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This is the blog of Ian Rosales Casocot. Filipino writer. Sometime academic. Former backpacker. Twink bait. Hamster lover.

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Wednesday, October 06, 2004

entry arrow2:58 PM | A Bit of Something About Movies





Alfred Hitchcock on modern cinema, as interviewed by Francois Truffaut in the landmark book every cineast ought to have:



In many of the films now being made, there is very little of cinema: they are mostly what I call "photographs of people talking." When we tell a story in cinema, we should resort to dialogue only when it's impossible to do otherwise. [...] It seems unfortunate that with the arrival of sound the motion picture, overnight, assumed a theatrical form. [...] One result of this is the loss of cinematic style, and another is the loss of fantasy.


I think that's very true. So many movies talk too much. I find that stimulating in a Woody Allen movie, or perhaps in some talkative efforts like Kevin Smith's Clerks ... but in the hands of lesser filmmakers, it's tedious and boring. Many Tagalog movies suffer from this, especially some of those written by Ricky Lee. Yes, he is more than competent as a screenwriter (and there are movies written by him that are obvious gems), but I wish they could see more of Wong Kar-Wai, where sometimes words do not matter at all, just mood, just color, just texture, just the slightest gesture between characters to convey a universe of truth, just the trail of cigarette smoke snaking through the air to tell about doomed love affairs. No words, just cinema.



Hear that, Joel Lamangan, you overrated hack?



[via girl with a movie camera]


[0] This is Where You Bite the Sandwich




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