YAM Laranas shares this first still from “The Echo” of which reviewer Todd Brown wrote: “The result feels more like a riff on the themes that drove the original film than a straight-up remake.”
Only in Hollywood Yam’s ‘Echo’ gets first good review in Cannes By Ruben V. Nepales Philippine Daily Inquirer First Posted 22:56:00 05/24/2008
LOS ANGELES—After unleashing mostly negative reviews on Dante Mendoza’s Cannes competition entry, “Serbis,” critics on the Croisette have moved on and left town by the time this column comes out. But these scathing critiques, especially the ones posted online, continue to draw comments and counter-comments, apologies and insults.
But first—Telegraph.co.uk, Britain’s top newspaper website, through its critic Sukhdev Sandhu, joined The Hollywood Reporter in its dissenting opinion of the Philippine entry.
Sukhdev, in his piece reviewing “Serbis,” Steven Soderbergh’s much-awaited “Che” and James Marsh’s “Man on Wire” (Dante is in good company here), wrote: “A word though for ‘Serbis,’ the first Filipino film to screen in competition [in] more than 20 years, and one that has garnered almost wholly abusive reviews. For me, Brillante Mendoza’s depiction of 24 hours in the life of a struggling porn cinema in Manila was one of the highlights of the festival.
“Shooting inside a beautiful Art Deco theatre, Mendoza not only shows a flair for evoking its strange and glamorous interiors, but offers high-end soap opera, at once nuanced, funny and melancholic, about this religion-soaked, sexually ambiguous world governed by sad-eyed matriarchs. Two scenes, too ribald to describe here, offered hearty and welcome laughs during a fortnight of too many films that veered towards the dour.”
Critic corrected
Cinematical.com critic Kim Voynar, whose review of “Serbis” was one of the unfavorable ones we cited in our column last Friday, attracted animated commentaries in her website. Under the headline “Live from Cannes: Gratuitous Yuckiness in ‘Serbis’ and Bad Euro-disco,” Kim related that the last straw for her, the one that made her walk out of the screening of Dante’s film (written by Armando Lao and Boots Agbayani Pastor) was “a disgustingly graphic scene of the nephew [character] popping the boil on his ass with a Coke bottle.”
Kim aroused reactions from Filipinos and Lino Brocka fans when she erroneously wrote, “‘Serbis’ is the first Filipino film to ever play in competition in Cannes…” Even though Kim added a somewhat sympathetic note to Filipino films by adding, “and I was hoping to like it,” one reader, MrScheez, after pointing out that “Lino was in competition here twice more than 20 years ago,” bitched, “I guess you’re just a newbie in the Cannes Film Festival scene for not knowing Lino Brocka, a great Filipino director.” Meowww! The late Brocka might have enjoyed this saucy exchange.
But most of the readers who corrected Kim were polite. And Kim was civil as well when she replied, “Thanks for pointing that out, folks... I was working off erroneous info from a fellow critic on that, but should have researched... I’m not familiar with Brocka’s work, but I’ll have to check it out, thanks for the recommendation.”
The cordial-catty exchanges did not end there, however. Kim’s highly critical analysis of “Serbis” stimulated a lively discussion. Here are samples:
Tito: “It’s good you were frank, I’m a Filipino and I don’t like this Mendoza-Lao (the screenwriter) gimmick of mimicking the late Filipino director Lino Brocka’s neo-realist movies. Lao was the former screenwriter of Brocka (sic), and apparently Mendoza relied too much on him in interpreting the hackneyed script. Even Howard Feinstein of Screen Daily noted Mendoza was better when he has partial credits for the script. Lao belongs to the dark ages, he isn’t a boost to the new indie scene. He only knows stories about squatters and prostitutes. It’s good Brocka was able to polish the yucky tendencies. Mendoza apparently was awed of the more senior Lao. Well, he woke up too late. But at least, now it’s clear he shouldn’t aspire to be a Brocka clone and [he should] jettison outdated dinosaurs like Lao. The other indie Filipino directors are auteurs and they rely on their (own) scripts—like Lav Diaz, Raya Martin (‘Now Showing’ in Director’s Fortnight).”
Rehabnam: “To Kim Voynar: …I am no critic but I am eager to watch this film and see for myself if it’s really as bad as what you think.
“To Tito: I do not think Mendoza is mimicking the late great Lino Brocka. What I think is that you are exaggerating things here.”
archerdcross: “To Kim Voynar, it’s your opinion and I respect…but for me this film is a reality for those people who strive to live because of poverty…this is one type of social cancer in society…a business [prostitution] like this is so easy money to (earn to) feed families, so this is a wake-up call for all agencies of the [Philippine] government to do more programs as well as [provide more opportunities for] livelihood so that these immoral acts will be lessened.”
Jonathan: “Well, it made it to Cannes. There’s probably something in it that you haven’t seen yet. And it’s probably because you were looking in a different direction. The yuckiness, by the way, is real. It really does happen. And it could be worse.”
