Prisoner of the Dark

Bilanggo sa Dilim

Philippines

1986

85 Min

Color

Tagalog

Currently 4.0/5 Stars.
1
2
3
4
5

|

SCR Bobby Lavides, Mike De Leon, Jose Almojuela, John Fowles

CAST Joel Torre, Cherie Gil, Rio Locsin

In Bilanggo Sa Dilim (Solid Video, 1986) Mike de Leon has taken an extraneous source, John Fowles novel The Collector (1963) as the basis for his story and judging from the onscreen evidence, it is the filmmaker’s bravura orchestration of the video format’s exasperatingly restraint instruments that saves the adaptation from an obviously literary premise. In one singular instance he completely subverts the language of film when in the climactic chase scene, he cuts to a high-angle slow motion shot of Marissa (Cherie Gil) and Eddie (Joel Torre), wherein basic cinematographic conditioning ascribes a connotation of detachment for high angles and that of relaxation for slow motion takes but in Bilanggo Sa Dilim the combined usage of both techniques produced a startling realization of the beauty inherent in outbursts of violence. This is not in itself an original idea but it points to something that has never been carefully considered before in local practice, that video, instead of acting as an adjunct to film can in fact attain more effective peaks of expression by breaking free of the rules of conventional usage, in the manner of the more advanced items in cinema. That in itself should ensure more than just incidental stature in an already reputable body of aesthetic achievements in Philippine cinema.

In his past films, Mike de Leon used to rely on the relative expertise of his performers as a given, in Bilanggo Sa Dilim he has been able to draw out harmonious ensemble acting from his cast. In addition, he allowed one of the protagonists to develop with a sympathetic sensuality that forges a face of violation and ambiguous sympathy coupled with the appropriate resources of Cherie Gil resulting in the first honest to goodness flesh and blood character as opposed to performance in any de Leon film yet. Joel Torre bears the full weight of his films’ dilemmas on his shoulders but never shows weariness, only the strain of a kind of portrayal that acts, thinks and makes sense of experience deeply and not so much to shift the burden as part of the collective predicament. Rio Locsin’s performance as Margie evinces in highly nuanced auras the emotional ravage of desperation. The stress is engraved into her harried face which festers like a wound or lesion. Bilanggo Sa Dilim is able to rethink the ways in which the melodramatic thriller could be appropriated as the idiom through which the suspense of violation is conveyed. -—sari-saringsinengpinoy.blogspot.com

Director

Mike De Leon

Miguel Pamintuan de Leon is a noted Filipino film director, cinematographer, scripwriter and film producer. His is also known as Mike de Leon. He was born in Manila on May 24, 1947 to Manuel de Leon and Imelda Pamintuan. His interest in filmmaking began when he pursued a master’s degree in Art History at the University of Heidelberg, Germany.

De Lion first made two short films namely: Sa Bisperas, 1972, and Monologo (Monologue), 1975. He established the Cinema Artists Philippines in 1975. He produced Lino Brocka’s Maynila: Sa mga Kuko ng Liwanag, while also acting as the said film’s cinematographer in 1975. For Maynila: Sa Mga Kuko ng Liwanag, de Leon won best cinematography awarded by the Filipino Academy of Movie Arts and Sciences (FAMAS).

De Leon’s films are a full reflection of the Filipino psyche that sought answer for questions on social class belonging, political absurdities, and fragmentations in various forms. His first major full-length work was, Itim (Black… read more

Miguel Pamintuan de Leon is a noted Filipino film director, cinematographer, scripwriter and film producer. His is also known as Mike de Leon. He was born in Manila on May 24, 1947 to Manuel de Leon and Imelda Pamintuan. His interest in filmmaking began when he pursued a master’s degree in Art History at the University of Heidelberg, Germany.

De Lion first made two short films namely: Sa Bisperas, 1972, and Monologo (Monologue), 1975. He established the Cinema Artists Philippines in 1975. He produced Lino Brocka’s Maynila: Sa mga Kuko ng Liwanag, while also acting as the said film’s cinematographer in 1975. For Maynila: Sa Mga Kuko ng Liwanag, de Leon won best cinematography awarded by the Filipino Academy of Movie Arts and Sciences (FAMAS).

De Leon’s films are a full reflection of the Filipino psyche that sought answer for questions on social class belonging, political absurdities, and fragmentations in various forms. His first major full-length work was, Itim (Black), in 1976. It was an in-depth study of guilt and violence and shows de Leon’s delicate balancing of cinematic elements to project mood and character. It was voted by the Philippine’s Urian Awards as one of the Ten Outstanding Films of the Decade: 1970-1979. The film also won him the best director award during the 1978 Asian Film Festival held in Sydney, Australia.

When De Leon created Kung Mangarap Ka’t Magising in 1977, it became a tribute to his grandmother Doña Sisang to celebrate the centennial of the family’s film company, LVN Pictures.

Known for his varied experiments in styles of film directing, he pushed the birth of the new musical in Kakabakaba Ka Ba?, a landmark film which portrayed a number of self-important totems of Philippine society. Kakabakaba Ka ba? won for de Leon the Urian award for best director.

His other movies include Kisapmata (1981), Batch ’81 (1982) and Sister Stella L. (1984). In these films he tackled social and political issues with powerful and disturbing imagery. His blockbuster film, Hindi Nahahati ang Langit (1985) was an adaptation from an earlier Filipino Komiks version of the same title. In 1987, de Leon also made Bilanggo sa Dilim, a full-length video commissioned by Sony Entertainment.

De Leon explored subjects such as incest, fraternity violence, and the Filipino workers’ cause. These were themes that were portrayed in the films Kisapmata, Batch ‘81 and Sister Stella L. respectively. These films became cinematic masterpieces in Philippine History of Filmography and were later listed as the Philippines’s Ten Outstanding Films of the Decade: 1980-1989 by the Philippines’ Urian Awards. Later on, Batch ‘81 was voted best picture by the Film Academy of the Philippines (FAP) where de Leon also won a best screenplay award. For Sister Stella L. de Leon won best director and best screenplay in the Philippines’s Urian Awards in 1984. Kisapmata and Batch ‘81 were presented during the Directors’ Fortnight at the 1982 Cannes Film Festival. The film Sister Stella L. was an entry during the 1985 Venice Film Festival. —Wikipedia

read less