“We have a better crop of directors now than
we ever did in the past because most of
them studied filmmaking. In my generation,
we were just flying by the seat of our pants!”
- Eddie Romero
Edgar Sinco “Eddie” Romero has been making films for almost 60 years. His long career as both writer and director has produced some of the best-loved classic Filipino films. It can be said that he is the bridge between two generations of great filmmakers, two generations that gave birth to the First and Second Golden Ages of Philippine cinema: Lamberto
Avellana and Gerardo de Leon in the 1950s and Lino Brocka, Ishmael Bernal, and Mike de Leon in the 1970s and 80s. He was around during the halcyon days of LVN and Sampaguita Pictures until they were replaced by today’s Regal and Viva Films.
Eddie Romero’s works are not only recognized here but in the United States as well. In the 1960s, a dull period in the local movie industry, Eddie collaborated with director Gerry de Leon to make films for U.S.-based independent movie companies like those of Roger Corman’s and came out with peculiar titles like Brides of Blood Island (1965), Mad Doctor of Blood Island (1968), and Beast of Blood (1969; later known as the “Blood Trilogy”). He also megged the cult favorite Black Mama, White Mama (1973) starring Pam Grier. Although classified as low-budget exploitation movies, these are now considered as some of the classics of American cult cinema and have been released in “Special Edition” packages on DVD. A testament to the underground cult status of Eddie’s work in the U.S. is when celebrated American filmmaker Quentin Tarantino cites Black Mama, White Mama as one of his influences.
Much has been written about Eddie Romero’s achievements during the Second Golden Age. His 1976 film Ganito Kami Noon, Paano Kayo Ngayon? is included in the Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino’s list of Top Ten films from 1970-2000. The film has been featured and discussed in countless articles and essays in
books, journals, magazines, and newspapers. Few really focused on his early years in the movie industry. How did he start his career as a filmmaker? Who were his influences? What can he say about the Filipino directors of the 40s and 50s?
Born on July 7, 1924 in Dumaguete City, Eddie Romero came from a wealthy and intellectual family. His father was the late Congressman and Ambassador to London Jose Romero and his uncle on his mother’s side was Vicente Sinco, the president of the University of the Philippines in the 1930s. At a very early age, Eddie already discovered a passion for writing. “I love writing,” he says. “As early as eight years old I was already writing short stories. I had no formal schooling. I was writing through instinct. I took no great pride in it, basta iyon ang gusto kong gawin. I can’t even call it talent. I wasn’t aware of it.” At age 12, Eddie wrote a short mystery story which was published in the Philippine Free Press, “But that was a fluke. It took another two years for me to sell the next one.” His Manila-based uncle, Vicente Sinco, then offered him a job to work in Panorama magazine, one of several publications his uncle owns. Panorama was like the local version of Reader’s Digest and Eddie’s task was to condense articles from various magazines. He was only 14 years old and was still in high school, “Working there was very good training for me and my Uncle Vicente was a very good coach. He had a great instinct for editing unnecessary words.” His uncle’s other publications also served as a venue for Eddie to publish more of his short stories.
Towards the end of 1940, Eddie received a call from director Gerardo “Gerry” de Leon asking him if he is interested in writing a screenplay. Gerry de Leon had read some of Eddie’s short stories and was impressed by the young man’s talent. At that time, Eddie has never heard of Gerry de Leon but he was willing to accept his offer. There was only one problem: he has yet to learn how to write and speak Tagalog. When told of his predicament, de Leon, according to Eddie, said to him, “It’s okay. Hindi problema na hindi ka nananagalog. Tagalog ako, I can translate it for you. I think you can write a screenplay.”
A year later, Eddie came out with the script of Ang Maestra. Directed by Gerry de Leon and produced under Filippine Films and Rogelio de la Rosa (RDR) Productions, the movie stars Rogelio de la Rosa and Rosa del Rosario. Ang Maestra became a tremendous box-office hit and de Leon prodded Eddie to write another screenplay. Eddie obliged and in early 1942 he finished writing Anong Ganda Mo. According to Eddie, that year was supposed to be the turning point in his career, “Pagkatapos ng shooting tinanong ako ni Gerry, ‘Kailan ka magi-eighteen?’ Sabi ko, ‘Next year.’ Sabi naman niya, ‘Next year direktor ka na.’ But I said, ‘I don’t know anything about directing,’ and he said to me, ‘Who does?’” Unfortunately, World War II broke out and all the movie studios closed down. Eddie, denied of a chance of directing his first movie, was forced to go back home to Dumaguete.
