MORE MEXICAN FILMS

This is my reply to John in my English-only blog:
http://celinejulie.wordpress.com/2007/12/09/favorite-mexican-films/


Thank you very much, John, for your very useful comments.

--I like Arturo Ripstein very much. These are his films that I saw in my preferential order:

1.DIVINE (1998)

2.THE PLACE WITHOUT LIMITS (1978)

3.SUCH IS LIFE (2000)

4.NO ONE WRITES TO THE COLONEL (1999)

5.THE RUINATION OF MEN (2000)


--I haven’t seen LOLA (1989) and SKY BLUE (1988), but I’m interested in Maria Novaro. I have seen only two of her films: DANZON (1991, A+/A) and THE GARDEN OF EDEN (1994, B+)

--I have seen only two films by Jaime Humberto Hermosillo: DONA HERLINDA AND HER SON (1985, A) and WRITTEN ON THE BODY OF THE NIGHT (2001, A-/B+).

--I haven’t seen any films by Paul Leduc, but I want to see DOLLAR MAMBO (1993) very much.
http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117907921.html?categoryid=31&cs=1&p=0

"IT'S FOR VIP ONLY"

My friend and I just went to Esplanade Cineplex today to buy a ticket for BEFF CORE – TRACK CHANGES (20.30-21.50 hrs), but the ticket seller told us that this film program is for VIP only.

What a waste of time for today!
http://www.project304.org/beff5/

FAVORITE SONG -- "HI N BYE" -- TILL WEST & EDDIE THONEICK

FAVORITE SONG

HI N BYE (Guitarra remix) – Till West & Eddie Thoneick
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fGwNZpJ3IM

Thanks to Parichaba for recommending this song.


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


This is my reply to Zeren in my English-only blog:
http://celinejulie.wordpress.com/2008/03/20/did-i-see-deadly-snail-vs-kung-fu-killers/

--Talking about Peter Greenaway, his first film which I saw is THE COOK, THE THIEF, HIS WIFE & HER LOVER. I like it a lot, though it doesn’t make me feel as excited as Derek Jarman’s films.

I saw DROWNING BY NUMBERS at the British Council in Bangkok in 1996. My English listening comprehension was (and still is) very bad, so I couldn’t understand any dialogues in the film. But I still like the idea of this film very much—letting the viewer playing a game of spotting the numbers in the film. I hadn’t heard any ideas like this before. I also like the girl who jumps rope very much.

I just read a review on DROWNING BY NUMBERS, written by Alain Masson in the book POSITIF 50 YEARS. Masson compared the unrealistic shadow of the rope-jumping girl to the unrealistic shadow of the woman in a painting by Domenico Feti. Masson also talks about the painting of SAMSON AND DELILAH quoted in this film, but I could not remember any paintings in this film. I think I have to see this film again.

PARABLE OF THE LOST DRACHMA (1618-22, Domenico Feti)
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2350/2358369670_652ee04767_o.jpg

SAMSON AND DELILAH (1610, Peter Paul Rubens)
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2013/2358369674_297db72788_o.jpg

SAMSON AND DELILAH (1620, Anthony van Dyck)
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2011/2358369672_aac25edcf6_o.jpg


--This is a quote from Alain Masson’s review of DROWNING BY NUMBERS in the book POSITIF 50 YEARS:

“There is therefore symmetry. The first murder coincides with the three and the last with the one hundred; as it happens, the little girl added three stars to her hundred, implying some form of equivalence between the two numbers; is not one hundred the first three-digit numbers? So many subtleties and questions! As for symmetry, how to justify the enormous 50 that appears in the middle of the beach and looks like 05 backwards, which does not follow correct geometry. And what of the numbers that appear out of turn, and those that repeat themselves? Those that are mentioned rather than seen? Those larger than one hundred? Can the four tines of a fork be read as IIII, like the Roman numeral four? What to do when we don’t see a number? Does numbering govern the increase in the number of characters? The required series proliferates indefinitely, and filmgoers are caught up in a brutal oulipian progression.”


--I had never heard of the word “oulipian” before. It is not included in my English dictionary. Fortunately, wikipedia explains this word, and this word sounds very interesting.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oulipo

From Wikipedia:

“Oulipo (pronounced oo-lee-PO) stands for "Ouvroir de littérature potentielle", which translates roughly as "workshop of potential literature". It is a loose gathering of (mainly) French-speaking writers and mathematicians, and seeks to create works using constrained writing techniques. It was founded in 1960 by Raymond Queneau and François Le Lionnais. Other notable members include novelists like Georges Perec and Italo Calvino, poets like Oskar Pastior or Jacques Roubaud, also known as a mathematician.”

“Some examples of Oulipian writing: Queneau's Exercices de Style is the recounting of the same inconsequential episode ninety-nine times, in which a man witnesses a minor altercation on a bus trip, each unique in terms of tone and style.

Plaisirs singuliers by Harry Mathews (the only American member of Oulipo) describes 61 different scenes, each told in a different style (generally poetic, elaborate, or circumlocutory) in which 61 different people (all of different ages, nationalities, and walks of life) masturbate.

