LitWit Challenge 3.4: I love the movies.
All photos from Uro’s Abandoned Movie Houses series.
This LitWit Challenge is for people who love the movies. I don’t mean people who view the cinema as a two-hour escape from “real life” or something to do on their downtime, I mean those who regard the movies as extensions of their lives.
I’m from the last generation that had to go to the movie theatre in order to watch movies. It was always a major production. In the 70s and 80s movie theatres were usually standalone palaces with plush seats, velvet ropes, and red curtains. In Cubao there were theatres called Coronet, Remar, Diamond; in Greenhills Greenhills theatre; in Magallanes Magallanes; and in Makati, Rizal Theatre. Rizal Theatre also had coffee shops and an Alemar’s bookstore. It was torn down in the 80s. I think the last movie I saw there was Blade Runner.
Home video makes watching movies so much more convenient, but it also takes something away from the experience. I will always think of Cinema as sitting in the dark with a bunch of strangers and having the same dream.
Where was I? Right. Write an essay or story (maximum 1,000 words) explaining why you love the movies. Yes, you may concentrate on a single movie. No, we’re not interested in an academic treatise. Post your entry in Comments on or before Saturday, 28 August 2010 at 11.59 pm.
The prize is a copy of 2666 by Roberto Bolaño. Also, we will draw up the guest list for the Anniversary Non-Event Movie, Book and Merienda Buffet from the readers who join the LitWit Challenges in the next four weeks.
The Weekly LitWit Challenge is brought to you by National Bookstore.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
August 24th, 2010 at 06:47
That reminds me of this cinema/movie house/whathaveyou that Coco Martin and his crew inhabited in the film Serbis. Banging piece of prurient shit, I tell you, fantastic! Laavet!
I was about three when my parents took me to watch The Never Ending Story (first movie I watched, didn’t get it, but they told me I was singing the title song when that flying dog started doing his rescuing thing.) Not really an entry, more like a recollection. And besides, I gather we have four weeks for an entry.
Cheers!
August 24th, 2010 at 08:42
I started to love movies since i was a mere tot. My first favorite film was Babe(1996) and i remember i cried when the film lost in the Academy Awards to The English Patient( which i did not watch back then due to age constraints).
Several summers passed and i became your average movie connoisseur. I am not one of those teenagers that ogle the Twilight cast. Instead, i am one of those eccentrics that adore the films of the Coen brothers or Christian Mungui.
Movies are vital to my overall well-being since i am able to connect with the characters and to compare the acting strengths of actors. Movies are the ‘manna’ to my body. Without movies i imagine a filthy bleak world without a tinge of art.
The best movie for me and also my favorite is Schindler’s List. After i watched it three years ago, i was astounded by its beauty and the message it was trying to convey.
After a series of repeat viewings, i felt loved by Steven Spielberg. It’s as if he made the movie basically for my needs. I felt loved by a movie at the time when my parents forgot to love me. That was the time that i started to regard movies as my personal savior. They forced me to rise from the ashes of despair and to get up and see the world grinning widely.
To sum up, movies are my life. They are my appendages to connect with other cultures and to observe diverse personalities. They are gifts. Therefore, they should be cherished. That’s why I love them.
August 24th, 2010 at 12:55
I love the movies. When I watch a movie, I get to pretend that I’m one of the characters. This makes me live another life completely different from mine at least for two hours. It’s the ultimate escape.
August 24th, 2010 at 15:59
Here in the Philippines consulting shrinks is not common. Not to mention that if you so much as hinted to a roomful of people that you are consulting a psychiatrist, you will empty the room faster than if you invite them to watch the latest updates on the Kris Aquino-James Yap saga. I love watching movies because it may constitute as entertainment for some but for me it’s another thing: therapy.
For maximum effect, I like watching movies alone in theaters. Whenever I want to watch a movie, my husband would tell me to buy a DVD. But it’s just not the same because when you watch movies at home…
1. You miss the feeling of communion – If the movie is execrable, you can console yourself that you were not the only one who was idiot enough to fall for the seemingly interesting movie presented in the trailer. After years of watching countless movies, I have learned that sometimes the trailer is the best thing about the movie.
2. You cannot work out your repressed rage – Yes, there are uncouth people in the theater. So much the better because you can vent your angst toward people who deserve it and those who would not have an effect on your employment status (unless you are watching a movie with your boss hinting at relationships not professional in which case I really don’t care). You can practice your medusa stare (if the offensive person is female) or your Mike-Tyson-eat-your-children-glare (if the idiot is a male) and for once cease pretending that common sense and decency is common.
3. You cannot work out problems, twisted plots in the movie alone – When the main conflict is resolved and the credits roll, it gives me the illusion that I have solved my own conundrum in peace. .
4. You have to prepare food and clean-up after yourself – In movie theaters, you can just buy food from the joints nearby, fried things bathed in oil and sprinkled with salt and sugar (or as I’d like to call these ingredients things that make life worth living).
5. You cannot do anything you want while watching the movie under a cover of darkness – Yes you can also do anything at home while watching. That is if you want your spouse to question his sanity when he married you, or if you want your son to claim to be unrelated to you.
A movie always perks me up no matter how horrendous it is. If the movie sucks big time, my blunders and missteps lose its enormity. No matter the magnitude of my mistake, at least I did not spend several millions of dollars in the process of making it.
Movies also make me feel better about myself especially those with bad cinematography. When certain less than flattering celebrity wrinkles or body parts are magnified on screen, I realize that with the right tools/mindset (or in some celebrities’ case, plastic surgery and the power of cosmetics) I can be anything I set myself out to be.
It may be corny but I like movies because they give me something somewhat similar to what I get from books: It makes me think. If the movie is so bad, I launch into a discourse with myself on how it could have been saved. If the movie is so good, it can bring you into another dimension. It allows you to explore another life or a certain kind of reality which would not have existed or been considered if the movie had not been made. Movies allow you to visit places and cultures you would not have seen without the benefit of a ginormous bank account or with Lakshmi Mittal as your father.
All this foaming at the mouth only means one thing: I love movies because for me it’s not only entertainment or psychotherapy, it’s space travel.
August 24th, 2010 at 17:25
Bago ang aking essay tungkol sa movies ay mag sa Sacheen Littlefeather muna ako kung mananalo ako eh (ASSUMING!!!)
I regretfully cannot accept this very generous prize dahil parang luma na yung book at may niknik at ang kapal (or pangit lang ang lighting ng picture?) pero gusto kong umatend sa book launch ba yun or party?
Nag start ang pagka hilig ko sa movies (tandang tanda ko pa akoy nasa grade school noon ng naganap ang pangyayari……
After kong manood ng Young Love , Sweet Love ni Kuya Germs sa channel 9 at episode yun ng isa sa aking favorite loveteam Tina Godinez at Nikki Martell. Nilipat ko sa channel 13 at may patalastas sila na may movie at 10PM at ang title “TERMS OF ENDEARMENT XXX” nanginig ang kalamnan ko akala ko X RATED at TRIPLE XXX pa movie yun so nag wait ako ng 10PM , isinara ko na ang aking kwarto at nilagyan ang mga uwang ng pinto ng manila paper at tape para walang liwanag na makita si ermat sa aking room dahil sobrang gabi na noon para sa aking edad .
