The plot of L’avventura, an Italian film directed by Michelangelo Antonioni in the 1960s, was by far one of the more interesting European films that we’ve seen throughout our short list of movies. Despite the short list of films that we have encountered throughout the entirety of the course together, I am quite positive that this film would be one of the better and more interesting films we will see because its mysteries.

Despite being a film that I actually enjoyed watching, it is important to note that the film is actually a sad one as it shows us the effects of what feeling alone is like. Don’t be fooled by the loneliness part as the movie is not actually a romantic one. The movie focuses around the mysterious disappearance of Anna while she was in a yacht with her friends in the islands of Sicily. Initially the movie reminded me of Ben Affleck’s film, Gone Girl. Unlike the disappearance that was involved in that movie, we notice that in L’avventura only two people seem to be looking for the young woman. Also distinctly compare to that movie, this mysterious disappearance actually becomes an inconclusive one. This can actually mislead us to think these were the only mysteries that were involved in the film. This initial problem allows the audience to be able to question the personalities of the other important characters in the movie. These come about because the movie does not give the audience context regarding their stories of the characters. This enables the audience to continue to watch while they remain interested in trying to get to know the characters even more, as they slowly reveal themselves even from the earlier portions of the film. For instance, Sandro immediately kisses Claudia the moment they figured that Anna had disappeared which is something I did not expect at all. This allows us to immediately question these 2 characters and what their roles were in the film.

Unlike Gone Girl, this mysterious film isn’t actually a thriller, where you end up holding on to your seat as we anticipate something exciting is about to happen. It actually slowly paced itself as it unfolded events. Despite the lack of context, the director does a brilliant job in slowly showing the audience of the film slowly understand the main characters in the film even more.

Visually, the manner of how the film was captured was actually quite magnificent and beautiful, regardless of the lack of technological progress during the time it was filled. Despite it being a black and white film, I actually visually enjoyed watching it. This removes my prejudice regarding the visuals of older films.

Regardless of how much I enjoyed the movie experience, the anticipation of what actually happened to Anna and why she did it remains a mystery. Because of this fact alone, it would be easy to think that I wasted my time trying to wait for what would happen. On the contrary, the movie shows another story which we can often forget, which are of the ones of the other two characters, Claudia and Sandro and how they copped with their loss of Anna and also of each other.

Because of these, if you are not easily frustrated, impatient, have the spare time and an eye for cinematic beauty, I would easily recommend that you watch this film.

Prior to watching the film, our professor mentioned that the movie probably would not be the best film we would see the in entirety of the course. Despite this, he emphasized that the movie would probably be the most lovable one out of them all.

As a graduating senior loaded with much requirements, I forgot the last time I was able to laugh like that with my classmates. As students of the Ateneo, we get so caught up with everything that is asked of us and we forget how to have fun and laugh even for just a while. Regardless of such a simple plot, the manner of how the film was produced, definitely did not fail to entertain the life out of me.

Heavy Trip (2018), which was directed by Jukka Vidgren and Juuso Laatio, is a Finnish ensemble comedy film that depicts an aspiring heavy metal band, called Impaled Rektum, waiting to have an opportunity to show the world what they think they can do. Don’t be fooled by the heavy metal part, you don’t need to be a fan of heavy metal to enjoy the film, as I am not one myself. Just like most movies that involve bands, they start from the very bottom. The band was initially made fun of and ignored by many of the residents in the town they lived in. They weren’t happily recognized or received by anyone until they found their one hit wonder of a song that could potentially send them to the biggest heavy metal music festival in Norway.

The comedic film just makes you look at your seatmate as they say, “What? HAHA” with much of the stupid moments that constantly happens, which will not fail to make any normal person laugh. From the beginning of the movie, you could already tell it was quite entertaining with how they described the roles of each of the members of the band. Most notable one’s were Pasi (Xyntrax), the weird yet entertaining and intelligent bassist, and Jynkky, the deardevil yet witty and lovable drummer. It was also quite hilarious to me to find that the very inspiration for their music is rooted from where they practiced in, which was when they were killing deer. Other witty and crazy moments I enjoyed was the manner of how they got a photo for their album, and the corpse that was crowd surfing during their concert.

