A grab bag of film fest delights
There was a time when Cinemanila, Cinema One Originals, and QCinema would all take place annually, when film buffs ate well as each festival would import a crop of films (beside original productions) the likes of which would rarely be given a regular theatrical run in our cinemas: arthouse fare, foreign films, cult oddities, and classics.
Now only QCinema remains, its curation and programming even more important as it may be the only chance to see some of the world’s best films of the year on a nice big screen, where they were meant to be seen.
Any festival can be a gamble. Targeting buzzed-about films from abroad is the obvious start, but never forget to peruse the brochure or website to read about the movies you are unfamiliar with. See if anything strikes your fancy or just slipped under the radar. Talk with other cinephiles to see what you’re missing.
These were some of this year’s offerings:
“Directors’ Factory Philippines”
An omnibus of four short films all set, and made, in Dapitan (even postproduction!), it opened QCinema and premiered at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year. Each short is codirected by a Filipino and another Asian director. They have different genres and all sport some lovely photography, from the surrealism of “Cold Cut” to the stark contrast of “Walay Balay.”
“A Samurai in Time”
Jun’ichi Yasuda dons several caps in his third film; writer, director, producer, cinematographer, editor … he even does the special effects in this tale of a samurai who leaps forward in time to modern-day Japan. Cuter and sweeter than expected of an entry in QCinema’s Beyond Midnight section, it’s disarmingly funny but gets a strong emotional core by the third act, which also features an impressive sword fight.
“Anora”
One of the stars of the festival, the acclaimed Palme d’Or winner and awards season favorite concerns a sex worker who has a whirlwind romance with the son of a Russian oligarch who she decides to marry on a whim while in Vegas. The son’s handlers, who work for his parents, have a conniption trying to figure out how this happened on their watch, and how to undo it. A star-making turn from lead Mikey Madison (“the titular role!”) anchors this frenetic livewire, the closest writer-director Sean Baker has gotten back to his own breakthrough, “Tangerine.”
“Lost Sabungeros”
This documentary about missing sabungeros who were all “disappeared” around the rise of e-sabong was announced as part of Cinemalaya earlier this year but got pulled seemingly at the last minute. The controversy about why this transpired adds to the conversation around this powerful, and necessary, story, though it occasionally reminds of its TV documentary trappings, with some tacky transitions and sensationalist score in its intro and conclusion.
“Blue Sun Palace”
A debut work from Constance Tsang about two immigrants working at a massage parlor in Queens and the man dating one of them. It’s a beautifully shot, stately and elegiac work on being unable to escape the orbit of grief and chafing at the self-imposed limitations of being in a foreign land.
“When Fall is Coming”
The latest from Francois Ozon reunites him with frequent muse Ludivine Sagnier in this story of a grandmother (Helene Vincent) with an infamous past struggling in her relationship with her daughter (Sagnier). Measured and sly, in typical Ozon fashion, the layers keep peeling back like an onion, and the audience may find itself in tears by the end.