Nag prepare na ako bago mag 10PM ng BABY OIL, TOWEL at ALCOHOL at naginginig pa dahil sa kasabikan mapanood ang movie (sa pag aakala kong TRIPLE XXX yung movie)
Nag start na ang movie at wala akong ma feel na hubaran pero itinuloy ko pa rin sa pag aakala kong sa bandang gitna ang AKSYUNAN pero IN FAIRNESS kako ang GANDA NG STORY Mother and Daughter relationship na may cancer then nagtuloy tuloy ang movie, bigla na lang akong HUMAGULGUL sa eksena nung nag ma make up si Debra Winger (ang tanda na niya sa Rachel Getting M.) sa hospital para makita ang anak niya at kinausap niya yung anak niya …OMG!!! ang Towel ko na dapat malagkit ang ipupunas ay basang basa na ng ISANG BALDENG LUHA at Sipon as in super ang iyak ko hanggang matapos ang movie.
Nung Umaga nagulat si Ermat kung bakit mugtung mugtu ang mata ko and ask nya kung okay ako sabi ko na lang “Kinagat ng ipis yung mata ko kaya namaga”.
Simula noon puro quality movie na ang aking pinanonood dahil sa insidenteng ito ng “TERMS OF ENDEARMENT XXX” change my life forever salamat sa title at nilagyan ng XXX kundi eh hanggang ngayon eh isa rin akong sa mga eng-eng na moviegoers.
Dahil sa movies esp. character ni Chihiro ng Spirited Away at Muriel Weslop ng Muriel’s Wedding at ang aking record breaking long time watching movie in 1 day ang ” THE BEST OF YOUTH” (Italian: La meglio gioventù) na aking napanood sa NY Festival (sosyal na ngayon ang aking panonood ng movies) italian movie na more than 6 hours (with intermission total 8 hours) Ito lang movie na ito ang masasabi kong PERFECT 10 as in hindi ko na feel ang sarili kong nakaupo sa movie theatre datapwat ang feeling ko nasa screen ako mismo at part ako ng buhay nila habang sila ay pinanonood pero OMG!!! talaga ang movie na yan, wala kang maririnig sa sinehan na nagsasalita dahil napunta kami sa ibang dimension sa Italy at ang tagos sa puso GRABE!!!!!! Yan na ang aking BEST MOVIE TALAGA kahit na anong problem na dumating sa akin ngayon sa buhay basta maisip ko ang movie na to at si Chihiro ng Spirited Away at Muriel Weslop ng Muriel’s Wedding. I know things will be alright +++++
August 25th, 2010 at 00:25
Una kong minahal ang panonood ng pelikula nang dalhin ako ng mga ate ko sa Isetann Recto para manood ng Engkantadang Kangkarot starring Roderick Paulate. Naalala ko pa, bago pa ang sinehan sa isetann noon, at standing room only na ng makapasok kami kaya manaka-naka ko lang nakikita ang mukha ni Roderick. Hanggang ngayon, naalala ko pa kung paano humalakhak ang mga manonood noon dahil sa kabaklaan ni Roderick Paulate sa pelikulang iyun.
Hindi ko na matandaan ang kuwento ng Engkantadang Kangkarot, pero ang naalala ko, ang hagalpak na tawa ng mga tao na para bang may sariling mga mundo ang bawat isa sa loob ng madilim na sinehan.
Doon ko napagtanto, ang saya pala manood ng pelikula. Para kang tumatakas sa ginagalawan mong reyalidad at dinadala ka sa mundong ikaw lang ang bida. Ito iyung mundong puwede kang tumawa, puwede kang umiyak, puwede kang magalit, at puwede kang mabagabag nang walang makikialam sa iyo dahil pare-pareho kayong nalalango sa pinapanood nyong kuwento.
Nasundan pa ng maraming pelikula ang Engkantadang Kangkarot. Nandiyan ang Once Upon A Time ni Dolphy, Ang Petrang Kabayo ni Roderick ulit, ang Inday Bote ni Maricel Soriano, Pido Dida ni Kris Aquino at Rene Requiestas at Maging Sino Ka Man ni Robin Padilla. Masang-masa ang taste ko noon sa pelikula. Basta sikat na artista, dadayuhin ko ang Grand Central sa Monumento o ‘di kaya’y babalik sa Isetann Recto para pumila’t manood. Nag-level up ang aking taste sa pelikula nang mapanood ko si Atreyu, Falcor at ang Child-like Princess ng Never-Ending Story, at ang Land Before Time sa Betamax. Napagtanto ko, magaling din pala ako umintindi ng Ingles na pelikula.
Tumaas ng bahagya ang taste ko sa pelikula. Dinayo ko ang Harrison Plaza at SM North para mapanood ang Dolzura Cortez Story, Bakit Labis Kitang Mahal, Madrasta at kung ano-ano pang pelikulang nanalo ng Best Actress sa mga awards night. Isama pa natin diyan ang Vizconde Massacre (God Help Us!), The Lipa Massacre (God, Save the Babies!) ang Fatima Buen Story, at ang Lilian Velez Story: Ang Katotohanan. Sabi ko noon, ang hahaba ng title ng mga pelikulang ito, pang-award. Aba, nagsipanalo nga ng award. mantakin nyo, si kris aquino, nanalo ng best actress.
Pero nang mapanood ko ang Wating ni Richard Gomez, Cherie Gil at Carmina Villaroel, sa Odeon sa Recto, parang nagbago ang pagtingin ko sa pelikula. Ibang klase kasi ang tinakbo ng kuwento, at para bang hindi ito normal na pelikula gaya ng mga napapanood ko. Doon ako unang na-introduce kay Ishmael Bernal. Sinundan ko hanggang sa mga awards night ang Wating, at nang mapanood ko na nanalo ito ng ilang mabibigat na awards, sabi ko sa sarili ko, may mga ganito palang pelikula… iyung pag-iisipin ka.
Nang mag-kolehiyo ako, napanood ko pareho ang Titanic at ang L.A. Confidential. Doon ko unang nahiwalay ang maganda sa pangit na pelikula. Gandang-ganda ako sa kuwento ng L.A. Confidential, pero ang nanalo sa Oscars ay ang Titanic. Inis na inis ako noon at lagi kong sinasabi sa mga klasmeyts ko, mas maganda ang L.A. Confidential kahit na mukhang ako lang yata nakapanood noon sa batch namin sa Nursing. Dahil sa sobrang inis ko, nagdesisyon akong mag-shift ng kurso. Mula Nursing, nag-shift ako sa Film…
at dito nabago ang buhay ko.
Dito ko nakilala nang husto si Ishmael Bernal. At si Lino Brocka. At si Mike de Leon. Para bang nagkaroon ako ng mga bagong kaibigan, kahit pa hanggang pinilakang tabing lang at one-way lang ang aming palitan at huntutan ng kuro-kuro’t emosyon. Dinala ako ng pelikula sa ibang mundo. Feeling ko talaga, nakarating ako sa Europa, sa Japan, sa Brazil, sa Iran, sa Russia, sa China at kung saan-saan pa nang dahil sa pelikula. Binago niya ang pananaw ko sa lipunang ginagalawan ko… Charing (The Fellowship of Cha Ring).
Minahal ko ang bawat pelikulang napapanood ko. Mula sa Birth of a Nation at Potemkin (weh? Nakatulog ako actually sa mga pelikulang ito.) hanggang sa One More Chance at You Changed My Life.
