Category: nora aunor

Sui Generis Superstar

by Patrick Flores

Was it the water she sold? Or could it have been the sound of the train running on its tracks? Or just the lilt of her voice, singing songs of her hometown and also of ski trails, the warbling of the meadowlark, and moonlight in Vermont? Difficult to imagine that Nora Aunor is already 61; she was all of 11 when she won first prize in a music tilt sponsored by a milk company in Camarines Sur. Still harder to grasp that she has over time chalked up around 181 films, 238 songs, 53 records, and 260 awards. What kind of time and world might have formed Nora? What atmosphere of history did she breathe?

On the centennial of Philippine independence in 1998, the Cultural Center of the Philippines named a hundred artists of the nation, including the likes of the exemplary patriot-painter of the nineteenth century Juan Luna. Quite a formidable league, and Nora was the only actress of film to be part of it, a tribute to how her fine labor has transformed the work of art in the Philippines and how a humbled and inspired nation has returned the gesture.

Surely, the talent is the horizon, creating an extensive landscape of efforts in music, film, television, and theater and excelling in these fields as attested by the countless honors here and elsewhere. An argument can be made that she is sui generis — without precedent, peer, or progeny.  She has been compared with the fabled Italian actress Giulietta Masina; and the equally illustrious French icon Jeanne Moreau, the chair of the Berlinale jury when Himala (1982) competed in 1983, remembered Nora having put up a brave fight against a Soviet actress that year.

The mythology would inflect this artistic potency. In other words, it is not only the rigor of the technique and the lightness of the effect that has made many cherish Nora’s presence in art and social life. It is also the moral tale of journeying from peninsula to city to pursue the promise of her voice and, in the fullness of time, to transcend the adversity that had made her dare to dream in the first place. It is the ballad of the migrant, the amateur, the expectant. It is the source of stigma, sadness, and inevitably, of the sublime. This myth has been lasting, and for her kind in different places, it is so moving.

It is this mythology that has enabled Nora to gather her own mass of faithful, to stir up the occasional hysteria, and to become quite a cognate of cinema as medium: how a wisp of a girl morphs into a startling kind of substance on screen is the very technology of enchantment itself. And the power can only be palpable. At the height of the Martial Law of Marcos, perhaps only Nora’s army, fired up by intense devotion, could have held a candle.

With form and mythology comes change. And Nora changed a lot of prejudices and discriminations, from the concept of a star to the role of a superstar, from the mestiza leading lady to the morena movie queen, from the studio fixture to a risk taker in terms of producing her own films and taking on eccentric characters. Change, too, came by way of the breakdown of the divide between the supposedly bakya (low-class) and the burgis (elite), high art and low art, commercial film and art film. Nora embodied aspects of these tendencies, with no apology nor conceit. She was only 23 when she produced and starred in Tatlong Taong Walang Diyos (1976), and on the first year of the awards of the organization of film critics called the Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino, Nora was declared Best Actress. We wonder who owed more to whom, the intelligentsia or the girl from Iriga?

Finally, the persistence, the sheer stamina of Nora to trudge on, with or without a National Artist medallion around her neck, a piece of jewelry that has been unfairly snatched away from her by mere government. The year has yet to end but she has already made six films and some of them have been doing the rounds of international film festivals, making her the busiest star in an industry where its so-called celebrities waste away in the cesspool of entertainment. With the recent grisly death of a transgender Filipino allegedly in the hands of an American soldier, she again comes to mind. As we watch the news unreel, who would not not remember Nora intoning the line before her brother’s coffin in Minsa’y Isang Gamu-Gamo (1976): “My brother is not a pig!”

In the lamentable film Hustisya (2014), Nora plays the role of Biring, a hireling in a syndicate who later takes the helm. In the last scene, a party to celebrate her birthday, the country’s corrupt political class gathers in her parlor. An assistant whispers something in her ear and she laughs nearly wickedly. Nora Aunor has always known the farce of this society and has mastered the madness of her method.

