NGALAN NG INA'
MANILA, SEPTEMBER 27, 2011 (STAR) By Pablo
A. Tariman - (Photo - Rosanna Roces as a scheming politician's wife delivers
one hell of a performance matching everyone's dramatic intensity.)
Rosanna Roces is back and she is sharing a stellar role with no
less than Nora Aunor and Christopher de Leon in a new TV5 teleserye titled Sa
Ngalan ng Ina which airs Oct. 3.
In the red carpet premiere of the teleserye last Sept. 22, she remains the
epitome of the Goddess of Love with that landmark bosom, the inviting pout and a
coquet smile that all but says, "Come and get me."
But as Lucia Ilustre in Sa Ngalan ng Ina, she is a politician's wife, a
scheming one, and a two-timing one to husband Pepe Ilustre played with powerful
dramatic undertones by Christopher.
There is no doubt that Nora is the stand-out of this teleserye but the
supporting players led by Eugene Domingo as Pacita Toribio and Alwyn Uytingco as
Alfonso Deogracias were just as good.
The teleserye directed by Mario O'Hara and Jon Red didn't have the usual look
of a teleserye; it has the looks of a film masterpiece compressed for
television.
Rosanna, for one, delivers one hell of a performance (at least in this one
preview episode) matching everyone's dramatic intensity. After her funeral
parlor scene where she confronts the victims of her own political cunning, she
is shown in bed wrapped only in white sheets with her legs partly revealed and
saying she should have lobbed that fatal grenade herself in that political rally
reminiscent of the Plaza Miranda carnage. But in the background, there is a
silhouette of her mysterious lover preparing to leave their love nest.
In another scene, her handicapped husband (De Leon) pours his pent-up emotion
making sketches. He is muttering something about two lovers meeting by the
roadside but the house caretaker says he can't see the two lovers in that
sketch.
Like it or not, Rosanna is bound to make a big impression in this teleserye
and I can't help recalling the first time I met her 13 years ago.
I remember her in one hot sweltering afternoon many years back with. She was
in a revealing summer get-up, svelte and willowy like a modern-day Queen
Guenevere emerging from the woods of Camelot after rendering the song, The Lusty
Month of May.
To be sure, her life has had several highs and lows.
There was early motherhood and a short-lived marriage. Her daughter Grace is
now a mother, too.
But seeing her act a post-love scene partially naked in Sa Ngalan Ng Ina, she
could be the sexiest grandmother in Philippine cinema today.
One thing that struck me about her in that meeting many years ago was her
attitude towards money
Growing up with a father she called her own, she knew how to distinguish
actual need for money and the occasional obsession that went with it. Her father
used money only for pressing needs and that's how she is now. Even if she can
afford it, shopping is not a must in her weekend itinerary. All her earnings
went to family priorities — a house and savings for children. "All the while I
was working my ass off to earn, hindi ako natutong magwaldas," she related then.
"But I didn't overlook the fact that money is just a means to an end, not
something to be desired for what it is."
In her book, money isn't everything. There was a time in her life when she
valued relationship more than money. She needed to pay her bills and she needed
it to give her children a better future but in her own words, "Hindi ako
nagsasamba sa pera."
But in one of her landmark films Curacha: Ang Babaeng Walang Pahinga directed
by Chito Roño, she came to terms with people who'd do anything and everything to
earn money. In this movie, she had to do a live sex act for a living. As though
this were not enough, she used her body to help a friend in distress (played by
Jaclyn Jose who needed a bed in a crowded inter-island vessel) and used it some
more to service flesh-hungry soldiers and restless generals.
There was a curious scene in this movie where she aroused the limp member of
a coup 'd etat-bound general (played by Lito Legaspi) by simply muttering the
world "coup." She also made out with a young soldier manning a restricted zone
and the unconsummated act leaves the young man yearning for more. After their
preliminary acrobat, Rosanna fled with the countenance of warped ennui. In that
scene, she had gotten tired of using her body and was aching for redemption.
(Charlene Gonzales, sister of Richard Bonnin, would later tell Rosanna that
her poor brother couldn't recover after shooting that sex acrobat scene with La
Roces).
But it was inevitable that she had to portray what that sex worker's life was
all about. The sex act in Curacha — for one — is done in full view of paying
customers and portraying that life on film was a virtual journey to Lower Depth.
No, she couldn't imagine herself leading a torera's (a live sex worker's)
life.
"I'd prefer to strip rather than be subjected to that task of doing regular
sex act in full view of lusty audiences," she chuckled then. "But then even if I
get desperate, I'd rather do laundry work rather than do that. Tutal hindi na
mahirap maglaba ngayon dahil may washing machine na. Talagang nakakalungkot ang
buhay nila dahil wala na silang mapuntahan. They have no choice because they
have loved ones to feed. Like this gay father in Nick de Ocampo's documentary
film Oliver who had to do a live sex act to feed her baby."
At some point, one was curious how Rosanna was able to pull off her nude
scenes and still emerged a natural performer.
"Of course I just don't strip naked mechanically," she once pointed out. "I
emote while I go nude because this is what is asked of me as an actress. There
are those who strip easily but couldn't act and there are those who could act
and couldn't go naked and there lies the difference."
Out there on the set where her body is often exposed to camera and crew, she
had a mindset that told her being naked was not obscene per se.
(Talk of obscenity being in the eye of the beholder)
"The first time I stripped naked before a camera," she recalled, "I didn't
feel any tinge of shame. On the other hand, I was rather proud of my body."
In her mind, the female breast is just as normal sight as a male breast.
On the set, she did what an actress was supposed to do.
After going through her lines, she immerses herself on her character and
proceeds to psyche herself and the people around her. "I already go topless for
a nude scene so that my co-actors and the crew will get used to the sight. 'Yong
paghubad ko ng pang-itaas, parang lalaki. I am not conscious at all. So that
during the actual take, I don't want people acting like Peeping Toms. Naghuhubad
na ako sa rehearsal to admonish people, 'Huwag na kayong manilip, nakita na
ninyo kanina pa.' What I am wary of is when we are shooting love scenes outdoor
where you cannot prevent children from watching."
Of late, she is not that body-conscious. She has gotten wary of living up to
the image of a sexy star that for now she has decided she is not going to be a
slave of that public obsession.
For one, eating what she wants has become irresistible.
"It's hot all the time at ang consuelo ko na lang 'yong pagkain tapos
ipagbabawal pa. Talagang mahirap magpigil. Now it's me dictating over my body
and not the other way around. I love to cook and I love to eat and that's the
way it's going to be."
Now in her early 40s, Rosanna knew what she wanted out of life and how to
better cope with it.
There was nothing in her past that she had not confronted. Life must go on.
"I don't want to forget my past but I don't want to dwell on it even for a
minute. Sometimes you meet people from the past and try to pressure you to
re-live it. I want them blurred in my memory on the year we met. The past taught
me something but living them again is not within me to even attempt."
Seeing Rosanna in her new role in Sa Ngalan Ng Ina, it is obvious she is
starting a new chapter in her acting life.
Chief News Editor: Sol
Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2011 by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE
NEWS ONLINE
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