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Our jaws still feel a bit loose from having hit the floor every few minutes. The Act of Killing is a work of staggering chutzpah: consider the end credits, in which dozens of crew members prefer to be listed as “Anonymous”.

Filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer invites the leaders of the Indonesian death squads that terminated millions of suspected communists in the 1960s to direct re-enactments of their killings. They do not deny that they killed people. They are not sorry. They casually, gleefully point out the scenes of the massacres and recall what they were wearing (jeans, never white pants).

They do not make excuses for their actions (No “I did it for my family/country” drama here—they do not have Catholic guilt). “What is true is not always good,” one unrepentant war criminal points out. “War crime is defined by the winner, and we are the winners.”

You’ve heard of “the banality of evil”. A man who figures out a way to kill people without making a bloody mess treats his pet ducks with great tenderness. He has never apologized for his role in the genocide, but he makes his grandson apologize to a duck for hurting its leg. Another murderer wears a series of glittering women’s gowns. In a musical sequence, a victim thanks his killer for sending him to heaven.

It will take us weeks to process what we’ve just seen.

Horrifically funny and extremely disturbing, The Act of Killing starts out as a film about political violence, explores what humans are capable of, then reveals itself to be a film about filmmaking. The killers confront history through the medium of fantasy, cinema, and perhaps the most amazing thing that happens is the sudden, creeping realization that they have committed a great evil.

Here’s the Cinemanila schedule for December 20-22.

Our Desirable Residences tour the other week took us to the MacArthur Suite at the Manila Hotel, former residence of the American military adviser to the Philippine Commonwealth, General Douglas MacArthur.

We were shown to the suite by two charming members of the hotel staff. They were wearing these extraordinary floor-length gowns in old rose, with high collars, fitted jackets, leg o’mutton sleeves, lace trimmings, tassels, and pillbox hats. There was something 19th century Russian about the outfit: we could visualize Anna Karenina at the fateful train station in Moscow. We love 19th century Russian novels, but imagine the layered winter outfits would be a little oppressive for our tropical climate.

“What an interesting outfit,” we told the staff. “Is that your uniform?” Yes, she said, it was their new hotel uniform and it came in four versions. “Who designed it?”

“Go-tier,” the staff replied.

“Gaultier!” we screamed in unison, but silently. We were impressed that the Manila Hotel would commission Jean-Paul Gaultier to do the staff uniforms.

“Surely Gaultier knows this is a tropical country,” we said. “He came here to work with Pierre Cardin at Rustan’s in the 70s before he became famous.”

“Maybe he had a Russian hotel client, and their uniforms were sent to the Manila Hotel,” said Rene.

“Or maybe the uniforms were switched, so somewhere in Russia, the staff are freezing to death in tropical outfits.”

“More likely,” said Noel, “we are over-interpreting, so when we hear Go-tier we assume it is Jean-Paul Gaultier.”

“Ha ha ha!” we all laughed. (The next day it occurred to us to ask the hotel PR person who the designer is. “Yes, it’s Gautier,” she said. “Bon Gavino Gautier.”)

The MacArthur Suite used to occupy the entire fifth floor of the Manila Hotel. The hotel was razed in World War II and rebuilt: the current three-bedroom MacArthur Suite is a replica of the general’s apartments. Next door is the Aguinaldo Suite, which is convenient if their ghosts decide to reenact the Philippine-American War.

History question: What is the link between General MacArthur and Philippine cinema? Answer: Dimples Cooper.

Elizabeth (nee Isabel) “Dimples” Cooper was a Fil-Scottish vaudeville performer who became a movie actress and had the first kissing scene in Filipino movies. In the 1930s she became Douglas MacArthur’s mistress—a fact that the general concealed from his mother, who would surely disapprove. Dimples Cooper moved to Washington, D.C. with MacArthur when he became U.S. Army Chief of Staff. There, as the story goes, he established her in an apartment that she couldn’t leave because she had no clothes, only lingerie. According to William Manchester in his MacArthur biography American Caesar, MacArthur “showered (Dimples) with presents and bought her many lacy tea gowns, but no raincoat. She didn’t need one, he told her; her duty lay in bed.”

History is so much more exciting than the lectures we slept through in school.

