๐ฃ๐บ. ๐๐ข๐ฃ๐ญ๐ฐ ๐๐ข๐ณ๐ช๐ฎ๐ข๐ฏ
On June 2, 1996, director Ishmael Bernal (who is now National Artist for Film) passed away without so much as a by your leave.
Two days earlier before he passed away, he was coaching actress Malu de Guzman in her stage monologue to be mounted in the directorโs famous Kasalo Cafรฉ in Quezon City.
What I do remember now is that many reel and real episodes in the life of Bernal were indicative of the person and his unique sense of humor and satire.
Some memorable flashbacks:
In this scene from one of his films, Pabling, actor William Martinez takes a taxi ride with a pot of the newly-bought ornamental plant not yet quite a-bloom.
Wading through the heavy traffic, Martinez had spent hours on the road that by the time he got to his destination, the potted plant was already in full bloom.
When Kasalo partner Ed Manalo learned that the film director was in the hospital, he reacted nonchalantly knowing that wasnโt the first time Bernal was hospitalized.
โWhen he was admitted at the Heart Center one day in December of some years back,โ Manalo recalled, โHe couldnโt stand staring at the ceiling of the hospital room. Bored, he fled the Heart Center room and proceeded to the Kasalo Cafรฉ a block away with the bottle of dextrose still attached to him. So when I heard he was hospitalized again, I imagined it wouldnโt be long when heโd bolt again and re-appear at Kasalo in the nick of time.โ
In the early โ70s, one evening in this favorite artistโs hang-out called Indios Bravos, stage and film actor Bernardo Bernardo saw the seemingly burdened film director seated alone and with a melancholic face reflected by the light from a lampshade.
โHe was alone and suddenly I saw a tear fell on the other cheek. โBernie, is anything wrong?โ I asked him. Then I got the surprise of my life. Mamaya tumawa na. Nag-e-exercise lang pala ng technique ng pag-iyak.โ
But Bernalโs sense of humor was something else.
Continued Bernardo: โHis sense of wit and satire is of the grand style. Ang galing-galing niyang mag-dedma ng mga witticisms, raised eyebrows and all, and with that omnipresent cigarette. With a dramatic toss of the hair, swak ang target niya.โ
His first film, A, Ewan, Basta Sa Maynila Pa Rin Ako, was aborted due to a falling-out with his first producers, then movie couple Eddie Rodriguez and Liza Moreno of Virgo Production.
The couple wanted the original script revised here and there, and the then very young Bernal could only take so much.
In his last film Wating, a mayor ravishes his young find in a roomful of religious icons. It was probably his way of unmasking politicians with high religious profile but who, in reality, were the opposite of piety.
Bernalโs sense of humor was acerbic, the late stage director-TV scriptwriter and National Artist for Theater Rolando Tinio had once said. Because when some sense of values he holds dear is assaulted, the master satirist in him emerges.
Recalled Tinio when he was still alive: โBernie is definitely a colorful personality but the color of his personality stems from something very deep. It is not just an external thing.โ
Film director Marilou Diaz-Abaya redefined Bernalโs sense of humor: โMost of the time, it is sick and black, sometimes very cynical but always so rich and enriching even at its blackest. The sense of humor and satire in his films gives you extraordinary explorations and insights about the most ordinary thing like a chaotic traffic.โ
But even in his death, his life looked like a slice from cinema vรฉritรฉ. A few hours after his death, four acclaimed directors argue in the morgue as to what kind of make-up he should have, what sort of dress he would wear, even his hairstyle.
Even the first night of the wake looked like a memorial gala concert. De Guzman rendered a monologue conceptualized by the director himself. Maria Callas was singing Pace, Pace Mio Dio from Forza del Destino (Force of Destiny) and there was Mozart and Beethoven which followed the rest of the nights at the wake.
But his last few days were revealing of the grey November in the directorโs soul.
Preparing for the Jack Yabut dance demo in the upper floor of his Kasalo Cafรฉ, Bernal asked his assistant Manalo to bring down the karaoke. As Mozartโs Eine Kleine Nacht Musik was heard on the machine, the director casually told Manalo, โThatโs beautiful. You should play that on my wake, okay?โ to which his assistant shot back with, โYou fool, donโt think about it!โ
Again on the same night in his Kasalo Cafรฉ, he was musing after speaking at the International Children Film Festival. โCome to think of it,โ he had said, โI have not done any film for children.โ
Then there was this long silence after which he asked Manalo, โEd, do you think I could still have kids?โ
Manalo answered a firm yes, he could still have one.
But on knowing that he would never have one, he comforted himself by saying, โSi Alex Baluyut (the news photographer) nga wala ring anak at saka si Mulong (Romulo Sandoval, the poet).โ
One Friday night, the director was the butt of jokes when somebody found an old picture of him as a seven-year-old boy holding a guitar and it was passed around.
