Ramona Diazs mesmerizing documentary IMELDA is not a recounting of the rise and fall of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos, the quintessential power couple that ruled the Philippines for twenty years, though that aspect of Imeldas remarkable life is not neglected. Rather, its a study of the mystique of the lady herself. And make no mistake about that, its a mystique to be reckoned with.
The bulk of the film is Imelda herself, talking directly to the camera as she visits her elegantly appointed homes to give us her distinctly partisan view of what happened and why. The result is a film as compelling, as complex, and as infuriating as the subject herself. There is something preternatural about this ultimate survivor as she campaigns during the hottest part of the Philippine summer and never breaks a sweat, something confirmed to me by the filmmaker. This is a woman who is sublimely conscious of her image, and hence, is always impeccably dressed, never a heavily lacquered hair out of place. She poses endlessly with the adoring fans who spot her at the Macarthur Monument, she tells her driver to hand out autographed photos of herself to shower on others who crowd around her campaign bus. Though the sound catches her sensibly telling her assistant, sotto voice, to not overdo the giveaway as she waves and smiles serenely through the window.
Though given to playing the victim of her own good nature and general ignorance of the seamier side of politics with a sweet, sad expression to her still-striking face, Imelda isnt let off the hook by Diaz. Intercut with the reverie of her fantasy life where beauty is the only goal and Marcos measured out her food so that she would stay slim and photogenic, is footage of the unbearable poverty and suffering caused by the Marcos’ during their reign, including a heart-stopping sequence aboard the airplane opposition leader Beningno Aquino has just exited only to be assassinated on the tarmac at the bottom of the stairs.
Where with another person you’d want to stop and argue with the patently fictitious assertions, contradicted here and there by a bevy of eyewitnesses, journalists, and government officials, there is something hypnotic about Imelda’s complete conviction. Hers is a world built on so much ego, denial, and fantasy that it takes on the proportions of an epic fable, so far removed from reality that it becomes as irresistible as Scheherazade’s 1001 cliff-hanging tales. You can’t wait for what will come out of her next.
And youre rewarded. The visit to Ferdinand Marcos glass-encased refrigerated casket where Imelda looks adoringly at the sunken features of her dearly departed while rhapsodizing about him. The extended sequence of Imelda explaining her convoluted but carefully thought out cosmology. It involves drawings, philosophy, and, of course, the role of beauty in the order of the universe. During the lecture, Diaz cuts to a Philippine Cardinal recalling his marathon lecture that lasted four hours and included a video portion to continue when Imelda needed to take a break.
Its the string of admirers that make the biggest impression. Childhood friends you expect, especially if there are favors to be had by a new Marcos regime; her kids, only two of which are interviewed, who use her in their political campaigns, of course. Even so, the museum of her early life that seems to confuse her with the Blessed Virgin Mary gives one pause. Its the juror from her New York trial, though, that makes the biggest impression. Hes shown holding the cherished autographed photo of herself (what else?) that she presented to him at the post-acquittal party she threw for the jurors. Thats a testament to her charm and charisma.
By the end, there is no question of excusing the excesses of either the Marcos regime or of Imelda herself. And, yes, we visit the infamous shoe collection, housed in a museum and guarded by a young woman who may earn minimum wage, but is nonetheless star-struck by it all. Yet, Diaz has done something remarkable. She has made us understand why Imelda, through sheer force of her personality, could come from abject poverty in the third world, rise to the world stage, and not only come back from what should have been oblivion, but come back as a potent, if still controversial, political force in the country that expelled her almost 20 years ago. Perhaps its not because people are fooled so much as that they want to be fooled. Thats a powerful indictment. And not just of Imelda.
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