BEING STILL, FEELING UNBEARABLY STRONG

Recently I have seen some films which have something in common: they show a character which is doing nothing except standing still or sitting still, or a character which is in a non-moving stage in life. However, by showing characters which is in a still mode, these films are not at all boring. In fact, they afftect my emotions very strongly very aggressively.

Films in this group may include:

1.SEEING SPACE AND HEARING SPACE (1974, Valie Export, A+)

This film shows a woman standing still in a room, but shows the image of this woman from various angles or from split screen techniques. The woman does nothing except standing still, but the exhilarating feelings I get from this film are nothing less than the excitement I got from watching extraordinary dance music videos or dance films such as IBERIA (2005, Carlos Saura, A+). This film really shows the power of the editing. You don’t have to move. You just stand still. Let the editor do the work for you. The editor can make your “still images” very very moving.

More innformation about this film from Medien Kunst Netz:
http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/raumsehen/images/7/

“Like in 'Split Reality', the personality conveyed by a medium in this performance tape appears to be schizophrenic. Two video cameras and a mixer make possible a closed-circuit action that demonstrates not only the differences in the way the viewers perceive a person who is physically present in the room and simultaneously electronically reproduced, but also how the image is manipulated by its electronic conveyance. The camera zooms in and out, subjecting the performer's monitor likeness to permanent alteration. Specific synthetic sounds are linked to the picture: optically close = loud sound and rapid tone repetition, optically remote = quiet sound and slow tone repetition. The work is arranged in 6 parts: 1. space position, 2. split images, 3. space position composition, 4. split image composition, 5. body, 6. body composition.”


2.WORLD MASTER (1994, Zoran Solomun, 71 min, Germany, A+)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108545/

In this film, a young girl enters a music competition, but when it’s her turn to compete on the stage, her turn to show her ability to the world, she just sits still on the stage, refuses to play, and says, “Everything is fine.”

I can’t give you the solid reasons why she chooses to sit still like that and throws her chance of being famous away. But I think I understand her feelings. She just doesn’t want to do it, so she doesn’t do it. Maybe she feels too sad to play the music after many things happening in the film. Anyway, by choosing to sit still on the stage, the heroine makes this scene unforgettable for me.


3.THE FOURTH WORLD (2007, Chayanis Wongthongdee + Techanan Jirachotrawee, 13 min, A+)

One of my most favorite scenes this year is the scene of a girl sitting still in this film while the music seems to reach the highest point. The girl just sits there. Her face is covered in the dark, while the music gives the feeling of something very aggressive. There is nothing at all happening in this scene. But I feel as if the girl is about to get killed or transform into a monster or something like that. It’s the clever use of music, the clever use of lighting, and the stunning cinematography which make me feel like that. The camera doesn’t have to move. The girl doesn’t have to move. The music, combined with other elements in the scene, can take the audience to the brink of insanity.


4.WHEN THE MOVIE LISTENS (2007, Tulapop Saenjaroen, 11 min, A+)

This film shows a boy sitting still, facing the camera, willing to listen to anything the audience want to say to him. However, after watching the boy doing nothing except staring at the audience for about 5 minutes, I began to feel some kind of stress. And the stress keeps rising and rising until the film ends.


5.MY GRANDMOM (2007, Nawanont Wongkhajit, 5 min, A+)

Though many Thai directors have made documentaries about their old relatives, this film still makes me feel as if I saw something new. In this film, the grandmom does almost nothing. The camera doesn’t move. There is not an ounce of sentimentality.

I think the duration of the scene is really important in a scene in which nothing happens. I like the length of WHEN THE MOVIE LISTENS very much, because the length of the scene creates some kind of high tension for me. But I like the briefness of MY GRANDMOM very much, because the briefness of the scene prevents the scene from being too sentimental.


6.ESCAPE FROM POPRAYA 2526 (2007, Paisit Punpruksachart, A+)

The first scene of this film shows a little girl sitting and doing nothing except saying, “No”, “I won’t tell you”, and “I won’t go”. She keeps saying these three phrases many times. The girl tries to resist someone outside the frame. She does a strong resistance by sitting still and keeps saying no, no, and no. The scene is very funny, but at the same time, the character is very interesting in my point of view because of her strong will to fight, her disobedience, her spirit of rebellion. The viewers never know why the girl is like that or what really happens. It’s hard to decide whether to admire or hate this stubborn character because the film never tells you what the girl resists. Does she resist the command of a good person or a bad person? The viewer never knows and never be able to judge.


7.YOU’RE (2007, Sarun Srisingchai, 5 min, A+)

This film show some stunning images shot in black and white. The images are mostly dark. The viewers can only see the silhouettes of the characters posing in various ways. However, the film can create some strong and intense atmosphere. And that’s why I love it.


8.(APPLICATION) (2007, Wanweaw Hongwiwat + Weawwan Hongwiwat, A+/A)

The heroine in this film does many things, but she seems to really move nowhere. The film chooses to tell a part of her life which may be the most “undramatic” part of her life—being unemployed and waiting for a job. There’s nothing exciting happening in this film. But the charm of this film lies in the small details of the heroine’s activities in her boring daily life. The scenes that I like very much include the scene in which the heroine tries to pull out a certain dvd stuck in the middle of a high stack of dvds without causing the stack to fall down, and the scene in which she writes her name and surname in the same box in an application form and then erases her surname because she just notices that there is another box for surname. These are the kind of things that I do in daily life, but I hardly see them shown in other films.


9.APPARTEMENT THAI (2007, Satja Uasamanjit, A+/A)

This film also chooses to depict the most “undramatic” part in a woman’s life. The heroine of this film seems to experience something very bad before the film begins, but the film doesn’t show us that dramatic or exciting parts in her life. The film only shows us the part when she is waiting to go home. She really does nothing exciting. She talks to some people and seems to gain some wisdom. She has problems with her ways of washing clothes. She hangs clothes in her room. Does she really do anything meaningful in this film? I can’t remember, but the most important thing is that I don’t feel bored at all in this film. I just like looking at the heroine’s face. Her face seems sad, seems like the face of someone who really has bad life experience in the past.


MORE OF MY AWARDS

MOST FAVORITE ACTOR

The leading actor in A STRANGER FROM THE SOUTH (2007, Phuttipong Aroonpheng, A+)