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On weekends and during breaks from shooting the TV shows Bubble Gang, Show Me The Manny, and Family Feud, director Uro de la Cruz goes looking for “parts”. “Parts” is his euphemism for “old film cameras”; partly to prevent friends from saying, “You’re going to buy another camera?!”, partly because he knows he has rescued too many half-extinct cameras from junk shops, flea markets, and antique stores. . .

Photographs From The Dead: How a box of moldering film negatives brought an important photographer and a lost chapter of our history back to life. In Emotional Weather Report, today in the Star.

Being There 1946: The Legacy of Teodulo Protomartir
An exhibition of photographs from the Collection of Uro de la Cruz
June 9-July 3,2010 at Silverlens Gallery, 2230 Pasong Tamo Extension, Makati City
Opening Reception: June 9, Wed, 6-9pm
For inquiries, call (+632)8160044 or (+63)917.5874011

Photo: Raymond Red and John Sayles at the private screening of Amigo.

On Saturday we saw an early cut of John Sayles’s Amigo (formerly titled Baryo), a film set in the early days of the Philippine-American War. It’s a work-in-progress, not yet color-graded or completely scored (though the quiet works), but already 50 IQ points higher than other films about invasion, war, and colonialism.

Joel Torre stars as the cabeza of a village in Luzon at the turn of the 20th century. Ronnie Lazaro plays his brother, the head of the Katipuneros encamped near the village, Rio Locsin his devout wife, John Arcilla his conniving brother-in-law, and Chris Cooper as the head of the American troops who descend on the village in search of the President of the new Republic of the Philippines, Emilio Aguinaldo. I can’t wait to see the finished version. Amigo offers perhaps the most cogent summary of Philippine history between the Spanish and American periods: “We’re being fucked at both ends.”

There is an excellent Filipino movie set in the same period: Virgin Forest, arguably the best film directed by Peque Gallaga, written by Uro dela Cruz. Leo says Amigo could be viewed as an episode from Virgin Forest. Virgin Forest has probably the best summary of Philippine history after the American invasion: “The Americans arrived and taught us to watch movies.”

Thanks to John Sayles and his producer and partner Maggie Renzi for allowing us to see the movie. Thanks to Jaime Augusto Zobel for lending us MyCinema. Spot the ironies in this paragraph.

The Countess is the third film directed by Julie Delpy. It’s the story of Erzsebet Bathory, a powerful countess who becomes obsessed with a younger man. She starts taking measures to preserve her youth and beauty, measures which become more and more extreme. First she starts using the blood of virgins as a skin cream. Eventually her henchmen are kidnapping young maidens and murdering them so she can bathe in their blood.

I told Noel about this bizarre movie, and he recognized the Countess Bathory as one of the inspirations for Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

So much bloodshed could’ve been averted if it had occurred to the countess to inject herself with botulism toxin instead. Blood, botulism, placenta, blubber—the beauty business is built on icky stuff.

Photo: Ayala Museum lobby

Ayala Museum is inviting all teachers to get into the museum habit. From April 15 to June 15, public and private school teachers, principals, DepEd Supervisors and Superintendents are entitled to free admission to all the galleries of Ayala Museum. No reservations required. If teachers come in groups of ten, they will also receive tokens to remember their visit.

Ayala Museum is open from Tuesdays to Sundays and closed on Mondays. It is located at Makati Avenue corner De la Rosa St. Greenbelt Park, Makati City.

The shocking theft of the Mona Lisa, in August 1911, appeared to have been solved 28 months later, when the painting was recovered. In an excerpt from their new book, the authors suggest that the audacious heist concealed a perfect—and far more lucrative—crime.

Read an excerpt from The Crimes of Paris: A True Story of Murder, Theft, and Detection, by Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler, in the May issue of Vanity Fair.