SARI-SARING SINENG PINOY

     

     The main focus of Eddie Garcia's 1978 feature, Atsay (Ian Film Productions) is Nelia de Leon’s odyssey and its emotional core is provided by Nora Aunor's intense, gestural performance, which is strengthened further by Romeo Vitug’s quietly observant camera. The whole drama is revealed through quotidian details. Atsay featured a direct storytelling style, and depicted working-class people struggling against bleak social conditions and human foibles. Garcia subsumes this wellspring of complexity into the form of his central character, Nelia. Mostly silent with her employers, Nelia nonetheless speaks volumes through her expressive face; not that they would notice. She is treated with brusque tolerance, which soon gives way to hostility from Mrs. Tulio (Armida Siguion-Reyna). In one of the film’s most upsetting moments, Garcia’s camera remains distant as the husband, Mr. Tulio (Renato Robles) stares at Nelia’s behind while dusting. Atsay is especially sharp on the corrupted social contracts and Garcia roots these observations most effectively in the relationship between Nelia and Mrs. Tulio. One solitary, charged glance between Nelia and the husband, midway through the film, is enough to suggest that a similar psychosexual panic has taken root in the wife’s mind, precipitating her increasingly heinous behavior. Nelia is a victim, it’s true, but she is also a refreshingly multidimensional character. A succession of scenes illustrates her romance with construction worker Pol (Ronald Corveau). Nelia's situation is obviously tragic, but Garcia’s ability to match his contempt with a non-judgmental eye toward all his characters defuses any danger of slipping into polemics. For the most part, Garcia keeps us at a distance, but when he judiciously cuts to huge close-ups of Aunor’s doleful, open face—tears in her eyes, her anguish registers like an uppercut to the solar plexus. In Atsay's closing moments, a desperately sad saga is transformed into a transcendent howl of hope. Garcia was congenitally incapable of making indifferent films, and everything that marked him out—his skill, compassion, and vision—is fully present in this startling, unforgettable return to filmmaking.

      The new digital transfer undertaken by The Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP) and the Philippine Film Archive (PFA) was created in 4K resolution by the Korean Film Archive (KOFA) with preliminary fixes to the image and sound from seven reels of 35mm color prints, provided by the Philippine Information Agency (PIA). Central Digital Lab (CDL) performed extensive digital restoration on a dry-scanned transfer to minimize visible scratches and spots that were the results of processing errors and that had been aggravated by time. I do not know exactly what type of improvements were made during the restoration process, but I am convinced that this is the very best Atsay has ever looked on any format. Excluding a few light blemishes that can be spotted during the opening, the film looks spotless. Detail and clarity are  excellent with the outdoor footage looking particularly good. Depth is optimal, though it appears that some careful rebalancing adjustments were made to ensure that in a couple of areas where some traces of aging might have impacted fluidity, the end result is as pleasing as it could be. The color grading is convincing. There is a good range of solid blacks and healthy whites with no traces of compromising sharpening adjustments. Image stability is very good. There is only one standard audio track on this presentation. English subtitles are provided for the main feature. Dialogue is clean, stable, nicely balanced, and easy to follow. Dynamic intensity is modest, but given the nature of the film and the manner in which it was shot this is hardly surprising. Eddie Garcia’s Atsay has been recently restored in 4K and looks impressive in high-definition.

Sound: Gaudencio Barredo

Film Editor: Jose H. Tarnate

Music: George Canseco

Director of Photography: Romeo Vitug

Screenplay: Edgardo M. Reyes

Direction: Eddie Garcia

     

     Mike de Leon's Itim (Cinema Artists Philippines, 1976) is a quiet, delicate piece, one aching with loss and regret. It's the kind of film which demands patience, not least because of the static photography and the largely wordless storytelling De Leon employs. The characters are established with quick, subtle strokes. Perhaps more than anything, it is Charo Santos' presence (in her feature film appearance) that really stands out. There are few actresses who can quite match the way in which she is able to exude an ethereal beauty while simmering something below the surface, and her performance here as the beautiful and independent Teresa is a superb early example of just that. There are prolonged stretches which unfold without dialogue with only flourishes of a score. De Leon's tendency as a director is to privilege images over dialogue. Sometimes he hangs on an image for minutes more than we’re conditioned to expect by most Filipino films, forcing us to contemplate what we’re seeing. The storytelling is conveyed through style over narrative, both in Ely Cruz and Rody Lacap’s lingering visuals and Ike Jarlego, Jr.’s editing. You have to watch, feel and experience what’s onscreen in order to follow the story, which begins to play with our expectations in ways that are deeply satisfying, almost cathartic. De Leon repurposes elements of horror and makes them melancholic. 

