AT
THE CHINA : MAIL, SATURDAY, - MARCH 18, 1961.
China Mail Film Critic John Luff continues with Part II of his series.....
PORTRAIT OF A HERO
on
T 5.30 pm, half an hour before the
opening ceremonies commenced Tuesday, March 7, a delegation from the Film Festival wove their way through the heavy traffic along the wide road which sweeps the fringe of Manila Bay.
They stopped before a tall monument, and after standing in silent respect, they placed a wreath at its base.
The press turned it into an event, they photo- graphed Asia's beauty posed before this memorial stone; the crowd gaped and gathered. The dele- gation fought its way back to the waiting cars, and one more ceremony was over.
Not all of them knew that they had stood upon a place that for ever enshrines all that is beat and noble in Filipino history. Only a few Filipinos who led the delegation knew that sixty-five years ago, on the bright morning of December 30,
1896,
young Dr
Rizal. He sailed from Hongkong
physician, linguist, scholar, pont, and patriot, fell dead before ↑ Spanish firing party at the very place where they were standing,
There was
I had paid my respects earlier.
special reason why I should have done so, for in a manner peculiar to myself, I had tied myself to this Filipino hero..
to face
death before a firing squad
Before me at the moment is faded photograph of the dapper young Rizal who wore a trim moustache, and had something of a fair for dress.
thie In
Supreme price dandy with his tarte in dress, foremost Filipino writer of his
On
Bad years
as the sweeps
Hero, Rizal was born, - set
Here down in beauty.
Was planted in his hears the seed of love for his native land, which thirty-five years later he was to enrich with his blood.
A challenge
the haughty laughter used by first n friar td greet Rizal's attempt to speak the Spanish language.
and 12.0
guage.
He
before
insults
at
lils
and
FESTIVAL
IN MANILA
BY JOHN LUFF
the Creater and Author of Life, little of the sweet narrative of which invoices Heason the Brat. At best it is a biting alone.
bilter attack upon tyranny in It is The Fuos, being a Catholfe high and holy places.
written in bitterness and dis- nation wda Calholle hero. But in taking such a step Rizal appointment, and its very, truth enemies to make a renounced the faith of his child- stung his hood, identifying the tormentors decision which would tear the of his family with the Church of fe from the bola subject of his. youth.
Imperial Spain. He travelled extensively In Europe, meeting many of her
Bitter
All the timo Rizal was in
In love
RIZAL His spirit lives on....
Pare la
Accompanying him was a Josephine knelt in prayer the
a lass born in Victoria Barracks It was here too that Rizal young girl, Josephine Bracken, night through.
father signed the retraction, so that Was Corporal Bracken of the he was allowed back to the of Irish parents. Her British Army.
Church, and just before they Her mother had died as took him out to die,, he and Josephine's birth. Sho had Josephine were married.
by the Sleters Just before the sun was up, been sheltered
Convent, but the soldiers formed ranks, a of the Italian
mufted subsequently made a home with bugle sounded, the
drums, rolled, and Rizal with the Taufers.
his arms tied at the elbows, fell into the quick step, and began the long march to the field of death.
Married
He needed no support, and on the way, his Jerilt friends marched with bim. But 09 Rizal raised his eyeshe saw a dense crowd awaiting. The crowd parted before the sol-
and diers,
Rizal marched amarily to the appointed place. The Spanish officer, ever courteous, asked Rizal in what,
he would be shot. manner Rizal requested that he be kil ed fading the firing sqund and without bandage over his eyes.
He was a true child of the riched themselves in the name Philippines, for in his blood of our Saviour.
content nt flowed that rich
Stung to the quick, its leading liberal scholars, delight. Hongkong, he was followed by Journeyed to to me that his driving power those who had
ing all he met with his charm,py. But Rizal had nothing A distant sire those fair isles.
WAK to challenge the cosmopolitan town of London, had endowed him with Chinese he and his family received and astonishing them with his to fear on that account, for he remarkable fluency in European belleved in the power of the Spanish he would have passed for a diligence which made bim the from the
Coloniais, languages.
pen, not of the sword. Churchmen who
Knowing that Rizal was an- his amart walking cane, his day; his Malay ancestors gave identified themselves with Im-
environ-
lous to return to the Philip magter, It might be asked why. The head-in-the-air
and him pride, his Spanish
pines,
Spanish the
Conail I will ment added a rich allen culture perial greed. reason is, when young Dr Rizal his quick the walk.
At first they laughed Integrity and He was to this bounty.
While he was in Europe, ha General in Hongkong larued a fled his native country, he had tell you about him.