Iniyakan ko lalo si Ate Vi sa Bata, Bata, Paano Ka Ginawa, nagalit kay Zhang Ziyi sa Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, nakilakad kay Fernanda Montenegro sa Central Station at nakiramay at nakihagulgol sa pagkamatay ni Magnifico. Naging outlet ko ang pelikula ng mga emosyong hindi ko mailabas-labas sa sarili ko. Gusto kong matawa: Pineapple Express. Kimmy Dora. Tanging Ina. Gusto kong umiyak: Dancer in the Dark. Anak. Children of Heaven. Gusto ko magalit at maburyong sa buhay: I’ll Be There. Sama mo pa For the First Time.
Mamukat-mukat mo pagka-graduate ko sa kolehiyo kung saan ako napasok ng trabaho? Sa TV. Wala eh. Patay ang industriya ng pelikulang Pilipino ngayon. No choice, kailangan kumita. Kailangan rumaket. Sa TV malaki suweldo. At dahil sa suweldo ko sa TV, andami kong koleksyon ngayon na DVD ng magagandang pelikula from all around the world. Parang Ms. Universe, “Major, major” dami! Thank you, thank you!
Pero pagkatapos ng halos sampung taong pagtatrabaho sa telebisyon, bumabalik ako ngayon sa aking unang pag-ibig: ang pelikula. Take note, ang ginawa kong script, binili ng isang sikat na direktor. Sosyal! Ito lang nakaraang buwan. Mabuwang-buwang ako nang tawagan niya ako at sabihing nagustuhan niya ang script ko. Feeling ko, isa na akong ganap na manunulat. Nagbalik na ako sa pagmamahal ko sa pelikula. Yihee. Charing II: Da Return op da Kung Fu Master.
Nga pala. Starving artist ako ngayon. Nagpapakadalubhasa ako sa MA ngayon, kasi gusto kong maging manunulat. Naisip ko tuloy ang mga milyonaryo ko ng mga kaklase sa Nursing na nakahiga ngayon sa dolyares at may kanya-kanya ng mansyon sa Amerika. Samantalang ako, nagdidildil sa asin. Pasan ang daigdig. Umaayaw sa masikip, sa madumi, sa maputik. Parang karinderyang bukas sa lahat ng gustong tumikim.
Pero sa kabila ng aking mga pagdarahop ngayon, masasabi kong masaya ako…
Film had me at my worst… TV loved me at my best… but they chose to break my heart.
Charing. The Final Installment.
Death! Death! Deeeaaatthhhh!!!
Pak!
August 25th, 2010 at 18:59
(KINDLY DISREGARD THE FIRST VERSION I SENT PLEASE. THANKS!)
Steven Spielberg let me have my first taste of cotton candy. But it was Ishmael Bernal who raped me.
It was 1982. I was eight. The place was Coronet Theater in Cubao. Cushy seats, air-conditioned, state-of-the-art kind of place. It was my first time in a movie house.
I was thrilled.
There I met Steven Spielberg and his cute pet, E.T. – The Extraterrestrial. It came from another planet, and it was adorable. He had these big, curious eyes that were very innocent and very trusting.
Well, that was until a bunch of crazed scientists wanted to dissect the crap out of him.
This led to his death by hypothermia, which led to his resurrection, which led to a wild goose chase, which led to his being rescued by adult E.T.’s which led to a happy ending.
Boy, did I have a great time!
A few weeks later I was in another movie house. The Imperial Theater in Antipolo. It was an old Art-Deco building. But despite its age, it was well-kept. Save for the un-upholstered wooden seats, it was a nice theater.
I was with my mom who was, and still is, a huge Noranian (Nora Aunor fanatic). There I met Ishmael Bernal and a strange barrio lass who had miraculous healing powers. Her fellow barrio folk deified her. They loved her. They came to her in droves.
Then she got raped. Then got pregnant. In her last sermon, she told the crowd, “Walang himala!”
Then she was shot. Then pandemonium.
When I came out of the theater I was trembling. Images of her being shot were seared into my young mind. All innocence was lost.
I was, and still is, a damaged kid when I came out of that theater.
Don’t ask me why the theater allowed an eight year old kid to watch such a movie. I have no idea. And don’t ask my mom, either. She was a Noranian. She was unconcerned with the movie’s rating. She just wanted to watch Nora Aunor with me.
Strange as this may sound, and terrible I may have felt after the screening, I actually liked the movie. I couldn’t say it was a rush. I felt violated but I wanted more. I can’t say that I developed love for the movies after watching a woman get shot. In the same way that abused children can’t tell love from molestation, I can’t distinguish between love for the movies and S&M.
Since that day in 1982 I’ve been seeking movies that f— the s— out of my mind. I love the feeling of being yanked out of my comfort zone. I’ve grown to shredding whatever naiveté I have. Naiveté about people. About love. About relationships. About revenge. About Mafia bosses. About history. About space travel. About Mordor.
It has to be a theater setting. The darkness, the cold, and the strangers around you are the things that make the unexpectedness of what is about to unfold even more unpredictable.
Movies have since become a form of rape. And their directors, the rapists.
Needless to say, many have already violated me. There are lousy rapist and there are real f—ers. But I will never forget the badass who did away with my virginity.
Bernal was one motherf—er of a director.
August 26th, 2010 at 07:49
There were a lot of things worth remembering in college but the one thing I could hardly forget was the film viewing experience I had at the UP Film Center in UP Diliman, my first time to watch in the theater that years later became one of my favorite places in Manila. I studied in a university in Manila, some kilometers away from Diliman – I was alone and wasn’t that too familiar with other parts of the metropolitan jungle. I was young and too eager to try different things, one of which was the desire to watch an adult film. So while no friends could accompany me to Diliman and despite my inexperience in travelling alone, I plucked up some courage (largely induced by raging hormones), took an FX and flew North with no inkling whatsoever that I was about to be taken to an unforgettable journey towards self-discovery and realization.
Thanks to Alfonso Cuaron’s road-trip movie “Y Tu Mama Tambien” that follows two hormonally consumed teenage boys, Julio (Gael García Bernal) and Tenoch (Diego Luna), whose infantile macho games seem more like baby steps when they meet Luisa (Maribel Verdú), a sad-eyed young woman who is married to Tenoch’s older cousin.
The UP Film Center was jam-packed that afternoon. I could vividly recall the bubbly chatter that filled the dingy cinema with youthful bravado and libido. I was a lost, wandering soul, curious and wide-eyed interested, like a kid watching a fireworks display. As the film began to roll, I could feel my heart pumping, and boy, did it pump harder as I saw two naked bodies pumping on screen. Right then and there, I could tell that the film would become my favorite – not because of the pumping scene, no (okay, part of the film’s likability is its unafraid depiction of sexuality).
The audience started to stir, howling with laughter at those sex scenes. I found myself joining in the uproar but something was bothering me: do these people also respond involuntarily to those heated scenes like I did? The scenes were undeniably steamy. If I were watching the film inside one of those theaters in Quiapo (which I never had the chance to do so, I’m not saying that I want to) that showed double-feature films, the effect would be filthy and contaminated – but “Y Tu Mama Tambien” is film which was made not to feed the audience’s sexual needs. I didn’t contemplate on these things that time, no, because you see, I was busy figuring out if I was a normal viewer, like it ever mattered!
Realization came later on that art can generate various kinds of emotion, including, well, sexual. This emotion is sort of repressed especially in teenage years when it’s pretty hard to explore your sexual needs lest you get a nasty impression from people around you. Films that contain simple scenes that involve two human beings interlocked in a sexually suggestive way are deemed inappropriate to those who are below the legal age. Teenagers’ ignorance about sex usually leads to premarital adventure. In our barrio alone, I was surprised to learn that some of the boys years younger than me have fathered a kid or girls have recently given birth to a child or two after graduating in high school.
