Saturday, June 30, 2007

FAVORITE QUOTE FROM "COUP POUR COUP"

I just watched COUP POUR COUP (BLOW FOR BLOW) (1972, Marin Karmitz, A+) from a videotape. I like it very much. One thing that I love in this film about striking female workers is the use of sound and soundtrack. The toxic sound in a factory in this film is very unbearable. I wonder what the sound of this film would be like if I saw this film in a theatre. It would be very loud and could assault the ears of the viewers very forcefully. The soundtrack of this film is also very good. It makes the film more exciting. The soundtrack of this film somehow gives me the same excitement that I have when I watch a thriller.

There is a female voiceover in COUP POUR COUP. I like what she said to the evil factory boss very much, so I quote it here:

“You thought that we were only women
But you were forced to give in.
Agnes and Colette will stay with us.
Things will be different now. We will have a say.
Your foremen aren’t so arrogant. And for good reason!
No more of your secret negotiations.
You’ll have to accept what we impose.
We know you haven’t swallowed your sequestration.
We know you’ll try to fire workers.
You and your press cried scandal.
YOU CALLED ON THE LAW. BUT YOUR LAW IS TO SEQUESTRATE WORKERS FROM THE MOMENT THEY ARE HIRED UNTIL THE END OF THE TUNNEL, WHERE THE CHRYSANTHEMUMS GROW.
OUR LAW IS JUSTICE FOR THE PEOPLE.
IT’S A KNIFE TO YOUR THROAT.
You’ll try to eliminate what you call the troublemakers.
Don’t forget that your great victory is the unity we forged with our own strength.
Unity with our husbands, who are now aware of our struggle.
Unity with other factories.
OUR FIGHT HAS SPREAD. AND MAYBE, ONE DAY, IT WILL END IN BLOODSHED.

DON’T FORGET, THE IMPORTANT THING IS NOT YOUR MEASURES.

THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IS WHAT HAS CHANGED IN OUR MINDS.

WE HAVE TAKEN THE RIGHT TO SPEAK, TO TAKE ACTION.

RIGHTS THAT YOU BOSSES HAVE DENIED US, TO MAKE US MORE SUBSERVIENT.

AND WE SHALL FIGHT FOR THOSE RIGHTS WITH VIOLENCE, TO CONQUER THEM, TO KEEP THEM UNTIL THE DAY YOU DON’T HAVE ANY MORE. "


----------------------------------------------------------

After seeing COUP POUR COUP, I think I would like to see some more films about laborers, especially the German films directed by Christian Ziewer. I have never seen any films by Christian Ziewer. I wish someone organized a Christian Ziewer retrospective in Bangkok soon.

Some information about films directed by Christian Ziewer from New York Times website:
http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/filmography.html?p_id=229412

1.DEAR MOTHER, I’M ALL RIGHT (1971)

“This German docudrama explores the ins and outs of a strike in a West Berlin factory. The story concerns a locksmith who, on the recommendation of his employment agency, comes to Berlin to interview for a job in the factory. The job has nothing to do with locksmithery; however, it is in the transport section. As a result, he is in an even testier mood than his disgruntled co-workers, and when the strike is near to being settled he wants it to continue. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide”


2.SNOWDROPS BLOOM IN SEPTEMBER (1976)

“In this combination documentary/drama, the domestic lives of two factory workers are fictionalized within a documentary treatment of events on the job during a wage dispute in early '70s West Germany. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide”


3.WALKING UPRIGHT (1976)

“Dieter Wittowski (Claus Eberth) is a factory worker who is suddenly put out of work by a strike. When he gives a newspaper interview to a reporter and makes comments supporting his co-workers, his words are edited out of shape into a form which seems to place the issue into a native-Germans versus guest-workers context. When he tries to correct things, he finds that this distortion by the newspaper accurately reflects the views of his family and co-workers, who considered him a sort of hero for saying those things. When the strike fails, he is left with an issue of conscience about whether to return to the job. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide”


4.SEE THIS LAND FROM AFAR (1978)

“A family of Chilean socialists living in West Germany, refugees from the coup which toppled Salvador Allende, attempt to survive on the few jobs which are open to them. In the story, the father has just been fired from his job because of his politically unreliable, i.e., socialist, background. The son of the family comes to the rescue by taking a job as a stockroom boy. His father strives mightily to get his job back, so that the boy can remain in school. In the meantime, the boy has made friends with a Greek socialist refugee and has found a German girlfriend. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide”


5.THE DEATH OF THE WHITE SEED (1985)

“This somewhat superficial historical drama is about the 1525 Peasants' War in Germany when the lower classes rebelled against oppressive conditions imposed by the clergy and nobility and then committed many acts (including atrocities) that did not morally set them far apart from the people they were fighting. It was a time of upheaval: Martin Luther (1483-1556) had broken away from the Catholic Church, calling for reform, and Anabaptists in Germany, like Thomas Munzer fought on the side of the peasants (opposed by Luther). This complex age and its political and religious turmoil are summed up in a story about an attack on a small monastery whose monks used a forged document to confiscate some land from the peasants. When their wrong-doing is revealed by the monk who forged the document in the first place, the peasants attack. While the peasants wait for the heralded arrival of their warrior-savior on a white horse to bring justice to their cause, their fortunes go from bad to worse as the nobility gear up for revenge. This epic story might have been better served if director Christian Ziewer's budget had not been cut, forcing economic measures that have an effect on both depth and continuity. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide”


This is an image from the DVD of DEAR MOTHER, I’M ALL RIGHT
http://www.basisdvd.de/filme/01_liebe_mutter/liebe_mutter.html



HANS BALDUNG GRIEN

MY COMMENT IN MEMORIES OF THE FUTURE’S BLOG:
http://memoriesofthefuture.wordpress.com/2007/06/09/reflections/

Some trivia for you:

1. In the book VARDA PAR AGNES (1994), Varda said that the conception of CLEO FROM 5 TO 7 was influenced by the painting DEATH AND THE MAIDEN by Hans Baldung Grien. I have searched for this painting on the internet, and found that there might be 3-4 paintings by Baldung Grien sharing the same title. I don’t know which one influenced Varda, or maybe the whole DEATH AND THE MAIDEN series of paintings influenced her.

2. CLEO FROM 5 TO 7 (1961) is indirectly referenced in MY LIFE TO LIVE (1962, Jean-Luc Godard), because in MY LIFE TO LIVE, Nana (Anna Karina) said proudly that she once appeared in a film with Eddie Constantine. And both Anna Karina and Eddie Constantine appeared in CLEO FROM 5 TO 7. (I got to know this trivia from the book GODARD ON GODARD.)

-------------------------------------------------

SOME PAINTINGS BY HANS BALDUNG GRIEN (1484-1545)

1.THREE AGES OF THE WOMAN AND THE DEATH (1509-1510)
http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/baldung/ages/
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1113/665239395_f6fddef310_o.jpg

2.DEATH AND THE MAIDEN (1517)
http://www.lamortdanslart.com/fille/maiden.htm
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1320/665239345_6a6b2c33ee_o.jpg

3.DEATH AND THE MAIDEN (1518-1520)
http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/b/baldung/1/061death.html
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1310/665239323_906c098097_o.jpg











MY COMMENT IN YMDB

My comment in Pasha Pavlyuts’ list in YMDB
http://www.shompy.com/beatpaul/l42574.html

I don’t have English subs for INDIA SONG. I watched this film when it was shown in a theatre at Alliance Francaise in Bangkok. The film I watched at that time had English subtitles.

If you have a chance to see INDIA SONG without English subtitles and wonder what the voiceover is all about, maybe you can search for the book INDIA SONG, written by Marguerite Duras, in some libraries or bookstores. I have read this book, which is a play, and find that what is said in the play is 60-70 % similar to what is said in the movie.

By the way, I’m glad to see IN MY SKIN (2002, Marina de Van) in your list. Taking a look at your list, I think you might like some poetic gloomy films. Have you seen any films by Aleksei Muradov? I have seen THE KITE (2002) and like it a lot. I think THE KITE might go well with Bela Tarr and Sharunas Bartas. Another gloomy film which I like very much is SOMBRE (1998, Philippe Grandrieux), which has been released as a DVD.

A photo from THE KITE (2002, Aleksei Muradov, A+)
http://www.cinema.bg/sff/2003/eng/movie.php?movieSid=16


Thursday, June 28, 2007

FILMS ABOUT STILL PHOTOS

This post is related to:
http://celinejulie.blogspot.com/2007/06/alain-jaubert-will-come-to-bangkok.html
http://celinejulie.blogspot.com/2007/06/ten-thai-photo-resembling-films.html


The first time I heard the name ALAIN JAUBERT is when I got a free copy of a book called MARGES DE LA PHOTO from Alliance Francaise in Bangkok a few years ago. This free book is marvelous. It has a lot of information about

1.Films about still photos

2.Photo-resembling films

I learned from this book that Alain Jaubert directed some very interesting short films. I have never seen his films, but I hope I have a chance to see them in the future (though I can't attend his film event in Bangkok this early July.)

MARGES DE LA PHOTO is a book and a film program made by Raymond Bellour, Anne Coutinot, and Sylvain Roumette.

Films listed in this book

A. INDIVIDUAL AND COLLECTIVE HISTORY

1.INTERIEURS (1982, Gilles Delavaud)

2. RAPHO, HISTOIRE D'UNE FAMILLE (1987, Frederic Mitterand, Patrick Jeudy)

3. LA MEMOIRE EN CHANTANT: LES ANNEES 40 (1988, Patrick Barberis)

4. UNE GENERATION (1982, Philippe Grandrieux)

5. RECITS D'ELLIS ISLAND TRACES (1980, Robert Bober + Georges Perec)

6. AUSCHWITZ L'ALBUM LA MEMOIRE (1984, Alain Jaubert)


B.THE "I" AND THE FAMILY ALBUM

7. MARINE TERRACE (1988, Michel Pamart)

8. EXTRAITS DU JOURNAL DE JACQUES-HENRI LATIGUE (1974, Claude Ventura)

9. LES ANNEES DECLIC 1957-1977 (1984, Raymond Depardon + Roger Ikhlef)


C.IDENTITIES

10. KARINE (1976, Robert Cahen)

11. LA FLECHE DU TEMPS (1982, Alain Jaubert)

12. CINEMATON (1978, Gerard Courant)

13. 36 976 PORTRAITS (1982, Claus Holtz + Hartmut Lerch)

14. LA PETITE CLASSE DE MONSIEUR BERTILLON (1982, Gilles Delavaud)

15. LES CARABINIERS (REVISITES) (1987, Pierre-Oscar Levy)


D.BETWEEN PHOTOGRAPHY AND PAINTING

16. FILMS SUR HANS BELLMER (1972, Catherine Binet)

17. LE PROCEDE FRESSON (1987, Jean Real)
In this film, the photographers John Batho, Frank Horvat, Georges Tourdjman and Bernard Faucon talk about the printing process they prefer: the Fresson process.