Queneau's Cent Mille Milliards de Poèmes is inspired by children's picture books in which each page is cut into horizontal strips which can be turned independently, allowing different pictures (usually of people) to be combined in many ways. Queneau applies this technique to poetry: the book contains 10 sonnets, each on a page. Each page is split into 14 strips, one for each line. The author estimates in the introductory explanation that it would take approximately 200 million years to read all possible combinations.”

FIFTEENTH POLL: MOCKUMENTARIES OR MY ALARMING INABILITY TO DISTINGUISH FACT FROM FICTION

My fifteenth poll is inspired by one of my most favorite films in February 2008. It’s a short film I saw in the art exhibition called WANTANEE RETROSPECTIVE ENCORE (2008, Wantanee Siripattanantakul), which is a part of a group exhibition called PARADISE ENGINEERING (curated by Chattiya Nitpolprasert) at Art Center Chula. I don’t know if this short film has its own name or not. I just know that this short film was first shown as a part of a solo exhibition called A WANTANEE RETROSPECTIVE last year. So I apply the name of the first exhibition as the name of this short film.

When I went to see PARADISE ENGINEERING, I watched this short film on a TV. I don’t remember its exact details. I apologize in advance if I remember anything wrongly. This short film looks like a TV documentary made by Arte France. It consists of some foreign artists talking about Wantanee Siripattanantakul, claiming she is one of the most important artists in Europe. It also shows some clips from Wantanee’s previous videos. It seems Wantanee has made many artful videos in the past. The exhibition also displays details of her previous works in large letters on the wall. It seems she took part in many famous art exhibitions. Her works were shown in many galleries around the world. She is included in the book ART NOW or something like that. I was a bit surprised when I found that the exhibition also told us where or which gallery would display her work in 2009 or 2010. I had never thought a gallery would plan some exhibitions for one or two years in advance.

I thought this exhibition was a bit boring. How could a list of artist’s works or a list of galleries showing the artist’s work be interesting? Why didn’t the exhibition show the artist’s works? It showed only the list of works, but didn’t show the works. However, I thought this exhibition was very useful, because at least it introduced me to Wantanee. I had never heard the name of this important Thai video artist before.

A few days later, one of my friends asked me if I could make a list of several Thai video artists for him. I tried to make a list, including Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook, Montri Toemsombat, etc. Then I thought about Wantanee. Judging from the short film I saw, she seemed to be very famous. Maybe I should include her name in the list. I googled her name, finding nearly no result. Why couldn’t I find any information about one of the most important artists in Europe on the internet? I asked myself. Suddenly I understood why.


THESE FILMS MAY BE MOCKUMENTARIES. WHICH FILM DO YOU LIKE?

1.THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT (1999, Daniel Myrick, Eduardo Sanchez, USA)

2.CLOVERFIELD (2008, Matt Reeves, USA)

3.DAVID HOLZMAN’S DIARY (1967, Jim McBride, USA)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062864/

http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/c7/81/803eeb6709a0038aa9f91110.L.jpg

4.F FOR FAKE (1974, Orson Welles)

5.FORGOTTEN SILVER (1995, Costa Botes, Peter Jackson, New Zealand)
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/514H6MMZTPL._SS500_.jpg

6.HOW TO MAKE A GOOD ART FOR GET WIN AWARD (Vasan Sitthiket, Thailand)

7.INTERVIEW (2003, Jeanne Faust, Germany)
I really believed this was an actual interview, a real documentary. But the information on the internet told us that the film is staged.
http://www.artfacts.net/index.php/pageType/exhibitionInfo/exhibition/16005


8.KOMBI NATION (2003, Grant Lahood, New Zealand)
I believed this was a real documentary when I was watching the first part of this film. Only when things started to get weird that I came to realize that this is a mockumentary.

9.THE LOVE MACHINE (1999, Gordon Eriksen, USA)
Many viewers, including me, really believed this film is a real documentary. We came to realize that the film is fictional when we saw the ending credit.

10.LUDWIG’S COOK (1973, Hans-Juergen Syberberg, West Germany)

11.MAN BITES DOG (1992, Remy Belvaux, Andre Bonzel, Benoit Poelvoorde, Belgium)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103905/

12.MY LITTLE EYE (2002, Marc Evans, UK)
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51BGRQ45KDL._SS500_.jpg

13.SERIES 7: THE CONTENDERS (2001, Daniel Minahan, USA)

14.SURF’S UP (2007, Ash Brannon, Chris Buck, USA)

15.TEN TINY LOVE STORIES (2001, Rodrigo Garcia, USA)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0301924/
I believed this film is a real documentary. When I was watching this film, I wondered why some women had such vivid memory, why they remembered some details in the past very vividly. I don’t have a good memory like that. But I still believed everything they said is true. A few days later, I talked about this film with Sonthaya Subyen, and he told me that the film is fictional.

