On peut avoir été chef décorateur sur une pub Nestlé et gagner le prix de la mise en scène à Cannes. Brillante Mendoza le sait mieux que personne puisqu’il a commencé dans la pub avant de se voir remettre le prestigieux prix des mains de Terry Gilliam, en 2009, pour son dernier effort Kinatay.

Le philippin a confirmé qu’il était une bête de festival. Son film Serbis était présenté l’année précédente à Cannes et son prochain long, Lola, concourait déjà à Venise en septembre dernier. Pour apprécier le chemin parcouru, voici trois spots télé sur lesquels “Dante” Mendoza a travaillé. La publicité qui lui “ressemble” le plus étant celle qu’il a réalisé en 2006, avec son sens aigu du détail…

Rolling pour Pondo Ng Pinoy(2006) réalisé par Brillante Mendoza.

Faces pour Nestlé (Chef décorateur : Brillante Mendoza).

Ang Saya pour Smart Buddy (Chef décorateur : Brillante Mendoza).

By Nickie Wang

Brillante Mendoza has directed nine films since he started making movies in 2005. Three of these films (Tirador, Foster Child, Masahista) were exhibited at the Cannes Film Festival, and two others (Serbis and Kinatay) were part of the main competition.

To win best director award at Cannes Film Festival, which is considered as one of the oldest and most prestigious film festivals in the world, is not an ordinary achievement. The honor puts his name alongside the best filmmakers in the world like Quentin Tarantino and Ang Lee.

Recently, Brillante’s film Kinatay received two more awards at the Sitges International Film Festival in Spain. The director wanted to receive the Best Director and Best Original Soundtrack trophies but he was in Paris on the day of the awards night. He was having a meeting with a big film outfit that is willing to distribute his film Kinatay commercially.

Up to this day, Brillante’s works still receive mixed reviews. But isn’t it called a success when a film elicited different reactions from critics and viewers because it made them think?

At the moment, Brillante’s goal is to continue making movies that attract viewers. After Lola, a film about two elderly women coping with the harsh realities of life, his next project might be about the Abu Sayyaf.

“What is important for me right now is to generate audience for independent films. We all know that indies have limited audience so my goal is to encourage people to watch them,” Brillante said at the launching of MyDSL Watchpad.

Watchpad, according to PDLT officials, is a broadband innovation that allows MyDSL subscribers to watch some of the hottest channels and TV shows for free, surf the Net, play online games, and update Facebook, Multiply and Twitter accounts, all in one page (without closing any of the applications).

Brillante’s films are highlighted at the launching of the streaming technology featured on Watchpad called myFlicks. Some of the films that are shown on Watchpad are Serbis, Twilight Dancers, Masahista, Manoro and Foster Child.

For the question of censorship, Dan Ibarra, head of retail business group of PLDT, said that these films are shown based on the approval of Movie and Television Review and Classification Board. He added that since Watchpad employs streaming technology, downloading or pirating these featured movies can be prohibited.

Soon, other highly-acclaimed films from more of the country’s premier filmmakers and directors will be featured on Watchpad.

Aside from this streaming feature, there are also about 15 cable channels available on Watchpad. Some of them are MTV, Voom HDTV, Go Channel, PBO, CNBC, CNN, Animax, Cartoon Network, National Geographic, among others. Indeed, there’s something for everyone.

“Watchpad has a very rich content and it marks our entry to the realm of multimedia. We are providing our subscribers access to multimedia because we would like to give them unique experience. And that sets us apart from our competitors. Our vision is to showcase quality works. We are always partner with brilliance,” Ibarra expressed.

Along with the launch of Watchpad, PLDT also announces another news from PLDT Budget Card. Subscribers who use Budget Card can now enjoy reduced call rate to US and Canada. From P3, call rate has been reduced by 50 percent to P1.50 per minute.

By Nickie Wang

The Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino’s Gawad Urian is setting a trend as more independent and lesser-known films are being recognized by the 32-year-old award-giving body.

Brillante Mendoza

Commercially-exhibited films produced by big production outfits were snubbed at the Gawad Urian’s 32nd edition held on Sept. 22, at the Cultural Center of the Philippines Tanghalang Aurelio Tolentino.

From nominees to winners, “indies” dominated this year’s Gawad Urian. One of the big winners of the annual movie event was Brillante Mendoza who received the Best Director award for Serbis, which also won Best Film.

Meanwhile, the Best Actress trophy went to Mylene Dizon for 100 and the Best Actor award to actor Ronnie Lazaro for his performance in Yanggaw.

Highlights and sidelights

32nd Urian Best Actor Ronnie Lazaro

Ronnie Lazaro was in high spirits when he receive d his very first Gawad trophy. He perked up the crowd by initially delivering his acceptance speech in Ilongo then proceeded in Tagalog. He said that receiving an Urian trophy is just one of his dreams as an actor. He’s been in the business for 27 years now and he’s overwhelmed by his first best actor recognition from Urian.