With comedic movies, you just expect them to make you laugh but this one’s taught me something I feel is quite timely and very important. As we are about to go down from the hill, I suppose it is important for us to recognize that we must be creative with everything that we have and embrace every opportunity we get in reaching our goals and dreams. At the same time, we must not forget how to laugh and enjoy the moments that we have with one another as each and every one of us go through our own individual battles. Life’s short, learn from all the stupid “What? HAHA” moments and continue to be yourself in anything that you plan to accomplish.

Raw is without a doubt the goriest movie (but not the oddest) film we have seen throughout the course of the semester. Going into the film not knowing anything at all made the experience much more shocking and disturbing than it already is.

The movie begins by depicting the image of Justine as a young innocent intelligent girl that is repressed and sheltered by her parents. She’s about to enter college in order to become a veterinarian. As she enters college, we already get a hint that this young innocent girl, that’s hasn’t even eaten meat in her entire life, is about face an entirely new chapter in her life as the university that she enrolls herself in is one that is actually filled with some crazy people. Although there is much change when you enter university life as compared to years prior, we get a taste of how intense and definitely unique this school is in the initiations that Justine had to go through, such as when they dumped tons of blood on the freshmen and even force them to eat the rabbit kidneys. In the latter, we encounter Alexia, Justine’s sister, who forces her to do it despite her being vegetarian as she seemed to be aware of what could happen if she didn’t do it.

It was in that very moment that everything seemed to change for Justine. She began to see the changes in her body when she first shoved meat into her mouth, as she began to experience some nagging itches in her body later that night. Despite the irritations that she began to experience in her body, it is was definitely evident that she began to show interest and have an appetite towards meat, to raw meat and actually becoming a cannibal. It became some kind of addiction that she couldn’t control. This was the beginning of much that was about to happen to Justine in this typically new setting. Who knew that entering university could change someone’s life radically in that particular way?

The movie definitely wanted to establish itself that depicts cannibalism in somewhat a realistic way. Despite the plentiful of graphic moments, it wasn’t one that I could not take. Normally when it comes to horror movies in general, I’d be one that was hesitant to even open my eyes and watch but given the setting in which we watch around our classmates, I didn’t feel the need to really feel frightened (Despite being in a similar setting as in the movie). Somehow the film is able to make you want to continue to watch and keep your eyes open as curiosity starts to kick in to understand the reason behind the things that were happening to the students. Although it was a horror film, it did a good job on focusing on the characters that were part of the story. It was not just made to scare the audience with the use of jump scares, but rather it showed us the different relationships whether it be familial or between friends. It was easy for me to appreciate this type of horror film as the director made sure that it was actually the gory scenes that really made it a horror movie. It looks like it took a lot of thought and experience to make it a great horror film as this genre of film seems to slowly be depreciating in terms of its quality.

Hans Weingartner’s The Edukators (2004) is one of the better movies we’ve seen in the course. Yet again we see Daniel Bruhl in a film, now playing the role of Jan, which is somewhat of a similar setting in the other film we encountered him in but on the opposite side of the spectrum. Jan and Peter are the “Edukators” that the title pertains to. They are anti-capitalists who infiltrate rich people’s houses, not to steal anything, but rather to rearrange their crazy expensive furniture. They also leave a note which seems to be their “signature” in their form of art just to identify that it was the edukators that had made this nuisance of a mess.

Coming from the perspective of someone who just got out of their immersion, it was quite confusing to me as to what these people were complaining about. These were people that actually had homes live in, beds to sleep in, food to eat, and clothes to wear. These “edukators” weren’t really poor in my eyes. They looked like the people from the middle class that were fighting for something that they barely had the right to complain about. They seemed to have been living a life that was probably more comfortable than most. I had much disagreements with the manner of which that they were addressing the problem as well. I understand that they feel like they are at a disadvantage compared to the rich in the game of life, but there was something about their methodology and their intention that didn’t feel right. The fact that they had to break into a house and mess up the things that could have sentimental value to certain people just to make them feel scared did not sound quite pleasant to my ears. Hardenberg captures it the right way as he spends his time with these people after he was kidnapped, when he mentions he understood what they were fighting for but also does not like the manner of how it is approached by the group.