16.A TOUGH CREATURE WHO BURDENS THE EARTH (2004, Paisit Panpruegsachart, Thailand)
The first part of this film is undoubtedly mockumentary. It shows a Thai film director being interviewed by an alien. The second part of this film, which shows him and his film crew being questioned by the police, is a real documentary. The next part of this film, which shows him and his girlfriend going upcountry, looks like a real documentary. It is so natural, so life-like. Many viewers also thought like me. We believed the rural part of this film was a real documentary.

After the film, there was a Q&A with the director, we were totally surprised to learn that the whole rural part is fictional, though there were some improvised moments.

I don’t know the official English title of this film. The official Thai title of this film is SAT WIBAK NAK LOK, which can be literally translated as A TOUGH CREATURE WHO BURDENS THE EARTH.

I don’t know which year I should apply to this film. I think this film was finished in 2004, but it got a world premiere at Bioscope Magazine office in 2008. I don’t know if I should use the year 2004 or 2008 for this feature film.


17.…UNPRONOUNCABLE IN THE LINGUISTIC IMPERIALISM OF YOURS (2008, Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke, Thailand)

This film shows an interview with a female Thai artist. For the first half of this film, my friend and I believed it was a real documentary. We only came to realize that this film is a mockumentary when the artist starts talking about her masturbation show.


18.UOD DEE (ARROGANT) (2003, Sompot Chidgasornpongse, Thailand)
I wrote about this film a few months ago. At that time I transcribed the title of this film as AOD DEE.
http://celinejulie.blogspot.com/2007/09/pariya-wongrabiab-is-thai-stephane.html


19.A WANTANEE RETROSPECTIVE (2007, Wantanee Siripattananantakul, Thailand)


20.WELCOME TO HOLLYWOOD (2000, Tony Markes, Adam Rifkin, USA)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0169376/
This film really looks like a real documentary. I like Angie Everhart in this film very much.

You can cast multilpe votes.

Have you ever been fooled by any mockumentaries?

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


--WANTANEE RETROPECTIVE ENCORE shows me how blind I was. There are many clues which hint that the entire exhibition, or the entire biography of Wantanee, is fictional, but I overlooked them. This exhibition, including its short mockumentary, gives me the great lesson of this year: I am unable to distinguish fact from fiction, and I should not overlook any details.

--I think WANTANEE RETROSPECTIVE ENCORE (2008) is the restaging of the exhibition A WANTANEE RETROSPECTIVE (2007), which I didn’t visit. There was a seminar on A WANTANEE RETROSPECTIVE. The details of the seminar in Thai can be read at:
http://www.thaicritic.com/wantanee.htm

In the seminar, Jakapan Vilasineekul commented that the exhibition A WANTANEE RETROSPECTIVE was aimed at the viewers who already had some knowledge in art, and compared this exhibition to some works of Michael Asher, because some of Asher’s exhibitions can only be appreciated by people who already had some knowledge in art, too. One of the most interesting exhibitions of Asher is the one he did for the museum in Bern in 1980. His exhibition consisted of removing all heaters in the museum building and putting them outside, so that the viewers would realize that heaters or anything in an art exhibition, are actually parts of the language of the artist, not just the artworks shown.


--You can view some works of Jakapan Vilasineekul here:
http://www.rama9art.org/artisan/2005/october/recent/exhi.html


--Some information on Michael Asher can be found in the book CONCEPTUAL ART by Daniel Marzona. Here are some excerpts from the book:

“In 1969 Asher publicly exhibited one of his AIRWORKS for the first time at the group exhibition THE APPERING/DISAPPEARING IMAGE/OBJECT. In the vicinity of the entrance zone a fan, not visible to the public, generated between the ceiling and the floor a constant flow of air, which could be transversed by visitors to the exhibition.”

“In 1973, in the Galleria Franco Toselli in Milan, ….He decided on the spot to remove the white paint from all the walls and ceilings of the gallery with a sand-blaster. Beneath the many coats of the white paint, the brown plaster eventually came to light, and with it the various alterations to the building that had been undertaken over the years.”

“Asher himself pointed to the central aspect of the work when he observed: “Traditionally, the white interior of a commercial gallery presented an artist’s production within an architectural setting of false autonomy. If, through its abstinence, the viewer was reminded of the white paint, an interesting question was then raised: How does the white ‘partition’ of paint affect the context of art usually seen on that support surface?””

You can buy the book CONCEPTUAL ART here.
http://www.amazon.com/Conceptual-Art-Basic-S/dp/3822829625/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1206026590&sr=1-1

DID I SEE "DEADLY SNAIL VS. KUNG FU KILLERS"?

My fourteenth poll ended with four votes, including one vote from me for THE MISSION. Thank you very much for everyone who participated in it. Here is the result:

THESE FILMS MAY HAVE SOMETHING CONCERNING THE COLONIAL ERA. WHICH FILM DO YOU LIKE?

1.GANDHI (1982, Richard Attenborough, UK/India)
+THE MISSION (1986, Roland Joffe, UK)

Each of them got 2 votes, or 50 %.


3.THE LAST COMMUNIST (2006, Amir Muhammad, Malaysia)
+THE LOVER (1992, Jean-Jacques Annaud, France/Vietnam)

Each of them got 1 vote, or 25 %.


