rummaging through my girlfriend's boxes of dvd collection. she recommended it so i took it with me.
what caught my eye was not the provocative poster design (but it helped a bit) but the casting of lauren lee smith as the sex-positive protagonist. but it also disturbed me that her love interest was played by this guy eric balfour, na if i am not mistaken was in the cast of SIX FEET UNDER's first season and was in a scene with the main daughter doon, involving toe-sucking at that. basta something weird like that, noong panahong okay pa ang pagkakasulat at pagkakadirek sa show na yun. but i digress.
wala, di ko lang kasi bet ang fez ng aktor na ito. pero sige na nga. matapang kasi siya. kung hubad, hubad! kahit bumuyangyang ang nota! same with lauren. ayuz. kaya siguro sila na-cast kasi wala silang kiyeme sa pag-arte...at maganda ito kasi walang kiyeme ang pelikula sa pagpapakita ng sex. sensual at hindi siya poornographic men. kaya i likes.
this film says it was also based on a novel. interesting to see how the novel was written, but i have a feeling it had a first person pov narrator, yung girl, na walang kiyeme sa sex. when she needs it and wants it, she gets it, sometimes without even caring about the other party involved, in this case she only sees it as the dick that will give her pleasure and make her come. man, how feminist! ayuz. ayoko lang yung medyo parang spacey floating characterization ng girl, pero okay rin na di siya ginawang super definitive sa stance regarding what she likes and hates. may konting air of mystery, childishness, sensuality and strong-willed pursuance of what she wants. and this would have fallen flat if not handled well by a good actress. and lauren is that. lezzies probably remember her best as that super malakas ang dating out and proud sous chef lara na crush ni kloseta dana the tennis player sa first season ng THE L WORD. andun din siya du sa tv series na MUTANT X ba yun na di ko mawari kung pinsan ba sila ng XMEN o ripoff galore. basta. di baga sa kanya ang mga ganung superhero chuchu role. but i digress.
simple lang ang story. tungkol lang sa pagkakilala ng guy sa girl. e yun guy may jowa na pero keber lang, tapos ang treatment sa buong pelikula e quiet lang, hindi scandalous affairs chenes, hindi pa-intelektwal o pa-philosophically emotional chenelyns whatnot na typical sa isang indie film -- and this is indeed an indie film. medyo dragging nga lang ang pacing. it could have used some cuts.
ayun. okay siya. not so great pero puwede na.
MAICLING PELICULA NANG YSANG INDIO NACIONAL (O ANG MAHABANG KALUNGKUTAN NG KATAGALUGAN)
d. raya martin
this well-circulated festival film is a product of a filmmaking grant from the germans, forgot lang the body. but it's a good one. it's so simple; maybe that's why almost every critic who saw this in the international circuit loved it.
it's just a compilation of short actualites of sorts, reminiscent of the lumiere brothers, borrowing the styles of the silent film era tradition, where vignettes about the daily life of turn of the century (last century) filipinos were shot, in true silent film style -- with title cards, in beautiful black and white, using static framing and non-moving shots, staged tableau-like as actors go about their businesses in full period costumes. simple lang. actually, puwede nga siyang pang-demo ng silent film sa class.
but if you're not a film buff, film historian, a cineaste or you don't care about the silent film/black and white/pre-sound film era, then you'll hate this. like this dude who just walked with me and struck up a conversation as i was making my way out of the cinema. he said "it's trash! they just pocketed the money!" i just grinned and let him have his rants aired. e ganyan talaga e, may gusto, may ayaw. wala naman tayong magagawa, kanya-kanyang taste yan e.
pero ako, i like it. kasi it was indeed daring in its approach and in what it wanted to do and show. not only did it show simple lives of indios back when documentation of it was not so possible, but it also showed some sense of pangangapa sa namumukadkad na nasyunalismo na noon pa lang nabubuo ang konsepto (may mga katipuneros chenes din ito).
interesting. it's a novelty in this day and age of the electronic media to do something like this, and mostly in celluloid. happy naman ang resulta. okay mag-isip itong si raya, keri ko siya. raya's a graduate of UPFI. met him online years ago when he thought he wanted to follow in the footsteps of his writer dad and writer brother, mayo uno, my friend and dumaguete workshop co-fellow. when i was co-editing a site called native's wish, he sent some articles. he writes well naman. that's the thing, i guess. he's also a good storyteller, that's why he's a good filmmaker.
ayuz.
OUIJA
d. toppel lee
now guess who's not a good storyteller. hence, going by the previous analogy, also not a good filmmaker.
man, this one here just included all the fucking cliches in the book about the horror film genre -- the scary music (mga jajaaaaaaan! every other turn), the nakakagulat na shots and sudden appearances of scary things esp the main "mumu" (na hello combined yata ng lahat ng imahe ng mga recent asian horror flick mumus, sus), and the sudden plot dumps that make you wanna stand up and take a dump na lang. mas pleasurable pa nga yata yung ganun e, kesa sa maupo dito sa sinehan watching this horrible waste of a few thousand pesos... hay. hindi siya keri ati. maganda lang ang sinematograpiya (forgot to see who lighted it), at eto lang ang aspetong nakapagpadilat sa akin sa loob ng mahigit isang oras sa sinehan... hay...
toppel really suffers from a major lack of understanding regarding visual storytelling, and good storytelling per se, as evident in his cinema one entry DILIM, na talaga namang mappaisip ka, mga 10 minutes before the film ends, saka ire-reveal na ay, aswang movie pala ito! wah. pero hindi siya na-prepare ever. hay...
i see his sense of wanting to do something creative with the film medium in both films, given the limited budget or limited artistic expression. pero ang nakapagdala lang sa kanya dito ay ang presensiya at esensiya ng mga beteranang aktor tulad nina judy ann santos at jolina magdangal, at yung iba pa, like iza calzado is good here, kasi nga wala nang kelangang gawin ang direktor kundi ma-capture niya ang performance nila, kasi magaling na sila to begin with...
hay. sayang. sayang oras. kaya binalanse ng isa pang pelikula ang araw na iyon...
SIMPSONS THE MOVIE
d.david silverman
doh! ang saya nito grabe.sabi nga ng girlfriend ko, mapapagod ka sa kakapanood kasi walang katapusan ang katatawanan. and she's right. sobrang nakakatawa ang pahinga lang e every 30 seconds di ka tatawa. basta grabe.
kakatuwa ang kuwento, at napahaba naman nila ng sapat para maging full-length ito. simple lang naman pero may relevance, sundot at dagok ang humor at storyline -- things i have loved sa simpsons ever since lumabas ito sa tv way back when i was in college ba, basta during the 90s. dami ko pang bart shirts nun a. hm asan na nga pala yun?
pollution ang statement sa film na ito, earth pollution and politics and non-awareness chenes. maganda siya. kapupulutan ng aral pero hindi rin shoved down our throats ang message -- things i liked about the storytelling of the show. nakakatuwa yung small snippets lalo na, like when that irish kid na crush ni lisa e ini-insist na hindi niya tatay si bono hahaha. saka yung sa ending, after all the credits, may naglilinis kunwari ng sinehan tapos sabi niya "four years of film school, and now this" or something like that. hahah natawa lang ako grabe sobra doon hahahah!
yan, yan ang storytelling!
*
hay. o sha, laterz na ulit.
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