Hats off to Mayor Atienza

Shelved back in 1995 after the infamous Filmfest Scam the previous year, the Manila Film Festival (forerunner of the Metro Manila Filmfest) will hopefully be revived this year through the efforts of Manila Mayor Lito Atienza. It’s scheduled from June 12 to 24 (celebration of Araw ng Maynila), featuring five entries.

"We are reviving the Manila Filmfest to help the local movie industry by encouraging the public to patronize local films," said Mayor Atienza who is giving the producers in general the incentive of a 15 percent cut in the 30 percent entertainment tax (the "cut" is good only in Manila) and P5 million cash to each of the five entries. "However," added Mayor Atienza, "we also made it clear to them (producers) that we want quality films with redeeming qualities and those that would contribute to value formation, especially among the youth."

The response from the industry is overwhelming. As of the deadline (last March 1), 43 scripts have been submitted to the screening committee (composed of Secretary Lito Banayo as chairman; and as members Councilors Kim Atienza, Miles Roces, Lou Veloso and Marjun Isidro; Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila President Benjamin Tayabas; Raul Camaligan of the SM Cinemas; Philippson Chua of Gotesco Cinemas; and Viva executive June Rufino).

This early, Funfare is making the "fearful" forecast that the five entries that could make it to the finals are: Mga Munting Tinig (to be directed by Gil Portes), Magnifico Magikero (by Maryo J. de los Reyes), Paraisong Parisukat (a remake of the ’70s Elwood Perez sex-drama, by Joey Javier Reyes), Hanggang Kailan? (by Mel Chionglo) and Magkapatid (by Joel Lamangan).

Good choices (that is, if they are chosen), aren’t they?

Among the five, the one that’s getting extensive pre-publicity is Lamangan’s Magkapatid, being the first movie together of Sharon Cuneta and Judy Ann Santos (with Christopher de Leon and Dingdong Dantes as their co-stars) who play sisters, with Sharon delaying marriage and subsequently becoming successful in her chosen career and Judy Ann opting to marry early and therefore a failure career-wise.

For a while, the project was in danger of being shelved – or at least being made without Judy Ann in the cast – all because in the story Judy Ann will have five children. What!?! Judy Ann Santos playing a "mother" role prematurely? Well, if it’s an integral part of a really, really, really good story, with a good director and a good cast, why not?

Luckily, the parties involved (Viva Films and Judy Ann’s manager Alfie Lorenzo) reached a happy compromise: Judy Ann will have children in the story, all right, but only two and not five. On with the show! At 23, is it plausible for Judy Ann’s character to have, as originally written, five children? Yes, it is, especially if the character gets married at perhaps 17 and gives birth every year (which is not an uncommon occurrence hereabouts).

Cheers to the Censors!

If we gauge the taste and temperament – and/or leniency and liberal attitude – of the present (MTRCB by its approval (R-18, with minors not to be admitted into moviehouses) of Eskandalosa, the FLT skin flick starring Barbara Milano, then we movie addicts and enthusiasts can sit back and relax and expect to watch movies the way adults should – not butchered.

The other day, I sat with a dozen other movie writers at the LVN Studio screening room for a preview of Eskandalosa and we had a fun time trying to count how many love scenes Barbara has with her leading men (John Apacible, Leandro Baldemor, Francis Enriquez, Paolo Rivero, etc.) and how many times she walks toward the camera in all her frontal glory (exactly four times, true to the movie’s publicity).

In the movie, directed by Joven Tan, Barbara plays a nymphomaniac letting out her childhood pains and hang-ups by going to bed with every man she takes fancy on, her way of proving to the men that she can "enslave" them. In one scene, we kind of got jolted when Barbara lies on top of a half-naked sleeping man who turned out to be the late Ricky Belmonte (no, he isn’t the father that Barbara thought he was, so no incest there). It was kind of eerie and weird watching the now dead Ricky in a torrid sex scene on the big screen.

For more than one hour and a half, Barbara succeeded in "scandalizing" the previewers by taking off her clothes at every turn, spending every hour on the hour lying down and having sex. What about the plot? Oh, yes, is there any? With Barbara and her partners "distracting" you from the flow of the story (if any), who cares about any plot?

But I must commend Romy Vitug for his superb cinematography which amply compensates for whatever lapses there are in the plot (if any). In one love scene, Leandro and Barbara au naturel are photographed by Romy from under the house, through the slats of the bamboo flooring, thus making the lovers look like zebras in heat with the lights and shadows forming stripes all over their intertwined bodies.

If you must see Eskandalosa, do so for Romy Vitug’s cinematography, a field which Romy dominates until now.

The version we saw was the approved one. Thanks to the MRTCB for not depriving us the chance to "enjoy" Barbara Milano’s body (not quite fully displayed in her last film, Kaulayaw, where she also played a nymphomaniac).

New breaks for Michael

When Michael Flores (former member of the Maneouvres) met the press the other day at the presscon for the new ABS-CBN weekly gag show Klasmeyts (which premieres tonight at 9:30), along with his four co-stars (Herbert Bautista, Bayani Agbayani, Keempee de Leon and Paolo Contis), he was grilled on the truth about, 1) his rumored girlfriend Nina Ricci Alagao (2000 Bb. Pilipinas-Universe), 2) his "ailment" (take note: in quotation marks), and 3) his "unexplained" considerable absence.

Yes, said Michael, he and Nina are into the getting-to-know-you stage after they met as guests on Partners: Mel & Jay a few weeks ago. Friends about to fall in love? (Herself now in showbiz, introduced in the Claudine-Rico starrer Got 2 Believe, Nina used to be the girlfriend of Randy David’s son.)

No, said Michael, it’s not true that he got sick of leukemia, a rumor fanned by Michael’s decision to shave his head (falling hair, you know) three years ago when he played one of the lead roles in the GMA tele-series Pintados. "Maybe some people thought my hair fell because I was going through chemotherapy," said Michael, "when I was not." He’s as healthy as a bull.

Yes, said Michael, he briefly "hibernated" by choice, coming back through TV guestings.

Johnny "Mr. M" Manahan, who’s directing Klasmeyts, liked Michael’s comic work when he guested on the Maricel Soriano sitcom Mary D’Potter (also directed by Mr. M), so he got Michael for the gag show which was then in the planning stage.

Watch Klasmeyts tonight and see for yourselves if it’s as good as, or even better than, ABC 5’s Ispup or GMA’s Bubble Gang.