Desperately seeking ‘Burlesk Queen’
By Bayani San Diego Jr.
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 07:22:00 12/31/2007
MANILA, Philippines – Hailed by some critics as a modern Filipino movie classic, “Burlesk Queen” is also something of a Holy Grail for film archivists.
According to urban legend, a copy of “Burlesk Queen” was irretrievably lost after a storage room in the Manila Film Center was flooded following heavy rains sometime in the 1980s.
Film archivist Teddy Co, however, told Inquirer Entertainment that the last known copy of “Burlesk” had been damaged “in a film laboratory’s warehouse, not at the MFC, but also because of a sudden downpour.”
Co said, “Film archives have three known enemies: flood, fire and war. That’s why we have recovered very few films from the 1930s and 1940s.”
But Celso Ad. Castillo’s “Burlesk Queen” is a fairly recent movie. It was the controversial landslide winner in the hotly contested 1977 Metro Manila Film Festival.
In a recent interview with Inquirer Entertainment, Castillo corrected the impression that his film was “lost forever.”
“I was told by [producer] Manny Nuqui that a copy was found in Germany,” Castillo said. “And I heard that the current owner has a high asking price. Maybe he is aware of the film’s importance.”
Nuqui, president of the Philippine Motion Pictures Producers Association (PMPPA), confirmed that he had heard of an existing copy of “Burlesk” in Europe.
“Mowelfund was tasked to recover it years after its producer, Ian Film Productions, sold it abroad in the late 1970s,” Nuqui related.
Nick Deocampo, Mowelfund director, informed Inquirer Entertainment that “Burlesk Queen” is available on VCD. “But it’s blurry,” he said, “made from a Betamax copy.”
He also said that Mowelfund had traced “negative and print copies” to the present owner, Manfred Diurneok, based in Frankfurt, Germany.
Deocampo recalled that, a few years back, Diurneok had asked Mowelfund for “round-trip business class tickets” so terms of the resale could be negotiated in Manila.
“It was a reasonable request,” Deocampo noted, “but no one picked it up, and the deal fell through.”
Could “Burlesk” ever come home?
Castillo certainly hopes so.
The film is occasionally aired on cable TV, he said. “But watching it on the big screen is a completely different experience.”
Just as optimistic about the “Burlesk” retrieval is its lead star, Batangas Gov. Vilma Santos.
“‘Burlesk’ is one of my favorite movies,” she said. “It was a turning point in my career. From my pa-sweet image, I dared become a more serious actress.”
