One of the lovelier moments of Toronto's opening weekend was the appearance of the legendary 84-year-old Filipina actress
Anita Linda, who flew from Manila with director
Adolfo Alix, Jr and producer
Arleen Cuevas for the premiere of
Adela, their touching look at a grandmother living alone in one of Manila's notorious scavenger/dump sites.
With over 140 feature films to her credit (!), Linda began her film career in 1943 (her debut was filmed before the Japanese invasion of the Philippines), and has worked with some of the top names from every Filipine era: Gerardo de Leon in the 1950's, Lino Brocka in the '70s, Mike de Leon in the '80s and Mario O'Hara in the '9os, among others.
For all her success, this Toronto appearance was her first trip to an international film festival. For the audience in attendance, it certainly seemed worth the wait; those walking through the theater lobby afterwards could have been forgiven for thinking that Angelina Jolie was around, as Linda was mobbed post-screening by an eager gaggle of picture-takers and autograph-seekers. As elegant and charming in person as onscreen, Linda certainly could have shown Hollywood's current crop in Toronto a thing or two about glamour, and even more about working the crowd. More about Adela, and other Toronto debuts, later on.
Labels: Festival Ambassador
# posted by Jason Sanders @ 9/08/2008 01:43:00 AM
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