5.THE BEWITCHING BRAID (1996, Yuanyuan Cai, Macau)
+CLEAN SLATE (1981, Bertrand Tavernier, France)
+COBRA VERDE (1987, Werner Herzog, Ghana/West Germany)
+DROPS OF LIGHT (2002, Fernando Vendrell, Portugal/Mozambique)
+THE FANTASTIC PLANET (1973, Rene Laloux, Czechoslovakia/France)
+THE MURMURING COAST (2004, Margarida Cardoso, Portugal)
+NED KELLY (2003, Gregor Jordan, Australia)
+NEVER SHALL WE BE ENSLAVED (1997, Kyi Soe Tun, Myanmar)
+NOWHERE IN AFRICA (2001, Caroline Link, Germany)
+QUEENIE (1987, Larry Peerce, USA, 233 min)
+RIZAL IN DAPITAN (1997, Tikoy Aguiluz, Philippines)
+A SHORT FILM ABOUT THE INDIO NACIONAL (2005, Raya Martin, Philippines)
+THE SIAM RENAISSANCE (2004, Surapong Pinijkhar, Thailand)
+UTU (1983, Geoff Murphy, New Zealand)
+VICTOR SCHOELSCHER, L’ABOLITION (1998, Paul Vecchiali, France)
+WHITE MISCHIEF (1987, Michael Radford, UK)

Each of them got 0 vote.


--Since I have no knowledge in history, I have nothing to say about the colonial era. I voted for THE MISSION, because I love this film very much and this film is very important for my life as a film addict. If I remember it correctly, THE MISSION is the first film that makes me cry in theatre. It’s the scene when Robert De Niro is dying, watching Jeremy Irons walking bravely.

I don’t remember which is the first film I saw in theatre. I only remember vaguely that I watched a children’s film in theater when I was very young. My school took me and my friends to see some good Thai films when I was in elementary school. I remember going with my family to see a Chinese film starring Yu On-on when I was very young. I don’t know the English title of this film. The Thai title of this film can be translated as THE GODDESS OF WHITE SHELL. I don’t know if the exact title of this film is DEADLY SNAIL VS. KUNG FU KILLERS (1977, Hueng Ling) or not.
http://www.mjsimpson.co.uk/reviews/deadlysnailvskungfukillers.html

I also saw GANDHI in theatre when I was very young. I think there is a massacre scene in this film, and it is unforgettable.

Anyway, I started going to see a film alone when I was in secondary school and very crazy for Tom Cruise. The first film that I went to see alone is THE COLOR OF MONEY. I think I became a film addict after that. THE MISSION is also one of the first films that I saw alone. It was such a powerful experience for me. Every time I thought about the soundtrack of this film, I cried. I think I was like this for ten years. Now I can listen to the soundtrack of THE MISSION without crying.

MY COMMENT IN JESSE'S BLOG

This is my comment in Jesse’s blog:
http://memoriesofthefuture.wordpress.com/

--I totally agree with at least three things you wrote:

1.” I’m really allowing myself to merely be exposed to the things that interest me, and see where that eventually takes me.”

That’s what I’m doing, too. And I think that is the right thing to do.


2.” One of my resolutions for 2008: to undue my habit of watching a film or reading a book or whatever through a filter of “now what interesting thing am I going to say about this when I write my review?” I see now that such a mindset is severely limiting, and might even be robbing me of quite a bit of enjoyment I might not even realize I’m missing.”


Yeah, that’s absolutely right. Writing about a film should not lessen any enjoyment you can get from a film. I used to spend some time thinking about what I should write in my blog, but whenever I thought about that, it would distract me from any enjoyment I could get from other things I was experiencing at that moment. If I thought about my blog when I was watching a film, that thought would distract me from enjoying the film at that moment. If I thought about my blog when I was sipping coffee, that thought would distract me from really enjoying the taste of coffee. I will not let my blog or my writing preventing me from enjoying other things in life.


3.” it is impossible to expect ever reaching a place of “knowing enough,” and as a result it should never serve as a deterrent for writing”

That’s absolutely true, too.


--I don’t know how much you will write here in the near future. I just want to tell you that you should do whatever you feel happy to do. Whenever you feel happy to read, read. Whenever you feel happy to write, write. But there’s at least one thing I hope you will continue doing: whenever you experience such an indescribable joy from any film, any song, any book, or anything in your life, I hope you will let us readers know. If you don’t have time to analyze those great things you enjoy, at least I hope you make just a simple list of them. It would be very useful for us.

I would have never listened to Nina Simone or Regina Spektor if it’s not because of you, Jesse.

KEREN CYTTER = FASSBINDER + CASSAVETES + SOUTH PARK + BLAIR WITCH?

--In the BEFF5 program, I’m very glad that I may have a chance to see these films:

1.DIRTY PICTURES (2007, John Smith, UK) in the program 3.1

2.OFFSHORE (2007, Andrew Kotting UK) in the program 3.3

3.SOMETHING HAPPENED (2007, Keren Cytter, Germany) in the program 3.5


I have seen some of John Smith’s films and I love them. I have never seen a film by Keren Cytter, but what I have heard about her films implies that her films are must-see.

