History of Philippine Cinema Essay

A. The Golden Age of Philippine Films The 1950s were considered a time of â€Å"rebuilding and growth†. But remnants from the preceding decade of the 40s remained in the form of war-induced reality. This is seen is Lamberto Avellana’s Anak Dalita (The Ruins, 1956), the stark tragedy of post-WWII survival set in Intramuros. The decade saw frenetic activity in the film industry which yielded what might be regarded as the first harvest of distinguished films by Filipinos. Two studios before the war, namely Sampaguita Pictures and LVN, reestablished themselves. Bouncing back quickly, they churned out movie after movie to make up for the drought of films caused by the war. Another studio, Premiere Productions, was earning a reputation for â€Å"the vigor and the freshness† of some of its films. This was the period of the â€Å"Big Four† when the industry operated under the studio system. Each studio (Sampaguita, LVN, Premiere and Lebran) had its own set of stars, technicians and directors, all lined up for a sequence of movie after movie every year therefore maintaining a monopoly of the industry. The system assured moviegoers a variety of fare for a whole year and allowed stars and directors to improve their skills. Read more: Essay About Philippine Cinema Critics now clarify that the 50s may be considered one â€Å"Golden Age† for the Filipino film not because film content had improved but because cinematic techniques achieved an artistic breakthrough in that decade. This new consciousness was further developed by local and international awards that were established in that decade. Awards were first instituted that decade. First, the Manila Times Publishing Co. set up the Maria Clara Awards. In 1952, the FAMAS (Filipino Academy of Movie Arts and Sciences) Awards were handed out. More so, Filipino films started garnering awards in international film festivals. One such honor was bestowed on Manuel Conde’s immortal movie Genghis Khan (1952) when it was accepted for screening at the Venice Film Festival. Other honors include awards for movies like Gerardo de Leon’s Ifugao (1954) and Lamberto Avellana’s Anak Dalita. This established the Philippines as a major filmmaking center in Asia. These awards also had the effect of finally garnering for Filipino films their share of attention from fellow Filipinos. B. The Decline of Philippine Film If the 1950s were an ubiquitous period for film, the decade that followed was a time of decline. There was â€Å"rampant commercialism and artistic decline† as portrayed on the following: In the 1960s, the foreign films that were raking in a lot of income were action pictures sensationalizing violence and soft core sex films hitherto banned from Philippine theater screens, Italian â€Å"spaghetti† Westerns, American James Bond-type thrillers, Chinese/Japanese martial arts films and European sex melodramas. To†¦get an audience to watch their films, (the independent) producers had to take their cue from these imports. The result is a plethora of films†¦giving rise to such curiosities as Filipino samurai and kung fu masters, Filipino James Bonds and†¦the bomba queen. The studio systems came under siege from the growing labor movement which resulted in labor-management conflicts. The first studio to close was Lebran followed by Premiere Productions. Next came Sampaguita and LVN. The â€Å"Big Four† studios were replaced by new and independent producers who soon made up the rest of the film industry. The decade also saw the emergence of the youth revolt best represented by the Beatles and the rock and roll revolution. They embodied the wanting to rebel against adult institutions and establishments. Certain new film genres were conceived just to cater to this â€Å"revolt†. Fan movies such as those of the â€Å"Tita and Pancho† and â€Å"Nida and Nestor† romantic pairings of the 50s were the forerunners of a new kind of revolution – the â€Å"teen love team† revolution. â€Å"Nora Aunor and Vilma Santos, along with Tirso Cruz III and Eddie Mortiz as their respective screen sweethearts, were callow performers during the heyday of fan movies. Young audiences made up of vociferous partisans for ‘Guy and Pip’ or ‘Vi and Bot’ were in search of role models who could take the place of elders the youth revolt had taught them to distrust† Another kind of youth revolt came in the form of the child star. Roberta (1951) of Sampaguita Pictures was the phenomenal example of the drawing power of movies featuring [these] child stars. In the 60s this seemed to imply rejection of â€Å"adult corruption† as exposed by childhood innocence. The film genres of the time were direct reflections of the â€Å"disaffection with the status quo† at the time. Action movies with Pinoy cowboys and secret agents as the movers of the plots depicted a â€Å"society ravaged by criminality and corruption† . Movies being make-believe worlds at times connect that make-believe with the social realities. These movies suggest a search for heroes capable of delivering us from hated bureaucrats, warlords and villains of our society. The action films of the 1960s brought into the industry â€Å" a new savage rhythm that made earlier action films seem polite and stage managed.