GQ review: Independencia

Notes from the Culture Bunker: by Tom Carson

Excerpts:

By coincidence, the Filipino movie Independencia also features two people running off to the forest to escape a trauma—in this case, the U.S. suppression of the natives after taking over the islands in the Spanish-American War. It’s also just as stylized as Antichrist, but what a difference a director whose eccentricities are choices rather than needs can make. The filmmaker in question, Raya Martin, is a new name to me, but if his earlier movies are anything like this one, Guy Maddin has a prize pupil to be proud of. The evocativeness of Independencia is all in Martin’s decision to shoot it in the style of a pre-Griffith silent movie, when nobody knew that film had any purpose except mimicking a theater’s proscenium arch. If that didn’t make it clear we’re watching a fable of the Phillipines’ past, the final image wouldn’t be nearly as wrenching—or as pointed. Beyond that, all I can say is that I’ll be at Martin’s next one with bells on.

http://men.style.com/gq/blogs/gqeditors/2009/05/cannes-film-festival-monday-may-18he-may-have-a-palme-dor-for-dancer-in-the-dark-and-a-grand-prix-for-breaking-the-waves-be.html?mbid=typepad