RPâs Venice entry gets first good review

MY good hunch about our two entries in the ongoing Venice Film Festivalâs sidebar, Orizzonti, âJayâ and âMelancholia,â is proving to be right . (Photo: "Jay" delegation on the Lido [from left]: distributor Ferdy Lapuz, acto r-cinematographer Carlo Mendoza, lead actor Baron Geisler and writer-director-p roducer Francis Xavier E. Pasion) Financial Times came out with the first review of director Francis Xavier E. Pa sionâs âJayâ and it is very encouraging. The London paperâs critic, Nigel Andre ws, cited Francisâ directorial debut which stars Baron Geisler, Coco Martin and Flor Salanga, as one of the standouts so far in the festival on the Lido. Andrews wrote, âOn the Venice fringe there have been two films to cheer: an Ita lian reconstruction and a Philippine satire. Pier Paolo Pasoliniâs 1963 La Rabb ia (âRageâ) was a potion of screen rhetoric, never before seen in the undiluted form the director intendedâ¦Giuseppe Bertolucci (Bernardoâs brother) has re-as sembled the old material, added some never seen, and puts before Italy and the world Pasoliniâs true original rage, a scintillating montage of 20th-century ne ws footage â from Mussolini to Marilyn Monroe â unified and signposted by a gen iusâs vision. âPerfidious media managers; treachery in the name of truth. They are everywhere today, not least in the lies of âreality TV.â Francis Xavier Pasionâs Jay, fro m the Philippines, is an acutely funny tale of intrusive telly reporters, beari ng down on a family bereaved by a gay sonâs murder to make their grief part of a nationâs infotainment. They start by poking a lens at the familyâs faces as t hey learn the news; they end by getting them to act, or re-enact, every emotion al convulsion that needs a second, third or umpteenth take. The remuneration? T he reporters will help find the sonâs killer. By the time they do, even the mur derer, we know, will be signing release forms and hungrily securing his 15 minu tes of fame.â Congratulations to the âJayâ delegation now in Venice! Next, Lav Diaz unveils h is âMelancholiaâ on Saturday. I have high hopes for Lavâs second consecutive Or izzonti (Horizons) entry too.