18. GEORGES ROUSSE (1985, Christophe Loizillon)

19. PANOPLIE (1978, Philippe Gaucherand)

20. JEAN LE GAC ET LE PEINTRE L (1983, Michel Pamart)

21. CHRISTIAN BOLTANSKI (1989, Alain Fleischer)

22. DETAILS ROMAN OPALKA (1987, Christophe Loizillon)


E.STILLNESS/MOVEMENT

23. CARTES POSTALES VIDEO (1986, Robert Cahen + Stephane Huter + Alain Longuet)

24. FILMING MUYBRIDGE (1981, Jean-Louis Gonnet)

25. CONTACTS: WILLIAM KLEIN (1988-1989, William Klein)

26. CONTACTS: ROBERT DOISNEAU (1988-1989, Sylvain Roumette)

27. QUATRE MINUTES QUARANTE-NEUF DE GENERATIONS D'IMAGES (1987, Denis Rousseau-Kaplan)

28. MARDI GRAS (1979, Elizabeth Lennard)

29. NEWS FROM HOME (1976, Chantal Akerman, A+)

30. LETTRE A FREDDY BUACHE (1982, Jean-Luc Godard)

31. COLLOQUE DE CHIENS (1977, Raoul Ruiz)

32. LA JETEE (1963, Chris Marker)


F.VISIBLE, INVISIBLE

33. UNE MINUTE POUR UNE IMAGE (1984, Agnes Varda)

34. LES PHOTOS D'ALIX (1980, Jean Eustache)

35. L'HORREUR DE LA LUMIERE (1982, Jean-Andre Fieschi + Georges Didi-Huberman)

36. ICI ET AILLEURS (1974, Jean-Luc Godard + Anne-Marie Mieville)
37. ULYSSE (1982, Agnes Varda)

38. LA DISPARITION (1982, Alain Jaubert)

39. TROIS HISTOIRES DE CHINE (1981, Alain Jaubert)

40. LE SPHINX (1986, Thierry Knauff)
With text from QUATRE HEURES A CHATILA by Jean Genet


--Of all the 40 films listed above, the one I'd like to see the most is UNE GENERATION (1982, Philippe Grandrieux, 11:30 minutes). I think this Grandrieux should be the same person who directed SOMBRE (1998, A+), though I'm not 100 % sure about this.

MARGES DE LA PHOTO gives a little information about UNE GENERATION. It said, "The PALUCHE and the polaroid to present a generation who has not lived through 68 and for whom the tenth of May has been the first political change. The film discloses snatches of its argument, fragments of pictures, newspaper and television, the impossible choices and the questioning of beliefs."

------------------------------------------------

MY FAVORITE FILM ABOUT PHOTO

TERMINAL BAR (2003, Stefan Nadelman, A)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0344437/


MY FAVORITE PHOTO-RESEMBLING FILM

SUBURBS OF EMPTINESS (2003, Thomas Koener, A+)
http://www.koener.de/bdv.html

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This is the photo 13eme CHAMBRE D'AMOUR by Bernard Faucon
http://www.bernardfaucon.net/photos/index.htm



FAVORITE TURKISH FILMS

RECENTLY CELINEJULIE HAS COMMENTED IN NEW SCREENOUT WEBBOARD:
http://www.xq28.net/wow/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=192&start=100

--RECOMMENED BLOG

THE EVENING CLASS ของ Michael Guillen

http://theeveningclass.blogspot.com/

ในบล็อกนี้จะมีพูดถึงหนังเกย์และเลสเบียนเยอะมาก แต่ก็มีพูดถึงหนังทั่วๆไปด้วย


ตอบคุณปีศาจความฝัน

ยังไม่ได้ดู ENTER THE PHOENIX เลยค่ะ แต่ถ้าหากพูดถึง DANIEL WU แล้ว ก็รู้สึกประทับใจกับการแสดงของเขามากๆใน PROTEGE (2007, Derek Yee, A+) รู้สึกว่าหนังเรื่องนี้อาจจะเป็นเรื่องที่ DANIEL WU ได้ใช้ฝีมือทางการแสดงมากที่สุดเรื่องนึงเท่าที่เคยดูมา

นอกจาก DANIEL WU แล้ว ตอนนี้ดิฉันก็ชอบ ALLAN WU ด้วยค่ะ รู้สึกว่าเขาจะเคยเล่นหนังเกย์เรื่อง NIGHT CORRIDOR (2003, Chi Chiu Lee) ร่วมกับ DANIEL WU
http://www.fly.com.sg/maleartistes/allan-wu/index.htm#gallery






ตอบน้อง ZM

พูดถึง "ผู้หญิงหล่อ" แล้ว ดิฉันก็มักนึกถึงตัวละครตัวนึงในหนังเรื่อง MY FATHER IS COMING (1991, Monika Treut, A-) ค่ะ ในเรื่องนี้มีตัวละครที่เป็นผู้หญิงที่แปลงเพศเป็นผู้ชาย หน้าตาหล่อดี แต่ดิฉันไม่แน่ใจว่าตัวละครตัวนี้ให้ผู้ชายจริงๆมาเล่นหรือเปล่า เข้าใจว่าดาราที่มารับบทเป็นผู้ชายแปลงเพศนี้ชื่อ MICHAEL MASSEE
http://www.hotflick.net/pictures/Michael_Massee_001.html


ตอบน้อง LOVEJUICE

ขอบคุณน้อง LOVEJUICE มากเลยค่ะที่มาเล่าเรื่องหนังให้ฟังกัน อิจฉาน้องมากๆเลยที่ได้ดูหนังหลายๆเรื่องที่คงไม่มีโอกาสได้เข้ามาฉายในไทย

TIMES AND WINDS (2006, Reha Erdem) ท่าทางจะน่าดูมากๆเลยค่ะ ดูจากรูปแล้ววิวทิวทัศน์ในหนังสวยจริงๆ

พูดถึงหนังเด็กจากตุรกีแล้วก็นึกถึงหนังเรื่อง BOATS OUT OF WATERMELOND RINDS (2004, Ahmet Ulucay) ที่เคยเข้ามาฉายในเทศกาลหนังในไทย แต่ดิฉันพลาดไม่ได้ไปดู เพราะโปรแกรมมันชนกับหนังเรื่องอื่นๆ ปรากฏว่าตอนนี้เวลาผ่านมา 2-3 ปีแล้ว หนังเรื่องนี้ก็ยังไม่ได้รับการผลิตเป็นดีวีดีเสียที

FAVORITE TURKISH FILMS

1.FOTOGRAF (2001, Kazim Oz, A+)

2.ANGEL'S FALL (2005, Semih Kaplanoglu, A+)

3.MOTHERLAND HOTEL (1987, Omer Kavur, A+)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092558/

4.INNOCENCE (1997, Zeki Demirkubuz, A+)

5.WAITING FOR THE CLOUDS (2004, Yesim Ustaoglu, A+)


Below is a photo from INNOCENCE (1997, Zeki Demirkubuz, A+)

http://www.demirkubuz.com/


KONG RITHDEE: BEWARE THE WATCHDOGS OF CINEMA

--Recommended English website about Thailand

Prachatai News
http://www.prachatai.com/english/


--Recommended Film Program in Bangkok
http://www.onopen.com/2007/editor-spaces/1936


--Recommended Article

BEWARE THE WATCHDOGS OF CINEMA

This article was written by Kong Rithdee in Bangkok Post newspaper on Saturday, June 23, 2007
http://www.bangkokpost.com/230607_News/23Jun2007_news20.php

This is not 1984, but the Thought Police continue to grind their teeth and tighten their grip with manic paranoia. Buoyed by the heaving waves of new conservatism, the Big Sisters at our Ministry of unCulture are pushing a new Film Act that promises a weird rating system that will zap us back to the Dark Ages, if not into a black hole.


Now in the pipeline to be tabled before Cabinet and subsequently to the National Legislative Assembly, the draft of the new film law, written by the Council of State under the guidance of the hawks at the unCulture Ministry, proposes a system unseen before in the history of film rating (bar Communist states). As written, there will be the G rating, given to a movie suitable for all age groups; the over-15 rating, the over-18, and here's the kick: the "Banned" rating. Hidden like a dagger in a cloak is another clause that gives legal right to the film committees, which will be made up mainly of bureaucrats, to axe "inappropriate scenes". They just adore their scissors, these self-appointed dogs - I mean watchdogs - and with the tenacity of a rottweiler biting into the arm of a suspect murderer, they'll do everything to cling on to their power to cut, hack, bite, butcher, amputate, mutilate and maim. In short, there will be both the rating and the cut. This proposed legislation is not in the least an improvement to the antiquated, pre-constitutional monarchy 1930 Film Act that is still being enforced today. Seventy-seven years of trying to catch up with reality, and still we fail miserably. It's not just disappointing, it's utterly sad.


In a sensible world, to apply the film rating and age classification means to do away with the cuts and the ban. The system works like a swimming pool with different depth levels; kids can go in at the shallow end and not the other, but there must be a deeper end into which adults can take a plunge. Only halfwits would build a swimming pool with only the shallow side and ban anything deeper, absurdly claiming that it is "dangerous" and "inappropriate". The people who've written the new film law clearly want us all to keep swimming in the kid's pool, splashing about in waist-deep water like dying beached whales, and thus dwarfing our ability to grow and seek challenges down the deeper slope.


True, it is naive to believe that the rating system is faultless, but in many countries it has proved an adequately foolproof means for the state to allow artistic freedom while retaining certain measures of control.


To advocate the No-Cut!-No-Ban! stance may sound extreme to concerned parties - what if they start making kiddie porn, what if the movies start mocking Muslims, or Sikhs or Hindus or Buddhists, what if...? Those who've raised these knee-jerk What Ifs fail to acknowledge that these offences have already been covered by other legislation, like the anti-obscenity or lese majeste laws, and that the spirit of the film act should be to encourage freedom of expression instead of crushing it.


Besides, if I wanted to make porn, I would never in my full sanity submit it to the rating committee - I would rather sell it underground (or above, in dusty corners of crummy department stores) as porn peddlers are doing it today, this minute, right now, pronto!


Harbouring a chronic, laughable mistrust against modern art, the Ministry of unCulture only flaunts the movie rating system as a subterfuge to defuse the growing anxiety of professionals and the public who are weary of fascistic censorship, but in their heart of hearts the state does not want to relinquish their god-like power to tell us what we can see. Their moralistic posturing and insistent claims that they are doing this to protect youngsters can be hardly justified, since every day we still see brain-damaging stuff on television, not to mention other media that openly plug obscure materials - like those 1-900 lines with pictures of red-lipped women - without raising any objection from those cultured people in traditional Thai dresses.


