It's a wonderful life
Noel Vera
Maryo J. delos Reyes' "Magnifico" is something fairly new in recent Philippine cinema: a wholesome, family-oriented picture without soft-core nudity, gushing blood, elaborate digital effects or even large gasoline explosions that is actually quite good.
Along with the absence of sex 'n violence 'n CGI, the movie lacks overcomplicated subplots, heavy-handed melodrama, sadistic villains, and masochistic heroes (there is an extended sequence of people weeping, but one of the modest miracles of this modest film is that you don't object too much--the tears feel well-earned). You could make a list out of all the flaws and excesses the movie doesn't have--a long and comprehensive list that would describe practically every Filipino film made recently.
What it does have is the conviction that the story of a boy, oddly named Magnifico, who goes about trying to help his family and neighbors, is actually enough to hold one's interest for two hours, even win one's heart. Magnifico and his family have problems--his sister (Isabella de Leon) has cerebral palsy, his father (Albert Martinez) struggles to find work, his grandmother (Gloria Romero) is dying of cancer. He's surrounded by people full of loneliness and pain and all kinds of needs that even the ablest of men would find difficult to satisfy. He himself isn't anything obviously special--he has no magical abilities a la Harry Potter, or Ring of Power a la Frodo Baggins; he isn't even very bright. All he has is the innocence (ignorance, if you like) to attempt the impossible, the imagination (insanity, if you like) to think up creative ways around the impossibility, and the stout heart (stubbornness, if you like) to persevere at what he thinks is the right thing to do.
A modest film of modest virtues, as I've said--which makes it an especially difficult film to do well. The challenges are many: depicting ordinary life realistically enough for people to recognize without boring them, injecting jokes that are funny without violating the characters' integrity, showing just enough heart to move people but not overwhelm them with sentimentality. On top of this elaborate balancing act the film manages to sustain a specific kind of emotional tone--a slightly skewed air of mild enchantment, as if the very air sparkled, faintly. I'm not talking of special effects, or effects of any kind, but a sort of stylized realism that allows for improbabilities to happen and for us to believe in them--think "Amelie" (with its somewhat similar idea of a do-gooding youth) but without magic--or rather, magic of a subtler kind.
Part of the credit for the achievement goes to Michiko Yamamoto, who came up with the idea and created the characters in her prizewinning screenplay (first prize, Film Development Foundation). Part goes to delos Reyes who with intelligent camerawork and sprightly pacing manages to realize in visual terms that elusive tone the script strives for and--not an easy thing to do--achieves without too much effort. Part goes to the excellent cast: Amy Austria as casually funny neighbor; Mark Gil as brooding bus driver; Tonton Gutierrez as wealthy employer; Lorna Tolentino as Magnifico's sorely tried mother; Gloria Romero as fragile old grandmother (a part she played in "Tanging Yaman," only this time better written). Jiro Manio is good as Magnifico--cute but not excessively so, able to carry the film and at the same time sustain (effortlessly, always effortlessly) the all-important tone. Isabella de Leon is particularly good as the sister with cerebral palsy--she plays out entire scenes not just with twisted hands and distorted mouth, but with a distinct and actual character in mind, who develops as the film progresses. Albert Martinez gives possibly his finest performance in a long time, as the hard-luck father: I especially liked the moment when he's asked the name of his newborn child and he pauses--dreamy, faraway look on his face--before replying: "Magnifico!" Watching him, you understand where the child's windmill-tilting spirit comes from.
The existence of a film like "Magnifico" is every bit as unlikely as its title character. Yamamoto had been working on scripts at Viva Films for several years without making much of an impact; delos Reyes had been churning out all kinds of movies, from melodramas to lurid sex flicks ("Red Diaries," "Paraiso ni Efren" (Efren's Paradise)). Delos Reyes had to discover her script, then find a producer in Ms. Violett of Violett Films to give him the money (a lot, I hear--you wonder, can this movie actually make its money back?). Philippine cinema is in dire straits, has been for years, is worse off now more than ever; it's small miracles like this odd little picture that allow you to still hope for the industry.
Pelikula at Lipunan 2003
Speaking of heavy-handed melodrama... the opening film of "Pelikula at Lipunan" (Film and Society) 2003 is Carlos Carrera's "El Crimen del Padre Amaro," the biggest box-office hit in Mexican history and the country's official entry to the Academy Awards for Best Foreign Film (has a chance of winning too, thanks to recent sex scandals involving American priests). It's based on a 19th century Portuguese novel by José María Eça de Queiróz, and shows it--the movie is practically a laundry list of felonies and misdemeanors committed by Catholic priests in a rural town in Mexico. Fornication, corruption, deceit, intimidation, blackmail--you name it, they done it, with the kind of breathless intensity and attention to juicy detail of a hit telenovela (actually, I've seen telenovelas that practiced more restraint). The climax of all this scandalous behavior is Padre Amaro (the dewy-eyed Gael Garcia Bernal) draping a blue cloth over a mouthwateringly young Mexican girl (Ana Claudia Talancón) and declaring her "more beautiful than the virgin." Blasphemous? Not really...
Actually, I don't mind church bashing as much as I do bashing done with such shocking ineptness. Greater Latin filmmakers have taken on the church, with more imaginatively fruitful results--Arturo Ripstein (whose father and nephew produced "Crimen") with his "Divine," Luis Bunuel with "Viridiania" come to mind. This film, with its simplistic characterization and predictable storyline, is like cheap graffiti on cathedral walls. Should the Catholic church be offended? Yes, I think--after surviving two thousand years of prosecution and the vagaries of human history, it deserves a stronger, sharper, more carefully thought-out assault.
Far more enjoyable was "Pelikula at Lipunan's" other opening film--Luciano Carlos' "Facifica Falayfay" (1969), part of the festival's tribute to Dolphy, the Filipino King of Comedy.
Facifica (or Pacifico, as he was originally baptized) was born a boy, but because Aling Kobang (Dely Atay-atayan) wanted a girl, he's raised from childhood wearing frocks and curly hair. Dolphy makes a grand entrance, sashaying down a staircase in a see-through raincoat over bikini underwear, and not once looks back--it's a horrifyingly hilarious performance full of slapstick, cheap humor and about a hundred costume changes, each more outrageous than the next.
For the record, filmmaker "Chaning" Carlos shows a real flair for musical numbers (better than Brocka ever did in his compelling, though musically inept, "Stardoom"), car chases and even chases (a comedy staple) in general. I like it that he inserts his finale--a jazzy number full of guns and gangsters and noir cliches--into the film for no other reason than that, apparently, he felt like it. Wonderful, wonderful film--with Pilar Pilapil (looking hotter than any Mexican virgin can ever hope to look), as the love interest that finally converts Facifica into humdrum heterosexuality.
Footnote: I've no absolute proof to back this up, but Dolphy's swishing progress across the screen bears an uncanny resemblance to Rob Schneider's in "The Hot Chick." Schneider is reportedly half Filipino--is it possible that he saw "Facifica" or any other of Dolphy's gay comedies and exported The Filipino King of Comedy's brand of lowbrow humor to the United States? And, through the United States, the rest of the world...?
Other films worth watching: theater genius Julie Taymor's first film "Titus " (2000), an adaptation of Shakespeare's horrific play; P.T. Anderson's Adam Sandler picture "Punch-Drunk Love" (2002); Thai filmmaker Pen-ek Ratanaruang's "A Transistor Love Story" (2002); and Frank Gray Jr.'s "Omeng Satanasia" (1977), Dolphy's take on the Faust legend, with "The Omen" and "The Exorcist" thrown in for good measure.
