Over the holiday break, as I read fellow columnist Bong Austero’s two-part assessment of the 2009 Metro Manila Film Festival, I sighed and thanked my lucky stars that my family opted to do our film watching at home. In DVDs. No need to jostle with the crowds, there are more titles to choose from and the cost is much cheaper.
Original DVDs of not-so-recent movies are perennially on sale (buy one, take one in many cases), the average price is around 300 pesos and you can watch the film as many times as you like. You can even put the machine on pause if you want to get a snack or go to the bathroom.
Compare that with going to a movie house, paying 275 pesos per head (more if the film was made for 3D viewing), killing your bladder and bearing with irritants like bowling toddlers, ringing cell phones and fellow movie goers who think that back rests were made to serve as foot stools.
Of course, there are films worth watching on the big screen. We’re going to see Sherlock Holmes — we’re just waiting for the crowds to thin out a bit – but Bong Revilla in “Ang Panday”? No, thank you. If I wanted to be amazed at special effects and production sets, I’d play my DVDs of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy and Harry Potter movies which, according to Bong Austero, were blatantly copied in Ang Panday.
So, we like DVDs. And because I have a daughter who will pursue a course in film, our collection now includes classics like “Casablanca,” “Cinema Paradiso,” “Platoon” and Frank Capra’s opus, “A Wonderful Life.” And because I have another daughter who has a fixation on horror films, we have a huge collection of horror movies, from the classics to the stomach churning “Saw” and its sequels. Here are some of our most recent buys.
The Exorcist
Hard to find. Either it’s not a sought-after title or it is so popular that it’s often out of stock. A couple of nights ago, after so many decades, I saw the film again. It’s different watching it as an adult. Compared to the fast-paced, gore-filled horror movies of today, “The Exorcist” builds up the story as well as the horror. Based on the novel by William Peter Blatty, it is about the demonic possession of a 12-year-old girl and the exorcism performed by an aging priest and another who has been slowly losing his faith.
As an adult, I wouldn’t call it a horror film. It was more disturbing than horrific. Disturbing because of the theme but even more disturbing because a child was cast in it and made to deliver lines and perform acts that were, well, rather difficult to watch without flinching. It wasn’t the gore that made me cringe. It was scenes like the possessed girl using a cross like a knife and plunging it in her pelvis while screaming, “Let Jesus fuck you.”
And if you read the write-ups on how director William Friedkin manipulated both actors and sets to get “genuine” reactions, you’d feel even more disturbed. Painful screams were elicited by yanking Ellen Burstyn and Linda Blair in harnesses (resulting in back injuries), refrigerating the set to get real icy breaths and even slapping an actor to get a solemn look.
The Good German
Starring George Clooney, Cate Blanchett and Tobey Maguire, and set in post-war Germany, the film was shot in black and white apparently to give it the look of 1940s noir films. Visually, it was effective. If the viewer didn’t know the actors, he might have mistaken the “The Good Shepherd” for a real 1940s movie.
Based on the novel by Joseph Kanon, the good German refers to mathematician Emil Brandt wanted by the Americans, the British and the Russians. Brandt was the assistant of Franz Bettmann, Chief Production Engineer of the V-2 rocket produced in Camp Dora, a concentration camp built with slave labor. Bettmann, kept by the Americans at a safehouse for transport to the U.S. to work on its own rocket program, was therefore an unemployable war criminal, a status that could only be proved by Brandt, the only remaining survivor of Camp Dora. The Americans wanted to find Brandt to kill him.
The search for Brandt is intertwined with the lives of his wife Lena (Blanchett), former “stringer” and lover of American war correspondent Jake (Clooney).
A Knight’s Tale
Most people remember Heath Ledger for his roles as a gay cowboy in “Brokeback Mountain” and as the Joker in “The Dark Knight” but I love him best in “A Knight’s Tale.” It’s a feel-good movie, no doubt, a Cinderella story but instead of a poor girl turning into a princess, it’s a knight’s servant becoming a knight.
