One of the best-known lines in romantic comedy fails to mention a not insignificant fact.
This one: La Mariée by Marc Chagall.
Photo from My Daily Art Display
She had seen a print of the Chagall in his house, the one with the blue door.
So she gave him the painting.
Of course, mentioning valuable gifts in a declaration of love kind of kills the romance.
Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke star in Before Midnight, third in the trilogy that began with Before Sunrise. Here’s their public service announcement to moviegoers. It needs to be screened before every movie.
If you stick around through the closing credits of Before Midnight, the latest film in the trilogy that also includes Before Sunrise and Before Sunset, you’ll see that the movie is dedicated to someone whose name even the most die-hard fans have never heard before: Amy Lehrhaupt. Almost 25 years ago, Lehrhaupt met a young man named Richard Linklater and spent a night with him that he never forgot. Their encounter inspired Linklater to conceive and direct Before Sunrise, the first film in the series. She never saw it, though; unbeknownst to Linklater, by the time that movie came out, Lehrhaupt was dead.
Linklater never mentioned Lehrhaupt by name in the press before promoting Before Midnight—Ethan Hawke has said that the director was uncomfortable mentioning her until “extremely recently”—but he has long made brief references to their encounter. From a number of interviews he’s done over the years, we can now piece together the complete story of how Lehrhaupt helped inspire the series.
Linklater met Lehrhaupt in fall 1989, when he was visiting his sister in Philadelphia. He was 29 and had just finished shooting Slacker, and was staying there for one night while passing through on the way home from New York. Lehrhaupt was several years younger, about 20. They met in a toy shop, and ended up spending the whole night together, “from midnight until six in the morning,” “walking around, flirting, doing things you would never do now.” As in Before Sunrise, most of what they did was talk, “about art, science, film, the gamut.” Did they kiss? Yes. Did they have sex? The Times went so far as to ask Linklater in a recent interview, but he said he wants to “leave a little mystery.”
Read The real couple behind Before Sunrise at Slate.
Mae Paner as Juana C and John James Uy as Yani take to the dance floor in Juana C The Movie, written by Rody Vera and directed by Jade Castro. Photo courtesy of Laganap.
“I think you are truly a great performer. The social critique is also clear. But as a religious hindi masyadong to my taste yung risqué jokes and scenes but because of your great acting they became funny satires rather than sleazy scenes.” – Sister Mary John Mananzan, OSB
“Truly daring and yes, irreverent, but Juana Change the movie is able to bring to the surface critical societal realities including those that are taboo. In a very Filipino way, the movie is able to advocate change and everyone’s responsibility to make this happen.” – Brother Armin Luistro, Secretary of Education
“Your movie was my first experience of social commentary framed in biting, crazy, fun-filled satire, in-your-face silly in parts but wholly thoughtful and amazingly intelligent.” – Neric Acosta, Chair, Laguna Lake Development Authority
“Sobrang enjoy ako sa Juana C. Humor ng totoong humorist. I think it will be a hit.” – Ramon Jimenez, Secretary of Tourism
There is a lot of sex in Juana C. the full-length film debut of the political critic/YouTube phenomenon. Kinky sex, sex for pay, boy on boy, girl on girl, group and something called vroom vroom. Why is there so much sex in a movie that wears its advocacies on it XXL sleeve?
Because if we devoted 1/10th of the time we spend thinking about sex to discussing the issues that affect our country, we would have a more rational, responsible, better-educated society. An informed society is harder for corrupt politicians and opportunists to take advantage of.
And because what the politicians and businessmen do to Juana Change in the movie, they are doing to us. Our nation is being screwed by the very same people who are supposed to protect us.
In the first offering from Laganap Productions, Juana Change is a girl who comes to Manila to attend a prestigious university. Her townmates from Barangay Kaploc are counting on her to lead the fight against the corporate interests which are stealing their resources and killing their village. But the impressionable Juana falls in with the high-living crowd and winds up seriously in debt. How is she supposed to pay?
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Sid Lucero stars in Norte, Hangganan Ng Kasaysayan, Lav Diaz’s “short film” (Okay that’s the last time we make that joke) which just premiered at Cannes.
From Wesley Morris’s Cannes Diary at Grantland.
…I stopped to check the schedule and saw that a four-hour-and-10-minute Filipino movie called Norte, the End of History was about to start. I also saw the lobby dotted with peers and a couple of friends standing near the mailboxes and around the Nespresso parlor (for nine days, I’ve been burying the lead on you: There’s complementary, pod-based espresso here served by flight attendants from 007 Airlines).
Not one of these film professionals seemed terribly compelled to spend four hours in the dark after sitting for 110 minutes looking at a sunless Midwest. It was a warm, sunny day. Best, perhaps, to explore that, instead. But I found myself drifting toward the lobby, anyway, past a woman in a gold-and-cream ball gown who was having her photo taken, and into the theater. Doing this was entirely involuntary in a way that’s never happened to me. The festival director, Thierry Frémaux, brought the cast to the stage, including the woman in the dress, then the director, a small stylish veteran named Lav Diaz. I was hoping they wouldn’t notice that the house was maybe half-full.
They took their seats, the lights went down, the movie came up, and I sat there. Two-hundred-fifty minutes later, the lights came up, I stood with tears in my eyes, and clapped as loudly as I ever have for any movie in my life. (Note: I’ve actually never clapped for a movie before.) When Diaz made his way back inside the theater to join the cast, the applause grew, and the whistling and cheering commenced. You always hear Cannes stories of 20-minute standing ovations, but I always seem to miss them. This didn’t last 20 minutes, but it was long and special, yet didn’t feel remotely adequate thanks for what had just been given to us.
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