You can read a review on Keren Cytter’s films from FRIEZE magazine in October 2007:
http://www.frieze.com/issue/article/true_romance/


There is a quote from Cytter in the article. She said, “A cliché for me is an absolute truth, it is like the practical bible, it is something that passed through many people and it is this one sentence that stuck with them all. At least one of these people must genuinely believe in it. If the majority holds on to it, obviously it affects them. I keep saying I’m one of those people but nobody believes me.”


These are images of SOMETHING HAPPENED (2007, Keren Cytter)
http://www.elisabethkaufmann.com/site/000134.html
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2247/2342609121_0aaae06c0d_o.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3010/2342609115_1d47144777_o.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2273/2342609111_d74db94b90_o.jpg


--Keren Cytter’s films are also listed in Daniel Birnbaum’s TOP 10 BEST ART OF 2007 in ARTFORUM magazine, December 2007. You can buy this magazine from the link below:
http://www.artforum.com/inprint/issue=200710

This is what Birnbaum wrote about Cytter’s films in ARTFORUM:

“Wherever I go—Paris, Antwerp, Zurich, Moscow—I see a great new film by this Israeli artist that sticks the viewers, in the words of Willem de Rooij, “somewhere in between Fassbinder, John Cassavetes, SOUTH PARK, and THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT.” In certain works, Cytter’s protagonists seem to have lost control of their own “stories”, as in DREAM TALK, 2005, in which a group of friends mistake themselves for characters in a reality TV show. In the dense, rapid, looped video THE VICTIM, 2006, five people gather around a table and one of them—the victim—is driven to the ultimate point of no return: suicide, The story pushes forward with great speed and shows there is no limit to Cytter’s technical skills. Her films are humorous and psychologically riveting. Next time I travel, I’m sure I’ll see another splendid piece. I can’t wait.”


This is DANIEL BIRNBAUM’S TOP 10 BEST ART LIST OF 2007 in ARTFORUM magazine:

1.PAINTING WITHOUT END by Andre Cadere
http://www.sammlung.daimlerchrysler.com/contemporary/02_02_newminimal/newminimal_cadere_e.htm
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3050/2343498878_23c3b7e136_o.jpg

2.PALERMO by Blinky Palermo
http://www.frieze.com/issue/review/blinky_palermo/
http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O:AD:E:4474&page_number=1&template_id=6&sort_order=1
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2287/2343498870_e69989ebc0_o.jpg

3.A MODERN CLASSIC and HELLDEN+BAERTLING by Olle Baertling

4.PUSS 1968-1973

5.ELECTRIC DRESS 1956-1986 by Atsuko Tanaka
http://mocoloco.com/art/archives/001084.php#more
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2108/2343498886_29cc918664_o.jpg

6.Paul Chan

7.Saadane Afif
http://www.antidote-2006.com/en/artists/
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2142/2343498880_30dc4f5913_o.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2011/2343498876_9a888e32b7_o.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3102/2343498872_aa393be5f5_o.jpg

8.Keren Cytter

9.LIKE ORIGAMI GONE WRONG by Simon Dybbroe Moller

10.RICHARD PRINCE: SPIRITUAL AMERICA
http://www.guggenheim.org/exhibitions/exhibition_pages/prince.html



--Talking about art and film reminds me of the film CAR PAINTING (2006, George Barber, UK, A). I saw this film last year, but it will be shown again in BEFF5 in the program 2.2 DATA-PAINTING: LIQUID REALITIES. This film uses a car (or the tires of the car) as a paintbrush, and the street as a canvas. I have been thinking about this film lately after I read the article THE BEGINNING OF THE END OF PAINTING by Graham Coulter-Smith in artintelligence’s blog:
http://artintelligence.net/review/?p=497

MY FAVORITE FILMS IN BEFF5

MY TENTATIVE SCHEDULE FOR BEFF5

WEDNESDAY 26 MARCH

ESPLANADE
20.30-21.40 1.2 BEFF CORE – TRACK CHANGES (65)


THURSDAY 27 MARCH

ALLIANCE FRANCAISE
18.00-20.30 4.3 LOCAL LOOP: EMERGING HISTORIES FROM THE
PHILIPPINES


FRIDAY 28 MARCH

ESPLANADE
18.00-19.30 3.7 PHILIP SCHEFFNER'S THE HALFMOON FLIES (90)
20.00-21.40 3.3 INTERNATIONAL HARVEST II – VARIETY THEATRE (100)


SATURDAY 29 MARCH
WILLIAM WARREN LIBRARY
10.00-XXXX 7.1 REMAINS

ALLIANCE FRANCAISE
13.00-14.30 3.4 MOVING IMAGE WORKS FROM AUSTRALIA AND AOTEAROA/NEW ZEALAND

16.00-17.30 3.5 INTRODUCING BERLIN 1

18.00-19.45 4.1 DOCO LOCO: IF THESE WALLS COULD TALK...


