Mother Lily joining Metro Filmfest after all

In the wake of the controversial 2005 Metro Manila Filmfest Awards last January, Regal Matriarch Mother Lily Monteverde felt "cheated" and announced in a huff that she was done with the Metro Manila Filmfest, that she wasn’t joining the annual event anymore, that (as the headlines put it) she was "boycotting" the Metro Manila Filmfest.

Famous last words?

Of course, Mother Lily’s angry announcement was met with trepidation because, as we all know, she is one of the remaining two producers (the other is Star Cinema) regularly making movies, thus helping prop up the movie industry which is plagued to near extinction by onerous taxes, piracy and competition from television. The glaring reality is that if Regal Films boycotts any filmfest and/or stops making movies altogether, the movie industry will collapse.

But people close to Mother Lily know how much she loves the movies and, despite her "threats" to stop producing (she has been doing that from way back when), she won’t really have the heart to turn her back on an industry in which she has invested not only millions but also blood, sweat and tears.

Anyway, the good news is that Mother Lily is changing her mind (take note: not eating her words) and is inclined to still join the Metro Manila Filmfest but only if certain rules are amended, such as all the 10 entries should open on the same date (Dec. 25) and not, as has been the practice these past few years, only seven, with the remaining three opening on Jan. 1. Also, that any producer can submit, as has been also the procedure, as many entries as possible and then not limited to just one entry each (subject, of course, to the decision and discretion of the Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) screening committee).

Also, if I may add, the MMFF should impose a "ban" on any MMFF official from being a loudmouth and from giving interviews that may be, perhaps wittingly or unwittingly, perceived as favoring an actor or a film as "possible/probable" winner. If any MMFF official can’t control his/her tongue, his/her mouth may be taped (or, as Maurice Arcache would put it, "the lips must be sealed" – with a stapler?) until after the announcement of winners is done on the Gabi ng Parangal.

With Mother Lily still a player in the Metro Manila Filmfest, we can be assured that, you know, happy days are here again!

Incidentally, the Regal horror film Sigaw (The Echo), directed by Yam Laranas, won the Orbit Award in the just-concluded Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival. The seventh Orbit Competition, a new feature of the filmfest, was created "to promote the work of new directors towards the audience, the press and the distributors."

Malaysia’s The Beautiful Washing Machine, directed by James Lee, got a special mention in the same category.

Variety’s March 28 issue reported that Denmark’s entry, the black comedy Adam’s Apples, directed by Anders Thomas Jensen, bagged the Golden Raven Award for Best Film, the European Feature Film Prize and the Audience Award. A box-office hit in Denmark, Adam’s Apples has been sold to 15 countries and screened in Toronto and Sundance.

The Silver Raven went to Storm, the Swedish entry directed by Mans Marlind and Bjorn Stein.

Pinoy indie film at Cleveland Filmfest

An unidentified Funfare reader e-mailed the following good news:

Compound, a Filipino indie film, was one of the official entries at the 30th Cleveland International Film Festival held March 16 to 26.

Directed by Will Fredo with musical scoring by Bob Aves, Compound stars John Arcilla, Janet Russ, Jake Macapagal and Liza Dino. It tells the story of the Delos Reyes family that tries to cope with realities outside the confines of their gated home. Shielding his family from a looming misfortune, Virgilio delos Reyes keeps up appearances and calms through the aid of crystal methamphetamine (shabu). Virgilio and his wife receive Jay Juanillo as their tenant to occupy one of the houses in their compound. Jay, who himself is trying to escape the realities of his life, settles in and builds relations with the Delos Reyes family. From the seeming idyllic setting, Jay witnesses the slow implosion of the Delos Reyes family and gets tangled in the power struggle within the compound. As Virgilio’s paranoia escalates, Jay becomes an easy target, a scapegoat of Virgilio’s disability to distinguish reality and hallucination. When their strategies of escape break down and reality catches up with them, the violence outside the gates finds its way into the compound.

(Note: The reader did not say how Compound fared in the awards race.)

Briefly noted:

• Dan Fernandez has filed a petition at the Supreme Court to nullify a resolution issued by the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) upholding the proclamation of Teresita Lazaro as Governor of Laguna. In his petition, Dan said that the High Tribunal should stop the implementation of the resolution because it was issued with grave abuse of discretion. He claimed that the COMELEC did not explain or include in its ruling the result of the examination of questioned election returns in two cities and five municipalities. Dan ran for governor in Laguna under the Partido Demokratiko-Sosyalista ng Pilipinas (PDSP), the same party he carried in previous elections when he ran for and won as provincial board member in 1998 and as vice governor in 2001.

• Thanks to Pete Lacaba for texting the following clarification: Paul Anka wrote the English adaptation of the song My Way (in 1968), which was originally a French song composed by Claude Francois and Jacques Revaux, with original French lyrics by Gilles Thibault. The original title of the song was Comme d’Habitude (Like the Habit). My Way was transformed into a world hit by Frank Sinatra. It has a Spanish version entitled A Mi Manera by Julio Iglesias and, I think, two Tagalog versions (one by the late George Canseco?).

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