F*** You, Lav Diaz!

Got this off of some local gossip columnist / movie industry shill:

Lav Diaz’s “Death in the Land of Encantos” x-rated
2007 Venice Film Festival Awardee and NETPAC Best Asian Feature: “Death in the Land of Encantos” got an X rating from the MTRCB.

"The scene where the woman was shown in bed naked with her breasts and vagina (genitalia) are exposed is against the rules and regulations of the board--No exhibition of the "genitals." “Death in the Land of Encantos was supposed to be shown at the .MOV International Digital Film Festival. Martial Knaebel, former Artistic Director of the Fribourg, commented: “I was shocked by this decision which is, to my point of view, totally irrelevant.

Nevertheless, we should congratulate the commission for having watched the whole of your film: quite nine hours! The fact that the commission is treating such a film (which has a high artistic value and a strong social significance, with its selection at Venice ’s as a proof) like any mainstream movie, underlines that this commission is really itself totally irrelevant and outdated.”

Okay, first off, thank you MTRCB for giving this turd burger an X rating. This means that fewer theater chains will be showing this nine-hour narcissistic masterbatory orgy of pretentious preening by local hot-air balloon / gasbag Lav Diaz.

And right on cue, the vanguard of what passes for "good taste" nowadays show up crying "free speech", like this art-house pussy from Germany. Yeah, gratuitous nudity is what free speech is all about, baby! The more art-house pussies in the world there are, the more we need groups like the MTRCB. 

Of course, the shill gets in his own shots. Because, you know, 9 hour orgies of self-indulgence have "high artistic value" and "strong social significance". Napoleon Dynamite had social significance. "Death in the Mind of Lav Diaz" has about as much social significance as your local tavern drunk. One of things that make Michaelangelo's work so great was that even with the fig-leaf censorship, the work was still just as beautiful. If cutting out the nudity makes Lav Diaz's crap even crappier...well...those poor art-house pussies have backed another bad horse. Sure, this crap won some award at Venice. Cry me a river. Fake movie "Satan's Alley" has the "Crying Monkey Award" from the "Beijing Film Festival". That award is part of what makes the parody trailer funny. In my view, awards from film festivals where movies are lauded for making the snotty crowd feel justified in their snottyness are about as good an argument for good movies as the WWII German "Iron Cross" was for good soldiery. 

As for the statement that treating Lav Diaz's work as it treats any other work makes the MTRCB irrelevant, then, it only highlights how badly elitist and pretentious the movie industry in this country is. Heck, if the local auteurs think their work a cut above the rest, let them compete on level ground. If art-house crap is so fucking good, then its greatness ought to shine even on the same level as the regular, mainstream fare. If anything else, it'll force the local gas bags to keep their 9 hour orgies of self-indulgence to themselves.