Spanish. Under Jesult Rizal's
wrote the Arst of his two government guarantee of safety, chosen to stay for a while in born exnelly one hundred years the discipline of his
same time sent a famous novels, "Kou Me but at the North London so that he could ago come June 10 ia a small teachers taught him to curb his Jesult teachers at Ateneo, and nt sixteen years of age, he was
Rizal study Filipino history in the Bri- town called Calamba, Laguna, high-flung gifts to store, to
Bachelor of Arts in that lan- Tangere, the second. written cable to the Governor of the save, to use them only when
Santo later, was called, "El Fiber Philippines to say that entered
was in the trap." tish Museum As a child, I haut It is a beautiful place. On one
terismo."
Her photograph shows her to mountain, the they could best be used. followed the very routes he had side is d
Tomas University in Manila, and commenced his medical Both books tell of life' under Rizal reported to the Gaver, have been a handsome woman; she was of fine spirit and good chosen in London, and circum other Laguna Bay, the town it- slunces had sent me halfway self is set down beside a lake,
studies which he completed at the tyranny of worldly church- nor upon his return and for a the Central University
go intelligence, but of poor educa of men who had largely obtained few days was allowed to across the world, so that I could and around, the rolling rice
free,
but leaving control of the Philippines.(
was later framed tion. at last stand upon the very fields dance with joy
Madrid. But
upon a charge of issuing docu- the early morning breeze
In childhood he experienced, the Philippines, he won a prize spot where he had pald
of home was meals which were reckoned Rizal and Josephine fell in the scorn of the Colonial. for a poem wrillen in Spanish-But the call supreme price of patriotism and gerity, from the sea.
Actually, they love. They lived together in possessors who mocked his against all comers Spaniards strong, and against all advice, treasonable. honour.
"Indio" blood. He has written of included.
Rizal sailed in the nalve Seller were pamphlets with the ironis exile.
nothing title, "Pobres Frailes"
It was obvious that Rizal. was (Poor At the age of twenty-four, that having written
reyolu but
his the truth,
bitter Frinca).
not consorting with Rizal had finished two courses
flonkis, and so in
□ criticis.n
1800, he in medicine and in philosophy passages being not
obtained per church but of men
naked for, and of the and letters.
mission to serve with the They laughed at this des- usurping holy offices, he was in
Spanish Army in Cuba. he threw pised Indio;
thelr no danger,
Rizal was placed under orrest, On his way to Spain, he was laughter back in their teeth.
In that he was mistaken; he and he was undoubledly in placed under arrest,
brought sadly underestimated the power- danger. The world was not back, and charged with seditious
nor activities, ful order he attacked. In spite entirely ignorant of Rizal,' of a scholarly defence of his of his character and work. In
the famous priests Hongkong,
Indefatigable breathed a novel by two Madrid he who had the courage to defend Fraser Smith, fiery editor free-cr heard strange talic. He heard Rizal publicly, his enemies had the Hongkong newspaper, "The a young lieutenant severely of death, Rizal outwilled them, let himself Gulranked. The young officer As the rifles cracked. Kissl his heel, half favod and open more pull with government. In Telegraph," really talk of freedom crillelem of the Spanish Goy his own district, his people were go in an inflammatory article on planded that Rizal had already swung on
faced of corruption dispossessed of their lands, and treachery.
these charges and that his destroyers, and fell with the ernment, and
in the interest of his own family,
his life could not be placed, in sun upon his face. among ecclesiastical landlords.
You have conquered, proud Up to this time he had been and because of the persecution this time, he was sent into exile second time.
Rizal was not destroyed at joepardy for the same chars a Malay. Mark that word. The very good Catholic, realising his writings had invited upon
destroyed your that bad
vallant body released your soul. sentence was a mere offices did not alter the funds- left, his native land again.
to formally. So now I reach the spirit encourages all who reconciled
You shall never die—for your aro mental truths of Christianity. He salled round the world and seemingly
Hongkong
the fact that his work was done. point America,
where here I stood, humble and meek in spirit to Japan, But now he took a step which England, Europe and eventual. He had accomplished for his note book la hand, in the pri- rise
he could, but son of Rizal.
against tyranny MZIKI greatly worries the Filipinos of ly back to Hongkong where he people
oppression. And in your spirit, Mason. settled. Ho
It is today. He became a
saw. everywhere reckoned, that years of oppres-
not a fearsome place;
they shall conquer." and just over thera talking freedom. Only in his own coun- know what they are about on this subject not even try did his people groan bound WAS premature.
place where Rizal wrote his which At any rate, he never did place famous farewell poci the custodians of Rizal's relles. by the fendal chains of tyranny.
