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Entertainment => Film & TV Talk => Pinoy Entertainment => Topic started by: Dog from OuTeR Space on Jan 21, 2002 at 11:12 AM
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ey... anybody watched this film??? I'm quite intrigued by it, all these praises and criticisms about it, they say it is about 5 hours long, is this true ??? What is the longest movie ever made, locally or internationally? I've never watched one that long...
I saw the director, Lav Diaz, in one of the I-Witness, Correspondent-type-of-show, and I'm quite impressed... great, smart, non-sense guy... another reason why I'm quite curious about his film... by the way, kelan ba ipapalabas ung BWS dito sa tin... Mr. Diaz was pissed off by the Metro Manila Film Fest... saying it was a "festival of idiots!" ;D
Kiluminati2 8)
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Hey, Dog from OuTeR Space. I think you will find some answers to your questions (and more!) about Batang West Side in the "CINEMANILA 2001 Film Recommendations (http://www.pinoydvd.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.cgi?board=filmtalk&action=display&num=1007738640)" thread.
Hope this helps. :)
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It's a great film.
Will try post when it will be shown again.
You could try watch this, though:
For anyone even remotely interested in Philippine cinema's next direction, I think this is a must-see:
UP Film Center CinemaLibre Film Society
January 2002
Premieres
Thursday, 24 January, 3pm
HESUS REBOLUSYUNARYO
Written and directed by Lav Diaz
Produced by REGAL FILMS, INC.
It is the year 2011, the government is ruled by a military junta. The Philippines has been under a state of martial law for a number of years. The economy is dead and the country's future is uncertain. The situation had seen the birth of an underground rebellion that hopes to regain power over the government and restore freedom.
This is the story of Hesus Mariano, a young and idealistic revolutionary who is acknowledged as one of the best in what he does. Forming the core of rebel leader Miguel Reynante's best cell. Hesus and his companions are the masters in pushing for a radical change in society, whether through education, economics or violence.
CAST: MARK ANTHONY FERNANDEZ, DONITA ROSE, JOEL LAMANGAN, RONNIE LAZARO, PINKY AMADOR, RICARDO CEPEDA, BART GUINGONA, RICHARD JOSON, ORESTES OJEDA, MARIANNE DE LA RIVA, LAWRENCE ESPINOSA
Director: LAV DIAZ. Executive Producer: LILY MONTERVERDE. Supervising Producers: RONALD MONTEVERDE, ROSELLE MONTEVERDE-TEO. Line Producer: MIKE SANDEJAS. Director of Photography: ROMULO ARAOJO. Production Designer: YEYE CALDERON. Film Editor: RON DALE. Music: CHICKOY PURA/THE JERKS. Sound Supervision: ARNEL FRANCIA. Story and Screenplay: LAV DIAZ.
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hmmmmm... quite interesting... I'm quite impressed with this Lav Diaz guy... he seems to make innovative films... surely he'll become one of the lino brocka's of today...
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Brocka never did science fiction, nor did he do a 5 hour film.
That said, no, Diaz has not yet done anything as good as Insiang, I think.
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ey Noel, you missed a the opening of a pretty good digital movie festival in greenbelt today (it will be on until next wednesday)
it was well-organized and lotsa fun
the reason i bring it up was coz lav was there
www.mov.moviespage.com
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I was in Malaysia, talking about the state of Philippine cinema.
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Noel Vera... cool... in Malaysia talking about Philippine movies, what's your job if u dont mind me asking...
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Bank officer by day, film critic by night.
Am attending the Digital Video Film Festival at the moment. No breakaway greats just yet.
Lav is something else, isn't he? First a five-hour film, now a science fiction film. And I think he's got more up his sleeve...
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Bank officer by day, film critic by night.
Am attending the Digital Video Film Festival at the moment. No breakaway greats just yet.
Lav is something else, isn't he? First a five-hour film, now a science fiction film. And I think he's got more up his sleeve...
cool cool job... :D 8), yeah I think this Lav guy will really have a name someday, I just hope he doesn't disappoints us... as for the Lino Brocka thing, I stand to be corrected coz the latter is an established icon already, and this Lav guy is just starting out... too early to tell, and besides, the genre are quite different...
Kiluminati2 8)
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Hesus Rebolusyunaryo will open on January 30, I think, in all theaters...
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I heard from a friend that Batang West Side will have its regular theater run sometime May 2002. Can anybody verify this?
*I missed the Cinemanila festivals :(*
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I heard from a friend that Batang West Side will have its regular theater run sometime May 2002. Can anybody verify this?
*I missed the Cinemanila festivals :(*
around May pa ??? ang tagal pa nakakainis naman... curious na curious pa naman ako sa film na to... anyways, if that will be the case, I hope it will be worth the wait...
