Laurice Guillen’s American Adobo: The pain of homelessness

The lady who has since then evolved from actress to film director makes it clear that her latest film, American Adobo, is no Tanging Yaman and that there is a world of difference on the subjects said films explore.

By and large, Tanging Yaman is about family values and how they are threatened by the forces of good and evil. It was both an artistic and box office triumph in the Metro Manila Film Festival two years ago and it marked her successful comeback in the movies after a short hiatus inspired by a deeply personal, if, profound, spiritual transformation.

Moreover, her latest, American Adobo, is in her own words, about friendship between compatriots in a foreign land and how they cope in the Land of American Dollars.

Like it or not, the film is probably Guillen’s answer to the literary opus written about Filipinos abroad such as Bienvenido Santos’s Scent of Apples, Brother My Brother or his last on the subject, The Man Who (Thought He) Looked Like Robert Taylor.

American Adobo, pointed out Dina Bonnevie who plays Marissa Tuazon in the movie, is about Filipinos attached to imported goods and who go abroad to seek greener pastures and later begin to speak like Americans.

"But the bottomline is" the actress adds, ’ is that pag Pinoy ka, you’d be Pinoy anywhere you go. Yes, they achieve what they went there for but there are tradeoffs."

And that tradeoff could very well be what American critics like about Santos’s stories about Filipinos in America – that he (Santos) "sensitively captures the pain of their homelessness."

This "pain of homelessness" is actually one of the unforgettable highlights in the Guillen movie even as the plight of some of the Filipino characters in this movie has comic, if pathetic, turns.

To assuage this "pain," they get together in the pretext of savoring a Filipino dining favorite which is also a landmark culinary cultural symbol, the adobo.

Points out Laurice: "Actually the food is just an excuse to making the reunion of New York-based Filipinos happen. The original title of the film was Magic Adobo because the dish prepared by the character played by Cherry Picache (as Tere Sanchez) was supposed to taste magical indeed. But it became an American adobo, so to speak, because the taste depended on what was available on the American market. They have their American ingredients, they have American substitutes for what was not available, they always speak in English but left alone to themselves, they revert to the mother tongue. And that, I suppose, is the flavor of the film itself."

What was the new challenge for Laurice in this movie?

If the movie was intended for the Filipino market, she would not have the uneasiness that comes with invading a foreign market and in the case of American Adobo, the American movie theaters.

For the record, the film is touted to be the first Filipino movie to open simultaneously in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles, even a week of its Philippine playdate. An American film outfit, Outrider Pictures, picked up the American distribution rights of the film after its top marketing man, Richard Abramowitz, read the script (by Vicente "Ting" Nebrida) and was doubly pleased that the finished film was a crowd pleaser during its New York premiere night.

Among the films Abramowitz has worked with were the Oscar-winning. Shine. Robert Altman’s The Player and Wody Allen’s Deconstructing Harry.

In short, the prospect of hurdling an American market became one of the key factors that lured Laurice into the project. She instantly liked the material and what it was intended for. She rues that indeed, Filipino movies don’t have that wide market.

Says she: "If your film’s playdate is right smack opposite an American picture with all the production values, of course our films suffer in comparison. But if we have something for the foreign market, then I thought it should be worth trying. I am not referring to the festival market or the art houses. I am referring to honest-to-goodness commercial theaters with pop-corn munching audiences."

For one, she did not want to repeat herself doing the same old tried and tested domestic subjects.

With this story about Filipinos in the Land of the Big Apple, she thought the challenge was even more enormous.

"The first challenge for me," Laurice points out, "was to find the flavor of what is normally enjoyed in American theaters. Remember that this is not a festival entry and so even non-film buffs should be interested in watching it. You should have a taste na puedeng masakyan kaagad. Okay, the subject is about Filipinos and their experience in a foreign land. So you have to adopt a visual language and a visual rhythm that will appeal to non-Filipino moviegoers."

Doing the film itself was another part of film education for Laurice.

This is the first time she’s working with an American crew and the first time she is shooting a Filipino film entirely in an American soil. They flew to New York on first class accommodation and for 13 hours or so, they discussed the time-table of the film. Upon arrival, they did location hunting from seven to 11 in the morning and shot initial sequences in Long Island which in the film should look like summer but it was September when they started shooting.

Back at the office, she took turns interviewing people involved in the project. In this new venture, Laurice had to interview every single member of the crew.

For the actors, Laurice had one instruction: please memorize your lines. At one point, she hollered because during the rehearsals, someone in the cast was still holding on to his script. She was thinking of the American actors who needed quick response to their lines. Filipino actors have a tendency to tanslate mentally from Pilipino to English before answering.

The hectic pace of her US time-table was such that she noticed no one hardly had time for proper meals. After one busy sked to another, she asked someone, "Have we had lunch already? I don’t remember having one during the day."

By the time the American cast showed up, the Filipino actors were well-rehearsed already. The first shooting day focused on Christopher de Leon talking to his publisher while trying to manage everything in the house. His performance level was so intense his ear literally burned everytime the director shouted "Cut!"

Narrates Laurice: "Boyet (De Leon) was so concentrated talagang literally uminit yong tenga niya. The American cast and crew were very impressed. One of them commented Boyet’s acting was like watching an Al Pacino scene. This is what I’ve been telling them. That this movie is our chance to show the foreigners that we have what it takes to do a quality movie. The original idea was tap Filipino actors abroad. But I insisted on having lead actors coming from Manila."