Last week the Thai Directors' Association and Thai Film Foundation submitted a petition to Cabinet to reconsider the law, particularly the heated issues of cutting and banning. In our attempt to update the 77-year-old Film Act, will we end up with a new law even more antiquated in mentality? Replacing something bad with what is worse would be the sickest joke of the year.


Kong Rithdee writes about movies and popular culture in the real.time section of the Bangkok Post.

-----------------------------------------------

Below is a poster of an anti-coup campaign in Thailand. The poster comes from http://www.onopen.com/ . This poster somehow reminds me of a French animation film called IMPRINT (1975, Jacques Cardon, A+)



Wednesday, June 27, 2007

ALAIN JAUBERT WILL COME TO BANGKOK

Below is the program of ART FILM DAY at the Alliance française of Bangkok Saturday 7 July. I can’t attend this event, because I am scheduled to work in my office that day. I feel so sad.


4 hrs : Screening of short programmes of 2 mn each :

Programme « D’art d’art » : a work of art is presented and depicted in 2 mn by the TV presenter. This show resorts to animation and special effects which makes it very original and entertaining. The following works of art will be presented :


« Etudes de ciel », Eugène Delacroix

« The Turkish bath », Jean-Auguste Dominique Ingres, (1862-1863)

« Dancing at Moulin Rouge », Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1890)

« The Fountain », Marcel Duchamp (1974/1964)

« The Dauphine », César (1959)

« Monochrom IKB 3, Yves Klein (1960)

« Closerie Falbala », Jean Dubuffet (1971-1973)



Programme « Suivez l’artiste » (« Follow the artist ») : A French artist gives his feelings in front of a work of art at the Centre Georges Pompidou, the Museum of Modern Art of Paris.


« Carry Bottles » (1914-1964) by Marcel Duchamp with Pierre Bergé

« Roger and his son » (1936) by Balthus with Pierre Arditi

« Ride with the setting sun » (1936) by Georges Rouault with Daniel Picouly

« Le Métafisyx » (1950) by Jean Dubuffet with Alain Corneau

« Anthropometry of the blue time (ANT 82) » (1960) by Yves Klein with Agnès
Varda

« Compression « Ricard » » (1962) by César with Jean Nouvel



14 hrs 30 : Presentation by Mr Alain Jaubert, French director and producer of programmes about art


Mr Jaubert will talk about the way films on art are produced in France and about his own experience as author and director of « Palettes », one of the most famous television programme about art in France. « Palettes » is a programme of art popularization focused on paintings. It was created by Alain Jaubert more than 10 years ago and it is still screened on French television. Every programme deals with one work of art and unveils its secrets : the material and the paint brush used, the historical context surrounding the painting, the characters, etc. The programme reveals to the larger public elements usually reserved to the specialists of history of art.



15 hrs15 : Screening of the programme « Palettes » (26 mn) - « 4 seasons » by Nicolas Poussin (1660-1664)


15 hrs 45 : Presentation by Dr Sayan Daengklom, Professor of History of Art and art critics, specialist of Nicolas Poussin



16 hrs 10 : Coffee Break


16 hrs 30 : Panel discussion with Mr Jaubert, Dr Sayan Daengklom, and Brian Mertens, art critic, as moderator

Questions tackled :

What is the role of media such as television in the diffusion of knowledge and
more particularly of art ?

What are the difficulties and the limits of such a process ?


17 hrs 30 : Refreshments served


Information and Booking (before July 3rd) :
Mr Alongkorn THAUBOL / Tel : 02 627 21 06 / Alongkorn.THAUBOL@diplomatie.gouv.fr

Miss Géraldine Durand / Tel : 02 627 21 05 / Fax : 02 627 21 11 /
geraldine.durand@diplomatie.gouv.fr


--------------------------------------------

Below is UNTITLED FIRE PAINTING (1961) by Yves Klein
http://www.diacenter.org/kos/images/klein.html


I'M ASHAMED OF MY FALSE MEMORY

I apologize to those who have read my blog. Today I have made some corrections concerning my mentioning about THE BIRTH OF LOVE (1993, Philippe Garrel, A+). I wrote last week that some similar things between LE COEUR FANTOME and THE BIRTH OF LOVE include a story involving painting.

Today I deleted that sentence. Because I just realized a few minutes ago that I had been confused between THE BIRTH OF LOVE and LATE AUGUST, EARLY SEPTEMBER (1998, Olivier Assayas, A-). There is something concerning a painting in LATE AUGUST, EARLY SEPTEMBER, but I don’t think it is in THE BIRTH OF LOVE.

If I don’t remember it wrongly, in LATE AUGUST, EARLY SEPTEMBER, the character played by Mia Hansen-Love had something to do with a painting. But last week I thought that character was in THE BIRTH OF LOVE. I was wrong.

Below is a photo from ETOILE VIOLETTE (2005, Axelle Ropert), starring Lou Castel. He is also the main actor in THE BIRTH OF LOVE. The photo comes from http://www.allocine.fr/



"THERE ARE NO ANSWERS IN LIFE."

I went to see HAPPY ENDINGS (2005, Don Roos, A) on Saturday. I like it very much. There are many things in the film which are unpredictable for me. However, after the film ended, I think the film is too “calculated”. (I don’t know if I use the right English word.)

The feeling that the film is too calculated made me analyze my feeling further. I think that in the past I didn’t mind so much if any film was too calculated or not. Some of my friends hate films such as AMERICAN BEAUTY and LA CLASSE DE NEIGE (1998, Claude Miller, A+), accusing them as too calculated. But I love AMERICAN BEAUTY and LA CLASSE DE NEIGE.

Why I seemed to mind that HAPPY ENDINGS is too calculated, and gave it A instead of A+. What made me feel like that?

I came to a conclusion that my feeling might not be the result of anything in HAPPY ENDINGS, but the real cause of my feeling is the fact that I watched LE COEUR FANTOME (1996, Philippe Garrel, A+) about a week ago. After watching this masterpiece (in my point of view), it seems as if every film by other directors looks too calculated for me.

At first I feel reluctant about whether I should blame it on Philippe Garrel or not. But after I re-read an article on Garrel by Maximilian Le Cain in Sense of Cinema, I think I should really blame it on Philippe Garrel, not on Don Roos.

The following paragraph is written by Maximilian Le Cain:
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/01/12/garrel.html

“Garrel's films are made up of moments, moments of day-to-day intimacy or alienation, often elliptically linked. Quiet conversations and silences between friends and lovers. And thought. Few other directors have made reflection so central to their filmmaking and almost none have captured it with such unforced grace. It is a cinema of contemplation rather than narrative. He shoots with the most basic means in an elegant, portrait like style. Sometimes he uses quite long takes, always with very little cutting around in a scene and often none at all. Scenes are filmed with a stillness and a patience that do the exact opposite of what most effective narrative cinema does, that is, to grab audiences and manipulate them into a state of false emotion.”


I have seen only two films by Philippe Garrel: THE BIRTH OF LOVE and LE COEUR FANTOME, but I think I really worship him now.

--------------------------------

There is another scene that I like very much in LE COEUR FANTOME. It is an early scene when a mother (Veronique Silver) is talking to her son (Luis Rego). I like the conversation in this scene very much. So I quote it here:

MY FAVORITE MOVIE QUOTE FROM “LE COEUR FANTOME”:

Son: Why do you ask? Thinking about dad?

Mum: No. No. It’s just if you feel like that…

Son: I’ll end up like dad?

Mum: No…But things would be easier between you and Annie.

Son: It wouldn’t change anything.

Mum: It would! I’M NOT ALWAYS THINKING OF YOUR DAD. WE’VE BEEN SEPARATED 30 YEARS.

Son: That doesn’t mean anything.

Mum: Yes, it does. Things are simpler than you think.

Son: Things are simple as long as the kids come first.

Mum: I’m glad you think like that. BUT KIDS AREN’T A CURE-ALL. TAKE ME AND YOUR DAD. WE HAD THREE.

Son: Why did you split up?

Mum walks away, thinking for a while, then says: I’d give you one version, your dad, another. No one would be any the wiser.

Son: What’s your version?

Mum: THERE ARE NO ANSWERS IN LIFE. ONLY SOLUTIONS AND DECISIONS. ANSWERS ARE ONLY IN STORIES.

Son: Say I’m writing a story about you and dad, and I need your point of view.

Mum: YOU CAN SAY WE THOUGHT WE WERE MADE FOR EACH OTHER, AND THEN WE REALISED WE WERE WRONG.


--This conversation scene is now one of my most favorite scenes in this year.

-----------------

--Talking about films which show “moments of day-to-day” activities, another film which I like very much is a short film called SUN IN WINTER (DU SOLEIL EN HIVER) (2005, Samuel Collardey, A+).

----------------------

Below are some photos from LE COEUR FANTOME. I shot these photos from my TV by using my cheap mobile phone. The film is in color, but when I pressed the pause button on the video player, the picture on the screen lost the colors. These photos are very bad taken by me, I know.

VERONIQUE SILVER AS THE MOTHER:
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1337/631179195_b39be9d1ea_o.jpg

VALERIA BRUNI TEDESCHI AS THE WHORE:
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1239/631179217_764b139df4_o.jpg

EVELYNE DIDI AS THE WIFE
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1065/631179239_7186a6d634_o.jpg

JOHANNA TER STEEGE AS THE HEROIN ADDICT
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1094/631179185_29b306a4d1_o.jpg









Sunday, June 24, 2007

PARIS HILTON FROM DUSK TILL DAWN

RECENTLY CELINEJULIE HAS COMMENTED IN:

--MICHAEL GUILLEN’S BLOG:
http://theeveningclass.blogspot.com/2007/06/2007-frameline31michael-hawleys-preview.html


Hi, Maya, I also like BIG BANG LOVE, JUVENILE A a lot. It is crazy. I don’t understand anything in it. As for Takashi Miike’s films, I have seen only six of them. This is the list in my preferential order:

1.MASTERS OF HORROR: IMPRINT (2006, A+)

2.ONE MISSED CALL (2003, A+)

I don’t think this film is better than AUDITION, but I like the (too many?) twists in the plot of this film.

3.AUDITION (1999, A)

4.BLUES HARP (1998, A-)
This film also has some homoerotic feelings in it.

5.THE BIRD PEOPLE IN CHINA (1998, A-)

6.THREE…EXTREMES: BOX (2004, A-/B+)


--I’m glad you like Maria de Medeiros. I also like her a lot. She also has an interesting supporting role in MY LIFE WITHOUT ME (2003, Isabel Coixet, A+) as a hairdresser who is obsessed with Milli Vanilli.

--I like Andre Techine a lot, but I feel the pace of CHANGING TIMES (2004, A) and LOIN (2001, A) are a little bit too fast for me to feel deeply involved in it.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

PARIS HILTON FROM DUSK TILL DAWN

I wrote this imaginary movie plot just for the fun of myself, but it would be good if any of you can enjoy it, too.

