Posters are intriguing, mind-boggling, and most of all crazy. Since films are made of hundreds of thousands of still images, posters are only made by a single picture. The hardest, harshest, and critical part in making a poster for a movie is that everything should be there; the general tone, mood, feel, and all major elements should be consolidated and at the same time should cohere to one another and at the same time catch the attention of people for it to sell, totally advertising in a sense. That is why some movies have more than one poster, usually they have two, but others even have new versions everytime they show the film in different countries. That is why I collected a list of all the movie posters that caught my attention renting them in my favourite video shop and watch them. Though some posters are better than the movie and vice versa, posters are a fantastic part of any film. In fact, I even want to see a Best Poster award included in award giving bodies for films.
1. Sophie Scholl--The Final Days (Marc Rothemund/Germany/2005)
2. Departures (Yojiro Takita/Japan/2008)
3. Burn After Reading (Coen Brothers/USA/2008)
4. The English Patient (Anthony Minghella/USA/1996)
5. Rang de Basanti/*Paint it Saffron (Rakeysh Omprakash/India/2006)
* English Transalation
6. Nuovomundo/*The Golden Door (Emanuele Craisele/Italy/2006)
7. Little Miss Sunshine (Jonathan Dayton & Va\lerie Faris/USA/2006)
End of the world is the end of all the splendour, advancement, beauty, love and even the evil of all living beings who have stepped foot on the 197,000,000 square mile total surface of the earth. Among the infinite number of the souls who have been able to do so, “Knowing” focuses on a father William (Nicholas Cage), an astrophysics professor who learned about a prophetic code leading to what everybody won’t wish to ever occur—the end of the world.
After finding out that the numbers on a weird student Lucinda’s drawing 50 years ago from the school where his son Caleb is now studying has an astonishing correspondence to the dates, number of casualty, and location of the world’s major terrifying disasters, he is set to at least do something. But though proven that a man couldn’t alter a prophecy unless you are Jesus Christ; he has seen a plane crash and witnessed in his disposal the literally burning and pleading for desperate help passengers; and also, he is one of those who have survived a dreadful railway accident killing hundred of lives after being unsuccessful keeping the prophecy latent. But the final one of these prophetical code is much worse, a tragedy that is apocalyptic, a solar flare so tremendous that it will engulf the planet with the sun’s overwhelming power of fire, thus wiping away the face of the earth. William though has learned that Lucinda was trying to communicate a safe place before the final catastrophe happens.
They say that things come in threes, and that comes here in the movie: two calamities at first with increasing intensity and number of casualty and then finally the ultimate blow that will make everybody helpless. Alex Proyas, the director has provided us with a fake and a differential which has been a unique part of the film all throughout, and is a very fine technique of twisting a thriller plotted movie. The place crash scene has quite a generic look and feel for a suspense film—the rains, the dark clouds, running people, despicable plane debris, and the haunting hum of dying people, but the introduction of the scene from the part where William is still on the car worried about the traffic, minding the numbers on Lucinda’s paper, and seeing them at the navigator of his car, then he steps out of car where he can see police officers attending or guarding something that is not really known. That point of uncertainty swallows up our nerves to an abyss of terror and then a plane came from nowhere swooshing right in front of the troubled William and all of the deposited anxiety at what we thought has already happened scuttles with the crashing plane and found ourselves in a painting of sorrow, disappointment, fear, and danger. There is also a fake and differential scheme in the second one—the train accident. William has called the police and informs them that something wrong might happen in a particular corner of the busy city of Manhattan, but like what a usual saviour experiences, no one will believe him. He sees a suspicious guy and he follows him until the subway only to find out that he is only a DVD thief, and that couldn’t really lead them to a monstrous incident. Until the moment they realized that in the subway they are all in, a derailment has just occurred and now everybody’s lives are then at stake.