If Bernal had become a father, he would certainly have a boy (or a girl) โ the equivalent of the image of the young boy in the old picture found at the cafรฉ. (By coincidence, the son of the late actor-opera singer Gamaliel Viray and stage and film actress Amable Quiambao was named Ishmael after the film director they had worked with in Himala).
On top of mulling fatherhood on the week he died, he was busy supervising the cultural calendar for the Kasalo Monday night regular treat, Lunesining (Monday event, literally translated).
Scheduled on the week he died was a one-woman monologue by De Guzman. Bernal conceptualized the show with the actress and billed it Woman Mystiqueโฆ And Mistakes.
For this monologue, De Guzman explored her life as single mother starting from her colegiala days to her first love and the love child delivered in a charity ward to her return to theater and then her film invasion.
When De Guzman gave birth to her love child, her family was prone to regard it as a case of Ang Babaeng Napariwara.
โYou did a script of your show,โ Bernal remarked when he saw the yellow pad during their Friday rehearsal.
โYes, I did,โ De Guzman replied. โThis is my life.โ
The director remarked that he would probably be late for the Monday night show as he would be coming from another appointment. โI hope you donโt walk out on me for the second time otherwise Iโll include you in monologue,โ De Guzman reminded Bernal.
The first time Bernal walked out of De Guzmanโs monologue was during the acting workshop at the Film Center initiated by Laurice Guillen and Johnny Delgado. In this workshop, Bernal and De Guzman were classmates.
In one session, De Guzman did her Abandonment Scene from her single motherhood days starting with this scene where she was giving birth in a charity ward. That was one exercise where participants were encouraged to pour out their anger and inner insecurities.
In the middle of her Abandonment Scene, Bernal walked away for reasons she didnโt fathom at once.
She would have an inkling when she realized the director was sporting his motherโs surname, not his fatherโs or his stepfatherโs name.
Gradually, she realized that her scene had resonance with the directorโs private life.
On the last rehearsal for Woman Mystiqueโฆ And Mistakes, Bernal was both stage director and stage manager. He cued De Guzmanโs tapes, he blocked her stage movements.
De Guzman said she could cue the tapes herself but Bernal intervened as he insisted, โLet me do this. I like doing this,โ as he put the tapes in one container.
In one part where De Guzman was staging Ang Maghintay Ng Walang Hanggan, she noticed Bernal with that far-away look.
It turned out that the song was one of his favorites.
Then the director told De Guzman, โBaka mag-iyakan naman tayo sa monologue mo. I donโt want this. May paraan ng pag-kuwento na may tama.โ
De Guzman tried that approach and the waiters at Kasalo were wondering what those volley of laughter was about in that rehearsal. It was Bernal laughing his head off in De Guzmanโs delivery room scene.
In between rehearsal breaks, the two got to know each other better. Bernal would ribbed De Guzman: โSo you write poetry. Ang balita ko profesora ka rin pala sa UP Masscom. So youโre multi-talented. Akala ko Japayuki ka lang.โ
To De Guzman, those were his famous last words.
Again, De Guzman reminded Bernal, โHuwag kang mawawala sa Lunes kung hindi isasama kita sa monologue.โ
As it turned out, Bernal passed away Sunday and De Guzmanโs Monday show was moved from Kasalo Cafรฉ to the UP Chapel where she performed on an improvised stage alongside Bernalโs coffin.
It was a surreal scene De Guzman performing beside a dead director who rehearsed her only two days before.
For the first time in her performing days, the actress took a bottle of beer to loosen her up and then went inside her car and shouted her grief. โI had to let it all out before the performance at baka manginig ako o kaya baka ako naman ang atakihin sa puso.โ
By coincidence, on the night of her performance with that surreal setting, she couldnโt find the minus one cassette of the song, Sanaโy Maghintay Ang Walang Hanggan, the directorโs favorite.
And she couldnโt help saying to herself, โDirek, you walked out on me again.โ
In the wake, De Guzman got to know the directorโs extended family as well.
Present during the necrological service were his six half-sisters and seven half-brothers from his real father, Pacifico Ledesma from Jaro, Iloilo.
He was a stock-broker and one of the past presidents of the Manila Stock Exchange.
Bernal actually met his 13 half-brothers and sisters only after the death of his father โ also of heart attack โ in 1972.
Antonio Ledesma, the eldest of the 14 Ledesma brood (Bernal was the 14th from a family involving three mothers, one of whom died), met his celebrity half-brother only in the late โ70s when he came home from Calgary, Canada after his fatherโs death.
โIt was my stepmother who told me that there was one more brother from my fatherโs earlier relationship,โ Ledesma, who is into education and psychological counseling, said.
Bernal was overjoyed when he realized he was not alone that he actually attended all the family reunions in one house in Fairview during Christmas and New Year. In time, he was a doting uncle to his nephews and nieces during these occasions.
โHe was a great uncle and a very compassionate one,โ Ledesma said, โHe never told us about his achievements which we only read about in the papers.โ
When he lay dying, Ishmael was worried about leaving his mother. He asked his nephew, Bayani Santos, to take his mother away from the room to spare her from the grief of seeing a dying son.
