Jean Cocteau

When we screened Vincent Sandoval's excellent short Se orita last year, we noted that he was already at work on a feature-length remake. Here it is: the full orchestration of a theme previously picked out on the keyboard with one finger, as Jean Cocteau put it. The director himself still plays a transsexual (now named Sofia) who is surrogate mother to teenager Tomas in Talisay (his real mother is working in Dubai) but moonlights every so often as an expensive hooker in Manila. Now, though, there's a political dimension. In an upcoming mayoral election, Sofia actively supports Holganza, a doctor standing on a broadly left-wing ticket, against the incumbent Tiongson, who is under the thumb of crimelord-industrialist Ricky Verano. And Sofia has a history with Verano, although she hasn't seen him in the seven years since she came to hide in Talisay. Once she discovers that Verano is involved, Sofia decides to confront the monster in his lair... Splendidly acted, paced and scored, Se orita is essentially a modern film noir: a crime movie with a sexual twist in which the last romantic couple are an aging transsexual and a teenaged boy. Inner beauty is what counts, as Sofia muses to herself rehearsing a speech for an imaginary beauty pageant prize, and the film has inner beauty in spades.

Drama aka Marco Monfardini has founded with Mirco Magnani the independent label Suite inc./Suiteque/Suitevision in the 90's. Marco has been working on the project Minox since the 80's and he has collaborated with Steven Brown and Blaine Reininger of Tuxedomoon and most recently with Murcof, Nobukazu Takemura, Lydia Lunch and The Gentle People. He has produced with Minox some Suite inc./Suiteque releases (MissQLee, Enfantronique, Dubital, Krisma, etc.). He has also given life to the projects 4D killer and Technophonic Chamber Orchestra with Mirco and recently Schnitt with the german dj Fr ulein Amelie. Drama started his project in 2000 with The gramophone selection a dj set completed with gramophones, evoking an early twentieth century atmosphere, a sound based on current club culture, mixed with voices from historical memory, Salvador Dali, Antonin Artuad, Jean Cocteau, and spoken words with over-lapping and downbeat rhythms, creates an expressionist mixture which is given Brechtian treatment, a futuristic fusion. - - - - - http://www.myspace.com/dramasuiteinc - - - dramascope@alice.it

Wonderful French adaptation of the classic children's story. Matched only by Disney version!

A famous poet, scorned by the Left Bank youth, loves both his wife Eurydice and the mysterious Princess. Seeking inspiration, the poet follows the Princess from the world of the living to the land of the deceased.