While William is moving heavens and earth just to solve a worldwide concern, his son has been hearing whispers since they learned about the prophetical codes. With the whispers come a group of vampire looking people, pale-skinned, blonde, and whimsy. These people or entities pretending to be human beings are annoying and kills the film’s very pop culture subject matter. Probably, with the popularity of freaking vampires out of the overrated Twilight series, they thought that vampires or at least vampire-looking anthropometric figures could adjoin sleek elements to an already promising movie. A petty and pitiful surmise though it has proven because it made the film pathetic and desperate for inter-textual congeniality. The worse is, the rest of the film is great less that part. But the worst of them all, the function of these vampire scamps is so ambitiously gorgeous. They are actually extra-terrestrial life form aiming to send a couple of human beings to another planet where everything could be started anew, and in which case Caleb will serve like the earth’s Adam. I find it a serious problem that these “aliens” don’t appear as cinematic as they are supposed to be considering the grandeur of their matrix. The whispers the kids are hearing adds a great coherence to the genre especially with the darkness-in-the-forest visual template the cinematographer creates. The inclusion of this side-thrill gives an interesting intonation that cleverly supports the major structural narrative thread of “Knowing”. That scaffolding even though noticeable, but since it is annoying prevents me from having a serious read of it and yet at the end redeems itself for the very well, astute manipulation of the audience’s reactions.
The cinematography at times is breathtaking, especially the two last major scenes at the end of it: first, the scene where the young supposed Adam and Eve running at the eternity of the new beginning, where everything is just perfect, the visual tone, the rhythmic pace, the musical accompaniment, the costume design, and total outlandish atmosphere; second, which I have mentioned above, is the scene where William and his family calmly wait for their last second, the everyday yellowish tone of a simple American home and an example of a usual grown-up family (old parents, middle-aged son, and young adolescent daughter) holding each other tight consolidate with the beauty of the sadness that will soon evolve to an adulterated form of beauty.
“Knowing” is quite similar with “The Day the Earth Stood Still”, both refer to the end of the planet in the presence of extra-terrestrial (though not as physically close with the late 90’s stereotype of ETs: big red eyes, huge heads, green-skinned, and others). The two have humanity/familial love at its emotional core, the basic difference between the two though is that “Knowing” is a hundred mile better than “The Day the Earth Stood Still”. Speaking of what a more realistic scenario is not quite the matter between the two, but to how much authentic extent the approach to the over-all atmosphere of these two films have been. Aside from the superiority of the special effects of “Knowing”, that actually makes the other film looks like having a special effect scarcity, the internal urgency of human change is so forced in “The Day the Earth Stood Still” like Helen (Jennifer Connelly) has been repeating the same line more than twice pleading to Klaatu (Keannu Reeves) that we can change. Two things I hate about that is that first it is desperate and second it is extremely desperate. That on the other hand is the exact reason why I love “Knowing”, the hearty component of it comes and flows as natural as it should be. Particularly in the part where William, together with his father, mother, and younger sister hug each other as they welcome (not just helplessly accept) the end of things, and the fires of the powerful sun eat up the once everlasting days of the earth. The scene is very sentimental, it is not scary, at most, I know the director together with the great help from its cinematographer and musical scorer wants it to be like that. A film that will capture love amidst the most feared catastrophe, a premise that M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Signs” awfully and frantically tries to be, this movie is a post-thrill strategized piece resorting to a peaceful and sentimental solemn and ultimate moments.
The Diamond Star playing the “Inang Yaya” role despite her “Taray Queen” image, still manages to carry an excellent, emotionally- loaded, and unrelentingly passionate job. There could be no other better option for the role than her. In fact, I would even say that if there is only one Independent film Maricel Soriano could be leading then that is “Inang Yaya”, and the reason is simple, she is totally convincing. You won’t argue with me if I say that this movie gave her Best Actress nominations in FAP, FAMAS, URIAN, YCC and even winning the award in Golden Screen. The calmness, the posture, the projection of the voice, the timidity that is usually associated with the economic status of a person and the nature of her job sweetly uniting with the merged stereotypes of a mother and a ‘yaya’ elevates the very simple and almost uneventful narrative. Thus, I can say that the film is not imagining itself as something bigger than life but instead something as little and yet as loving as creating a ‘cupcake birthday cake’ for a stuffed toy, reprimanding over a 50-peso sticker, and crying because of an unappreciated pink and imitation rubber shoes, which nevertheless results to one of the most undemanding but satisfying films I’ve ever seen.
The cast is not just one of the strongest part of the film but actually, one of the strongest cast ever been done at least for me of course. Aside from the captivating performance of Soriano, the girls Tala Santos as Ruby, the dark-skinned and a little deprived from the comfort of being a rich kid and almost disheartened by the comfort of living in a big house and being friends with her mother’s ‘alaga’ Louise, played by Erika Oreta. Sunshine Cruz and Zoren Legaspi as the employer of Norma and parents of Louise are both cinematically believable transforming their sequences into familiar real-life images of a well-off workaholic couple.