Ricky Davao who plays Gerry Payawal, the closet homosexual, confirms Laurice’s observations.

"What we found out later on was that the New York crew had worked with respected actors with the likes of Robert De Niro. After a few days of shooting, they started approaching us and couldn’t help blurting out after a take, ‘How do you do that?’ Sometimes, we had take two for a scene and they notice the intensity of the actors are still the same. They didn’t realize we had to be masters of emotion specially if you are doing soap opera. In that sense, mangha ang mga foreigners sa mga Filipino. I am really proud of this film. You have to watch this movie. Indeed, this is one film every Filipino can be proud of."

As per contract, Laurice adhered to the 12-hour working day condition but she didn’t realize she couldn’t improvise on the written script without upsetting the budget. One of the scenes where she used several extras was the one where Paolo Montalban as Raul Arboleda was reminiscing all the women he had sex with in the shower room. There were no lines for the women extras but in one scene she decided to let one utter a word (something like ‘Hello"). While she was directing Montalban in the shower scene, she was confronted by the line producer why she authorized one extra to have a speaking line. The financial consequence of that decision was that the producer had to shell out an extra $266 just for that utterance which was not in the script. "That was another lesson for me," Laurice continued. "In the Philippines, if you give a speaking line to an extra, matutuwa pa siya. In the US, you are charged extra for everything that you let an extra do that is not in the script. So one time in Brooklyn, bigla na lang akong nag-iiyak. It was the pressure of the job that was weighing me down."

Thus the challenge for Laurice was working under a new system some details of which are not known to her. The budget is actually low by foreign independent film standards but it’s way up the typical budget for a Filipino film. They shot five days a week at strictly 12-hour working days, no more no less. On the sixth day, they watched the rushes and on Sundays, they did their laundry.

The New York crew is actually a mixed lot. There are Anglo-Saxons, Italians and even Greek. What probably struck them as unusual in this film project was that the director was a woman and so was the cinematographer. She could feel the initial reservation but once she showed them her working style, she was accepted and got her share of respect and admiration.

"In any project," says Laurice, "it pays to be prepared. I make it a point to know details in advance. You have to show them you know what you are doing. Then everything just went on smoothly and these foreign crew actually know how to show their appreciation."

But what amazed Laurice was that women are treated as equals of men. The women in the crew drive and lift production luggage. "During the day, they look like cargadors but in the evening, they were stunningly beautiful," observes the director.

And so the whole film got finished without a hitch and with exhilarating response from both cast and production team.

Opines Vicente "Ting" Nebrida who wrote the excellent script and who happenes to be also a film distribution executive, "After working behind the scenes for so many years distributing other people’s films, it’s a tremendous feeling of achievement to complete and see my work up on the screen. There are so many fine films produced in the Philippines that never got an opportunity to be viewed by American audiences. I’m thrilled American Adobo will have that chance."

Says Unitel Pictures head Tony Gloria who helped co-produce the film: "I would like to thank Star Cinema for just being there and guiding us and putting this beautiful script to reality. Second part now is the public’s verdict. I really don’t know what to expect. But we gave it our best shot within the time that we had and with the money that we had."

Adds Dina Bonnevie: "If this film is successful and I hope it is well-received, I wish this should be the system of film-making we should adopt."

But La Bonnevie and Monseiur Gloria need not worry at all.

At the premiere night of American Adobo at the Rockwell Cinema the other night, the movie was given unprecedented applause and ovation from discerning film buffs.

From what one could figure out, the cast of the Laurice Guillen film is one of the most perfect acting ensembles seen in Philippine cinema in many years.

Dina Bonnevie, Susan Valdez (as Gigi) and Sandy Andolong turned in well-nuanced performances and newcomer Paolo Montalban (as the womanizing Raul Arboleda) certainly made his auspicious debut in Philippine cinema with aplomb. But the trio of Cherry Pie Picache (as Tere Sanchez), Christopher de Leon (as Mike Manalastas) and Ricky Davao (as the gay Gerry Payawal) were the actors to beat. To me, this is Picache’s most shining moment in film acting while Davao and De Leon indeed deserved to be compared (at least by the film New York crew) to the brilliant Al Pacino. The car scene between De Leon and Davao where the latter unabashedly declared his love for the former is the most riveting scene in this movie. The reaction of De Leon truly marked him as an actor for all seasons.

Add to that the superb cinematography and the unobstrusive musical scoring of Nonong Buencamino, American Adobo – judging from the euphoric reception of the premiere night – is headed for a big share in both local and foreign market.

Reflects Laurice Guillen: "I am very happy with my cast and crew in the US and I am very happy that we are all together in this project. It is a small picture but it is small in the sense that watching it is like looking out into the window and connecting with the humans beyond the asphalt jungle of New York and discerning what’s in the heart of these people caught in the rat race in a foreign country. After watching Bagong Buwan, my feeling is that we should not stop telling stories about ourselves, about other people, about our experience and their experience. Telling stories through film is one way of learning from each other and understanding each other. I accepted this project perhaps because it has a strong message on the power of friendship and compassion."