My writing below is inspired by many sources, including:

1.The movie games in LIKE ANNA KARINA’S SWEATER website
http://www.filmbrain.com/

2.An article about CLEO FROM 5 TO 7 in MEMORIES OF THE FUTURE blog, and the fact that Madonna was once to play the lead role in the remake of CLEO FROM 5 TO 7,
http://memoriesofthefuture.wordpress.com/2007/06/09/reflections/

3.A post in Matt Zoller Seitz’ blog about imaginary films
http://mattzollerseitz.blogspot.com/2007/01/5-for-day-wish-list_29.html

4.Reading about the film POOR LITTLE RICH GIRL (1965, Andy Warhol) in an article written by Graiwoot Chulphongsathorn in Bioscope Magazine (Thai)

5.AFTER HOURS (1985, Martin Scorsese)


--I wrote about some stupid imaginary films from time to time, but in Thai. This is the first time I wrote about it in details in English.

My stupid imaginary film this time is PARIS HILTON FROM DUSK TILL DAWN. It stars Paris Hilton. The film is twelve hour long and is divided into twelve parts; each part is an hour long and has three directors collaborating on it. So the whole film has 36 directors.

The film is in real time, similar to CLEO FROM 5 TO 7. The story of the film takes place from 18.00 hrs of one day to 06.00 hrs of the next day. The setting is in an anonymous town.

Below is the list of the 36 directors in roughly alphabetical order:

1.HERBERT ACHTERNBUSCH
2.KENNETH ANGER
3.ARTOUR ARISTAKISIAN
4.CHRISTOFFER BOE
5.CATHERINE BREILLAT
6.ISABEL COIXET
7.SOFIA COPPOLA
8.KHAVN DE LA CRUZ
9.CLAIRE DENIS
10.MARINA DE VAN
11.ATOM EGOYAN
12.ABEL FERRARA
13.PHILIPPE GRANDRIEUX
14.PETER GREENAWAY
15.WERNER HERZOG
16.ALEJANDRO JODOROWSKY
17.MIRANDA JULY
18.ILYA KHRJANOVSKY
19.ALEXANDER KLUGE
20.BRUCE LA BRUCE
21.RICHARD LINKLATER
22.DAVID LYNCH
23.NOBUHIKO OBAYASHI
24.NAGISA OSHIMA
25.CHRISTIAN PETZOLD
26.ALAIN ROBBE-GRILLET
27.JOAO PEDRO RODRIGUES
28.NICOLAS ROEG
29.RAOUL RUIZ
30.WERNER SCHROETER
31.ALEXANDER SOKUROV
32.BELA TARR
33.SAM TAYLOR-WOOD
34.JONATHAN TEPLITZKY
35.MONIKA TREUT
36.ANDRZEJ ZULAWSKI


CAN YOU GUESS WHICH DIRECTORS SHOULD BELONG TO WHICH PART BELOW? EACH PART HAS THREE DIRECTORS. Or after reading this, do you have any suggestions or want to share your imagination?


PART 1: 18.00-19.00 HRS

Paris has sex with a cute boy. After that they talk together while the cute boy prances around the room wearing only an underwear.



PART 2: 19.00-20.00 HRS

Paris goes shopping for new shoes with her so-called friends (starring Victoria Beckham, Heidi Klum, Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears, the Olsen twins), then they have dinner together. They talk while eating, but everybody is telling a lie. The Olsen twins talk about cloning, believing there is a cloning pair of them living somewhere. Then all of Paris’ friends start talking about the truth that they are all lesbians.



PART 3: 20.00-21.00 HRS

Paris and her friends dress up in fancy and outrageous clothes to go to a fancy opening party of a painting exhibition. The exhibition has 92 paintings, and has an unseen guide leading the viewers to travel through time and space while watching the paintings.



PART 4: 21.00-22.00 HRS

After traveling through time and space, Paris emerges out of the exhibition alone, losing her memory. She can’t remember who she is. She wanders the street and makes a new friend with a female criminal and a woman who claims to be her long-lost mother. The three of them meet a handsome serial killer who is a puppeteer and they try to escape from him. They ask for help from some cops, but the cops are corrupted.



PART 5: 22.00-23.00 HRS

They try to escape the serial killer by hiding in a hospital, but the hospital is invaded by an angry mob. They then take a refuge in a dilapidated house full of squatters and beggars. Paris accidentally kills a baby by sitting on top of the baby. Paris also notices a handsome poor guy sleeping on the floor, so she (and the camera) spends some twenty minutes watching that guy sleeping.



PART 6: 23.00-24.00 HRS

Paris and her friends are thrown out of the house after someone discovers the accidental death of the baby. They feel very hungry and search for leftover food on the streets. A family invites them to have food, but only gives them soil to eat. A woman they meet on the street suggests they become cannibals. They try it. Another woman (Marina de Van) suggests each one eats her own self. They try it too and enjoy it.



PART 7: 24.00-01.00 HRS

The eat-yourself woman has two sisters (Diamanda Galas and PJ Harvey). The three sisters take Paris and her new friends to see some stage shows: an opera, a circus freak show, and a music show in which the singers just lying still on the floor.



PART 8: 01.00-02.00 HRS

Paris and all her new friends wander the street at night and have some adventures involving a woman who acts madly (Isabelle Adjani), a group of anarchist dwarfs, and a handsome trash collector dressed like a catwoman.



PART 9: 02.00-03.00 HRS

Paris and her friends feel sleepy. They find an empty house and try to get some sleep in it, not knowing that the house is cursed and haunted. The house is haunted by the spirit of a woman who died while waiting for her boyfriend who went to fight in WWII. The spirit is in the piano, changing the piano into a human-eating machine. Marina de Van gets great pleasure while being eaten by the piano. The criminal girl (Sabine Timoteo) uses some martial arts to fight the spirit, but loses the fight and gets eaten. The house is also the living place of the mummy of Queen Hatshepsut, though this mummy actually wants to go back to a museum, because she forgot her handbag there. This part of the film is told from the viewpoint of a knee belonging to a German corporal who died in Stalingrad.



PART 10: 03.00-04.00 HRS

After fighting with the evil sprit and the mummy and listening to many things told by the knee, Paris starts regaining her memory. She also gets to possess the memory of her ancestors and the memory of other persons. This part of the film is told by using a lot of flashbacks.



PART 11: 04:00-05.00 HRS

Knowing who she is, Paris wanders the street alone with self-confidence. She meets a shoe salesman (John Hawkes) who walks along the street with her. They take a morning train and talk with a guy (Ethan Hawke). Later, they get out of the train together and talk to a guy in a laundrette (Mark Ruffalo). Parish loves all these three guys. She feels so romantic. Love is in the air.



PART 12: 05.00-06.00 HRS

Her romantic hope is interrupted when John Hawkes, Ethan Hawke and Mark Ruffalo go to have sex together. Paris comes back home, but no one in her house remembers her. Her so-called friends also deny knowing her. Paris isn’t sure whether:

1.She is dreaming.

2.Everyone is lying and takes part in a conspiracy.

3.She is dead a long time ago.

4.She is a character in a novel written by her friend.

5.She is a part of a tale told by a patient in an insane asylum.

6.She is living in a memory of an old woman.


The answer is in the comment box.

Below are the photos of the THREE SISTERS in PARIS HILTON FROM DUSK TILL DAWN.






A COUP FOR THE RICH

--Giles Ji Ungpakorn wrote a book called A COUP FOR THE RICH: THAILAND’S POLITICAL CRISIS. I haven't read this book yet.

--RECENTLY CELINEJULIE HAS COMMENTED IN:

--merveillesxx’ blog
http://www.bloggang.com/viewdiary.php?id=merveillesxx&month=06-2007&group=1&date=24&gblog=86

--BIOSCOPEMAGAZINE WEBBOARD
http://www.bioscopemagazine.com/smf/index.php?topic=342.0

--ขอบคุณน้อง merveillesxx มากค่ะที่เอาบทความของคุณศริยามาให้อ่านกัน อ่านแล้วชอบมากๆๆๆๆ

--พูดถึงเรื่องการเซ็นเซอร์แล้ว เมื่อเร็วๆนี้รู้สึกหงุดหงิดมากขณะที่ดูละครโทรทัศน์เรื่อง “ศึกรักสะท้านยุทธภพ” ทางช่อง 7 ที่นำแสดงโดยซูฉี และสุดหล่อ WALLACE HUO เพราะละครเรื่องนี้มีการเซ็นเซอร์ภาพการใช้กระบี่ต่อสู้กันในบางฉากจนทำให้ดูไม่รู้เรื่อง ดูแล้วงงเลยว่าตกลงตัวละครมันต่อสู้กันยังไง คือมันไม่ได้เซ็นเซอร์กระบี่ในทุกๆวินาทีหรอกนะ ดิฉันเดาว่ามันคงเซ็นเซอร์เฉพาะฉากที่กระบี่เข้าใกล้ลำคอคู่ต่อสู้หรืออะไรทำนองนี้ แต่คนที่ดูละครจีนกำลังภายในคงนึกออกว่าการต่อสู้ในละครประเภทนี้มันต่อสู้กันรวดเร็วปานจักรผันขนาดไหน เพราะฉะนั้นถ้าหากคุณเซ็นเซอร์ภาพกระบี่ขณะต่อสู้กันไปเพียงแค่เสี้ยววินาทีเดียว คนดูก็งงแล้ว


--รายละเอียดเกี่ยวกับ ศึกรักสะท้านยุทธภพ
http://www.mono2u.com/review/content/Red_Duster_Lady/
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1040/607753844_102e872a12_o.jpg


--wallace huo
http://blog.yam.com/BlogIndex.php?BLOG_ID=wallace_english&CATEGORY_ID=711275
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1334/607754136_1da8581a3e_o.jpg


--อันนี้เป็นอีกข่าวเกี่ยวกับการเซ็นเซอร์นิตยสารในทางอ้อม ข่าวนี้มาจาก http://www.prachatai.com/

ประชาไท – 23 มิ.ย. 50 นายธนาพล อิ๋วสกุล บรรณาธิการวารสารฟ้าเดียวกัน เปิดเผยว่า สายส่งเคล็ดไทย ซึ่งเป็นตัวแทนจำหน่ายของสำนักพิมพ์ฟ้าเดียวกัน ได้แจ้งว่า ซีเอ็ด ซึ่งมีร้านซีเอ็ดบุ๊คเซ็นเตอร์ จำนวน 233 สาขาทั่วประเทศ ปฏิเสธที่จะวางจำหน่าย วารสารฟ้าเดียวกัน ฉบับที่ 18 ‘ก้าวต่อไปของสังคมไทย’ เนื่องจากพิจารณาเนื้อหาแล้วเห็นว่าไม่เหมาะสม

ก่อนหน้านี้ ศูนย์หนังสือจุฬาลงกรณ์มหาวิทยาลัยก็ได้ปฏิเสธที่จะวางจำหน่ายวารสารฟ้าเดียวกันตั้งแต่ฉบับที่ 12 ‘สถาบันกษัตริย์กับสังคมไทย’ เป็นต้นมา

สำหรับ ฟ้าเดียวกัน ฉบับที่ 18 (เมษายน – มิถุนายน 2550) ‘ก้าวต่อไปของสังคมไทย’ มีเนื้อหา อาทิ ‘70 ก้าวต่อไปของสังคมไทย พิจารณาในด้านนิติธรรม นิติรัฐ และรัฐธรรมนูญ’ โดย วรเจตน์ ภาคีรัตน์ ‘โภคทรัพย์แห่งราชวงศ์’ โดย ผู้สื่อข่าวเอเชียเซนติเนล ‘จุดเปลี่ยนแห่งทศวรรษ สำนักงานทรัพย์สินส่วนพระมหากษัตริย์’ โดย สมถวิล ลีลาสุวัฒน์ ‘คำให้การเรื่องสถาบันกษัตริย์กับวัฒนธรรมเซ็นเซอร์’ โดย ประวิตร โรจนพฤกษ์



WALLACE HUO, the leading actor of ROMANCE OF RED DUST


Friday, June 22, 2007

44 WAYS TO GET INTO MY HEART

Impressed by the use of text in NEVER CONGREGATE, NEVER DISREGARD, I think that cinema is really limitless. There seem to be so many ways that a film can impress me. Most films do it by their stories, or their cinematography. But some films can impress the viewers by many other things.