Actress Mylene Dizon was with Tomas, her eldest son, when she received the highest award given to an actress in a leading role.

Mylene and Tessie Tomas in 100

“It might sound a cliché but I didn’t expect to win. And I don’t know, I got all nervous when my son said, ‘Mommy let’s go up on stage.’ Nag-dilang anghel siya kasi I won the Best Actress award,” she told reporters right after the program.

Lazaro and Dizon were fortunate that they were able to accept their respective trophies personally. Most of the winners were either promoting their films abroad or doing out-of-town projects.

Brillante is currently in Brazil for a retrospective of his films. Francis Xavier Pasion, who won Best Screenplay for the multi-awarded film Jay, is in Europe according to the person who accepted the award on his behalf. Coco Martin, who won Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Jay, was not able to accept the award. Instead, hosts Butch Francisco and Boots Anson-Roa accepted the trophy and told the audience that the young actor is currently out of town.

Best Supporting Actress winner Aleera Montalla (Yanggaw) didn’t make it on time because of traffic congestion, but she was able to pose for photographers after the program.

Some celebrities made the night more colorful like Jennica Garcia who was visually attractive in black mini dress and Carlene Aguilar in a stunning black gown. But it was Rustom Padilla aka BB Gandanghari who received the loudest applause. It can be recalled that it was also in last year’s Gawad Urian when he first publicly appeared in drag.

This year’s Natatanging Gawad Urian Lifetime Achievement Award was conferred to Peque Gallaga who has directed 36 films, wrote 22 of them, acted in 13 and produced four full-length films. His most significant achievement in film is Oro, Plata, Mata, which he directed after winning a scriptwriting contest sponsored by the Experimental Cinema of the Philippines. The director delivered a 15-minute speech.

Other winners

Just like the major awards given out, some of the awardees were not able to accept their recognitions but there were some who exerted efforts to grace the program though they did not expect to win.

Other winners were: Odyssey Flores, Serbis (Best Cinematography); Benjamin Padero and Carlo Tabije, Serbis (Best Production Design); Francis Pasion, Kats Serraon, and Chuck Gutierrez, Jay (Best Editing); Popong Landero, Hunghong Sa Yuta (Best Music); Joey Santos and Von De Guzman, Yanggaw (Best Sound); and Milo Tolentino for Andong (Best Short Film).

The night was made entertaining by performances of Bayang Barrios and her ethnic band and Cookie Chua who sang the movie theme song of Yanggaw in a cappella.

(Note from my editor: I told one of the members of the Manunuri to rename their annual awards into Gawad Urian Para sa Mga Hindi Pelikula. … who vehemently defended the group’s decision to embrace the video features as fitm)

My neighborhood has increasingly gone down the shitter over the last few years. Its aesthetic quality has more or less been consistently aight since I can remember but it’s the goddamn people who live here who are terrible. Back in the day you could walk down the street and everyone passing by you would smile and say “hello” or something along those lines. Nowadays if for some reason you do walk through the neighborhood (which no one does anymore because their eyes are probably glued to a computer AND television screen) you’d be lucky if a person even looked at you without thinking you’re going to mug them and/or molest their child. Suburban life sucks, I tell you. Our American individualism has led to seclusion, and our country is a whole lot worse because of it.

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I watched Brillante Mendoza’s film “Serbis” Saturday night. I’ll most likely post a complete review on my other site, but I have a few things to share about the film and Mendoza (who, some may recall, garnered best director honors at this year’s Cannes). The man is obsessed with WTF moments (word on the street is that’s all “Kinatay” was). Aside from fully nude Roxanne Jordan bush in the very first scene, you see a lot of dick fuckage/suckage, ass boils, and ye olde guy standing in shitty, piss filled, and more or less questionable water. This does, in my opinion, distract from the lovely, albeit simple, story of the film, which is more of a commentary on the underpaid Filipino working class’ lifestyle than it is the tale of a dysfunctional-ish family running an adult movie theater. The sociology is there, and my god does Mendoza shoot the most colorful and vivid photography in Philippines cinema today.

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No comedian on television can come close to Craig Ferguson’s superior intellect and clever delivery of material. No one. Don’t even try to challenge me with that Letterman, Fallon, or Kimmel bullshit.

La Spasa, de 81 anys, viu entre les ruïnes del petit nucli de Cvaljina (Ravno), que va quedar completament destruït arran de la guerra de Bòsnia i Hercegovina. Aquest és un petit fragment del reportatge “Reconstrucció”, de Maria F. Noguera, gravat a Bòsnia i Hercegovina l’agost del 2008.

Spasa, de 81 años, vive entre las ruinas del pequeño núcleo de Cvaljina (Ravno), que quedó completamente destruido en la guerra de Bosnia y Hercegovina. Éste es un pequeño fragmento del reportaje “Reconstrucción”, de Maria F. Noguera, grabado en Bosnia y Hercegovina en agosto del 2008.

a prelude to my francoise

I got annoyed when my french school informed me that our first class is moved to another week, but my mood suddenly changed when a friend of mine told me an interesting news – it’s the 14th French Film Festival at the Shang!