     Itim is presented on blu-ray courtesy of Carlotta Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1. As with all of the films in the set, there are some preliminary text cards describing the restoration. Itim has been digitally restored by L'Immagine Ritrovata. The original 35mm camera negative was scanned in 4K resolution and the audio remastered from the optical soundtrack negatives preserved at the British Film Institute (BFI). The transfer was supervised by Director of Photography Rody Lacap and approved by Director Mike de Leon. This is an impressive looking presentation from just about every angle, with a gorgeously suffused palette. The release is noticeably less flushed, something that I personally found preferable. There are still some very minor and inconsequential nicks and blemishes. Grain is tightly and organically resolved throughout the presentation. The mono track presented in DTS-HD offers more than capable support for the film's sound design, offering a more spacious account of Max Jocson's haunting score. There are no issues with regard to damage, dropouts or distortion. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional French subtitles are available. In Itim, Mike de Leon gave us a film to rewatch and remember.

Direction: Mike de Leon

Screenplay: Doy del Mundo, Gil Quito

Cinematography: Ely Cruz, Rody Lacap

Editing: Ike Jarlego, Jr.

Music: Max Jocson

Sound: Luis Reyes, Ramon Reyes, Sebastian Sayson

Production Design: Mel Chionglo

      Luisito Lagdameo Ignacio's Broken Blooms (Bentria Productions, 2022) follows a volatile relationship as it flowers and wilts, thinking about what went wrong. It sounds like the cruelest sort of dissection, like pulling a butterfly apart by its wings, but Ignacio and his actors, Jeric Gonzales and Therese Malvar have not made a cold or schematic film. They aim instead for raw emotional experience, one that's full of insight into the ways a relationship can go astray, but mostly feels like a slow-motion punch to the gut. Broken Blooms amplifies the intensity a notch or two above the expected, it leaves the actors looking bruised and exhausted, like Vilma Santos and Christopher de Leon in Ishmael Bernal's Broken Marriage (1983). Sometimes the effect is too mannered, but in an independent landscape, Broken Blooms unfolds with a directness that's bracing. The passion between these young lovers is incandescent, but even in the best of times, Ignacio finds the seeds of their destruction. Though Jeremy (Gonzales) grows into a devoted husband and father, his chronic immaturity is apparent from the beginning of their married life. Cynthia (Malvar) just chooses to look past it, just as she does the marital discord within her own family. 

     Nothing out of the ordinary happens in Broken Blooms and that, together with the vital, untrammeled performances of the two leading actors is the root of its power. This demonstrates that Broken Blooms is that rare creation, a love story that doesn’t ignore its consequences or droop into pointless fantasy. The acting is exemplary. Gonzales brings a preternatural understanding of people to his performance and Malvar is amazing in the way she keeps trying to deny and conceal emotion, even as she's showing us. There's a moment in which they sing Jingle Bells together with their friends and it's clear, even as she's pretending otherwise, that she had to go through the motions. Jeremy wanted to be married to Cynthia and he still does and he still is. Cynthia can't stand that, she is a woman who has lost her pride of body and self. It's Jeremy's inability to care for Cynthia, right here, right now, because when she married him, she became exactly the wife he required. Ignacio gives the film a heartbreaking resonance. Broken Blooms sets course for a collision and measures the full weight of its impact.

Screenplay: Ralston Gonzales Jover

Director of Photography: T.M. Malones

Editing & Sound: Gilbert Obispo

Production Design: Jay Custodio

Music: Jay Abella

Direction: Luisito Lagdameo Ignacio

     Romance, so I’m to understand the term (and I don’t), is predicated on petite, strategic lies. It’s the confluence of many different slightly altered postures and highly self-moderated presentations, all calculated to either aid or discourage further amorous fission. It means that the person one falls in love with isn’t necessarily the person one has fallen in love with and vice versa. But we know this all too well, otherwise we wouldn’t expect something different and exciting from our fictions, both real and imagined. The quintessential tenet of romantic movies is that they feature characters who are either kept apart by their own deceptions or brought together by their total, yielding allowance of casting aside all that bullshit and opening up to another kindred soul. We eat that up, all the more voraciously for knowing it isn’t so simple. So when it comes to real life, we spend as much time constructing the barriers as we do peering around them to see who’s on the other side and we wonder why everyone else is doing the same thing.

     Laurice Guillen's Kasal? (Trigon Cinema Arts, 1980) uses flashbacks to chart two days worth of push-pull surrounding the wedding, back and forth with revelation and evasion. But, this being fiction, is mostly revelation. Joel (Christopher de Leon) and Grace's (Hilda Koronel) conversations appear to have all the hallmarks of research both can file away for next time, but Grace's deck outburst gives it away. She’s intending to get Joel emerge from his shell. And emerge he does, from there, the lovers connect again and again, physically, emotionally, intellectually. They invariably swim with the current of the whirlpool and are carried closer and closer to that holy grail of total, mutual understanding. The longer you spend inside Kasal?, the more its fictions seem apparent. De Leon and Koronel along with Jay Ilagan and Chanda Romero are, of course, incredibly attractive people who, despite their characters’ hang-ups and foibles, are approachable and easy to watch. But Mario O'Hara’s screenplay isn’t just perceptive to these fictions, it shows how they function in reality, narrowing the gap between the movie’s idealized representation and its audience’s own capacity to do the same. It’s nearly as galvanizing as the moment Grace finally opens up. It’s in moments like these that Kasal? nudges fantasy just a little bit closer to reality.    