Somehow the movie turns into one crazy love triangle. As Peter leaves for his trip to Barcelona, his girlfriend, Jule falls in love with his best friend, Jan. I felt that the movie was beginning to attempt to make the audience root for the new couple but clearly it was quite difficult for the class to do so as it wasn’t within a normal person’s morals to be able to cheat on someone they had actually loved. It even annoyed everyone when there were moments that the two were getting “kilig” and it was not so hard to understand the reasons as to why it was something, we would not be appreciative of.  Somehow and some way, Peter is able to forgive his Jan and Jule as they continue to live their lives. This just confused everyone in way that it was funny.

Despite my disagreements, it was easy to appreciate that the movie was made in a “clean” way. I have no arguments as to how it was produced, and I did not feel like in any point in the movie that it was rushed. It was not that complicated for me to be able to understand. It was even entertaining to watch with friends as there were much laughs and forms of confusion together regarding the crazy love story.

Daniel Bruhl never fails to impress me with his acting. I suppose that’s why he’s seen in bigger Hollywood films such as Burnt. His work is a testament as to how you can simply make it to the biggest stage as long you remain consistent with the major roles offered to you.

Overall, I found the experience of watching the film in class quite enjoyable despite the many disagreements with the plot. I hope we have the same amount of fun watching the last few films we have in the course.

Despite what seems to be a low-budget production, the execution of a genius plot in the sci-fi thriller, Timecrimes (2007) or Los Cronocrimenes made it very enjoyable to watch. As compared to the movie, Trollhunter, which was the only other action filled fictional film we’ve seen the entire semester, Nacho Vigalondo’s Timecrimes (2007) was quite clearly a much more exciting film. Just like in any Time Travel narrative, occurrences of twists and turns made the film much more appreciable as the smallest of changes in Hector’s always found a way to leave the audience craving to find out what would happen in the following sequences.

The film is centered around a middle-aged man, who just moved into a new house with his wife. While using his binoculars in the back of his garden, he spots a young woman taking her top off that suddenly disappears in his following glance at her. He gets curious about the disappearance, so he goes to look for the girl. He finds the girl unclothed and unconscious deep in the woods. While he did this, he gets stabbed by the man in the cover of the film, the pink bandaged attacker.

Fleeing away from the violence of the bandaged attacker, he goes into a nearby building meeting a scientist, who is played by the director himself. He hides in his machine, which suddenly brings him back in time. After this scene, much of the problems in terms of messing up time were bound to happen.

What I enjoyed the most about the movie was how mind-boggling certain situations were. The film was able to put me on the edge of my seat as I was trying to figure out why certain things were happening to the characters in the film. As the movie went by, some of the things I questioned became much clearer in a manner that would somehow still blow my mind.

As the movie did make me question a lot of things, most of them were answered as the movie went by. There should be a big emphasis on the word “most” as the movie still somehow left some things unanswered and left the audience to figure them out themselves. Although this was the case, it wasn’t done in a very annoying way as how it is in other movies that I’ve seen in the past.

Overall, I can easily admit that Timecrimes (2007) by Nacho Vigaldo was clearly the most interesting movie that we’ve the encountered the entire semester. Its genius twists in the tale really made me so curious as to how and why certain things would happen in the film. Despite being one who hates to read on a film’s plot and summary before they even appear in front of my eyes, for once, I was tempted to use my phone to be able to finally understand even clearer the situations that were occurring in certain scenes and sequences. Despite the urge to do so, I made sure to do it so that I would be able to enjoy the rest of my time watching the film. That’s what’s so great about movies that make you think; you keep asking for more of it until you are satisfied and that all your questions are answered.

With a few weeks left in the course, I look forward to watching my last few films and hopefully enjoy them as much as I did in this film.

