What is Cinema?

The 1st Cine Totoo (Sept. 24-30), a festival of Filipino documentary features spearheaded by GMA News-TV (Ch. 24), is yet another breath of fresh air in the country's active and hectic film festival scene (both local and international). As one participating filmmaker aptly observed, it's quite hard to fill a theater for a documentary feature, as it's not as popular as the traditional (or "commercial", "mainstream") feature film. Yet, there's a welcome sense of invigoration when one gets to see a documentary in the newborn festival. In fact, watching the documentaries isn't like watching a documentary at all! And I'm speaking of those works which I was able to see, namely: • " Ang Walang Kapagurang Paglalakbay ng Pulang Maleta " by Richard Legaspi (RT: 69 mins):  This one tells the life of the filmmaker's aunt and cousin as OFWs in the wool-producing town of Biella in Italy. The eponymous titular baggage, which is bestowed a pers...

Honestly, I don't exactly know what to make of " Dementia ", the feature film debut of Perci Intalan and starring Philippine cinema's acting legend Nora Aunor. I'm not totally sold to the film, though I don't dislike it that much either. As a matter of fact, the production team behind the film is one good reason to appreciate it:Mackie Galvez as the cinematographer (" Mangatyanan " and " Sana Dati "), Lawrence Ang as the editor (" Tribu ", " Ang Huling Cha-cha ni Anita ", " Mga Kuwentong Barbero ", Raya Martin's films and cinematographer for Keith Deligero's " Kordero sa Dios "), Von de Guzman for the truly frightening score and Jun Robles Lana for the story ("Mga Kuwentong Barbero"). And of course, Nora herself, giving yet another finely-modulated performance, which seems to be her cup of tea of late (following Mes de Guzman's " Ang Kuwento ni Mabuti " and Joel Lamang...

In my previous notes on " Rurouni Kenshin:Kyoto Inferno ", I observed how the fight scenes there had a certain "tease" in them, as if to prepare the viewers for a much bigger "carnage" and "mayhem" in the second part. In fact, the concluding portion of the film was deliberately intended as a cliffhanger, meant to have the viewers eagerly look forward to the sequel's second half. After about a month, " Rurouni Kenshin:The Legend Ends " is finally shown and the main question purposely left hanging from the first half is about to be answered. Does "The Legend Ends" deliver on what was teasingly promised in "Kyoto Inferno"? As a non-devotee, I can outrightly say yes. As I pointed out before, it probably helped that I went to see "Rurouni Kenshin" without any stock knowledge about the manga or animé (on which it was based) and therefore without being predisposed to make a comparison between the adaptation an...

Cine Europa , a festival of contemporary European films from the member-countries of the European Union, is still ongoing and it now appears that the best films of the fest are reserved for its last few days.  France's " The Chinese Puzzle ", written and directed by Cédric Klapisch, is the kind of French film like you always wanted it to be - whimsical, breezy, carefree and quirky. In a certain sense, the film owes much of its distinct sensibility to the romantic yarns of Jean Eustache, Jacques Rivette and Eric Rohmer. All the lead actors turn in charming and insightful portrayals, but most especially Romain Duris as Xavier Rousseau, a father of two and a novelist who starts to undergo a mid-life crisis. I've always admired the intensity of this young actor since Christophe Honoré's " 17 x Cécile Cassard ", Tony Gatlif's " Exils " and Jacques Audiard's " The Beat That My Heart Skipped ". Another standout "character" ...

It has been mentioned from the start that family is the main thematic focus of this year's edition of Cine Europa . All the 9 films that I have seen so far have dealt with this theme in varying concerns and styles. Some have done so in an exemplary manner (for example, Romania's " Child's Pose "), while others have merely come off as just average fares (say, Hungary's " Thorn Castle "). Thankfully, the 10th film that I watched - the Swiss-French eco-documentary " Planet Ocean ", directed by the filmmaker and environmentalist tandem of Michael Pitiot and Yann Arthus-Bertrand - is something that I can once more add to my increasing list of the best films of the fest, a film which touches upon being a family in a much wider, even global, sense. And shall I also say that it is the current apple of my eye.  Narrated by American actor Josh Duhamel and without any accompanying interviews with "authoritative sources", "Planet Ocean...

