PARIYA WONGRABIAB IS THAI STEPHANE AUDRAN

This is my comment in SUPPOSED AURA’S BLOG:
http://supposedaura.blogspot.com/2007/08/costa-carte-blanche.html



I have never heard of this festival before, but I think it sounds more interesting than the Venice Film Festival. I also have never heard of Jean-Claude Rousseau, but I search the internet and find a little article about him in www.ncncine.com . I think he is a very interesting filmmaker.

Patricio Guzman, Angela Schanelec, and Tahani Rached are also in the jury at this festival. Wow! I think whoever organizes this festival really cares and knows about cinema.

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THIS IS MY COMMENT IN SCREENOUT WEBBOARD
http://www.xq28.net/wow/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=192&p=40145#p40145


ตอบพี่ KIT

ดีใจมากค่ะที่พี่ KIT กลับมาแล้ว ช่วงนี้ดิฉันแทบไม่ค่อยว่างเลยค่ะ ไม่ได้เขียนอะไรเป็นชิ้นเป็นอันเลย ส่วนใหญ่แปะแค่อันดับโล่งๆอย่างเดียว แต่ก็จะพยายามเขียนแสดงความเห็นให้มากขึ้นถ้ามีโอกาสค่ะ



Vespertine just gave me a DVD of short films by Sompot Chidgasornpongse. I watched these films and like them very much. So I think I should make a list of Sompot’s films that I saw.

Films directed by Sompot Chidgasornpongse in my preferential order:

1.LANDSCAPE 101 01 1101 01… (2007, 28 min, A+)

I like some films which have no story, because they allow me to create a story of my own, though the director may not intend it. As for this film, there are some scenes in it which inspire me to imagine myself as the Mother Earth. I felt as if I was the Mother Earth visiting the burnt forest. The digitally blurred images of the burnt forest in this film make me feel as if I (the Mother Earth) was watching the burnt forest through my tears.

I don’t know the intention of the director. Maybe he is interested in the “digital” medium and digital images and didn’t intend for the viewer to have a wild imagination like me. But I am not interested in the difference between digital medium and celluloid medium, or something like that. I can’t differentiate between them. Anyway, I find a way to greatly enjoy this film, though it might be very different from the intention of the director.

Talking about “digital” medium, I think I would like to read the book DEATH 24x A SECOND: STILLNESS AND THE MOVING IMAGE by Laura Mulvey. There’s an interesting article about this book in SENSES OF CINEMA. It’s called THE REMOTE CONTROL AS POLITICAL WEAPON and written by Jeroen Gerrits.

http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/books/07/44/death-24x-second.html


An excerpt from this article:

“The digital image is characterised by a break, or at least by a deep attenuation, of the indexical relationship with the pro-filmic object or event. No longer inscribing light automatically onto photosensitive material (celluloid), digital recordings convert their objects into a numerical system. Therefore, the digital, in Mulvey’s words, “finally” swept away “the relation with reality” (p. 18) which is true even without manipulations to which digital images lend themselves so well.”


2.BANGKOK IN THE EVENING (2005, A+)

I like the later part of this film very much when Sompot shows us only buildings. Sometimes I wonder if Sompot is better at filming buildings and landscape than filming human beings.


3.AOD DEE (ARROGANT) ( 2003, 10 min, A+)

This is a kind of essay film. Sompot criticized the social trends at that moment by having a guy talking incessantly to the camera. What the guy talked all through the film is the opposite of what Sompot thought or believed. I like this kind of essay film very much, but there are few Thai filmmakers who make this kind of films. This film should be screened together with the films of Prap Boonpan, Manutsak Dokmai, and Watthana Rujirojsakul.


4.TO INFINITY AND BEYOND (2004, 10 min, A+)

5.ANDAMAN (2005, A+)

6.8,241.46 MILES FROM HOME (2006, 6 min, A+)

Somehow this film reminds me of FATA MORGANA (Werner Herzog) though these two films have nothing in common. This film reminds me of FATA MORGANA because both films make me feel as if I was an alien visiting the earth for the first time and looking at the landscape of the earth with amazement, wonder, and alienation.


7.NAOKO IS TRYING TO TEACH ME HOW TO MAKE “TONKATSU” IN 1 MINUTE (2006, 1 min, A+)

I think this film might be about how difficult it is to cross the language and cultural barriers and connect to foreigners. Though I have never been abroad and rarely have a chance to talk to foreigners, this film still reminds me of some experiences. It makes me think about the difficulty when I try to put my feelings into words. Sometimes I find it very hard, very difficult, to describe my feelings by using words.


8.ABC (2006, Sompot Chidgasornpongse + Nika Shek, 3 min, A+)


Sompot and Panu Traivej, a famous young Thai writer, also directed a short film called RORE TER YOO TRONG NEE (WAITING FOR YOU HERE) (2003, 4 min), but I haven’t seen this film yet. I hope Sompot will release a DVD of this short film soon.

