audreysison

[audreysison]

Mise en scène - Romeo + Juliet

Baz Luhrmann took a new spin on the adaptation of Shakespeare’s classics, Romeo and Juliet, with a modern twist. It is set in a modern day environment while using the Shakespearean language. Mise en scène took a big role on the movie to let the audience comprehend the dialogues with the help of the actor’s performance.

Mise en scène means everything that is in the frame could have a meaning behind it. It includes the setting, location, props, costumes, color, character and figure. Romeo + Juliet showed a lot of this to make the scenes look elevated and be easier to understand. 

Starting from the setting, the movie is set on the present day for it to be relatable to the the young audience. It also gives a mid western vibe which is scene through the shots and the music used. 

Next is the props, they refer their guns as swords to represent that the guns are the modern day swords. 

Next is the costume, the Montagues wore practical shirts specifically, Hawaiian shirts to represent that they are childish and free. While the Capulets wore fancy clothes to represent that they are mature and wealthy. 

Next is the color, the movie decided to make color it warm to represent the old feeling of the movie. It also showed combination of opposing colors to represent the war between the two families.

Lastly is the character and Figure, the main characters of the movie are Leonardo DiCaprio and 

Claire Danes are the perfect cast for this movie. Leonardo as Romeo is a match for his role because Romeo is a romantic lover, handsome, passionate and very likable. While Claire Danes as Juliet is innocent both the looks and the character, youthful, fresh and cautious. I also want to give a shout out to one of the unnoticeable characters in the movie was the news actor, she served as the narrator of the movie.

This movie remains a significant to the film history as it acknowledges one of Shakespeare’s classics, Romeo and Juliet. I give my repect to Baz Luhrmann for thinking of the future generation as his target audience for them and including me to be able to understand the work or at least see Romeo and Juliet in a different light.

[audreysison]

QCinema: Billie and Emma

Billie and Emma is the newest film of Samantha Lee. This time around, her movie is part of the QCinema International Film Festival. Set in the 90s, a pregnant teenager falls for the new girl in an all girls school. This light hearted film will give you all the kilig feels while still tackling about the sensitive topics like unprotected sex, LGBTQ+ Community, teen pregnancy, abortion and a lot more.

The cast Zar Donato is the perfect cast for this movie given the fact that she is a queer herself while Gabby Padilla isn’t she still gave justice to her character as Emma is just learning that she has a thing for girls or maybe she just has a thing for Billie (I personally don’t know what her preference is).  Regardless of this situation, there’s no denying that both of these actors have a good chemistry that really made the audience felt their relationship on film was real. Unfortunately not all parts of the kilig scenes made me felt kilig, it felt too cheesy and feels a little bit rushed especially Billie and Emma’s first kiss. 

This movie is not your typical coming out story nor a love story. The theme of accepting one’s sexuality, decisions and reality which was shown in the film repetitively. Like when Emma’s friends found out that she has a relationship with Billie and they decided to drop her as a friend. Or when Billie found out that Emma was pregnant and she just accepted to be her father even though Emma’s ex-boyfriend accepted his responsibilities as a father to his child.

The abrupt ending gave me mixed feeling about it since it added more questions to my head. Did Billie win the competition? What happened to their relationship? What happened to the baby? What happened to the pill?

Nevertheless, the director gave this movie justice for not just making a queer film for the LGBTQ+ community but for everyone to learn and enjoy. This movie is a must watch for all for you to understand why there should be more films like this. It is a movie that you would definitely accept.

[audreysison]

Ang Larawan

Source: http://anglarawan.com

Ang Larawan is a story about a painting that was made by a high-profile painter Don Lorenzo Marasigan that was given to the sisters, Candida and Paula Marasigan. The painting got a lot of investors interested in getting the painting but even if the family was having financial trouble the two sisters didn’t want to sell it.

You can learn a lot of things from watching the movie but the main message of the movie is going against the odds. All the people that came in the house. were afraid of doing the things that would make them happy. They were trapped inside their own bodies. They had their own “larawan” in their life. They were afraid of the consequences that would happen if they would give the “larawan” away. 

But then, Paula destroyed the painting. When everyone found out about it, they were angry at her. They realized they have lost the “larawan”. They have lost the thing that really scared them the most but it felt like a thorn was removed from their hearts. They slowly accepted that they have to move on with their lives. That there is nothing wrong with doing what you want to do. That they don’t have to worry with the consequences when they do something that makes them happy. 

The movie was really good and gave a lot of learnings that we could apply in our lives. There is no doubt why this movie got a lot of awards. From the characters to the storyline and the scoring this movie is definitely a must watch.

[audreysison]

El Autor: Spanish Film Festival

El Autor tells the story of Alvaro trying to achieve his dream to be a literature writer. He attends writing courses and workshops but his teacher doesn’t recognize his talents. Alvaro doesn’t recognize his wife as a writer who has written a best-seller. Then, they got divorced because his wife cheated on him. After that his teacher gave him an idea how to write a good novel. And so, when he moved to his new place, he decided to take his teacher’s advice and apply it. He noticed that his process of writing is working and so he decided to continue it, until his characters changes the story he wants to create.

