“Kolorete: An Actor’s Review”
My immediate reaction when my columnist friend Ed Cruz of The Daily Tribune texted me to make a review on KOLORETE was to say “no” since I think it would be preposterous for someone who is a part of a film as an actor to make a review on the film itself! It would be very impossible that I would not be biased in my review. However, after giving it some thought, I rationalized that it could be possible as an insider’s view on the film as my modest way of helping our independent film makers improve their craft.
Even as I started writing this review I have some hesitation such that I have to reassure myself that my college humanities course coupled with my experience in TV and movie acting since 1999 could held me come up with an objective review on the film with emphasis that it is from an insider’s point of view.
It helped that I was invited to watch the premier of KOLORETE as one of the entries of the 2008 Cinema One Originals Festival. The invitation was for the Far Eastern University Premier Screening of KOLORETE last 19 November 2008. The FEU Mass Communications class handled the screening professionally. An usherette was posted at the campus main gate to welcome us – guests and lead us to our seats in the Auditorium.
The screening of KOLORETE was set at 3:00 p.m. but when I was seated at 2:45 p.m., Jason Abalos’ “MOTORCYCLE” was still showing and I was sure that I was able to watch more than half way of its story. Having watched Motorcycle before watching KOLORETE is the balancing factor to remove all the biases that I may have for KOLORETE!
KOLORETE was filmed using a High Density digital camera. Over-all, KOLORETE is a good film depicting in black and white the lives of the Filipinos and the Spaniards during that Spanish Era and how the community executed their own “small revolution” to change the status quo. As one of the student hosts of its premier showing was quick to observe that it is ironic that the title is KOLORETE but the movie is in black and white. She made the comment during an intermission of the showing of KOLORETE. Yes, half way, the showing was interrupted because there was a need to adjust the digital projector. Although “Motorcycle” which is in color, had also its share of some technical problems like an obvious daylight shot was so dark that it appeared to be a night effect, in the case of KOLORETE the film started out blurred in some scenes. Comparing it to the black and white movies in 35mm film in the 70’s (the Guy and Pip films and the Merle Fernandez and Rossana Ortiz bold movies were in black and white) KOLORETE was an inferior copy.
There were blurred scenes and some hazy shots (e.g. my first scene where I was inside a hut giving a final blessing to a dying woman) that were difficult to discern.
If the blurred scenes were not technical defects of the projector, I could simply surmise that the film maker intentionally did these using it as a tool to deliver to the audience that the Spanish period was well many years ago that it is already very blurred in the memories of the Filipinos!
The play within the movie, or rather the Zarzuela presentation inside the movie, was an effective tool used as a satirical presentation of the community to the “powers that be” during that period. However, as a theatre actor myself, I felt that the stage movements of the zarzuela were very limited. I understand that it was very difficult to move around the stage made of bamboo slats, but there could have been an additional entertainment value if there were more fluid and smooth stage movements of the actors. What is commendable though is the musical scoring of Diwa De Leon which I am sure would get recognition from the public as well as music enthusiasts.
The original script that I had copy had an ending where everything in the town became beautiful after the death of the friar (the zarzuela included a plot to kill the friar). However, the final version of the film showed three characters of Luciano, Magdalena and Elias inside a cave, sleeping, murmuring incoherent words and moving very slowly. I took it to mean that it manifested the very Filipino way of going into deep slumber and inaction in the middle of a triumphant victory over an adversary. In reality, let’s admit it that we Filipinos went into the same episode after the first People Power Revolution and at present after EDSA II!
If my discernment of the final scenes is the same as what was in the mind of brilliant director Ruello Lozendo, then, he succeeded in deliver that message.
I only have one observation: the final scenes inside the cave were dragging and had bored the audience to death! Since I was seated on the front seat, I could hear the complaints from the students seated at my back that the scenes need some editing! I looked back and found out that from the SRO ground of the students who watched MOTORCYCLE, only a handful stayed on till the final scenes. They where those who stayed on from audience that filled about half of the auditorium when I looked back during the intermission!