Watching “Y Tu Mama Tambien” was a liberating experience, to say the least. But not everyone who’ve seen it agrees so. A friend of mine in high school, after seeing the movie, during our high school semi-reunion vehemently exclaimed albeit quizzically: “What kind of movie is that? Doesn’t show anything good apart from sex!” which was a bit exaggerated. Since it was my idea to share the film to them, I defensively argued: “You don’t get it, do you? It’s not just about sex.” I could have been tamer with my reaction but I was flared up with the hypocrisy. That’s also one thing I learned from the movie – it’s unpretentious, not an artsy-fartsy portrayal of human relationship. It’s poignant and authentic.
We may not admit it, but at some points of our lives, we were Julio and Tenoch got preoccupied with carnal needs (not just sex, for that matter) but we eventually grew up. Oh no, I guess I’m getting cheesy here.
I’m not sure if it was my 18th or 19th birthday when I got my own VCD copy of the movie, courtesy of a college friend who had obviously sensed my obsession with it. Up to this moment, it was the best gift I have ever received.
August 26th, 2010 at 11:39
I love movies because I learn without having to go thru the experience myself. It provides me one answer to all my “what if” questions in life. For example, one of the things I want to do is to break stereotypes. My favourite movies are Silence of the Lambs and Legally Blonde. I like to see them as movies where the heroine is trying to break stereotypes which is generally what I want to do. Of course Clarisse Starling is the more traditional heroine while Elle Woods seems to be a caricature, but look closer and they are really trying to break common perceptions. I feel a lot closer to Elle’s character because she remained true to herself while breaking people’s views that all blondes are dumb. She puts her knowledge of beauty care into good use and is able to catch the real killer. Reese Witherspoon is able to bring credibility to the role as you let yourself believe that someone who aces “The History of Polka Dots” could ace Harvard Law. As a Filipina working in a multi-national company, I struggle with a lot of common perceptions both from Filipinos and from other nationalities as well. They think because we’re hospitable as a people that I should be “Miss Congeniality”. When people realize that I’m not the next label is “Bella Flores” for foreigners it’s another “b” word that rhymes with beach. There is no stereotype for an in between person. Watching Elle Woods though gives me clues to how changes can be made while staying true to who I am. Also it teaches me how to spot people who are there to help me.
Clarice on the other hand is one of the first female agents in the FBI and I like the movie on how it doesn’t focus too much on her trying to overcome the male dominated world of the FBI (which she really is) but on how she leverages her strengths and weaknesses to get things done. Hannibal Lecter played games with her and so did the other male characters in the film but she still manages to catch Buffalo Bill and save the senator’s daughter. Jodie Foster of course was great in portraying the newbie and showed a lot of nuance for portraying intelligence on the job but and naive at how office politics works. Watching the film answers a lot of “why’s” for me as I see some characters in the people I deal with. As wicked as it may seem, I also get satisfaction from watching the villains getting their own day as Dr. Chilton meets with Hannibal at the end of the movie. For my own sanity, when I get into really tough situations I play a movie in my mind where the difficult people who I have to deal with also get their own day in a movie edited in my mind.
So that’s why I love movies, it’s like that Sesame Street cartoon segment where the little girl with the balloon goes “What would happen if I pop this balloon with a pin on the top”. I get to see various scenarios thru the movies and decide if it’s worth pursuing or not. Noting of course all the caveats that come with a movie, e.g., it is heightened reality, it is scripted with a predetermined ending and the actors all go home after the movie and don’t live with the consequences their characters end up with.
August 26th, 2010 at 13:44
Yes, I like to watch movies for a lot of reasons. Yes, I watch movies to momentarily forget about the real world, or just because I have generous friends who would treat me for a movie or two every now and then, even if I didn’t like the film lineup in SM for the week. I love to watch movies because it is storytelling.
I love stories. Reading, listening to, watching stories. I am not a film critic who has the expert opinion on whether a movie is good/not good because of wrong details, or bad cinematography, or the script etc. No matter how hideous the actors are, or how the publicity usually is more exciting than the film itself, I have sit trough the entire duration of every movie I have chosen to see just to know what happened to the story. I like to see how a story unfold through someone’s eyes. How a director
would re-tell a novel I have read many times.
Sometimes I would became attached to some of the characters, I would feel sympathy even for the kontrabidas. And hours, even days after, I would form my own ending in my head if I didn’t like how a movie ended. Or a possible plot for a sequel even if the producers didn’t intend to have one.
I like how the setting of a movie feels. I especially like old Filipino movies. When I saw Tinimbang Ka Ngunit Kulang, it’s like I’m somewhere in BUlacan, it’s summer and the air smelled of sand and pomade. Like the sound from the rattle Koala was holding is coming from your street. When I saw Himala, I felt like it’s Holy week. Manila sa Kuko ng Liwanag made me want to go to Roxas Boulevard and eat street food then check in to a cheap motel. Pepeng Agimat and Nardong Putik is seeing Cavite before I was born.
Yup, movies for me is an escape. And I love to run from anything…
August 26th, 2010 at 23:06
Yesterday afternoon, I’ve watched the Julie and Julia movie starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams. I was kinda shocked to see Amy Adams so dressed down. My memories of her consist of magically beautiful gowns in Enchanted and how she and Isla Fischer looked so alike that I got confused at first while watching Confessions of a Shopahalic. So I wiki-ed and found out that it wasn’t Amy Adams in Shopaholic.
Julie and Julia is not your typical movie since the plot is stagnant and I’m irritated with how chirpy Julia/Meryl Streep talks. But the movie is saved by FOOD. You could almost smell Julie’s just cooked dishes. And after watching the movie, an idea hit me. I could do the same, like Julia did. But instead of finishing 500++ recipes in a year, I plan to watch 2 movies every day. Imagine how vast my world would be. I could live in another dimension, time, country, planet. I could be any character that I couldn’t be in real life. Movies can enrich my knowledge, for after a 2-hrs escape from reality, I couldn’t “move on” easily from what I saw so I usually do some research on that particular movie in wiki (I love wiki since everything I want to read is already there, no need to go to another site). I read about the movie, the production, the director, the director’s previous works, and of course the actors’ biographies.
Today, I watched two films. Gladiator this morning, and Book of Eli this evening. I enjoyed them both. Watching Gladiator made me almost feel the same sand that Maximus grips before he fights and almost felt the spilt blood on my skin. Russel Crowe exudes a dangeours charm (maybe they casted Gerard Butler on 300 because he looked a lot like Crowe) that is harmless and pure. But upon finding Russel Crowe on wiki, I’ve learned that in reality he is not actually harmless as he smashed a telephone on someone’s face in a hotel. He said sorry and paid a 6-digit amount.
So, I’m starting to love the movies because they simply add to my knowledge. And tomorrow, it’s going to be The Godfather and The Wolfman.
August 27th, 2010 at 01:12
Movies are just another way of storytelling. There’s something about us all – we never really grew up. We’re still the same kids who’d stop crying when someone would start telling a story. We’re still the same kids who’d love to listen and let their imaginations run wild. We never really grew out of that stage. We love stories. Now, we just feel we’re all grown up, no longer in need of anyone to calm us down with a good story. Yet every now and then, we find ourselves within the darkened theatres, transfixed by the silver screen, hushing the crying child within.