There were parts of the movie that were dead scene for me.They didn’t catch much of my attention that I wanted to go to sleep.  Good thing their funny lines would wake me up again plus it’s also the popcorn’s fault. I didn’t want it to go to waste. There were parts of the movie that I also didn’t get whether I didn’t get why it is included in the movie or what happened in that scene. They also left a few holes in the movie. I felt like they didn’t touch other ‘problems’ of Alvaro and other parts outside of the life of Alvaro which I think is essential to make the story clearer.

I really like that the theme was dark yet the delivery was so light and they did it seamlessly. There were parts that I would laugh and then the next scene I would be terrified of Alvaro. The script was made really well that made the movie genre not just a dark comedy but has hints of mystery as well because it will made you think of what would Alvaro do next. What would the neighbors do next? Are they actually going to do what Alvaro would make them in their minds or would they do the opposite?

In the beginning of the movie, Alvaro was in class and his professor told them that when you write a movie, you have to ask three questions: who wants what, what happens if she doesn’t get it and why now. In my observation after watching the movie, I decided to answer those questions on the movie. Alvaro wanted to be a literary artist and he feels that if he would not be like that he would lose the competition between him and his wife who is a best-selling author who wasn’t an author in the first place. He wanted to prove not only to his wife but all the people who doesn’t believe in him that he is an literary artist, that he is a writer.

There are times in our life where we think that it is impossible to achieve our dream. That we don’t see the bad choices we do. We tend to forget to stay away from these things that we let our desires win over the important thing that we should do which is our goal.

from: https://www.commonsensemedia.org/movie-reviews/the-motive-el-autor

[audreysison]

Book to Movie Adaptation: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was written by Roald Dahl in 1964. The first feature film was made in 1971 titled Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory which was directed by Mel Stuart. The second film was made in 2005 titled Charlie and the Chocolate Factory that was directed by Tim Burton. The latest film was made in 2017 titled Tom and Jerry: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. All media that was used to convey the story was different. They had their own different characteristics. There was a big difference between the book and the 1971 film adaptation. Most of the scenes in the 1971 were not even near to the story in the book. Still, I do like what the director’s direction was going since it still gave a lesson for the children. But if you liked the book, the Burton’s film is far more accurate than the 1971’s film.

Both directors added their own twists on their story inspired from the book. Like on the first film, it is centered on Willy Wonka while the 2005 film was centered on Charlie Bucket and partially Willy Wonka’s backstory as well which was not included in the film.

When I was reading the book, I was imagining that the Willy Wonka was an old man but still looked really young. As it was in the book, Willy Wonka has goatee but on the movie adaptations all the Willy Wonka characters didn’t have goatee.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory has been one of my most favorite films as a child and having to rewatch it again for this review has made me feel like I’m a child again but it did open my mind how different people make their own twist on the story that they told. Nevertheless, the importance is having a purpose on creating a visionary that will connect people.

[audreysison]

Goyo: Ang Batang Heneral

Goyo is the sequel of Heneral Luna wherein, it starts after a day of Heneral Luna’s unfortunate death. The film director, Jerrold Tarog, made an estimate 50-day film shoot. The film was officially released on September 5, 2018. Jerrold Tarog also mentioned that if this film would be successful they would make a third movie which will be about Manuel L. Quezon.

  Goyo’s production design was really good and well thought of. I really appreciated that they took their time to do this movie. Though there were some things that I wasn’t impressed with like the scene where Goyo was at Jose’s house and the inside of the house looked authentic but when you look outside it can be clearly seen that they used green screen because it wasn’t cleaned thoroughly and also the graphics wasn’t enough to make it look real. Now, I’m not exactly sure about that but if it wasn’t green screen it would still be a fail to me since they could’ve done something to make it look more authentic. But other than that I really liked their production design.

  Now for the cinematography, it was really good. Especially those point of view shots, I don’t really love that type of shot but when they did it, it  didn’t look ‘cheap.’  There were some aerial shots that I also appreciated, like the scene where the Americans were running to attack the Filipinos. But other than that scene, I didn’t like the other aerial shots because I didn’t feel that it suits the scene. One of my favorite scenes, was where Goyo was having his visions on this old man because it gave me an idea of why Goyo was doubting himself and his beliefs in who should he follow.

  Watching Goyo was a whirlwind for me since it felt ‘sabog’ in a sense but I felt that it was also the intention of the director since Goyo was somehow living in that way as well. But after taking a while and reading other reviews about the movie, it made sense to me.

  Lastly, my most favorite thing about this movie is it makes the audience be inspired to be nationalistic and patriot to our country.

  Also, Jerrold Tarog is such a cool guy for not just directing, not just writing, and not just editing, but also being one of the scorers of this movie which really wowed me.