KLAATU BARADA NIKTO!

Is nothing sacred anymore? How many remakes by Hollywood can actually stand up to the originals and proudly say that they were just as amazing and as brilliant? Very few. I am not fond of remakes. Methinks this is scraping the bottom of the creativity barrel, so I had second thoughts about watching the 2008 version of a 1950s classic (and Golden Globe winner for Best Film), The Day The Earth Stood Still.

In fact, I only discovered that Keanu Reeves was playing the role of Klaatu when I was lining up to buy a ticket. Suddenly, the bad taste left in the mouth by the disaster called Johnny Mnemonic (ugh, too university days!) came back like some ghost of bad movies past.

On the hindsight, the new version is visually appealing - effects and all. Honestly, I think dying by having a billion shards of metal insects fly through you is just too weird (that's it? Nothing - apocalyptical?). I like the idea of having orbs collecting several species of Earth life. There is none of this in the original, of course. What the original lacked in effects however, it made up with its brilliance.

I loved how the original Klaatu immersed himself in the human experience - renting a room and actually spending time with a family, befriending a boy, watching movies and eating ice cream. All throughout the new film, bits and pieces of the original kept creeping in every scene I got too distracted. I am really sorry I watched the new version. I shouldn't have in the same way that I skipped Wicker Park because deep in my heart I know it will never hold up against the lovely L'Appartement (1966). I mean, with Monica Belluci and all, how can the original go wrong? Right, I am biased. I lurve Belluci.

Anyhow, if you have the chance to find a copy of the 1951 version, please watch it. Let me know what you think.

HE SAID, SHE SAID

Interesting insight by Ms. Jessica Z on the film SERBIS here screened during the recently concluded Dekada Cinemanila.

This, however, won't make me change what I've already written after I saw it.

MANAGED A TROIS

Yes, I know that's a lame title for a blog entry but forgive me as I'm still reeling from my whirlwind weekend schedule. I currently have colds and a mild cough. Anyhow, I rested pretty much all Monday but decided to go out yesterday, Tuesday, after sending off BC at the airport and caught the last remaining films of the 10th Cinemanila here at Gateway. Funny how this mall is so close to where I now live yet I was still not able to attend the screenings early on. Part of the reason, of course, is Cinemanila's well-known inefficiency when it comes to organizing. They opened on October 16th with no schedule to hand out to attendees and since I do not have the luxury of visiting Gatway Mall on a daily basis, I just gave up on them. Last night, on my way up, I espied a former SPi co-worker who I know volunteers for Cinemanila and we had a long chat on the films being shown, the funding the government gave them (or the lack of it) and the scheduling. As per his suggestion, here are the three films I was able to catch in this year's harvest of films (the rest I will just have to find in St. Francis Square *wink*).

The Love of Siam (2008; Thailand) A coming-of-age film about unrequited love and survival on a daily basis. I know it's got that commercial appeal (why, I was just expecting Sharon Cuneta to bounce onto the set any time) but at 150 minutes it's painfully long - too long, in fact - and was milked for all its emotional worth. The best performance here is by Sunee, the mother played by Sinjai Plengpanich who's won Best Actress four times in Thailand for this role. Her son in the film, Mario Maurer as Tong, also gave a restrained yet natural performance and thus won for him the Best Actor award in the Southeast Asian category of the 10th Cinemanila Film Festival. Not bad for a greenhorn actor. He will surely give our biatch-ey actors a run for their money. Overall, the film is heart-felt but can be tiring after a while because it tries hard to please everybody, not to mention the repetitive issues that can't seem to find some sort of resolution. Directed by Chookiat Sakveerakul.

The Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly (2007; Indonesia) is about the experience of being a Chinese in Indonesia. The film, however, doesn't delve much into this topic. Instead, it gave us several almost-silly short footages of scenes that don't seem to add or contribute to the story. I swear I felt catatonia starting to slip in but I held my ground because I need to know if there is some sense to all this at the end (there was none). Filmed by an Indonesian Chinese by the name of Edwin, I think The Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly is one of the most boring films I've ever seen. A complete nonsense. Dousing myself with gasoline and striking a match would have been a more pleasurable optpion.

