Direk of the hour

There is no doubt that Joel Lamangan is the director of the hour. When we interviewed him, Joel just got back from the Toronto International Filmfest where his Huling Birhen sa Lupa was such a hit it added several theatres to accommodate the SRO audiences wanting to see it. Steve Gravestock, the filmfest programmer had nothing but praises for the film in his review.

As soon as he arrived, Joel proceeded with his post-production work for his new movie, the sizzling sex-drama, Bugbog Sarado, and started shooting his filmfest entry, the star-studded Filipinas, both for Viva Films.

His filmfest entries are always winning awards and raking it in at the box office. In the 2001 December Metro Filmfest, his Hubog won best actress and best supporting actress awards for sisters Assunta and Alessandra de Rossi. In the 2002 June Manila Filmfest, his Magkapatid starring Sharon Cuneta emerged as the topgrosser and won most of the awards.

The same thing happened for his 2002 December Filmfest entry, Mano Po. In the Manila Filmfest last June, his Huling Birhen sa Lupa again garnered most of the awards and was also a hit at the box office. Even the other movie he did last year for Regal, Bahid, won for Eddie Garcia his fifth FAMAS best actor award so he will now be elevated in its hall of fame as best actor. No wonder Armida Siguion Reyna says she has no doubt at all that Joel will eventually be proclaimed as a National Artist for Films. After all, even abroad, his films starring Nora Aunor, The Flor Contemplacion Story and Bakit May Kahapon Pa, won her best actress awards in the Cairo and Penang International Film Festivals.

"I am entertaining no such illusions," says the humble Joel. "Mamaya people might say I am being too presumptuous. I just try to do my best and give the audience a good film in each work that I do, be it on TV or the big screen."

In Hubog, which is about the urban poor, Director Joel Lamangan paid homage to one of his mentors, National Artist for Film Lino Brocka whose masterpieces about slum life like Insiang and Jaguar have become screen classics.

"I really learned a lot from Lino," says Joel, who was given by Viva Films his directorial break in 1991, after Lino had passed away a year before. "I look up to him in so many ways, even in the way I motivate my actors. When I’m not satisfied, just like Lino, I take them to a corner and tell them: ‘Akala mo magaling ka? You are performing. Give me a more natural kind of acting.’"

In Huling Birhen, he paid tribute to another mentor, Ishmael Bernal, also a National Artist for Film. In 1982, after playing supporting roles in the films of Brocka, he got to work for the first time behind the camera as assistant director and crowd director for Bernal in Himala. The film about a fake visionary starring Nora Aunor that won several awards in the Metro-Manila Filmfest that year and will soon be turned into a rock opera.

"The main difference is that in Himala, the apparition is fake," says Lamangan, "but in Huling Birhen, it is true. Doon, walang himala. Dito, may himala!"

Just like Lino, he makes films that reek with realism and a lot of social and political consciousness. His Bakit May Kahapon Pa? is about the disastrous effects of martial law on a vengeful young girl. Flor Contemplacion Story is about the true story of the domestic helper who was hanged in Singapore for murder. Bulaklak ng Maynila is about a young girl in the slums raped by her mother's lover. Deathrow is about the incarceration of minors who are oppressed by more jaded and hardened criminals. All these films won honors not only here but also abroad.

But now, in Bugbog Sarado, Joel forays into new territory, something he has not tried before, the psychological thriller that mixes reality with fantasy. We have seen the film and it starts with a beautiful pastoral landscape that looks like a painting as the credits are flashed on screen.

After the titles, the portrait moves to reveal Maui Taylor in a production-designed flowers-strewn meadow with a lovely lake as she meets the man of her dreams, Marky Lopez, who will take her away from her brutal husband, Jordan Herrera. The scene ends when a book closes and we realize that it is actually just a fantasy sequence lifted from one of Maui's books. She plays Stella, who uses the pseudonym Delilah in writing romantic novels that a deaf-mute tricycle driver, reads regularly. The film will alternately move from reality to fantasy up to the end when the fantasy sequence takes over again when Maui and Marky face the altar in a wedding scene.

"It is important to bear in mind while watching the film that nothing is what it seems in the story," says Joel. "Maui appears as the battered live-in partner of Jordan. Their tenants in the old house where they live, Victor Neri and Andrea del Rosario, would hear them fighting every so often and the viewers themselves would conclude that Maui has a cruel and abusive lover. But Maui also appears as this woman of mystery who springs a big surprise in the end. To reveal any other detail will give the story away and spoil the viewing pleasure of the audience so we better withhold any other information about the movie."

Suffice it to say, Joel is very pleased with the performances of his very cooperative stars, who appear in various states of undress in some of the most daring love scenes shown on screen. That scene where Andrea gives Victor a bath and lathers his naked body with a washcloth will surely be talked about. The violent scene where a stark naked Jordan Herrera mauls Maui before making love to her is another provocative sequence.

"I’m glad the stars didn’t give me any problems when I asked them to do these sensitive sequences," says Joel. "This is the first time Victor does a nude love scene and I had to explain it to him that it is important in the movie to portray the various shades of passion his character experiences. His love scene with Andrea is very tender, compared to the one with Maui which is marked by violence. We are sure the twist and turns of plot in Roy Iglesias’ script will surprise a lot of viewers."

After Bugbog Sarado, Joel goes back to serious drama in Filipinas, his Metro filmfest entry that mirrors the sad state of our country today with its bickering politicians while our people are mired in poverty. This is reflected in the lives of a family where the children quarrel while their mother (Tita Midz) is lying comatose. Playing the brothers and sisters in Filipinas are Maricel Soriano, Richard Gomez, Aiko Melendez, Dawn Zulueta, Victor Neri and Wendell Ramos.

"This time, there will be no nude love scenes," says Joel. "Kaya lahat ng sexy love scenes, inilagay ko na sa Bugbog Sarado."