Sunday, May 25, 2008

7:46 PM | Hoping for Some Film Renaissance

There's some good news coming from Cannes, after all. And no, Serbis didn't even make one dent in the final awarding, despite all our hopes for a Gina Pareño showing for Best Actress. (That honor went to Brazilian actress Sandra Corveloni in Walter Salles and Daniela Thomas’s Linha de Passe. Benicio del Toro was Best Actor for Steven Soderbergh's four-hour Che, and Turkish Nuri helmer Bilge Ceylan was Best Director for Three Monkeys. Other winners included Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne who won Best Screenplay Le Silence de Lorna. The Palme d'Or went to The Class, which was directed by Laurent Cantet. The Grand Prix went to Matteo Garrone’s Gomorrah, and the Jury Prize went to Paolo Sorrentino’s Il Divo. Full report here.)

In one of the last reports from Cannes, Deborah Cole of Agence France-Presse gives a painful parting shot: "And as in every year, there were a few howlers that left audiences baffled about their selection, including Serbis, a Filipino picture set in a porn cinema, and French drama Frontier of Dawn which Variety magazine called 'a risible slice of pretentious hokum.'" That story can be read here.

So, what's the good news? The Echo, Yam Laranas' remake of his very own Sigaw, just got good initial notices from the Cannes Film Market. You can read about it from Yam's own blog, here. And here's the teaser poster, with Jesse Bradford in Richard Gutierrez's old role.



We have so many up-and-coming young directors who will definitely make their mark on world cinema pretty soon. One can almost smell that possibility coming. Yam Laranas is perhaps already leading the way, following in the heels of Jeffrey Jeturian, who has been consistent in making very personal cinema. And there's Auraeus Solito, Adolfo Alix Jr., Jade Castro, Jun Lana, Jim Libiran, Mark Meilly, and, of course, Dante Mendoza, who will definitely make better movies after the debacle that is Serbis. My only wish is that the immediate generation of directors that preceded this one -- Chito Roño, Olivia Lamasan, Joyce Bernal, Jose Javier Reyes, and Joel Lamangan -- can learn a thing or two about the passion of these young directors, enough to prod them beyond their comfort zones in glossy Star Cinema or GMA Films or Regal Films productions. (Lamangan, especially, who's probably the most inept in terms of cinematic language. He can learn a thing or two about mise en scène from Alix and Solito, for example.) And what of even older generations like Mike de Leon, Peque Gallaga, Laurice Guillen, Mario O'Hara, Kidlat Tahimik, and Marilou Diaz-Abaya? Here's wishing them some kind of resurrection. And what of Lav Diaz? He may be very good, but really, who has seen any of his films?

Labels: art and culture, celebrity, directors, festivals, film

[0] This is Where You Bite the Sandwich

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