The tale takes place in Medieval Europe in the 14th century. A jousting knight, Sir Ector, dies leaving his three servants unsure about where to get their next meal. William decides to pretend to be Ector, learn jousting, and survive on the tournament prizes. Along the way they meet a gambler and poet, Geoffrey Chaucer (played by the often underrated but really amazing Paul Bettany) who boosted crowd support for William with his emotional introductory speeches.
A Knight’s Tale is especially memorable for its mixture of old and new. Despite the 14th century setting, the music was contemporary. Queen’s “We Will Rock You,” David Bowie’s “Golden Years,” and Thin Lizzy’s “The Boys Are Back in Town” provided the upbeat note that made scenes more lively and entertaining. I’ve seen the film so many times but, each time, it still makes me smile.
Films are a good entertainment medium. Instead of obsessing over seeing what’s the latest, you might want to go the opposite direction and comb through real gems from the past fifty years. Try “Roman Holiday.” Or Hitchcock’s “Vertigo.” They just don’t make films that way anymore.
ms. connie, this one’s a very good read. most of the movies that you mentioned are my all-time faves too, including Gone with the Wind (sigh).
thanks for writing this.
Gone with the Wind, special edition DVD, costs P2500 (ouch! ouch! ouch!). Alex wanted it, I told her, next time naman because we already bought so many.
I hope Alex will get a hold of that someday, My ultimate movie
Hi Connie. Since your daughter has started investing in a film collection, might i suggest a few to look out for…kind of like the minute you see it you don’t let go fo it at baka mawala pa uli;
1. The Works of Akira Kurosawa–Ran, Dreams, Seven Samurais etc…
2. Mike Deleon’s Kakabakaba Ka Ba
3. Lino Brocka’s Ora Pro Nobis
4. A fish called Wanda
5. Taps
6. Citizen Kane
7. A collection of Charlie Chaplin’s works
Alex (or is it Sam) will be having a grand time watching, analyzing and later on doing her own film projects. I’m glad to hear that one of your daughter’s is contemplating a career in film making.
Have a nice weekend…
6.
Alex, Anton. Sam’s the photography major and horror fanatic.
Among all Filipino movies, Kakabaka Ka Ba? has got to be my favorite. Sadly, it isn’t available in DVD. None of Mike de Leon’s films are, as far as I know. Can’t find Citizen Kane either.
Kurosawa’s, I can probably get from Amazon. Gotta check.
Taps — with Timothy Hutton? I love that!
We have Charlie Chaplin hehehe
Can I just say what a crying shame it is that we cannot find classic films from Filipino cinema on DVD?
Or that the TV production of Rizal’s “Noli me Tangere” is not yet a box set even though I keep catching bits and pieces of it on the Knowledge Channel?
Augh.
I love “Noli Me Tangere” but I wonder if the film version or TV production can really match the heavy emotional quality of each character in the novel from the authoritarian evil protagonist (hired a failed assassin) but overly protective foreign Archbishop, the mixed bred Maria Clara with undying love to the main character but always sabotaged by her secret Archbishop father, the dreams for change by the foreign educated main character, the wrongfully accused altar boy Crispin and his older protective brother Basilio with unmatched devotion of their mother Sisa who turned insane, and the fugitive rebel for a cause Elias.
On the other hand, the movie “Seven” is my favorite crime thriller with built up suspense (up to the very end) and outstanding performances from Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt. It is concluded no other way but with great irony to put yourselves in the role to fulfill the last sequence which made the title.
dOdOng, The way I’d like to approach this novel in my attempt to make a movie out of it, would, I hope, equal the lines from his lead-in which states:”there is etched a cancer, of a breed so malignant that the least contact exacerbates it and stirs in it the sharpest of pains… I will lift part of the shroud that conceals your illness, sacrificing to the truth everything, even my own self-respect, for, as your son, I also suffer in your defects and failings.”
May I add “Taking Chance” which stars Kevin bacon. There’s no special effects involved, and yet I was deeply moved by the story.
Citizen Kane is a classic. I had a great time with Casablanca, too. Have a great time watching!
