Enjoyable Montreal

Montreal is specially enjoyable and wonderful during the months of September and October. It is sunny, comfortably and refreshingly cool, less humid and one can have prolonged coffee breaks in outdoor cafes/bistros/restaurants. Montrealers are fashionable people and the shapely ones wear close-fitting and colorful clothes. For male Montrealers, the female form is without a question an arresting indicator of spring going to fall.

If you read the book 1,000 Places To See Before You Die, Montreal was described as "Paris without a jet lag," or a North American city that combines French culture and British attitudes. There is a variety of cultural events such as the Just For Laughs Comedy Festival, the Franco Folies Festival. Divers/City Cultural Festival and to top it all is the Montreal World Film Festival.

Montreal is a perfect city for a prestigious, European-style film festival. The residents are used to watching arty foreign films with sub-titles, unlike most Americans who refuse to read. Montrealers are cineastes and the city is open to avant garde ideas and are very hospitable. In Montreal, the films are the stars while in Toronto the movie stars are the main attractions.

The Montreal World Film Festival is now 28 years old and there is fear that it won’t reach its 30th birthday because of artistic and financial problems. The festival has always been plagued with controversies but somehow survived the turmoils. It definitely cannot compete with the highly-commercial and much-hyped Toronto filmfest.

There are rumors that the MWFF might lose the subsidies from the government and corporate sponsors. But the show must go on this year. The 28th edition has 400-plus lineup of movies from around the world. I personally hope MWFF survives because it is the filmfest with the most number of entries from Spain, France and Latin countries. Going to Montreal is cheaper and less stressful than going to Cannes and it allows me to be an armchair traveler for 12 glorious days without the inconvenience of going in and out of congested airports.

The 28th edition of the MWFF continues its tradition of providing windows for filmmakers of South America, Spain and France. This year, there was a special homage for French actress Isabelle Adjani.

Here’s my top-ten films of MWFF 2004 edition from around the world.

Philippines – Crying Ladies (Directed by Mark Meily) MWFF programmer Hannah Fisher found another gem from the Philippines. Prior to viewing the film, a story about professional mourners in Manila’s Chinatown sounded morbidly melodramatic. But to my great surprise, the movie is solidly entertaining, intelligently written and acted, elegantly produced despite its independent film status, genuinely touching with ample supply of subtlety. As we all know, being subtle and having good taste are two major ingredients not often found in many Tagalog films. Crying Ladies is an extraordinary debut for newcomer Mark Meily.

The cinematography of Lee Meily is visually exhilarating. The casting is brilliant and the film avoided the clichés and stereotypes in Filipino movies. I could not believe that the same production house of Crying Ladies also did the dreadfully corny and embarrassing American Adobo.

Some of the few surprises, Cuneta was not afraid to look unglamorous and avoided being "cute." Her deeply flawed film character did not have a torrid affair with rich boy Quizon. The young son of Cuneta did not scream and wail and the stepmother was not a monster. There are no graphic erotic scenes though the sex act was in the scenario. Angel Aquino is luminous and Hilda Coronel totally swiped her weepy "Insiang" image.

We hope to see more works of responsible Filipino filmmakers in future world film festivals. We also need more responsible programmers like Ms. Hannah Fisher of Toronto. Fortunately, the odd and bizarre programmers looking for Filipino trash on celluloid are diminishing. The success of Munting Tinig, Magnifico and Crying Ladies is an indication that the era of sexually deviant Tagalog cinema is on the way out. (To be continued.)

Next week will focus on films from India, Spain. Argentina Brazil, Italy and Chile.