- Director Erik Matti again addressed his sentiment regarding the status of the local film industry
- Matti has not watched Nadine Lustre and Carlo Aquino’s film ‘Ulan,’ when he responded to a fan after criticizing him on his post
- Erik stated that oddly made films are often mistaken as good movies, which is not supposed to be the case
The award-winning filmmaker Erik Matti intrigued netizens after posting his sentiment over the local film industry, which made speculations that he somewhat criticized “Ulan,” the movie directed by Irene Villamor and starred by Nadine Lustre and Carlo Aquino.
The film ‘Ulan’ is seen to be a different kind of love story. For unlike other romantic movies, it features mythical elements such as Humpty Dumpty-like characters, tikbalangs, and a scorned, weeping creature personifying typhoons (bagyo).
On March 25, Erik Matti, yet again, in his Twitter account, expressed his point of view on the current status of the local film industry. In his post, he stated that oddly made films are often mistaken as good movies when it should not necessarily be so.
“A little of the weird, the quirk, the strange, the abstraction, the offbeat, the crazy, the meta, the esoteric, or the mystical can often be mistaken as brave filmmaking or good cinema. Not necessarily. Sometimes it could be just a thesis film disguised as serious cinema.”
A little of the weird, the quirk, the strange, the abstraction, the offbeat, the crazy, the meta, the esoteric or the mystical can often be mistaken as brave filmmaking or good cinema. Not necessarily. Sometimes it could be just a thesis film disguised as serious cinema.
— Erik Matti (@ErikMatti) March 25, 2019
The post reached a Nadine Lustre fan, who at that moment thought that the tweet was referring to “Ulan.” The fan then retweeted Erik’s post and wrote that instead of directors criticizing each other, they should uplift one another.
“Directors should uplift each other not drag the other one down when his/her works were being appreciated.”
Erik replied, clarifying that he was not pertaining to any specific film, rather he was generalizing all the films that were being made and conceptualized.
“But I was talking about films in general and not really something specific,” he said. “Don’t jump to conclusions.”
The fan was not satisfied with Erik’s reply and asked him if it was all a coincidence then. Erik’s response came somewhat puzzled.
“Ahm… coincidence san? I dunno what you guys are referring to?”
The fan then pointed out that the director apparently blocked another netizen who said the director was “shading” the film. Erik emphasized that he has not watched Ulan and doesn’t know anything about it, thus he is obviously not referring to it.
“I hate people presuming something they have no clue of,” said Matti. “I’ll block you too if you keep on insinuating I am referring to your film. If it’s Nadine’s movie ‘Ulan,’ I haven’t seen it and I dunno what it’s about.”
Currently, the fan laughingly posted a photo in its Instagram account proving that the director really had blocked him/her.
https://twitter.com/luminousnadine/status/1110488111866241024
Despite this short issue, some of the directors’ followers agreed to his statement and proclaimed that changes should be made.
https://twitter.com/LittleCedi/status/1110456546431897600
This.
— Suzanne Ordonio (@msordonio) March 25, 2019
Erik Matti has previously expressed his take regarding the state of the local film industry; stating that it is in a dire situation.
“The state of our film industry, the business of it, is in a dire situation. Someone should do something about it. Government should intervene. This is not a slow death anymore. We are on life support and we need resuscitation. No more pointing fingers. I think we’re beyond that at this point. This is a plea for help.”