I’d always said to my self that if I won’t become a writer or a lawyer, I’d be a film maker.
Heath Ledger, too bad he was given an Oscar only after he has died.
Ormocanon, I haven’t seen that one — pretty recent, right?
Jhay, the question is: Would he have gotten it if he hadn’t died?
I bought the DVD just recently, it was on sale.
I was expecting a lot of action since it’s about the US marines.
I was wrong. It’s about honor and respect.
And I’m not going to tell you more than that.
Okay, now I’m intrigued. Will look for it.
Odds on i think he would have still won. i saw three of the other four nominees’ movies (Josh Brolin in Milk, Robert Downey Jr in Tropic Thunder, Michael Shannon in Revolutionary Road). Heath I think had the superior performance compared to those three (though Robert Downey was hilarious). Though I was not able to see Doubt (Philip Seymour Hoffman as the accused priest).
A Knight’s Tale, I have the DVD, seen it over and over and over again. It was on a marathon months ago last year, and I watched it again. Kindalike Shawshank Redemption. I’ve seen it many time, but would still watch it when it’s on TV..hehe..
Nice to hear that Alex loves classic movies. They really don’t make movies like that anymore.
Re A Knight’s Tale: Doesn’t it give the term “foxy lady” a whole new meaning?
you just made me “kilig” LOL…. Heath is like whispering in my ears
Oh, I totally agree that they do not make movies the way they used to – you know, the kind you could leave your kids alone at, and not worry about what damage was being inflicted on their morals or psyche?
My favorite films are mostly culled from the classics: “Platinum Blonde” with Jean Harlow, “The Thin Man” with William Powell and Myrna Loy, and my One True Pairing of cinema will ever be Errol Flynn and Olivia deHavilland in “Captain Blood” (her first movie!) and “Robin Hood” and “They Died With Their Boots On” (romanticised life of George Armstrong Custer).
It is for this reason I pay extra for the Turner Classic Movies (TCM) Channel on cable TV. *huge goofy grin*
TCM shows a lot of the old musicals too — Brigadoon, Showboat, Gigi, An American in Paris…
The Charlie Chaplin is sad. There is hope and vindication in Shawshank Redemption. The 1986 A Name of a Rose is intriguing but Thomas Crown Affair is fun. I never thought to like Tristan and Isolde, now that I saw it I am considering to see the music drama play with strong notes on instrumentations.
I must have viewed ‘Shawshank Redemption’ 8 times already on DVD…it’s that good.
Shawshank Redemption is a good slap on the face of everyone who’s called Stephen King nothing but a second-rate writer. What a story!
Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco? I was pregnant with Sam when I first saw it. Gee, I wanted to run away.
From one who too has caught the bug (not H1N1, rather, the desire to one day be a film maker), I’d suggest to focus on the screenwriting process and develop a good understanding on the grammar of film making. I strongly recommend Syd Field’s books on the subject: Screenplay- the foundations of screenwriting, The Screenwriter’s Workbook- exercises and step-by-step instructions for creating a successful screenplay, The Screenwriter’s Problem Solver-how to recognize, identify, and define screenwriting problems, Selling a Screenplay- the screenwriter’s guide to Hollywood.
Bladder problems! Damatans na ba? Kahit na, maganda ka pa rin, di ba?
I just hope future participants of the MMFF follow your suggestions and do some research.
And maybe they wouldn’t be shoving garbage down the throats of moviegoers anymore.
Ang Panday as Best Picture makes me cringe. I was impressed with Heath in A Knight’s Tale too. What’s your take on Invictus?
“Art is the elimination of the unnecessary.” Picasso
If given the chance, the movie I’d like to make would be the Maguindanao Massacre. Imagine a bullet on a woman’s head, one on each of her tits, and one on her vagina, and the suspect is invoking the name of Allah. Wild thing!
Two for the Road (Audrey Hepburn and Albert Finney) is also a very good one. Perhaps the most underrated Hepburn movie. Probably one of the first to apply the non-linear mode of storytelling in movies.
