great flicks

Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros and Breaking The Waves. Probably the two greatest movies I've seen since early this year. I watched the Ang Pagdadalaga yesterday with Ka; Breaking the Waves just this afternoon at school- it's actually for Philo. I didn't get much philosophical musings from the latter, but it's theme about faith really strikes through me- that's definitely a wierd way of putting it. Ang Pagdadalaga is a coming of age flick. It's about pre-teen gay kid growing up in the slums of manila- I think it's somewhere in Sampaloc. Thank God the story covers the slight blunders of the camera, resolution and the sounds- was a very very nice flick despite these. And considering their budget, the movie offers great talents too! Indie films are the way to go for the film industry- big celebrities in dumb stories bore people!

Here's my further thoughts about the movies.

Ang Pagdadalaga was definitely a nice way of depicting how kids mature. Taking a stand for what you believe in and growing out of your family's bounds are just few of the things the film tackles. More than these essential stuff in a coming of age flick, is one's loss of innocence- and then coping with with. I think the scene where the policeman and Maxi was whistling to each other over the window- without them seeing each other- is a nice way of depicting forgiveness and moving forward. The use of poverty, crime and corruption as a background was a smart way of putting things into place. It is definitely a good way of giving colors to the characters by contrasting them to each other or by blending them with with the background. Also, it gives additional flavor to the film. One more thing I noticed is how good the film paves way for real individual characters. There's not a two of the same shade when it comes to the primary characters- not even stereotypes brought about by Philippine Cinema, Thank God. Having a gay kid as the main character also makes the theme lighter to bear- plus it gives face to gay cuture. I like all aspects ot the film: there's comedy, Philippine culture, a sense of social awareness, and the coming-of-age thingy. I hate the resolution and the sounds though. Drastic stuff is a must for people to grow up.

Now, Breaking The Waves is a requirement for Philo. I don't understand why the film has to take almost three hours just to get to what it wants to say. Okay maybe I like propaganda films more than artsy kind of flicks, or that I just don't get the entire flick. Maybe. The movie starts by developing Bess's character- a sort of deranged church woman. Later we see that she's really crazy: she prays to "God" then replies to her own prayers by speaking in a pseudo-God voice. Then she falls in love and sacrifices her self for this love. At the end she dies. Maybe 2 ++ hours is needed to picture the nakedness of the movie. It brings all necessary mundane stuff about her life, thus giving it life. I think the most important scene is when She enters the church, after almost being raped and killed- doned with fishnet stocking and skimpy shiny red shorts, and then voicing out how she doesn't understand what the old man is talking about. The old man speaks about loving words. Bess says that it is by loving another person that... uhm I forget the exact line. She sacrifices- initially the audience would think of this as dellusions- herself for Jan. Later she dies with bells ringing in the heavens. Sweet. Maybe with the latter image, the film shows that her faith is genuine. I'm not quite sure about this though. What strikes me is that her faith is to her level. Maybe it's time we understand life and our faith in God to our level. Imagine an alien having an I.Q. of over 300 understanding us. Wouldn't we be as pathetic?

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At last it's the weekend! Despite yesterday being a holiday, I am still cramming stuff ranging from the usual tons of readings to org stuff and to carreer stuff. Ugh, you heard that right. I'm actually preparing work stuff like applications and stuff- and oh resume- beats me! I felt stupid seeing that I have more stuff written under "interests" than under "work related experiences". I'm really desperate of employment after grad- hopefully that is, next year. Okay, enough about this post-grad anxiety. It's the weekend, so it's time to de-stress! Hurrah! I've loads of flicks to watch care of Andie- Citizen Kane and Ong Bak among others! Oops! No, no, no. Got some stuff to fix for Celadon's GA/Christmas party tomorrow- the music for the fashion show, the reg forms among other stuff!

I just want to doodle about this wierd experience I had yesterday. I got to call some fifteen peeps yesterday. I felt like an ATM machine repeating the same words to each of these peeps. It's quite a relief after I finished. I' not quite sure whether my shyness exacerbated or otherwise. I'm totally not comfortable talking over the phone- I felt my ear hurting after the thrid person in the list. I admire my sister for enduring an entire two hours over the phone chatting about the ost mundane stuff with her friends. I miss her already.

I feel like philosophizing right now but I feel that I don't have the proper words to articulate my thoughts; I take back my comments about breaking the waves being unphilosophical. I wish I'm eloquent enough to ask my Teach in front of the class. Where do I start thinkning when it comes to freedom and death?