I think I should make a list of GREAT PLEASURE DERIVED FROM DIFFERENT ELEMENTS IN FILMS, because I find that I am particularly drawn to different elements in different films. However, this list is not to say that the films in the list have only one great element in them. I still find that the combining of all the elements in a film is one important thing that can make a film a masterpiece or not. The list below is just an example to show that there are many ways to make a film that I can worship. All the films in this list surely have many great elements in them, not only the one I listed.


GREAT PLEASURES DERIVED FROM DIFFERENT ELEMENTS IN FILMS

1.IMAGES -- SOMBRE (1998. Philppe Grandrieux, A+)

2.MISE-EN-SCENE – NORA HELMER (1974, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, A)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070457/

This is a comment in imdb,com

“I've now seen four film versions of Ibsen's "A Doll's House", and this has to be the best. The first thing that grabs your attention is the art direction/camera-work,which shows us everything through glass, through netting, or reflected through multiple mirrors. This really drives home the unreal hothouse atmosphere, the "Doll's House", in which Nora lives.”


3.COLORS – UNE VIE (1958, Alexandre Astruc, A+)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052339/

4.LIGHT – DUTCH LIGHT (2003, Pieter-Rim de Kroon, A+), DAYS OF HEAVEN (1978, Terrence Malick, A+)

5.ABSENCE OF LIGHT – THE POLICEWOMAN (2003, Joaquim Sapinho, Portugal, A+)

6.LIGHTING – INSTITUTE BENJAMENTA (1995, Brothers Quay, A+)

7.CAMERA MOVEMENT – The ending of AMOUR D’ENFANCE (2001, Yves Caumon, A+)

8.LITTLE CAMERA MOVEMENT – GOODBYE, DRAGON INN (2003, Tsai Ming-liang, A+)

9.CAMERA ANGLE – THE LAW OF DESIRE (1987, Pedro Almodovar, A+)

10.TEXT – BIRTH OF THE SEANEMA (2004, Sasithorn Ariyavicha, A+)

11.SOUND – ANAT(T)A (2006, Akritchalerm Kalayanamitr + Koichi Shimizu, A+)

12.COMBINATION OF SOUND AND IMAGES – PAMELA, POUR TOUJOURS (2003, Alain Bourges, A+)

13.SOUNDTRACK – PROSPERO’S BOOKS (1991, Peter Greenaway, A+), soundtrack by Michael Nyman

14.SONG – DORIAN GRAY IN THE MIRROR OF THE YELLOW PRESS (1984, Ulrike Ottinger, A+)

15.VOICEOVER – INDIA SONG (1975, Marguerite Duras, A+), MAGIC WATER (2001, Panu Aree, Thailand, A+)

16.INSTALLATION OF THE SCREEN – WHO WISHES TO REPRESENT AN ANGEL, MAKES A BEAST (2007, Christine Laquet, A+)

17.EDITING – JFK (1991, Oliver Stone, A+)

18.SPEED OF IMAGES – TOTEM (2001, Maider Fortune, A+)

19.JUXTAPOSITION OF IMAGES – EDEN AND AFTER (1970, Alain Robbe-Grillet, A+)

20.JUXTAPOSITION OF STORIES – THE POWER OF EMOTION (1983, Alexander Kluge, A+)

21.STORY – THE MISSION (1986, Roland Joffe, A+)

22.IDEAS – TWO OR THREE THINGS I KNOW ABOUT HER (1966, Jean-Luc Godard, A+)

23.POLITICAL CONTEXT – SPECTRE: 16 YEARS LATER (2006, Prap Boonpan, A+)

24.HEROINE WORTH WORSHIPPING – MUSIC BOX (1989, Costa-Gavras, A+)

25.TRUE TO REAL LIFE (OF MY FRIEND) – MON FILS A MOI (2006, Martial Fougeron, A+)

26.CRUELTY – PAIN (1994, Eric Khoo, A+)

27.HUMANITY – CHOICES OF THE HEART (1983, Joseph Sargent, A+)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085332/

28.SERIOUSNESS – THE NINTH DAY (2004, Volker Schloendorff, A)

29.LIGHTNESS IN SERIOUS STUFF – JEANNE AND THE PERFECT GUY (1998, Olivier Ducastel + Jacques Martineau, A+), HEAL HITLER! (1986, Herbert Achternbusch, A+)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0123923/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091191/

30.DIALOGUE – FOUR ADVENTURES OF RAINETTE AND MIRABELLE (1986, Eric Rohmer, A+)

31.MONOLOGUE – TEN TINY LOVE STORIES (2001, Rodrigo Garcia, A+), FROM THE JOURNALS OF JEAN SEBERG (1995, Mark Rappaport, A+), Barbara Gass’s monologue in the final part of THE ANDECHS FEELINGS (1974, Herbert Achternbusch, A+)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0301924/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071140/

32.FUNNY QUOTES – “NEVER TRUST A NAKED BUS DRIVER” in ANYTHING ELSE (2003, Woody Allen, A)

33.BLACK HUMOR QUOTES – “I DIE, THEREFORE I AM” in THE DEATH KING (1990, Joerg Buttgereit, A+)

34.MALE PERFORMANCE – CHRISTIAN BALE in THE MACHINIST (2004, Brad Anderson, A+)

35.FEMALE PERFORMANCE – DARLING NARITA in BANG (1995, Ash, A+)

36.BARE SETTINGS – BREMEN FREEDOM (1972, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, A+)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068314/

37.ELEGANT SETTINGS – ONEGIN (1998, Martha Fiennes, A+)

38.COSTUME AND MAKEUP – MADAME X: AN ABSOLUTE RULER (1977, Ulrike Ottinger, A+)

39.STYLE – THE DEATH OF MARIA MALIBRAN (1972, Werner Schroeter, A+)

40.SHORT DURATION – THE EVIL FAERIE (1966, George Landow, A+)

41.LONG DURATION – HITLER: A FILM FROM GERMANY (1977, Hans-Juergen Syberberg, A+)

42.OPENING SCENE – SCREAM (1996, Wes Craven, A+)

43.ENDING SCENE – BUNNY (2000, Mia Trachinger, A+)

44.ABSENCE OF SCENE OR ELLIPSIS – L’ARGENT (1983, Robert Bresson, A+), RAIN DOGS (2006, Ho Yuhang, A+), GLORIA (1999, Manuela Viegas, Portugal, A+)


This is a photo of GLORIA (1999, Manuela Viegas)

http://www.oeff.jp/95_Gloria.html




NEVER CONGREGATE, NEVER DISREGARD (2007, ARIN RUNGJANG, A+)

Recently Celinejulie has commented in:

Shahn’s Blog:
http://sixmartinis.blogspot.com/2007/06/thither-we-came-and-thence-down-in-moat.html

I love the pictures you posted very much, and the comment you made about the darkness which suits some films. This reminds me of the news about Lars Von Trier many years ago. The news said “A year after the Cannes screening of his latest work, "The Idiots," von Trier was aghast to discover late last month that the two principals of his Copenhagen-based Zentropa production company had manipulated the final print in post -- a cardinal sin in the austere Dogma film cathedral -- and released it theatrically in a much brighter version without telling him. “

I don’t know if the version of THE IDIOTS that I saw on the wide-released video is the brighter version or the version which satisfied Von Trier. But I think it might be a brighter version, because the pictures seem to be clear.

If you like films with dark images, I strongly recommend you watch the DVD of SOMBRE (1998, Philippe Grandrieux). It is so darkly beautiful. My friend said that SOMBRE is like what Andrei Tarkovsky would have made if he had to direct a serial killer film.

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--I went to see NEVER CONGREGATE, NEVER DISREGARD at BANGKOK UNIVERSITY GALLERY on Saturday 16, June 2007. I like it very much. It is a video installation made by Arin Rungjang, someone whom I have never heard of before.

I just found that Arin Rungjang has a myspace page. In his page, there are some photos from this video installation.
http://www.myspace.com/arinrungjang

Below are the photos I took from the video installation:

There are two video screens installed on one wall. The viewers have to walk through damp soil to view them. There are spare shoes for the viewers on the door. So you don’t have to worry that you might stain your Manolo Blahnik. You just leave them at the door and use the spare shoes to walk through the damp soil.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1190/587446264_aa67c5444d_o.jpg

One video is called MY MOTHER WAITING FOR THE INTERVIEW. It is a long, static shot lasting one hour. The image is of a woman just sitting on a couch. She moves some parts of herself from time to time, such as crossing her arms, or picking her nose. Many old songs are used as soundtrack. They are songs from around the 1950’s and some haunting songs remind me of David Lynch’s films.
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1396/587446138_e36542c6fc_o.jpg

Another video is called MY BEST FRIEND EXCAVATING THE EARTH. It is also a long, static shot lasting one hour. The image is of someone digging the earth in a garden. Sometimes he walks out of the frame, and comes back to dig again. Some animals are walking in and out of the frame.
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1417/587446274_ed91a27194_o.jpg

What I like the most in NEVER CONGREGATE, NEVER DISREGARD is not the ordinary images, nor the soundtrack, nor the installation of the video. I admit that the installation of this video in a room full of soil is quite original in my point of view. I have never seen anything like it. But I don’t give A+ to originality. I give A+ to something which makes me feel strongly, though that thing might be a cliche. What I like the most in NEVER CONGREGATE, NEVER DISREGARD is the text which appears on the bottom of the screen of MY BEST FRIEND EXCAVATING THE EARTH. This text describes the memory of someone about his past and his parents. It is like a stream-of-consciousness writing, jumping back and forth between different moments in time or places. This text really captivated me, and made me do what I didn’t intend to do. It made me stand watching the whole one-hour-long video with a heavy bag on my shoulders.

