Nora Aunor’s ‘best of the best’ portrayals

IN “Himala”

AFTER our “Vilma’s best performances” column came out recently, fans of Nora Aunor, Vilma Santos’ “friendly rival,” asked us for “equal time” and similarly comprehensive estimation of Nora’s career-long thespic achievements.

Following the same procedure we used in Vilma’s instance, we first recalled Nora’s big-screen starrers since the ’70s and found superior merit in such films as “Paru-parong Itim,” “Tatlong Taong Walang Diyos,” “Fe, Esperanza, Caridad,” “Minsa’y Isang Gamu-Gamo,” “Banaue,” “Ikaw ay Akin,” “’Merika,” “Himala,” “Ina Ka ng Anak Mo,” “Atsay,” “Bulaklak sa City Jail,” “Bona,” “Bilangin ang mga Bituin sa Langit,” “As Long as There’s Music,” “Annie Batungbakal,” “And God Smiled at Me,” “Andrea, Paano Ba ang Maging Isang Ina?,” “Ang Totoong Buhay ni Pacita M,” “Inay,” “Bakit Bughaw ang Langit?,” “The Flor Contemplacion Story,” “Taklub,” “Sidhi,” “Thy Womb” and “Bakit May Kahapon Pa?”

After some more cross-checking and vetting we finally came up with Nora’s 10 “best of the best” starrers—again, in no particular order: “Banaue,” “Bona,” “Tatlong Taong Walang Diyos,” “Thy Womb,” “Himala,” “Andrea,” “Fe, Esperanza, Caridad,” “Ina Ka ng Anak Mo,” “Pacita M” and “Taklub.”

What about the best? We have to go with “Bona,” Nora’s Lino Brocka-directed psychologically-convoluted dramatic tragedy, in which the Superstar portrayed a movie fan who was fixated, not on a popular luminary, but on an obscure action starlet (Phillip Salvador).

Just like Vilma’s “Relasyon” and Hilda Koronel’s “Insiang,” this relatively “small” movie proves that film artists don’t have to “go big” to come up with a compelling masterwork.

Aside from her intuitive psychological perceptiveness, a key reason for the thespic success of “Bona” is the fact that Nora is perfectly cast in it as an obscure actor’s even more “faceless” fan, whom he exploits “to death”—until she turns against him in the end!

That’s why we value the nonmestiza star so much—she’s eminently believable in roles that reflect the lives lived by the members of the Filipino movie audience!

Tisay stars, no matter how gifted, cannot “ represent” them as credibly and well, so we wish that our producers would develop more audience-representational stars like Nora, because they would go a long way in making our films more real and relevant to the way many of us look and are.

Nora’s other plus factors that are unique to her include her expressive eyes and voice, as well as her natural and instinctive understanding of character.

It’s been further honed by the similarly “best of the best” directors she’s worked with, and it’s to their credit that they respected her artistic parameters and didn’t try to drastically change, “style” and “educate” her.

As a result, even in maturity, Nora occasionally continues to come up with exceptionally strong and insightful portrayals, now averaging four or five a year.

Would that other gifted senior and junior stars (for that matter) were as productive and prolific!