The French filmfest has already started tonight last Friday, and will run until June 14 at the Shang Cineplex 3. This year’s festival features fourteen films which have been presented at the Cannes Film Festival. Local films like Independencia by Raya Martin, Sabongero by Janice Perez and Serbis by this year’s Best Director in Cannes Festival, Brillante Mendoza, are also showcased at this year’s festival.

Admission is free.

Here’s the screening schedule:

June 5, Friday
Home -  7:30 p.m.

June 6, Saturday
Un Secret-  12:30 p.m.
Ca Brûle – 3:00 p.m.
Jean de la Fontaine – 5:30 p.m.
Van Gogh  – 8:00 p.m.

June 7, Sunday
Home – 12:30 p.m.
Marie-Jo et Ses Deux Amours – 3:00 p.m.
Flandres – 5:30 p.m.
Ma Saison Preferee – 8:00 p.m.

June 8, Monday
Van Gogh – 12:30pm
Flandres – 3:30 p.m.
Ca Brûle – 5:30 p.m.
Zim et Co – 8:00 p.m.

June 9, Tuesday
Zim et Co – 12:30pm
Marie-Jo et Ses Deux Amours – 3:00 p.m.
Flandres – 5:30 p.m.
Jean de la Fontaine – 8:00 p.m.

June 10, Wednesday
Ca Brûle – 12:30pm
Home – 3:00 p.m.
Van Gogh – 5:30 p.m.
Un Secret – 8:30 p.m.

June 11, Thursday
Dix-Sept Fois Cecile Cassard – 12:30pm
400 coups – 3:00 p.m.
L’esquive – 5:30 p.m.
La Pianiste – 8:00 p.m.

June 12, Friday
Sabongero – 3:00 p.m.
Serbis – 5:30 p.m.
Independencia – 8:00 p.m.

June 13, Saturday
Ridicule – 12:30 p.m.
Dix-Sept Fois Cecile Cassard – 3:00 p.m.
L ‘Esquive – 5:30 p.m.
Flandres  – 8:00 p.m.

June 14, Sunday
Un Secret – 12:30pm
Jean de la Fontaine – 3:00 p.m.
Les Quatre Cent Coups – 5:30 p.m.
Van Gogh – 8:00 p.m.

For the synopses of these movies, click here.

It’s the best prediction so far; the Tuesday people will enjoy Flandres and Jean de la Fontaine.  I’d also like to watch Van Gogh and Dix-Sept Fois Cecile Cassard.

See you!

Bonjour! Bonjour! Comme ca va?  Is the rain making you feel artsy?  Or are you really into French films? Then this is your chance to watch a hell-of a lot of films FOR FREE!

The French Film Festival is taking place from June 5 to 14 at the Shangri-La Cineplex and it’ll be featuring films from Francois Truffaut (Les Quatre Cents Coups or The 400 Blows) to 2007’s Jean de La Fontaine.

Plus on June 12, Independence Day, there’ll be a special screening of Brillante Ma. Mendoza’s Serbis and Raya Martin’s Independecia.  I’m so gonna be there!

I also took note of the skeds of Van Gogh, and Un Secret. Deadma na ang rain to watch French films on the big screen. C’est magnifique? Ouai!

Bisou! Bisou!

CLICK HERE for the film showing sked and film description.

by Leonard

If you didn’t already hear, Brillante Mendoza just won Best Director in Cannes for his newest film ‘Kinatay’. That’s pretty big time, considering his competition was Ang Lee, Pedro Almodovar, Jane Campion and Quentin Tarantino.

Actually, he was in Cannes last year too and also in Toronto with his film ‘Serbis’. If you missed it at last year’s TIFF, you have another chance to check out one of the rawest films to come out of Philippine Cinema in recent years — SERBIS is playing at the Royal Theatre on College until May 28.

Not for the faint of heart (read my TIFF review below), ‘Serbis’ is still a must-see. Plus, you’re not gonna find this at the pirated DVD stall beside all the Piolo Pascual movies. Do yourself a favour and watch it… and don’t feel the need to thank me/curse me out after.

Coco Martin in 'Serbis'

Service / Serbis

‘Serbis’ Review after the jump!

TIFF 08 Review Archive

Brillante Mendoza’s latest offering “Serbis” played the Toronto Film Festival this past week, shocking average white film nerds and unwary Pinoy Showbiz-hungry Titas alike with gratuitous on-camera sex, full frontal (and rear) nudity, prostitution and some incest thrown in there for good measure.

“Is that what it means?!?!” exclaimed the the shiny-bald American moviegoer in front of me in the line. “Yeah. Serbis. You know — like SERVICE,” said the Filipina woman, stressing the ‘V’ and then stating very plainly: “Prostitution.”

Judging on the aforementioned sexual content, it would be easy to relegate Mendoza’s latest festival entry as just another one of the cheap and trashy bold films that make up so much of the Filipino cinematic landscape, but that would be only scratching at the surface of the film’s true depth. In reality, the layers in ‘Serbis’ go as deep as the Philippines inherent problems.

