QCinema shows Quezon City is ready to be ‘creative hub for filmmaking’

The opening film in this year’s QCinema International Film Festival (QCIFF), Poor Things, topbilled by Emma Stone, has earned rave reviews from moviegoers who attended the event’s opening night at the Gateway Cineplex 10 in Araneta City on Friday.

Set in Victorian-era London, Yorgos Lanthimos’ dark sexy comedy revolves around the story of a resurrected woman (Stone as Bella Baxter) who embarks on a fantastical journey in reinventing herself.

The Golden Lion winner at the Venice Film Festival 2023 was the “perfect” opening film for QCIFF because it represented the festival’s concept of “self-discovery and liberation.”

Citing Poor Things’ “dark and edgy” themes, QCinema’s festival director Ed Lejano told The STAR that they are always open to this type of films that “pushes the envelope with liberal atmosphere.”

“Here at cinema, (we) love films in a way that an artificial intelligence (AI) will never understand,” remarked Lejano in his speech. “A film festival’s program is not an AI calculation that predicts your preferences. It is human, a human expression of passion for the arts and cinema. It functions on the understanding that there is great diversity in movies and that there is value to taking a risk in showing people something that might be completely new to them.”

The movie is a “fantastical and wild film shot in film that is like Frankenstein meets Barbie in a dark way, in a visually dazzling movie about self-discovery and ultimately self-liberation,” he said and added that Poor Things is Stone’s second collaboration with Lanthimos, “So watch out for her name in next year’s Oscars.”

National Artist for Film and Broadcast Arts Ricky Lee described the film as “amazing and empowering.” He elaborated, “It goes in so many different directions but in the (end), it manages to be (as a) whole. Umikot siya. It went full circle.”

He was also pleased with the “happy ending.” Lee told this paper, “It has a heart. (Bella) is like a baby na bumalik sa creator niya. I was touched. It is also empowering because for a writer like me, it shows you that you can go anywhere.”

“You can go everywhere and yet tie it all up and make it one whole that’s engrossing. There was no