My experience in watching Trollhunter, a Norwegian mockumentary filmed in 2010, was actually quite an odd one. Knowing nothing about the film, including its title and genre, I was caught off guard with all the unnatural things that had happened in the movie. Being one that loves to use his free time in watching documentaries, I honestly got excited as I thought it would be about how the Norwegian hunters handled the problem of illegal bear hunting in a small town in Norway. As I figured out that there was actually a lot more to it than hunting bears, as it was really about hunting down exploding trolls, it really reminded me of my experience watch movies similar to paranormal activity due to its usage of “recovered film”. It tried to depict footage of fictional creatures as ones that would appear as something that were real to the audience. A few years back, my gullible self was actually fooled by some friends into thinking that footages of Paranormal Activity were actually real-life ones, which was the only reason why I was actually scared. I made sure to not be fooled in the same way this time around when we caught this film.

Compared to the impact that Paranormal Activity films had on me, I can proudly say that the Trollhunter did not scare me one bit. Sadly, the visual or CGI effects seemed to be really off and obviously fake compared to what modern technology can do to convince the human eye. Being a movie that was produced and released in 2010, I can hardly blame the filmmakers on that one. As I try to recall the Paranormal Activity films, I don’t remember the need for much visual effects as the creatures that would interact with the humans were invincible spirits. That could be a reason on why I was also much more scared as I watched that film. When it came to the sound effects that were used in the film, they did not fail to make the underwhelming looking trolls come to life. It was probably the closest thing in the entire film that would get me frightened by the fictional trolls.

As someone who doesn’t love to watch horror films, Trollhunter wasn’t scary at all. Ironically also because of this, it made it quite disappointing. It doesn’t put a mark on me as much as some other ones do. I could still easily sleep as compared to what other horror films can do to me. There is some sort of factor that western horror films lack in terms of being able to leave a mark on the audience. Besides the fact that they tried to make the film look like it was a recovered film, it felt like the directors and writers just tried to use jump scares to frighten the audience. The movie’s plot was really disappointing. Sadly, it basically just went from hunting bears, to hunting imaginary trolls. That was really about it, as it even had no clear ending.

Unfortunately, Trollhunter (2010) is not a film I would recommend to people that are interested in watching it. The movie was quite plain and lacked a lot of things in terms of what it wanted to present to the audience. Despite this, I look forward to watching the last few European films that this class has to offer.

Leos Carax’s Holy Motors (2012) has outranked all of the movies we’ve seen in class with regard to being the weirdest. The main character of the film, Oscar has assignments with a driver of his limousine, Celine. Without direction or any given context as to why it was happening, he goes around the city to play different roles. In contrast to Trier and Leth’s The Five Obstructions (2003), each of the tasks given to the main character were definitely not related to one another and even seemed to serve no purpose at certain times.

            After a very confusing beginning scene of the film, I was finally ready to begin to comprehend the rest of the movies. Oscar, the main character, appeared to be a businessman that had many appointments to accomplish. The film begins to become confusing in scenes, such as when he had to dress up as an actual old female beggar, and the time when he appeared to be a naked freak to the unbothered character of Eva Mendes. These definitely confused me when it came to searching for the film’s essence and direction. After a while, you begin to realize that Oscar was actually an actor and the scene of him appearing to be a businessman was just as fake as all those other roles that he’s played. Work doesn’t seem to end for Oscar, as he continues to play a certain role until the following day.

            I felt that the movie was actually teasing the audience that were in search for the “true Oscar” and who he really was. In between appointments, we can try to read his actions, but you’ll definitely not fully understand, who he is throughout the entirety of the film. You couldn’t really tell which parts of the film outside the limousine showed the actual side of Oscar. Some roles tend to fool you into thinking that it was his actual life, such as when he was with a little girl that appeared to be his daughter, or when he met with an old friend at the rooftop of a building.

