Pelikula@TitusBrandsmais a free monthly film screening that features fine samples of world cinema. After every screening, film enthusiasts can discuss the aesthetic and technical merits of each film. This monthly screening is an offering of the Titus Brandsma Center-Media Program under the auspices of the Carmelites in the Philippines. It is aimed at giving a meaningful experience for film enthusiasts.
The core group of Pelikula@TitusBrandsma selects three films that correspond to a specific theme for each month. For the month of January, the chosen theme is Behind-the-Scenes.
This month's screening will be held on January 20, 2007 from 1 PM onwards at the Titus Brandsma Center in New Manila, Quezon City.
Pelikula@TitusBrandsma: Behind-the-Scenes
Sequence:
8½ (1963-Italy/France),black-and-white film
Director: Federico Fellini
Cast: Marcello Mastroianni, Claudia Cardinale, Anouk Aimée, Sandra Milo, Rossella Falk
138 mins., In Italian with English subtitles
One of the greatest films about film ever made, Federico Fellini's 8 1/2 turns one man's artistic crisis into a grand epic of the cinema.
Guido Anselmi (Marcello Mastroianni) is a film director trying to relax after his last big hit. However, he is bothered by the fact that people who have worked with him in the past are now looking for more work. He wrestles with his conscience, but is unable to come up with a new idea. While thinking, he starts to recall major happenings in his life, and all the women he has loved and left. This autobiographical film of Fellini showcases the trials and tribulations of filmmaking.
8 1/2 is included in the book 1001 Movies You Should See Before You Die.
Making Group Sex or How To make Something Out of Nothing (2005-Philippines), short film
Director: Jerrold Tarog
Cast: Jerrold Tarog
13 mins. In Tagalog
This short film documents the failure of a group of filmmakers to shoot a comedy called Group Sex when key production members start disappearing for reasons that vary from the mundane to the bizarre.
Day for Night (Nuit américaine, La) (1973- France/Italy)
Director: François Truffaut Cast: Jacqueline Bisset, Valentina Cortese, Dani, Alexandra Stewart, Jean-Pierre Aumont
115 mins. In French with English subtitles
La nuit américaine was director François Truffaut's loving and humorous tribute to the communal insanity of making a movie. The film details the making of a family drama called Meet Pamela, which is about the tragedy that follows when a young French man introduces his parents to his new British wife.
Truffaut gently satirizes his own films with Meet Pamela's overwrought storyline, but the real focus is on the chaos behind the scenes. In addition to all the personal drama, the film is besieged by technical problems, from difficult tracking shots to stubborn animal actors.
Day for Night is included in the book 1001 Movies You Should See Before You Die.
Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse (1991-USA)
Directors: Fax Bahr, George Hickenlooper, Eleanor Coppola (documentary footage)
Cast: Sam Bottoms, Marlon Brando, Colleen Camp, Eleanor Coppola, Francis Ford Coppola
96 mins.
This documentary takes an intimate look at the making of Francis Ford Coppola's 1979 classic Apocalypse Now, which was shot in part in the Philippines. Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse combines the usual documentary interviews with outtakes from the film and rare documentary footage, some shot on the set by Eleanor Coppola.
Not long after the arrival of Coppola and crew in the Philippines, the shooting schedule begins spiraling out of control; the film's cost has soon far surpassed the original budget, with the ending still unwritten. As the problems mount, from lead Martin Sheen's heart attack to the disappearance of several helicopters needed for a scene (because they went to fight in a nearby war), the making of the film begins to frighteningly resemble its subject-an unending tale of madness and obsession in the jungle.
Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse is included in the book 1001 Movies You Should See Before You Die.
FREE ADMISSION.
Screening: January 20, 2007 (1 PM onwards)
Venue: Titus Brandsma Center, 24 Acacia St., Brgy. Mariana, New Manila, Quezon City.
For inquiries, please call Bituin (726-6054) or Maxie (751-1169).
For a map of the location, please visit http://www.pelikula-titusbrandsma.ph/