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The best indie films this year are propelled by music |
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By Rome Jorge, Lifestyle Editor Music is a narrative visual art. The best compositions evoke not only emotions, but also communicate stories in vivid detail. They show instead of simply tell their tales. The sound and lyrics make you see. An even richer experience is when motion pictures use music not as mere soundtrack but as an integral part of storytelling. This year, two films showed that music says more than words. The 2008 Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival’s best movies include Boses and Ang Concerto, both co-produced by world-renowned violinist and well-loved philanthropist Alfonso “Coke” Bolipata, who also makes acting debut in Boses. Both films were shot in Bolipata’s Casa San Miguel in Zambales, the art center famous for its residency program for artists, its Pundaquit Virtuoso String Ensemble and its advocacy of teaching the children of peasants and fisher folk classical music. This year’s Cinemalaya has arguably produced some of the best crop of indie films. It certainly was the most well-attended. As frustrating as it may be to come to the Cultural Center of the Philippines only to find tickets have been sold out, it is heartening to see today’s youths enthusiastically watching their generation’s most promising filmmakers. One only has to see these two films to know why. Ang Concerto, by award-winning director and highly acclaimed choreographer and dancer Alexander Paul Morales, recounts the story Maria Virginia Yap Morales, Paul’s mother, and her grandfather Lt. Col. Anastacio Campo and how their family endured the Second World War in Davao. The Campo family is both saved and bedeviled by its unwitting friendship with Japanese spies planted within the community before the war as well as by its close proximity to a Japanese military encampment. Ang Concerto, like many previous indie films, sacrifices concise storytelling for indulgent cinematography. Many of the scenes evoke Fernando Amorsolo’s bucolic paintings and legendary film director Peque Gallaga’s opus, Oro Plata Mata. The story, perhaps because it is true-to-life and too close to Morales’ heart, does not focus enough on the one character who is forever changed by the story’s conflict—Maria (played by Ynna Asistio), the youngest sister who falls for a Japanese kamikaze pilot. All the other characters are unchanged by the war and therefore should have been de-emphasized. (Aristotle’s three-act narrative structure demands that any story worth telling, 1. Must have a protagonist who wants something but can’t have it and wants it bad enough to come into conflict, and 2. Must be forever changed by the climax of the conflict. Otherwise, it will all be much ado about nothing.) However, the film’s climax as well as its most eloquent and unforgettable moment is propelled by music. In one scene, Maria closes her eyes as she plays the piano piece she performed on her debut and the pilot’s farewell. Her older sister Nina (played by Merryl Soriano) holds back her hand from playing the last note. But Maria instead imagines holding hands with the pilot instead. Boses, on the other hand, is a thoroughly engaging film you will want your friends to see. Unpretentiously funny, this movie proves that quiet films can be quite riveting. One would watch and applaud it even without an apologetic “indie” label. Boses stars Bolipata as Ariel, a prized violinist haunted by an affair with a former student (played by Merryl Soriano), and musical prodigy Julian Duque as Onyok, a child turned mute and frightful because of the abuses by his father, played by cinema legend Ricky Davao. The film transforms Casa San Miguel into a rehabilitation center for abused children run by Ariel’s sister, Amanda, portrayed by screen veteran Cherry Pie Picache. Director Ellen Ongkeko-Marfil rightly focuses on the storytelling and the character development. The comedic timing of the film is flawless. The screenplay is golden. Even candid moments such as an intrusion of a water buffalo or Bolipata’s nearly disastrous child-tossing technique make the film even funnier. Surprisingly, Bolipata shines as an actor. His warmth and empathy for children, developed through years of teaching, shines through in this film. The man is funny as well. But Duque is even better. To say so much without a word is a command performance. But what really propels the film is Bolipata and Duque stellar violin performances. All the heart of this film is in their emotive playing. With pieces they play, they say what is in their heart. With every stroke of their bow they set our pulse to their rhythm. Boses, Ang Concerto and the other entries 2008 Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival are set to show at the UP Film Institute as well as in other community screening events. |
