Had dinner last night (and later, beer) with Emman de la Cruz, Angeli Bayani, Vanni Liwanag, Tara Illenberger, and Fiona (didn’t catch her last name). We talked about, naturally, films, Lav Diaz, “Death in the Land of Encantos,” Angeli’s baby boy (whom she named after the character named Marik (Marat) of Alexei Arbusov’s wonderful romantic play, “The Promise,” and translated into Tagalog by the late Rolando Tinio as “Kawawang Marat.”)
Since Emman, Tara, and Fiona were not familiar with the play, I said it was like the counter, the opposite, play of the very post-modern “Closer.” Both work best if you have good actors playing the characters. After watching or reading “The Promise,” you’d feel like “Ah, it’s worth it. Every tear, every heartache. Love prevails.” After watching “Closer,” you’d end up questioning your notions and ways of loving.
Am posting my thoughts on “Closer” here. 2005.
best regards,
ian
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A Closer Look at Closer
[Or, Concerning Close(r) Encounters of the "Strange(r)" Kind]
by Michael Ian Lomongo, April 13, 2005
“The truth shall set you free.”
- Jesus Bar-Joseph
“What if truth were a woman?”
- Friedrich Nietzsche
Hello, stranger!
If you really (and I mean, REALLY) knew the person you loved, would you still love him/her? (And, mind you, I’m not talking about knowing the “truth ” about the person you loved for we can very well ask with Pilate, “What is the truth, anyway?”)
The film/play “Closer” (written by Patrick Marber) raises a lot of tough questions about many of our notions about truth, truth-telling, lies, deception, and the relationship between knowing and loving (either the person or the truth).
Is loving ultimately based on the unflinching look on the “truth” or “reality” of the person (no matter how harsh it may be)? Or is it inevitably tied up with the blurred and prettifying (Should I say “lying”?) vision which makes lovers overlook glaring flaws and imperfections in the beloved and perhaps for our own sake, perhaps makes the very movement of loving possible?
What is our relation to “truth” and truth-telling? As individuals? As lovers?
What do we really know about the “truth”? (Pilate: “Quid est veritas?”) What do we really know about the people we love (or think we love)? (“Hello, stranger!”) What do we really know about our own peculiar ways of loving? For that matter, what do we really know about loving?
(more…)