The Black and White of Filipino Lav Diaz

(Luigi Noera from Berlin in collaboration with Marina fearful – Photos are published courtesy of Berlinale)

Presented in competition at 68Th edition of the Berlin Festival, Season of the Devil It is the last work of the Filipino filmmaker Lav Diaz, who, just two years after his triondo in Venice The Whoman who left, He attempted the musical road.

Faithful, on many points of view, to its original poetry, even with this work Diaz tells a piece of Philippine history, by staging the drama of a village - around the late seventies - it is militarily occupied and in which, deprived of any freedom of speech and operated, the inhabitants constantly live in fear. Taking a cue - as we are told by a voiceover at the beginning of the film - the characters from stories really known author, they are played, who, the sad events of Hugo, young revolutionary poet, and Lorraine, his wife, which has just started a clinic in their village. Faced with the need to fight and react, the boy will go into deep crisis, for a time, It will move away from home.

On one thing we agree: while he is presenting itself as a generally difficult author, the old Lav good with the cinema we can do and how. Always magnetic and strong visual impact, eg, are the numerous shots - strictly fixed chamber - of the reconstructed environments, as well as the rare, rare first character plans, all strictly in a nice and contrasted enough black and white, real trademark - together with long waits and plans to sequence - the entire work of the author. Privo, however, of each any musical arrangement, the entire work involves very little spoken dialogue, next to beautiful a cappella songs. The problem with a product like Season of the Devil, But, is that - despite the presence in its interior more than valid elements - is substantially much less balanced - with regard to the same narrative structure - compared to the usual work of the director. It is the case, this, entire sequences that are repeated for several minutes in a row and which are ultimately be dangerously redundant (It is an example of a time when the young Hugo realizes the importance of acting against military occupation), as well as repeated musical themes more often than really necessary. HE, eg, we take into account all previous filmography Diaz, we can agree that, despite the long duration of his work, every single element - within the narrative - was exploited as it should and perfectly relevant to the context. Just life, in those cases, It was fully justified. In Season of the Devil, But, perhaps because not perfectly in tune with a genre like the musical, Diaz does not always seem at ease and, occasionally it seems to handle bad times, as well as its own interpreters, many of which are clearly singers, as opposed to others that you are - on the occasion of filming - such improvised.

Said this, Season of the Devil It is generally a good film. Moreover, an author like Lav Diaz knows his stuff and we know well it does regarding the staging in general and moments of great effect as those in which we see the protagonist as a child to meet a mysterious figure in a mask or even find guess as to have created the dreaded commander Narciso as a kind of monster two faces.

That, despite everything, We want to become a filmmaker as Lav Diaz, it is almost taken for granted. And perhaps this is to have more disappointed the expectations of his supporters. The fact that, however, moments of crisis can happen even to the best, there is no doubt. Need, at this point, wait and see what turn his career will take and how the celebrated Filipino director will again surprise and excite.

marina fears