By Ruben V. Nepales
As we reported Thursday, Raya Martin’s “Independencia” is the first Filipino film to be selected to the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival.
Now, as we write this, we just heard the great news that Raya’s twin-bill film with Adolfo Alix Jr., “Manila,” is going to be shown in Cannes, as well. So, Raya scored another first for Philippine cinema by having two entries at the world’s premier film fest next month. And, with Dante Mendoza back in Cannes main competition with his “Kinatay (The Execution of P),” it’s a great period for Philippine cinema. (Dante’s “Serbis” was in the main competition last year.) As we write this, there’s buzz that two more films might be added to the Philippines’ official entries to the festival.
Ambitious project
“Manila,” which will be shown out of competition, is an ambitious project. It’s a tribute to Lino Brocka’s “Jaguar” and Ishmael Bernal’s “Manila By Night.” Raya, in an e-mail interview, described the film this way: “‘Manila’ is a reimagining of the two Filipino classics about the city and its inhabitants.
“Piolo Pascual plays both lead roles in the two episodes. I worked on the ‘Manila By Night’ episode, which stars Piolo as William Martinez’s character in the original film. It’s an update and a continuation of that movie. Personally, I think Bernal’s ‘Manila By Night’ is the best Filipino film ever. No other director can best portray the Filipino psyche onscreen.”
Adolf shared his reaction about “Manila’s” selection via e-mail: “We’re very happy with the news. It was unexpected because we got the invitation at the last minute. God is good. We’re very excited.”
Arleen Cuevas, who coproduced both “Manila” and “Independencia,” also via e-mail, exclaimed: “I’m happy to have two films in Cannes!”
Vilma Santos could have been one of the film’s key cast members who will walk on the red carpet when “Independencia” premieres at the Palais des Festivals. But, Tetchie Agbayani gets that opportunity, instead.
“We first approached Vilma to play the mother role in the film, and we had several meetings with her,” Arleen informed us. “She told us she really liked the script, but she was in a dilemma whether to accept it or not, since she had obligations in her work as governor of Batangas, and she already said yes to a Star Cinema project for this year. In the end, the schedules didn’t permit us to work together, but hopefully, we will have a chance to work with her in our future projects.”
Playing the mother in Raya’s early 20th century family drama that was shot in black and white, Tetchie looks striking in her “baro at saya” costume in the stills. What’s also remarkable about the film’s visual style, based on those stills, is that, all the sets were built indoors from scratch.
As disclosed by Raya, “Independencia,” which also stars Sid Lucero and Alessandra de Rossi, is the second in his planned series of movies depicting different periods of struggle in the Philippines, each using a style that was evocative of the film’s period. “Short Film About the Indio Nacional (Or the Prolonged Sorrow of the Filipinos)” is his first feature film and his initial salvo in this series.
The young filmmaker explained, “Since the first installment in the trilogy was a silent feature, because it was in the beginning of cinema (during the Spanish occupation), the following project about the American era was attributed to the Hollywood influence that eventually became the stronger roots of Philippine cinema. The studio film refers to the way those early movies were made, reconstructing the location indoors. We created a forest inside a studio, mixing painted backdrops and live elements. Almost all of it was shot indoors.”
“Nobody makes this kind of film anymore,” he added. “Aside from the fact that it’s more expensive than traveling to a real forest, which we have almost everywhere in the Philippines, our audiences are used to realism in the movies. What made it easier for everyone was our child-like fascination. We were like kids reconstructing a lost world. I had a great production designer (Digo Ricio) who knew exactly how to set up the plan. It was very systematic.”
True account
Arleen revealed the challenge of shooting almost the entire film in a studio, something that hasn’t been done in the Philippines in a long while. She recounted: “Actually, the hard part was finding a studio we could use for 15 straight days. Luckily, we found a studio at Scenema Concepts in Marikina.
“Afterward, the actual shooting was relatively easier than doing a location shoot. We were inside a controlled environment. Everything we needed was there.”
Raya, who cowrote the script with Ramon Sarmiento, satisfied our curiosity about this newsreel by saying that “the film is ’interrupted’ by a newsreel of a true account during the American occupation.”