--Apichatpong Weerasethakul also spoke about Sompot Chidgasornpongse when he was interviewed in the EVENING CLASS.
http://theeveningclass.blogspot.com/2007/04/thai-cinema-evening-class-interview.html


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THINGS SEEN FROM 1 – 11 SEPTEMBER 2007


1.HEREMIAS (2006, Lav Diaz, A++++++++++)


2.EVERYTHING WILL FLOW (2000, Punlop Horharin, A++++++++++)
Second viewing


3.DEMENTIA (1953, John Parker, A+++++)
Thank you, Filmsick, for giving me this DVD. I think it should be screened together with REPULSION. I like the scene when the heroine gives “that thing” to the flower girl very much.


4.LOULOU (1980, Maurice Pialat, A+++++)
From video.

I like the family get-together scene when a family member turns mad and tries to kill other people.


5.THE HOUSE (2007, Monthon Arayangkoon, A+++++)

I think now I may like Monthon Arayangkoon more than artists like Wisit Sasanatieng. What I like very much in THE HOUSE and THE VICTIM (2006, Monthon Arayangkoon, A+) is hard to describe. I find these films, or the world depicted in these films, very seductive to me. I like the shadows and the darkness in these films. They are very inviting for me. Candy-colored worlds depicted in Wisit’s films make me feel alienated. Dark shadows depicted in Monthon’s films make me feel like home.


6.BUG (2006, William Friedkin, A+++++)


7.ROBERTO SUCCO (2001, Cedric Kahn, A+)
From video.

I like the calm teacher in this film very much. Strangely, this film reminds of LOVE CONQUERS ALL (2006, Tan Chui Mui, A+), because in LOVE CONQUERS ALL, the heroine would not have suffered a lot if she had decided to jump out of a running car, or jumps out of the bad romantic life. I think the heroine of LOVE CONQUERS ALL suffered partly because she is not a decisive, brave woman. The calm teacher in ROBERTO SUCCO survives because she is decisive. She is brave. She dares to jump out of a running car. She acts according to her will, not acts according to what others tell her to do.


8.MORIR (O NO) (2000, Ventura Pons, A+)
From video.


9.ENSEMBLE, C’EST TOUT (2007, Claude Berri, A+)


10.TEXAS SOMYOT MASSACRE TRILOGY (2006, Nathan Homsup, Dhan Lhaow, A+)


11.THE TRUTH BE TOLD (2007, Pimpaka Towira, A+)
Wise Kwai wrote about this film here:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/vine/journal_view.php?journalid=100000335&entryid=446767&view=public



12.TWO DAYS IN PARIS (2007, Julie Delpy, A+/A)


13.LA RONDE (GON-RAK GAME LOVE) (2007, Damkerng Thitapiyasak, A)

This is a stage play starring Pariya Wongrabiab, whom I think should be called the Thai Stephane Audran, because

--Pariya is a great actress like Stephane Audran

--Pariya excels in roles concerning adultery like Stephane Audran

--Pariya is a burning ice queen like Stephane Audran. She can look cool and elegant, but there is a fire burning beneath her cool, elegant surface.


14.LITTLE BASTARDS (LOOK KHUN LUANG) (2007, Pa-un Jantarasiri, A)
Is this stage play anti-democracy or just showing the problems of democracy? I don’t know.


15.SMILES OF A SUMMER NIGHT (1955, Ingmar Bergman, A)
From video.

This is a pleasant romantic comedy, but there’s one impressive scene which hints at what Bergman’s films would be in the future. It’s the scene when the Countess speaks about her hatred for her husband. In that scene, the Countess seems to be on the verge of a nervous breakdown or seems to be ready to turn into an insane woman. There’s enormous pain in that scene.


16.PREMONITION (2007, Mennan Yapo, A)

Dechito wrote about this film here:
http://dechito.blogspot.com/2007/09/premonition.html



17.KHON-HEW-HUA (2007, Ping Lumpraploeng, A)


18.EDI (2002, Piotr Trzaskalski, Poland, A)
Thank you, Filmsick, for giving me this DVD.


19.PIERREPOINT (2005, Adrian Shergold, A/A-)
From cable TV.


20.SLURPY BOY (2007, Kajornpong Bantheangsuk, Nathan Homsup, Dhan Lhaow, Pongtorn Bantheangsuk, A-)


21.HWANG JIN-YI (2007, Chang Yoon-hyun, A-)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1059200/



22.PHONE MOOD (2007, Tanwarin Sukkhapisit, B+)

Wise Kwai wrote about this film here:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/vine/journal_view.php?journalid=100000335&entryid=446905&view=public