The film takes place almost entirely inside a soft-porn theatre named ironically, and yet fittingly: Family. And this is what ‘Serbis’ focuses on — one family’s day-to-day struggle to survive everyday life in the Philippines, but even more so — the struggle of the women in this story to keep the family together.

The two main characters are played by Jaclyn Jose (you might remember her from Ang Pamana) and classic-era actress Gina Pareno, who play daughter and mother, respectively. Each woman is charged with keeping the rest of the family in check. Jose toils between the day-to-day operations of the theatre, two oversexed nephews, an inept husband and impressionable children not to mention the fragile ecosystem of the theatre’s inner-sanctum — teenage prostitutes and their admission-paying patrons, while Pareno fights her battle on a different front, defending her family’s honour and integrity in the face of moral breakdown and betrayal.

Despite solid performances from two of Filipino cinema’s grand dames, it’s probably the theatre itself that is the film’s real star. It’s a shadow of its former self, a ruin of once-great legacies with scars that even layer upon layer of new paint cannot conceal. The camera follows the characters up and down the stairs and into every nook and cranny and into the darkest abyss where the most taboo and forbidden acts are being committed in the dark, again ironically inside this theatre called “Family”.

So maybe that is what ‘Serbis’ is truly about: Family. How the Filipino family unit is threatened, how women are and have been the backbone of the Filipino family and have taken the brunt of the heavy burden in raising it and how a lifetime of ’service’ to family too often ends up coming to a thankless and tragic end.

Is it sensational big-screen titillation meant to arouse controversy, protests and loins? The answer is YES, with a caveat. It is also a no-holds-barred commentary on a country that comes to terms with its present by sacrificing its future while refusing to learn from its past. Is it hard to watch? Yes. Should you watch it? Yes you should, because sometimes truth is hard to look in the eye.

In stepping back and looking at Mendoza’s dilapidated theatre as an allegory for the Philippines and its current state, the film’s title — ‘Serbis’ — takes on an alternate meaning and a heartbreaking significance.

The screenings most telling moment may well have been during the Q&A following the film, when an older Filipina immigrant who had been in Canada for the past 15 years stood up and asked, “Is this really happening in our country?”

Direk Brillante Mendoza nonchalantly replied almost as plainly as the woman in the line up, “Well… yes. It IS happening. That’s why I made this film.”

(l-r) Me and Direk Romeo on set with Direk Brillante Mendoza (standing) circa 2005

(Brillante Mendoza is the first director to be included at Cannes since Lino Brocka almost 20 years ago.

Dante Brillante Ma. Mendoza, the controversial director of this year’s Cannes Film Festival entry, Kinatay, received the Best Director Award.  This is the first time that a Pinoy won Best Director in Cannes.

AFP Photo

To me — a non-insider in the indie film circuit — it’s a very happy news.  I don’t know, however, why some Pinoys seem to hate Mendoza so much, they criticize him for the littlest things like changing his name from Dante to Brillante then later to Brillate Ma.  Stir.ph’s Edgar O. Cruz even insinuates that Mendoza has a “French Connection,” hence, his inclusion in Cannes for two years in a row (Mendoza has already denied this).  Some call his works, including last year’s Cannes entry Serbis “exploitation cinema” or a disservice to “what Lino Brocka stands for” due to its “lack of anti-dictatorship stand.”

Ano ba? Bitter?

Anyway, I hope that this award will open more distribution deals abroad for Pinoy filmmakers.  It is true that there are many talented Pinoy directors, writers, etc. in our country and a little funding and “kita” can go a long way.

My wish, though, is that screenwriters/writers get as much credit and exposure as the directors since a film’s worth all boils down to this: “Story is King.”

Hoy domingo 10 de mayo de 2009 se ha clausurado la 11ª. edición del Barcelona Asian Film Festival. La película surcoreana Breathless (2008), dirigida y protagonizada por el rookie Yang Ik-june se ha llevado el Durián de Oro (6.000 €). El jurado ha estado compuesto por Philipp Engel (periodista y crítico), Wong Tuck Cheong (productor), Naoko Ogigami (directora de Glasses, la película inaugural) y Adrià Moné (Teuve). Pese a esto, hay que destacar también que Serbis (2008), la película del filipino Brillante Mendoza, se ha alzado con el premio Cinematk, que de alguna manera viene a ser todavía más relevante que el galardón principal del Festival, ya que supone la distribución de dicha película en las pantallas españolas. El premio del público se dará a conocer mañana lunes.