When I went to see NEVER CONGREGATE, NEVER DISREGARD. I carried a heavy bag on my shoulders. I didn’t think the heavy bag would be a problem to me, because I thought that this video installation might be like the last one shown at the Bangkok University Gallery—WHO WISHES TO REPRESENT AN ANGEL, MAKES A BEAST (2007, Christine Laquet, A+)—which lasted only 10-15 minutes. And I also thought that though the video is long (such as HERO (2006, Thaweesak Srithongdee, A+), which lasted more than one hour), I still could put my bag on the floor. But I guessed wrong. If you are standing watching NEVER CONGREGATE, NEVER DISREGARD, you cannot put your bag on that floor. The damp soil on the floor is too dirty.

While I started watching NEVER CONGREGATE, NEVER DISREGARD, I thought I might just watch it for 10-15 minutes, or I would leave whenever I started feeling that I couldn’t carry my bag any more. But the text written by Arin Rungjang somehow made me forget the heavy bag that I was carrying.

There are many parts of the text that I like, such as:

1.”When I was a child, everytime a plane flew over my house, I would run out of the house and shout, “My father is coming. My father is coming.” And then my mom would cry. I remember that my grandmother told me that whoever made his mother cry would go to hell.”

2.The narrator described a dream in which he and his father went boating. When their boat was flowing on a canal, he fell out of the boat and tried to reach the boat. Then there was a hand reaching out of the boat. The narrator grabbed that hand as firmly as he could. He thought it was the hand of his father. But he saw a face full of blood and opening wounds.

3.The narrator described that when he grew up a bit, he was afraid to touch his mother, because he thought that touching someone might make the person who was touched know everything inside the mind of the person who touched. The narrator had some secrets, and he didn’t want his mother to know these secrets, so he didn’t dare to touch his mother. He prayed every night that he could vanish. He started writing some letters about committing suicide.

4.The narrator described a scene in which he faced a mantis and thought that he had created some energy field between them. And later, his mother discovered his writing on committing suicide.

5.The narrator described a scene in his memory: his mother sitting in front of a mirror, putting on some makeup, while listening to a radio program which always began with the song WELCOME TO MY WORLD.

--I like this part very much it reminds me of the film LIKE THE RELENTLESS FURY OF THE POUNDING WAVES (1996, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, A+), which also concerns a radio program and memories.


--The text in NEVER CONGREGATE, NEVER DISREGARD also mentions the song TOM TRAUBERT’S BLUES by Tom Waits. So I copy the lyrics of the song here:

Wasted and wounded, it ain't what the moon did
Got what I paid for now
See ya tomorrow, hey Frank can I borrow
A couple of bucks from you?
To go waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda
You'll go a waltzing Matilda with me

I'm an innocent victim of a blinded alley
And tired of all these soldiers here
No one speaks English and everything's broken
And my Stacys are soaking wet
To go waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda
You'll go a waltzing Matilda with me

Now the dogs are barking and the taxi cab's parking
A lot they can do for me
I begged you to stab me, you tore my shirt open
And I'm down on my knees tonight
Old Bushmill's I staggered, you buried the dagger
Your silhouette window light
To go waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda
You'll go a waltzing Matilda with me
Now I lost my Saint Christopher now that I've kissed her
And the one-armed bandit knows
And the maverick Chinaman and the cold-blooded signs
And the girls down by the strip-tease shows
Go, waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda
You'll go a waltzing Matilda with me

No, I don't want your sympathy
The fugitives say that the streets aren't for dreaming now
Manslaughter dragnets and the ghosts that sell memories
They want a piece of the action anyhow
Go, waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda
You'll go a waltzing Matilda with me

And you can ask any sailor and the keys from the jailor
And the old men in wheelchairs know
That Matilda's the defendant, she killed about a hundred
And she follows wherever you may go
Waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda
You'll go a waltzing Matilda with me
And it's a battered old suitcase to a hotel someplace
And a wound that will never heal
No prima donna, the perfume is on
An old shirt that is stained with blood and whiskey
And goodnight to the street sweepers
The night watchman flame keepers and goodnight to Matilda too


--Though what I like the most in NEVER CONGREGATE, NEVER DISREGARD is the text, I don’t think that this work would be better if it appears in the form of a book instead of a video installation. I think the book would not be as strongly captivating as the video installation, because though the text strongly captivated me, I still think it had the strong power to captivate me because:

1.I had to divide my attention to watching and listening to the two video screens at the same time. I couldn’t read the text only. I had to watch the mother sitting, the friend digging, and listening to the music. If I can pay attention to the text alone, it might not be that captivating.

2.I couldn’t stop reading the text anytime I wanted and come back to read it later, as in the case of reading a book. The text was flowing steadily. I didn’t have time to focus on any one sentence. The next sentence kept appearing on the screen. And that steady flowing of thoughts and the pacing which was defined by the director, not by the readers, are what made the text more powerful to me. This power would be lost if the text appears on a book, not in the video installation.


--The brochure of NEVER CONGREGATE, NEVER DISREGARD also has an interview of Arin Rungjang. The interviewer is Ark Fongsmut.

An excerpt from the interview:

Arin: Recently, someone asked me “How important is it to be a Thai artist?” I answered him, “It is not important at all.” If you ask yourself questions like these, then it will reflect in the way you start to do your work. You may start from the idea of harmonized humanity or start it from the idea of separation between yourself and the other. And if I start from this separation, then we’d probably have nothing else to talk about. I think it is an old strategy.

...

Arin: I’m looking at romanticism through two perspectives; Firstly, I try to deliver my messages about who I am. I accept that I’m gay; maybe my romantic emotions come from being gay, or maybe it is a reflection from society. Secondly, my romanticism might be similar to that of Felix Gonzalez-Torres. As he put it, “It isn’t about the characteristics of being universal, but it is a way to harmonize each other”.


For more information about Felix Gonzales-Torres, please read:
http://www.andrearosengallery.com/artists/felix-gonzalez-torres/

Photos of some works by Felix Gonzalez-Torres
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1019/589854708_d59452c215_o.jpg
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1356/589540009_d2ea9822db_o.jpg
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1410/589540003_36db46bf5d_o.jpg


--NOTE: I tend to use the word “film” in the broadest meaning as possible, so in my writing, “video installation” is also a part of “film” or “cinema”. I hope this doesn’t confuse my readers.


--After finding that it is the TEXT which I like the most in NEVER CONGREGATE, NEVER DISREGARD, I think it is a bit strange, because most of the films don’t use texts. Some films use texts, such as Godard’s films or THE RASPBERRY REICH (2004, Bruce La Bruce, A+), but the things that I like the most in those films are not the texts. There are very few films that I find the using of text is the most interesting aspect of them. These films include:

1.THE INSANE (2006, Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook, A+)

The text in this video installation is actually subtitles of what the insane women said on the screens. But since what the insane women said is very hard to follow, all viewers have to rely on reading the subtitles instead of listening directly to the sound from the 6-7 screens in the installation.


2.TWO WORLDS IN ONE WORLD (2004, Prap Boonpan, A+)

This Thai short film use some text from a history book to argue about some ideas in a Thai film THE SIAM RENAISSANCE (2004, Surapong Pinijkhar, A+).



PHOTOS FROM NEVER CONGREGATE, NEVER DISREGARD






Felix Gonzalez-Torres


IMAGINARY TV SERIES: DEMENTED HOUSEWIVES

RECENTLY CELINEJULIE HAS COMMENTED IN:

--BIOSCOPE WEBBOARD
http://www.bioscopemagazine.com/smf/index.php?topic=71.150

FAVORITE ARTICLE

สองเพศต่างพันธุ์ (บนดวงจันทร์ดวงเดียวกัน)
http://www.onopen.com/2007/02/1921

โดย ปฐม พงศ์มานะ

ย่อหน้านึงจากบทความนี้

“นึกเชื่อมโยงนอกเรื่อง (ทั้งปี) ถึงประเด็นสังคมที่เพิ่งผ่านไปไม่นานนัก นักศึกษาหญิงผู้หนึ่งถูกลงโทษจากกระแสสังคมรุมกระทำชำเรารุมพิพากษาเธอ ราวกับว่าการกระทำของเธอเป็นเนื้อร้ายของสังคม ต้องทำการกำจัดให้สิ้นซากมิเช่นนั้นจะเป็นภัยต่อความมั่นคงทางศีลธรรม เพียงเพราะว่าเธอแต่งตัวไม่เหมาะสมตามกรอบศีลธรรมอันดีงามที่ไม่ทราบว่าผู้ใดเป็นผู้กำหนดกรอบนั้นขึ้นมา แต่ผู้คนในสังคมนั้นคงจะลืมสำเหนียกตัวเองถึงความปากว่าตาขยิบ มือถือสากปากถือศีลอย่างร้ายกาจ สังคมที่ว่านั้นเต็มไปด้วยสายพันธุ์ชีวิตครึ่งคนครึ่งไดโนเสาร์ที่หลงเชื่อว่าตนเองเป็นคนดีเสียเต็มประดา วันๆ เอาแต่หลงละเมอว่าตนประกอบแต่กรรมดี ยกย่องวัฒนธรรมบางอย่างซึ่งพวกเขาเห็นว่างามล้ำอย่างไม่ลืมหูลืมตา เที่ยวไปดูแคลนวัฒนธรรมบางอย่างซึ่งพวกเขาเห็นว่าไร้สาระ เท่านั้นยังไม่พอหากหยุดอยู่เพียงแค่ความดีขั้นปฐมภูมิ กองทัพสองสายพันธุ์เหล่านั้นเกรงว่าจะถูกปฏิเสธจากเทวดาผู้บริโภคความดีงาม อย่ากระนั้นเลยเรามาร่วมกันสวมบทมนุษย์แห่งความหวังดีเที่ยวไปตัดสินไปยัดเยียดกรอบแคบๆ แห่งศีลธรรมความดีแก่มนุษย์ผู้หลงผิดออกนอกลู่นอกทางกันดีกว่า เพื่อยืนยันความเป็นมนุษย์โคตรดีของพวกเรา โดยไม่สนใจว่ามิจฉาทิฐิที่ถูกห่อหุ้มในรูปของความดีงามเหล่านั้น แท้จริงแล้วมันได้ไปทำร้าย ไปละเมิดสิทธิส่วนบุคคล และปิดกั้นโอกาสทางความคิด การเรียนรู้ การสังเคราะห์ถูกผิด หรือทุนทางสมองของผู้ใดบ้าง ขอเพียงแค่ได้ขืนใจสังคมเพื่อดำรงความดีแบบที่เขาอยากให้เป็น”



