THE BLOSSOMING OF MAXIMO

A couple of weeks ago I visited Toronto's Chinatown which I already missed for several years. The Chinese New Year was a shy 24 hours away then so there was already a bit of excitement in the air. But I was really more interested in checking the pirated DVDs which are abound hereabouts.

"Wanna see the Pilipino collection?" asked a cashier in one of the cramped sales booth which reminded me of Divisoria in the old days. "Yes," I said while my eyes were checking the prices pasted on a wall. 7 movies for 20 $..

"Are these guaranteed to play?""Of course," the salesgirl said.

"How much for 3 movies?"

"Ten dollah"

"Do you accept debit?"

"Of course"was her answer.

I swiped my card then before I punched OK on their machine I saw the amount flashed on the small green screen.

"How come it is 11.30? You said 10$?"

"10 for 3, but only if you use cash.." I forgot that I was in Chinatown dealing with the shrewdest of the shrewdest..I punched OK and she gave my selected titles: CAREGIVER, BATANGAS and ANG PAGDADALAGA NI MAXIMO OLIVEROS. If the damned discs won't work, I won't be losing an arm or a leg.

But all three worked perfectly. Of the three, I liked ANG PAGDADALAGA... most of all.


It is one of the artsy movies ( they seldom make this kind in Manila because it may not make any money ) but it was featured in many International Film festivals, including the renowned OSCARS AWARDS NIGHT in 2006. Even if it did not win the best foreign film award, being nominated was already an achievement by itself. While watching it, I was quite mesmerized by the story, acting, camerawork and the overall artistry of the film.

No excessive violence and gore, no embarassing bedroom stuff which movies now a days must have in order to make money.The cameraman portrayed beauty amidst excessive squalor and hustle in the slum areas of Manila. You will always wonder how you could have survived in such a place. But as my Asingan buddy once said, "Filipinos are known for their very sharp survival instincts.."

Maximo is a homosexual boy, and he does not hide it or feel ashamed about it. He lives in the crime ridden slum areas of Manila with four brothers and a dad. Since their Mother died, Maximo became the houseboy with the basic chores: cooking, washing clothes, darning socks, washing dishes, and being an errand boy..His family makes a living through petty larceny.
Meanwhile, a handsome and still idealistic Police Officer became Maximo's crush and little by little you will know that the expected will eventually happen. The cop knew the crime elements in his assigned area, but he is not yet willing to trade his integrity to a few thousand pesos regular bribe. "You are not a real cop!" he was admonished once by his boss in the small office which passed off as a Police Station in that part of the city.

He does his job ( whatever is permitted anyway )well. After his day's work, he would go home to his boarding house which is smacked right in the squatters area and somehow he just ignore the sounds he hears in the streets once his day's work is over. He is bachelor and he is not interested in having a girl friend.

There are lots of humorous touches in this film. One instance was the fashion show being shown by Max and a few of his other homosexual friends as a part of their way to kill time. While the other kids just hang around in the mall or elsewhere, Max and company would busy themselves inside a friends house with a sewing machine and make outfits made of old clothes and rags..Then they would display thier own creations, complete with make ups..

One time, Max was being roughed up by some young thugs and the police man scared them off by saying: "Do you want to vist the Precinct with me?" The goons just took off like rats..From then on, Max developed a liking for the cop. The Officer befriended Max only to get some info on the unwholesome dealings of his family and other partners in crime.

The climax was brutal, but it was done with minimun show of gore. Just a single gunshot, some facial expressoions, that's it.. It is acting and story telling done with rare finesse.

Some American critics loved this work and wrote praises about it.

I am sure you might feel the same way too..

THE REBEL OF THE '50S

REDISCOVERING JAMES DEAN

Being retired and stuck in a cruel Toronto winter that does not seem to end, I have been spending my leisure time watching movies, movies and more movies from my DVD collection.I collect these timeless gems from the '50s and '60s ever since I arrived in Toronto.. I have classified them roughly into War Classics, Westerns, costume/swashbucling pictures,sci-fi, drama, musicals, film noir ( gangster movies ) and a few ones which does not fit into any of the above categories.
This piece is about my three favorite movies,a trilogy of James Dean films: EAST OF EDEN, REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE and GIANT.
When these mvoies were first shown I was still a high school student in Asingan, Pangasinan. I never heard of James Dean until I heard Rudy Dumapias ( who also introduced 2001:Space Odyssey to me ) talk about him (JD) in one of our gab sessions.
Luckily for Rudy, his dad at that time was still working in the Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila thus he frequently visited the "Big Apple" of the Philippines. That is how I remember Manila then and now.
So Rudy had the chance of watching good movies the first time they were shown in the first run theatres of Manila. The rest of his friends ( me and a few other country yokels ) went to Manila just once in a blue moon. Which is not very frequent. Can you remember the moon turning blue at one time? Some of us can only go to Urdaneta or Dagupan for our weekend movie forays. Urdaneta was not still a city then.
So Rudy talked about James Dean in his usual glowing rhetoric. Rudy is born with the gift of gab.He praised Jimmy Dean for his acting skills in all of his three movies. Thus I soon developed the yen to watch his movies. But where, when? It won't happen until a few more years when I will soon be a College student in Manila.
I first saw EAST OF EDEN in a campus auditorium in the University of the East. But I read the book first, a long novel written by American writer John Steinbeck. Then I was able to find REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE in one of those cheap movie houses in the city. You know one of those with no air conditioning and no cushioned seats. There were only wooden chairs with many bedbugs hiding in the cracks. The moment you sit down, you will feel the suckers start gnawing some parts of your ass. Some of them might come home with you when you go back to your boarding house. But I did not mind then, as long as I was able watch REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE. Luckily I was already in Manila when GIANT premiered at the Avenue Theatre in Avenida Rizal. I saw it with some family members,. Somebody have to buy my entrance ticket.In real person, James Dean, was an introverted, taciturn, moody, hard to get along with, and these traits were carried over to his roles in all three movies. It was not easy to work with him ( said some writers ) but it sure is a treat watching do his roles in the screen. He always portrayed the troubled, unsettled teen ager.
In EAST OF EDEN he was always jealous of his brother whom his dad loved so dearly because the brother was an epitome of goodness and obedience. Jimmy on the other hand was rebellious, hates authority, hates religion: your typical teenager, just like many ( me included ) when we were in that stage of life.
In REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE, he was the only child, but his psychological problems are rooted in his hatred for his dad's personality: a henpecked, dominated husband. Jimmy was not able to live with that. Similar to Elvis Presley's role in KING CREOLE.
In GIANT ( which refers to the Lone Star State of Texas ) he played a poor farm boy who became an oil millionaire. Money did not make him happy because his emotional insecurities dogged him to the end of the 3 hour epic when he was already old and still unmarried. According to some sources, Texans hated the book penned by Edna Ferber because of how she portrayed deresively the Mexicans who were abound in the state.
But the movie made by George Stevens changed all of that. He did a masterful job of creating a long but gripping movie of how the Texas oil industry grew and he portrayed in a good light all of the social classes in the movie struggling to find their proper place in society. Rock Hudson was such a bigot in the start of the movie, but in the end, his attitude changed. He and wife Elizabeth Taylor were baby sitting two of their grandchildren just before the end titles rolled in. Both children were half Mexicans. According to some movie writersThe movie GIANT became the National film of Texas,
A few days ater finishing his job in GIANT, Jimmy Dean was killed in an automobile accident. He was only 24 years old---#