A continuación adjuntamos una lista de todos los ganadores:

• Durián de Oro: Breathless (Yang Ik-june, 2008)
• Mención especial: Agrarian Utopia (Uruphong Raksasad, 2008) y Sell Out! (Yeo Joon Han, 2008)
• Premio Cinematk: Serbis (Brillante Mendoza, 2008)
• Premio NETPAC: Claustrophia (Ivy Ho, 2009)
• Premio D-Cinema: Jay (Francis Xavier Pasion, 2008)
• Mención D-Cinema: Daytime Drinking (Noh Yeong-seok, 2008)

El próximo número 2 de Lumière (Verano 2009) incluirá una crónica del BAFF’09, así como reseñas de algunas de las películas más destacadas del festival como Now Showing (2008) del jovencísimo Raya Martin o The Blue Generation (2009) del experimentado director indonesio Garin Nugroho (¿recuerdan su Opera Jawa?). Los contenidos web de Lumière ya ofrecen críticas de Achilles and the Tortoise (Takeshi Kitano, 2008), All Around Us (Ryosuke Hashiguchi, 2008), Flower in the Pocket (Liew Seng Tat, 2007) y My Magic (Eric Khoo, 2008).

En el blog del BAFF se puede leer la nota de prensa oficial con toda la información referente a los premios.

The Pineda family lives in and operates a run-down theater which shows dated porno double-features. The matriarch Nanay Flor, her daughter Nayda, son-in-law Lando and adopted daughter Jewel take turns manning the ticket booth and canteen. Her nephews Alan and Ronald are respectively the billboard painter and projectionist. As the various members of the family go about their daily activities, we get a glimpse of how they suffer and deal with each other’s sins and vices.

Also Known As: Cinema Impierno
Serbis
Service
Genres: Art/Foreign and Drama
Running Time: 1 hr. 33 min.
Release Date: January 16th, 2009 (limited)
MPAA Rating: R for sexual content, nudity and language.
Distributors: Regent Releasing
Production Co.: Swift Productions, CenterStage Productions, Asian Cinema Fund, Hong Kong – Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF), Pusan International Film Festival
U.S. Box Office: $36,758
Filming Locations: Manila, Philippines
Produced in: France

Starring: Gina Pareno, Kristofer King, Coco Martin, Dan Alvaro, Julio Diaz
Directed by: Brillante Mendoza
Produced by: Ferdinand Lapuz

Review by the venerable Slate Honey

Brillante Mendoza takes a porno theater ironically named the Family in the Filipino city of Angeles as the bleak setting for a drama about family dysfunction and sexual dystopia in his film “Serbis.” The Pinedas have a pile of problems to deal with: Mama (grandmother Pineda) has taken her husband to court for abandoning the Pinedas for a new wife and family, a boy taken in by the Pinedas has impregnated his distraught girlfriend, the theatre is physically falling apart and no longer is making a good living, the father is generally despondent and useless, another boy taken in by the family to work as the projectionist is adolescent bait for the mom, and a teenage sister (the first to appear in the film, naked and flirting with her own image in a mirror) seems a nuisance to her mother just for being around.

The frenetic camera work and terribly recorded, barely audible soundtrack are major distractions from the overload of dramatic set-ups in this gritty film. Following the characters who run around frantically from fairly mundane situation to situation, the camera movement often feels nauseating and the suspenseful pace feels forced. Add to that cuts that seem to linger without good reason and a hodgepodge structure. The film’s possible saving grace lies in the performances which are rendered with seriousness and the believability of the dreary setting. The choice of using the truly dilapidated porno theatre offers the possibility of interesting socio-cultural commentary.

Unfortunately, “Serbis” does not take the bait in my opinion, instead relying on thickly-lain shock value, forced suspense and aesthetic realism to carry the film. After the film abruptly ended with a post-production trick (the film disintegrates on screen as if burning before our eyes), I was left with huge questions about Mendoza’s intentions an skepticism about his strong messages about sexuality, queerness and dysfunction.

Mendoza juxtaposes and relates the Pineda family and the queer theatre attendees in different webs of desire. Grandmother Mama and her daughter play-flirt with regulars to keep them coming back. The teenage daughter happily trails a sex worker on the grand staircase, learning hip-swinging moves and ultimately getting slapped on the face by her mother for it. The projectionist unemotionally accepts blowjobs from a sex worker. Mendoza makes a collage of the characters sidling queers and sex workers (the supposed degenerates of society) with the family members seemingly trapped in their poverty and unhappiness. The intimacy between these parallel worlds and the intermingling of the worlds becomes a place of tension.

I wonder what Mendoza’s intentions are in his portrait of the queers, queens and trannies of the Phillipines. Who are they beyond symbolism for hetero dysfunction? Sexuality and queer expression is distinctly different in many parts of Southeast Asia where the transgender sex worker community is in some ways more visible (though undoubtedly equally as oppressed and unsupported in society as in the West). To portray this community, to follow the girls (and also the queens) in their comfort zone, demands, in my opinion, a complex rendering of characters. “Serbis” is so focused on the hetero family losing its mind and means in this broken down theatre, it only offers glimpses of a free-spirited world of queers who come to the theatre to hang out and make their own living. Part of me wonders if I am too skeptical and if Mendoza intends a portrait of hetero dysfunction so caught up in itself and resigned to a dark fate that it dismisses and loses sight of the light-heartedness and contentment of the queer world around it.