It’s not just a way of escaping from the real world. On the contrary, I think movies are a good way of seeing the world at a certain point of view. Some movies make us forget about our problems and make us laugh a while. Some movies make us realize things we often over look and ignore. It’s a buffet when it comes to movies. Pick anything for any reason. It’s a guilt-free indulgence.
As an aspiring filmmaker, I get to love movies both as filmmaker and as an audience. It’s a different view – from behind the lenses to being in front of the screen. Movies never lost their magic, as far as I’m concerned. Even if I know how they’re made, how they’re put together, I’d still be at awe, way after the picture fades out and the credits start to roll in. We all like to hear a good story, in the same way that we love story telling. Movies have the power intensify that experience.
August 27th, 2010 at 09:12
LIGHTS OUT!
{The Setup}
The possibilities
Of sight and sound,
Of rhythm and color,
Of perspective
Of motion and stillness
Of conflict and harmony
Of tension and resolution
Of narrative and loops of it
Of emotions and layers of it
…Immensely imponderable
(In all of its seventy five minutes or so)
A canvass larger than life
Limited in time and space
By concerns human and economic
And technique
Yet it transcends (sometimes)
It’s like Iron Chef
But the secret ingredient is kept secret till the end
An alchemy of reality and illusion distilled through the filmmaker’s lens
To create the illusion of reality
{The Performance}
One ventures into the groping darkness
Gambling time and money
Expecting everything and nothing
No pause button, no rewind nor fast forward (AND NO COMMERCIAL BREAKS!)
Expect to multi-task on subtitles:
Catch the nuances of the players’ expressions
Curse surround-sound for startling you, making you look behind
And then face forward again, trying to connect the self-styled mumbles with the life-size letters below
Open all orifices!
As the opening credits roll
One’s prejudices (or at least some of it)
Those that mark us as functionally sane
Takes flight, takes a hike, goes out to the fire exit for a yosi break
We are more ready to embrace than reject
Because we are seeking
“There he is!”
(Sinner, saint, pauper, prince, hero, anti-hero, villain, anti-villain, GI Joe, Cobra, anti-venom)
“That’s me!”
(Or someone I love, or someone I would like to decapitate with a three-fingered kite strike, yer’ daddy, yo’ mama)
Charmingly flawed
Standing on the edge of extinction
One step to the brink of greatness (of immortality, or the immortality of greatness, or the greatness of immortality)
Pearl/s of one’s humanity
One’s sparkling jewel/s of mortality
“That’s me!” one says
“I’m more nourishing than the popcorn I’m nibbling”,
“More vitamins and minerals, proteins and carbohydrates”
“My soul has less grease and enough calories needed hurl the Eiffel Tower to Uranus”
“And my brother is not a pig!”
{The Prestige}
It’s a good one
And into the light
Through your terrible overbite
You manage to walk out of the darkness with a secret smile
You look around (no, you cast around an aural impressions, you’re Batman!)
Before your protective prejudices creep back
For someone else who has found their pearl/s
Someone else singled out of to veer off the stampeding herd
Sporting that secret smile
And you walk away wondering
How to deal with all those memories and impressions
Crowding in with the smell of popcorn?
August 27th, 2010 at 11:05
It’s not about loving the movies (that’s already a given and to dwell on that would make me lost for words). It’s more about hating what happens when you watch a movie. (1) I hate it when someone is a know-it-all (can you not know the entire cast and crew?!), (2) I hate it when someone uses my cupholder (can you not use my cupholder?!), (3) I hate it when someone has to stand up and pee and they block my view (can you not stand up and block my view?!), (4) I hate it when the one seated next to you forecasts what’s gonna happen next (can you not know what’s gonna happen next?!), and (5) I hate it when you hear someone ask what happened and why it happened and then someone answers and it isn’t even the right answer (can you not make your own movie?!).
August 27th, 2010 at 15:29
The year was 1999. I was sixteen.
I was mostly naïve, probably brought about by sixteen years of living in a remote town in the island. So when I was thrown into Manila to study, I had felt freedom.
Idle time meant going out of my apartment and touring places I have never been to. I love commuting in trains so every now and then I would stop somewhere and just familiarize myself with the area. One ordinary day, I stopped at Doroteo Jose train station.
Rizal Avenue was different during those times. It was fraught with old forgotten movie houses that reek of nostalgia. While most movie houses showed Tagalog ST movies, there was a peculiar movie house that offered foreign films. The movie was Malena.
It cost 50pesos.
On the way to the cinema, I saw a dozen or two men outside the theater. I thought that the movie had just ended and they were waiting for it to start. When I entered, the movie was actually playing. I was too naïve to understand then that they were watching something else.
The scene showed Malena walking and the young kids were following her on their bikes. It gave me a shiver to realize how lovely Malena was. I never even knew who she was at that time, but she represented perfection. At least, for me.
When my eyes got used to the extreme darkness, I realized that some people were doing some other things aside from watching the movie. I could see heads going up and down and some people were moaning. It was live porn.
The free porn did not distract me from Malena’s story. It was moving and beautiful and frightful and exhilarating all at the same time. Told from Renato’s eyes, the story followed the life of a young woman (Malena) who was cursed for her beauty.
It made me sad in realizing how human frailty can be attributed mostly to a general lack of understanding of things or situations. In this case, people saw Malena’s beauty as a threat, and gave them an excuse to act rashly and violently. Evident is the fact that people sometimes treat you unjustly for no apparent reason other than their own fear or insecurity.
The movie made me realize how complex life is, and that it can be seen from various vantage points. That one perspective might be totally different from another’s, even if both people are looking at it at the same time.
Before, the credits rolled, someone approached me and started caressing my thigh. I said that I just went to the cinema house to watch a movie. He told me, “Masyado ka naming disente para dito.” (You are too decent to be here.) I just smiled and left.
August 27th, 2010 at 18:05
Inception
While almost everyone has a version of the ending (or beginning) of Inception, while almost everyone disagrees on the number of levels of dreams, while almost everyone argues that the lead is still in a dream post inception, while almost everyone thinks he gets it and proclaims his intelligence, while almost everyone says he doesn’t get it and proclaims Nolan’s ridiculousness, I sit down on a comfy chair, turn a page of my notebook, and begin to write, “how I love this movie.”
I tried (and it was hard) to put everything in just five parts.
1.) The time element. It was given in the early part of the movie. Five minutes in reality was equivalent to one hour in a dream. This sounded interesting enough until the architect did the math on how much time it would take to pull off another dream within a dream to follow the subject into limbo. I loved it.
2.) Zero-gravity. As the van fell into the lake in slow-mo, dreamers inside were in a zero-gravity state and the experience echoed across the dream, showing scenes like droplets of blood floating in the air as they gushed from a dying Japanese guy’s bruised lips, a brawl on the elevator hallway that made a scene from Matrix ordinary, dreamers tied in a bundle brought into a lift – the elevator was then turned into a rocket like propulsion that triggered a kick. I loved it.
3.) Elevator-accessed dreams and memories. Nolan made sure the concept of designing a dream can be done. The protagonist’s way of accessing his own dreams was so convenient that anyone could push the basement button to visit and relive a tragic memory – with deadly consequence. I loved it.
4.) The ultimate kick. It was so believable a viewer actually found himself following a quick chain of events as dreamers left one state at each time going up the level of dreams creating a full shot crescendo. The opening of the eyes as one arrived in a newer state as they shut from the previous was captured perfectly. It was so compelling. I loved it.
