Bona (Lino Brocka, 1980) 4K Restoration on the big screen

Close to you

This early shot in Bona (1980) I think says it all.

What's so remarkable about Nora Aunor's face here is just how unremarkable it looks in that sea of faces, standing in the brainfrying streets of Quiapo. The biggest star in all of Philippine cinema crammed in a crowd like sardines in a can, and she doesn't just look as if she doesn't stand out, she looks as if she belonged there, milling among the pious, the pickpockets, the prostitutes, all out in force on the Feast of the Black Nazarene. After all when you think about it: what's the point of appearing as the lead in a Filipino film if you don't look like a typical Filipino?

Three Years Without God, in depth, in black and white

Three Years Without God, in depth, in black and white

(The film will have special screenings to be announced, and will be streaming in IWant TFC (The Filipino Channel))

(WARNING: Plot and dramatic high points in the story discussed in close and explicit detail)

I first saw Mario O'Hara's Tatlong Taong Walang Diyos (Three Years Without God, 1976) in the '90s in a fading magenta print, then saw it again-- partially restored to its former glory by L'Immagine Ritrovata-- in 2016. Earlier this week I finally saw it regraded to black-and-white by ABS CBN' s Film Restoration Project-- not necessarily meant to supplant the original colored copy but to stand alongside, as an experiment meant to address the fading colors by eliminating them.

Tatlong Taong Walang Diyos (Mario O'Hara, 1976) in black and white

Three Years Without God without color

This all started from a suggestion by amateur film archivist / historian / enthusiast / restorer Jojo de Vera-- 'amateur' only in the sense that he's not paid for what he passionately works for and believes in and has a vast store of knowledge and expertise about that I often call upon for advice. 

Jojo asked if I was interested in seeing Tatlong Taong Walang Diyos (Three Years Without God) without color; I said yes. When I saw it I was impressed, and suggested the idea to Leo Katigbak, head of the ABS CBN Film Restoration Project; they had a digital copy of the 2016 L'Immagine Ritrovata restoration of the film, which they regraded to black-and-white and screened this Dec. 20 at the University of the Philippines Film Center.

And the results--

Bona (Lino Brocka, 1980)

Bona: martyr or monster?

(Plot discussed in explicit detail)

Lino Brocka's Bona is possibly the least-seen of his major works, partly because the two remaining good prints of the picture had been squirreled away abroad (to the Cinematheque Francais and the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art) while Filipinos back home had to content themselves with fading recollections and equally faded Betamax tapes. Everyone remembers how powerful the film was; no one can rightly say they've actually seen it, at least in recent years.

Best Films 2000

The best and the rest 2000

Been a strange year; can’t say great films have come out (other than in retrospectives) yet can’t really complain…and partly it’s because of the surprisingly strong showing of Filipino films this year. A quick round-up, then, of the year two triple-zero:

The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, 1980) - 4K restoration

Wait till your father gets

-- on the occasion of the film's 4k restoration

"(N)othing is so frightening as a labyrinth with no center" Jorge Luis Borges, quoting GK Chesterton*

Stanley Kubrick, reportedly dismayed by the poor boxoffice of Barry Lyndon, decided his next project would be a horror film; he skimmed through the opening pages of a stack of books (tossing aside those that failed to hold his attention) settled on Stephen King's The Shining, about a haunted hotel that turns an alcoholic father against his wife and telepathic son.