CINEMA ONE ORIGINALS will not only show original local films but new foreign flicks in its exciting World Cinema section. Opening films is the sophomore work from “The Witch” director Robert Eggers, “The Lighthouse,” which stars Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson as lighthouse keepers slowly going insane on an isolated island in New England in 1890, to be shown exclusively on Thursday night at the new Ayala Malls by the Manila Bay.
Other entries are : Fernando Meirelles’ "The Two Popes," about the often tenuous relationship between Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis, is also about two men negotiating their estrangements. The Netflix film stars Anthony Hopkins as Pope Benedict and Jonathan Pryce as Pope Francis.
“The Father” - This tragicomic road movie by Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov won the Crystal Globe at the 2019 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, centering on a father who takes a trip with his son after their neighbor claims his dead wife has been making phone calls from beyond the grave.
“The Truth” - This is Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-Eda’s follow-up to his Palme D’Or winning “Shoplifters,” and his first feature outside his native Japan. It features Catherine Deneuve as a French movie star whose tumultuous relationship with her daughter gets even more fractious when her revealing memoir goes into publication. The film also stars Juliette Binoche, Ethan Hawke, and Ludivine Sagnier.
“Matthias And Maxime” - A 2019 Canadian drama by Xavier Dolan about two male lifelong friends whose relationship is tested when they act in a short film whose script calls for them to kiss each other, leaving them both questioning their sexual identities when the experience awakens their long-dormant feelings for each other.
“Portrait Of A Lady on Fire” - This is Celine Sciamma’s period drama which won the 2019 Cannes Film Festival Best Screenplay award as well as the Queer Palm, making it the first film directed by a woman to win that award. It’s about a young painter who falls in love with her subject. They maybe generations apart, Noemie Merlant as Marianne and Adela Haenel as Heloise, but both are incisive and poignant in their evocations of desire.
“The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao” - This is by Brazilian filmmaker Karim Aïnouz and it won the Un Certain Regard prize at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. It is based on Martha Batalha’s 2016 novel and set in Rio de Janeiro during the 1950s, about two sisters who struggle against repression and bigotry in a patriarchal era.
“Knives Out” - by Rian Johnson is an Agatha Christie mystery that lovingly reconstructs it while cleverly deconstructing it and being fiendishly entertaining in the process with a star studded cast led by Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Don Johnson, Toni Collette, Lakeith Stanfield, Katherine Langford, Jaeden Martell, and Christopher Plummer.
The festival runs from November 7 to 17 at Trinoma, Glorietta, Ayala Malls Manila Bay, Gateway, and Powerplant Makati. There will also be screenings at Vista Cinemas in Iloilo and Evia Lifestyle and in Cinema Centenario, Cinema ‘76, Black Maria, UP Cine Adarna, and FDCP Cinematheque Manila. For updates, visit @CinemaOneOriginals on Facebook, @c1origs on Twitter and @c1originals on Instagram.