It's supposed to be some kind of a rogue film vis-a-vis the crass commercialism plaguing the Indonesian film scene but seriously, much of the material is wasted on long, slow shots that are all pointless. Ediwn should learn filmmaking from our local indie directors. Direk Tikoy Aguiluz, if you are reading this, kindly send me my ticket refund.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007; France) The former editor of the French ELLE awoke from a coma three weeks after suffering a stroke. Removed from all that is aesthetic, will he find a reason to live? Based on a true story, the film begins on a brilliant note and ends in a soaring manner. The thing with good films is that they tell a cohesive story (Edwin, are you listening?) and no amount of visuals can make up for a really good script (you know, the kind where people actually do say something). Anyhow, the film's visuals are stunning (with an almost lomo-like palette) and the lines witty and intelligent.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is based on the memoir of the same title by Jean-Dominique Bauby. The film depicts Bauby's life after suffering a massive stroke at the age of 42 which left him with a rare condition known as the "locked-in syndrome". The condition paralyzed him with the exception of his eyelids (more so of the left) so he communicated by blinking. The film was directed by painter and interior decorator Julian Schnabeland (Before Night Falls) and stars Mathieu Amalric (Antoinette, Munich, Quantum of Solace) as Bauby. It was originally to be produced by Universal Pictures and to star Johnny Depp but both withdrew from the project. The project eventually won for Schnabeland the Best Director plume at the 60th Cannes.

LA LA LA LA LA!

Adam and Steve
Directed by Craig Chester; USA - 100 minutes, In English

Combining irreverent humor and heartfelt romance, Adam & Steve co-opts American cinematic 'formulas', namely the romantic comedy and movie musical, and turns them inside out while paying homage to them at the same time. Adam & Steve follows the romantic trajectory of two people struggling to make love work in spite of overwhelming odds. Having met in the 80's after a disastrous one night stand, Adam (Craig Chester) & Steve (Malcolm Gets) don't recognize each other when they meet again fifteen years later. With the help of their best friends, formerly obese stand up comic Rhonda (Parker Posey) and ladies man Michael (Chris Kattan of Saturday Night Live), our protagonists fall in love only to realize, a year into their relationship, that they met before and unwittingly changed the course of each other's lives that fateful night in the 80's.

I saw this at the Cine Adarna of UP Diliman with a friend last Thursday night. I went there to interview her on her upcoming one-woman photo exhibit and also to take note of the schedule of Cinemalaya 2008 at Adarna. I never realized how cavernous the UP Film Center was until that night: an 800-seater, spacious and freezing cold theatre with somewhat bad acoustics but it had nice, clean red-faux leather seats. Anyway, if my eyes were turbines, I would have created enough electricity to power this part of Metro Manila. Adam & Steve is a tribute to all that is formulaic in American films. Just leave your life issues at home, sit back and enjoy it.

______________________________
Cinemalaya 2008 @ UP Diliman

July 28
Baby Angelo, 5PM
Concerto, 7.30PM

July 29
Jay, 5PM
Huling Pasada, 7.30PM

July 30
Brutus, 5PM
Namets, 7.30PM

July 31
100, 5PM
My Fake American Accent, 7.30PM

August 4
Boses, 5PM
Ranchero, 7.30PM

WEEKEND AMUSEMENTS

Here's something really amusing from Yahoo! Movies. ^_^ Happy weekend, everyone!


We all accept that movies stretch the truth in the interest of building drama. The following ten flicks, however, treat the truth like it was Silly Putty - pulling and twisting it until it's unrecognizable.


If movies were completely scientifically accurate, they'd probably be as interesting as a Physics 101 lecture. In real life, there are no explosions in space, gas usually doesn't explode from a lit cigarette, and Bruce Willis/Jackie Chan/Will Smith would most likely be in a coma after getting kicked in the head. Some movies, though, put science front and center in the story and more often than not the science proves to be head-slappingly bad. Here are some of the worst offenders.

CINEMALAYA 2007 TEASERS!

I miss the teasers of last year's Cinemalaya. You must admit they're brilliant!


This one by Direk Eric Matti.


This one by Direk Sockie Fernandez.


But this one was my favorite. By Direk Henry Freejas.

BLAST FROM THE PAST: STILL LIFE

Katski Flores' STILL LIFE remains to be my favorite full-length film of Cinemalaya 2007. Watching the trailer still makes me teary eyed, but as JP Canivel once wrote me he thinks I have serious problems with my lacrimal glands.

GOOD LUCK!

