from Mubi:
After receiving anonymous love letters for the past 10 years, widower Arcadio decides to find out who the mysterious author is. His brother Mariano thinks the search is ridiculous, but Arcadio’s niece Skip is willing to help.

880MB | 1h 22m | 1920×1080 | mkv

https://nitro.download/view/F157588A1B4E4C1/Faces.Of.Love.2007.1080p.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.x264-MARCOSKUPAL.mkv

Language(s):Tagalog,Filipino
Subtitles:None

The post Eddie Romero – Faces of Love (2007) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

An artist struggles to finish his work. A storyline about a cult plays in his head. Fundamentalism will destroy the world. The artist destroys his muse in the process. He redeems her in the end.

6.26GB | 5h 59m | 1024×576 | mkv

https://nitroflare.com/view/42A30D004D825E8/Siglo.ng.pagluluwal.AKA.Century.of.Birthing.2011.576p.WEB-DL.AAC.2.0.H.264-SHR.mkv

Language(s):Filipino, Tagalog, English
Subtitles:English (hardsub)

The post Lav Diaz – Siglo ng pagluluwal AKA Century of Birthing (2011) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Quote:
Debuting to critical acclaim in 1998, Diaz’s Serafin Geronimo, Kriminal ng Baryo Concepcion, announced the arrival of a major talent, and a possible new direction for Philippines cinema. Where Brocka had examined society’s effect on the individual, Diaz’s Kriminal looked at the effect of the individual’s actions on his conscience. His Russian influences written on his sleeve— the film begins with a quote from Crime and Punishment translated into Tagalog— Diaz’s hero was akin to that of Dostoevsky but atypical of Philippine cinema; a quiet man with a guilty past seeking redemption in the present. With Kriminal, Diaz laid down his archetype character and began to plot the path of his aesthetic.

1.66GB | 2 h 2 min | 720×540 | mkv

https://nitro.download/view/460172A456AAC34/Serafin_Geronimo.mkv https://nitro.download/view/59F8CDF5145CC28/Serafin_Geronimo.srt

Language(s):Tagalog
Subtitles:English

The post Lav Diaz – Serafin Geronimo, kriminal ng Baryo Concepcion aka The Criminal of Barrio Concepcion (1998) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Quote

One of the most adventurous filmmakers to emerge from the Philippines in decades, Lav Diaz is, in many ways, the spiritual father of what some have called the Filipino New Wave, a group of filmmakers who have adopted digital technology to create an intimate and raw style. At the same time, he stands separate from them, often working on an epic scale and addressing historical shifts in Philippine society. (See his epochal Ebulysion: Evolution of a Filipino Family.)

His latest, Century of Birthing, also stands on its own. Telling two seemingly unrelated tales, it is a grand meditation on the roles of the artist, the prophet and the acolyte. The first story focuses on Homer, a filmmaker who has spent years working on his latest opus — and still isn’t happy with it. Hounded by friends, co-workers and festival programmers to finish the damn thing, he resists every entreaty, countering a programmer’s pleas to send him the film with, “I don’t make films for festivals, I make them for cinema.” (The story plays a little like 8½, minus the surrealism and with a dollop of Warhol thrown in.) The second story concentrates on a Christian cult in a rural region — a group largely comprised of young women (referred to as “virgins”) and dominated by its charismatic leader, Father Turbico. When one of the longest-standing members strays, the impact is catastrophic for both her and the cult.

Diaz portrays both men as troubled and problematic figures, pressured to perform but also ruled by their own romantic conception of themselves. Father Turbico carefully primps himself before meeting with one of his disciples. Homer gives long interviews about the nature of cinema — Diaz, as if to indicate that he’s not convinced by his apparent stand-in’s rhetoric, drowns out the dialogue with industrial noise and almost-decipherable chatter. The characters are linked by public professions of fealty to their gods (Homer’s devotion to cinema; Turbico’s peculiar take on Christianity), and both have followers whose devotion proves to be less than healthy.

Told almost entirely in long takes that are alternately transfixing, claustrophobic and penetrating, Century of Birthing boasts exquisite black-and-white imagery. Indeed, it may be Diaz’s most entrancing film to date — and it’s certainly his most personal. –TIFF

3.90GB | 5 h 58 min | 720×416 | avi

https://nitro.download/view/5F919BA85EDB5ED/Lav_Diaz_-_(2011)_Century_of_Birthing.part1.rar
https://nitro.download/view/0C9C123CEE98B8D/Lav_Diaz_-_(2011)_Century_of_Birthing.part2.rar
https://nitro.download/view/15F2CFF470F28D3/Lav_Diaz_-_(2011)_Century_of_Birthing.part3.rar
https://nitro.download/view/666EC53A5BBEDAC/Lav_Diaz_-_(2011)_Century_of_Birthing.part4.rar

Language(s):Tagalog
Subtitles:English (hardcoded)

The post Lav Diaz – Siglo ng pagluluwal AKA Century of Birthing (2011) first appeared on Cinema of the World.