BusinessWorld, 2015

deserving ate guy

ayon sa fb the grapevine, linaglag ng palasyo si nora aunor bilang national artist upon the request of a prominent vilmanian na bff daw ni executive sec medialdea; tila ni hindi daw nakarating kay presidente ang dokumento ni nora.  hindi ko alam kung matatawa ako o maiiyak.  talaga ba?  hanggang ngayon, pati ito, nasa level pa rin ng nora – vilma war?

say it isn’t so, ralph.  come on, vilmanians.  huwag nang mag-ilusyon.  vilma had her moments but none so iconic or memorable that it has become part of public consciousness, as in “MY BROTHER IS NOT A PIG!” and what about “WALANG HIMALA!” — significant mantras in the nation’s drama.

mas gusto kong maniwala na di totoo ang chismis.  na ralph and vilma are big enough to see, and acknowledge, that nora has long outstripped vilma, that nora is in a different league altogether in the performing arts, in body of work, and scholarship on that body of work, even going beyond current national artist levels kung ikokompara sa output ng ilang nagawaran na na masyado lang sinusuwerte.

sabi nga ni joel david, film scholar and critic:

Time to take a cold hard look at this cycle’s batch of performing-arts winners. Not one of them matches the achievements – in multiple media, formats, genres, and creative functions, as well as impact on pop-culture history – as the only official loser in their midst. Did any of them bother to point out this shameful anomaly? Did their alma mater (the national university, no less) keep tactfully silent over their comparatively undeserving win?

I for one have no intention of looking more closely at their output beyond what I’ve already seen. They’re all grandiose, well-intended, hard-working – yet unfortunately for them, even as a collective they do not measure up to the Guy’s record of accomplishments. They had the opportunity of doing the honorable thing – pointing out what was wrong about the process – but they were too eager for that title, that first million, and that attention. All of which they could still have gotten while doing the right thing. What a sorry bunch of cultural losers.

and what about national artist virgilio almario aka rio alma?  why is he so quiet na naman about ate guy’s exclusion pero ang ingay ingay niya tungkol sa inclusion ni carlo caparas nung 2013?   hindi ba mas nakakagalit pa itong tahasang pang-iisnab at pambabastos kay ate guy at sa inampalan?  not once but twice.

is nora aunor not worth fighting for?  then maybe we don’t deserve her?  she with the golden voice, the perfect diction, the total performer as it turned out, across media, across genres.  read nick joaquin’s “The Golden Girl” (1970) on joel david’s website.

Her starters for Tower Productions, smash hits at the box-office, have turned Nora into a superstar, the superstar of the moment.  She has broken the color line in Philippine movies, where the rule used to be that heroines must be fair of skin and chiseled of profile. Though neither fair nor statuesque, Nora has bloomed into a beauty all the more fascinating because it’s not standard.  Seen close up, the complexion shows fine gold tints, her speaking voice is soft but always sounds full of emotion, even if she’s only asking you to sit down.  Nobody who has been watching the local trend towards sexy and ever sexier stars would have predicted that the next pop goddess to dominate the scene would be a simple demure country girl.

Under the tutelage of director Artemio Marquez, Nora is also developing into quite an actress.  She has poise, she moves naturally, she underplays rather than mugs.  Best of all, she’s one local performer who knows how to react.  A person present is mentioned in the dialogue and her eyes automatically turn towards that person; or the ghost of a smile will flicker on her lips at certain words of somebody else’s lines.  She seems to be really listening to the dialogue, to be paying attention to what’s happening on-scene.  Good acting is fifty per cent reactions.  It seems to be instinctive in Nora.  The stories she appears in are mostly foolish and fantastic, but hers is always a real presence, the impact of a live person. In one movie that had elves in it, she played a cripple hobbling about on a crutch, and because you could believe she was really a cripple you could almost believe in the elves too.   [Nora Aunor and Other Profiles by Quijano de Manila copyright 1977 by Nick Joaquin pp 1-16]

in 2013 robby tantingco wrote:

Those who belittle her dedication to her craft and her self-discipline should have seen her in the play “DH (Domestic Helper),” shown at the Dulaang Rajah Sulayman in Fort Santiago in 1992, where she portrayed not one, not two, but four different characters without ever leaving the stage (she changed costumes right there!). Even National Artists for Theatre like Atang de la Rama, Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero and Rolando Tinio would give her a standing ovation.

in 2017 it is said, the president promised that he would do justice to ate guy.  paulit-ulit pa daw sinabi.

Danilo P. Delfin April 29, 2017

Sabi ni PRRD, “She deserves it! I do not want any INJUSTICE to Nora Aunor. I will sign the documents once it reaches the Office of the President.” Nagpalakpakan pa kami and it was almost midnight sa bahay po nila. He was very sincere and he was repeating his statements about his approval.

ano kayang nangyari between then and now?  can it be that someone (maybe the vilmanian’s bff) convinced the president that doing justice to nora, that is, setting aside the imputed drugs case, would undermine his own war on drugs?  but that’s about as lame as pNoy saying no to nora because BAD ang drugs, period.  duterte’s war on drugs is so rife with controversy and inconsistency anyway, what is one more, in an exceptional moment of grace, rising above the fray to right a wrong, honoring nora aunor once and for all?  it would have been so presidential, for a change.  and we would all have loved him if only for that one moment in time.