Kim herself reacted with: “Making it into Cannes or any other fest, honestly, is no guarantee that a film isn’t bad. I’ve seen countless truly wretched films at festivals. Just because it’s a prestigious fest doesn’t mean that all the films here will be good. It’s always a crapshoot. And given the countless fellow critics I’ve heard ranting about hating this film, it’s certainly not just me ‘missing something.’”
Elsewhere, good news
Elsewhere, there’s good news: “The Echo,” Yam Laranas’ eagerly anticipated American remake of his “Sigaw,” got a good review from Todd Brown, who saw the final international version at the Cannes Film Market.
Todd writes for twitchfilm.net, an increasingly influential blog site that describes itself as “a film news/review/discussion site that pays particular attention to independent, cult, foreign and genre films…run by film fans who are interested in digging a little bit deeper and chasing a little farther to find a hidden gem.”
Yam told us via e-mail that Todd has “been wanting to see ‘The Echo.’ He is a great fan of the original.” Saying that “the print was sent to the Cannes Film Market a week before the opening of the festival,” the Pinoy filmmaker, who was privileged to do his own American remake of the Regal Entertainment-produced Tagalog original, announced, “Next up is marketing. We are a small independent movie (US$5M) so it’s a different road to take compared to big budget films out there. I feel very excited and nervous at the same time. I always want my work to be accepted by the audience.”
As to when “The Echo”—in which he successfully fought for Filipina actress Iza Calzado to reprise her role—will be shown, Yam answered, “I would know the film’s release date probably after Cannes.”
Producers’ respect
He showed us a “teaser poster” said to be made for Cannes and for all fans of horror movies on the Internet, along with the first two stills from the movie. Of the poster which shows the lead, Jesse Bradford, Yam said, “It is obviously a teaser and nowhere near the final key art. The producers respect my creativity so I will be consulted with regards to the final poster.”
Asked if he plans to enter “The Echo” in film festivals, the Davao native replied, “Yes. I’d really like to join Fantasia (the biggest and oldest genre festival in North America) and the Toronto International Film Festival. But, all plans have to run by the collective decision of the producers, distributors and myself. That’s the best thing about being independent. You’re part of all the processes.”
Of Todd’s review, he commented, “He is very objective and very honest. If there is anything negative, he’ll say it.”
Todd summed up his view of “The Echo” this way: “The result feels more like a riff on the themes that drove the original film than a straight up remake and it is arguably the most art house oriented picture to come out of Roy Lee’s very commercially minded—in a good way—Vertigo Entertainment.”
The following are excerpts from the full review: “In the original film the young man was simply striking out on his own, moving into his first apartment in a bid for independence. Bobby’s [Jesse Bradford] criminal history, the death of his mother, and the collapse of his relationship with his girlfriend are all new devices for this version and all add layers of depth that make Bobby a more difficult and rewarding character. That strength does come with a cost in the early going as Bobby is so isolated, that a healthy percentage of the film is Bobby on his own with minimal dialogue, but Bradford is up to the challenge. Some of the other characters could have used a little bit more work but this is Bobby’s film all the way through and Bradford delivers.”
Moody piece
Todd continued: “On the technical end both films are far more about building mood and tone than piling on shock after shock and again, Laranas applies his considerable technical skills to that end. The man is a hugely accomplished cinematographer, reluctant to use digital tricks of any sort, and while he has an outside director of photography on ‘The Echo’—as opposed to ’Sigaw,’ which he shot himself—his fingerprints are all over the visuals and shooting style.
“Helping greatly in building the tone of the piece is the stellar sound design work that makes it clear throughout that while Bobby may be isolated, he can never, ever be truly alone when living in the big city.
“‘The Echo’ is a moody piece of work, a slow burner rather than a big shocker, and one that will likely prove a little bit difficult to market as a result. Just like its predecessor was not one of the big dogs in the original Asian horror boom, this one arrives late enough in the remake game that some of the images have become a little overly familiar. But also just like the original, it shows that there is still some life in these bones and still stories worth telling.”
Copyright 2008 Philippine Daily Inquirer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
To
subscribe to the Philippine Daily Inquirer newspaper in the Philippines,
call +63 2 896-6000 for Metro Manila and Metro Cebu or email your subscription request here.
Factual errors? Contact the
Philippine Daily Inquirer's day desk.
Believe this article violates journalistic ethics?
Contact the
Inquirer's Reader's Advocate.
Or write The Readers' Advocate:
c/o
Philippine Daily Inquirer
Chino RocesAvenue corner Yague and Mascardo Streets,
Makati City, Metro Manila, Philippines
Or fax nos. +63 2 8974793 to 94
![Zoom Image](javascript:popwin("http://images.inquirer.net/media/showbizandstyle/entertainment/entertainment/images/pic-05250535260596.jpg", 640, 480))
Zoom
