Jaguar
 

PostED ON 17.10.2024

Jaguar is a young man from the shantytowns of the Philippines of the late 1970s. Athletic and muscular, he soon becomes a henchman for a local gangster, and strikes up a love affair with a young aspiring actress, also connected to the gangster milieu. 

© DR

With Jaguar, director Lino Brocka elevates a classic, solid story through a series of especially inspired choices. His main character is certainly handsome, but more importantly he has a sensitive disposition, porous to the emotions that run through him, which, for a henchman, presents a constant paradox. Brocka plunges him into a series of chaotic settings that act like supernatural creatures: shantytowns surrounded by murky water, vulgar coloured nightclubs, a fantastic smoking dumpsite filmed at night... The director's aim is to intensely flood the viewer's senses and make them reflect on the Philippine society of the time, with its corruption, violence and extreme poverty. Shot with an immersive visual sense and intentionally gleaming colours, these themes seem reinvented. Against the harsh reality, Jaguar injects its dose of love, adding balance to the movie. The scene between the two young lovers will long be remembered for its powerful orangery tones, its close-ups and, above all, its silence. 

V.A.

Screenings:

Jaguar by Lino Brocka (1979, 1h47)

Lumière Terreaux Thu 17 5pm | Institut Lumière (Villa) Fri 18 11:30am | Institut Lumière (Villa) Fri 18 11:45am