Director's Showcase: Posas (Film Review)

Posas

Film Language Review

The film “Posas” by Lawrence Fajardo was a great success for me because it really showed the underbelly of society and its gruesome truth. No words can express how much this film has shown me the grimy, dirty details of corruption that operates our nation and society today.

            The film’s use of camera angles from medium shots, close-ups, long shots and the extremes told the story on so many different levels. Like how the camera closes up on Jestoni Biag’s, also known as Jess in the film, face where only the eyes are seen shows the fear, anticipation and the anxiety all rolled into one with one camera shot. The long shots used and the panning showed the chase scene between Grace and Jess showed the hopelessness and pointlessness of the chase because of the many people. It also showed the emotions of all the characters through the lens whenever the police were shown because it gave them authority and it made the other characters and prisoners seem small compared to them.

           

            The movement of the cameras whether panning or tracking showed which points of view the scene was being shown. Like how they would track along with the policeman or Jess during the chase up, down and around the alleyways showed the intricate placement of the location and how tight and cramped it must’ve been and it made us feel like we were there running alongside the personas.

            The lighting was pretty dark which showed that the scenes weren’t all bright and happy because it was the reality of it all. The darkness of the torture room where Jess was gagged and drowned and soaked in reflected the darkness of how they treated the prisoners and the part where they tortured the poor man who was chained. It showed also the darkness of the alleyways which revealed the many unknown things that happen there.

            Lastly, the mise en scene. The placement of the characters in each scene, although unnoticeable, showed a lot of things. Like, the glasses in the first part which enabled Grace to see that she was being targeted by a pick-pocket and the mere location of the home of whoever Jess sold the phone to showed the hidden and underworld society that they are part of.

Posted by: Micia Roxas of 202A