Now you see her, now you don’t

AUNOR. Idiosyncratic unpredictability.

Throughout her long and eventful career in entertainment, Nora Aunor has both excited and frustrated her loyal followers with her idiosyncratic unpredictability. —Now you see her, now you don’t!

—That about sums up her entire essence and ethos, both as star and artist. For instance, at the height of her unprecedented popularity, she would periodically “disappear,” or lose interest, or dally with new “loves” who only ended up diminishing her stellar cachet.

Lavish gifts

In addition, she would “reward” her coterie and retinue of close-in “friends” and security with lavish gifts—and then, inexplicably and most ironically, she would interpret their eventual betrayal as sign and proof of her intrinsic lack of worth—!

Nora’s few genuine friends lamented this basic flaw in her character, but correctly divined where it came from: Born dirt-poor, Nora attained wealth and fame due to her unique singing voice—and didn’t know how to handle her incredible good fortune. Still too young to be a good judge of other people’s motives, she fell prey to blandishments and promises—and, when those fell through, she ended up hating herself for being so easily deceived.

As a result, she learned how to play the same game—only now, she was so powerful that she held all the chips. She tested the limits of that power by developing the confounding  penchant for constantly changing her mind during negotiations, enraging producers who were left high and dry by her lack of reliability.

Proof

Truth to tell, however, the game was played not against them, but against herself. Every new foe she made due to her blithe neglect was another proof, in her quirky view, of the “fact” that she “deserved” not to be trusted.

These thoughts come to mind now, because Nora has again failed to honor her promise to come home to shoot a new film. We aren’t privy to the real reasons for her suddenly turning coy and skittish at the last minute, but its effect is clear: Once again, she has disappointed some of her diehard fans and turned off more people who perhaps can’t be faulted for wishing her career ill—on a permanent basis.

We understand how they feel, but we still can’t join the lynch mob, because we continue to believe in Nora’s talent, and in her basic goodness as a person. We’ve seen her at her best and at her worst, and the best still holds sway, despite all of the nasty, off-putting evidence to the contrary—contra mundum.

And, most pertinent of all, we hold onto the sliver of hope that, if and when Nora faces the movie camera again, she can come up with another marvelous and masterful performance that will remind everyone of the great, seminal, uniquely Filipino artist she is.

Even if that doesn’t happen, however, the Superstar has earned our personal gratitude, not only because she’s come up with some great screen portrayals, but because, in the utterly colonial-minded ’70s, she single-handedly (albeit temporarily) made tisoy “out” and kayumanggi “in” as far as local movie stars’ skin color is concerned.

That may not sound like a big deal, but it really is a huge achievement!