TaleBearer Queen

At first when I watched this film, I didn’t quite understand it, it took about 4 times to watch it to completely get it. I was very confused as to why it was named “What Dreams May Come”. I would always think, “Why is it named dreams if they’re already dead?” and then finally when Cuba Goodings Jr. said in the film, “Thought is real, physical is the illusion”. I sort of got it, but it did take a few more times to watch to get it completely. Chris was wondering why the place he was in was a painting. He was happy at first, but none of the things in the world he created was solid. Objects were always breaking and he can’t hold onto objects because they would turn to paint. What Chris didn’t get was, as long as he believes that the whole place was a dream and it wasn’t real, it wasn’t going to be real and solid unless he believes that it is real, that all the things are real. It was named, What Dreams May Come because, Chris doesn’t realize how powerful dreams can be in heaven. It is what you use to create your own little world. Dreams are not just what you see when you’re asleep but they’re the main source of power in the afterlife. Thanks to the dreams, imaginations and real life happenings in the film. There were different color palettes. So you can see the difference between those who are still alive on earth, the different versions of heaven of each and every people and lastly the flashbacks. Those scenes had different colors and moods so it can take out the emotions and feelings of the audience who are watching it. 

Chris and Annie bumping boats

This was the first time Chris and Annie met in Switzerland in their own boats, the scene had a yellow orange tone to it based from their skin tone. This scene instantly gave the happy vibe not just because of the background music but because of how warm the colors were in the scene and the audience can tell by just watching without analyzing the whole scene that the two characters are going to be love interests. Other than yellow orange being a tone in the scene I believe that this scene has a triad color palette: green, red and yellow orange. Green being the lake water, red being the sail and blanket of Annie and yellow orange being the boats and skin tones they had. The color green is a soothing color on the eyes, it’s a color that just by nature makes you relax. In this scene I believe that color green symbolizes peace and also by the way Chris was sleeping on his canoe/ boat, as an audience I can tell that it is peaceful. The color red enters the scene and becomes part of the palette when Annie’s boat and her enters and bumps into the canoe of Chris. The color red was shown in the movie multiple times but with different symbolisms. In this scene, red is a color of love, it’s like in this scene, love entered Chris’ life and Annie is the love of his life and also his soulmate. 

Any scene with blue Jacaranda leaves

I noticed that every time a scene where there is blue Jacaranda leaves it was always a sad and depressing scene. The blue Jacaranda leaves symbolizes their mourning of the family in the following scenes. For example, in the first image, Chris was saying goodbye to his kids when they were off to school, and then shortly after their children died and that was the last time Chris saw his children. You can see that there were blue leaves in the whole street where Chris was standing waving goodbye and I’ve also observed that the car was also color blue. 

On the second image, when Annie visited Chris’ tombstone. Chris is already a soul in this scene and he wants to make Annie believe that he is still there with her, but Annie thinks that she is going crazy and hallucinating, and yet again there was a field of blue flowers in the scene and Annie was also wearing a blue ascot. Annie was mourning over Chris’ death but Chris mourning over the fact that he had left Annie and he can’t do anything to help Annie go through her depression over his death. 

Lastly, the scene where Annie painted a new part of the series of her paintings for Chris. She painted the blue Jacaranda tree (although it looks really purple in the gif) it appeared in the heaven where Chris is and he was so happy that they were still connected through the paintings. However Annie believed that Chris couldn’t see the tree she just painted so she poured water all over the blue paint, and because of this the leaves of the tree in Chris’ heaven began to fly away making the tree bald and left with no leaves. This particular gif shows Annie crying while the blue paint began to drip off of the branches, it’s like the painting of the tree is crying with Annie. Most of the time the scenes of Annie she and the setting of the house would be so gray and dull but the color blue would always be vibrant. 

Based on these scenes, I think that everytime Chris would have a memory or think about his wife and kids, blue leaves would appear in the scene. The blue Jacaranda leaves symbolizes Chris’ mourning for his family. 