The UP film school alumnus showed old-studio photos of his ancestors to his French cinematographer, Jeanne Lapoirie, as a guide to the movie’s look. “I also showed her different studio pictures from the turn of the century,” he explained. “She was already familiar with the look of ‘Indio Nacional,’ which was mostly based on colonial postcards. We also talked about silent films like Murnau’s ‘Sunrise’ and ‘Faust.’
“Jeanne would suggest her own ideas, and I was happy that she understood the project completely. I was very honored to have worked with her, since she has already worked with some of the most interesting filmmakers in the world, like Pedro Costa and Francois Ozon.”
Asked if he already has ideas for the next film in his series (which he said could go past three), Raya replied, “Yes, I’ve been working on some ideas in the past couple of months. But, it will probably take as long as ’Independencia’ to put together. So, it should be ready in a few years’ time. I’m not in a hurry.”
Prolific output
That last statement is ironic, considering Raya’s prolific output in just a span of a few years. A parallel story to Raya’s tale of recent triumphs is his coproducer’s own success in the international film circuit. In a seemingly short period of time, Arleen, who also produced “Manila,” has racked up impressive producing credits on films by Raya and Adolfo. Also a product of UP’s Film Institute, Arleen coproduced “The Amazing Truth About Queen Raquela,” a movie directed by Icelandic filmmaker, Olaf Johannesson, which won the Teddy Award for Best Film at the Berlin Film Festival last year.
Arleen was one of the young Filipino filmmakers selected to participate in the Berlinale Talent Campus and Produire au Sud Workshop. She recently represented Filipino projects in the CineMart and Hong Kong Asian Film Financing Forum, which are coproduction markets for new projects looking for international coproduction and financing.
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By Bayani San Diego Jr.
IN SHOOTING his latest Cannes-bound film “Kinatay (The Execution of P),” Dante Mendoza’s foremost concern was to capture the unique look of the Philippines at night.
Critics have always noted this nocturnal peculiarity in classics like Lino Brocka’s “Maynila sa Kuko ng Liwanag” and Ishmael Bernal’s “Manila By Night.”
Mendoza explores the same dark terrain in “Kinatay” with the help of modern technology. (“Kinatay” is about a gang of hit men who chop up the bodies of their victims.)
With cinematographer Odyssey Flores, Mendoza used two types of cameras—film (Arriflex 435) and digital (Arriflex D-21).
“For the daytime scenes, we used film, but at night, we opted for digital,” Mendoza explained “I wanted the day and night scenes to look totally different.”
He said this is the first Filipino film to make use of an Arri D-21. “It’s the newest camera from Arriflex. It can be fitted with film lens.”
The camera, which he rented from CMB Equipment, allowed him “to capture every detail of Manila by night.”
“Several scenes are set in a van traveling from Edsa to North Luzon Expressway, from Pasay to Bulacan,” he related. “Nighttime in the city is different from nighttime in the province, where it’s pitch-black.”
Natural means
The goal, he said, was to achieve this “through natural means.”
“That can be tricky. I didn’t want the light inside the van to be turned on. That wouldn’t look right,” he said. “Instead, we outfitted the van’s roof with lights. [So it looked like] the light came from the streets.”
Color-grading, he said, is currently being done by local firm Optima which also worked on “Serbis,” his Cannes entry last year. “I want the daytime scenes to be bright, tropical, orangey, while the night scenes to be dark... almost silhouette lang ’yong characters.”
Another technical challenge was the aural orchestration.
“There’s very little dialogue in this movie,” he said. “In the van scenes, all you hear is the occasional radio transmission, faint sounds from the highway and the sobs and cries of the ‘salvage’ victim [played by Maria Isabel Lopez].”
This aural minimalism required a lot of work, though, he said. “Sound mixing is crucial.”
Although French producer Didier Costet is recommending a Parisian post-production house, Mendoza wants the audio mix to be done either locally or in Technicolor in Thailand.
“When the movie premieres in Cannes (Main Competition) next month,” the filmmaker said, “I want to be able to say that the film was completely made in Asia.”
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