The film is about the extension of a mother’s love, from her daughter to another one she has treated like a daughter as well. During Norma’s soliloquy at the late part of the film, when she is saying that when is asked who between her daughter Ruby and ‘alaga’ Louise she loves the more, the answer for her is that she doesn’t has to choose. She loves both of them and not because Ruby is her daughter (by blood, and all the legal and cultural connotations it may bring to it) doesn’t necessarily means she has to opt her, and that she loves Louise less because she is only an ‘alaga’ and not a real daughter. Another thing that is actually impressive about the film is that it is an aberrant one but still it manages to keep the non-conformist aspect of it in the heart-warming form and content of Inang Yaya.
Almost a realist approach, and understandable is the independent filmmaking technique of a single camera and less flashy camera movements, the film has a collected pace of the plot. Pablo Biglang-awa and Veronica Velasco understand how great the tendency of the film being a bore if not for the good and ardent handling of simple sequences and turn them into experiences that will make us appreciate the two sides of life: tiresome but loving working life of an adult person and the colourful and happy playing lives of children. To put it in other words—of one’s present and the reminiscing of her past, and of one’s present and ignorance of the future.
Inang Yaya is a simple and a beautiful piece of film. Subtle and smooth, the movie tells the story of being a mother times two. The ending where the family of Louise has to go to Singapore and say goodbye to Norma and Ruby punctuates not the love, but only it left the end open to whatever must be happening in the thereafter of a connection divided by seas and distinguished by two different lands. I do not wish to think of this as a reason to say that the mother should be with the daughter and therefore should be away from the ‘other’ daughter. The ending as I’ve mention is not the ending but rather a proof how great the times were when they were all been together, as well as reality is concerned.
Drag me to Hell is a distinctive post-modern fusion of horror films and something technologically youthful, like a video game, that makes almost every single sequence in this film demonically thrilling, dynamically accented, and crazily choreographed.
The title is literally the ultimate conclusion of the curse, the protagonist Christine (Alison Lohaman) is suffering. Inflicted by an odd old Mexican woman, Christine is forced to outplay the evil that is waiting for her to be dragged to the fires of hell.
I am extremely convinced that this film is a product of the continuously evolving aesthetics (visually, temporally) of human beings doing the more than a century craft of filmmaking. Its very youthful, very pop culture approach as if it is an adaptation of a certain video game gives the movie a way too original package in totality. It is not even a derivative of horror films that creates the same old eerie, disgust, and supernatural fear. “The Exorcist”, M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Sixth Sense”, and even Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining”, these all time favourite and well-acclaimed horror films are all austere-atmosphered movies. Never a combination of horror and craziness has been this great, especially when you can think of the Scary Movie as its closest competitor. Drag me to Hell has just got the innovative horror, coalescing eerie places, creepy people (imps pretending to be people), tormenting evils, and combating them and artistically exaggerate everything with scenes originating from the usual purpose of disgusting people bringing real fear but were modified. Thus, using the same purpose, creating a knock-outing punch, the disgust didn’t generate the fear that has been generated by previous horror films we watch, instead, producing a relaxed fear and vivid satisfaction out of the crankiness that is poured.
Sam Raimi director of the Spiderman 1-3, and now the upcoming fourth, delivers a great piece of survival and salvation. The ground cracking in Satan’s scorching fire witnessed twice in the film (first, during the first encounter of the powerful medium (Adriana Barazza), and second during the end where Christine is swallowed up by it. Co-written by Ivan Raimi, the major twist happened when Christine thought that she can pass back the curse to the spooky woman who wreaked it out to her, but accidentally giving it to her boyfriend, which doesn’t mean she has passed it to him, rather unable to pass it to anyone until the time the blight will take place.
The people in the film are divided into two parts: the Americans and the non-Americans. Americans are the protagonists and her boyfriend, and her boss, which simply means the normal or the ‘main’ character. The non-Americans vary from one to another, the Chinese represented by the co-worker of Christine, who would do anything to get the promotion against Christine by all means. The Indian is represented by Rham, the fortune teller who tells her about what is haunting her. The Mexican is with Shaun San Dena, the medium who is supposed to free Christine from the evil of the curse, and of course the frightening old woman, Ganush, who imposed the demonic curse.
