My Weekend with Olivier Assayas

For the second year in a row, the annual French Film Festival held at Shangri-la cinemas included a retrospective of a popular French cinema artist. Last year the featured artist was actress Sandrine Bonnaire; this year the spotlight was on director Olivier Assayas. Seven of his films were included in the retrospective, two of which had already been screened in past editions of the Festival. This weekend I was able to see three of the films, including two of his best-known and most polarizing.

Sentimental Destinies (Les Destinees Sentimentales; 2000) is the most conventional of the three films. In fact, it seems determinedly old fashioned in its evocation of French provincial life in the early part of the twentieth century. The story revolves around Jean Barnery, the heir to the Barney porcelain dynasty and the unfortunate choices he makes throughout his life. While the three hour length and the slow, deliberate pacing may render it unwatchable for many people (in fact, at the screening I attended, there were a lot of walkouts before the movie ended), but those who are willing to be immersed in the world portrayed by the filmmakers may find themselves rewarded in the end.

Irma Vep (1996) is a film-within-a-film and revolves around the making of a new version of a classic silent film serial involving a sexy cat burglar. Maggie Cheung appears as herself, who has been cast as the lead of the film. Arriving in Paris late due to delays in the shooting of another film, she finds herself in the midst of a chaotic production headed by a clearly disconnected and distracted director who seems not that interested in the film he’s making. While the movie is intermittently entertaining in providing a backstage view of the actual nuts and bolts of the filmmaking process, it ultimately seems to be the kind of film it is implicitly critiquing – a pretentious movie that is made only so the director can express himself and is aimed only for an elite audience of intellectuals.

Demonlover (2002) is the most problematic of the three films, a highly polarizing film. The film revolves around Diane, played by Connie Nielsen, who is helping broker a deal for exclusive distribution between the Demonlover site, which shows Japanese porn, and a content provider. However, it turns out she is actually a spy for a competitor site, Mangatronics, whose ultimate aim is to scuttle the deal as a matter of survival. She also discovers the existence of the Hellfire Club, a torture porn site with ties to Demonlover. The movie features a fractured narrative that completely breaks down by the third act, leading to an uncertain conclusion, albeit one that nails the movie’s theme of growing desensitization to violence due to increasing exposure to images of violence.

Things I’ve Gained from Writing for Essays.ph

When they started playing Christmas songs on the radio recently, I realized that it has already been a year since I applied for Essays.ph. I received the acknowledgement of my application on September 24 last year and was accepted on November 4. Honestly, I had almost forgotten about my application when the e-mail arrived. I submitted my two qualifying essays in mid-November (my submission was actually delayed because I made a mistake in the uploading process), and wrote my first assignment in early-December. I received my first points on December 4.

Now that this series of one year anniversaries is approaching, I’ve decided to reflect on the things I’ve gained from writing for Essays.ph.

Confidence. When I first started doing assignments, I always felt insecure about my ability to deliver the essays within the time period. Of course, I always had confidence in my ability to write and do research, but until I started writing for Essays.ph I had not written on this kind of relatively tight schedule on a regular basis.

Now, all these months of working with Essays.ph has honed my skills such that I no longer have any concerns about being able to deliver within the deadline. Of course, personal issues and family problems sometimes crop up, but then that’s another matter.

Discipline. This is probably an issue for virtually every writer, including me. Sometimes when the assignment just seems too hard it’s too tempting to procrastinate. Of course, this is not really a concern for me because I’m forced to share the computer with other members of my family, which makes having to maximize time I have with it a must. But still … without developing self-discipline I would probably not have lasted this long with Essays.ph.

Self-Esteem. When I was accepted for Essays.ph I had been jobless for a couple of months. When I left my past job with a non-government organization after they ran into financial problems, I thought that I would not have too much trouble finding a new job. How wrong I was. In fact, I even had a financial crisis of my own early this year, which led to a bout with depression for a while.

