“I’m both listening and performing for you,” Erik Matti tells me during our photo shoot. The award-winning director is known for his genre-spanning style of filmmaking, but also as an iconoclast who loves a fiery discussion.
In front of the camera, he clasps his hands together while poking fun at archetypes. “O, pretentious naman,” Matti says as he poses. “Ito, asshole.” His cackling laughter eases the room as we discuss films we love and hate — all in the spirit of good conversation, which, through his opinionated online persona, has been lost in translation many times over.
Whether in the action-packed On The Job, the elaborately produced BuyBust — which recreates a sprawling Manila slum — or even the melodramatic Honor Thy Father, with its fair share of drama after being snubbed by the Metro Manila Film Festival in 2015, Matti’s films resist easy ways out. He challenges not only audiences, but also the wider film industry on what Filipino storytelling is capable of. He lays this all out in our new video series, The Rolling Stone Interview, which gets up close and personal with today’s visionaries, revealing the stories behind their careers and lives.
We compile excerpts of Matti’s interview where he delves into his taste, favorite films, and the Denis Villeneuve film he wishes he made. For the full interview, visit Rolling Stone Philippines’ YouTube channel.
The following quotes have been condensed for clarity and brevity.
Erik Matti’s Taste in Films
“It was a typical Filipino na taste. Growing up, I [loved] Ang Tatay Kong Nanay. I also am a fan of mga Working Girls. Wala pa ‘yong mga Manila By Night. When I went into college and became a film student, they showed us all the classics. The Grand Illusion, Citizen Kane. Caligua was shown to us — not the best movie — Bicycle Thief… But it never really developed my taste at that time. [I thought] ang haba, ang init, ang bigat. So I was gravitating towards genre movies — shaolin, action, horror — and I’ve rummaged through all those.
In the last few years of my dad, ako na ‘yong nag re-rent ng mga VHS sa kanya. I’d rent Commando pa ulit ulit, First Blood ni Sylvester Stallone. One day, I brought home True Romance, which I really love. I was, what, fourth year college? I didn’t know Quentin [Tarantino] wrote it, it was a Tony Scott movie. I binged it that night. The next morning, I was having breakfast and he said, ‘You know, ’yong hiniram ko na True Romance, ang ganda!’ That was the first time I heard his comment about the things I’d rent na hindi niya hiningi. Because he saw it that afternoon. Then noong umuwi ako from school, sabi niya sa akin, ‘Alam mo, remind me again not to watch the movies that you say are good.’ [Laughs] Sabi niya, ‘Muntik na ako makatulog!’”
Favorite Trashy Film
“Revenge. Not the Revenge of Tony Scott, but the Revenge of The Substance director [Coralie Fargeat]… It’s so hyper, it’s over-the-top. A lot of it is unbelievable, but because of the conviction of making it, doing it — even with her falling off the mountain, getting all slashed, and shot, and she’s still alive trying to get revenge — it’s really fun to watch.”
Favorite Horror Film
“I keep on saying Rosemary’s Baby. It’s something you want to teach horror filmmakers that not everything is hinged on the supernatural, but it didn’t shy away from the supernatural. Because you cannot just say it’s a horror movie, then trick the producer na, ‘Ay, hindi naman siya horror.’ There is a horror in it, no — the son eventually becomes the son of the devil — but the horror is so sophisticated without doing cheap tricks. It’s so scary and so well calibrated [by Roman] Polanski.”
Last Film He’d See Before He Dies
“Oh, fuck. Once Upon A Time in America. I have the 3 hour 30 minute [version]; I have the 4 hour 15 minute, then I have the 5 hour 15 minute cut. I don’t have the original that was shown in the Cannes [Film Festival]…
Arnold Milchan — the producer, who was a big fan of [filmmaker] Sergio Leone’s Italian westerns — [they] met in Cannes and he said, ‘I really want to do a movie with you.’ And [Leone] said yes. But he was expecting Leone to be another Italian western — the likes of The Magnificent Seven. But then, [Leone] wanted to do his passion project, which is a gangster movie set in New York. And it’s an epic. It was [made during] a time when jumping timelines were not yet in fashion. The first cut he saw, Arnold Milchan said, ‘Oh my god, why don’t you just tell the story in sequence?’ So, it was launched in Cannes, but when it was shown in the U.S., [Milchan] said the Americans will not understand it… Of course, the Americans aren’t dumb. Once Upon A Time in America, no matter how long it is, I could watch it over and over again.”
A Film He Wished He Made
“Sicario. [The] script was sent to me prior to Denis Villeneuve. It was in the hey days of On The Job. I [didn’t] know if they were going to give it to me. But you know what, these CAA [Creative Artists Agency] guys, they have all these scripts that are dormant, and Taylor Sheridan wasn’t a hot thing then. When they get a new client of directors, they’d automatically send all these dormant scripts. ‘See if you like it, do a take on it. If you do a director’s treatment on it, then let’s talk to the producers,’ etcetera.
So, I got Sicario and, you know what? I wish I had made the Denis Villeneuve [version]… It’s exactly like the script, but I never saw his take on it. When I was reading it, [I thought] it was so simple. I was looking for complications in the character… I dismissed the script. I didn’t see the promise that Denis Villeneuve saw in the material.”
His Mount Rushmore of Filipino Directors
“Ishmael Bernal. Celso Ad. Castillo. Peque Gallaga. Mario J. Delos Reyes. Marilou Diaz-Abaya.”
Photography by Artu Nepomuceno. Assisted by Choi Narciso and Odan Juan
