By: ISAGANI CRUZ
MINI
CRITIQUE
The
Philippine Star
Novemebr
14, 2013
---------o0o----------
----------o0o----------
Rumors
that Nora Aunor is about to be proclaimed National Artist have been circulating
the past few weeks. Everyone involved in the process of nomination is bound by
a vow of secrecy, but since I was not involved this year (I usually am), I can
speak freely about why I think Nora Aunor deserves the title.
I
actually nominated her for the title a long time ago, but was eventually voted
down, because there were, at that time, quite a number of film directors who
were deserving of the honor.
There
are still a few individuals who seriously question two things: first, why a
film actor should be a National Artist, and second, why Nora Aunor.
First,
that film is as much of an art as any of the other categories is clear. There
have been several film artists named as National Artists: Gerardo de Leon
(1982), Lino Brocka (1991), Ishmael Bernal (1999), Eddie Romero (2003),
Fernando Poe Jr. (2006), and Manuel Conde (2009).
All
these artists, however, were directors. Even Poe was named not only as an actor
but also as a director. The question remains why an actor (“actor” is the
politically correct term for all performers, male or female) can be a National
Artist. After all, in film theories during the last century, film was always
considered a director’s medium. It is the director who puts together the
elements of a film, acting being only one of those elements.
Poe,
however, opened the door to actors, because his achievement as an actor was
considerable. It is impossible to think of him only as a director; his iconic
image is that of both actor and director.
Homepage
( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1
The
early 20th century theories argued that the juxtaposition of images or sequence
of shots could make it appear that an actor was happy, sad, or angry (thereby
negating the actual emotion felt by the actor). That was last century. In this
century, thanks to newer theories of film, acting is now considered as much of
an art as that of a director. Actors actually take advanced degrees in acting,
such as the Associate in Fine Arts in Acting for Film of the New York Film
Academy. It has helped that several foreign actors have shown that they can
take on varied roles and still create credible and powerful characters.
No
one today should doubt that acting is an art.
The
second question is why Nora Aunor. There are other Filipino actors, after all,
that have shown similar versatility, depth of emotion, command of facial
expressions, subtlety of subtexts, and other elements of film acting.
Take
the list of skills that a great film actor should have, as Jeremiah Comey lists
them in “The Art of Film Acting,” namely, concentration, not knowing,
acceptance, giving and receiving, and relating. Each of these skills needs
years of training and experience. One wondrous thing about Nora Aunor is that
she has all of these skills, not because she had formal training (she briefly
studied the Stanislavski Method and acted in workshop-intensive PETA), but
because she had them from the very beginning. Even when she was just starting
out and had to take on juvenile roles, she already showed an instinctive grasp
of the art of acting.
My
1984 book, “Movie Times,” had her on the cover, for good reason: she acted in
many of the films I dissected. Although the chapters in that book dealt with
film directors (it was the 20th century, after all), I still had to discuss her
acting in the films by those directors. She was, in a sense, already pushing me
then to expand my idea of film art to cover not just directors but actors.
An
artist must be judged by her or his best works. (Otherwise, we would forget
Shakespeare, who wrote some really awful plays.) Nora Aunor will be remembered
forever for her roles in “Tatlong Taong Walang Diyos” (1976), “Bona” (1980),
“Himala” (1982), “The Flor Contemplacion Story” (1995), and “Thy Womb” (2012),
among others.
Nora
Aunor has been recognized through nominations and awards in the Berlin Film
Festival, Cairo Film Festival, and Venice Film Festival – all major film
festivals – as well as other film festivals in Australia, Belgium, Dubai,
Macau, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Russia, and Singapore. Needless to say, she has
won many times over all the Philippine awards possible.
These
are achievements on the level of art. I do not even mention her popular tags as
one of the Ten Asian Best Actresses of the Decade, the Actress of the Century,
the Philippines’ Best Actress of All Time, and of course “Superstar.”