Anong Ganda Mo was eventually shown during the Japanese Occupation. It was in this period that Eddie became a big fan of Japanese filmmaker Abe Yutaka, who came to the Philippines as head of Guno Rabo, the Japanese propaganda organization, “Gerry de Leon became Abe Yutaka’s associate director and Gerry learned a lot from him. Abe Yutaka is one of the great Japanese filmmakers. Kanya ‘yung Dawn of Freedom. After that movie, Gerry made Tatlong Maria at tinulungan pa siya ni Yutaka doon.”
A few years after the war, Eddie went back to Manila and became the managing editor of The Manila Events Mirror. This gave him the opportunity to work with much-older and more-seasoned columnists like Doroy Valencia, Melchor Aquino, Joe Guevarra, and Manuel Salac. With the war over, movie companies started going back into production and Gerry de Leon, who was then with Sampaguita Pictures, called on Eddie to write the screenplay of two of his movies: So Long, America (1946) which
stars Angel Esmeralda, Fely Vallejo, and Johnny Arville and Isumpa Mo Giliw (1947) starring Elsa Oria, Ely Ramos, Angel Esmeralda, and Fely Vallejo. After that Eddie started to help in the advertising department of Sampaguita Pictures under Pinggot Perez, the son-in-law of Sampaguita president Jose O. Vera. Pinggot and his wife, Nene, felt that it was time for Eddie to direct his own movie. The promise that Gerry de Leon made to Eddie in 1942 will finally come true. But there was the perennial problem of Eddie not being able to speak Tagalog. Pinggot and Nene assured Eddie that it will not be a hindrance, “Sabi ng mag-asawa, ‘Tingnan mo, the actors can speak English. Carmen Rosales speaks English. Leopoldo Salcedo speaks English…well, kind of. Puwede ka na rin.’ So they took a chance with me and that’s when I started as a director.” His first directorial assignment was Ang Kamay Ng Diyos (1947). Eddie eventually stayed with Sampaguita Pictures from 1947 to 1953. Most of his early movies were either melodramas or comedies. Always the prolific storyteller, he directed 17 movies in a span of 6 years, 6 of which he made in 1953 alone.
While at Sampaguita, Eddie’s father, Jose Romero, was appointed to be the Philippine Ambassador to London. In 1950, Eddie took one year off from Sampaguita to join his father in London. Ironically, it was in that foreign country where Eddie learned how to speak fluent Tagalog, “Doon ako natuto ng Tagalog dahil ‘yung staff ng father ko, homesick lahat, at karamihan Tagalog. Pati mga naging barkada ko ‘don Tagalog. Ang problema, komo Bisaya ako at wala kaming third person, napakabastos ng Tagalog ko. Walang ‘po’, walang ‘kayo’.” Eddie spent a lot of time in the museum of the British Film Institute, attending different film workshops and lectures. In one of those workshops he met David Lean and Gavin Lambert who, according to Eddie, were still young jobless writers writing film criticism.
Eddie also traveled to Italy where he got the chance to observe Roberto Rosellini at work. Italy was then in the middle of Neorealist filmmaking producing classic works such as Rosellini’s Rome: Open City (1945) and Vittorio de Sica’s The Bicycle Thief (1948), “Rosellini was very, very kind. He didn’t know me from Adam. He barely knew the Philippines but he allowed me to visit him in his cutting room.” On his way back, Eddie made a stopover in Hollywood where he was lucky enough to meet Vincente Minelli.
