DECEMBER 1, 2022
FILM: LEONOR WILL NEVER DIE
STARRING: SHEILA FRANCISCO, BONG CABRERA, ROCKY SALUMBIDES
DIRECTED BY MARTIKA RAMIREZ ESCOBAR
RATING: 4 STARS (Out of 4)
By Dan Pal
Being a film professor, director, and critic, I’ve always loved films about the movie making process. In particular, I tend to love films about films which intertwine fiction with reality. I’m talking here about Spike Jonze’s Adaptation, Maurizio Nichetti’s The Icicle Thief, and Abbas Kiarostami’s Through the Olive Trees where the world of a filmmaker becomes connected to the characters and setting he is creating. Adding to this list is Martika Ramirez Escobar’s delightful new work, Leonor Will Never Die. Sheila Francisco stars as Leonor Reyes, a Filipino screenwriter whose best days are behind her. She can’t pay her electric bill and is still grieving the loss of her son some ten years earlier. When she discovers an ad which promotes paying people for their screenplays, Leonor decides to dust off an incomplete script which, in part, echoes her loss.
Outside one day she is hit with a falling air conditioner(!) and winds up in a coma. What follows is a journey that takes Leonor into the very screenplay she has been writing. In one of the many charming scenes, one of her characters asks Leonor why she knows so much about them. In another, a running man stops and yells out to Leonor the screenwriter, “what should I do next?” It is scenes like this that humorously bridge reality and fiction here. Escobar also allows for breaks in Leonor’s world as the spirit of her dead son shows up and turns on a fan to cool her off. Other characters, in both worlds, interact with him too.
Then there’s the action. Leonor’s favorite genre is action films. In the script world she enters, she watches over the top, cheesy fight scenes, filled with overly exaggerated punch sounds, quick cuts, and fake blood. At times, she can also change the course of a scene and revise what she’s already written.
Meanwhile her family is watching over her from her hospital bed. They’re told by a doctor, who seems to understand the blurred lines between waking and dreaming as well as life versus fiction, that making the film will help keep her alive. In part, she believes Leonor IS working on the script in her unconscious state (which she is.) Other characters take this as meaning they should produce the film, so they begin working on it. We see the making of the film she is writing. And it doesn’t stop there. By the end of the film, we also see the making of the very film we are watching.
It’s all extremely clever and trippy to watch! It’s also a lot of fun which might be surprising since the film is also about using art and writing to deal with the reality of grief. As Woody Allen says in Annie Hall, “you’re always trying to get things to come out perfect in art because it’s real difficult in life.” That about sums up what Leonor is attempting to do and what Escober is doing.
I think she succeeds on all levels. Escobar uses dissolves, jump cuts, and aspect ratio in some very creative ways. She clearly had a lot of fun with this project. In the end, this is a film about the magic of screenwriting and filmmaking which also explores the power of grief. It’s extremely entertaining to watch. I couldn’t wait to see where the plot of the film, and the film within the film, would go next. Without spoiling anything, it all ends on a high note that will keep you smiling. It is one of my favorite films I’ve seen this year.
Leonor Will Never Die played as part of the Chicago International Film Festival. It opens tomorrow at the Music Box Theater.
FILM: LEONOR WILL NEVER DIE
STARRING: SHEILA FRANCISCO, BONG CABRERA, ROCKY SALUMBIDES
DIRECTED BY MARTIKA RAMIREZ ESCOBAR
RATING: 4 STARS (Out of 4)
By Dan Pal
Being a film professor, director, and critic, I’ve always loved films about the movie making process. In particular, I tend to love films about films which intertwine fiction with reality. I’m talking here about Spike Jonze’s Adaptation, Maurizio Nichetti’s The Icicle Thief, and Abbas Kiarostami’s Through the Olive Trees where the world of a filmmaker becomes connected to the characters and setting he is creating. Adding to this list is Martika Ramirez Escobar’s delightful new work, Leonor Will Never Die. Sheila Francisco stars as Leonor Reyes, a Filipino screenwriter whose best days are behind her. She can’t pay her electric bill and is still grieving the loss of her son some ten years earlier. When she discovers an ad which promotes paying people for their screenplays, Leonor decides to dust off an incomplete script which, in part, echoes her loss.
Outside one day she is hit with a falling air conditioner(!) and winds up in a coma. What follows is a journey that takes Leonor into the very screenplay she has been writing. In one of the many charming scenes, one of her characters asks Leonor why she knows so much about them. In another, a running man stops and yells out to Leonor the screenwriter, “what should I do next?” It is scenes like this that humorously bridge reality and fiction here. Escobar also allows for breaks in Leonor’s world as the spirit of her dead son shows up and turns on a fan to cool her off. Other characters, in both worlds, interact with him too.
Then there’s the action. Leonor’s favorite genre is action films. In the script world she enters, she watches over the top, cheesy fight scenes, filled with overly exaggerated punch sounds, quick cuts, and fake blood. At times, she can also change the course of a scene and revise what she’s already written.
Meanwhile her family is watching over her from her hospital bed. They’re told by a doctor, who seems to understand the blurred lines between waking and dreaming as well as life versus fiction, that making the film will help keep her alive. In part, she believes Leonor IS working on the script in her unconscious state (which she is.) Other characters take this as meaning they should produce the film, so they begin working on it. We see the making of the film she is writing. And it doesn’t stop there. By the end of the film, we also see the making of the very film we are watching.
It’s all extremely clever and trippy to watch! It’s also a lot of fun which might be surprising since the film is also about using art and writing to deal with the reality of grief. As Woody Allen says in Annie Hall, “you’re always trying to get things to come out perfect in art because it’s real difficult in life.” That about sums up what Leonor is attempting to do and what Escober is doing.
I think she succeeds on all levels. Escobar uses dissolves, jump cuts, and aspect ratio in some very creative ways. She clearly had a lot of fun with this project. In the end, this is a film about the magic of screenwriting and filmmaking which also explores the power of grief. It’s extremely entertaining to watch. I couldn’t wait to see where the plot of the film, and the film within the film, would go next. Without spoiling anything, it all ends on a high note that will keep you smiling. It is one of my favorite films I’ve seen this year.
Leonor Will Never Die played as part of the Chicago International Film Festival. It opens tomorrow at the Music Box Theater.