Children’s funeral

Ang Hintayan ng Langit is a comedy drama about two ex-lovers Lisang and Manolo becoming roommates waiting in purgatory until they are allowed to go up in heaven. Showing them both their past and also the people they left behind on earth. It also shows their regrets and no matter how many years have past and even they’ve both married different people that they still love each other. 

In the film, purgatory is shown as an airport where people will either go the a fight where they will go up in heaven or just remain in purgatory. Even the so called guardians there are dressed as flight attendants. It also shown that there is a list that goes up whether or not a person will be able to go up in heaven or not, kind of like a list of people who passed the board exams. 

Since the start I can tell that Lisang wanted to go back to earth and experience earthly things again and be back together with Manolo, just like when they were young. Just with the opening shot when she watches the tape of both her and Manolo by the river. (which actually not everyone knows it yet at first since it is showed in the latter parts of the film, that is actually Manolo in the tape) 

Lisang also reminds her guardian when she is able to get the keys to different rooms. These keys allows a soul to 3 different rooms, and as Lisang described it, it’s rooms where a soul can experience to be human again. First room they visited was a bar and restaurant, where they drank with the souls they were with in purgatory and talked about how their life was before they died and drank until they were drunk, since they didn’t have to worry about their health since they were dead already. Second room they visited was where the guardians keep the archives of tapes of the souls they had in purgatory. The tapes where clips of the souls when they were still alive and still on earth. Third and last was the previous room of Lisang and was being renovated. Manolo had to go inside alone, since Lisang was getting ready for her trip to Heaven, Manolo discovered that the room had holes like someone broke it and when soul looks through the holes of the room, they can experience being with the people they left on earth and be with them, but this is against the rules of the purgatory and since Lisang being in purgatory for two years learned and broke the rules, she was delayed to go to heaven. 

But the reason of Lisang’s defiance against the rules of the purgatory was checking up on Manolo when he was on the verge of his death. She “visited” Manolo by looking through the holes. This is where she revealed that only reason why she keeps getting delayed to going up in heaven was because she keeps on getting herself in trouble so she was able to wait for Manolo there in purgatory. Which reveals that she really loves Manolo until the end. 

Ang Larawan is a musical Filipino film originally a play and was adapted into a film. Ang Larawan is about two sisters who are daughters of a high profile painter Don Lorenzo Marasigan, but has since only produced one painting after a long time. The two sisters and the father are supported by the two sister’s elder siblings, and are forcing their sisters to sell their father’s last painting since they don’t have any money left. The sisters are then conflicted if they should sell the painting because this was a gift to them from their father. So only they have the power to sell the painting. 

It is so strange in that the whole film revolves around the painting and yet the painting is described but barely shown in the whole film. I think the painting and the Marasigan home is a symbolism of tradition and the two sisters are the Filipinos who would like to stick to the Filipino’s old traditions but their elder sisters are the Filipino who would like to adapt to the what the Philippines is becoming while it is being influenced by Americans. Filipinos up until now are very materialistic just like here in the film, they’d much rather sell the painting in order to get a high amount of money like the elder siblings of the two sisters. The sisters were tempted at times to sell the painting but still remembered what it was to them and what it meant to them. Although, Paula did destroy the painting (not really sure, since it was not shown) the sisters thought that the only thing that’s important is their father and their home where they grew up so they didn’t let anyone tempt them in end to sell their home, the only thing left to them, so they put their foot down and stood for what they believe were theirs and told their elder siblings that they will not sell the house. All in all this allows us to look back see what we’ve lost (the painting) and regret it, but move forward protect what you still have. 

Dancing Beethoven is a documentary about the preparation and hardworking process of ballet dancers and musicians for a unique spectacle in Tokyo that Maurice Béjart choreographed with the Ninth Symphony of Beethoven. Béjart Ballet Lausanne dances with Tokyo Ballet and the Philharmonic Orchestra of Isreal. A marvellous combination of dancers’ movement and expression of different feelings along the four movements of the symphony with absolute elegance and strength.

