PAIRED UP: Anne Curtis and Sam Milby here:
Star Cinema is making history --- and money. Nothing is healthier than a national cinema with an active
studio system which continues to run the film industry generating hundreds of jobs to its people; and a diverse alternative cinema challenging the former's aesthetic, cultural and political content. Just to add a little bit of history here, the Philippine Studio system has always been with us since 1930s. It reached its
Golden Years during the 1950s-1960s which was one of the most important periods in
Philippine Cinema. We had
LVN Pictures whose films were famous for being complex in terms of production and fim costumes. We also had the
Sampaguita Pictures whose films were characterized by a pairing up of the prettiest and handsomest faces of the industry made for the youth.
Premiere Productions boasts for its action and crime films while
Lebran, Inc. was famous for their 'international' film aimed for the international audience. These were the
Big Four of the 1950s.
Star Cinema has learn a lot from these big four studios. To keep its business going, it is solely run by its mother company, ABS-CBN, one of the biggest primetime television network operating today. Spanning for more than 17 years in business, it continues to reinvent itself by combining the strategies of the big four and a careful study of taste preference of its current market. It started 1993 with three films:
Adan Ronquillo: Tubong Cavite... Laking Tondo (1993) an action film starring Bong Revilla;
Home Along Da Riles (1993), a comedy film with ensemble cast starring
Dolphy Quizon; and a romantic film
May Minamahal (1993) starring Aga Mulach and Aiko Melendez. This line up would somewhat predetermine the type of films Star Cinema would be producing in the next 16 years: action, comedy and romance.
As part of
CINEMATON! CINEMATON!'s monthly series, November is dedicated to
STAR CINEMA and its history-making track record of genre films, that, 20 to 30 years from now, would be engraved in film history books on Philippine Cinema at large.
CINEMATON! CINEMATON! offers fresh ideas with a pluralist touch on the topic:
what is really Star Cinema from bones to flesh? With a special guest writer coming soon, this November's
Cinematon will surely be as enjoyable as a fresh breath of air!
INDEX OF POSTS
Day 1
Adrian's Anatomy of AND I LOVE YOU SO (2009)
Day 2
Carl Joseph Papa's Me and You and Everyone we Know... JOLOGS!
Day 3
Miss You Like Crazy: The whole universe conspires for a happy ending by Fidan
Day 4
Chris Fajardo's Star Cinema, "Kailangan kita"...
Day 5
[link]
Ciao!
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