5.) Reality. A scene where everyone seemed to have come back from all levels of the dream when dreamers looked at each other while sitting comfortably the business class section of the plane en route to L.A. Facial expressions made in complete silence were powerful. “Something happened, and I can’t remember” like an ordinary person would say after waking up from a dream. I loved it.
Inception has given me a cinematic experience of a lifetime. Christopher Nolan’s masterpiece has redefined my standards of film making. He has taken me into the deep layers of his visual and visionary intelligence while keeping the entire journey entertaining and captivating. It may take a while to see another well-made movie like this one and while waiting I can always revisit Nolan’s Inception and continue to discover why I love this film.
August 28th, 2010 at 01:33
My earliest movie memory is being taken to see E.T. I remember falling asleep before even seeing the creature onscreen, though I recall the boy in the film’s name was Elliott, and being carried out of the movie house by my dad after it was over. It is there that the memory ends. While I don’t remember much of E.T. from seeing it that first time, I do remember being inside a movie theater- Mama and Papa on either side of me, my feet drawn up on the seat, being old enough to be taken to the cinema (but apparently not being old enough to stay awake through the actual movie). Something in those few frames of that memory made me save it in my mind, as if it could be important or useful later on. It’s one of my favorites. It’s a short one, but when it flickers through my head it’s a powerful one too.
I think most movie fans have several movie-related memories, and memories of specific movie-watching moments. I find it difficult to determine just one movie moment where I felt my whole worldview changed, or at the very least, challenged. There isn’t just one film wherein I recognized myself in the characters. I can’t for the life of me name one single film and say, “Look here, this is the movie that changed my life!” Every movie that I love has made me feel those emotions in varying degrees. There’s no way that a movie fan can feel a powerful connection with a film only once – and it would be very sad if only one movie defined us as movie fans.
I like to think that as movie fans we carry with us the entire catalogue of the movies that matter to us. All the little movie-related bits and pieces, and all the big impressions and ideas that those movies fanned the flames of. I’m talking about the movies that really mattered to us at whatever age we got into them (that still mean something to us in the age that we are now), and not necessarily the ones that other people tell us ought to matter.
Maybe that’s why every movie fan feels a particular brand of possessiveness towards certain titles. We always feel that it’s our story, and the way we got into it is the only way to get into it. Anything that doesn’t resemble our own experience with that movie must be a pose, and will be regarded as fakery or theft. When we hear complete strangers talking about a beloved film and getting the most basic details wrong, don’t we have to physically restrain ourselves from doing harm? That feeling is multiplied when we hear strangers talking about a favorite film with more authority in their tone than we have ever used when we talk to other people about that film. Can’t help it – the movies are that hard-wired into our systems.
The reasons why I love the movies are in between the details I’ve committed to memory, much like that first one of having slept through most of E.T. They’re in the seconds right before my friends and I scream our laughter in perfect unison at a well-timed one-liner, they sneak up on me when I feel the need to see some sappy teen movie from the 80’s for the fiftieth time and still notice something new, they’re in the tiny fireworks that go off in my brain when I watch what’s projected at me from the screen.
August 28th, 2010 at 13:08
As a child growing up in the sleepiest of towns–Dumaguete City in the early seventies–going out to see a movie was no mere diversion. Dumaguete then was devoid of discos and multiple channel TVs and this was before the advent of Betamax, so our key source of entertainment was the movies, never mind if the latest flicks usually took six months to arrive.
Going to the movies was a social experience, more so if you caught the last full show. It meant catching up with friends at the cinema’s small waiting area, shuffling and settling into the darkened theater together, and afterwards, tarrying at the same waiting area to discuss the movie. For a kid like me, movie night was the highlight of the week.
So you can imagine everyone’s dismay when the city’s Main Theater (and indeed, it was the city’s main theater) burned to cinders just three days after showing The Towering Inferno. Seems Maureen McGovern, that muse of disaster movies, had a point there. We may never love like this again…
But not for me, my love affair with the movies was just beginning. And through the years I have willingly submit to the requisite suspension of disbelief and embraced the mental and emotional manipulations that came with it. I could think of numerous reasons to justify my fixation for the movies, but I’ve narrowed it down to the first five that come to mind:
1. The leading men. Let’s face it, women are more likely to watch a movie if the lead actor is easy on the eyes. Unfortunately, my ideal leading men are either dead or most likely to be—what can I say, I’m partial to the tall and handsome, strong and chiseled mold the likes of Cary Grant, William Holden and Sean Connery. Accents count too, which is why I’ll watch anything with Omar Shariff or Alain Delon in it. And if you’re funny, you’re in. So Woody Allen, you’re definitely on my shortlist.
2. The music. The musical score, when done right, contributes to the allure of the movies. It moves the audience and enhances the mood for the film. Tara’s Theme by Max Steiner thoroughly conveys that longing for idyllic days now Gone with the Wind. Just as easily, John Williams’ reverential score for Superman adds to your sense of wonder and amazement, even if you’re seeing it for the umpteenth time. Very recently, we had Hans Zimmer’s genius of a score propel us into the multi-dimensional dreamscape that was Inception.
And I’m not just speaking of blockbusters. When it comes to movies and their music, I’ll always remember that long opening sequence of The (original) Italian Job. Filmed in the sixties, we see a strikingly attractive Rossano Brazzi, and he is the epitome of cool as he drives his red Lamborghini Miura through the scenic Italian alps. All this time Matt Monro is casually crooning the aptly titled “On Days Like These.” What impact–no pun intended here.
Nothing however, beats the pure magic and whimsy that music can bring to a movie when the entire dialogue is set to harmony. And to anyone who cares to refute this, I say go and watch The Umbrellas of Cherbourg!
3. It inspires me to learn. A few years ago I read half a dozen books on crown Prince Rudolf of Austria and the Hapsburg dynasty. And what brought on this unprecedented interest in European monarchy? I happened to catch Mayerling on DVD one day and found myself so enamored with the doomed love affair between Crown Prince Rudolf and his mistress Mary Vetsera as portrayed by Omar Shariff and Catherine Deneuve. It had all the trappings of a Greek tragedy, and I could not resist learning more about this historical soap opera.
Watching Lawrence of Arabia also spurred me to get a copy of T.E. Lawrence’s Seven Pillars of Wisdom, only to find out is in undecipherable. I’ve since recognized this sporadic desire for knowledge as it comes, which accounts for my very eclectic bookshelf.
4. It provides for some interesting perspectives. I was an impressionable fourteen when I first saw Splendor in the Grass, and I absolutely loathed the ending. How could these two young and beautiful people not be allowed to end up together? They were in love! Tsk, tsk, what a travesty.
I saw it again as a twenty-something newlywed and was surprised at my pragmatic acceptance of the ending and my long-delayed appreciation of the poignancy of Wordsworth’s words. More tellingly, it made me realize just how dense I was at fourteen.
But consider my conclusive reaction upon watching it now, as co-parent to an equally impressionable fourteen-year old: There’s no way it would have worked. They were too young–the marriage would have lasted a year—tops, and I salute the grown-ups for their intervention!
5. It bridges the generation gap. There’s a teenager in the house, and it’s endearing to see her weaned away from Hannah Montana and gradually succumb to the very movies I used to watch at her age. Some Kind of Wonderful eventually gets us discussing peer pressure, and films like Hitchcock’s Suspicion should make her wary of smooth talkers the likes of Cary Grant (oh well, one can only hope).
