Lolita Rodriguez’s unique and luminous legacy

Some weeks ago, we came up with a short list of the screen comebacks local film buffs would most like to see next year, and topping our wish list of cinematic delights was a special production topbilling Lolita Rodriguez.

Sadly, that fervently longed-for screen event will have to remain a cinematic dream, because the cherished thespic icon has passed away in the United States at 81.
She had retired from acting since the mid-’80s, opting for the far quieter and reclusive life of a farmer’s wife to her American husband.

But, not to worry, Lolita has bequeathed us with many memorable and exceptional screen performances that will entertain and edify new generations of Filipino film buffs and “console” older viewers with abiding proofs and emblems of her unique thespic gift.

Unique is the word, because Lolita established for herself a signature acting thrust and style that were hers alone: Unlike
her stellar contemporaries who went for the colorful, flowery and melodramatic jugular with their “lusher than life” screen portrayals, Lolita rigorously kept her thespic cards close to her chest, and favored under-acting.

She felt that this disciplined “attack” was right for the film medium because it had the power and focus of the close-up, which enabled the camera to move in right up to an actor’s face, and do the highlighting, underlining and “projection” for him.

True enough, Lolita’s best portrayals were cited for their great selectivity and self-restraint. Some viewers found them too disciplined and thus not “juicy” or satisfyingly florid enough. But, others appreciated them because, by keeping her performance and emotions focused, Lolita was able to make a movie’s theme stand out, the better for the viewing public to derive important insights about life, love and loss from her disciplined depiction.

Indeed, her best performances are like master classes for young actors who want to learn how to create indelible screen characters from one of the very best mentors. They range from her early lighthearted screen romp with Dolphy in “Jack and Jill,” through “Tubog sa Ginto,” her popular “triangular” love dramas, “Ina Ka ng Anak Mo” with Nora Aunor, and the iconic “Tinimbang Ka Ngunit Kulang.”

The late Lolita Rodriguez

Happily, some of these cinematic gems were recently screened again in Cinema One’s timely Lolita Rodriguez restrospective. Perhaps the retro screenings can be repeated soon?

We were privileged to know Lolita not just as an artist, but also as a person. She loved life in her own straight-talking, no-nonsense way, and she enjoyed informal “craft” conversations and discussions.

In them, she made complex dramatic and thespic issues understandable and attainable, through sheer dint of insight, and recalled and reanalyzed experience.

Above all, it was her belief in the importance of real emotions as opposed to the floridly fake and “enhanced” ones that made her a veritable one-woman school of acting on the local film scene.

Instructively, Lolita also acted in the theater classic, “Larawan,” and did well on the more “projected” stage, proving that she was open to other approaches, provided there was reason for resorting to them.

But, it’s on the silver screen that her platinum and even diamond talent shimmers at its best and finest. Even after her demise, we will value, cherish and love her for being the true cinematic performer. She understood the film medium’s unique “language” so well that she never allowed her own persona to upstage the character she insightfully and selflessly created!