--SCREENOUT WEBBOARD
http://www.xq28.net/wow/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=192&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=100

--หวัดดีค่ะคุณ SEANNIE ไม่ทราบว่าคุณคือคนเดียวกับคุณ SEAN 2001 ใช่มั้ยคะ


--เกือบลืมบอกว่า อย่าพลาด STARPICS เล่มที่วางแผงอยู่ในตอนนี้ ที่หน้าปกเป็นรูป OCEAN’S THIRTEEN เพราะว่าเล่มนี้มีบทความเกี่ยวกับ BRUCE LABRUCE ผู้กำกับตัวแสบแห่งวงการหนังเกย์ โดยบทความนี้เป็นผลงานของคุณตินโต โอทิก


--สมาชิก SCREENOUT ได้ประชุมกันในวันอาทิตย์ที่ 3 มิ.ย.ที่ผ่านมา ดิฉันว่าจะมาเขียนรายงานการประชุม แต่ก็ไม่ว่างเขียนสักที ตอนนี้คิดว่าได้เวลาเขียนแล้ว

รายงานการประชุม SCREENOUT MEETING ประจำวันที่ 3 มิ.ย. 2550

ทาง SCREENOUT จะมีโครงการจัดทำละครทีวีเรื่อง DEMENTED HOUSEWIVES โดยมีรายชื่อนักแสดงนำดังต่อไปนี้

1.JO รับบทเป็นภรรยาของ LEE DONG WOOK
http://leedongwook.blogspot.com/
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1325/589166608_865fe1f59c_o.jpg


2.OLIVER รับบทเป็นภรรยาของ ชัยวัฒน์ ทองแสง
http://www.nangdee.com/name/?person_id=6971
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1264/589166618_cf653caafe_o.jpg


3.LUNAR รับบทเป็นภรรยาของ เบียร์ ศิววัชร์ ทรัพย์ภิญโญ
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1435/589166626_1c4fd61260_o.jpg


4.KICHO รับบทเป็นภรรยาของ บี้ สุกฤษณ์ วิเศษแก้ว
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1433/589166636_c41473e793_o.jpg


5.VESPERTINE รับบทเป็นภรรยาของ ไบรอัน เจทท์


6.FRANKENSTEIN รับบทเป็นภรรยาของ HIDETOSHI NISHIJIMA


7.อ้วน รับบทเป็นภรรยาของดาราชายหนุ่มทุกคนในละครเรื่อง “น้ำตาหนึ่งลิตร”


8.MDS รับบทเป็นภรรยาของพีรวัชร์ เหราบัตย์


เนื่องจากความสัมพันธ์ของตัวละครใน DEMENTED HOUSEWIVES นี้มีการชิงรักหักสวาทกันอยู่ตลอดเวลา ถ้าหากสมาชิกท่านใดของ SCREENOUT ต้องการเปลี่ยนแปลงสถานะการสมรสของตัวเอง หรือต้องการร่วมแสดงนำในละครเรื่องนี้ ก็ขอได้โปรดยื่นหนังสือแสดงความจำนงมาที่เว็บบอร์ดนี้ด้วยนะคะ



FILM AND REAL LIFE 2: GILES UNGPAKORN

THIS NEWS COMES FROM THE BLOG OF FACT – FREEDOM AGAINST CENSORSHIP THAILAND. I only posted the first paragraph of the news. You can read the full news in the link below.

http://facthai.wordpress.com/2007/06/22/chula-attacks-dr-giles-ji-ungpakorn-over-anti-coup-book/

Chula attacks Dr. Giles Ji Ungpakorn over anti-coup book

Chulalongkorn University authorities are attempting to victimise the anti-military junta academic, Associate Professor Giles Ji Ungpakorn.

Earlier this year Chulalongkorn University authorities ordered the university bookshop to refuse to sell Professor Ungpakorn’s book “A Coup for the Rich”. The book, by the Political Science Professor, criticised the military coup and the destruction of democracy in Thailand. Professor Ungpakorn made repeated attempts to obtain an explanation from the university authorities about why they banned the sale of this book. Up to this day the university has never provided Professor Ungpakorn with any written explanation. The book is, however, on sale at Thammasart University bookshop. This act of censorship, lead to Professor Ungpakorn’s complaint to the National Human Rights Commission that Chulalongkorn authorities had stifled academic freedom. The Commision is currently looking into the case. It should be noted that many of the Chulalongkorn university’s officials, including the Rector and various Faculty Deans and academics are collaborating with the junta and supporting the coup. Academics have been appointed to junta bodies, including the unelected parliament.

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THIS NEWS INDIRECTLY REMINDS ME OF SOME FILMS, THOUGH THE STORIES OF THESE FILMS MAY HAVE NOTHING SIMILAR TO THE CASE ABOVE. FILMS THAT COME INTO MY MIND AFTER READING THIS NEWS ARE:

1.VERA ROMEYKE IS NOT ACCEPTABLE (Vera Romeyke ist nicht tragbar) (1976, Max Willutzki, West Germany) 104 min

Disagreements over the teaching methods of a politically active teacher end in her being transferred. Starring Rita Engelmann.

(I haven’t seen this film yet, but I like its plot very much.)


2.SLOGANS (2001, Gjergj Xhuvani, Albania)

Synopsis from imdb.com
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0287708/plotsummary

“Andre starts as a teacher in a remote mountain village in Albania. His first task is to choose one of two communist slogans. He picks the shorter one, which is appreciated by his class, because they have to build the slogan on the hillside using whitewashed rocks. However, this means that the longer slogan goes to Diana, the French teacher to whom Andre is attracted. Andre gets on the wrong side of the communist party boss of the village, when he stands up for an unjustly accused goat herdsman, whom he had befriended. The boss is determined to take his revenge on Andre. Written by Will Gilbert”

(I haven’t seen this film yet, but I like its plot very much.)


3.CALM PREVAILS ALL OVER THE COUNTRY (1975, Peter Lilienthal, West Germany, A+)

Synopsis from
http://www.german-films.de/app/filmarchive/film_view.php?film_id=1283

"The provincial capital of an unidentified South American country. A typewriter mechanic stops at a small hotel run by an old man. He has come to visit his daughter in the nearby prison. A group of young people who recently arrived at the town's airport are just being taken to the prison. Their transport is shrouded in greatest secrecy, but the news quickly leaks out. The young doctor Cecilia and a few friends try to persuade the governor to agree to a medical examination of the prisoners, for they assume that the prisoners were tortured before being charged. However, the governor refuses their request in view of the unstable political situation.

The committee which is then set up collects donations of clothing and food for the prisoners and also visits them regularly. A weapon is smuggled into the prison during a performance in the prison yard. The guards are overpowered, but only a few of the prisoners manage to escape. The others remain behind and demand a medical examination to reveal signs of torture as well as their transfer to another prison not run by the military in return for the release of the guards they hold hostage. The report on the hostages is interrupted by representatives of the army encircling the prison yard. The head of the government imposes a state of emergency and orders the army to take appropriate measures to restore order in the country.

Fear and unrest spread throughout the country following the wave of arrests and the disappearance of members of the opposition. The prisoners holding the guards hostage are shot by snipers, officially while trying to escape, and the funeral procession for one of the victims is dispersed by force. Mass arrests follow and the economy suffers a severe slump. One after another, the hotel's residents are arrested and taken away to a huge football stadium. The old grandfather is the only one to remain behind in the hotel. He packs food and clothes and sets off to the stadium where he insults the guards outside the gate until they arrest him and lead him inside the stadium."


4.SOPHIE SCHOLL – THE FINAL DAYS (2005, Marc Rothemund, A+)


5.THE TRIAL (1993, David Hugh Jones, B)
From Franz Kafka novel, screenplay by Harold Pinter

Synopsis from imdb.com
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108388/


“Joseph K. awakes one morning, to find two strange men in his room, telling him he has been arrested. Joseph is not told what he is charged with, and despite being "arrested," is allowed to remain free and go to work. But despite the strange nature of his arrest, Joseph soon learns that his trial, however odd, is very real, and tries desperately to spare himself from the court's judgement. Written by Mike Myers”


I posted FILM AND REAL LIFE 1 in the link below:
http://celinejulie.blogspot.com/2007/06/ye-thamma-2007-wattana-rujirojsakul.html


A photo of GILES UNGPAKORN from http://www.prachatai.com/



Thursday, June 21, 2007

LE COEUR FANTOME (1995, PHILIPPE GARREL, A+++++)

THINGS SEEN RECENTLY

EXCLUDING THE NINE FRENCH FILMS I LISTED LAST FRIDAY, THESE ARE THE LIST OF THINGS I SAW FROM JUNE 7-20, 2007, in roughly preferential order:

1.LE COEUR FANTOME (1995, Philippe Garrel, A+)
From video.


2.WASTELAND (A+)
A dance performance by Cie Kafig, choreographed by Mourad Merzouki


3.RAIN DOGS (2006, Ho Yuhang, Malaysia, A+)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0851579/
I saw it at Houserama.


4.REQUIEM (2006, Hans-Christian Schmid, A+)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0454931/
I saw it at Houserama.


5.FUNERAL PARADE OF ROSES (1969, Toshio Matsumoto, A+)
Thanks to Galapapruek, who gave me this video.


6.THE DEAD GIRL (2006, Karen Moncrieff, A+)
Thanks to Graiwoot Chulphongsathorn, who lent me this DVD.

I haven’t seen BLUE CAR (2003, Karen Moncrieff), but it is in Girish Shambu’s 2003 favorite film list:
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/04/30/favourites3.html#shambu


7.NEVER CONGREGATE, NEVER DISREGARD (2007, Arin Rungjang, A+)
A one-hour video installation at Bangkok University Gallery


8.PLOY (2007, Pen-ek Ratanaruang, A+)


9.CHILLAX (2007, Edward Squire, A+)


10.SOLDIERS OF SALAMINA (2003, David Trueba, Spain, A+)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0314693/
From video

I think parts of this film might be sentimental, but I give A+ to this film because there is one scene that made me cry uncontrollably. It is the scene when Miralles (Joan Dalmau) talked about the soldiers who were killed in the wars and forgotten by everybody.


11.DOUBLE SUICIDE (1969, Masahiro Shinoda, A+)
From video


12.GENESIS (1999, Cheick Oumar Sissoko, Mali, A)
From video


13.THE CREATURES, a ballet performance by Biarritz Ballet, choreographed by Thierry Malandain (A)
I was gladly surprised that a part of this performance is about a gay relationship.