The last scene of the film gave me reason to land on a more skeptical view. In it, a boy and a john sit on the verandah of the Family theatre chatting. Suddenly, a hole appears at the center of the image and the film burns and melts away as the soundtrack becomes warped. Mendoza’s last trick seems to imply that queerness is the root of the Pinedas’ sinful disintegration. “Serbis” is playing at the Angelika until February 12th.

There’s a new arthouse movie called Serbis by Filipino director Brillante Mendoza that’s opening pretty soon… It’s one of those movies that received a polarizing reaction from audiences at Cannes, who either praised it or walked out of the theater. People have been comparing it to Tsai Ming Liang’s work (it’s about a working-class family that runs a porno theater). An article I read about it said that Mendoza wanted the street scenes to have uncomfortably loud sound engineering because ‘that’s what Third World countries really sound like.’

What got my wheels spinning was reading some of the comments on this review of the movie from the NYTimes, especially about the less crowd-pleasing aspects of the movie, how it tries to incite discomfort in the viewer, how it refuses to cut out sordid details or provide a happy ending.

… The Philippines hardly gets any respite from all sorts of exploitation – and that includes this sordid enterprise from French financiers and the supposedly well-meaning director Brillante Mendoza. That’s the sad history of my country and we are still waiting for the day when all these shameless carpetbagging for recognition from foreigners and the marketplace ends and Filipinos themselves will have the courage to portray their country in a more decent and balanced way.

… The Philippines has a morally-ambiguous President, with Catholic bishops imposing their morality like Spanish friars, and yet the Philippines is among the most corrupt governments, and societies, in Asia, how inept Christianity is. One has to delude onself continuously to persist in this hypocrisy. There is no salvation, just hard-nosed reality viewed with clear eyes.

… Serbis is yet another turgid exercise in Third World misery. It was produced by a Frenchman and made obstensibly to titillate the foreign market. The movie hardly made waves in the Philippines. Westerners like to lap up movies like Serbis.

I don’t have any answers here, only questions. Is Serbis another instance, like Slumdog Millionaire, of “poverty porn”? Or is it less disingenuous, more pure because it doesn’t try to pull any punches?

Lastly, the most fascinating question: is it true about us Filipinos that we prefer happy endings, sometimes beyond all reason? It calls to mind the amazing documentary Imelda, which features extensive interviews with the former dictator’s wife thirty years after the People Power ouster.

The sway that narrative holds over the Filipino psyche is undeniable when one looks at our history. A thoroughly corrupt dictator and his delusional wife (precursor to the excesses of Sex and the City?); the passions of the Seventies under martial law, when thousands marched (nonviolently!) to eject them from Malacanang Palace; the dismay we felt when we realized that this did not necessarily spell “freedom”… The diminishing hope that each new president will somehow set things right; the state of semi-exile my parents went through (albeit a white-collar one, and voluntarily); karaoke songs sung by OFWs, longing and nostalgia. Food riots, charter change… After all, we elected Erap long after Reagan put movie star presidents out of style. Who wouldn’t want a happy ending somewhere, after all that? *long sigh.*

I was surprised while browsing Yahoo! Movies today. I saw a familiar title of a movie called Serbis which have gotten me curious enough to view the trailer. Yup, it was the same movie shown in some film festivals outside the Philippines. There were articles about it before, saying Sean Penn or some actor liking it and would try to help Mr. Mendoza, the director, distribute the film in the U.S. All gay films are always controversial in the Philippines and this particular film is not an exception. It did not have a nationwide showing and was considered an art film. As expectedly, few people know of this film. If not for some news about its run in international film festivals, fewer would have known of this. This is a small film and it’s really nice that someone took a chance on it. Admittedly, it’s not my type of film. I can’t say I would have watched it before if I had known it then. I just wish those brilliant indie film directors would make movies that do not have to be about gays or sex. I’m not saying they shouldn’t ever put gays or sex on it but make it more subtle without compromising what they want to impart to the moviegoer. Not many people want to watch this kind of movie as it is.

Here is the link to the trailer:

http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1810021977/info;_ylt=AsaIr2OFf2A5yzR6ZUIdhd1fVXcA

La tête pleine d’incompréhension, après avoir vu Serbis, Le Reflet nous accueille. Le petit resto/bar de la rue de Champollion, à l’enseigne au clap, où des milliers d’étudiants, souvent de La Sorbonne, sont déjà passés. Le lieu, je n’ai pas beaucoup de reproches à y faire, les prix sont décents, le vin rouge n’est pas très bon mais ce n’est pas son rôle, la serveuse, grand échalas à tête germanique, toute droite sortie du Fluc, est sympathique.

Mais c’est un lieu dangereux, où l’on risque de rencontrer des gens que l’on connaît. Un de ces endroits où l’on ne peut amener qu’une seule fille car l’on sait qu’elle risque d’y retourner seule ou de connaître déjà. Au contraire du Verre à Pied ou de la Charlotte de l’Isle, des terriers secrets.

