dominattyrix tredux

go BIG TIME!

finally got to see big time! (Arkeofilms) on the big screen. watched it with Gab october last year at the ccp when cinemalaya screened the finalists.

too bad though... there couldn't have been more than 30 people in that huge SM cinema for the last full show. i was hoping it would be packed as well. ang pagdadalaga ni maximo oliveros, another finalist from the same festival made it good in the box office. it was just as funny, but then again the brand of humor differed.

well anyway, it was still a lot of fun. atleast that's how it was for US (that's me with the dyke-coven). Michael de Mesa rocked as Don Manolo. Jamie Wilson (as Wilson) was also pretty convincing. never mind that he wasn't the "pretty boy-conio kid" that he was supposed to be. Atleast he could act.

now, it was brilliant casting too with Joanne Miller (as Melody) as the star-struck bimbo. whilst the protagonists, Danny and Jonas had very good chemistry... a loveteam in the making? he he he. well, it was nothing like Brokeback Mountain, but ya gotta admit that some scenes were dripping with (unintentional, perhaps?) homo-eroticism.

or maybe that's just ME again, doing a QUEER reading on most everything! :-D

wonder why this film isn't as mabenta as we had hoped it to be.

hmmm...

if it comes out on DVD, you can bet that i'll be watching this movie again!

movie quote

from the fag-hag character Gwen in Eating Out by Q. Allan Broca:

I know I'm gorgeous, but I'm not helpless!

nyahahahaha!

kulit!

crazy movie.
with crazy characters.

have it on DVD. saw it again with Gab. so good to watch for those really babaw moments. :-)

my verdict:

***** stars for the laughs
***** stars for the boy2boy kissing scenes
** stars for the acting
* star for the lame storyline

death of an adult film star

*** R-Rated for some foul Language, please be advised. ***

I have already watched this very controversial film called Baise Moi (French translation is “Rape Me” or “Fuck Me” oh and by the way, this film was banned in many countries, France too!) twice in my lifetime. Once with Gab, and then again with Balbonics some two years ago. I would definitely mind watching it a third time… but knowing myself, I’d do it too. Call me twisted. But in a very strange way, I was able to forge a connection between the two female protagonists, Manu (Raffaëla Anderson) who was a porn-star and Nadine (Karen Lancaume), addicted to porn, and a crack-head… well both of whom are adult film actresses (aka pornstars) in real-life. This “connection” has very little to do with porn, but rather with their angst, forlornness, and anger. A lot of that deep-seated anger, the one you feel when you know that society is screwing with you and you feel like you have been “fucked” over and over again.

This is not a favorite movie of mine but I do appreciate it somehow. Never mind the mayhem and trail of destruction that they leave behind. Some think that this movie is a French version of “Thelma and Louise” gone really really bad (either they mean bad = evil, OR, bad = tasteless movie, I don't know, just take your pick). I am not sure that I agree, however.

Yes, it is very disturbing indeed. It shows you how two unfortunate young women – both ethnic, and lower class – suffer their lot in life. One gets raped, literally as well – so we get to see that seedy side of France (look beyond the croissants and the Eiffel Tower) especially in the ghettoes.

As an aside, I will never forget reading an earlier report from The Guardian that features French ethnic women as easy target for “gang-rapes”. So the director, Virginie Despentes, incidentally, a former adult film actress herself, does indeed have a very valid social issue that needs to be articulated here. Needless to say, most audience members failed to see that. They immediately objected to all the sex and violence, and the “shock value”. Which was kinda numbing really. That’s why this film is very difficult for me to watch.

However, for any chick who had felt really ANGRY about the way women are treated in any hetero-patriarchal society, then it is not entirely difficult to relate to the kind of “ultimate revenge fantasy” that they are depicting here. They’re not just “killing Bill” (to borrow from Uma Thurman), but they want to kill every Tom, Dick, Harry, and even the token female, Marie. Fellow femmes aren’t spared from the wrath of the outcasts Manu and Nadine.

Today, while doing some surfing at imdb, I stumbled upon Karen’s (Nadine) profile. Was sad to learn about her suicide earlier this year. As a marginalized and “Othered” woman, who knows how many people are mourning her loss? She had made some 29 films, “adult” movies (a euphemism, that!) most of them, so I bet her fans will miss her.

This entry is for Karen Lancaume even though I never knew her personally. Baise Moi is the only film of hers that I had seen. This woman is also credited as…

Aka: Karen Bach
Karen Lacoume
Karen Lancom
Carene Lancome
Karen Lancoume
Angel Paris

She sure had a lot of aliases. But who is she really? Who knows? I just hope that wherever she may be right now, here is wishing that she had finally found herself in death, if not in this life.

Sleep well then. :-(

the CLOSER i get

I was a Sartre fanatic as an undergrad phil major. I remember having heated arguments with an ex-boyfriend about the Sartrian concept of the Other, and his disturbing take on romantic love that is “doomed to fail.”

Yeah, “Hell is the Other” indeed and all that anti-love rhetoric. I bought all that—hook, line and sinker—naturally, that caused us a lot of fights. I remember the ex saying sarcastically that I should keep Sartre out of our lives because he’s dead. Nyahaha. Oo nga naman. When the ex and I parted ways, I rediscovered a healthier, more positive concept of love, but no thanks to this film I watched on DVD the other day, I am back to revisiting my old views.