     The high definition (1.67:1 aspect ratio) presentation offers a fairly decent scan with age restraining some clarity on the viewing experience. Detail is soft and while cinematographic limitations are present, sharpness feels dull, leading to only passable textures on close-ups and set decoration. Colors are equally unremarkable, skintones are somewhat bloodless and costuming lacks vibrancy even with party outfits. Delineation isn't troublesome, but never exquisite. Source is in decent shape. The 2.0 sound mix doesn't offer the type of theatrical clarity the film deserves, as age had its way with the track, resulting in a tinny, sometimes muddy listening event. Dialogue exchanges aren't where they need to be, with periodic intelligibility issues, especially when characters mumble. Sound effects are hard on the ears, but not that sharp. Some hiss is detected throughout. It's fascinating to watch Guillen's style take shape, there's provocative and passionate work here for study.

Screenplay: Mario O'Hara

Production Design: Mel Chionglo

Cinematography: Ricardo Remias

Film Editor: Efren Jarlego

Musical Director: Jun Latonio

Sound Supervision: Rolly Ruta

Directed By: Laurice Guillen

     Himala (Experimental Cinema of the Philippines, 1982) directed by Ishmael Bernal is a powerful and successful experiment in minimalism. Ricardo Lee’s screenplay takes on a documentary aesthetic, following characters as nothing of consequence is happening. There is great emotional resonance to the film, particularly in a handful of immensely powerful key scenes. Nora Aunor's critics claimed that she did nothing and played a bland character. While these claims are utterly unfounded, it's not hard to see where they stem from. Elsa spends most of the film being swayed by the currents of other character's desires. She almost doesn't feel like a protagonist due to her passiveness. Yet Aunor plays Elsa with immense authenticity. Perhaps it's because of the similarities between actress and character. Her role is a perfect example of an actress not being given the credit she deserves because of passiveness. Aunor's acting is almost masked by her naturalness in the role. It is the best performance Bernal has ever directed. Elsa speaks more than a sentence or two at a time and says nothing at all about life in the village or her childhood. But Elsa remains a cipher, her interests and experiences, her inner life, inaccessible. The spoken word is not cinema's most powerful tool. As anyone in the field knows all too well, cinema developed originally as a mute medium, dependent on images and editing to convey meaning. Himala is entirely structured around Elsa's point of view and this is the narrative paradigm that drives the film. I therefore have a hard time accepting the view that it silences Elsa, despite her demeanor. Aunor's lack of pretense, the naturalism with which she embodies this character is astounding. Elsa is a stoic but complex woman who witnessed hardship largely silently, but when she speaks, she is resplendant. Her final monologue showed she's reflexive, more aware about her motives and mixed emotions than all the other characters. 

     I think it is fair to say that time has not been kind to Himala. It is also fair to say that there wasn't a whole lot the restoration team could do to have the film look better than it does. Clearly, there are a number of limitations with the existing master which they had to work with. Some close-ups look quite pleasing, but elsewhere the image is rather soft and textures are problematic. Clarity, however, is mostly adequate and with a few minor exceptions, contrast levels seem stable. Some extremely light grain has been retained, but it is quite inconsistent and mixed up with light noise. The good news is that there are no traces of serious post-production sharpening. Unsurprisingly, the film does have a pleasing organic look. It is often weak but nevertheless a preferable one. Finally, some small damage marks and tiny horizontal lines are occasionally present, but I assume they could not have been removed without dramatically affecting the integrity of the image. All in all, considering ABS-CBN Film Restoration's strong record and dedication to high quality presentations, I think it is fair to speculate that this is likely the best Himala could look at the moment. Generally speaking, the dialog is crisp, stable and easy to follow. The few sequences where the music becomes prominent are also convincing. There is, however, some light background noise that occasionally pops up here and there. It is definitely not distracting, but its presence is certainly felt. There are those who diminished the turn as a non-performance, but they are sorely mistaken. Aunor's work is of staggering power and it is without question, one of her best. 

Screenplay: Ricardo Lee

Music: Winston Raval

Director of Photography: Sergio Lobo

Production Designer: Raquel N. Villavicencio

Film Editor: Ike Jarlego, Jr.

Sound Supervision: Vic Macamay

Directed By: Ishmael Bernal