SUNDAY 30 MARCH

ALLIANCE FRANCAISE
14.00-15.30 3.6 INTRODUCING BERLIN II

ESPLANADE
17.00-18.35 3.1 MEMORY MACHINE
19.00-20.15 2.2 DATA PAINTING


MONDAY 31 MARCH

WILLIAM WARREN LIBRARY

18.30-20.30 7.3 A CRIME AGAINST ART


According to my schedule, I will see the program 1.2, 2.2, 3.1, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5, 3.6, 3.7, 4.1, 4.3, 7.1, 7.3.

And that's mean I won't have a chance to see some films/stage play I would like to see very much. They are:

1.NATIONAL ANTHEM (2008, Chai Chaiyachit) in the program 1.3

2.A VERY SLOW BREAKFAST (2007, Edwin, Indonesia) in the program 3.2

3.PLOT POINT (2007, Nicolas Provost, Belgium) in the program 3.2

4.STRENGTH OF A MAN (Pintip Satpruedprai, Padungpong Prasartthong, Preechayut Saejung)
This is a stage play at Makhampom studio.

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

Looking at the BEFF5 program, I found that I had seen many films in them already. There are many films I like in the program.

MY FAVORITE FILMS IN BEFF5 THAT I HAVE SEEN BEFORE:

(In alphabetical order)

1.BREEZE (Sathit Sattarasart) in the program 5.1

2.DRAMA, STRINGS AND HORN (Gunter Krueger, Germany) in the program 3.5

3.ESCAPE FROM POPRAYA 2526 (2007, Paisit Panpruegsachart) in the program 1.1

4.FALCON (Karo Goldt, Germany) in the program 3.6

5.LANDSCAPE 101 01 1101 01… (2007, Sompot Chidgasornpongse) in the program 5.2

6.LETTERS FROM THE SILENCE (2006, Prap Boonpan) in the program 1.2

7.LIVING A BEAUTIFUL LIFE (Corinna Schnitt, Germany) in the program 3.5

8.OBSERVATION OF THE MONUMENT (2008, Michael Shaowanasai) in the program 1.2
I’m not sure if I have seen this film yet, but I have seen a video which is a part of the exhibition OUR LADY OF THE LOW COUNTRIES by Michael Shaowanasai at Kathmandu Photo Gallery. I think the video I saw is this film.
http://www.kathmandu-bkk.com/exhibition_present01.html

9.SPORT NEWS: THE BULLSHIT ARE GOING, THE WANDERING GHOSTS ARE COMING (2008, Manussak Dokmai) in the program 1.1

10.STRAWBERRY (2008, Thaweesak Srithongdee, Boonchai Apintanaphong) in the program 5.3

BANGKOK EXPERIMENTAL FILM FESTIVAL’S FINAL PROGRAM

BANGKOK EXPERIMENTAL FILM FESTIVAL’S FINAL PROGRAM

“SCREENING PROGRAM HERE** downloadable PDF file

*** UPDATE 17-03-08 ***

Final Program

schedule of Esplanade Cineplex

schedule_of Alliance Francaise

schedule_of Special Program

FROM DOCUMENTARY TO SURREAL TO COMEDY TO TRAGEDY

THIS IS MY COMMENT IN FILMSICK’S BLOG:
http://filmsick.exteen.com/20080317/entry

เมื่อกี้ลองเข้าไปดูหนังเรื่องนี้แล้ว ตอนแรกรู้สึกเฉยๆ แต่พอมันเริ่มท่องกลอนขึ้นมา ก็รู้สึกเหมือนกับว่าหนังเรื่องนี้กลายเป็นหนัง SURREAL และพอมันท่องกลอนต่อไปเรื่อยๆ ก็รู้สึกว่าหนังเรื่องนี้ได้กลายเป็นหนัง COMEDY แต่หลังจากนั้น เมื่อมีการนำภาพกับเสียงที่ไม่สัมพันธ์กันโดยตรงมาประกอบเข้าด้วยกัน ก็รู้สึกว่าหนังเรื่องนี้เป็นหนัง TRAGEDY

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


THIS IS MY COMMENT IN SCREENOUT WEBBOARD:
http://www.xq28.org/zaa/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=79&start=150


ตอบคุณ TARENCE

ขอบคุณมากค่ะสำหรับของขวัญ เมื่อกี้เข้าไปดูใน PRIVATE MESSAGE แล้ว ชอบมากๆค่ะ

ว่าแต่น้องชายของคุณ TARENCE คือใครหรือคะ น่าไปว่ายน้ำด้วยอย่างมากๆ

ชอบวาทศิลป์บิณฑบาตของคุณ TARENCE มากๆค่ะ
“ตัวจริงดูดีมาก เห็นแล้วอยากมีสัมพันธุ์ทางเพศด้วยเป็นที่สุด”

ส่วนเรื่อง “สงครามนางฟ้า” นั้น ดิฉันไม่ได้ติดตามดูเลยค่ะ ก็เลยคงไม่สามารถแคสติ้งได้ว่าใครเป็นใคร


