Marvin-Jolina loveteam "grows up"

We had the chance to interview Cannes Film Festival best director winner Brillante “Dante” Mendoza on Monday at the victory celebration given to him by the University of Santo Tomas College of Fine Arts. Direk Dante graduated with a degree in Fine Arts, Major in Advertising in UST.

Direk Dante still feels overwhelmed after winning the Best Director trophy at the prestigious film festival. “I didn’t expect anything. I was just happy that my movie (Kinatay) was chosen as an entry in the Main Competition category,” said Direk Dante who added that he doesn’t mind if he was not given a hero’s welcome after his return from Cannes. Neither does he have time for his detractors who are trying to downplay his victory.

“I was just really happy that Kinatay was accepted in the festival. I am really overwhelmed with the attention given to me, no matter if there are some people who were not exactly too happy with what I have achieved. Nevertheless, this is a triumph for us Filipinos. Any film director can make it to Cannes. It’s just a matter of getting a good material and presenting it in a way that would suit the taste of the organizers.” However, Direk Dante doesn’t claim he knows the formula (if there is one) to make it one. He also just laughs off insinuations that his French connection enabled him to make it to the prestigious film festival.

He also welcomes all the criticisms that “Kinatay” received, including the one which said that “Kinatay” is the worst film ever in the history of Cannes. Same thing was said of “Serbis,” the film that was shown in Cannes last year. No matter the negative feedback about “Kinatay,” the fact remains that this is the first Philippine feature film that gave a Filipino a Best Director trophy from the prestigious international film festival. 

He may have failed to get government support (he didn’t even have an audience with President Arroyo, unlike Manny Pacquiao), but it’s no big deal to him. The lack of government support will not dissuade him from continuing to do films. He has numerous projects in mind and is doing research on them. Once he finds funding for these projects, he would start doing one.

He plans to show “Kinatay” in UP and in some other schools before the film goes on a commercial run. But he mentioned that the CCP sent him an email, inviting “Kinatay” to be the opening film of the Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival that starts on July 17.

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Two new GMA programs are premiering on Monday, June 8.

First is the afternoon drama “Ngayon at Kailanman” on Sine Novela, which according to GMA executive Lilibeth Rasonable, has made the afternoon block of GMA 7 as the beginning of primetime, which is true. After all, the Sine Novela offerings of GMA since it started had been doing very well in the ratings.

“Ngayon at Kailanman” bring together the controversial tandem of Heart Evangelista and JC de Vera, two controversial alagas of the equally controversial manager Annabelle Rama. The two stars are bringing to the TV screen the characters of Sharon Cuneta and Richard Gomez who starred in the film version of “Ngayon at Kailanman” which was directed by Joel Lamangan.

Directing  the TV version of Ngayon at Kailanman is Mike Tuviera. The series also stars Dion Ignacio, Arci Munoz, Luis Alandy, Pen Medina and Ramon Christopher.

Also airing its maiden episode on June 8 is the new comedy show “Adik Sa ‘Yo” featuring the return of Jolina Magdangal and Marvin Agustin as a tandem in a primetime show, with Dennis Trillo getting a young screen partner in Jennica Garcia.

Directed by Joel Lamangan, “Adik Sa ‘Yo” is an original concept created by the GMA production team. In the series, Jolina and Marvin are portraying mature roles. That Jolina consented to do a kissing scene with Marvin indicates that indeed we are going to see a mature Jolina, not anymore the teenybopper stuff that she and Marvin used to do when they started out as teen stars.

The idea of reuniting with Jolens on a TV series was welcomed warmly by Marvin who said that his only request was for him and Jolina to play more mature roles. They’ve been a tandem for more than 10 years and it’s nice to see that they have evolved as actors, thus it would be more interesting if they would be asked to tackle mature roles.

“Adik sa’Yo” is a love story and how love played an important role in the lives of the major characters in the series that also boasts of a stellar line-up of stars.

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Original lead star of 70s fantasy film “Kambal sa Uma,” Rio Locsin, shares her experiences and secrets in having a happy family life this Saturday (June 6) on “Wonder Mom.”

Married to former basketball player Padim Israel, Rio imparts to anchor Karen Davila how she managed to raise three amazing children without any generation gap. She also reveals her secret on being healthy and fit despite having a very hectic schedule.

Meanwhile, Karen teaches first time Mommy Andie how to bathe her 6-month-old daughter Yohanna and gives her tips on the right skin care products to use for her baby to avoid rashes and skin allergies.

Mommy Blacy, on the other hand, takes on the challenge and attempts to buy all school supplies her children need using only P1,000. Is this amount enough to buy all her kids’ back-to-school needs from bags, lunch boxes, and shoes?

Don’t miss all these this Saturday (June 6) in ‘Wonder Mom,” 9:45 AM on ABS-CBN.

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The show Talentadong Pinoy is probably the most favorite primetime show of Pinoys every Saturday if we are to gauge on the steady rise of its ratings. It hit a high of 29.5% on its last episode where it put one over The Singing Bee of ABS-CBN and Are You The Next Big Star of GMA 7 which only garnered a rating of 28.3% and 25.2% audience share, respectively according to AGB-Nielsen.

More than two million viewers are tuned in on TV5 every Saturday. With Talentadong Pinoy and the rest of the Sabado Panalo shows, TV5 is indeed getting to be a major contender in the network ratings game.

Talentadong Pinoy is aired every Saturday at 7 p.m. on TV5.