NV = Noel Vera

MO = Mario O'Hara

FR = Frank Rivera

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NV: What happened between "Mortal" and your second film?

MO: What happened? What do you mean?

NV: I mean, your first film failed commercially, so how did you recover? What did you think of that made you succeed on your second film?

MO: I didn't do anything. I waited for my next assignment.

NV: Which was "Tatlong Taong Walang Diyos." How did you get it?

MO: I got it because Lino didn't want to work with Nora Aunor. "I don't want to have anything to do with a superstar," he said. Nora had just finished "Banawe" with Gerry De Leon, and had gone on to make movies like "Lollipops And Roses." She had a taste of what it was like making a good film and she wanted to do it again.

NV So she approached you, and said "I want to do a World War ll film?"

MO She approached me and said she wanted to do a movie with her, Boyet (Christopher De Leon) and Bembol Roco. I looked through my old scripts for the "Hilda" TV show and found one I thought she might like.

NV "Tatlong Taong Walang Diyos" started as a TV script?

MO Yes. "Hilda" had some very good episodes. It also had some very good scripts.

NV But why the war?

MO I wanted to do something different. I was tired of a woman being unfaithful to a man and the man taking revenge. I was doing that on radio for years. Then I thought: no one has done World War ll.

NV So you did a period film on TV?

MO Everything was done in the studio, there were no location shots. It was easier, and cheaper then.

NV You did the film version of "Tatlong" for one million pesos.

MO Nine hundred thousand.

NV Nine hundred thousand. It should cost roughly twenty six million today.

FR Thirty five million. Don't forget the peso depreciation.

NV Sorry, thirty five million.

MO Actually, we didn't spend that much on production: the film was shot entirely on location. We never built any sets. We had costumes for the main characters, about thirty people; all the extras brought their own.

NV You mean they kept World War ll period costumes in their homes?

MO We asked them to dress in ordinary clothes and they dressed in clothes that happened to look like what we needed. We didn't even have to pay star salaries to anyone, because we didn't have any stars to pay--remember, Bembol Roco was still an unknown--everyone else was PETA players.

NV What about Christopher De Leon?

MO He was Nora's husband at the time.

NV So where did the money go?

MO Negatives, post-production, time...considering everything, "Tatlong" was made very cheaply; you can compare the budget to "Banawe," which at that time cost three million pesos to make.

NV Where did you get the last scene, the one where Bembol Roco and Orlando Nadres watches a blind man and his epileptic brother?

MO I didn't get that from anywhere. Why, have you seen it before, in another movie?

NV No, never. I mean, did you take that from a real-life experience? From someone you knew?

MO Well...it's universal, really. People go through all kinds of suffering, go hungry, watch their loved ones die, and their faith stays intact.

NV Was that a real blind man?

MO No that was a PETA actor, Melvin Flores. I saw him in a play and said to myself "I'm using him in my next project. He has wonderful eyes."

NV You picked someone with nice-looking eyes to play a blind man?

MO You need beautiful eyes to play a blind man.

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NV But you came from a tradition of radio dramas and theater. How did you break from the mindset of a theater stage and think in terms of film? How do you take all that you had been given and make the first shot?

MO Let's use an example. Name any scene from any of my movies.

NV The blind man scene in "Tatlong Taong Walang Diyos."

MO The first thing I asked myself is: what was the point of the scene? Bembol Roco was questioning the priest (Orlando Nadres): is there a God? The blind man was an answer to his question. Bembol was questioning. When a man questions, what kind of shot do you use? A close up. It's important to see the man's face. How do you answer that? With another closeup. I only use full shots if someone is moving.

NV But it isn't just the shots--there's the staging. Like the scene in "Tatlong Taong" where the women circle Nora, cutting off her hair.

MO I got that from Cecille Guidote in "Dona Clara." The wig I had gotten for Nora didn't work; she had short hair, but she wasn't bald, which was what I wanted. So my problem was: how do I heighten the impact of her short hair? That bit of choreography from Cecille was my solution.

That's one of my biggest problems. When something goes wrong, I don't insist. Like Christopher De Leon's jeep; the critics pointed out that the jeepneys came with the return of the Americans, and not during the Japanese occupation. I had wanted an antique car, but we just didn't have the money. For "Bilanggong Birhen" the producer had the connections to get a real antique car brought into the set.

NV So money is also a factor.

MO Money is always a factor. I almost never have all the lights I need, or the equipment I ask for.

NV Is that why your movies are so noirish? So dark and shadowy?

MO (Laughs) Yes. And that's why I use so many closeups. Because you don't need as much light.

Money was also why Nora's wig in "Tatlong Taong" was so disappointing. I didn't have the time or money to get the look of the picture I saw, of the French woman collaborator whose head had been horribly shaven. That picture was one of the things that inspired me to make the film. Nora wanted to shave her head, but I didn't have the heart to allow her to do it; she had other shows and projects to do.

Money is always a problem; on the other hand, I don't like big budgets; a big budget means you are responsible to the producer to make a movie that returns his investment, a commercial movie.

NV The film implied a lot of cruelty in the characters. For example, you had the Filipino guerillas shoot Christopher De Leon only in the legs, to shatter his bones.

MO That I saw in the documentary footages. Remember, the film had all this black-and-white footage of the war? Some of the footage showed Filipinos breaking every bone in every Japanese they could find. It was unbelievable.

NV What was unbelievable was that you showed Christopher, a Japanese officer, being tortured, and you had the audience feel for him.

MO I wanted to show Boyet as the innocent victim. Isn't that what happens in war, that the innocents die immediately?

NV The critics didn't like that when the film first came out.

MO They didn't want to show the Japanese in a good light. They didn't like it that I was trying to explain the Japanese side, that I was acting like, like--

NV An Apologist?

MO They said: "Who is he, to even try this? He doesn't even know what he's doing."

NV Did anyone like the film?

MO Eddie Romero said he liked it. And a critic--I can't remember who--except that he wasn't a Manunuri.

NV A sort of snobbery operated against you. Most critics and film directors come from U.P. and Ateneo; the directors would make their movies, and the critics would praise them. You're from Adamson University.

MO Not to mention I come from radio. Which was "bakya," which was "baduy." Low-class entertainment.

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NV Was "Tatlong Taong" a hit?

MO It made money, but no, it wasn't a hit. "Kastilyong Buhangin" and "Halimaw" were hits.

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NV One last: Tikoy Aguiluz once told me that the greatness of a film depended on the kind of impact the film had for him. If I told you that, in those terms, I thought "Tatlong Taong Walang Diyos" was, for me, the greatest Filipino film ever made, what would you say?

MO Well. Well, in the first place, thank you! (Laughs) I haven't seen it in over twenty years. When I saw it again last year, I was surprised: it didn't seem so bad. I think I can see its flaws and virtues clearly now.

NV But is it your favorite among all your films?

MO No.

NV Typical black-box answer.

(Mario laughs)

Mario O'Hara and Butch Perez interviews were done in November, 1997