ตอบคุณ BLACK FOREST

อ่า นึกไม่ถึงเลยว่าคุณ BLACK FOREST จะเลือก Cheon Jeong-myeong ดิฉันรู้สึกว่าเขาไม่ได้ดูหล่อใสเหมือนคนอื่นๆ แต่ดูเถื่อนๆกว่าหน่อย

ต้องขอขอบคุณคุณ BLACK FOREST มากค่ะที่แนะนำ (นอกรอบ) ให้ซื้อนิตยสาร THE BOYS MODEL STORY NO.3 ดิฉันไม่เคยซื้อนิตยสารเล่มนี้มาก่อนเลยค่ะ แต่เมื่อวานนี้ลองซื้อมาแล้ว พบว่าถูกใจมากๆ นี่ถ้าหากคุณ BLACK FOREST ไม่ได้แนะนำ ดิฉันก็คงพลาดทำความรู้จักกับ Alexander Uijleman ไปแล้ว
http://www.magazinedee.com/main/magall.php?mag=2701

GEORGES DE LATOUR

In the article THE REFRACTION OF LIGHT THROUGH LENSES, written by Paisit Panpruegsachart in the Thai book: FILMVIRUS 1 (1998), the name of Georges de Latour (1593-1652) is mentioned. I hadn’t heard this name before, so I tried to find some paintings of his on the internet. The book said that the candlelight in his paintings is interesting.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Georges_de_La_Tour

CUTE ACTOR: NATAKORN KONGSIB

THIS IS MY COMMENT IN SCREENOUT WEBBOARD (with some added comments)
http://www.xq28.org/zaa/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=79&start=150

--ขอเป็นกำลังใจให้พี่ Sensitiveman ผ่านพ้นอุปสรรคในชีวิตไปได้อย่างรวดเร็วนะคะ

--ขอบคุณคุณ teddy bears มากค่ะ ที่มาแนะนำหนังเรื่อง A FOUR LETTER WORD (2007, Casper Andreas) ดิฉันยังไม่ได้ดูหนังเรื่องนี้ค่ะ แต่ท่าทางหนังจะน่าดูดี
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0835034/


--I just found an article in New York Times website about my favorite queer film—I-BE AREA. I got to know about this article via Invisible Cinema’s blog:

http://invisiblecinema.typepad.com/invisible_cinema/2008/03/l-train-vision.html


--My favorite gay film lately is 2008, LET’S COME OUT (2008, Thanapol Chaowanich, Thailand, 3 min, A+/A). There’s nothing much in this film, but I like the editing in some scenes very much.


CUTE ACTOR: NATAKORN KONGSIB

Natakorn Kongsib stars as the main villain in SIYAMA: VILLAGE OF WARRIORS (2008, Preecha Songsakul, A-/B+). I enjoy this film quite a lot, and it is a real guilty pleasure, because I think this film is too patriotic. Normally I hate patriotic films, and I don’t like the patriotic side of this film very much. But apart from the bad patriotic side, I think this film is quite funny. I love the way this film discards logic, such as the illogical hairstyles of one character.

I guess this film may comment on what happened in Thailand last year. I’m not sure about that. I’m not sure about the political standpoint of this film. Does this film support the military coup or not? Does this film want us to be a good follower of the military government and abandon our belief in the constitution (like the girl who abandons her medical vow) so that we can unite to fight some evil politicians? I don’t know. I think I may not agree with the political standpoint of this film.

I think there is an interesting scene which seems to effectively exploit the patriotic feelings. It’s the scene in which the characters from the past suddenly transform into old people. They seem to ask the people in the present to help protecting the country. Ethically, I don’t like the purpose of this scene. Emotionally, I think this scene is effective.

Judging from SIYAMA: VILLAGE OF WARRIORS, I guess Preecha Songsakul has a potential to make a great cult film or a great exploitation film. I like the magical fighting between the monk and the witch in this film. I don’t know much about this director. I hope he makes some cult films or exploitation films in the future, not patriotic films like this one.

You can read a review on SIYAMA by Wise Kwai in his blog:
http://thaifilmjournal.blogspot.com/2008/02/reviews-first-flight-siyama.html

Photos from SIYAMA:
http://www.nangdee.com/title/mt_picture.php?movie_id=1473

Natakorn Kongsib in SIYAMA:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3069/2335737023_a991f0f595_o.jpg

Natakorn Kongsib in Real Magazine:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2102/2335721637_21b837a0a1_o.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3111/2336553688_c71b39f99a_o.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3232/2335721647_41bd53a4d6_o.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2363/2336553676_14b6f2bae8_o.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2067/2335721635_929cb6e96d_o.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2183/2335721655_245e88aba0_o.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2360/2336553686_74031e660f_o.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2135/2335721651_1e9799bb33_o.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2288/2335782653_7807c2a4f7_o.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3071/2336553692_d28c164637_o.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2153/2336553666_b8fd1531d3_o.jpg