            The movie seemed like its purpose was to truly confuse and disturb its audience. Creating an illusion of a lack of purpose in the film. As a member of the audience, you look for the film’s purpose and search to answer the question as to why the character was doing what he was doing. I was awaiting the end of the film, hoping that it would finally reveal the reasons behind all of these. The movie ends with talking limos of the other actors in the city. This annoyed me even more as I had to think of reasons with regard to that scene too.

           A week after watching the film, I begin to wonder if the purposelessness of certain scenes could be related to our own lives. Sometimes we act like robots, doing what we do for something we feel serves no purpose at all. Oscar is confronted by his superior asking him why he continued to do what he was doing. Oscar expresses that he continues to do what he does because he remembers why he started. If there’s any lesson that I personally learned in the movie it would be to remember that regardless if you feel like what you’re doing serves no purpose, recall why you were driven to do it in the first place.

           Despite the confusion and headaches the film offered, the film viewing experience was actually still quite enjoyable, I continue to look forward to the rest of the films that the course has in store for us.

            Compared to other films we’ve seen in class, Good Bye, Lenin! was probably a class favorite as no one really had to bothered, when it came to interpreting what was happening in the film. The film was much more comprehensible, which is probably attributed how recent the movie was filmed and produced.

            Good Bye Lenin!, which was released in 2003, sets in 1989 East Berlin. Christiane, who is a single-mother of two and a loyal member of the Socialist Unity Party, enters a coma when she finds her son, Alex, getting arrested in a huge mass of protesters. During the period she was still in her coma, much changed in the country of Germany. The movie’s plot revolved around the real-life occurrence of the German Unification between the East and the West. As she was still unconscious, the film recreates the famous scene of the Berlin Wall was being taken down as a sign of the unification between the two sides of Germany. Much of the events of how East part of Berlin quickly allows and embraces the western culture to enter their borders were shown as the Christiane was still in her coma. You can see Ariane earning a job in the famous Burger King, you see how the border control slowly became much more lenient in each scene as compared to the last.

Like most movies that involve an important character getting into a fatal coma, they eventually have to wake up. When Christiane does get up from her coma, Alex and his sister, Ariane, were advised by doctors that their mother must avoid any form of shock as she could experience a fatal heart attack. Alex does everything he can to take his mother back home and hide everything that has happened while she was asleep. He removes everything in their home that would show any sign of the historic event. He would look for old jars of food in order for her to be able to recognize the food that she ate. He hired kids to sing old songs to her. He looked for old friends of the mother and had them talk to her like nothing happened in the past few years. He ambitiously filmed TV news through his friend to continue to convince his mom that nothing much has changed. Alex’s display of love for his mother was one that I could really relate to. If I had to go through the same thing, in order to save my mother’s life, I would do it without hesitation. Alex’s love for his mom is something I can really appreciate.

            The film did a very good job in emphasizing moments and letting the audience understand. The use of effects, in terms of color and audio, made the film much easier to comprehend and appreciate. The use of color was most noticeable between the two periods. Before the Berlin Wall was taken down, you notice that color tones and the mood were much darker. When we start to see the city a little bit more liberated and westernized, it started to get much brighter and colorful, which I believe sets a much lighter mood for the audience. The use of sound effects was noticeable through the use of a powerful sound in the scene of when Christiane was finally able to see the reality of the situation in the streets of Berlin, as the helicopter was lifting the statue of Lenin.

            Overall, the movie was one that I could really appreciate. Films that play around with “What if?” situations in actual historic events are ones that actually interest me. I look forward to more European films that will do the same thing and depict other famous historic events in Europe.

            The film, The Five Obstructions is a very interesting, witty, and playful documentary of Lars von Trier. The work was probably the easiest film that von Trier’s had to create as it seems as if most of the work, that he’s had to do in particular, was done before the whole documentary was filmed. Perhaps, this is the most fun and least amount of work a director has had to do in terms of directing a film. Despite the lack of work the von Trier’s had to do to make the film, it is this very concept that makes the film quite entertaining to its audience. This is what makes The Five Obstructions my favorite film amongst the films that have been shown in. class.

