Sunday, September 30, 2007

MATERNAL LOVE

This is my comment in Filmsick’s Blog:
http://filmsick.exteen.com/20070918/entry

เป็นหนังที่ซึ้ง แต่ไม่ฟูมฟาย ชอบการบันทึกภาพคุณแม่ในหนังเรื่องนี้ มันเป็นการแสดงออกถึงความรักทึ่ซึ้งมากๆ แต่ไม่เลี่ยน

หนังเรื่องนี้เป็นการนำ FOUND FOOTAGE จากหนังเรื่องอื่นมาใช้ในการบอกเล่าชีวิตของตัวเอง ซึ่งเป็นวิธีการที่แปลกมาก นึกไม่ออกว่ามีหนังเรื่องไหนเคยทำแบบนี้มาก่อนหรือเปล่า

ส่วนการบันทึกภาพคุณแม่ในหนังนั้น รู้สึกว่าจะมีหนังหลายเรื่องที่เคยทำแบบนี้ และแต่ละเรื่องก็มีจุดเด่นหรือข้อดีของตัวเองที่ไม่ซ้ำกัน บางเรื่องก็เป็นเรื่องแต่ง บางเรื่องก็เป็นสารคดี แต่เนื่องจากหนังเหล่านี้ส่วนใหญ่ต้องการบันทึก “ความจริง” เกี่ยวกับคุณแม่ เพราะฉะนั้นถึงหนังแบบนี้จะมีเยอะ แต่ก็ไม่ดูซ้ำซาก เพราะมนุษย์แต่ละคนไม่เหมือนกันอยู่แล้ว เพราะฉะนั้นหนังที่พยายามบันทึกความจริงเกี่ยวกับคุณแม่ จึงออกมาดูไม่เหมือนกันหรือดูไม่ซ้ำซากไปด้วย

FILMS IN WHICH THE DIRECTOR PRESENTS HIS/HER OWN MOTHER

In alphabetical order

1.DREHORT BERLIN (1987, Helga Reidemeister)

2.GERMANY IN AUTUMN (1978, Rainer Werner Fassbinder)

3.GHOSTS (2005, Anocha Suwichakornpong)

4.GOLDEN SAND HOUSE (2005, Chulayarnnon Siriphol)

5.THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW (1964, Pier Paolo Pasolini)

6.HOMEMADE SAKE (2001, Satoshi Ono)

7.IMAGES OF THE ABSENCE (1998, German Kral, Argentina)

8.ITALIANAMERICAN (1974, Martin Scorsese)

9.LITTLE PLANT AT THE OLD HOUSE (2007, Sasikan Suvanasuthi, A+)
The mother in this film is not the biological mother, but she is the one who really deserves the word “mother”.

10.LONELINESS EVERYWHERE (2007, Filmsick)
You can watch this film (in Thai) from the link below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1gzjluqgvg

11.NEVER CONGREGATE, NEVER DISREGARD (2007, Arin Rungjang)

12.ONE TRUE THING (2007, Vichart Somkaew)

13.OUR FILM (2004, Atthasit Somchob)

14.SHIT HAPPENS (2006, Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit)

15.TARNATION (2003, Jonathan Caouette)

--Of all the films above, I think I’m impressed with the presentation of mother in TARNATION the most, because it is the most hurtful. I haven’t seen GERMANY IN AUTUMN, though.


SPECIAL CASES

--NEWS FROM HOME (1977, Chantal Akerman, A+)
The mother never appears in this film, but the voiceover in this film talks about the letters Akerman wrote to her mother.

--NO PLACE TO GO (2000, Oskar Roehler, A+)
The film is about the real mother of Oskar Roehler who committed suicide.

--As for the films in which the female director presents her son, I think the one which impresses me the most is KUNG-FU MASTER (1987, Agnes Varda, A+), because it is very daring.


Images of BLUE BLACK PERMANENT (1992, Margaret Tait), in which the director deals with her own mother:

http://www.luxonline.org.uk/artists/margaret_tait/blue_black_permanent.html
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1029/1458683603_bd65cd3684_o.jpg
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1397/1458683599_cc7529a162_o.jpg
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1235/1458683597_8be2ace272_o.jpg
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1140/1458683595_bee4eeffd6_o.jpg










4 comments:

Matthew Hunt said...

Aside from the documentary ItalianAmerican, Scorsese's mother also acts in his films GoodFellas, Casino, and The King Of Comedy.

celinejulie said...

Thank you very much, Mat. I didn’t know about it. I just saw ITALIANAMERICAN several years ago, but I saw THE KING OF COMEDY, GOODFELLAS, and CASINO more than 10 years ago, and I can’t recall now which roles Scorsese’s mother played in these films. This information makes me want to see these films again. I have always wanted to revisit GOODFELLAS and THE KNG OF COMEDY (1983), because I love Sandra Bernhard in THE KING OF COMEDY very much. As for GOODFELLAS, I saw it when I was too young to appreciate it. I remember that at that time I was crazy for the spectacle of THE GODFATHER III, but didn’t understand why critics fell in love completely with GOODFELLAS. I think I will understand now if I see it again. :-)

Matthew Hunt said...

She plays Rupert's mother in The King Of Comedy, but we only hear her voice. When he is in his bedroom recording his jokes, we hear her voice interrupting.

In GoodFellas, she's Tommy's mother. In Casino, she is the wife of one of the mob bosses (I think), and she complains about him swearing. She's very sweet and funny in all these films.

I'd certainly recommend seeing GoodFellas again, especially, although I think Casino is under-rated.

celinejulie said...

Thank you very much, Mat, for your information.

(If I remember anything wrongly, please forgive me and help me correct it as I don’t trust my memory for films I saw long ago)

I like CASINO (1995, A) a lot, though it’s not the kind of films I would like to revisit again and again, because it presents another world-- the world of mafia/gangsters--where I’m not drawn to. But I like the ending of the film, which seems to lament that Las Vegas has turned into a place for family holiday. It’s strange.

CASINO also has one of the most memorable scenes of Scorsese’s films that I saw. It’s the scene of the freeze frame when Sharon Stone was throwing chips in the air.

Other scenes from Scorsese’s films which linger long in my memory:

1.The ending of GANGS OF NEW YORK (2002, A+) when the landscape of New York is changing with the passage of time. We have seen the brutality happening more than a hundred years ago. We have seen the suffering of lives there more than a hundred years ago. Then we can imagine the harsh lives of people living there 125 years ago, 100 years ago, 75 years ago, until we see the World Trade Center. This scene is very sad and hurtful for me. It seems to speak about the constant suffering of humanity.

2.The scenes when Jessica Lange put on a lipstick in the middle of the night in CAPE FEAR (1991, A)

3.The scenes of a backward tracking shot (I don’t know if I use the right word) in THE COLOR OF MONEY (1986, A+). I think it’s Paul Newman in that scene. He is going to play a pool, and then the camera is backing away from him across a few pool tables.

4.The scene near the end of THE AGE OF INNOCENCE (1993, A+) when Daniel Day-Lewis is imagining that Michelle Pfeiffer is turning back.