A man is wrongly jailed for murder while the real killer roams free. The murderer is an intellectual frustrated with his country’s never-ending cycle of betrayal and apathy. The convict is a simple man who finds life in prison more tolerable, when something mysterious and strange starts happening to him.
Sid Lucero Angeli Bayani Archie Alemania Mailes Kanapi Soliman Cruz Mae Paner Hazel Orencio Perry Dizon Barbie Capacio Ian Lomongo Kristian Chua Noel Sto. Domingo Moira Lang Sheenly Gener Dea Formacil Kristine Kintana Lex Marcos Luis Galang III Edino Pascual Julia Domingo Spider Rodas Clement Andrada Paolo Rodriguez
Norte, O Fim da História, Норте, конец истории, Norte, koniec historii, Norte, istorijos pabaiga, 노르테, 역사가 끝나는 곳, 노르테, 역사의 종말, 노르트, 디 엔드 오브 히스토리
Politics and human rights Faith and religion Intense violence and sexual transgression murder, crime, drama, gripping or victim prison, jail, criminal, convicts or violence racism, african american, powerful, hatred or slavery religion, church, faith, beliefs or spiritual drugs, violence, crime, gritty or cops Show All…
Fabian is one of the great characters of cinema: of course the flip side of idealism is nihilism, but to show the two as inexorably linked - that is, as natural progression, is something new and different and frightening. There are two great horrors in this film - the acts he eventually commits himself, and that everything he states through discourse is true, yet he still commits these actions. This is a remarkable work about intellectualism taken to the point of no return, where total freedom means actions do not have meanings. A true intellectual has an innate understanding of power dynamics, and what is terrifying is that with that understanding comes with a choice - since one knows how…
When I popped this on I had no knowledge of the premise nor the runtime (4 hours 10 minutes)! Both turned out to be quite surprising! The film covers a wide variety of themes but if I were to narrow down the field it is a film about injustice and guilt! One of our characters will experience spiritual transcendence while another will transcend straight to hell!
Admittedly I nearly turned this off twice I was extremely annoyed by the philosophical and political discourse scenes by a bunch of intellectuals whom haven't a clue what it means to truly suffer as they or their families are affluent! Particularly annoying was the narcissistic Fabian whom loves to argue and debate til either…
Lav Diaz crafted a wonderfully photographed eerie montage of humanity's philosophy, religion, morals and history. If I describe this movie as full of life, you might think that this movie is energetic, colorful, and optimistic, but this movie is full of life in a way that's haunting, tragic, and corrupted.
So tuned into minute fluctuations in spaces and gestures, and obviously so absorbent of the practical details of these peoples' lives and status. But the characters frequently become allegorical pawns, representations of politics rather than people existing inside them. That's not intrinsically a problem, but the nature of this as a slow cinema project and its eventual (rather schematic) descent into some pretty arbitrary violence was a bit too didactic and miserablist for me. Nevertheless undeniably hypnotic and gorgeous.
So much of this is spellbinding.
The observational camera work is stunning, often distanced, almost always held; yet, when it moves it moves so gently. There’s something ethereal to the way it sweeps or manoeuvres, it feels like some supernatural observer in a Dreyer-esque way. The compositions also mix dark and light so well, changing between encompassing darkness to bright clarity.
At the centre of this is the footage of the banal and the incidental. Just lingering shots of the everyday perfectly captured — an expansion on the Pillow Shots from Ozu but given centre stage. Diaz wants you to know the place is the story, that even the personal narratives are a reflection of a national narrative, that they…
From the opening lines to the closing shot of plain serenity, this is basically a perfect film. Despite the beautiful landscapes, precise film-making and intense acting, Norte is not the masterpiece most have hailed it as. It is, however, very, very good.
Lav Diaz is an enigma in modern cinema knowledge and history. For years he has been known on the festival circuit, his films lasting for hours and hours (Norte is one of his shortest films, coming in at 4 hours in length), although no-one has ever really been able to see his films outside of these festivals. Then, suddenly, along came this film in 2013.
Buzz - real buzz - started getting out, and due to its slightly…
During the intermission for this film the fellow next to me mused that during the first scene the wife could be seen wandering around in the background, he had a keen eye he was eager to show off, and at this point I felt like I'd just walked out of a test and into a crowd of people boasting about the answers that I'd apparently already gotten wrong. It's not uncommon to walk out of a Lav Diaz film and feel this way; his films are imposing and broad and obstinate and rough, but also beautiful, and endlessly gratifying for those who allow him into their minds. here's to bladders everywhere.
Norte, the End of History is a devastating, slow-burn tale that explores the nature of ubiquitous evil in contemporary Filipino society. It is told with a compelling force of audacity, constantly open and free-flowing, growing darker and darker until a final stretch that is among the most despairing things I've ever seen.
We follow two parallel lives, one that details a man's descent into madness, driven by the guilt of the murder he commits, and one that shows the man who is framed for that murder, now serving a life sentence in prison. In between these two lives is the heartbreaking depiction of the wife of the wrongly imprisoned man, as she is forced to fend for herself and her…
The film is a marvel of simplicity, depth, and deviousness. Norte is both a radical departure for Diaz and a perfect gateway into the director’s work.
Norte is formidable cinema that doesn't shy away from exploring history, philosophy, politics and religion at length. But it's also a story of three individuals, through whom these topics gain sharper focus.
The film treats each character with equal importance, knowing exactly when the story calls for them, and when it doesn’t. It shows us the weight of their burdens and how their personalities align with such burdens. It presents them with conflicts of all sorts, both internal and external and leaves them to deal with it, resulting in a grueling journey filled with…
32/100
Felt unpalatably Dumont-ish to me long before somebody levitated in the fourth (freakin') hour. (Ironically, the first 40 minutes, which initially prompted a W/O at Cannes, are now my favorite section of the movie.) Obviously, there are dramatic differences—Dumont goes another route with the self-loathing intellectual bit—but Norte indulges (and indulges) a similarly brutish/facile view of human nature, expressed via a similar visual/aural mastery (shot by shot, anyway). If Fabian and Joaquin are meant to be distinct individuals, the film is "merely" endless and pointless; I very much fear, alas, that Diaz intends them as class representatives, in which case it's insultingly schematic verging on outright stupid. I can't improve on Lee Walker's observation immediately afterward: "At first it…
قصة واقعية قدمت لنا بقلب كبير عن الفقر ، والانتقام ، والعقل ، والتسامح ، والخطيئة التي تطرح لنا سؤال في النهاية ما الذي يجعلنا بشر ؟
