Topic: Lav Diaz' MELANCHOLIA

[X44]

I saw the screening of Melancholia at UP last weekend. Lav wasn't present, though,

I haven't seen Ebolusyon yet and Heremias Book 1 may still be my favorite (and the 2 hours' worth of footage from Heremias Book 2  that Lav showed at Mogwai bodes well for both books being my favorite work of his) but Melancholia is a must.

I was actually scared to watch it at Cinemanila as the screening coincided with some personal s**t and I had been warned that this was relentlessly depressing, somehow the idea of 7 hours of  . . um . . melancholia . .with so much real-life melancholia in my head didn't sound appealing.

It wasn't as brutal as I thought, though and there were brief swatches of humor - - - plus seeing a few people I know personally onscreen sort of helped lighten it a little but not by much. The bookmark sections in Sagada and the forests, respectively, are terrific and flat-out gorgeous in most instances and there's a scene with Perry Dizon at the Markina Riverbank in the rain in the slightly middling second section that had me chanting "Tarkovsky" in my head and getting a serious lump in my throat.

Oh and I think this is the first time I've seen Lav do closeups and pan the camera.

Don't have the energy or the time to write a full-on piece at the moment but it's a terribly beautiful film.

Anybody else seen this?

[Noel_Vera]

No, I haven't. Have you seen Batang West Side? I'd love to hear your take on the Lav you've seen.

Huh. Sounds like an album title.

[X44]

I've seen Batang , Heremias and Engkantos. Also, all the Regal stuff - - which I didn't like as much but maybe I should go re-watch. Also not as taken with Lav's shorts - -- I've seen two, they're Ok but not as resonant.  I've tried to write pieces on nearly all of them but somehow got aborted halfway through.  I should get down and finish them one of these days.

I love the backstory of Melancholia's making, how Lav did preproduction for an entirely different film then started from scratch when they got to Sagada. He was writing script pages at night then handing them to his cast and crew over breakfast.

[Noel_Vera]

Would love to hear your thoughts on the major ones--even just a ranked list.

Of the Regal I think the best if not Kriminal is Hesus. Not your everyday dystopic science fiction film, that one. Burger Boys I think works, if you listen to the soundtrack only. It really should be a radio play.

I guess I need to see the shorts.

[X44]

My ranked list of the non-Regal stuff would look something like this: Heremias (and I have a feeling,based on what I've seen, that that covers both Books), Batang West Side , Melancholia and Engkantos, although what separates the last two is a mere hair.

I did like Hesus a bit. But I want to see all of them again. There are only two shorts I've seen actually. One is made up of sections from Melancholia called Purgatorio, which works as an installation piece, and the other is called Upheaval, which is a sort of conceptual piece about his run-in with the MTRCB. It has its moments  but the process of that one fascinated me a bit more  - - -Lav shot it one morning then showed it in the afternoon at a Cinemanila seminar with Raymond Red. Since it was a 40 minute single take, no editing.

[Noel_Vera]

A 40 minute singe lake about the MTRCB? I love it--it's like something they'd be hardpressed to cut without ruining the beautiful continuity, something like a "I dare you to slice this!" kind of artwork (Knowing the MTRCB, tho, they'd do it anyway).