MAMANG


Philippines, 2018, 85 minutes, Colour.
Celeste Legaspe, Ketchup Eusebio, Alex Vincent Medina.
Directed by Denise O'Hara.

The main is a story about senility, the consequences of Alzheimer’s, the retreat into memory and loss of memory, into imagination.

The film was written and directed by Denise O’ Hara, quite a prolific screenwriter, but the film was intended to be directed by her twin sister who sadly died before the production could commence.

Veteran Filipina actress Celeste Lagaspe portrays the woman experiencing senility. The audience has to keep asking itself what is happening inside the mind and memory of the woman and what is real.

Her son, who has been studying, comes to visit and to look after her. He is completely loyal – but, at the end, there is information that he is dead. Which makes his presence throughout the film much more complex.

There is also a soldier, silent, whoi keeps intruding, keeping guard – and the question whether he is real or not.

And, into the memories, come the young man with whom the woman was in love in the past, who is arrested and shot. There is also her husband, seeming memories of his infidelity, a young companion, yet his skill in playing the piano. And, there are memories of a little girl, the daughter – and the audience questioning how well the mother loved her daughter.

In many ways the film is glamorous, reminiscent of soap-opera, the portrait of the elderly lady and her tantrums at home, her moods, a range of wardrobe, going for promenades with her son.

Agreeable to watch, but raising serious issues about senility as well as reliving memories.

1. The title? Affection? The mother’s relationship with her son? Ferdie and his care for her?

2. A film of interiors, the house, the variety of rooms, the walks on the streets? The garden in the courtyard? The musical score?

3. A psychodrama, how much reality, how much imagination, how many memories?

4. Suitability and Alzheimer’s, the experience, being in the present, living in the past, the jigsaw of past memories within the present experiences, the jigsaw of emotions?

5. The mother, her age, her beauty, her vanity, in the bedroom, getting up, the make up, the range of dresses, her hair, going out? The promenade with her son? Happy days?

6. Yet the presence of the soldier, his behaviour, not speaking, disturbing?

7. Ferdie, the son, his age, taking care of his mother, the mention that he was gay, dressing his mother, walking with her, the conversations, dancing with her?

8. Her memories, Amado, in love with her, before meeting her husband, being taken by the police, shot? Her husband, playing the piano, the song, the girl at the piano and the
mother’s upset? The little daughter, seen as a little girl, the love of the father, the reaction of the mother? The father and his being against Ferdie, not wanting a gay son?

9. The dramatic jumble of memories and interactions?

10. The neighbour, arriving, her comment about Ferdie dying of a heart attack? The visuals of him after this, as dying?

11. The bewilderment of senility, the struggle of memories in the present, the mother and her succumbing to senility?