This year's edition of Cine Europa has rather started in a lackluster way, having seen films which are for the most part just minor fares, with a few notable exceptions though - Romania's " Child's Pose ", Belgium's " Everybody's Famous! " and Denmark's " The Hunt ". On my fourth day at the festival, however, I saw a couple of films which I can add to those few that I really liked. First of these was Slovakia's " Lóve ", a debut film written and directed by Jakub Kroner. Faintly echoing Jean-Luc Godard's seminal " Breathless ", the film shows at its core a pleasantly gentle and honest love story between a young thug who's mostly involved in robbery and drugs (Mato) and a diligent student who's yet being unreasonably failed by a biased professor (Veronika). While there are some noticeable inconsistencies and improbabilities in the screenplay (has Mato really lived "independently" all...

On my third day at Cine Europa , children played a pivotal role in each of the films that I saw.  The first one was Sweden's " The Ice Dragon " by Martin Hogdahl. I really have nothing much to say about the film (which was based on a young-adult book). Other than the compelling visuals which truly evoke the frosty coldness of the Nordic landscape and the charming performances from the child actors, this tale of a young boy searching for the care and love of a family home is in the end just another generic tale of a troubled childhood. No compelling emotional and psychological insights can be gained anymore. Mostly, the film just comes off as an audience-pleasing adventure story. Though with this film (albeit of a minor note), it has been proven once again that François Truffaut's " The 400 Blows " is truly an influential piece of juvenile delinquent cinema.  The second one was Denmark's " The Hunt ", co-written and directed by Dogme '95 co-...

In this year's edition of Cine Europa  (now on its 17th year), family takes centerstage as it becomes the central or underlying theme of all the films included in the festival, each of which represents the European Union's member-states. We already saw this particular theme tackled, in one way or another, whether for good or bad, in Hungary's " Thorn Castle " (uncle and nephew), Norway's " Vegas " (parents and children) and Romania's " Child's Pose " (mother and son).  Let's now proceed to the films I watched on my second day at the festival.  As it was before with the others, I'll just be very brief with Austria's " Two-Seater Rocket ", directed by Hans-Jörg Hofer. This is a rom-com just like any other rom-com that you can think of (best of friends falling in love with each other), it's only that it has the added pretension of taking its plot lines to great absurdist lengths. No problem with that. My beef ...

Aside from Eiga Sai:Japanese Film Festival , another more popular and much-awaited film festival here in the country is Cine Europa , a festival of contemporary films from the member-states of the European Union. And just like Eiga Sai's last July, the central theme of this year's Cine Europa is the family. As aptly described during the opening night, the family is the most basic unit and one of the oldest institutions of our society. And however it may "branch out" into a number of clans and generations, its "roots" will essentially remain as firmly one and the same. Now going to the film entries themselves: I won't say much about the first two films that I saw - Gyorgy Balogh's " Thorn Castle " (Hungary) and Gunnar Vikene's " Vegas " (Norway). While each of these films has its own little surprises and pleasantries, their over-all effect is something that doesn't bring anything new or different to our cinematic e...

Previously, we wrote about two period films included in the Chinese Film Festival (Sept. 5-9 at SM Cinemas):Feng Xiaogang's war drama " Back to 1942 " and Wong Kar-wai's martial arts poetry " The Grandmaster ". We will now take a look at two films in the festival that have a contemporary setting.  First is " Full Circle " (2012, 105 mins), directed by Zhang Yang.  Last year, there was a film in Cine Europa that almost had an entire cast of octogenarians - " Mid-August Lunch " from Italy. For this year, it's the Chinese Film Festival's turn with "Full Circle", a film that concerns itself solely with senior people who are left to the care of a nursing home. This is actually the feel-good film of the festival (and had there been an Audience Choice award, this movie could have very well bagged it), by turns sad and funny, bitter and sweet. It imparts some very important life lessons, especially those relating between parents...

The second half of 2014 has seen a good number of film festivals (local and international) being held in the country thus far. We had the Eiga Sai , the World Premieres Film Festival , the Moviemov:Italian Film Festival, the Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival and the Silent International Film Festival . And now, the Chinese Film Festival , being held at participating SM Cinemas from Sept. 5 to 9 (and next week, the much-awaited Cine Europa at Shang Cineplex). As with the others, this festival is free. In a country whose film industry is being heavily-monitored and -sanctioned by the so-called revolutionary government, it's interesting to find out how the Chinese filmmakers are able to manage their artistic outputs.  The first film that I saw was " Back to 1942 " (2012, 146 mins), directed by Feng Xiaogang.  Whenever we see the horrors of the Second World War being depicted on film, it's almost always from the perspective of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich ...