Ang Larawan (The Portrait) - the movie
SEE EVENT DETAILSPREMIERE NORTH AMERICA SCREENING OF PHILIPPINE AWARD WINNING FILM MUSICAL "ANG LARAWAN" (The Portrait) in Tagalog with English subtitles.
Lawrence Harmon (The Boston Globe): "A new film adaptation of the beloved 1950 Filipino play “A Portrait of the Artist as Filipino: An Elegy in Three Scenes” should win over anyone, regardless of national origin, who appreciates a musical that delivers an emotional wallop. This evocative, dark-edged work does justice to the literary legacy of the late Nick Joaquin, the Philippines’ greatest modern writer, poet, and playwright.
The soon-to-be-released “Portrait” focuses on the claustrophobic lives of two unmarried sisters –Candida and Paula—who live with their reclusive artist father inside the tiny walled city of Manila. Soon the island nation itself will find itself squeezed perilously between the Japanese and United States armies on the cusp of World War II.
Paula and Candida are devoted daughters who have slipped into poverty while protecting their famous father’s unsullied artistic vision. They must fend off a crafty boarder, venal siblings, manipulative government officials, and others intent on getting their hands on their father Don Lorenzo’s self portrait of a young artist suffering under the weight of the old master as his city is consumed by flames in the background. Though we are allowed just a glimpse of the photo, it’s eerily omnipresent. One sister must summon the courage to destroy the painting to save the family from self-annihilation. Those with even a passing familiarity of the history of warfare in the Pacific theater during World War II are certain to remember how the United States military destroyed the walled city of Old Manila to flush out Japanese invaders.
“Portrait” provides a deep history lesson set off by a soaring score and crisp libretto. This is no light operetta. Instead, it is a searing musical journey into the complex lives and emotions of fading Filipino members of the upper class who desperately cling to their relationship with the elegant Spanish Empire decades after their island passed to the control of the United States by the Treaty of Paris.
“Life, like art, is intricate—charting paths carved by a force. We do not possess the future,” sings a poet-turned-politician during a climactic scene when the sisters fight to retain their home in the walled city. “We do not possess the future. We are but bystanders, making side bets. Propositioning Fate.”
Producers Girlie Rodis and Celeste Legaspi have gathered some of the finest Filipino musicians and actors for this rich adaptation of Joaquin’s masterwork. Although the setting is contained to film locations that are not much larger than a stage set, each frame of the film looks like a work of art. Lush orchestration accompanies the vocal passages, which are interspersed with spoken dialogue, memorable duets, and choral segments equal to the best of Broadway or London’s West End. The poignant theme music woven into the drama carries the viewer through this journey into the world of a treasured culture under siege."
PREMIERE NORTH AMERICA SCREENING OF PHILIPPINE AWARD WINNING FILM MUSICAL "ANG LARAWAN" (The Portrait) in Tagalog with English subtitles.
Lawrence Harmon (The Boston Globe): "A new film adaptation of the beloved 1950 Filipino play “A Portrait of the Artist as Filipino: An Elegy in Three Scenes” should win over anyone, regardless of national origin, who appreciates a musical that delivers an emotional wallop. This evocative, dark-edged work does justice to the literary legacy of the late Nick Joaquin, the Philippines’ greatest modern writer, poet, and playwright.
The soon-to-be-released “Portrait” focuses on the claustrophobic lives of two unmarried sisters –Candida and Paula—who live with their reclusive artist father inside the tiny walled city of Manila. Soon the island nation itself will find itself squeezed perilously between the Japanese and United States armies on the cusp of World War II.
Paula and Candida are devoted daughters who have slipped into poverty while protecting their famous father’s unsullied artistic vision. They must fend off a crafty boarder, venal siblings, manipulative government officials, and others intent on getting their hands on their father Don Lorenzo’s self portrait of a young artist suffering under the weight of the old master as his city is consumed by flames in the background. Though we are allowed just a glimpse of the photo, it’s eerily omnipresent. One sister must summon the courage to destroy the painting to save the family from self-annihilation. Those with even a passing familiarity of the history of warfare in the Pacific theater during World War II are certain to remember how the United States military destroyed the walled city of Old Manila to flush out Japanese invaders.
“Portrait” provides a deep history lesson set off by a soaring score and crisp libretto. This is no light operetta. Instead, it is a searing musical journey into the complex lives and emotions of fading Filipino members of the upper class who desperately cling to their relationship with the elegant Spanish Empire decades after their island passed to the control of the United States by the Treaty of Paris.
“Life, like art, is intricate—charting paths carved by a force. We do not possess the future,” sings a poet-turned-politician during a climactic scene when the sisters fight to retain their home in the walled city. “We do not possess the future. We are but bystanders, making side bets. Propositioning Fate.”
Producers Girlie Rodis and Celeste Legaspi have gathered some of the finest Filipino musicians and actors for this rich adaptation of Joaquin’s masterwork. Although the setting is contained to film locations that are not much larger than a stage set, each frame of the film looks like a work of art. Lush orchestration accompanies the vocal passages, which are interspersed with spoken dialogue, memorable duets, and choral segments equal to the best of Broadway or London’s West End. The poignant theme music woven into the drama carries the viewer through this journey into the world of a treasured culture under siege."
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