THE director with his Hollywood actress subject: “My idea was to let Penelope’s personality shine through.” PHOTO COURTESY OF MARTIN ARNALDO

MANILA, Philippines - Martin Arnaldo, a Filipino director who grew up in France and the United States, recalls that he “hyperventilated” the first time he heard the good news.

“After I calmed down, I informed Cecile Guidote, my producer in Unitel, that I might need to move our shoot in Manila in July because of a possible TV ad with (actress) Andie MacDowell in Los Angeles,” Martin recalls.

Nothing was certain then. The next time he got a call, there was a slight change in plans.

Ecstatic

“Instead of Andie in LA, I’d be shooting a L’Oréal hair color commercial with Penelope Cruz in Barcelona,” says Arnaldo. “Turned out Penelope was wrapping up a Woody Allen film in Spain.”

He was ecstatic. A long waiting game then ensued, he recounts. “I had to write and submit a ‘treatment.’ The director’s notes.” He had to compete with advertising bigwigs, “popular directors who had worked with Penelope and Madonna in the past.”

In vying for the job, Arnaldo showed the clients a reel of his previous works, mainly shampoo ads done under Unitel, including those starring KC Concepcion.

While he was attending the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival in June, Arnaldo learned that he had clinched the deal and that the shoot had been moved to a penthouse in Paris.

Arnaldo surmises that he bagged the Penelope project because he offered a novel approach.

“It’s the Asian touch,” he says. “My idea was to let Penelope’s personality shine through. In previous ads, she came across as cold and stiff. We wanted to present her as warm and natural.”

On the day of the shoot on July 12, Arnaldo finally met the Spanish actress and her Hollywood-size entourage.

Cruz, who arrived 11 a.m., brought along her mom, two agents and a few friends to the set. Cruz and company were housed in two massive trailers.

“One trailer was for hair and makeup and the other one was furnished with flat-screen TV sets and a massage table,” he says.

‘Tough cookie’

He describes the actress as very meticulous. “She’s a tough cookie. She pays attention to the tiniest details.”

He noticed that it was vital to put the star at ease. Which he accomplished, with dispatch. “I think it’s the Asian thing. I brought along hair stylists from Thailand who disarmed Penelope with their gentleness,” he says. “She also appreciated that she had beautiful angles.”

Arnaldo, first cousin of Filipino actress Chin-Chin Gutierrez, knows a thing or two about feminine allure.

Readjusting the camera

“I readjusted the camera because she had a unique face,” he says. “In beauty ads, you always shoot above the eye line. But with Penelope, I shot beneath the eye line. I noticed it right away.”

He was impressed. “Penelope explodes in front of the camera. There is no bad take with her.”

The shoot went smoothly. “She was happy and, at the end of the shoot, she hugged and kissed me. She said that she hopes to work with me again.”

He was at a loss for words.

“I was so honored, I just looked at her. I didn’t know what to say,” he says. Arnaldo gathered a topnotch team for this L’Oréal shoot.

His assistant director Ali Cherkaoui worked on Ridley Scott’s “Gladiator” and Steven Spielberg’s “Munich.” His director of photography Karl Oskarsson worked in commercials with “world-renowned” directors and in a music video starring Icelandic singer Björk. His sound engineer Alain Curvelier worked in Robert Altman’s “Ready to Wear.”

But Arnaldo took a circuitous route before he became a director.

After graduating summa cum laude with a degree in Philosophy from Boston College, he took up a doctorate’s degree in Literature under novelist Milan Kundera at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris.

Writing was arduous for Arnaldo who was straddling three cultures: French, American and Filipino.

“I was messed up, thinking in English and writing in French,” he admits.

It was while taking in a lecture given by Kundera that he realized his true calling.

“Kundera played classical music while discussing structure and form. It made me think about the nature of structure and images—which go beyond language. I then understood that it was film that I had to do.”

In 1996, he finished Film at the Ecole Supérieure de Réalisation Audiovisuelle in Paris.

‘Project BW’

Soon enough, he directed a short film entitled “Project BW” which utilized the then-cutting edge motion capture technology and was showcased at the Cannes Film Festival in 1998.

“Project BW” also led him back to the Philippines, where it was shown at the French Film Festival in 1998.

Later, he met Tony Gloria of Unitel who signed him up as one of the in-house directors of his advertising production firm.

“When I first met him, I instantly knew that his caliber was international,” says Gloria.

Unitel Pictures is teaming up with Arnaldo in crafting his first feature film, “BW,” a post-apocalyptic “western” that he intends to shoot in Manila.

He’s been nurturing this film since 1998. “We were supposed to shoot in Europe, but when I saw the abandoned buildings in Manila, I decided to shoot here.”

He finds Manila “inspiring”; its “chaos and madness,” invigorating.

He plans to hire a Pan-Asian cast and work with “Ang Mundo ni Andong Agimat” author/illustrator Arnold Arre as art director. He also wants to tap a Kali troupe from Bacolod.

He insists on using Kali, the Filipino martial art, in action sequences as a tribute to his roots.

“I’m a third generation expat. My grandfather and father were expatriates. My father (who worked for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) and I don’t speak a word of Filipino. My writing has always been about a search for identity,” he explains. “I’ve always had these questions …”

Returning to and working in the Philippines afford him the chance to give thanks as well.

“The Philippines has been very good to me. It was here that I developed my craft,” he says

Penelope is far from being an A list actress. That fell through after she and Tom Cruise broke up. Sounds more like this guy was star struck then anything else. Hope he does well in the directing field anyway.

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