Grandly and personally, Anita Linda
Lino Brocka once called her “The Face.” I do not remember what the great directors said about that title, but when i first met in person Miss anita Linda, and asked her why she was called that, she looked at me and with those famous eyebrows of her, she quizzed if Brocka did call her that. “I do not remember,” she said, her voice trailing, as I guided her down the steps of a studio where we would be shooting the Manunuri Project called “The Living Voices.” “I have vertigo,” she confessed.
The project was a film documentation of living cinema stalwarts, from actors to soundmen and editors. We were with our first batch of “senior” stars. The name of anita Linda was the one i picked. and that afternoon, i was ready for the interview, armed i was with a notebook on which were written notes and guide questions for that session.
as we sat down and readied for the interview, anita Linda glanced at me and the notebook propped on my left leg, and said: “are you going to use that?” i looked up at Gigi alfonso, the director of the project, who immediately said, “Drop it, Tito.”
That afternoon, without the notebook, we sailed through a conversation that brought us back to the prewar days when anita Linda was first invited to join the entertainment industry. She was in avenue Theater watching a bodabil. Lamberto avellana was directing the show and onstage was Leopoldo Salcedo. She recalled how the two were focusing on her. I told her: “You must have been so beautiful.” She replied: “No, it must have been the red bandana I was wearing that caught the attention of the comedian, Lopito.” The Great Profile, as Leopoldo Salcedo was called then (in Hollywood, it was Robert Taylor who held that title), commanded the stage crew to aim the spotlight on her, this young alice Lake, not knowing yet she would command more of the spotlight for several decades.
The war cut short whatever dream was started that night. after the war, anita Linda would be back in several films.
in 1951, anita Linda would be Sisa, a chapter in the novel of Dr. Jose Rizal, a book on acting in the short history of cinema in the country insofar as the young actor’s performance is concerned.
in bad or remastered copies, anita Linda as Sisa is a luminous presence. Her face opens the film, the brows furrowed, a furtive glint in those sad eyes the only hint of a mind gone wild and mad. It is the grandest entrance a beginner can wish for: with the camera trained from below looking up, anita Linda’s
Sisa is made to tower over us. It is also an exposure a newbie should be terrified of. She is given no line as she stands there for a few seconds as one of the most famous women characters in literature and film. Please watch the film if you have the chance, because in the years to come—in school programs and beauty pageants—sisa would be the favored piece from which the most vulgar elocutions or monologues would be constructed. in Gerardo de Leon’s film, however, Sisa is a study in nuances and passion, the madness not at the core of the character but an eruption of her rage and quest for justice.
anita Linda as Sisa would win the Maria clara award, an award-giving body founded by the Manila Times Publishing co.
The awards body would not last long. after two years, it would be “replaced” by Famas in 1952. During that year, Gerardo de Leon would direct a film, called
Sawa sa Lumang Simboryo. anita Linda would be there, ravishing in a dress that always threatened to fall of that soft shoulder. She would not win the Best actress—alicia Vergel, another feisty actress, would get it for Basahang Ginto—but anita Linda would be part of another first: Sawa would be go on record as the first Famas Best Picture.
Famas would be the standard against which excellence in the local film industry would be judged. In this context, it is interesting to note how the career of anita Linda fared after that grand entrance. it would take 10 Famas nights before her name appeared again as a contender, this time for Best Supporting actress. The film was Nag-uumpugang Bato in 1962.
nineteen seventy-five would be a golden year for the Philippine movie industry, and anita Linda would be part of this turnaround. new names in filmmaking seared the screen—elwood Perez, celso ad. castillo and Joey Gosiengfiao. a relatively new name, Lino Brocka, would direct a film called Tinimbang Ka Ngunit Kulang. The film would go home with four major awards, which included Best Picture, Best Director, and two acting laurels: Best actor for a discovery, christopher de Leon, and Best actress for one making a comeback, Lolita Rodriguez.
There was, however, one more actress making an appearance after being obscure for many years. This was anita Linda, in a monumental comeback in another Lino Brocka opus, Tatlo, Dalawa, Isa. an omnibus film, anita Linda was in the second episode, titled Hello Soldier.
Many things have been written about the work of anita Linda as a mother awaiting the arrival of an american who fathered her daughter, played by Hilda koronel. Many were polite not to ask who was this magnificent face onscreen, the eyebrows forever creased to meet above the nose—grief and grit personified. By the end of that story, viewers would not be able to shake off the discomfort and enlightenment in being witness to the most naked and brazen baring of emotions from this actress. By the end of the episode, lovers of good films knew they had an acting icon back for good.
anita Linda would stay on and see the growth and evolution of cinema. She would be part of the resurgence of independent cinema, those films that never bothered to please a general audience so long as it could tell the tales of truth. She was one of the greatest narrators of life and death. Or near death, as in Adela.
The adolf alix Jr. film had us accompanying anita Linda’s Adela walk through and visit the life of others. Whether shielded by an umbrella or watching over the birthing of a baby, anita Linda was a presence so quiet in aloneness we feared any sound would dissipate her. The film would be screened in Roy and niuta Titus Theaters of the Museum of Modern art under its contemporasian Series. Stephen Holden of the New York Times would describe anita Linda as giving a “quietly transfixing performance.”
The Manunuri would honor her with the natatanging Gawad Urian, the equivalent of a Lifetime achievement award. She would appear in more films and win more awards.
Last year, 2019, i would see anita Linda again after that long interview. She was being honored by the Film Development council of the Philippines in connection with the centenary of Philippine cinema. She was in a holding room with relatives and friends when I entered. Reminded how she gently scolded me for bringing a notebook, i knew she would recognize me. She did. She held my hand when I sat down beside her. She was in a wheelchair.
From that interview, i got to know how fond she was of buko pie. on my way to that meeting, i scoured the area looking for the most elegant buko pie befitting a grand lady of cinema. i could not find one; instead I bought a box of fancy merengue. She liked it. With me was a photo of one Gawad Urian night where she was a presentor. I showed it to her. She looked at the photo intently, then turned to me and asked: “What do you think?” i answered “We all looked young.”
Well, where you are now, Miss alice Lake, you will be eternally gorgeous and young. May I gently remind you not to wear a red bandana around that lovely face? That is a sight no one, not even an angel, is ever ready to see in heaven. n