Closer is a film for people who do not mind looking at themselves, and re-examining their views about love, sex, the nature of  truth, honesty, and betrayal. I was telling my friend Noelle that it has two of the most heart-wrenching break-up scenes that I have ever watched on screen.

Anyone who’s ever been dumped—drama queen or not—can relate with the lines, “Please don’t leave me, I love you!”

That sounds pathetic but here’s more, “No one will ever love you the way I do. You know I will always love you.” Arrrgh. It’s frightening what truly desperate people could say in these circumstances. But I wonder, did they really mean it at the time they said it, or were they just lying to themselves?

And if you happen to have been on the other end of the dumping game, you’d also be able to  relate to the gnawing feelings of guilt, relief, and anticipation of future jealousy (as you and your soon-to-be-ex are discussing her prospects of being out on the market as a free agent) all rolled into one ball of tangled confusion. How do you honestly say goodbye and at the same time deal with the barrage of questions that are sure to come your way?

Questions like:

• Who is he? Who is she (Just insert pronoun of choice)?

• Did you go to bed with her?

• Where did you do it?

• Did you do it in (insert-favorite-shagging place-here)?

• Did you come?

• Who’s better, me or her?

• While you were doing me, were you thinking of her?

Now since you’re the one causing him all this pain for initiating the break-up, you now feel like you owe it to him to be HONEST. But do you really have to answer all his questions? To make you feel less like the scum that you really are, do you lie one last time, and say that he’s much better? Ahhhh, but that wouldn’t make sense now would it, as if he’d believe you. If you lie, you won't get away with it because he'd now ask, "If it's so much better with me then why are we breaking up?" Ooops. So you try to do the decent thing, and be totally forthright.

Then all HELL breaks loose.

You used to be lovers but now you’re sworn enemies, dreaming of that day when the injured party finally gets his or her vengeance. You want revenge on your ex and that rat who stole your lover. The dumper still feels guilty but hopes that the ex doesn't find a better lover as he hates to be compared with anyone. Such is the size of his... um, ego.

This is what Closer is about. Not exactly a date-movie. Not too cerebral either. I’m not even sure that it has “heart” because all four characters seem more concerned about pursuing their own interests. But it does make you wonder about  how and why people end up hurting the ones they claim to love. Why do these people seem really clueless about how to get some light into their lives? And why are they so great at complicating matters? Are they for real?

Oh yes they are. If anything’s most disturbing about this movie it’s that the characters are way too real. In their quest for that all-elusive happiness in true love, they manipulate each other in the name of empty rhetoric such as “truth” and “honesty.” Weirdly enough I see a little bit of myself in all of them:

Anna, and my “gloomy,” “depressed” side.

Alice, and my spontaneity, including free-spirited ways.

Dan, and his quest for “truth” while he himself remains guarded.

and even nice, boring old Larry who could be real evil when crossed.

Hmmm… I’m thinking about watching this film a second time, hoping that I’d feel more upbeat about it. I highly recommend this film to the sawi and those who need to vent. This movie will cheer you on as you trash love and mush and all things soupy.

But a word of caution to the already angsty and the highly suggestible, do postpone watching this film until you are more emotionally stable. Else expect a downward spiralling.

Wheeee!

tarot cards in Feng Shui

Everybody was talking about Feng Shui (starring Kris Aquino), the film made millions in the local box office, didn't it? I have to admit that I'm not a Kris fan and though the annoying factor for Kris is truly high, I tried to overlook it and borrowed the disc from my uncle.

My curiosity was greater. I wanted to see if Kris' acting had improved.

Argh!

'Nuff said about her acting.

What I really wanted to write about was the use of the tarot cards in the film. Comeback-kid, Ilonah Jean (remember her?) is Kris' friend who is into the occult. While she and fellow comeback-kid Lotlot de Leon were hanging out, Ilona decides to do a spread and read the cards for Lotlot.

This card came up.

The standard deck features DEATH, number 13 (supposedly unlucky, malas daw), as a skeleton wearing a suit of armor, riding a white horse. Up ahead is the RIver Styx wherethe dead are about to be carried off to the Underworld.

I'm not a tarot reading expert. I have no illusions of becoming Manang Doms. I don't even read the cards for other people. But I do know enough that this card does not mean mortal death. It's weird how films make these things look too simple. Tarot cards have multiple meanings, but to make a literal interpretation is dead wrong (pun intended).

I think I've never drawn this card myself but once, it did come up as a friend, Gaia, was reading for me. I asked her immediately "who's gonna die?" -- she looked at me and said, "possibly you, you're dying inside already." The negative meaning of this card is lethargy, inertia, stagnancy, and a stubborn refusal to change. That made more sense to me.

Come to think of it, it's not just Feng Shui who's guilty of doing this. Even The Red Violin, one of my favorite movies also showed the Death card and it resulted to the mortal death of the violin maker's wife.

Personally I'd watch out for The Tower or The Hanged Man, and The Devil. When interpreted negatively these ought to warn us about personal excesses, fixations. After all, the tarot is supposed to give us insights about ourselves, tapping into the personal unconscious, and NOT give predictions about the future.

You want a free tarot spread online? Try facade.com if you're curious.

Meanwhile, let me go back to admiring the art work of my current deck, The Faery Wicca Tarot. It's not for novices and the pronounciation guide helps little but it's very challenging.