Across the Universe
AVE 17 of 300:
Across the Universe (2007)
Directed by Julie Taymor
One of the reasons that made me finally decide to subscribe to Smart Bro was so that I could download films—all the films that I’d want to see but couldn’t because they were either not shown here in the Philippines, or I missed them, or piracy did not consider them popular enough to be sold in Marikina, where I’d buy my DVDs. By day 2, I had about four movies downloaded completely (aside from some TV series episodes): Across the Universe, Paprika, Tsotsi and Lust, Caution.
I love Ang Lee (I missed his Lust, Caution when it was shown last October, because of the Ateneo National Writers Workshop, which I directed), but I could not resist the temptation of the Beatles. When I first heard of this film sometime last November, I just could not wait to see it; I just finished watching the multi-volume Beatles Anthology then and I was full of hangover.
The movie is nominated for the Oscars in Costume Design come February 25 (the live telecast is at ABS-CBN, 9:30 AM). But the best thing for me, of course, is the music. It was like watching a 2-hour long music video of Beatles songs (34 in all; it opened with a few lines from “Girl” and ended with “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” as the credits went up). Aside from Frida, this has been the only other Julie Taymor film I’ve seen and she must be one of the most visually playful directors I’ve seen so far.
Jim Sturgess (photo above) played the lead, Jude; aside from his talent, he was cast, I believe, because of his similarity with the young Paul McCartney. The other major characters obviously come from Beatles song lyrics as well, like Lucy and Prudence; the latter was played by a Chinese-Filipina, T. V. Carpio. The film’s attempt for a narrative was somewhat contrived; it was obviously just a function of the songs. But who cares? The film was a clear homage to the Beatles and to the band’s history from beginning (when a band was playing “Hold Me Tight” in what looked like a basement bar in Liverpool) to end (when Sadie and her band sang “Don’t Let Me Down” on a rooftop and some police officers had to stop them, but Jude insisted on singing “All You Need Is Love” and the officers had to give in). It is always very refreshing to listen to Beatles songs; most of the time, I don’t know how I’m supposed to feel. It was the only ambivalence I’m quite comfortable with.
In Walong Diwata ng Pagkahulog (it will hopefully be released this year; I already signed a contract with a major publishing house last week and I expect our timetable to be set soon; I’m plugging: watch out for it), I made a number of references to the Beatles. Two of the novelists I like had Beatles song titles as titles of their novels: Haruki Murakami (Norwegian Wood) and David Mitchell (number9dream); John Lennon wrote “#9 dream” in 1974 and “Norwegian Wood” was part of the album Rubber Soul. I was so so tempted to give my novel a title after a Beatles song, but I felt it would we wrong, although I haven’t really thought why I felt that way about it.
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