BIYAYA NG LUPA (1959, Manuel Silos) – Winner of Famas Best Picture, the movie captures the authentic values, the hopes, the joys, the dreams and the sorrows of a Filipino family rooted in the land. It’s an uplifting movie of how a family overcomes the hardships and cruelties in life and how they survive and succeed in the end. This LVN Pictures' prized gem is my all-time favorite Tagalog movie.Bruno decides to court Choleng, Jose’s goddaughter. In an attempt to evade Bruno’s advances, Choleng falls off a cliff and dies. Bruno flees to the mountains where he forms a group of bandits. Believing the villagers to be the cause of his misfortune, he plans to exact revenge on them, especially on Jose. Bruno rapes Jose’s daughter (Marita Zobel). Jose comes after him, only to meet his death at the hands of Bruno and his men. The infuriated townsfolk organize themselves to hunt Bruno down.
Besides Bruno to contend with, there's also rift within the family, especially the feud between the two sons, the deaf-mute Miguel and Arturo (Leroy Salvador and Carlos Padilla, Jr.). The ambitious Arturo decides to try his luck in the city against the wishes of the family.
On the other hand, Bruno and his gang flee to another town where they are hired by a greedy landowner to sabotage Jose’s lanzones blooms. But the people readily repulse their evil plans. With Bruno gone and Arturo back, peace once again reigns and once more, people reap the blessings of their land.
Movie Review: Thoughtless Thoughts On Manuel Silos' Biyaya ng Lupa (1959) by Richard Bolisay
Rich in Filipino values and traditions, the movie starts with a beautiful opening scene of a simple barrio wedding of newlywed couple, Jose and Maria, riding in a very attractive carriage accompanied by a big band and folks singing and dancing. This celebration is just the beginning of what could be the start of the many sacrifices and nightmares the family will be encountering. Here's that scene---
Courtesy of LVN Pictures
ito yong unang nabili ko sa lvn pics kasama ang ibong adarna at biyaya ng lupa....both were newly restored...kaya malinaw ang pics at sounds nito.
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Watching old Tagalog movies of the 40s and 50s reveals a lot of the Filipino filmmakers' ingeniousness.
ReplyDeleteThey didn't have zoom lens, no helicopter shots, and very limited crane shots. Despite its simple tripod shots, the directors managed to expound their films with competence and creativity. Though most Filipino directors of olden days have adopted Douglas Sirk's shots of framing the scene when the German film director moved to Hollywood in 1937. It is a relief that they used this to the enhancement of their films' look. The Filipino directors threw the stylized staging by Sirk altogether, but keept the framing of scenes by stairwell, windows, ajar doors, wooden cart wheel (Gerardo De Leon's favorite) – and this technique worked really well especially with the limited noisy tripod Arriflex that they were using in those years (we were dubbing our films up to the 90s just to remove the Camera's annoying humming).
But of course what's ironic was that, it was Manuel Silos himself who invented The SILOSCOPE (rumored to have been inspired by French professor Henri Chrétien's Anamorphoscope in the late 20s). But, Silos' invention was apparently much improved than that of Chrétien's, and therefore film historians could not really say whether 20th Century Fox's Cinemascope introduced in 1953 was based on Anamorphoscope or the Siloscope). But, then again, because the Anamorphoscope was invented by a French guy, naturally Fox claimed that indeed they based it upon the French's invention and that was the end of the story.
No mater what, I dare say that one of the most creative filmmakers in the world are the Filipinos. Our country was one of the pioneers in the world of filmmaking, and it is very sad that when you go to university to study, the Philippine cinema is not even mentioned. They would rather rave about the Australian films (which started really late in the game). They totally ignored our heritage. We even had our own SILENT MOVIES, for crying out loud! Mary Walter, the German Bicolana, started her career in silent Filipino films.
That is the subject of Ed Cabagnot's MA thesis. Biyaya ng Lupa and Heidegger
ReplyDeleteI had the privilege of watching this film last weekend.
ReplyDeleteWith its strong depiction of Filipino values, "Biyaya ng Lupa" could be our country's first entry to the the Criterion Collection!