A Pilgrimage to Cinema

Here are some more international films that I was able to see in the still-ongoing QCinema International Film Festival , which is having its third edition this year and, by this point, has already proven itself to be one of the most exciting film events in town.  • " Tale of Tales " (2015, Italy/France/UK), dir.: Matteo Garrone, writers: Garrone, Edoardo Albinati, Ugo Citti and Massimo Gaudioso Loosely-adapted from 17th-century Neapolitan poet Giambattista Basile's motley and freewheeling collection of fairy tales titled Pentamerone , this latest film from the acclaimed director of " Gomorrah " and " Reality " could very well have been taken for a David Cronenberg film, as it also boasts of some grotesque imagery. Yet, Garrone isn't as so much exactly preoccupied with body-horror and its attendant psychology, as with the fairy tale-like nature of the story (or stories) itself, with the ironic suggestion that kings, queens, princes and princesses ar...

The regular screenings of the increasingly-exciting QCinema International Film Festival , Quezon City's still-young annual film event, have just started yesterday (Oct. 23 at Trinoma, Gateway and Robinsons cinemas). This year's line-up is indeed a veritable candy shop for avid cineastes, which includes a number of films that premiered in prestigious festivals abroad (Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Sundance), like Matteo Garrone's " Tale of Tales ", Chaitanya Tamhane's " Court ", Sebastian Schipper's " Victoria ", Apichatpong Weerasethakul's " Cemetery of Splendour " and Sean Baker's " Tangerine ". Further whetting our appetites is the subject this year of the festival's Director in Focus : Gaspar Noé, French cinema's enfant terrible , whose trio of provocations (" Irreversible ", " Enter the Void ", " Love ") will finally make their way to our big screens. At this early, I'm...

The recently-concluded QC International Pink Film Festival (Oct. 6-11, Gateway Cineplex) featured a number of films that won in the Teddy Bear section (a section that focuses on LGBT-themed features, docus and shorts) of this year's Berlin International Film Festival. Two of which were: Jim Chuchu's " Stories of Our Lives " (Kenya), Jury Prize winner and Sebastián Silva's " Nasty Baby " (USA / Chile), Grand Prize winner.  • "Stories of Our Lives" This b/w-shot film is an anthology of five shorts put together by The Nest, a Nairobi-based multi-media arts group, of which the director is a part. Although unified by the question of how is it to live as a homosexual in Kenya, where having a different sexual orientation is tantamount to having a death sentence, each of the short films is as varied as it can be. There's the story of two lesbian students whose affair is condemned by their school ( Ask Me Nicely );of a bootleg DVD manufacturer whose...

While not entirely a groundbreaking film in the strict sense of the word, there's just a number of firsts in " Heneral Luna " (2015, Phil.), the latest work from the director of the excellent Camera trilogy (" Confessional ", " Mangatyanan ", " Sana Dati "), Jerrold Tarog. Chief among which, of course, is the subject-matter itself: Antonio Luna (played to perfection by John Arcilla), the valiant and volcanic Filipino general who was a major force in the Philippines' fight for freedom and independence from the American colonizers during the later part of the 19th century. Filipino historical films or biopics seem to be generally restricted to just two prominent figures: Andres Bonifacio and Jose Rizal. From the top of my mind, I can only recall a couple of films that featured heroes other than those two stalwarts: a Macario Sakay film by Raymond Red and one about Lapu-Lapu starring Lito Lapid. If there are other such works still, they may...