Maurice Béjart originally choreographed with the Ninth Symphony of Beethoven 50 years ago and Gil Roman who danced in the original production with Béjart is leading Tokyo Ballet and Béjart Baller Lausanne with choreography and sets out to reimagine the monumental work for a new generation. Arantxa Aguirre documents the history of the piece, the dedication of the current dancers, and the complexity of a daunting multicultural collaboration between Béjart Ballet Lausanne, the Tokyo Ballet, and the Israel Symphony Orchestra conducted by Zubin Mehta. The result is an exhilarating blend of music and dance. 

Maurice Béjart’s compelling staging of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony has been enchanting audiences worldwide since its inception and its idea of universal brotherhood remains highly topical. “All men will be brothers” is the powerful message communicated by the unforgettable music and choreography. “It is the ‘manifestation’, in the deepest sense of the world.”

Dancing Beethoven is a very relatable documentary to performers of all kinds: musicians, dancers, directors and etc. It shows the hard work and effort that each dancers and choreographers put in the performance and rehearsals. Even with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Israel’s rehearsal. CONTROL was a big part on their side of the performance. No sound of instrument should stand out, all of the sound must blend with each other. Same instance with the choir of how they release their vocals during the performance, it should also be controlled. The coordination of the music and the dancers is extraordinary because dancing with live music is not easy. The dancers must time their movements with the music as well as the music who has to be perfect in the performance because every movement of the ballet relies heavily on the music that is played. 

Malya Roman the one interviewing in the film asked Zubin Mehta “Since Beethoven was nearly deaf when he composed this, is this production sort of how Beethoven could’ve listened to the music he composed? By watching the dancer’s movements?” Zubin Mehta answered “That’s a great question, because yes it could be.”

Other than this film showing the work of performers and musicians, it also shows the story of how the performance came to be and the history of every movement and every note of the music. It shows the vision of Maurice Béjart on how the Ninth Symphony of Beethoven came life as a dance production. Every formation in the dance had a meaning, even the movements had meaning behind them. It takes so much artistic talent to choreograph based from music and have a whole production’s theme come from the music itself, because you have to dig deeper that what we just see in the surface, Furthermore, this version of the production displayed different cultures, and not just with the dancers but also with the musicians: French, Israeli, Japanese and there were also Colombians, Indians and etc. This production showed diversity in its cast and its performance. 

Documentaries are beautiful in a way that it shows real life problems and raw emotions of people. This film was able to show exactly what they needed the story behind the success of their production, the behind the scenes of how the director directs his/her performers same goes with the conductor who conducts the music. This documentary can make dancers and musicians relate to what they’ve gone though just for a performance. Same goes with former dancers and former musicians. They show and tell you their thought process and how it comes alive. Through the performance it’s like they were trying to say “Listen with your eyes.” Because the true star in this performance is the music, even though Béjart had a different interpretation, it was his own version of how he saw Beethoven’s music. It makes you think about everything in the performance and that’s how everyone should truly look and reflect a performance. It takes an artist and an intellectual to form this kinds of art it is just beautiful and extraordinary. 

Sources:

https://m.imdb.com/title/tt6194934

https://www.filmlinc.org/films/dancing-beethoven/

Summary of Snow White

Although we all know the story of Snow White where Snow is a princess who lives in a castle with her father who is the king and a step-mother who she doesn’t know is an Evil Queen, who happens to be envious of her because whenever she asks the looking glass she owned “looking-glass, looking-glass, on the wall, who in this land is the fairest of all?”

and the looking glass would always answer “thou art fairer than all who are here, lady queen. But more beautiful still is snow-white, as I ween.”

Although at first when Snow White was a little young the looking glass would answer “thou, o queen, art the fairest of all.” but when Snow White began to grow up the looking glass began to say that Snow White being the fairest in the land.

Summary of Sydney White

 Sydney White is a modern adaptation of Snow White which is set in college. Sydney White like Snow White grew up with just her father but unlike Snow White Sydney, was not rich and since she grew up mostly with her father by her side, she became interested in guy-ish activites.

Like in Snow White there was a person who was envious of Sydney due to her sudden popularity amongst the sorority girls and other college students....Rachel Witchburn. = Evil Queen. 

