123.Doc

Art Appreciation Movie Review

Hui, Kenneth Mark B. March 07, 2015

A.

Film Title: Bona

Director: Lino Brocka

Lead Performers:

Nora Aunor as Bona

Phillip Salvador as Gardo

Credited cast:

Marissa Delgado as Katrina

Raquel Montesa as Nancy

Venchito Galvez as Bona’s Father

Rustica Carpio as Bona’s Mother

Nanding Josef as Nilo

Spanky Manikan as Bona’s Brother

Setting:

Time – During Martial Law

Place – Manila

Genre: Drama

B. Movie Analysis

Director’s Message:

Lino Brocka explains the importance of reflecting poverty and the culture of the masses on film not just to fulfill realism for realism's sake, but in order for the audience to fully grasp the significance of their roots and move them to remedy the ills of their society.

Cinematography:

Conrado Baltazar

Story:

BONA loves Gardo. Gardo loves Gardo. Gardo loves going to bed with almost any woman he can attract. Once - apparently in the absence of anyone better - he even takes Bona to bed, but by the next morning, the matter seems to have slipped his mind.

Bona is a grave-looking woman who drops out of school to pursue her crush on the narcissistic Gardo by moving in with him, more as a servant than anything else. Gardo, in the estimation of Bona's enraged father, is either a second- or third-rate actor in Philippine action movies.

Bona (Nora Aunor) and Gardo (Philip Salvador) are the central figures in ''Bona,'' a film from the Philippines directed by Lino Brocka, whose publicity describes him as a prolific film maker and likens him to Rainer Werner Fassbinder.

Prolific he may be, but, while technically unobjectionable, ''Bona,'' which opens today at the Film Forum, fails to shed much light on the wellsprings of Bona's obsessive love for Gardo. A young woman's attraction and devotion to a sleazily handsome actor are understandable, and so at first it not surprising that Bona is willing to fetch water so that Gardo can have warm baths; that she scrubs his floors and mends his...