14.SICK NURSES (2007, Thodsapol Siriwiwat + Piraphan Laoyont, Thailand, A)


15.FANTASTIC FOUR: RISE OF THE SILVER SURFER (2007, Tim Story, A-)


16.LOVE AND HONOR (2006, Yoji Yamada, A-)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0483578/


17. MOLIERE (2006, Laurent Tirard, France, A-)


18.CRAZY STONE (2006, Ning Hao, A-)
I saw it at Houserama.


19.DORORO (2007, Akihiko Shiota, A-)


20.OCEAN’S THIRTEEN (2007, Steven Soderbergh, A-)


21.THE HITCHER (2007, Dave Mayers, A-/B+)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0455960/


MY FEELINGS:
--It’s hard to find words to describe how or why I like LE COEUR FANTOME. I often have this difficulty when I tried to describe why I like some of Maurice Pialat’s films, too. Some films by Pialat and Garrel strike me as very life-like. These films portray real life as it is, without overabundant technique, style, camerawork, or plot. This makes it very difficult to explain in words the greatness of these films. They are so simple, but they are so great. It is much easier for me to write about films with showy or bizarre techniques, films with many interesting ideas, films with messages, or films with strange plots.

--I find that many things in LE COEUR FANTOME are also in THE BIRTH OF LOVE (1993, Philippe Garrel, A+), such as a father abandoning his son, a departure from lover (Johanna ter Steege) at a train station, a reference to narcotics, a relationship with much younger girlfriend. Maybe it is because all these films are inspired by Philippe Garrel’s real life.

--In my opinion, one thing that makes LE COEUR FANTOME very different from THE BIRTH OF LOVE is that there are a few dream sequences in LE COEUR FANTOME. However, despite these dream sequences, the film still feels very close to real life.

--Two favorite scenes in LE COEUR FANTOME:

1.A scene when a father (Maurice Garrel) tells his son (Luis Rego) some secrets

After I had watched this scene, I felt immediately that the director shouldn’t have filmed this scene, because it is a secret between a father and a son, and the director shouldn’t have let the viewers know this secret. It is the right of the father and the son to keep this secret for themselves.

Suddenly, I realized that I had just forgotten for a while that what I was watching is a fictional film, not a documentary. My first spontaneous reaction to that scene is the reaction I should have towards a documentary film, not a fictional one.

I watched LE COEUR FANTOME when I had a sore throat. I don’t know that “my forgetting the film is fictional” is caused by my illness, my insanity, or by the talent of Philippe Garrel. Giving the benefit of the doubt, I give this credit to Philppe Garrel, rather than admitting that I may be insane. Hahaha.

A case like this used to happen to me before. Once it occurred after I had watched FREE RADICALS (Barbara Albert, A+). The next morning after I had watched this Austrian film, I woke up crying and wondering about how the characters’ lives in FREE RADICALS would go on. After crying for a while, I realized that FREE RADICALS is a fictional film. Those characters don’t really exist, and I can imagine those characters’ lives to go on as happily as I can.

Well, maybe I am really insane and can’t distinguish fictional characters from real people from time to time. But it still requires such special films as LE COEUR FANTOME and FREE RADICALS to make me realize this.

2.The ending scene of LE COEUR FANTOME

I won’t reveal the ending of this film, but the character’s face at the ending is really inscrutable to me. In other films, the face of the character in the ending might be filled with joy, but in this film, the character’s face is emotionless and lets the viewers think for themselves what the character might feel—Does he feel imprisoned, sad, bored, glad? I don’t know, and that’s what I like.


--One thing that I like very much in LE COEUR FANTOME is the constant change of the relationships of characters. The characters falls in love, gives up, falls in love again, etc, with no obvious reasons or explanations. I think this charactereristic is very much like real life.

I think French filmmakers are adept at making this kind of films, and they make these films in a very realistic way, not in a melodramatic way like the TV series MELROSE PLACE (I like both realistic and melodramatic ways, though.)

French films in this group may include:

1.MY SEX LIFE…OR HOW I GOT INTO AN ARGUMENT (1996, Arnaud Desplechin, A+)

2.WE WON’T GROW OLD TOGETHER (1972, Maurice Pialat, A)

3.LATE AUGUST, EARLY SEPTEMBER (1998, Olivier Assayas, A-)


--For more information on Philippe Garrel, please read:

REGULAR LOVERS reviewed by Jesse Ataide
http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/regularlovers.php

SAUVAGE INNOCENCE (2001) reviewed by Mubarak Ali
http://supposedaura.blogspot.com/2005/11/incomplete-exorcisms.html

Philppe Garrel’s films reviewed by Acquarello
http://filmref.com/directors/dirpages/garrel.html

Articles in Senses of Cinema
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/01/12/garrel.html
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/00/9/garrel.html
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/00/6/revelateur.html


--I love RAIN DOGS by Ho Yuhang very much. The ending of this film should be compared to the opening scene of INDIA SONG (1975, Marguerite Duras, A+). The ending of RAIN DOGS is a long take shot of a rainbow, with no camera movement, while the opening shot of INDIA SONG is the same kind of shot of a setting sun.

--I regret that I haven’t seen as many Malaysian films as I should. I think I have seen no more than 20 Malaysian films, both short and feature films combined. Malaysian films that I like include:

1.THIRD PARTY (2003, Khoo Eng Yow, A+)
27 min

2.RAIN DOGS

3.COMPANY OF MUSHROOM (2005, Tan Chui Mui, A+)

4.A TREE IN TANJUNG MALIM (2004, Tan Chui Mui, A+)

5.LOST (2002, Amir Muhammad, A+)
9 min

6.THE DINNER GUEST (1997, Bryant Low, A)
14 min

7.DEMOLITION FROG (2001, Linus Chung Yao Fui, A)
Animation, 10 min

8.ARTICLE 19 (2001, Eddie Lau, A)
5 min

9.MALAYSIA FRIDAY (2001, Tan Jun Ho, A-)
4.15 min

10.LIVE CONCERT (1999, Juhaidah, A-)
4 min

11.THE BEAUTIFUL WASHING MACHINE (2004, James Lee, B+)

12.MAKYONG – PAGEANTS OF THE ANCIENTS (Bernard Chauly + Ho Yuhang, B+)


However, since most of the films in the list are short films, I hardly remember the details of these films now. I made this list by looking at my old diaries to see the grades I gave to these films just after the viewing. I regret that I didn’t note down the details of what I felt for each film at that time.

--“Alone Again” wrote a Thai-language review of THE LAST COMMUNIST (2006, Amir Muhammad, Malaysia) here:
http://www.bloggang.com/viewdiary.php?id=aloneagain&month=02-2007&date=18&group=1&gblog=30


A photo from REQUIEM
http://outnow.ch/Media/Img/2006/Requiem/


DIMA EL HORR INTERVIEWED BY APICHATPONG WEERASETHAKUL

RECENTLY CELINEJULIE HAS COMMENTED IN BIOSCOPE WEBBOARD:
http://www.bioscopemagazine.com/smf/index.php?topic=71.150


ตอบน้อง merveillesxx

ไม่แน่ใจว่าพระเอกหนังเรื่อง “ตั๋วรักพลิกล็อค” ชื่อ “ภัสพงษ์ อร่ามเสรีวงศ์” หรือเปล่า พอดีดูในสูจิบัตรของงานหนังกางจอ 14 เขาบอกว่าดารานำของ “ตั๋วรักพลิกล็อค” คือคนนี้กับ “ศรีรุ่ง หวังเอกเทียนชัย” (เดาว่าเป็นชื่อของนางเอก)


INTERESTING THINGS

1.INTERESTING PROGRAM
“40 YEARS OF VIDEO ART IN GERMANY”

TUESDAY 26 JUNE 19.00 AT GOETHE INSTITUTE IN BANGKOK
For more information, please read
http://www.goethe.de/ins/th/ban/en2397032.htm


2. INTERESTING BOOK
“DEMOCRACY AND NATIONAL IDENTITY IN THAILAND”
by Michael Kelly Connors

For more information in Thai about this book, please read
http://konmongnang.exteen.com/20070621/entry

The cover of this book
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1361/577928526_b54b3c1436_o.jpg


3.INTERESTING NEWS
Dima El Horr, a Lebanese female filmmaker, receives grant from the Global Fund Initiative (GFI), to make the film EVERYDAY IS A HOLIDAY.

I read this news from Michael Guillen’s blog here:
http://theeveningclass.blogspot.com/2007/06/global-film-initiativeawards-granted-to.html

I have never seen any films by Dima El Horr, but I have been wanting to see her films since 1998 when I read a Thai book called “FILMVIRUS”. In this book, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, who is a friend of Dima El Horr, interviewed her after he and Sonthaya Subyen, the editor of FILMVIRUS, saw THE STREET (1997, Dima El Horr) and like it.

The long interview is published in Thai in FILMVIRUS. There are many interesting things in the interview, such as

3.1 Dima El Horr said that she is cinematically influenced by Alain Resnais and HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR, though her film doesn’t look like Resnais’ films.

3.2 Many people thought that THE STREET might be influenced by BICYCLE THIEVES (1948, Vittorio De Sica)

3.3 Apichatpong thought that THE STREET might be influenced by Abbas Kiarostami, but Dima El Horr denied it.

3.4 Dima El Horr said that though she studied film in USA, her film would still be different from other American film students, because NOBODY CAN TEACH OTHER PEOPLE HOW TO VIEW THE WORLD. (I translate this from Thai. I don’t know which exact English words she said in the interview.)


4.INTERESTING DVD

WHERE HAS YOUR HIDDEN SMILE GONE? (2001, Pedro Costa)

This film is about the editing process of the film SICILIA! by Jean-Marie Straub and Daniele Huillet.

You can buy this DVD from the link below:
http://www.cdgo.com/artigoDetalhe.php?idArtigo=2764855&lang=EN

This DVD has English, Portuguese and Italian subtitles. It is sold together with a Portuguese book.

“DVD (inclui «Onde Jaz o Teu Sorriso?» + «Daniele Huillet, Jean-Marie Straub, cineastas / cinema, de notre temps» + curtas-metragens ineditas de Pedro Costa, Daniele Huillet e Jean-Mari Straub + filmografias, legendas e menus em portugues, ingles e italiano) + livro (inclui dialogos integrais do filme, fotogramas e textos de Jacques Ranciere, Emmanuel Burdeau, Thierry Lounas, Joao Benard da Costa)”


Acquarello wrote about WHERE HAS YOUR HIDDEN SMILE GONE? here: http://filmref.com/notes/archives/2006/09/where_has_your_hidden_smile_go.html

I know about this DVD from Mubarak Ali’s blog:
http://supposedaura.blogspot.com/2007/05/on-pyaasa.html#comments



5.FAVORITE SONG

BELIEVE – NATHAN HAINES FEATURING SHELLY NELSON
http://www.myspace.com/nathanhaines

You can listen to a sample of BELIEVE, a beautiful chill-out song, from the link below:
http://www.tunetribe.com/Artist?artist_id=8066