VENICE, Italy – Lady Gaga and Joaquin Phoenix and their Joker: Folie a Deux and a standing ovation for Lav Diaz’s Phantosmia, a film that almost did not get made, were among the key moments in the second half of my Venice Film Festival experience this year.

In the world premiere of Lav’s film about a sergeant (Ronnie Lazaro) suffering from olfactory hallucination caused by PTSD, held at Sala Casino inside Palazzo del Cinema, the audience broke into a five-minute standing ovation as the end credits rolled.

The Phantosmia delegation, which included Lav, producer Paul Soriano, cast members Ronnie, Hazel Orencio (who is also the film’s supervising producer), Janine Gutierrez, Paul Jake Paule, and Dong Abay beamed as the crowd continued cheering and clapping.

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The film also earned favorable reviews, and I cite this one from Screen Daily’s Jonathan Romney: “Phantosmia – at four hours a relatively trim Diaz feature – is a straightforward proposition: an ostensibly realistic psychological drama, but with the usual philosophical underpinnings, a powerful streak of melodramatic intensity and some outright eccentricity.”

“Non-adepts may not be converted, but the community of committed Diazians will find it a laudable addition to his oeuvre…Phantosmia may not be one of Diaz’s most transformative works, but there is no denying its immersive spell.”

Diazians — I will credit critic Jonathan for coining that term — approached Lav everywhere he showed up in Lido, chatted with him, asked for his autograph or simply looked at the auteur with smiling appreciation. This festival on Lido island loves Lav and bestowed him several awards, including the Golden Lion (best film) in 2016 for The Woman Who Left.

And to think Phantosmia almost did not happen. In the Venice Film Festival press conference for the film, Lav revealed details that two days before the scheduled shoot in December last year, the actor who was originally tapped to play the lead backed out. And so did the actor’s network — it withdrew from financing the project, leaving Lav and Hazel stunned.

Stupefied, Lav asked Paul if he could step in and produce Phantosmia. Paul, himself a filmmaker with his own production company, agreed. So, the filming in the gorgeous rustic town of Sampaloc, blessed with a lake, rivers, and verdant hills, in Quezon province pushed through.

“Paul is the savior of the film,” Lav declared in the press con moderated by Paolo Bertolin. I asked Paul what made him decide to say yes, especially in the context of how difficult it is, especially for a project like Phantosmia, to be produced in the Philippines.

Paul answered, “Philippine cinema today, at least from a business perspective, is probably at one of its lowest points in maybe the last 50 years. Personally, I’ve been in the business for about 17 to 18 years and it’s passion first over business. It’s craft, it’s art over revenues for me.”

“My company has been afloat for the last several years. We haven’t really made the big box office Philippine movies but we’re afloat and if I can follow my passion and just continue to support master artists like Lav and these wonderful actors to create stories that are not just for our local audience but for a world audience, it’s worth it for me.”

“Obviously, we do have a business model to keep the company afloat. But when projects like this come to my plate, it’s an easy yes and again, I’m story-driven too so when Lav pitched the story — his email was just beautifully written — and if I can, I will. It’s probably that way — if I can, I will.”

“Obviously, I can’t support everything but for me, it’s the passion of filmmaking and the craft of these artists over business any day. So, I follow that and so far, it has led me to some great experiences like this. We’ll see where this film takes us.”

I also asked each of the actors to describe what it was like to be directed by Lav, and to share their experiences about it.

Paul Jake Paule, absolutely unforgettable as Major Lukas in the penal colony that Ronnie’s Sergeant Hilarion Zabala works for as part of his therapy to cure his phantosmia:

“Cliché as it may sound but it’s always a pleasure and I’m so grateful to be directed by the master director of the Philippines. It’s surreal to be part of this film — it’s my first international travel and I’m so grateful to Lav, the Lav team and to sir Paul Soriano for all the support.”

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Dong Abay, who makes his mark as Mario, a poet: “I received an email from Hazel and she told me that Lav wanted me to act in this film. I said yes, even if Lav wants me to be killed in the film (laughter), I’m willing to do that because it’s Lav.”

“So, I was told to go to Sampaloc, Quezon. I was told that my role is about a singer. Lav wanted me to sing in the film but it turned out that I think Lav has a shortage of time to make melodies for the poetry that I did in the film. I love my role because I’m a songwriter.”

Lav remarked, “He’s a rock star.”

Dong added, “I really love the language because I write in our language, Filipino or Tagalog. So, I am very honored to be part of this film because I love to speak our language. Lav is very rock and roll.”

Lav commented, “Dong Abay is a rock star in our country. He’s a poet, a folk-rock artist in our country. You should check his albums — they’re great.”

Janine, very moving as Reyna (it’s best to avoid describing her character to avoid spoilers): “It was always my dream to work with director Lav and luckily enough, I worked with Hazel on a TV series. I kept telling her, if there’s ever a chance that you need anything, I’ll also do anything in your film even if you kill me in the bushes, I’ll do it.”

“And luckily enough, I was able to join them in this film. Before I met director Lav, I asked the other actors that I had worked with, how should I act? How can I prepare and do a good job for director Lav? And everybody told me the same thing, that director Lav is just rock and roll.”

