Tired of hollywood

Last weekend I saw two films, A Very Long Engagement and My Sassy Girl. I watched the French film at Greenbelt 3 with Jerv and I saw the Korean one with my sisters on dvd.

I am not a very big fan of romance flicks. Watching a movie now in a movie house is so expensive and thus I make it a point to watch something really good, one that will make me think, and not some sappy film. I watched A Very Long Engagement on the premise that it is a war movie. And what can I say, I loved it and yes, moreso the love story. It’s the first time in a long while that I liked a movie this much and I liked it better than Amelie, which also starred Audrey Tautou.

A Very Long Engagement is a story of hope and faith set in the background of World War I. Long after the war ended, Mathilde (Audrey Tautou), a polio-stricken girl, continues to believe that she hasn’t lost her fiancé Manech, a war soldier who was court-martialed and sentenced to die. As the search progresses, one can’t help but feel Mathilde’s excitement and despair, agitation and anticipation. Everyone in the movie believes that she is wasting her time. She even found her fiance’s tomb. The movie reminded me so much of the famous line from Paolo Coelho’s The Alchemist which goes like if you want something so bad, the whole world will conspire for you to get it. The ensemble of actors was good and the production and costumes even better. Even if A Very Long Engagement is a period movie, it is not too heavy and the prominence of whimsical and quirky scenes will not disappoint Audrey Tautou fans.

My officemate Peter has been obsessing about My Sassy Girl and has been pestering me to watch it since the time he knew a dvd of it has been accumulating dust at home. My brod Harry also recommended that I watch it and so I finally did last Sunday, the first Sunday in months that I stayed home. Again, after watching another great foreign film, I wondered why we can’t make movies like that. The story is really simple but the execution is funny and poignant at the same time plus the actors didn’t mind looking silly. It shows none of those supposed-to-be-wealthy-overly-dressed adolescents that is the trademark of every teeny-bopper Filipino film. The story of My Sassy Girl even revolved around the subway. The movie is truly endearing that until now I can still playback its soundtrack in my mind. It is a boy-meets-tough girl-they-fall-in-love story but the lines and the character build-up are extraordinary and the ending is a pleasant twist. I loved it.

So much for not liking sappy films…