I’m just disconcerted by her rhetorical question concerning that stolen kiss between George and Lucy in Room with a View. If I were to find her in a similar situation, would I be as upset as Lucy’s chaperone, she asked. I replied with a resounding yes, but I need a damn good movie to back up my argument.
August 28th, 2010 at 20:44
I love stories. And movies are the most engaging format where stories are told for 2 and a half hours or less. I had vague memories of shadow plays my older brothers and sisters would play before we had TV. In those days, going to the theater is a luxury my parents couldn’t afford. But when we first got our black and white TV with a rotating dial, you would have thought Jesus himself just came down on earth for the second time in our living room-cum-kitchen-cum-bedroom from the way we stared in wonder at its flickering screen.
We had replaced the old TV with colored one and eventually, we bought a second hand betamax player, then a vhs. Later we had 2 Laser Disc players, a ProLogic sound system and a DVD, in the late 90s. My siblings and I loved movies. Not all of have close relationships but when night time came and someone rented a new movie, we would all shut up and watch movies together.
Unfortunately, my proxy guardians love horror movies that were the staple in the 80s and early 90s. Freddy Kruger, Michael Myers, Chucky, and Hellraiser, they were all parts of my nightmares and waking daydreams as a kid. There’s a reason you don’t let 7 year old kids watch this stuff. Whenever I clean my ears with a cue tip, I remember that teen from “Nightmare on Elm Street” get killed with a cue tip expanding until it reached the other ear, passing through the brain. But even though I knew I would get nightmares afterward, I can’t help but peek through my fingers as Chucky attacks expendable characters in “Child’s Play”. I’m the only one of the 6 of us who never learned how to swim on the river because I thought there were sharks in the water. “Jaws” was the culprit.
I remember we had this Stephen King phase, where my brother would rent every Stephen King movie available. None of us never even read Stephen King but why read when you can just watch it! I loved “It” and for a short time, I was creeped out by clowns. I remember we rented a 3 vhs tape Stephen King movie called “The Stand”. It was so long, I can’t remember if I finished it.
Birthdays are spent on ice cream, cake and a trip to the rental store to get more movies. I think we had every membership from all the nearest video rental shops. To prepare, I watch the Oscars and see which movies are nominated so I know which movies to pick next movie night. Remember there was no internet then so I had to rely on the Academy to make my choices. One such gem I found that way was “The Unusual Suspects.” The twist was so incredible, it truly defined what intelligent movies can do.
Today, my siblings and I are living our lives separately but I remember how movies brought us together in one room with all the lights off and just the glow of the screen lighting our faces.
August 28th, 2010 at 23:36
When I tell people that I was born in a movie house to exaggerate my claim of being a movie buff, they would almost believe me. But there’s no need to exaggerate because I AM a movie buff. It is not just because I love the movies but because they are so ingrained in my life, it would be impossible to tell the story of my life without mentioning stories involving the movies.
To start with, I was named after a bold star in the 80’s. There is also a recent more popular bold star used the same name, to which people would usually associate me with. I may not necessarily get the positive first impression because of this, but at least people easily remember my name because of this.
In the city where I grew up, going to the movies was a favorite past time. This is because tickets to the movies were cheap. Where can you find a movie house playing two movies for the prize of one? There is the main feature movie together with a not so popular movie, which we call “ka-double”. Because of this, my childhood memories were filled with trips to the movie house. I was usually taken to the movies whenever there was nobody available to babysit me. My cousin took me once to the movies just to doze off in the air-conditioned facility while he was supposed to supervise my playtime. One of the very few memories I have with my father also involves being taken to the movies when we were locked out of the house. I remember I was so happy to see Casper with him, since he usually watches movies that have either monster sharks or any sea creature in them. There was also a time when my mom asked her one of her staff to watch Disney’s Aladdin with me. I remembered feeling so happy watching the movie even though I was sitting on the stairs since the movie house was jam-packed.
Although movie houses have been my second home when I was a young, there were times when I felt unsafe. Going to the movies alone for the first time made me worry, but I was also happy to taste a bit of independence at fourteen. There was also a time when creepy old guy stalked my sister and me in the movie house.
Of course, some of my happiest times with my friends when I was older were the ones spent in the movies. I screamed my heart out watching Fung Sui with my blockmates. My girlfriends and I adored Johhny Depp.
But to be honest, I go to the movies alone most of the time. Primarily because most of the movies I want to watch are not the ones most of my friends would want to watch. There was even a time I invited them to watch Cinema Europa and they were not interested even though admission was free. This started the trend of having to watch movies on my laptop.
Recent improvements with cinema features got me to go to the movies more often recently. My first 3D experience was irreplaceable. Nothing beats the experience of having Bono’s face so near that I thought he was singing for me. Apart from that, it also made me realize that nothing beats the shared experience with strangers in the theater, as an old couple sang with me with U2’s greatest hits. Recent improvements in theater experience also made me promise to myself that I should watch Christopher Nolan movies only at IMAX theaters.
August 29th, 2010 at 00:20
Chasing a movie is one of the many unforgettable experiences I have with my affair with films. It was Pan’s Labyrinth. I was in Carmona, Makati then, nearest ones are in Glorietta/Greenbelt/SM. None of them was screening it. Spider-man 3 was out that time so half of the cinemas were showing it. It was a shock since clickthecity.com’s film schedule said that one was showing Pan’s. I was the most eager of our pack of five so I urged that we hop on to MRT and go to Megamall, hoping clickthecity was up-to-date. Spider-man 3 all over, no Pan’s. I had to feed my pack or else they were going to eat me. So while they grovelled on their game, I bought a newspaper. Ayos, showing daw ang Pan’s Labyrinth sa Gateway. Ilabyu MRT! Only one member of the pack is used to MRTs and buses, the rest are taxi-dependents. So I know the hardship I was getting them under. It was important for me to watch it at that day because it’d be another week before I’d get the time to watch it and for sure by that time, hope was nil. MRT Cubao, on a Saturday at that, is never half-empty. ‘Siguraduhin mo’ng maganda to ah!’ Yan ang sinasabi sa akin every 5 minutes ng mga kasama ko. At lalo pang naulit-ulit habang nakikipagsiksikan kami palabas ng Cubao station. Natakot tuloy ako baka hindi maganda yung pelikula, patay ako. But no, how can the guy who made the monsters of Hellboy go wrong? But wait, one of them hates Hellboy and I think most of them didn’t bother to see it. Pero nabasa ko sa reviews maganda raw, yung konsepto exciting at ang ganda kaya nung trailer! Tsaka sabi nung sinabihan ko’ng yun ang panoorin nila nung isang araw maganda raw sana lang daw dubbed. While these thoughts were running through my mind, we were already at the Gateway escalator where the movie listings were posted. Lintek na Spider-man 3 yan! Nakapatong yung sinulat, as in sulat-kamay, na “Spider-man 3” dun sa typewritten na Pan’s Labyrinth. Eebig sabihin kakapalit lang kanina. Bad trip, bad trip talaga. At sabay-sabay ako’ng tinawanan ng mga kasama ko. Siyempre pinagbawal ko na panoorin naming yung gagamba! Kumain na lang tayo ng kumain.
