The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
In celebration of May as National Heritage Month, the Cinematheque Centre Manila (CCM), in partnership with the National Film Archives of the Philippines, will screen several classic Filipino films that are regarded as some of the country’s best.
The films to be shown are considered to have had a significant impact on the development of Philippine cinema. These include works by National Artists for Film, cherished icons, and some of the most revered filmmakers today.
Two of these films are by Lamberto V. Avellana: Anak Dalita (Child of Sorrow), which focuses on a young soldier who returns home from abroad and discovers his mother living in poverty as a result of World War II, and must cope with the new realities at home; and the recently restored A Portrait of the Artist as Filipino, an adaptation of National Artist for Literature Nick Joaquin’s enduring 1952 play about the struggles of two unmarried sisters and their reclusive artist-father living in Intramuros as the Second World War looms over the Walled City.
Another restored classic to be screened is Genghis Khan, Manuel Conde’s movie on the famed Mongol conqueror that was lauded for its innovative cinematography and set design.
A contemporary of Avellana and Conde, Gerardo de Leon is represented in this month’s lineup by the American-produced horror feature Mad Doctor of Blood Island, which reportedly shocked audiences at drive-in theaters in California with its story of a doctor who creates zombies on a faraway island.
Regarded as one of the most influential directors of his generation, Lino Brocka has three films in this month’s lineup. The first, Maynila sa mga Kuko ng Liwanag (Manila in the Claws of Light), follows a young fisherman who travels to Manila to search for his sweetheart, and which depicts a city that has been broken by the tyranny of dictatorship.
The second, Ang Tatay Kong Nanay (My Father’s My Mother), stars the late, great comedian Dolphy as Dioscoro, a gay hairdresser forced to become a father when a baby boy is left in his care and attempts to hide his homosexuality from the child.
And the third, Cain at Abel, retells the biblical story of the two brothers in modern Philippine society, delving into how a corrupt system of justice creates barriers and leads to bloodshed.
Also to be shown is the comedy Working Girls by Ishmael Bernal, a great contemporary of Brocka. It’s about a group of young businesswomen who use their wit and cunning to achieve their goals and get into several misadventures along the way.
Two national artists—Eddie Romero and Fernando Poe Jr. (FPJ)—joined forces to make Aguila (Eagle), in which the latter—celebrated as the King of Philippines Movies—plays a missing father whose violence-marred life parallels the history of the Philippines across eight decades.
FPJ has another film in the lineup, Kahit Konting Pagtingin (Even Just a Glance), a romantic movie with Sharon Cuneta playing his love interest.
Three movies complete the CCM’s May lineup: Kidlat Tahimik’s Mababangong Bangungot (Perfumed Nightmare), which tells the earnest, nonlinear story of a National Aeronautics and Space Administration-obsessed jeepney driver finding his way home; Chito S. Roño’s Dekada 70 (The 1970s), an adaptation of Lualhati Bautista’s novel that follows the political awakening of a mother as her sons take up various forms of activism during the Marcos dictatorship; and Lav Diaz’s award-winning Hele sa Hiwagang Hapis (A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery), which mixes Philippine historical figures with characters from Philippine folklore and from Jose Rizal’s El Filibusterismo in its revolution-era narrative.
The screenings of these films are free, except for Hele sa Hiwagang Hapis, the tickets for which costs P200. TMM
For screening schedules and updates, visit www.fdcp.ph.