Kiluminati2 8)
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Hesus Rebolusyunaryo has been moved back to February. Will inform you soonest if I have a firm date.
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Batang Westside
Lav Diaz is the film equivalent of Fyodor Dostoevsky or Leo Tolstoi on the cinema scene. Just as the Russians needed someone to read during the long all to Siberian winters. Filipinos need to watch something on their long haul flights from Manila to New York City. (Which means, Lav Diaz might be making movies one day, that last 24 hours! ; ) .
And so just like Brothers Karamazov and War and Peace, Lav's movie is tedious yet rewarding. Filled with fascinating characters with unenviable traits and destinies. Batang Westside begins with the death / murder (?) of a young man played by Yul Servo. The plot of the movie is to find out who killed him or is it? As the movie plays out, we are introduced to a whole milieu of interesting characters who represent the different aspects of Filipinos searching for the American Dream.
So the power of the movie is in the characters themselves. We are introduced to shabu dealers, and shabu addicts, married nurses and hip-hop pinoys, Filipino cops and other exiles. One observation I would like to make is, are the actors in this movie really great acters? Or is the writer/director, just brillant? My conclusion is that Lav is a brillant director and writer, because even though there was some really bad acting in the movie, the story shone, and you empathized with everybody, even the bad ones.
So in conclusion, did I like the movie? Did I not? What can I say about it? What did I not like?
What Lav has here is a cinematic tour de force, as one Variety review said here. Though I liked the way the characters were played out, I feel the characters had no redemption. Lav comes from a time, when Filipinos were very cynical, and were all sitting around, waiting for a Messiah to save them. What Lav and many others have to figure out, is that one must be one's own Messiah, and if one just succumbs to one's emotion and illogic, this is what can happen.
The problems of the Philippines are caused by nobody but ourselves. And even if foreign invaders has persecuted as long ago, that was a long time ago, and we must move on. But before I pontificate any further, I'd like to return to the movie. Did it deserve to be 5 hours? Yes, it did. It was worth it. But it is not a film, in the typical sense, but more of an art work. Nice to be viewed, but perhaps not more than once. It could be edited down to two hours, but Lav didn't, and that's his prerogative.
I think it is a great piece of work, and everybody should try to at least view it once, whether in installments or one full sitting. And Lav is a great man. But as one viewer in the audience said today, he has to learn to laugh more. Coz life is not as cynical, as he makes it seem. And once in awhile, we do smile. If not a lot even.
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"Lav Diaz is the film equivalent of Fyodor Dostoevsky or Leo Tolstoi on the cinema scene."
Lav should hear that--him or his producer Tony Veloria. But then, his Kriminal ng Baryo Concepcion IS inspired by Crime and Punishment...
"One observation I would like to make is, are the actors in this movie really great acters? Or is the writer/director, just brillant? My conclusion is that Lav is a brillant director and writer, because even though there was some really bad acting in the movie"
He didn't make an actress out of Klaudia Koronel and couldn't get a good performance out of Angel Aquino. He got a great one out of Raymond Bagatsing, but Raymond's really good...
Many in the cast ARE good--Joel, Yul, Gloria, Art. Curious here, what moments of bad acting are you thinking of?
"I feel the characters had no redemption."
SPOILERS
The old man represented it for Yul, but yes, we know how that turns out. Gloria and Joel might have hope; Gloria by going back to the Philippines (it took her son's death to make her feel like going) and seeing her children again, Joel Torre by confessing to the camera. I thought I saw hope there...
"Lav comes from a time, when Filipinos were very cynical, and were all sitting around, waiting for a Messiah to save them."
The Messiah they hoped for was Communism, actually, and if I remember right, Lav did some activism in his time (I have to check with him). Well, he WROTE about it, which is doing something, I think...
"The problems of the Philippines are caused by nobody but ourselves. And even if foreign invaders has persecuted as long ago, that was a long time ago, and we must move on."
I think Lav had something more complicated in mind. Sure he blames foreign influence, but (at least in the old man's voice) he also blames Joel and Gloria's generation (one major flaw may be that the old man refuses to put any blame on himself). So we are at fault too.
And the foreign influence doesn't stop with the past, it goes on even now with the children living in New Jersey (I'm thinking, for example, of the scene where the old man and Yul make gentle fun of Pricilla for not being able to speak Tagalog). I think the film says it's us and it's foreigners and it's still going on now.
"But it is not a film, in the typical sense, but more of an art work."
The Human Condition is 9 hours long, The Burning of the Red Lotus Temple is 27 hours long and The Cure for Insomnia, if I remember right, is about 100 hours. BWS is middling long, I think. It IS the longest Asian film meant for a single sitting, though....