Eddie went ba
ck to Manila a year later and left Sampaguita in 1953. He spent the next several years working as an independent filmmaker. Eddie was very fond of watching cowboy movies from Hollywood and that gave him an idea, “I was thinking ‘yung mga cowboy na pinapanood ko, ‘yung mga Bob Steele, Hoot Gibson, Ken Maynard – kaya ko ‘yon. Pero I have to go to America to find out. I guess I didn’t know any better.” So every now and then, Eddie would fly to California and touch base with the people in the movie business. It took him a while until finally he met someone from Columbia Pictures who was interested in his concepts, “Hindi siya producer. He was a soundman, pero maraming kakilala. We got together. I suggested to him that I can raise the money to shoot it in the Philippines, kung meron tayo distribution dito. So we did that.” Eddie was able to get funding from Adela Santiago’s Premiere Productions. He asked his friend and former mentor, Gerry de Leon, to co-direct the movie with him. Thus came Eddie’s first American movie, The Day of the Trumpet (1958), a co-production of Premiere Productions and the U.S.-based Parade Productions. The movie was shot in the Philippines and was released under the title The Cavalry Command. “That started me with American films. I am eternally grateful to Mrs. Adela Santiago. She was the only one who had the guts to really go for it.” Since then, through his contacts in California and Premier Productions, Eddie would once in a while make American movies. The cast of these movies, most of which were shot in the Philippines, would always feature a mixture of American and Filipino actors. This period in his career would last until 1975.
Eddie’s early works, including his American movies, are nothing compared to the films he will eventually make in the late 70s and early 80s. One will notice that although he was already making films during the First Golden Age, none of his films from that era stood out. Eddie may have been a late bloomer, but he still has his favorites among his early films, “’Yung malapit sa puso ko walang koneksyon sa quality ng film…I’ve done a lot of really lousy films kasi hanapbuhay. One of my favorites was this musical film I made for Sampaguita with Pancho Magalona and Tita Duran. It was called Kasintahan Sa Pangarap. In that film, I was able to use for the first time the things I have learned in Europe. Another was Ang Prinsesa At Ang Pulubi which was based on Mark Twain’s The Prince And The Pauper. It won the first Maria Clara Award. Tinalo pa namin ang Sisa ni Gerry de Leon.”
Early in his career, Eddie considers filmmaking merely as a job and not as an art form. It was in his independent productions that Eddie cites one important film which he considers as a turning point in his work, “There’s this film which I did not even direct, my friend Cesar Amigo from Dumaguete directed it. But I wrote it, it was my production, I edited it. It was called Sa Atin Ang Daigdig. To me, that was a turning point. It had some kind of vision about the world I live in. That was really the point of commitment to film for me. Before that, filmmaking was only for entertainment, hanapbuhay lang. It started with that, followed by the films I did for Cirio Santiago, especially ‘yung Pitong Gabi Sa Paris. Then finally for the American market, ‘yung The Passionate Strangers with Mike Parsons.”
When Eddie stopped making American movies and concentrated on Filipino productions, he has already transformed himself into the film artist that we know today. After finishing Sudden Death in 1975, he quickly returned t
o the local movie industry with a vengeance. His 1976 production of Ganito Kami Noon, Paano Kayo Ngayon? won some of the top honors for that year. The 52 year-old filmmaker was put alongside the new, and much younger, generation of Lino Brocka, Ishmael Bernal, and Mike de Leon as one of the prime movers of this new wave of Filipino filmmaking. After Ganito Kami Noon, Eddie continued to produce a string of noteworthy films such as Sinong Kasiping, Sinong Kapiling? and Banta ng Kahapon (both in 1977), Aguila (1980), Kamakalawa (1981), and Hari Sa Hari, Lahi Sa Lahi (1987). In nearly all of his later works, Eddie shows his fascination for our country’s colorful past, “My interest in history is really a desire to understand what is happening now.” In the 90s, Eddie was tapped by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) to write, direct, and produce a television series about our nation’s history.
When asked to talk about his colleagues from the ‘50s, it is quite obvious that Gerry de Leon is the one Eddie was closest to. He considers de Leon as a major influence. After all, it was de Leon who gave him his first big break as a writer and encouraged him to direct his own films. They even collaborated on some of Eddie’s American productions, “With him it was special because it was a personal
relationship. It was a truthful relationship especially because we were complete opposites. ‘Yung style niya, ibang-iba sa style ko but we fed each other…Gerry de Leon was raised in the sarswela. He came from a family of sarswelistas. So his titles are very grand. ‘Yung sa akin naman, just the opposite. I was very laid back. He would always criticize me for that.”