Et bien ce sera elle, d’ailleurs, elle m’y pousse. Il faut bien un endroit où tout commence, sans supplier, au contraire de Beggin’, cette chanson de Frankie Valli et des Four Seasons qui ne cesse de me trotter dans la tête. Sautons, voguons, passons gratuitement, joyeux compères, dans Paris, il fait très froid. Ce qui ne résout pas les questions surgies de la moiteur de Manille. Qui, finalement, gardera le cinéma porno ? Existera-t-il toujours le temps que j’y aille ? Où ne sera-t-il qu’une bobine de film indistincte, disparue sous les couches de poussière des rickshaws locaux…

Bilan: Agréable

6 rue Champollion 75005 Paris

Agrandir le plan

Jaclyn Jose, derrière son guichet. Qui se cache dans le reflet ?

Serbis, c’est d’abord un lieu. Un cinéma porno philippin que le réalisateur filme à merveille (un sens de l’espace absolument renversant). Un lieu étrange, sale et insalubre, où vit toute une famille.

Mais Serbis, c’est aussi un travail sur le corps fascinant. Ça commence dès le début avec cette jeune fille de seize ans, qui se regarde, s’admire devant un miroir, que son jeune frère épie en silence (on retrouvera l’objet un peu plus tard réfléchissant, avec autant de beauté, un autre personnage). Le corps, c’est aussi celui que les prostitués vendent dans la pénombre de la salle de cinéma où homosexuels et transsexuels se confondent avec les membres de la famille. Objet de désir, le corps est aussi un objet de frustration. On le lave parce qu’il sent mauvais ou pour se purifier, on en extrait des substances (le sperme, le pue du furoncle, tous deux dans des bouteilles vides) pour se libérer d’une envie sexuelle, d’un mal qui ronge. Mais Mendoza le filme toujours (le corps) avec une douceur incroyable, sans aucun voyeurisme.

Cette douceur se retrouve constamment dans l’œil du cinéaste (la caméra est Mendoza), qui filme chaque situation avec la même distance, le même regard et la même vitalité (le lieu a beau être misérable, le spectateur s’y sent bien). Car Serbis est également un film plein de vie, incroyablement familier, et donc d’une très grande universalité. Un sentiment accentué par le travail réalisé sur le son. Sans doute ce qui s’est vu de mieux cette année au cinéma, celui-ci consiste finalement à faire rentrer la “vie” du monde extérieur (qu’on ne voit que sur quelques plans) dans le lieu unique qu’est ce cinéma philippin. Cette “vie” est symbolisée par le bruit des voitures, des klaxons, de la foule. Un bruit assourdissant (allant jusqu’à masquer presque totalement la voix des personnages) qui devient pourtant, lui aussi, familier pour in fine faire parti du décor.

Ce son participe au mouvement du film (la caméra pleine d’énergie du cinéaste), fait d’urgence et d’excès, à tel point que Serbis ne peut que se consumer sur lui-même par tant de vie et d’amour.

แนะนำโดย คันฉัตร รังษีกาญจน์ส่อง (http://merveillesxx.bloggang.com)

                เราเลือกแนะนำหนังฟิลิปปินส์เรื่อง Serbis (2008, บริลแลนเต้ เมนโดซ่า) แล้วกัน ด้วยเหตุผลแบบสิ้นคิดว่าเป็นเรื่องเดียวที่เคยดูแล้ว (5555) คือต้องบอกไว้ก่อนเลยว่าหนังมันไม่ได้โป๊อะไรมากมายอย่างที่เห็นในภาพหรอกนะ (มันมีอยู่ไม่กี่ฉากหรอก) แถมไอ้ที่โป๊ๆ ก็ไม่ได้น่าดูด้วย ออกจะไปทางเสื่อมๆ สกปรกๆ มากกว่า

                หนังมันเล่าถึงครอบครัวใหญ่ในโรงหนังโป๊ที่มีแต่ความชิบหายวุ่นวาย ซึ่งสิ่งที่ดีใน Serbis คือ ทุกอย่างในหนังมันก็คล้ายๆ กับประเทศไทยแหละ เรื่องระบบครอบครัวใหญ่ก็ใช่, โรงหนังชั้นสองก็ใช่ หรือการสืบทอดกิจการจากรุ่นพ่อแม่ก็ใช่อีก เราว่าคนไทยน่าจะรู้สึกเชื่อมโยงกับหนังได้ง่ายมาก

                นอกจากนั้น หนังมันยิ่งสมจริงตรงที่เล่าถึงเหตุการณ์ในหนึ่งวัน (ทั้งเรื่องถ่ายแต่ในโรงหนัง โดยใช้กล้องแฮนเฮลด์) แล้วก็ชอบมากตรงที่มันถ่ายทอดความสกปรกโสโครก (ตึกโทรมๆ, กำแพงเลอะๆ, ห้องน้ำเน่าๆ) แบบไม่มีการปรุงแต่งอะไรเลย เหมือนกับที่เมนโดซ่าเขาบอกไว้ว่า “เวลาทำโฆษณาคุณต้องสวมวิญญาณเซลส์แมน แต่กับหนังผมอยากให้มันเหมือนจริงแบบนีโอเรียลลิสม์ไปเลย” (เขาเป็นผู้กำกับโฆษณาด้วย)

