Village Voice's Mark Holcomb on Gerardo de Leon
He focuses on his exploitation films, of course (they're the only ones available).
But it's a good piece on those films, even if it does leave out Blood of the Vampires (Okay, correction--he calls it Creatures of Evil. But the film's original title is supposed to be Dugo ng Vampira (Blood of the Vampire), not Ibulong Mo Sa Hangin (Whisper it to the Wind), which is a different film. Unless imdb is wrong. Which wouldn't be the first time). And I thought the one most significant contribution De Leon makes to Moreau lore with Terror is a Man is the suggestion, however subtle, that the creature is capable of love, and of acts of kindness. That wasn't in Wells' book.
2 comments:
Hi, Mark Holcomb here.
The De Leon vampire film was indeed originally titled Ibulong Mo Sa Hangin (Whisper it to the Wind). It was retitled Creatures of Evil for European release and Curse of the Vampires for release in the States; it was only called Blood of the Vampires for the DVD release. The Filipino horror movie Dugo ng Vampira is most likely not one of De Leon's, although given the dearth of available reference material on his movies it's hard to say.
Anyway, I recently did a longer piece on De Leon for the Australian film journal Senses of Cinema. It's at
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/05/de_leon.html
Excellent point about the Terror is a Man creature, and De Leon's contribution to that story line.
Thanks for the kind words. With any luck, I hope you get to see The Moises Padilla Story, Noli Me Tangere, Sanda Wong and late Filipino features like Lilet, the Caridad segment of Fe, Esperanza, Caridad, and Banawe--all interesting mature works.
Here's some articles I wrote on De Leon:
http://movies.groups.yahoo.com/group/noelmoviereviews/message/236
http://movies.groups.yahoo.com/group/noelmoviereviews/message/286
http://movies.groups.yahoo.com/group/noelmoviereviews/message/410
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