            Lars von Trier posed a challenge to another filmmaker and friend, Jorgen Leth. Leth’s twelve-minute film, The Perfect Human was actually von Trier’s favorite film. The challenge of von Trier to his old friend was to remake the movie in through five different obstructions(obstacles), each in the manner as instructed by the former, hence the title of the film. At the beginning of the film, it was easy to feel bad for the middle-aged filmmaker, Jorgen Leth, as he appeared to continually be bullied by von Trier, as he needs to comply and achieve the certain obstacles, he’s handed to him. Leth even calls von Trier “insane” at some point, regarding his demands. I sympathized for Leth as he was trying to accomplish the first three obstructions. He appeared to be punished at certain points of the film when remakes were not done to von Trier’s liking. Despite the high demands of von Trier, it showed that he was a filmmaker that most colleagues would look up to, with the way Leth complied with the tasks that he was handed.

            The 4^th obstruction or challenge that was presented to Jorgen Leth by Lar von Trier was the cartoon. This is what appeared to be the most challenging for both filmmakers as they repeatedly said in the film that they both hated that type of genre. Leth had to find a way to be able to remake it in such a way that he would also enjoy, which seemed to be a tall task. As the remake was shown to both filmmakers and the audience, everyone displayed and expressed their awe in the manner that Leth was able to achieve this.

Despite the manner of which von Trier displays himself, as shown in his experimental film which he simply directs from a distance as he lies on his couch, you can see his grit and determination in terms of being able to push fellow colleagues that he also looked up to even better their work. You can see his love for the industry as he encourages other filmmakers, and the viewers to learn how to continue to have a sense of hunger and wonder in being able to achieve and do more. As we will be able to accomplish so many things in our lives, he teaches us to never be contented and try to create an even better version of ourselves.

            With the amount of wit that von Trier possesses, I look forward to watching much more films of the cocky director as the playfulness and cleverness of the ideas as displayed in The Five Obstructions is one that I will continue to admire and appreciate.

The film, Persona (1966) was quite jarring to me, as it had a disturbing effect on the viewers. Due to its complex plot and ideas, it was definitely difficult to pinpoint and digest the meanings of certain parts of the film. The first part of the film, which consisted of a boy reaching towards a screen that displayed Elizabeth’s face, was already so confusing to a point that I had decided to ignore it as I felt like it wasn’t an important piece of the story. Weirdly enough, that same scene appeared again in the middle of the film which confused me even more.

The story of the movie seems to share a story of the two main characters, Elma and Elizabeth. Elizabeth, a stage actress, loses her speech while she was shooting scenes for a movie. This scene was repetitively shown throughout the film for reasons, which were honestly quite difficult to understand and pick up. Without the ability to really cure her silence, the doctor decided to send her to rest house by the beach with Elma, a new nurse, as her aid.

As Elizabeth continues to have problems with her speech, it seems like all Elma could really do was talk to her and share her life experiences. This has gotten to a point that she even shared her deepest and darkest secrets to Elizabeth. The two seemed to care for each other so much, that when they were in a situation that got Elma intoxicated, Elizabeth was able to speak for a mere second. In this point and time of the film, the two characters were getting to know each other so much that it seems like there was some romantic tension that was going on. I felt that Elizabeth seemed to become attached to Elma as she would always be brushing her hair and watching her every move. After a while, the film also led me to think that the two characters probably saw who they wanted to be in each other. They seemed to be each other’s persona, which is why I assume the title of the film is “Persona”. Elma always looked up to the theatrical works of Elizabeth, as she would always see herself. Elizabeth, who lost her voice, seemed to not really understand who she was as she was an actress playing the roles of different characters. It seems like she saw herself most in Elma as well. The film used much cinematic symbols and situations, as the two seemed to be so attached to each other that you couldn’t even tell them apart, which was both very weird and freaky.

The way the whole movie was constructed and produced seemed all quite new to me. My inability to be able to appreciate the film, as most people would, frustrated me. I felt like all it was able to do was confuse and creep me out. This film, Persona (1966) is one that definitely left me questioning my ability to be able to understand and digest films with much deeper and hidden meanings, through the used symbols.