But gradually I worked my way out of my blue period, and I did it by writing articles for Essays.ph. Doing assignments and getting paid for them helped restore my self-esteem that I had lost for a time because of being unemployed and broke.

A Livelihood. These days, I treat Essays.ph as if it were my day job. I try to do assignments on a nine-to-six schedule or complete them at a nearby Internet café if I have to give up the computer without having finished yet. I am able to complete several assignments in a week which provides me with a modest income which I can live on.

Even better, recently I was promoted to the Blue Team, something that I was really hoping would happen. Aside from the ego boost it provides, the promotion will also help increase my income from the assignments. It really is true that, to paraphrase the title of one of my favorite inspirational books says, if you do what you love the money will follow.

Useful Information. Through the articles I've written for Essays.ph, I now know how to make your stomach flatter, make your penis longer, make your voice deeper, cure your insomnia and prevent your computer from suffering a spyware/adware infestation. Plus, I also have a working knowledge of how to trade currencies.

I also know the best sites where you can download free Ubuntu applications and games, as well as old movies and episodes of TV shows that have fallen into the public domain.

So what does the coming year hold? I’ve learned not to think about the future too much and planning too far ahead – well, forget about it! I’m a pessimist at heart and if I think too much about what lies ahead it would just make me feel bad. But, honestly, I think I’d like to keep writing for Essays.ph, and hopefully, if I’m lucky I might eventually be able to work for them on a full-time basis.

In the meantime, I think I’ll just treat myself to an ice cream or something like that to celebrate my anniversary, and be thankful for the blessings the past year has brought.

Saturday Nights at Instituto - Anytime Soon

Saturday Nights at Instituto Cervantes



As part of its mission to promote Spanish and Latin American culture globally, Instituto Cervantes of Manila hosts a weekly screening of Spanish and Latin American movies every Saturday evening. Since I regularly attend these screenings I will be posting on this blog my thoughts on the movies shown.



ANYTIME SOON (Esas No Son Penas)
Directors: Daniel Andrade, Anahi Hoeneisen


This film is part of the Cine en Construccion (Cinema in Construction) cycle that is an annual part of Instituto Cervantes' screening program. According to Cervantes' website, Cine en Construccion is a program that gives financial support for post-production to independently-made feature films.



Anytime Soon, a film from Ecuador, follows the same template of other Cine en Construccion films that I've seen: small-scale, slice-of-life films. This is particularly true in the case of this particular film, which seems to eschew any kind of drama for the sake of recreating the feel of real life.



The film has five major characters, four of whom are briefly introduced in the first part of the film: Elena, who is pregnant; the somewhat wild and free-spirited Tamara; single mother Diana; and Marina. The heart of the movie is a late evening get-together, during which the four reunite with Alejandra, who is recovering from cancer.



The above synopsis is literally all there is to the movie. There is no dramatic tension, no resolution to any of the characters' problems. We simply share their lives for a few hours.



This led me to a reflection on the relationship between movies and real life. I realized that most people don't go to movies to see real life. Why would they when they already expreience the dreariness of most of everyday life? What viewers want is to see a heightened version of real life, without the routine, boring and ordinary parts. Admittedly, the reunion party is a big deal for the characters, but not for the viewers. I mean, why would they want to watch a party where nothing dramatic really happens in a movie, when they can actually attend a party in real life?



This capturing of the feel of everyday life is actually the film's strength. The actresses act with true naturalism, without making us ever feel that they are acting. They convincingly make the audience feel that they are old friends during the party scenes. This already sounds cliche, but Anytime Soon is almost like a documentary, with the camera intruding on the lives of real people.But, unfortunately, the film never goes deeper than that, never gives us any insight into the friends and their lives.



Anytime Soon ultimately seems like a film that would never get any screening beyond the film festival circuit. In fact, another thing that struck me is that the filmmakers, even before the credits rolled, had a title card showing the many film festivals in which this film has been exhibited.



Sad to say the feeling I carried out of the screening is one of loneliness and the overwhelming futility of life.