ROME AND JULIET (Connie Macatuno)

-

There are not many lesbian local films around. Gay, yes but lesbian, no. However, ROME AND JULIET can hardly be called a lesbian film; Connie Macatuno staged her scenes so well that any notion of homosexuality is set aside, rendering the story as a normal love story involving humans fighting for their relationship.

In fact, ROME AND JULIET neither condemns nor condones homosexual relationship. We are shown that being a lesbian isn't something that you planned on becoming for a long period of time- the thing is, it just happens. Maybe, because of the environment, or repressed feelings. 

Opposing characters headline the story of the film. Juliet (Andrea Del Rosario) is the prim and proper school teacher who is set to be married to a politician (Rafael Rossell). Rome (Mylene Dizon) is the independent and  dominant florist who eats men's bones for breakfast. When they meet, an uncontrollable attraction ensues, and neither of them don't know what it is.

It's romantic and fascinating to notice how the relationship between Rome and Juliet blossom into something special. We see hindrances along the way, and the painful social stigma associated with homophobia. My only setback is that in the end, after all they've been through and after that colorful and painful exodus, she gets "that"? The ending seems forced.

See for yourselves. I won't spoil the ending. Great musical score though.

RATING: 4/5

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

ANINO SA LIKOD NG BUWAN (Jun Lana, 2015)

-
Image
* English title "Shadow behind the Moon" The best term to describe Jun Lana's latest film would be a cinematic charade- a game of identities, of motives, of suppressed passions, and of uncertainty. Or the film equivalent of a Russian doll, if you will. "Anino sa Likod ng Buwan" only has three characters- husband and wife Nando (Anthony Falcon) and Emma (LJ Reyes) and military man Joel (Luis Alandy). What started as a seemingly routine banter among friends gradually and intensely escalated into an examination of society, where the definition of immorality is blurred during a time of insurgency.  And in fact, the film does discuss the subject of immorality from various paradigms. When does adultery become acceptable, and to whom? Is sexual liberation more heinous than murder? Why is immorality always a double standard? The film plays out the ideas in endless games. Or are they really games at all? Lana could have stopped there, but he didn...
Read more

TUHOG (Jeffrey Jeturian)

-
Image
Film within a film-structured movies are always interesting watch. Not only do they provide a much-needed deconstruction of form and content of cinema itself, but also that much-needed emotional punch a cinephile would surely love.  Like in BAD EDUCATION (Almodovar, 2004), we witness the characters tell the back story via montage, as if we are part of the cast of characters watching an actual movie. The form was successful in evoking pain and regret, and also of empathy. In TUHOG, Jeffrey Jeturian and screenwriter Bing Lao tackles sensational media in the Philippines, especially in cinema. The film opens as a film producer hears a pitch for a possible movie- a story of a grandfather who rapes his own granddaughter.  The director of the film soon after visits the victim of the crime, Floring (Ina Raymundo). Coercing both she and her mother, Perla (Irma Adlawan) to sell them the movie rights to their story, we witness as exploitation cinema unfolds. To think of it, capitaliz...
Read more

BIGKIS (Neal Tan, 2014)

-
Image
As an advocacy film, BIGKIS (INTERTWINED) gets its message across. The state of maternal healthcare in the Philippines is downright depressing, with mothers seated on the floor of public hospitals due to shortage of beds, medical equipment and hospital staff. The baby better be gaping through the birth canal before the mother receives serious medical attention.  Such social issue has been featured countless times in local documentaries and even in a feature film (2011's BAHAY BATA), but BIGKIS pushes the envelope further by bridging a connection between mother and child by means of breastfeeding, and in doing so, promoting breastfeeding in the process.  As a drama, the film tends to squeeze too much tragedy from the downtrodden lives of its characters that a lot of the dialogue feels staged for us to feel sorry for their countless miseries. Mariel (LJ Reyes), a teenage mother deals with an unwanted pregnancy and worse, the abandonment of her baby's father (Pancho ...
Read more