In Hongkong he was highly his faith in violence. To his was smuggled out of prison by The point is, Rizal did not Join that branch of Freemasonry respected, He practised as a
place of exile came a citizen of his sister,
Across the courtyard is the Free and physician, and which is known as
his fame was Hongkong, a Mr Tayfer in need
for ruin of the cell where he spent of treatment for his eyes, Barbirolli, We see
Accepted, but the revolutionary spread abroad. pas- the day turning up for a re
tart which has its roots in the Meanwhile, he had published Rizal was a considerable
and here whe eye his last night, cook, delaying the hearsal of the Eroica with his
just about the French Revolution, which denias his accond novel which contains
Earlier in the week, I had spent a few moments in the cell where he was confined, had touched the places where he had dwelt among the grim walla of Fort Santiago, And early one morning, before leaving for the cinema, I had paced the last grim walk he
But if nature was fair, nl had made, and placed a few else was grim, for he was born flowers upon the base of his
years monument, and gazed upon the during the last terrible fer of mountains of Ala. bes of the decadent Spanish loved couniTŲ.
pire.
The orchestra
CHORDS AND DISCARDS.
By Malcolm Tillis. Phoenix. 18s.
Em-
He saw the Colonists send his mother to prison on a false charge; he experienced all the bitterners in the world, when. as a young maan, hits were driven from their lands by men who had forgotten their original misslen and en-
from the inside
By ADAM BELL
His charm family
THERE are two popu- sionate
lar myths about the start of a concert while he gets trousers undone and, unable to the timpanist to sample his understand why the orfiestra life of the orchestral intest home-made pate,
is playing so reggedly, getting musician. One sees it as
Sometimes the book lapses more and more furious. a privileged career of into a string of chatty reminis continual glamour, mak- genees which become boring. But most of the stories are of ing great music with a high sinndard, master conductors and The best story is about the inspiréd soloists.
The other goes to the opposito extreme and depicts orchestral players 00 brutish carno:1- Todder, the PHI of music, with no understanding of the larger artistle Issues involved—"they's not to reason why".
His schedule
Malcolm Tillis explodes hoth
five years as a vidla player the Halle shows on the one
fallacies. His ac account in
hand what hell life was be for a member of n'aymony or
chestra in Britain.
crowded schedule of converts;
great Beethoven conductor.
the Finally,
embarrassed lender whispers the truth in the maestro's est, At which tie great mun thunders back "Ahd what has that to do with Booth- ut even?"
This man with a
THE BEST OF HENRY MIL-
LER. Edited with introduc tion by Lawrence Durrell, Holnomann. 30s.
WHEN Henry Miller
returned to America
genius for living
And elsewhere: "All that
and saw his family for matters is that the miraculous the first time in ten
bocome the norm,"
But how to convey Henty years he wept uncon- Miller in quotation? In essence There is the 'grosly over- trollably. "We embraced he is so many essences, in inter- the irregular, hurriedly swal- one another and then pretation he is capable of mons interpretations. so that to the lowed meals; the sudden real-we stood apart in ail- insensitive he seems facile. after a concert as he dothes for ence for another fleeting The arrangement of this book the orchestra burs, that hole moment, during which I Into Places Stories, Literary already forgotten what it was he was playing.
comprehended in a flash Essays and Portraits, each with
sation that comes on a player
On the other hand the book the appalling tragedy of makes it clear what a wealth their life and of my own
Jity and sensitivity remain
af wit, intelligence, individu- life and of every anim- the archestral misalan, ready ate creature's on earth,"
to rise above his surroundinsts,
and how on rare occasions the frustration which is his normal
of
Iot finds outlet, in a sense participation in great artistlo enterprisen.
Mr. Tilung clavations on
Disquieting
In Paris he is writing: "This is the moment, when I know that neign reading "To Versailles
a short commentary preceding,
in a happy one.
Roreading him is a disquieting experience if one lives as most
do timidly.
If Miller das genius it is a genito for living as much as for writing and when he writes "The delicious feeling
Beleg
an alion in an allen world" "i atoms from the sort of bravado. which only tho great can permit themselves with impunity,
This seivelion gives a glimpse
follow-musicians, and two con- or a sign reading To Suresnes, of the uninstakablo landscape'
ductors he has played unkle- any and all signs pointing to this of immortality.
Darbirolli, EXTER Walter or that place, should be imored, Hotentemare' shuawet pa and that one should' always "wenable," and enlivened with toward the place for which there
vivid personal touchen,
lano algn,'
go Juck Waterman
***London Express Service).
In
Europe he
air. In
The officer shook his head regretfully. Such a position was reserved for men of high rank.
Rizal must be shot in tho Но WOD brought before
counsel was back. But even la the moment of court-martial, his
12
min usurping holy the tenants of Calamba, Rizal four years, living a lonely life death
at Dapitan. He was here for But it was, and Anding the volley witch
that
Comparatively few in Manila people living in the pure air of son had made them apathelle, roomy.
and that an Immediate rising beneath a high window is the
surgeon.
MONDAY:
Enigma Filipino.
place where (All rights reserved)
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