"he has to learn to laugh more. Coz life is not as cynical, as he makes it seem. And once in awhile, we do smile. If not a lot even."
SPOILERS
Oh, the scenes with the drug addicts was plenty funny--specially "Shabu is the salvation of the Philippines" speech. I think he laughs just fine (just not obvious, though). May katok rin siya.
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Check this out guys:
Lav Diaz's 5-hour epic, actors win in Brussels fest (Click me) (http://www.inq7.net/ent/2002/nov/12/ent_2-1.htm)
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I wouldn't be too excited about this.
If this is Robert Malengreau's festival, he's just a Filipino fan. Not that there is anything wrong with that, its just that local showbiz tends to make this bigger than it actually is.
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I've seen Batang West Side and I just can't believe that I actually sat through a five hour film. I liked the movie but I kept on thinking If it really had to be that long. By the way, a three hour version exists...
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I've seen the three hour version. It sucks.
The five hour works just fine.
Malengreau is a fan, but hey, an award for a good film is a good award, I say. Good for the film!
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i keep missing the damn movie. any idea when it'll hit local theaters again?
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i keep missing the damn movie. any idea when it'll hit local theaters again?
bumping this to ask the same question. been missing since i couldn't find a five-hour break in my sked.
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I'm just gonna wait for the DVD to be released... at least I can pause and pee:)
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one of the occupational hazards of a movie buff. kaya andami sa atin ang may bladder problems.
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Lav Diaz said as much as, just go. You can still pick up the thread of the story afterwards. Worked for me three times.
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I love Lav. And it was a great movie.
But asking someone to watch a 5-hour movie is too much, in my opinion.
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one of the occupational hazards of a movie buff. kaya andami sa atin ang may bladder problems.
wow! it just entered my mind that i haven't stood up the whole five hours of the movie when we watched it during Cinemanila... :o
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kaya nga hazard, kasi napapapigil ka kapag maganda talaga yung pelikula. ako pa naman, i don't want to miss a scene.
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I love Lav. And it was a great movie.
But asking someone to watch a 5-hour movie is too much, in my opinion.
Batang West Side is only middling long. Frost is four hours, Satantango is 7 hours, The Human Condition 9 hours, the Burning of the Red Lotus Temple 27 hours, the Cure for Insomnia one hundred hours.
It's a matter of perspective.
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I'm just gonna wait for the DVD to be released... at least I can pause and pee:)
To back-up oggs post, is there hope for the dvd release of this Lav Diaz opus? ???
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There are talks that, this will be screen at U.P. Film Center next month. Let's keep our fingers crossed!
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showing on oct 4 in up, 1 pm - 5 pm.
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Anyone who have seen the film at U.P. Film Center?
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we were supposed to see it but the screening was moved to 3PM instead of 1PM. lav diaz and joel torre graced the event. dahil late na matatapos, we opted not to see it anymore... :(
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I talked to one of the producers of the film, Mon Mappala, and he told me how Lav had planned to shoot the film in fall, when the leaves were gold and orange. But delays were such that the shoot was moved to winter.
And I think it works out better that way. Gold and orange leaves would have given the film a prettier-looking, more Hollywood-feeling melancholy, whereas there's nothing like winter (and at one point they shot in a blizzard) to really bring out the depth of one's loneliness and depression.
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This I've yet to see....
I've only seen two films by Lav Diaz: Kriminal ng Bo. Concepcion (got it in VHS) and his Nouvelle Vague-ish Burger Boys (that I almost skipped merely because I wasn't too fond of the cast).
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Oh no, forget the cast; it's a interesting film because it's so thoroughly a product of Lav's mind. Nihilism and not a little dropped acid--I like it better than such recent exercises as Big Time or PInoy Blonde--there's a real sense of pain and anger in the film, it's not an assumed stance.
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Yup, Burger Boys is angst-sy or whatever you'd call it.
Er..now I guess my Filipino-film deficiency is slowly turning to a disease (missed a lot of good ones).
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(http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m132/keating_01/1-1.jpg)
Lav Diaz at work.
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(http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m132/keating_01/2.jpg)
Photos from BATANG WEST SIDE. Courtesy of Flip Magazine.
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i actually live in this area of West Side Avenue...
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Cool, jo. Too bad they haven't release this Lav Diaz opus on dvd.
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it would be impossible... Tony Veloria is holding on to the film like glue. ;)
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He should move on na. Yul Servo is in the Philippines already. ;D
Even Lav has no copy of this film.
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i guess it's difficult for him to let go after all he produced this film for Yul...
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Lav just used a handycam to shoot that ending with Joel Torre. And its so craping brilliant! When he saw the film for the first time in U.P. in one sitting, he nearly cried.
They should tuck in Lav's commentary in it, there are so many things that happened with his life while making it.