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HIMALA MOVIE REVIEW
Source: Variety, Wednesday, January 26, 1983
French-trained Filipino director Ishmael Bernal has finally
reached his creative peak and total acceptance in the
Philippine film industry when HIMALA swept the major awards
at the recent Metro Manila Film Fest and then was invited to
prestigiously open the 1983 Manila International Film Festival.
Bernal has long been neglected and he is the most-nominated
Manila film maker for the local critics' derby. His MANILA
AFTER DARK, however, won best picture last year.
HIMALA has also been touted as the first Tagalog picture to
have been produced by the Experimental Cinema of the
Philippines, an arm of the annual MIFF for 3,000,000 pesos. It
will circulate to five leading international filmfests, including the
forthcomng Berlin Film Festival, then to Cannes' Directors'
Fortnight.
The film bitingly, hypnotically and realistically captures the
mixed-up and often confused rural Philippine traditions that are
full of contradictions quite similar to what was shown in
Francesco Rosi's CHRIST STOPPED AT EBOLI. It is a
situation where religion, fanaticism, superstition and cliched
soap opera characters intermix. The film opens in the dappled
and moody darkness of an eclipse which sets the tone of the
supernatural theme that's been blended with the harsh realities
experienced by a young girl who gets victimized by
circumstances beyond her control. It is rich in details of
backward village life that should fascinate foreign viewers
intrigued with exotic Third World poverty, hunger, oriental
funeral services, physical ugliness and handicapped human
bodies cinematically framed by the magic of faith healing as its
main theme.
The provincial town setting is the sleepy town of Cupang (shot
on location in lovely Ilocos Norte) which was supposedly been
cursed after driving away a leper. The small, dissipated and
forgotten dusty town without rainfall awakens to exploitation
and commercialism when an innocent girl called Elsa (Nora
Aunor) claims to have seen an apparition of the Blessed Virgin.
She later acquires healing powers. Along the lines of Lourdes,
the whole village becomes a bustling commercial venue for
mass-produced statue saints and bottled holy or tonic water. In
later excursions into subplots, a close friend of Elsa who
becomes a woman of easy virtue returns to Cupang, a virginal
sister who is totally devoted to the religious mission, some
enterprising matrons, then a kaleidoscopic look at hundreds of
sick people with diseased bodies. A pivotal character is a
cynical and young film director (Spanky Manikan) with a
conscience. The latter becomes obsessed in capturing Elsa's
healing sessions on celluloid which leads to his candidly
catching on film (by accident) a dark secret of Elsa, a secret
which prompted the suicide of her sister.
Here is an eloquent, powerful film that is full of grandeur and
simple segments. It shows an atmospheric environment where
illiterate but adulating, praying crowds desperate for a cure can
be a hostile mob when the miracle they crave for doesn't
materialize.
Nora Aunor as Elsa gives a sensitive, polished and highly
passive and consistently low key performance. She is
letter-perfect for the role. Meanwhile, Gigi Duenas (a stage
actress) as a girl on the wrong side of the tracks who operates
a cabaret-whorehouse is singularly brilliant and provides a
striking contrast to the spiritual life of Elsa. If there is anything
wrong with the production, it is just the length and repetitious
sequences.
Towards the middle, a weird and starling denouement is shared
with the viewers to sustain their high level of fascination. The
Tagalog screenplay is suitably hard boiled and not affected as
in common local features. There is an excellent eerie
soundtrack music.
HIMALA is the kind of quality festival film that brightens the
Philippines' tarnished name in the field of films geared for
international consumption and release. The picture brings out
the fact there are more Filipino directors to discover. - Mel
Source: Variety, Wednesday, January 26, 1983
French-trained Filipino director Ishmael Bernal has finally
reached his creative peak and total acceptance in the
Philippine film industry when HIMALA swept the major awards
at the recent Metro Manila Film Fest and then was invited to
prestigiously open the 1983 Manila International Film Festival.
Bernal has long been neglected and he is the most-nominated
Manila film maker for the local critics' derby. His MANILA
AFTER DARK, however, won best picture last year.
HIMALA has also been touted as the first Tagalog picture to
have been produced by the Experimental Cinema of the
Philippines, an arm of the annual MIFF for 3,000,000 pesos. It
will circulate to five leading international filmfests, including the
forthcomng Berlin Film Festival, then to Cannes' Directors'
Fortnight.
The film bitingly, hypnotically and realistically captures the
mixed-up and often confused rural Philippine traditions that are
full of contradictions quite similar to what was shown in
Francesco Rosi's CHRIST STOPPED AT EBOLI. It is a
situation where religion, fanaticism, superstition and cliched
soap opera characters intermix. The film opens in the dappled
and moody darkness of an eclipse which sets the tone of the
supernatural theme that's been blended with the harsh realities
experienced by a young girl who gets victimized by
circumstances beyond her control. It is rich in details of
backward village life that should fascinate foreign viewers
intrigued with exotic Third World poverty, hunger, oriental
funeral services, physical ugliness and handicapped human
bodies cinematically framed by the magic of faith healing as its
main theme.
The provincial town setting is the sleepy town of Cupang (shot
on location in lovely Ilocos Norte) which was supposedly been
cursed after driving away a leper. The small, dissipated and
forgotten dusty town without rainfall awakens to exploitation
and commercialism when an innocent girl called Elsa (Nora
Aunor) claims to have seen an apparition of the Blessed Virgin.
She later acquires healing powers. Along the lines of Lourdes,
the whole village becomes a bustling commercial venue for
mass-produced statue saints and bottled holy or tonic water. In
later excursions into subplots, a close friend of Elsa who
becomes a woman of easy virtue returns to Cupang, a virginal
sister who is totally devoted to the religious mission, some
enterprising matrons, then a kaleidoscopic look at hundreds of
sick people with diseased bodies. A pivotal character is a
cynical and young film director (Spanky Manikan) with a
conscience. The latter becomes obsessed in capturing Elsa's
healing sessions on celluloid which leads to his candidly
catching on film (by accident) a dark secret of Elsa, a secret
which prompted the suicide of her sister.
Here is an eloquent, powerful film that is full of grandeur and
simple segments. It shows an atmospheric environment where
illiterate but adulating, praying crowds desperate for a cure can
be a hostile mob when the miracle they crave for doesn't
materialize.
Nora Aunor as Elsa gives a sensitive, polished and highly
passive and consistently low key performance. She is
letter-perfect for the role. Meanwhile, Gigi Duenas (a stage
actress) as a girl on the wrong side of the tracks who operates
a cabaret-whorehouse is singularly brilliant and provides a
striking contrast to the spiritual life of Elsa. If there is anything
wrong with the production, it is just the length and repetitious
sequences.
Towards the middle, a weird and starling denouement is shared
with the viewers to sustain their high level of fascination. The
Tagalog screenplay is suitably hard boiled and not affected as
in common local features. There is an excellent eerie
soundtrack music.
HIMALA is the kind of quality festival film that brightens the
Philippines' tarnished name in the field of films geared for
international consumption and release. The picture brings out
the fact there are more Filipino directors to discover. - Mel