Brocka’s ‘Maynila’ returns to UP

PIERRE Rissient and Koronel bayani san diego jr.

After premiering at the 66th Cannes film festival in May, the digitally restored version of Lino Brocka’s “Maynila sa mga Kuko ng Liwanag” comes home to the filmmaker’s alma mater.

The local debut of the 1975 classic is set at Cine Adarna of the University of the Philippines in Diliman on Saturday.

The restoration was made possible by the Film Development Council of the Philippines, producer-cinematographer Mike de Leon and Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Foundation.

Lead actress Hilda Koronel, who graced the Cannes premiere, said it was appropriate for “Maynila” to return to Brocka’s turf.

Telling our story

“It would be wonderful for his colleagues and all Filipinos to see his work again,” Koronel, now based in the United States, told the Inquirer via e-mail.

She urged students to watch: “This film tells our story. We should be proud of our beautiful, memorable films that were shown in festivals abroad. We should never forget that our films are world-class. I hope this inspires other producers and filmmakers to aspire for the same level of quality.”

HILDA Koronel and Bembol Roco in “Maynila sa mga Kuko ng Liwanag”

It was exhilarating, but bittersweet, to be back on the red carpet in Cannes, she said. “I was happy, but also sad that Lino was not there. He would’ve enjoyed it.” (Brocka passed away in a car mishap in 1991.)

She was “thrilled” when Scorsese, in a video message shown before the screening, lauded Brocka as a “giant of cinema,” and the Filipino’s films as “brave, extraordinary, powerful experiences.”

The Cannes screening was exciting, she said. “I was glad to share the experience with my husband (Filipino-American lawyer Ralph Moore).” She said the quality of the restoration, by Bologna-based L’Immagine Ritrovata was stunning.  “The movie looked brand-new.”

While watching the film, she was flooded with memories. “I remembered all the places where we shot … how scared I was to lie down in the coffin.”

Her husband, her biggest fan, loved it. “It’s beautiful,” he told the Inquirer.

“It affected him deeply,” Koronel said.

Good friends

She was ecstatic to bump into Pierre Rissient, the French cineaste who brought Brocka’s “Insiang” (which also starred her) to Cannes in 1978.

“I was thinking of Pierre before I arrived in Cannes,” she said. “Pierre and Lino were good friends. He loved Lino’s films. I remembered him as a funny, smart, straightforward guy, [but] very kind.”

Rissient took them all over Cannes in 1978. “Cannes hasn’t changed a bit,” Koronel recalled her last visit. “It was as if I was seeing it for the first time.”

She hoped the “Maynila” screening, along with those of the other Filipino filmmakers’ works, in Cannes would make young people “realize that we are very much capable of making films that are as good as the foreign films we love watching. I hope it will make them feel proud to be Filipinos. I hope they will be moved to support local movies, especially our indie films that are doing well abroad.”