“True enough, when I worked with him, his set is very family-style. It’s equal collaboration from everyone on the set, from director Lav to the audio, to the costumes. It’s such an intimate set and although the topics can be very deep and painful, on set it’s really about love, family, and filmmaking.”

“That translates also when you watch his films. That’s why there’s so much empathy and you go through the stories of these characters. I’m so happy to be here also with this team.”

Hazel Orencio, unforgettable as Aling Narda, definitely dastardly but credit to the actress for not being the stereotypical out-and-out evil: “I’ve been with Lav for 13 years now. But every film is still a different story and of course, this one is different because of the story that Lav said earlier about the project almost not pushing through. So, thank you, Paul.”

“It’s always a rest. I call it a rest. It doesn’t feel like work acting for Lav. It always feels like we’re just resting because you don’t feel tired. You just feel tired being in the role, acting.”

“My team is so supportive of each other. Our actors are supportive of each other. Of course, I always say that I ‘lav’ working with Lav.”

Ronnie Lazaro, praised in the aforementioned review as “quietly imposing”: “We are very lucky to be part of Lav’s journey. Many actors in the industry are envious of what we are attaining at this point because they want to work with Lav and we are the chosen few that Lav has engaged in his work.”

“Like everybody was saying, working with Lav is like a vacation. There’s no pressure. That’s why you get to be more creative about it because when there’s a lot of pressure as an artist, you can’t deliver. So it’s always nice working with Lav.”

Later, we joined the delegation in a dinner at Ristorante Valentino to celebrate and toast the film’s well-received Venice debut.

Phantosmia, which costars Amado Arjay Babon (Setong) and Jay-R Escandor (Mayor Pagi), was shown out-of-competition in the 81^st edition of Biennale Cinema. It’s the 8^th official Venice entry of Lav.

Joker: Folie a Deux

Todd Phillips’ Joker: Folie a Deux is dividing the film critics but count me in among those who love it. The film is bold and audacious and again benefits from Joaquin Phoenix’s intensity as the psychologically scarred clown prince of Gotham/Arthur Fleck.

Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn and a solid supporting cast add to the film’s appeal. But for me, Joaquin and Lady Gaga singing surprisingly apt pop standards, relevant to their characters, and the plot, is Joker 2’s greatest strength.

Who knew that songs like Get Happy, That’s Entertainment, What the World Needs Now Is Love, For Once in My Life, When You’re Smiling, and (They Long to Be) Close to You would be sung in a Joker movie, and in some, performed as duets by Joaquin and Lady Gaga?

And these pop classics work to advance the story set in the 1980s, two years after the events in the first film.

So, I asked Joaquin, Lady Gaga, and Todd about these song selections at the film’s Venice press conference.

Todd answered first: “The musical choices really came in the screenplay. We started with it and it really was very much based around a certain time with the music, of course, and it was all meant to feel like music that Arthur may have listened to with his mom when he was younger, music that she played for him.”

“Again, the time being really specific to Arthur, who feels like a throwback to us when we were writing it in a way. That was where it started.”

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Joaquin said, “Part of the joy, at least for me, was taking these songs that were standards and trying to find a way that it felt like they were specific to the characters, that the only way that the characters could express themselves was through these particular songs, sung in this way.”

“That was part of what was an interesting point for us because initially, we started off with some references where I had Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. and these legends. We started trying to emulate that sound, or at least I did, before we realized, wait a second, this is not who Arthur is. This might be who Joker wants to be.”

“That was a point, at least for me, where it felt like something clicked where we took these standards and decided to do our own understanding of them or interpretation.”

Joaquin, after asking Lady Gaga how he should mention her in this press con setting (Lady Gaga replied, “Stefani,” her first real name), continued:

“Stefani, early on, was like, ‘Oh we’re going to sing live.’ I was like, ‘No, we’re not (laughter). You can sing live if you’d like.’ Ultimately, we did it and it was really the only way. Not only did we sing live but every part of the recording was live.”

“We didn’t sing to completed tracks or to a clip track. We were working with a pianist on set. Each take was a different version of the song and of singing the song. That felt really exciting. We created an energy that was necessary or at least that I felt was necessary.”

Lady Gaga, for her part, answered: “The way that we approached music in this film was very special and extremely nuanced. I wouldn’t necessarily say that this is actually a musical in a lot of ways.”

“It’s very different. The way that music is used is to give the characters a way to express what they need to say because the scene and just the dialogue are not enough.”

“Like Joaquin said, we did a lot of this live, and in a lot of ways, the pianist that was on set with us was like an actor off camera in the scene with us. We also worked hard on the way that we sang.”

“For me, it was a lot about kind of unlearning technique and forgetting how to breathe and allowing the song to completely come out of the character.”

“Like Todd said, he always felt like Arthur had music inside of him. For me, I really wanted to help execute Todd’s vision for what this could be with music.”

At the film’s premiere after-party at Venice’s landmark Hotel Cipriani, I chatted some more with Joaquin about the music in Joker: Folie a Deux.

Don’t Cry Butterfly

As the world’s oldest film festival and one of the most prestigious wound down, Duong Dieu Linh’s Don’t Cry, Butterfly, a Vietnam/Singapore/Philippines (represented by Will Fredo)/Indonesia co-production, bagged both the grand prize at the International Film Critics’ Week and the Verona Film Club Prize.

– Rappler.com

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