For the November LitWit Challenge, we asked readers to write a letter to Andres Bonifacio, whose 150th birthday we marked last Saturday.

maelynda wrote a formal, respectful letter about her personal acquaintance with the life and legacy of Bonifacio, the gaps in our education, and our national failure to deal with our revolutionary past.

the boomerang kid wrote a poem about Bonifacio in rhyming quatrains. Nice effort, but it reminds us of grade school declamation contests.

Solace sent Bonifacio a bunch of questions, then says she/he doesn’t know much about Bonifacio. Why write to him then? (‘Because this is a contest’ is not an answer.) The tearing of the cedula is emphasized in a manner that suggests it is the only thing the writer knows about Bonifacio.

regtol opens with a cute greeting (‘I thought you’d also be a Scorpio’), as if this were a pitch for a romantic comedy. He proceeds to hurt our eyes with purple prose and naive assumptions that would not be out of place in a high school literary magazine.

lizagaspar also makes cute and addresses the Supremo as an equal. She also has not read much about Bonifacio, or she would know that he didn’t actually win any battles with his bolo. Then she says ‘My writing is good’ and proceeds to contradict herself.

The winner of the November LitWit Challenge is maelynda. Congratulations! You win Php1,000 in gift certificates from National Bookstore. Please post your full name in Comments (It won’t be published). We’ll alert you when you can pick up your prize at the Customer Service Counter of National Bookstore at Power Plant Mall, Rockwell, Makati.

Update: maelynda, you can pick up your prize tomorrow. Call first; their number is (02)8974562.

The LitWit Challenge is brought to you by National Bookstore.

Ala-ala ng Bayang Filipino sa mga Bayani ng 96, the monument in front of Vinzons Hall at UP Diliman

On 30 November 2013, we mark the 150th birthday of Andres Bonifacio, the Father of the Philippine Revolution.

What became of Bonifacio’s revolution? What is his legacy? Does Andres Bonifacio matter in the 21st century? If he does, why is the manner of his death still a mystery to us? Why don’t we know for certain where he is buried? Why aren’t we sure those are his bones? Why have we not dealt with the fact that he was killed by his own allies? Why has there been no justice for Andres Bonifacio?

For this LitWit Challenge, write a letter to Andres Bonifacio. Choose your topic. The letter can be as long or as short as you wish. Post it in comments by 11:59pm on 1 December 2013. The winner (and the prize) will be announced on 3 December 2013.

This LitWit Challenge is brought to you by National Bookstore.

Two formerly unknown paintings by German artist Otto Dix found a trove of modern art seized by the Nazis. Photograph: Michael Dalder/REUTERS

An art haul confiscated from a Munich flat includes previously unknown works by Marc Chagall and Otto Dix, and original pieces by Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso, Bavarian authorities have revealed.

The whereabouts of the 80-year-old owner of the flat, Austrian Cornelius Gurlitt, is not known…

Read the report in the Guardian.

Recommended reading:

The Monuments Men by Robert M. Edsel is the story of a small band of soldiers tasked to protect and secure the artistic and cultural treasures of Europe during World War II. Today we’d call them the Nerd Squad—the historians, art conservators, museum curators (including the future founder of the New York City Ballet) who saved civilization during some of its darkest hours. Apart from safeguarding art masterpieces in areas of heavy fighting, the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives section also foiled Hitler’s plan to build the world’s most fabulous art collection by looting the museums of Europe.

It’s an amazing tale, and a belated tribute to the men and women who risked everything to keep these priceless treasures safe. (Their achievement was not officially recognized till 2007.) The prose is kind of flat, and there’s too much about troop movements and not enough about the art, but this is a military history book. We’re looking forward to the film adaptation by George Clooney starring Matt Damon, Bill Murray, Cate Blanchett, Jean Dujardin (and hoping Matt Damon doesn’t morph into a painting).

Speaking of the great Nazi art heist, The Forger’s Spell by Edward Dolnick is the staggering true story of Hans van Meegeren, who painted fake Vermeers and ended up a folk hero. How? Because he sold them to the Nazis. Hah! Dolnick’s book is a thriller that poses many questions about art, not least of which is, How could anyone believe that these are Vermeers?

Napier, New Zealand was levelled by an earthquake in 1931. Students from Auckland University’s architecture school contributed to the rebuilding of the city, which is considered the Art Deco capital of the world. Photo from mkiwi.

Read our column at InterAksyon.com.