Of the Butch #

So, who’s having the last laugh?

 

Just a few days or weeks ago an article came out from one of the “most respected” movie reviewers of all time, Roger Ebert with:

 

http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2009/05/what_were_they_thinking_of.html

 

He sites in that blog post of his that Kinatay is probably one of the worst movies ever shown in Cannes.

 

Hence the title of the blog, “What were they thinking of?”

 

(sir, we don’t end sentences with a preposition… anyhoo…)

 

Well, actually it doesn’t end there. Since we have been liberated from the angsty Japanese, and not really from the American dream, we found demo-crazy (it is democracy, fyi) in the Internet. Filipinos have been fond of posting comments and believe me, we love posting comments, coz I did post one in that blog.

 

Since colonial mentality exists with us Filipinos, you would probably read apologies and shit in that blog site. Apologizing to Mr. Ebert on why Kinatay was included in Cannes and some other shit.

 

And gladly, there are other people who’ll defend our own red, white, and blue plus yellow.

 

It seems we really need to strengthen our nationalism, eh?

 

(is ‘eh’ a preposition?)

 

As I’ve written there, it is always up to us, as viewers, to judge a movie or film. Reviews will always be subjective whether you are highly-praised or not.

 

Moving on…

 

And lo and behold, the Philippines got an award. We got a Best Director and that puts Brillante Mendoza in the same position as Joel Cohen, Wong Kar-Wai, P.T. Anderson, and David Lynch who all won in the same category.

 

There were “favorites” that didn’t win such as Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds and Daniels’ Precious. Palme d’or went to The White Ribbon and Un Certain Regard went to Dogtooth.

 

Congratulations to Brillante!!!

 

(and Ebert is not a factor… hehehe.)

 

--=+=--

 

Oh yeah, and lookie here:

 

http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2009/05/cannes_10_and_at_last_the_winn.html

 

“The 2009 feature film jury awarded some reasonable prizes, and then lost its mind. In my opinion the Mendoza film "Kinatay" deserved no award, and Le Film Francais panel agreed with me ("pas d tout"). But why in heaven's name would you give him the award for best direction? The second half of his film is an illustration of directorial monomania--a willingness to drive audiences from the theater not so much by the violence (rape, beheading, vivisection) but by the directorial style itself. You want to depict human atrocity, look to the von Trier.”

 

Hehehe… Read the rest of the article, this guy just can’t move on…