I never get to see Pan’s Labyrinth on big screen but I saw it and it was beautiful and wonderful and scary. Scary because the monster in this fantasy is less frightening than a captain of Franco, who probably was a real person. Beautiful because of the way del Toro made his creature and the world above and below the ground. And wonderful because how a child is able to endure a situation where no child, or no human, should ever go through. I see this film every my cousins come over. I’m 27, they’re aged 4-10. Pan’s is our common ground. As well as Coraline and Goonies.
My love affair with the movies started in betamax before the movie houses. Then of course the VCD and the DVD. (We never had VHS player.) Oh, and torrent. At sa lahat ng tagpuan na to, isama na rin pala ang TV (commercial: Napanood niyo ba noong pinalabas ang Kisapmata sa TV sa Holy Week? Grabe ang tama: nakaka-claustrophobic na nga yung palabas, Mahal na Araw pa! Dios mi!) Each of this medium gave me, and still gives me (except betamax) episodes of this affair which are meaningful even life-changing. Be it from watching using them or from experiences because of them. Alam ko nagbago ang buhay nang irinekomenda sa akin nung mamang nakasabay ko’ng bumubili sa Carreido (ubo, ubo) si Andrzej Wajda. Dahil naman sa torrent (ubo ulit), ay may mga bago ako’ng kaibigan.
So of course, I love movies. And for many of us, “I love movies” is probably not enough to describe our connection with them.
P.S. MicrosoftWord keeps on autocorrecting “betamax.” Sorry naman, Bill Gates!
August 29th, 2010 at 00:21
*got to see
August 29th, 2010 at 00:46
The movies – they have always been a part of the household. I saw the films change their form in our house, from betamax tapes to VHS tapes to VCD to DVD to data file to BluRay. The first movie I remember watching was Death Becomes Her in betamax tape and I was so taken by it – how did they do that? She has a hole in her stomach! The first time I went to the cinema I was seven – we did not have much to spare for going to the movies, and it was much cheaper to get tapes from uncles, friends, colleagues. I no longer remember how I got there, I just remember the grand staircase – it was the premiere of The Little Mermaid. My aunt got tickets. All of us kids were lined up each holding each other’s hand. The lights dimmed and there fell a hush – no more sound is allowed, and the screen lit up, and in the darkness there is just the screen. I watched Ariel sing of wanting to go to discover a different world. I watched her lose her voice and gain feet, watched her fall in love and be disappointed. I didn’t take my eyes off even when the King was turned into a sorry little creature, I watched until Ursula and her minions were defeated, until the happily ever after. When the lights came on – was it a dream? There was darkness, and then there was light, and the short time of discovering a different world is over… but not quite, not really. I carried with me the story of Little Mermaid and played it in my mind. After watching movies, when I get to my bed I lie there dreaming of them while waiting to fall asleep. In my head I was replaying the movies I just watched – how it started, my favorite parts, the dramatic sequences, the climax, how it ended. At the time I didn’t have names for them, I was just watching it again in my head. Then the movies in my head would go this way and that, and suddenly I’m the one with a hole in my stomach, or I just lost my voice, or the water at the balde will turn into an alien, or the neighbors are really half-cats, or the wind is really an invisible man.
When I grew up, after watching movies I usually replay the movies in my mind, and discuss with friends. If I like a movie, I’ll watch it again. Sometimes 3x. Every time there is something else there too, a detail I might have overlooked, or I might just better appreciate the brilliance of the lighting and how it set mood and tone. Sometimes, movies talk to me – there’s a language unique to them too – like how certain music can talk to you.
When I start a movie, I want to finish it through. No matter how it turns out, not even when in the first twenty minutes I know that even Christ won’t be able to save the movie, or that the movie is simply boring the hell out of me, I do my best to see it through and understand it – find a saving grace, the silver lining.
It’s one of those things – when you are asked, do you love so and so, and you answer yes, and you are met with follow-up questions: but how do you know? Why do you love so and so? And you realize, there’s really no easy or one answer, there’s some truths you just know and that words cannot express, and you learn that when it comes to love there really needs no reason, it just is. That sounds like a cheesy line from a sentimental feel good romantic movie — but movies, we’ve always had a kind of love story.
August 29th, 2010 at 23:29
So the accused was acquitted in the Twelve Angry Men, Jack reunites with Rose at the end of the Titanic, Deadpool survives a decapitation in X-Men Origins, and Sarah Connor lives to prepare her son in the Terminator.
Right?
Well, not always. Movies as most people know them are a form of fixed media. It’s not easy to change their endings or switch around their plot because if you cut up the film and replace it with something, it’s usually going to be inferior to the final product.
But in 2050, a guy who called himself Maximillien Morrel found a way to bridge the gap between the world of reality and the world of movies, and he had a grand time performing his cinematic vandalism. Jacob and Edward ditched Bella and did the nasty, all the characters in Tom Cruise’s movies for some reason suddenly stopped acting to look at the screen to say: “I am gay,” (a gun was pointed to the head of all his characters, including his performance of King Lear when he was 80) and the Bourne movies all became syrupy sweet.
The Americans thought, as always, that it was the Chinese who had purchased Hollywood studios to implement the changes to warp the American social psyche. The Chinese of course thought that it was the Americans who had been blaming them for global warming, breach of human rights, gay marriage, and world hunger, so they had to blame the Americans in turn.
The change was gradual. The Western world learned concepts like justice from the DeMille epic movies, the Japanese learned aesthetics from Kurosawa’s movies, and Filipinos learned societal ills from the Brocka movies. The changes to the movies retroacted backwards from 2050 and mankind was losing its cinematic foundations – and oddly enough, our cultural, moral and societal foundations as well which had become anchored onto cinema.
My task force was therefore formed to review movies and detect which were those that had been vandalized by Morrel and to try to right the wrongs. The field agents were assigned to jump the cinematic bridge and right the cinematic wrongs wrought by Morrel. I did not have the physical gifts that were needed to engage Morrel and his minions in combat, and I couldn’t convince characters that they were tricked into doing other things by this Morrel character (Edmund Dantes read Dumas’ unabridged version of the Count of Monte Cristo and wanted to ditch the inferior Kevin Reynolds version and stick to the original of Dumas; I don’t blame the guy).
But I had PhDs in cinematic studies, literature and computer engineering. I had an eidetic memory and could not forget anything, even if I tried. I was therefore assigned to travel back in time to watch all movies immediately after they were released, and to compare them with the versions that existed in 2050, and prepare the missions for the field agents to fix the vandalized.
And that is why I watch movies.
August 30th, 2010 at 01:14
I love movies because I love discovering how other people live. I will never be the mistress of a gangster, the empress of China, an investigator running after a crazed killer. But I can follows their lives for a few hours and exchange my life for theirs. I think in the same way that one needs to read the great books because they contain a body of knowledge that one needs to acquire in order to be truly civilized, one needs to watch great movies in order to complete one’s education and one’s process of being civilized into humankind.
August 30th, 2010 at 01:56
When I watched Superman Returns with Brandon Routh as supes, I never wanted the movie to end. I wasn’t born yet when the first one with Christopher Reeves came out, but I’ve been a huge fan of the movie. Superman Returns gave hardcore fans, like me, something to tie the original run. Plus the reboot was good enough to get new fans hooked. My problem was that the movie ended. I so wanted to live in the world of Superman. I figured that Christopher Reeves’ character in Somewhere in Time immersed his character of fiction so much that he came to live in his fantasy world. So I began watching Superman Returns endlessly, until I learned the dialogue by heart. Eventually, Harry Potter 6 came out, and it turned out that that was the movie I wanted to live in. So I began watching Harry Potter 6 endlessly, until…