† The pacing of the new action films were fast as the narrative had been pared down to the very minimum of dialogues. And in keeping up with the Hollywood tradition, the action sequences were even more realistic. Another film genre that is perhaps also a embodiment of the revolt of the time is the bomba genre. Probably the most notorious of all, this genre appeared at the close of the decade. Interestingly, it came at a time when social movement became acknowledged beyond the walls of campuses and of Manila. In rallies, demonstrations and other forms of mass action, the national democratic movement presented its analysis of the problems of Philippine society and posited that only a social revolution could bring genuine change. The bomba film was a direct challenge to the conventions and the norms of conduct of status quo, a rejection of authority of institutions in regulating the â€Å"life urge† seen as natural and its free expression â€Å"honest† and â€Å"therapeutic† Looking beyond the obvious reasons as to the emergence of the bomba film, both as being an exploitative product of a profit-driven industry and as being a â€Å"stimulant†, it can be analyzed as actually being a â€Å"subversive genre†, playing up to the establishment while rebelling and undermining support for the institutions. Even in the period of decline, genius has a way of showing itself. Several Philippine films that stood out in this particular era were Gerardo de Leon’s Noli Me Tangere (Touch me Not, 1961) and El Filibusterismo (Subversion, 1962). Two other films by Gerardo de Leon made during this period is worth mentioning – Huwag mo Akong Limutin (Never Forget Me , 1960) and Kadenang Putik (Chain of Mud, 1960), both tales of marital infidelity but told with insight and cinematic import. C. Films during Martial Law In the 60s, the youth clamored for change in the status quo. Being in power, Ferdinand Marcos answered the youth by placing the nation under martial rule. In 1972, he sought to contain growing unrest which the youth revolt of the 1960s fueled. Claiming that all he wanted was to â€Å"save the Republic†, Marcos retooled the liberal-democratic political system into an authoritarian government which concentrated power in a dictators hand. To win the population over, mass media was enlisted in the service of the New Society. Film was a key component of a society wracked with contradictions within the ruling class and between the sociopolitical elite and the masses. In terms of comparisons, the Old Society (or the years before Martial Law) became the leading symbol for all things bad and repugnant. The New Society was supposed to represent everything good – a new sense of discipline, uprightness and love of country Accordingly, the ideology of the New Society was incorporated into local films. †¦Marcos and his technocrats sought to regulate filmmaking. The first step was to control the content of movies by insisting on some form of censorship. One of the first rules promulgated by the Board of Censors for Motion Pictures (BCMP) stipulated submission of a finished script prior to the start of filming. When the annual film festival was revived, the censors blatantly insisted that the â€Å"ideology† of the New Society be incorporated into the content of the entries. The government tried to control the film industry while keeping it in â€Å"good humor† – necessary so that the government could continue using film as propagandistic vehicles. So despite the censors, the exploitation of sex and violence onscreen continued to assert itself. Under martial law, action films depicting shoot outs and sadistic fistfights ( which were as violent as ever) usually append to the ending an epilogue claiming that the social realities depicted had been wiped out with the establishment of the New Society. The notorious genre of sex or bomba films that appeared in the preceding decade were now tagged as â€Å"bold† films, simply meaning that a lot more care was given to the costumes. Martial Law declared in 1972 clamped down on bomba films as well as political movies critical of the Marcos administration. But the audience’s taste for sex and nudity had already been whetted. Producers cashed in on the new type of bomba, which showed female stars swimming in their underwear, taking a bath in their camison (chemise), or being chased and raped in a river, sea, or under a waterfall. Such movies were called the wet look†¦