Yes, we can in Cannes!

It’s been a good two dozen years since Lino Brocka made waves in Cannes. After a long drought, another Filipino film enfant terrible, Brillante Ma. Mendoza, vied for Cannes Filmfest’s Prix de Palme d’Or, the biggest plum of cinema.

Ambassador Josè Abeto Zaide reported to Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo that Mendoza’s Serbis premiered at the Palais des Festivals on May 18.  “... Much more than what I expected,” said our envoy, no prude himself, “The runaway goat at the movie house — more than a metaphor  —  was probably the only scene that didn’t require parental guidance.”

Serbis presents a day in the life of an ill-starred family that operates and lives in a run-down adult movie house in Angeles City, Pampanga.  It tells the sighs and lows of Philippine life and features veteran actress Gina Pareño, Jaclyn Jose, Julio Diaz, Coco Martin, Kristofer King, Dan Alvaro and ingénue Mercedes Cabral. It was co-produced by French partner Didier Costet. 

Ambassador Zaide told me that klieg lights lit and camera flashbulbs popped chasing after Mendoza and his cast as they ascended the red carpeted steps of the Cannes Filmfest’s Palais des Festivals theatre. The Philippine ensemble waved at fans and cineastes with their show-stopper sarimanok hues of Filipiñana and starched jusi barongs set against the rows of jockeying tuxedoed paparazzi. Also “feeling superstar” were the more protocol-conscious members of the embassy who climbed the red carpet with the Ambassador and Mme. Victoria Zaide — Consul-General Rosalita Prospero, Consul Igor Bailen and Consul Maria Angela Ponce, together with Christine Dayrit, chairman of the Festival Committee of the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP), movie critic Bibsy Carballo, UNICEF artist Manuel Baldemor, haute couturier Roy Gonzales and former supermodel Tetta Agustin and Christian Baverey.

Serbis was chosen out of over a thousand films from almost a hundred countries to compete with 21 other films from 13 countries. The oeuvre joins the late National Artist Lino Brocka’s masterpieces, which also vied for the Palme d’Or, Jaguar (1980) and Kapit sa Patalim, (which was smuggled out of Manila’s Martial Law for the 1984 Cannes competition).

The Embassy’s shoe-string budget received a fillip with a dinner reception hosted by Cannes-based Tetta Agustin for the Philippine delegation at her posh La Madeleine Residence along Avenue Isola Bella. Tongued-in-cheek, the Ambassador cited the Embassy’s contribution of “Manila Rum cocktail,” with bartenders Messrs. Bailen and Baldemor, and the importation of Manila weather into Cannes’ inclement clime. Mme. Victoria Zaide converted many French guests to devotion to Sta. Clara with her offering of eggs for good weather. Other guests included yesteryears’ movie heartthrob Susannah York, Cedric Jackson, adopted son of Michael Jackson, philanthropist Pascale Fortunat, Italian tenor Carmelo di Napoli, Russian thespian Katya Yevchenko, Isabelle Canto of Port Canto, Stephane Renault of the eponymous car manufacturer, film producer Sergio Goby, M. et Mme. Gerard Bourrat, M. et Mme. Henri Barberry, M. et Mme. Yves Cevair, Inner Wheel Club president Madeline Laik and M. et Mme. Loui de Villier.

The Ambassador underscored the Philippine government’s support for the Seventh Art. FDCP chairman Rolando Atienza Jr., our envoy’s Ateneo high school chum, gave travel grants for Mendoza and another film director, 23-year-old Raya Martin, whose almost five-hour film documentary Now Showing played at the Directors’ Fortnight.

The Directors’ Fortnight features promising directors and encourages them to screen alongside established directors. Last year, Mendoza’s Foster Child (released in France under the title John-John) starring Cherry Pie Picache received standing ovation at the Directors’ Fortnight.

American actor-director Sean Penn was the president of this year’s jury for the Palme d’Or and Robert de Niro handed out the Palme d’Or at the closing award ceremonies on May 25.

French critic Jérôme Vermelin of Metro, Cannes’ largest freely circulating journal, wrote that Serbis is the “most torrid” film in competition and one of the “most surprising.” Vermelin concluded his paean, “... a contender for the Palme d’Or, you heard it here.”

* * *

French director Laurent Cantet’s film Entre les murs (The Class) about classroom life using real students and teachers at junior high school won the top prize, the first French film to win the Palme d’Or since Maurice Pialat’s Sous le soleil de Satan (Under Satan’s Sun) in 1987.  Italians won second and third prizes  — Mateo Garrone’s Gomorrah, a study on Naples criminal world  and Paolo Sorrentino’s Il Divo, a portrait of former Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti.

(You may e-mail me at [email protected])