Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Bravo!

I've been waiting so long for something like this. And if not for people spreading this on social media, I would not have known. Just a little bit more though, particularly with the acting of extras (because what happens in the background especially if it's not done well bothers me), and it would be perfect. I loved the cast. I loved the long take. I loved the reference to Juan Luna's Spoliarium, and man, did I cry. I hope the other two movies, about Gregorio del Pilar and Manuel Quezon, of the planned trilogy get made.

Heneral Luna

I watched last night with my sister, father, and mother, on her 60th birthday.

Friday, September 4, 2015

Love is a burning thing

I have a new favorite actor. Last night I watched two period movies, both of which happened to star Matthias Schoenaerts. This man:

Matthias Schoenaerts
I realize he looks a bit like David Wenham, aka Faramir.

The first one's an adaptation of Thomas Hardy's Far from the Madding Crowd. As always, the English countryside looked stunning. The story, however, was obviously rushed (because you can't fit in everything from the book --- the usual reason). Though I haven't read the book, the essential parts were there. Now would I read it? I'm not quite sure as I haven't gotten over my first Hardy novel yet, though it was the lightest of his writings. I can't stand reading about fickle women. I'm talking about you, Fancy Day!




The second film was also based on a novel, written during World War II by Irène Némirovsky, a French writer of Jewish origin, who was arrested and died in Auschwitz. The notebook containing the novel was kept by Némirovsky's daughter, Denise, but was never read for thinking that it might be her journal, until 1998. Suite Française became a bestseller in 2004.

"If you want to see what people are truly made of, you start a war." ~says Ruth Wilson's character

Great Cast: Michelle Williams, Kristin Scott Thomas, Ruth Wilson, Sam Riley




Then today I found this song, which reminds me so much of what I saw last night. It's "Song for Zula" by Phosphorescent.


Some say love is a burning thing
That it makes a fiery ring
Oh but I know love as a fading thing
Just as fickle as a feather in a stream
See, honey, I saw love. You see, it came to me
It put its face up to my face so I could see
Yeah then I saw love disfigure me
Into something I am not recognizing

See, the cage, it called. I said, "Come on in"
I will not open myself up this way again
Nor lay my face to the soil, nor my teeth to the sand
I will not lay like this for days now upon end
You will not see me fall, nor see me struggle to stand
To be acknowledged by some touch from his gnarled hands
You see, the cage, it called. I said, "Come on in"
I will not open myself up this way again

You see, the moon is bright in that treetop night
I see the shadows that we cast in the cold, clean light
My feet are gold. My heart is white
And we race out on the desert plains all night
See, honey, I am not some broken thing
I do not lay here in the dark waiting for thee
No my heart is gold. My feet are light
And I am racing out on the desert plains all night

So some say love is a burning thing
That it makes a fiery ring
Oh but I know love as a caging thing
Just a killer come to call from some awful dream
O and all you folks, you come to see
You just stand there in the glass looking at me
But my heart is wild. And my bones are steam
And I could kill you with my bare hands if I was free