                ที่จริงแล้วเราว่าหนังฟิลิปปินส์ในเทศกาลนี้น่าสนใจหมดเลย ทั้ง Serbis, Now Showing, Slingshot, Jay, Years When I was a Child Outside, Drumbeat เขาเลือกมาเยอะมาก จนแทบจะเผลอคิดว่านี่มันเทศกาลหนังฟิลิปปินส์ชัดๆ (อนึ่ง อ่านเรื่องของหนังฟิลิปปินส์ได้ใน Bioscope ฉบับที่ 82 หน้าปก Burn After Reading หน้า 58-63 จ้ะ)

เราเคยเขียนถึง Serbis ไว้ด้วย แต่มันมีเปิดเผยเนื้อเรื่อง เพราะฉะนั้นดูหนังแล้วค่อยอ่านดีกว่านะ

http://www.bloggang.com/viewdiary.php?id=merveillesxx&month=08-2008&date=23&group=1&gblog=156

ตัวอย่างหนัง

รูป

Coco Martin in 'Serbis'

Service / Serbis

http://tiff08.ca/filmsandschedules/films/serbis

by Leonard

Brillante Mendoza’s latest offering “Serbis” played the Toronto Film Festival this past week, shocking average white film nerds and unwary Pinoy Showbiz-hungry Titas alike with gratuitous on-camera sex, full frontal (and rear) nudity, prostitution and some incest thrown in there for good measure.

“Is that what it means?!?!” exclaimed the the shiny-bald American moviegoer in front of me in the line.  ”Yeah.  Serbis.  You know — like SERVICE,” said the Filipina woman, stressing the ‘V’ and then stating very plainly: “Prostitution.”

Judging on the aforementioned sexual content, it would be easy to relegate Mendoza’s latest festival entry as just another one of the cheap and trashy bold films that make up so much of the Filipino cinematic landscape, but that would be only scratching at the surface of the film’s true depth.  In reality, the layers in ‘Serbis’ go as deep as the Philippines inherent problems.

The film takes place almost entirely inside a soft-porn theatre named ironically, and yet fittingly: Family.  And this is what ‘Serbis’ focuses on — one family’s day-to-day struggle to survive everyday life in the Philippines, but even more so — the struggle of the women in this story to keep the family together.

The two main characters are played by Jaclyn Jose (you might remember her from Ang Pamana) and classic-era actress Gina Pareno, who play daughter and mother, respectively.  Each woman is charged with keeping the rest of the family in check.  Jose toils between the day-to-day operations of the theatre, two oversexed nephews, an inept husband and impressionable children not to mention the fragile ecosystem of the theatre’s inner-sanctum — teenage prostitutes and their admission-paying patrons, while Pareno fights her battle on a different front, defending her family’s honour and integrity in the face of moral breakdown and betrayal.

Despite solid performances from two of Filipino cinema’s grand dames, it’s probably the theatre itself that is the film’s real star.  It’s a shadow of its former self, a ruin of once-great legacies with scars that even layer upon layer of new paint cannot conceal.  The camera follows the characters up and down the stairs and into every nook and cranny and into the darkest abyss where the most taboo and forbidden acts are being committed in the dark, again ironically inside this theatre called “Family”.

So maybe that is what ‘Serbis’ is truly about: Family.  How the Filipino family unit is threatened, how women are and have been the backbone of the Filipino family and have taken the brunt of the heavy burden in raising it and how a lifetime of ’service’ to family too often ends up coming to a thankless and tragic end.  

Is it sensational big-screen titillation meant to arouse controversy, protests and loins?  The answer is YES, with a caveat.  It is also a no-holds-barred commentary on a country that comes to terms with its present by sacrificing its future while refusing to learn from its past.  Is it hard to watch?  Yes.  Should you watch it?  Yes you should, because sometimes truth is hard to look in the eye.

In stepping back and looking at Mendoza’s dilapidated theatre as an allegory for the Philippines and its current state, the film’s title — ‘Serbis’ — takes on an alternate meaning and a heartbreaking significance.

The screenings most telling moment may well have been during the Q&A following the film, when an older Filipina immigrant who had been in Canada for the past 15 years stood up and asked, “Is this really happening in our country?”

Direk Brillante Mendoza nonchalantly replied almost as plainly as the woman in the line up, “Well… yes.  It IS happening.  That’s why I made this film.”

(l-r) Me and Direk Romeo on set with Direk Brillante Mendoza (standing) circa 2005

(Brillante Mendoza is the first director to be included at Cannes since Lino Brocka almost 20 years ago.  TIFF screens the Lino Brocka classic, ‘Bayan Ko’ tonight at the Varsity. – .ed)