“Art is the elimination of the unnecessary like a woman stripped naked in front of me.” Tom Solis
Buhay nga naman ano, as if you have to go through phases before reaching nirvana. And the phase I’m currently in is having (not owning yet cause the stuff is still on credit) this 52″ Sony Bravia HD 240 Hz TV and hooked up to it using a Monster HDMI cable is a 5.1 channel sound system. Like hey man, who wants to go to a theater to watch a movie? NO WAY!!! Cause in this humble abode of mine, everyday (currently unemployed) is SHOW-TIME!!! Speaking of which movies I have recently watched:
DOUBT- the tension is so thick you could actually hear the Meryl Strepe character ask, (paraphrasing) “Father, did you f#@k the boy?”
ACROSS THE UNIVERSE- I will not even comment. Just watch the movie and tell me what you think of it. \Lucy in the sky\ with diamonds\
Could the song MAALA ALA MO KAYA be able to transcend recent past, present, and near future? As the original singer starts singing her song \MAALA ALA\MO KAYA\ANG SUMPA MO SA AKIN\ and as the song fades into the back ground FADE IN-we see President Manuel Quezon doing his black and white silent movie speeches. JUMP CUT- we see President Marcos declaring to the Filipino people, “This nation will be great again.” No Shit… JUMP CUT- we see President Arroyo somewhat singing, \I’M SORRY\SO SORRY\PLEASE ACCEPT\ MY APOLOGIES\ JUMP CUT- we see Noynoy and Villar debating with Noynoy citing something about the “Garci tapes” and this guy wants to be the next president. TIME-OUT. The song comes back to the forefront and after a minute or so as the picture and the rest of the song fades out we hear this paradoxical statement, “OK LANG”. The End.
As an anime fan, I would like to recommend a couple of films you and your family might appreciate:
1. ANYTHING by Studio Ghibli
Quite literally, all their films. While Studio Ghibli was launched into international acclaim for animated works such as Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away, they also have some equally interesting albeit underappreciated films such as Whisper of the Heart, a romance comedy that I still consider far more sincere and heartwarming in its narration of first love than all of our telenovelas put together.
2. Voices of a Distant Star (Hoshi no Koe) – A 30-minute indie film about the relationship between a starship pilot and her boyfriend on earth. The two are separated by a cataclysmic interstellar war, with their only means of communication via SMS. As the girl drifts farther into space however, the messages take longer and longer to arrive on earth, and given her ship travels at light speed, she stays young, as her beloved grow older.
The whole film was created by one man on his mac, and the SMS messages were based on real conversasions with the creator’s real-life girlfriend (Who also voiced the female protagonist).
3. Ghost in the Shell, GITS Innocence, and GITS Solid State
Masamune Shirow’s Ghost in the Shell series focuses mostly on geopolitics, and how people adapt to an every-digitized world. GITS was the inspiration for the Matrix trilogy.
If you haven’t seen Magnifico yet, I recommend it. The little guy so earnestly trying to bring happiness to his family is so precious.
When watching the classics such as Fellini’s 8 1/2, Orson Wells’ Citizen Kane or Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai etc.,you should do it in my opinion for a historical perspective and nothing else. These are old movies and today we are in the midst of a cinematic revolution. One extreme example of this revolution is the suggestion that films could one day be programmed into our brains and be viewed the way we view our dreams.
Connie, request nga lang. Are your lady friends Lisa Araneta and Ida La’O still “available”? Their views on the equality of rights are divine.
How about the recent movie “avatar”? love it on 3D
Don’t forget ‘The Godfather’ 1 & 2.
Avatar? Iyon nga eh. It feels like I have to drag or drug myself to see this movie at a theater. I’ll just wait for it on Blu-ray. I just can’t let go the power the control I have over these movies: fast forward, rewind, freeze frame, commentaries, subtitles and thanks for the tip, l’ll have my 3D glasses ready. What else could a film student ask for?
Avatar! Just saw the movie, this is one evidence that despite having all the bells and whistles for making a movie, it doesn’t assure you an oscar for best picture or best director. It really boils down to having a good screenplay. Awesome!!!