Film App - Cinemalaya: Orasyon and Tulad ng Dati

My class had a chance to watch two films shown in this year's Cinemalaya. I thought: Cool, now they can see what indie really feels like, sounds like.
The first, Tulad ng Dati by Michael Sandejas is a semi-bio of The Dawn. While watching it, I thought that the film worked in so many layers and levels. In one level, could be viewed as a fanboy’s fantasy of what ought have happened had The Dawn stuck to their old sound, a sort of wish movie reliving the heyday of a band that had helped shaped Pinoy rock. In another level, it could also be seen as a parable of a man who simply refuses to change, while the people around him are changing and drifting away. It could even be seen as a fish-out-of-water tale, a man becoming alienated and cut off from things around him, becoming a stranger in his own universe.
Which was why I was kind of disappointed when I learned that Sandejas chose The Dawn mainly because “kabarkada ko sila”. And he made the film mainly because he was a fan. Dang, was I demystified.
Anyway, there is no doubt that the film was really well-crafted, with Sandejas experimenting on editing styles and mise-en-scenes that -- while not exactly new – lazy mainstream filmmakers shy away from.
My only qualms about the film was the way it spoonfed audiences with aphorisms, pounding the main message away until there’s nothing left of it but an onion paper-thin sheet.
And why, oh why does it have to have a snarling villain, a bald scenery-chewing actor who we know has to be a bad guy because of his sneer? I know he was supposed to represent the degenerates of the local band scene, the kind who think that shouting “putang ina” in their songs makes them edgy. Unfortunately, the actor playing him made the character one-dimensional.
Other than that, the film was really interesting and well-crafted. It generated a spontaneous applause from my class when it was shown here.
And now to Orasyon by Milo Tolentino.
The story delves on the Jungian theme, the duality of man. It’s a very simple narrative about a typical old lady stuck in her old colonial-style mansion, praying day in and day out to all the saints in heaven that her son would remember to visit her one day. Then, a stranger stumbled into her home one day, helped herself to some of the old woman’s rice cakes, and appointed herself as the maid-slash- bodyguard. Pretty soon, the stranger started to make her true colors show and eventually threw the old woman to despair, nearly driving the poor lady to kill herself. The film ended with the old lady going to confession (a beautifully shot scene of redemption), and the stranger-cum-(Satan’s) helper packing her things and leaving.
The film was shot with split-screens which, the director assured us, was meant to demonstrate the duality of things: the two contradictory sides that the characters were showing for instance. The lensing of the film was just masterful, and I appreciate that the film was shot entirely in black and white reinforcing the theme of the movie.
It was, however, a stark contrast with Tulad ng Dati, which tend to get talky on scenes that need quiet reflections. Here, the director seemed confident enough that the audience would figure out for themselves about what’s going, so even mysterious shots like the one with a male incubus in the closet was not fully explained.
As for the split screens – personally, I found myself distracted from an otherwise decent story. And for a horror movie, the film did not scare me one bit. Well, I didn’t squirm when I watched Saw and the yolky-eye bit in Hostel, so I must be one chromosome short of my scary gene.
But most of my class didn’t get it. Must be the reason why the applause was more tentative, more polite, huh?

Photo courtesy of www.pulse.ph