INDIA SONG FOR THE SEVENTH TIME

COPY FROM AN E-MAIL I SENT TO SOMEONE

I just had a chance to see INDIA SONG for the seventh time, and EDEN AND AFTER (1970, ALAIN ROBBE-GRILLET, A+++++++++++++++) for the third time in my life. These movies made me glad that I’m still alive today to have a chance to see them again. This time some of my friends also had a chance to see these movies with me, and they also like the movies very much.

I’m still mesmerized by these movies. I also saw a documentary called THE COLOUR OF WORDS: INDIA SONG (1984, JEROME BEAUJOUR + JEAN MASCOLO, A+). It contains the interview of Marguerite Duras, Delphine Seyrig, Michael Lonsdale, and Bruno Nuytten (the cinematographer). It has a lot of useful information about INDIA SONG and the life of DURAS. Have you seen this documentary?

Duras said in the documentary that ANNE-MARIE STRETTER, the character played by Seyrig, was based on a real lady in a French embassy in Indochina. Duras was about 8 years old at that time, and she thought of that lady as her second mother. She liked to observe that lady from afar. Because Duras’ family was very poor, so the embassy never invited this family to any party.

Duras became more impressed with this lady when she learned that a man just committed suicide because of his unrequited love for this lady. At the age of 8, Duras had never known before that a love could be as powerful as that. The knowing of the suicide changed DURAS a lot at that time.

I also watched a lot of DVDs. I just bought a DVD player for the first time in November last year. One of my most favorite DVDs is VIDEOGRAMS OF A REVOLUTION (1992, HARUN FAROCKI, A+++++++++++++++). It is a documentary compiling from many amateur videos shot by Romanian people during the overthrow of CEAUSESCU in 1989. I was stunned by this movie and I cried. This movie shows almost nothing about the brutality of CEAUSESCU regime. It focuses mainly on what happened in a TV station during the revolution, and how the TV people tried to prevent the bloodshed. FAROCKI, the director of this movie, is absolutely amazing.