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Luigi Conti Mr. Jose Gutierrez III Film 106 March 28, 2012

Brillante Mendoza and National Identity: Analyzing the Nation in Kinatay

Even before his directorial win in the 62nd Cannes Film Festival for Kinatay, Brillante Mendoza has been earning critical acclaim, notably for his distinct style of social realism-cum-social commentary reminiscent of Brocka and Bernal. He is arguably the most famous Filipino film director in recent memory, especially if international awards are concerned. Such a distinction entails many responsibilities, both to the nation Mendoza represents, as well as to the cinematic landscape of that nation. As an auteur, his role in the formation of both a contemporary national cinema and national identity is significant. Comparable in style to Italian neorealism and the French New Wave of the postwar years, Mendozas oeuvre depicts the nation on celluloid in bold, harsh strokes. This paper will attempt to address questions of nationhood in Mendoza s films, particularly in Kinatay and Lola (both released in 2009). Mendoza as an auteur and his corresponding technique of neorealism will be analyzed in connection to its relationship with themes of national identity. How does Brillante Mendoza contribute to the development of the concept of nation in his films?

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Mendoza as Auteur Brillante Dante Mendoza debuted as a director in 2005, with Masahista, a story of a young masseur going home from Manila to his home province of Pangasinan only to find his father dead. Even then, Mendozas nitty-gritty style of realism was obvious, and the film won numerous awards and was nominated for the Gawad Urian for Best Cinematography as well as Best Production Design. In the span of six years since then, Mendoza had released nine other featurelength films and had won numerous national and international awards. So much so that it is significant for our purposes to examine Mendoza as an auteur, and his films as products of his artistry. The interaction of the auteur with the formation of a national cinema is enlightening in light of similar instances in other nations. Examples may be located in two other countries: postwar Italy and the nouvelle vague movement in France.

Nouvelle Vague In the late 1950s and early 1960s, it became evident that European cinema and Hollywood were headed to different directions. American cinema was characterized by the studios, classical Hollywood editing, and the star system. On the other hand, the French were beginning to depend more on low-budget filmmaking as well as an unconventional visual and narrative style. Moreover, films tackled existentialist themes a topic unimaginable in the workings of Hollywood.

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Ushering in this New Wave was a group of young, talented filmmakers composed of Francois Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Eric Rohmer, and Claude Chabrol, among others. Along with other critics from the influential Cahiers du cinema, they introduced the auteur theory, putting it into practice in such films as Breathless (1960) and The 400 Blows (1959). Through this era of national filmmaking, they not only defined French national cinema as a more artistic alternative to Hollywood filmmaking, but they also expanded this notion to European cinema in general (Michel 160).

Italian Neorealism and Postwar Italy The conception of the auteur as an elementary characteristic of national cinema was established a decade before the New Wave, however in Italy just after the Second World War. The aftermath left by fascism had left the country in ruins, and Italian filmmakers sought a medium that could reproduce this reality a role that cinema fulfilled. Italian national cinema then was characterized by an ensemble of auteurs that included Vittorio de Sica, Federico Fellini, Roberto Rossellini, and other luminaries (Marcus 45).

Social Realism/Neorealism in Kinatay Brillante Mendozas directorial style is characterized mainly by his stylistic technique: that of social realism. Historically, this brand is not especially unique to him, as it has been utilized and re-utilized before ever since the 1970s. The technique was pioneered by the late Lino Brocka, who used the technique in his films Manila by Night (1975), Insiang (1976) and Jaguar (1979), among others.

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The usage of natural lighting in the photography, environmental sounds incorporated within the soundtrack, as well as naturalistic acting is important characteristics of social realism. As a filmmaker, Mendoza utilizes these techniques, forming his own style and conveying recurrent messages throughout his oeuvre. The prototypical Brillante Mendoza film is 2009s Kinatay, which will herein be analyzed.

Kinatay The film narrates the story of Peping, a criminology student who lives with his girlfriend and bride-to-be Cecille in a run-down shanty. We see them get married in a modest civil ceremony. There are no loud celebrations or a raucous reception just them, their family, and their ninong and ninang eating at an unassertive buffet. We see Peping as a student, inattentive and absent-minded. Almost all of them in the classroom are. By nighttime, we see him collecting protection money from small vendors along Roxas Boulevard. His friend Abyong tells him Kap, the boss, wants him to go with them to an operation. Through the course of the night, he gets involved in a gruesome torture, rape, and eventual murder of a prostitute who had owed the syndicate a large sum of money. Her body is chopped up and the pieces are thrown on their way back to Manila.

The Question of National Identity A contextual analysis of the emergence of Italian Neorealism reveals that it cannot be applied to the present Philippine society. Whereas Italy was ravaged by war,

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the Philippines was not. Similarly, the emergence of social realism during Martial Law was conducive to such a cinematic style. It provided a vehicle for filmmakers like Bernal and Brocka a methodology to expose a societal truth. This puts into question the applicability of social realist techniques in contemporary sociopolitical culture. What is the societal truth that Mendoza wants to convey?

Corruption of Authority In the midst of the butchering of the prostitute in the film, it is made known that the perpetrators are, like Peping, in fact police officers. This is a central plot development, and we realize that Mendozas statement lies within a sociopo litical sphere. What the film is basically saying is that in the Philippines, society is constructed in such a way that the people in authority are abusive and disrespectful of basic human values.

Machismo In Kinatay, Mendoza exposes the culture of machismo so ingrained in Filipino society that it is, arguably, the source of the central crime within the film. The prostitute is raped and abused, and no female character is centralized. Even Cecille is subject to the anti-feminist overtones permeating throughout the film.

Poverty Kinatay has frequently been hailed as poverty porn - a recent trend within the independent sector. Essentially, independent cinema is seen by some critics as

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exploitative of the poverty-stricken shanties of Manila, and Mendoza and Kinatay are particularly prime targets. Poverty in the film is presented as inescapable and impermeable. Society is stratified and immobile.

It is evident that Brillante Mendoza as an auteur expresses statements that are entirely not in line with contemporary mainstream cinema. By using social realism, he gains cinematic power and relevance in making sociopolitical commentary, evident in both Kinatay and Lola.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Sarris, Andrew, Notes On The Auteur Theory In 1962, in Gerald Mast & Marshall Cohen (ed), Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings, 2nd Edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press, (1979), pp. 650-665 Marcus, Millicent. Italian film in the light of neorealism. Princeton University Press. (1987) Marie, Michel. The French New Wave : An Artistic School. Trans. Richard Neupert. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2002. Mendoza, B. (Director) Kinatay (2009)