Eddie sees one major difference from his generation of filmmakers in the ‘40s and ‘50s to the later generation, “We have a better crop of directors now than we ever did in the past because most of them studied filmmaking. In my generation, we were just flying by the seat of our pants! Starting with Lino Brocka’s generation. Chito Roño, Marilou Diaz-Abaya, Peque Gallaga, nag-aral sila lahat. Nevertheless, there were good directors during my time because they had the talent. Pero there’s nothing like formal education. It saves you from making a lot of mistakes.” Furthermore, according to Eddie, the times are also changing, “Iba na talaga ang panahon. Nagbago na ang values. Nagbago na ang pressures sa day-to-day existence. I straddle two generations. In those days, si Bert Avellana ang pinakabata. Sila Eduardo de Castro, Ramon Estella, Carlos Vander Tolosa – nabuhay sila sa panahon ng mga peasant, mga haciendero. Wala na yon. Now you have this huge diversity. Our directors today are far more disrespectful of authority which is a good thing.”
In 2003, by virtue of Proclamation No. 383, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo declared Eddie Romero as one of the recipients of the 2003 National Artist Award (Film and Broadcast Arts). His citation reads: “Eddie Romero’s concepts are delivered in an utterly simple style – minimalist but never empty, always calculated, precise and functional, but never predicatable […] He is the quintessential Filipino filmmaker whose life is devoted to the art and commerce of cinema.”
Today, at 83 years old, Eddie Romero shows no sign of stopping, even though he would always claim that he is retired. He may be in his twilight years but his energy and his ideas are endless. His recent projects include the 2002 television series Diwa which he began developing in 1999 for the NCCA. He himself wrote the treatment for this 13-part series that traces the development of the Filipino race beginning with the Moro kingdoms of the 15th century, the Philippine Revolution of 1896, the Japanese Occupation, all the way to the First Quarter Storm of 1970. His 2007 full-length digital film Faces of Love (starring Christopher de Leon and Angel Aquino) puts him in the privileged position as the only filmmaker to straddle not just two but three important chapters in Philippine film history: the First Golden Age (1950s), the Second Golden Age (1970s-early 80s) and now the Digital Film Age.
REFERENCES
Books and Journal Articles:
Gronemeyer, Andrea. FILM: An Illustrated Historical Overview. New York: Barron’s Educational Series. 1998.
Lee, Ricardo. “1976: Isang Taon Ng Kadaldalan At Kabuluhan.” Si Tatang At Mga Himala Ng Ating Panahon. Manila: National Bookstore, Inc. 1988. 44-46.
Lumbera, Bienvenido. Revaluation 1997: Essays on Philippine Literature, Cinema, & Popular Culture. Manila: University of Santo Tomas Publishing House. 1997.
Mercado, Monina A., ed. Doña Sisang & Filipino Movies. Manila: A.R. Mercado Management, 1977.
Piano, Eduardo J. “Interview: Direk Eddie Romero.” Pelikula: A Journal of Philippine Cinema. Ed. Nicanor Tiongson. Quezon City: UP-CMC Foundation, Inc. and LRP Foundation, Inc. 2000. 44-54.
Newspaper Articles:
Tabanera, Jose P. “Eddie Romero’s Odyssey of Life.” Lifestyle Section, The Manila Times. 12 June 2003: 9
Torre, Nestor U. “Eddie Romero: National Artist.” Entertainment Section, Philippine Daily Inquirer. 27 June 2003: C7.
Online Sources:
Bengco, Regina. “National Artist Rites In Malacañang Tainted With Controversy.” Philippine Headline News Online. 26 June 2003. http://www.newsflash.org/2003
Holcomb, Mark. “Bargains In Blood.” The Village Voice Online. 8-14 January 2003. http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0302/holcomb2.php
Eddie Romero Biography. MSN Entertainment. http://entertainment.msn.com/celebs. Presidential Proclamations. CDAsia.Com. 27 July 2003. http://www.cdasia.com.ph/pres_issue