The cast of SERBIS (Coco Martin, Mercedes Cabral, and Julio Diaz at the 61st Cannes Film Festival. SERBIS is the first Filipino film to be in competition in 24 years after Brocka's Bayan Ko. (Top photo by AP; 2nd photo by Christian Hartmann for Reuters (www.iht.com)

"CANNES: Toward the end of Brillante Mendoza's "Serbis," the patrons of a dilapidated Manila adult-movie palace are surprised to discover that a goat has wandered in from the street, partly obstructing their view of the naked bodies on screen.

The animal's sudden appearance - which sets off one of several chaotic, hilarious chases in this rambunctious, noisy film - might be taken as a symbol. The cinema can be a place of fantasy and sometimes disreputable pleasure, but reality, as stubborn and hard to corral as that goat, has a way of intruding whether we like it or not.
At the Cannes Film Festival, however, the metaphor often works in reverse. The metaphorical goats, as it were, can be found in the screening rooms, where audiences gather, sheeplike, to witness the frustration, misery and disorder of real life in various parts of the world. The main competition (which this year includes Mendoza's film) and the adventuresome Un Certain Regard side program share a tendency to exalt seriousness and suffering, and some of the strongest entries this year plunge viewers into worlds of private pain, family dysfunction, economic deprivation and social cruelty." Read more here.

Of course not to be ignored is Raya Martin's NOW SHOWING which is featured in the Directors' Fortnight section. 4 hours and 40 minutes long, this coming-to-age narrative brings to fore the talents of this 23-year-old director. Best of luck!

ROLLING IN HIS GRAVE

Manila, or at least those in the know, are all agog over the killer speed at which film festivals have opened recently. Of course the current favorite is the ongoing Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival, already on its 3rd year. So far, I know of 4 or 5 films which have already crossed over to mainstream – Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros, Big Time, & Donsol to name three. So far, I have already seen Tukso (by Dennis Marasigan) and the world premiere of the much-lambasted (at least in the lavatories after the screening) film version of Nadres’ Hanggang Dito Na Lamang at Maraming Salamat. Next on my list are Endo and Pisay, the latter by award-winning director Aureos Solito.

Overheard in one of CCP’s lavatories:

Man 1: Oi, what do you think of it (Hanggang Dito Na Lamang…) ?
Man 2: May he (Nadres) rest in peace! (shivers after peeing)

Man 3: Thank God he (Nadres) isn’t alive to see it! (bitchy chuckle)

(Clue: Man 1 is a director whose recent films have all been monstrous flops.)

I think these are the “best” reviews yet of the film, and anything else that you’d read in the papers later on will surely be mere pats-on-the-back. Poor Lito Tañada. To think that this was his dream project since he saw the theatre production in the 70’s. Music by Willy Cruz was a tad too cliché-ish and repetitive. Production, however, is good save for some props that are way too conveniently placed within an arm’s reach. Nonie Buencamino is fantastic as always, but he seemed to have just rehashed his character from 1994’s Sibak. You hardly notice the difference. Jon Santos as Julie was a blast! He practically saved the film from sinking into total oblivion. Newbie Jerwin Mercado is too mono. He hardly has character. The film itself was long and meandering. Haaay. And don't get me started on the film poster, gawd...

Tukso (Dennis Marasigan) suffers from comparison with Rashomon. Of course those who haven’t seen the latter would care less about comparisons. Tukso, however, has its brilliant moments. The storytelling is fluid, almost tight, with a smattering of amusing scenes that made the audience holler in delight (like the way Irma Adlawan let loose her hair when Ping Medina agreed to spend the rainy night in her house; the innuendo is delicious and hard to miss!). Of course, this story was about the tragedy that has befallen the main character, Monica, who got herself pregnant by a Manila-based architect (Sid Lucero) and fell to her death – the main issue the film was trying to resolve. For the sake of those who haven’t seen it I will not say who caused her to fall, but suffice to say that there was enough suspense buildup to keep people on the edge of their seats. If the triumphant applause at the end of the screening is anything to go by, I suspect Tukso will fall within Top 3 of the winning circle.

Anyway, two weeks from now, on August 8, the 9th edition of the Cinemanila International Film Festival will open in its new home, Araneta’s Gateway Mall. I just confirmed it from an officemate, who is on the organizing team, that Quentin Tarantino is actually coming to town to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award. I suspect an anthology of his films will be done on the sidelines of the festival.

Anyway, the meanest of comments came from a column in Manila Times: “Famed Director Quentin Tarantinto is coming to Manila to shoot a film with Sharon Cuneta entitled Kill Bilbil.”

It’d be a box-office hit, no doubt.