By PABLO A. TARIMAN
AS of latest figures, the 36-year-old Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) has surpassed the P5 billion mark when it ended its two-week run last Jan. 7.
This year’s MMFF gross income broke the previous years’ figures, which were 437 million in 2009 and a little over P230 million in 2008.
Despite the bigger earnings, the number of quality entries nosedived with comedians lording it over the awards night for films that gave comedy a tired, old, if embarrassing, image.
“Jejemon,” which gave Dolphy a best actor trophy, was a pathetic output compared to Lino Brocka’s “Ang Tatay Kong Nanay,” which also earned him the same award many years back.
The comedy franchise, “Ang Tanging Ina (Last Na To),” was more like a tribute to sitcom than to motherhood. It bagged the best picture, best actress (Ai Ai de las Alas) and best director awards (Wenn Deramas), among others.
As expected, the combined fantasy franchise of Bong Revilla’s “Agimat” and the long-running “Kabisote” of Vic Sotto resulted in box office history for “Si Agimat at si Enteng Kabisote,” grossing P159 million as of last count. It was followed by de las Alas’ “Tanging Ina…” with P157 million, and Kris Aquino’s “Dalaw” with P96 million.
Admittedly, “Tanging Ina” was one of the most entertaining entries in the festival, but as one comes to terms with its entertaining qualities, one also realizes its limitations. Like a surefire, get-rich-quick formula of fastfood chains, “Tanging Ina…” was a winning franchise.
What it lost was the heart and soul of what it takes to become a mother. Brocka’s festival entry “Inay” many years back was just that kind of film that also elicited guffaws from the audience, but it gave the viewer a chance to recover from the laughter with a quiet message about motherhood that didn’t sound like a scene from a sitcom.
By cineaste’s (or film enthusiast’s) standards, the only films with festival quality in the recent edition of the MMFF were Albert Martinez’s “Rosario,” Star Cinema’s cartoon entry “RPG Metanoia,” and another horror franchise, “Shake, Rattle and Roll 12,” especially the episode “Punerarya” directed by Jerrold Tarog.
The Revilla-VicSotto opus is technically commendable, but in essence and craftsmanship, it belongs to the common, if, unimaginative turf of “Tanging Ina…,”“Super Inday and the Magic Bibe” and “Jejemon.”
For the record, only three festival entries merited decent ratings from the Cinema Evaluation Board: “Rosario”(Rated A), “RPG Metanoia” (Rated A), and “Si Agimat At Si Enteng Kabisote” (Rated B).
“Rosario” is reminiscent of Eddie Romero’s “Ganito Kami Noon, Paano Kayo Ngayon,” and it might as well be the last of the blatantly ignored jewel of Filipino cinema. Like it or not, the last three or four years of the MMFF were showcases of mediocre films and a few good ones.
Whatever happened to the past editions of MMFF that turned out cinematic gems like Marilou Diaz-Abaya’s “Jose Rizal” and “Muro-Ami,” which made the Filipino filmmaker at par with the world’s best?
Abaya caught the tailend of the era of Filipino auteurs (or film directors with a distinctive style), represented by Brocka, Romero, Gerry de Leon and Ishmael Bernal and Eddie Romero, among others.
Of that period of Filipino filmmakers Abaya had this to say: “They had creative autonomy from their producers for as long as they could collaborate on one thing that was of common interest, which was casting. Then the director was pretty much left to execute a film according to their creative judgment and those directors were very well respected.”
These days, box office potentials dictate every possible output of the Filipino filmmaker, the very reason indie films are getting all the international recognition while mainstream Filipino blockbusters continue to cater to the crass, the banal and the cinematically intolerable.
What does the Filipino cineaste have to say when a well-crafted film like “Rosario” loses to a comedy film that that didn’t even reflect the essence of edifying entertainment?
Indeed, the MMFF’s income is growing by leaps and bound. On the other hand, it has pathetically failed to reward those trying to follow the essence of good cinema.
Perhaps the quality of the film festival jury has added to that injustice. As they say, every festival choice reflects the taste and cinema I.Q. of the jury.
You can earn all the degrees you want in filmmaking for as long as you have the money and the connection, but acquiring taste is another matter. It is the one crucial thing that separates the perceptive from the pedestrian.