Choosing National Artists entails the involvement of artists, cultural workers, and government representatives in a lengthy, multi-tiered process that, whatever its flaws, aims to produce a consensus on the basis of judgments that are as sound as its participants can muster. That the consensus around Aunor has now been dismissed twice over through the exercise of presidential prerogative, premised on reasons poorly conceived and ill-articulated, can only register as sheer waste, as wanton abuse, no matter how ostensibly legal. Aunor herself has said, “Bakit pa nila ako isinali rito kung hindi naman pala ako karapat-dapat?” 

nora is a national treasure.  that she has yet again been denied national artist status by the state is a mean blow not just to nora but to nation.  nakaka-demoralize (as if things weren’t bad enough), this latest snub to our superstar, our vicarious thrill, our elsa.

maybe it’s time to make panalangin to santo rodrigo himself, for presidential discretion, or indiscretion, as the case may be.  please, undo the injustice.  pagpalain si ate guy.  she deserves it more than any one so honored.  siya nawa.

*

Statement of the Film Desk of the Young Critics Circle on the 2018 Order of National Artists

The Undeclared National Artist 

Reforms now will redeem National Artist awards 

backlash: “Noranians of the world, Unite!”

big mistake, mr. president.  you just lost a lot of votes for your annointed in 2016.  already there is a poster going around sa facebook, exhorting noranians to unite.  the punchline:  You have nothing to lose but Noynoy.” #MayHimalaSaNational Artist!  aray.

malaki-laking constituency po iyan, sir.  di nga po ako makapaniwalang binale-wala ninyo sila, kami, as though your liberal party had the 2016 elections in the bag.  or maybe you THINK you already have the 2016 election in the bag?  but what makes you think so, mr. president?  what makes you think that you won’t be needing the votes of nora’s fans, who are legion?

hmm, suddenly I’m remembering recent tsismis that there’s a shortlist based on some highly credible secret survey and it includes vilma santos-recto among the vice-presidentiables.  yes, vilma herself, nora’s “archrival” in film.  can vilma be the ace up your sleeve, sir?  you don’t need nora because you have vilma, or you hope to have vilma, as mar roxas’s running mate in 2016?

but, if yes, vilma, then why should it mean no to nora as national artist?  charlie manalo’s mole in the palace thinks it’s because you think that it might offend vilma.  carmen pedrosa’s insider source thinks it’s because “if nora were given the national award, she might dilute the impact of the political strategy.”  and then there is also sharon cuneta daw to contend with as liberal party campaigner.

hindi ko gets.  bakit ma-o-offend si vilma at si sharon kung magagawaran ng national artist award si nora?  mas deserving ba si vilma kaysa kay nora, or deserving rin si vilma pero bakit si nora ang inuuna?  seriously?  ganito rin kaya ang takbo ng isip nina vilma at sharon?  that vilma is the equal of nora?

i beg to disagree.  vilma may be a good actress – she was outstanding in burlesk queen – but it’s telling that she has no film that ever won her any nomination or award in international film festivals.  she has also never acted on stage, and hardly ever on tv.  what she did on tv was sing, in her own musical variety show that ran on and on, week after week, for more than a decade, even if she has no musical talent whatsoever, as in, she has a singing voice that only fanatic vilmanians could love; in effect she lowered the bar and paved the way for the likes of loveli-ness and now annekapal, na kulang na lang ang i-love-you-lucky to end the show, swak na.

nor can it be said that vilma was a paragon of virtue back in the good old days before she finally settled down with senator ralph recto a.k.a. VAT-man of the alta sociedad political clan.  it was a brilliant career move, from showbiz to serious politics.  in fairness  vilma has excelled at playing that game, nakikinig kasi sa asawa, lol,  at may panalo talaga siya as VP sa 2016.

pero kapag tinapatan siya ni grace poe (who is on the shortlist of presidentiables) as running mate of binay, then may tulog si ate vi, mr. president, and/but noranians could swing the vote.  itsura ng iglesia.

gary granada weighs in

Abrera agreed with Coloma that the President “doesn’t have to explain anything.”

Simply because you are not obliged to does not mean you may not. Lalo na sa mga namumuno, ang pagkakataon na magpaliwanag ay higit na mahalaga kaysa karapatang magpasya sa isang bagay. It is in those grand opportunities, those rare times when people are eager to hear from their decision makers, that leaders are able to rally people behind and around their supposed social vision. Sayang sir, nakapag educate ka pa sana sa mga kababayan natin kung paano nga ba ikaw magdesisyon sa matuwid mong daan.