Rachel Witchburn did everything in her power to kick Sydney out of the sorority which she succeeded. This is when Sydney met her 7 dorks who helped her and agreed to give a place to stay after being kick out of her sorority house. But you all know where this leads to....The good guys always have the happy ending. 

Sydney thought Rachel is abusing her power as Student Body President of the Student Council, so Sydney decided to go against her for Student Body President, there were several bumps in the road of their campaign but Sydney White and her Freedom to 7th Power campaign prevailed and they were the new Student Council.

Rachel Witchburn who not only lost the election but was also overthrown as President of Kappa Phi Nu for abusing her power and abusing her sisters in the sororities. 

Snow White and Sydney White Comparison and Connection

Snow White was obviously set in Europe in the 1500s and Sydney White was set in Orlando, USA in the 2000s. Just by watching the film Snow White you know who the characters are based from Snow White. 

In the book of Snow White, she just wanted to live and not be killed by the huntsman. While in Sydney White, Sydney just wants to survive college, but after being outcasted by her Sorority President-Rachel Witchburn, this was a little difficult for her. Rachel Witchburn from start was envious of Sydney White for having the hottest guy in school interested in her and also having most of the people in college like her, just like in Snow White when the Evil Queen envied Snow White for being the fairest maiden in the land, she decided for the huntsman to have her killed. Although, Witchburn didn’t exactly have Sydney killed she wanted Sydney’s social life killed so that she would have less friends.

The Evil Queen had 3 attempts in killing Snow White first was when she laced Snow too tight that led Snow not being able to breath, second was the poisonous comb, she combed her hair and led to Snow being poisoned and lastly the most popular one when she gave Snow a poisonous apple to eat. Rachel Witchburn also had attempt in ruining Sydney. First was when she kicked out Sydney out of the sorority house and also embarrassed her in front of a lot of people.  Second was when she had the house of the 7 dorks demolished leading them to have no place to stay and lastly hacking Sydney’s laptop so that she wouldn’t have any term paper to submit to her class, so she had to pull an all nighter to finish her term paper. 

Final Thoughts

by: Talebearerqueen (Samantha Manga) 

This will be a review about the film Goyo: Ang Batang Heneral, but I won’t be giving any spoiler more on the whole movie itself. I’ll be tackling the cinematography, music used in the film, and the actors who acted in the film. 

CINEMATOGRAPHY AND CAMERA WORK

In the start of the film, there were parts that made me dizzy due to the camera work, also the stability of the camera was also an issue for me whenever the camera was following a character, I don’t know if that’s really what the director wanted, but because of the unstable camera work, it gives the film a indie type of vibe, which Goyo is not. Although, the cinematography made up for weak camera work, the shots of the landscapes and the different scenes wherein the rule of thirds was followed. Also the color-grading was outstanding, as an audience I would understand when it was a flashback, dream or just when the actor was having a “moment” in the scene. 

MUSIC 

Music is important in any film because it determines the feelings and emotion the scene shows. Music is the tool that moves the audience to tears, happiness and etc. The film succeeded in moving the audience, through the music used in scenes, I could definitely feel the emotion in every single scenes. There were some scenes though when the feeling was supposed to be inspiring and hopeful, the music was kind of edm-ish (Electronic Dance Music) and it totally destroyed the emotion I had in that scene. So I guess consistency is somewhat lacking in the music department for me in some scenes. 

ACTORS

Being an effective actor is hard work, even if they have a little role, if they’re effective actors, they make the role big. Effective actors are what I look for in films because they get the emotion they want out of me. The most effective actor from this film is Mon Confiado portraying Emilio Aguinaldo. He is my favourite because I actually hated his character which is proof that he is an effective actor. 

Paulo Avelino portraying Gregorio Del Pilar is an intense portrayal because he didn’t as have many lines as Heneral Luna in the previous film. He mostly had to show his internal emotions using facial expressions which I know for a fact is very difficult. Also Goyo was a charming man back in the day, making every women he sees swoon over him, which was a piece of cake for Paulo Avelino, since he is naturally charming. 

FINAL THOUGHTS