Topic: HEREMIAS

[Klaus Weasley]

Heremias (Lav Diaz) ***1/2 - This Filipino film is 9 hours long. Now, I am very much mixed in whether or not the length is justified. On one hand, the story can easily be told in three hours or less but a lot of the flavor will be lost in the process. Still, if you have the time and the strong enough bladder to withstand the length, it is highly recommended if not for the gorgeous cinematography and the fantastic lead performance by Ronnie Lazaro.

[oggsmoggs]

Heremias (Lav Diaz) ***1/2 - This Filipino film is 9 hours long. Now, I am very much mixed in whether or not the length is justified. On one hand, the story can easily be told in three hours or less but a lot of the flavor will be lost in the process. Still, if you have the time and the strong enough bladder to withstand the length, it is highly recommended if not for the gorgeous cinematography and the fantastic lead performance by Ronnie Lazaro.

The nine hours is very much justified. The story can actually be told in 15 minutes, but it won't be as powerful as what we have now.

[X44]

Lav's running time alone - - = nine hours - - -is stubborn enough to either piss you off or challenge all your previous notions of process (of making a movie), product(the movie itself) and procedure(watching the movie). He does both here. Plus he breaks your heart, too - - -which is the most important.

It is  very avant garde in discipline  in that it is indulgent and stubborn  - - -I'm thinking Warhol's Empire and Sleep - - -  yet it's not a difficult film thematically and narratively and quite emotionally satisfying.

And suspenseful. And while the suspense, on the surface, hinges on whether the girl will be spared her dire fate or not,it becomes resonant because it draws its subtext from the suspense most of us go through  in our daily lives: is there a God or not and if there is, is He really willing to help?

Powerful stuff.

[oggsmoggs]

Well said, Dodo,

His next film will premiere in Venice and it's 7 hours long. Reportedly it'll close the festival. Had a short chat with him after his stint in the screening of Squatterpunk in Cinemalaya, sabi lang niya, "mukhang ready na ang mundo."

[X44]

Thanks,oggs.

Is the 7 hour movie the same as the Nora Aunor project we've been reading about?

Or are we finally going to get the sequel to Heremias?

[oggsmoggs]

Thanks,oggs.

Is the 7 hour movie the same as the Nora Aunor project we've been reading about?

Or are we finally going to get the sequel to Heremias?

It's a different movie. Nora's project is Reclusion Perpetua (set in New York, I believe). The Venice one is Death in the Land of Encantos (but it has so many title revisions; Our Death, Death of a Poet) --- about a poet, stationed in Russia, who goes home to Bicol to bury his family (has shades of Tarkovsky's Nostalghia, I think). More on the film here: http://www.labiennale.org/en/news/cinema/en/77598.2.html Lav Diaz said he's going to go back to filming Heremias, we'll see.

[X44]

Thanks for the link, oggs.