Then he asked someone to call his brothers and sisters.
Like De Guzman, director Marilou Diaz-Abaya also felt Bernal walked out on her when he died. A few days before he died, they were supposed to go together to this Film Academy awards night.
They have decided what to wear when Bernal begged off saying he had a bad stomach and a bad backache.
โThe next thing I knew he was dead,โ Abaya recalled. โNapaka-abrupt di ba? So unpredictable. But I am not going to take this against him.โ
The two became soul mates when Bernal saw Abayaโs film Brutal and she got this congratulatory note from him. At that time, Abaya didnโt know him personally but she was in awe of him already.
A few days after that note, Abaya was hanging out in this sleazy beer joint at the corner of EDSA and P. Tuazon with husband Manolo when the door opened and silhouette appeared and a booming voice came, โIs there a Marilou Diaz-Abaya in this room?โ
The lady director reluctantly raised her hand. He marched to her table and then sat down.
The next dialogue came even as she had yet to recover from that dramatic entrance.
Bernal: โNow that we are friends, you might explain to me how it works that you and your husband work together on the set. Does that help the film? Where do you think this will lead? What is the course of your career and what is the relationship between your marriage and the film that you make?โ
All in one breath.
All that Abaya could say was, โMay I go to the bathroom to pee?โ
Then came Bernalโs rejoinder: โSure. But I just hope you have the answer for me by the time you are through peeing.โ
As Abaya admitted, Bernal was her severest critic and an intellectual sparring partner. He was a part of her film life and even her personal life. She recalls Bernal pacing back and forth in the waiting room during the delivery of her baby.
Abaya remembered Bernal for many things.
Said she: โHe demonstrated that the integrity of the artist is not compromising and that it is not negotiable.โ
Santos, his nephew, had a fierce encounter with his celebrity uncle when he noticed that he was borrowing a measly amount of P8,000 from him and yet he kept on turning down P40,000-up worth of movie offers one after another because he couldnโt stand the scripts.
Then he suggested, โUncle Mael, why donโt you just accept the offer and revise the script?โ
The nephew was not prepared for the violent reaction he got.
Recalled Santos of that encounter: โFor the first time, I saw fire in his eyes as though gasping for breath in deep fury and then he roared at me. โYou want me to accept those bad scripts? You want to see blood drip in the set? There will be blood all over the set if I accept this.โ
How Bernal is remembered by his kin and colleagues belies the faรงade behind his thunder and lightning.
His late mother, Elena Bernal Toledo, once said that when her son loved a friend, it was unconditional love.
Mother and son shared a love for music and the arts.
A touching sight in one Antipolo concert of Cecile Licad and Brazilian cellist Antonio Meneses was Ishmael Bernal escorting his mother to the concert area.
โI think my son inherited love for music from me,โ she once said.
Tinio once pointed out, โBernie gave the impression of being a very bitchy and uncharitable man but I am convinced it is only by way of concealing the fact that he is a tender-hearted, loving and compassionate person. I will remember him as a patient mentor who taught me the rudiments of scriptwriting, huwag ka lang tatanga-tanga.โ
Abaya once made a parallelism on both Bernal and Lino Brocka.
She once pointed out: โThey both made films in the most challenging times and they responded with valor. Their kind of artistic nobility is now dead.โ
Brocka and Bernal probably had a pact before the latter died.
During her last Kasalo visit, my daughter Kerima recalled how Bernal kept on saying during the screening of Orapronobis that Philippine cinema died with Brocka.
Brocka died on the corner of Matalino St. and East Ave., just a few blocks away from Bernalโs Kasalo Cafรฉ.
By coincidence, Bernal also died on East Ave. at the Heart Center.
If he didnโt, he could very well be defying his fate again and escaping to his Kasalo hang-out, dextrose bottle and all and discussing art, culture and politics and the not-so hopeless state of Philippine cinema.
(๐๐ถ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ณ’๐ด ๐๐ฐ๐ต๐ฆ: ๐๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ด๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฐ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ข๐ณ๐ต๐ช๐ค๐ญ๐ฆ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ท๐ฆ ๐ข๐ญ๐ด๐ฐ ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ท๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ฐ๐ฏ: ๐๐ข๐ณ๐ช๐ญ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐๐ช๐ข๐ป-๐๐ฃ๐ข๐บ๐ข,๐๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฏ๐ข๐ณ๐ฅ๐ฐ ๐๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฏ๐ข๐ณ๐ฅ๐ฐ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐๐ฅ ๐๐ข๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ๐ฐ. ๐๐ฆ๐ข๐ฏ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ช๐ญ๐ฆ, ๐๐ข๐ญ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ฅ๐ฆ ๐๐ถ๐ป๐ฎ๐ข๐ฏ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ข๐ช๐ฏ๐ด ๐ฃ๐ถ๐ด๐บ ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐ต๐ฆ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ด๐ฆ๐ณ๐บ๐ฆ๐ด.)