MICRONOMIC -- LALI PUNA

This is my comment in Bioscope Webboard:
http://www.bioscopemagazine.com/smf/index.php?topic=71.870


--From Wise Kwai’s blog, I just discovered that a Swedish blogger wrote about some Thai films in his Japanese-film blog:
http://ambivalentfuture.blogspot.com/


ตอบคุณ pc

คุณ pc เขียนว่า “สำหรับผม ดนตรี minimal techno ไม่ว่าจะมาจากศิลปินคนไหน ก็ cerebral พอกันทั้งนั้นแหละครับ ผมคงต้องใช้เวลาเรียนรู้ไปสักพัก ก่อนที่จะสามารถแยกแยะลักษณะเฉพาะของศิลปินแต่ละคนออกจากกันได้”

ดิฉันก็อยากจะบอกว่า ถึงแม้ดิฉันจะชอบเพลงแดนซ์มากแค่ไหนก็ตาม ดิฉันก็ไม่มีความสามารถในการแยกแยะเพลงแดนซ์แต่ละเพลงหรือลักษณะเฉพาะตัวของศิลปินเพลงแดนซ์แต่ละคนได้เลยค่ะ ซึ่งต่างจากเพื่อนบางคนของดิฉันที่สามารถแยกแยะลักษณะเด่นของศิลปินเพลงแดนซ์แต่ละคนหรือมือรีมิกซ์แต่ละคนได้

นอกจากนี้ ดิฉันยังประสบปัญหาสำคัญอีกอย่างหนึ่งในการแยกแยะเพลงแดนซ์ ซึ่งสาเหตุมาจากการที่ดิฉันยังคงฟังเทปอยู่เป็นประจำในปัจจุบันนี้ เนื่องจากไม่ค่อยมีเงินซื้อเครื่องเล่นซีดีหรือคอมพิวเตอร์ และเมื่อฟังเทปเพลงแดนซ์ ซึ่งส่วนใหญ่เป็นเพลงที่ไม่มีเสียงร้อง และเป็นการเล่นเพลงแดนซ์เทคโนแบบ NON-STOP โดยไม่มีการหยุดพักระหว่างเพลง ดิฉันก็มักจะแยกไม่ออกว่าเพลงที่ตัวเองกำลังได้ยินอยู่ในขณะนี้ เป็นเพลงลำดับที่เท่าไหร่กันแน่ในหน้า A หรือหน้า B ของเทป ถ้าหากดิฉันฟังเพลงดังกล่าวจากซีดี ดิฉันก็คงจะรู้ได้ในทันทีว่าเพลงที่ตัวเองกำลังได้ยินอยู่เป็นเพลงลำดับที่เท่าไหร่ เพราะจะมีตัวเลขขึ้นมาที่เครื่องเล่นซีดี แต่พอฟังจากเทป ก็เลยแยกยากมากๆ

อย่างไรก็ดี ปัจจุบันนี้ดิฉันได้แก้ปัญหาด้วยการเอาชื่อเพลงที่ตัวเองสงสัยว่าจะใช่เพลงที่ตัวเองชอบ มาหาข้อมูลทางอินเทอร์เน็ตต่ออีกทีนึง โดยในช่วงที่ผ่านมาดิฉันได้หยิบเทปชุด THE POLITICS OF DANCING (2001, Paul van Dyk, A) ขึ้นมาฟัง และก็ประสบปัญหาว่า เพลงที่ตัวเองชอบมันคือเพลงอะไรกันแน่ ระหว่างเพลง FURTHERMOST ของ SOLICITOUS กับ FOUR DAYS ของ SUBSKY ดิฉันก็เลยลองมาหาข้อมูลใน YOUTUBE ดู และก็พบว่าเพลงที่ตัวเองชอบคือ FOUR DAYS ของ SUBSKY


MY FAVORITE TRACKS IN “THE POLITICS OF DANCING” (2001, Paul van Dyk, A):

1.RAPTURE – iio
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbaWdyDipcw

2.FOUR DAYS – SUBSKY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bm2MdcJw1U8

3.EPIC MONOLITH – MIRCO DE GOVIA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3SmcT5s-Sg

4.STARCHILDREN – GUARDIANS OF THE EARTH
http://www.myspace.com/guardiansoftheearth


--ได้เห็นเนื้อร้องภาษาโบราณของ A LYKE WAKE DIRGE แล้ว ก็เลยทำให้นึกถึงเพลงที่ชอบมากๆเพลงนึง ซึ่งก็คือเพลง THE LADY OF SHALOTT ของ Loreena McKennitt ซึ่งเนื้อเพลงนี้เอามาจากบทกลอนในปี 1842 ของ Alfred Lord Tennyson

One of my favorite songs is THE LADY OF SHALOTT by Loreena McKennitt. You can listen to this 10-minute song from:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyaRAu0s0Eg

The lyrics of this song come from a poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson in 1842. This is the lyrics:

“On either side of the river lie
Long fields of barley and of rye,
That clothe the world and meet the sky;
And thro' the field the road run by

To many-towered Camelot;

And up and down the people go,
Gazing where the lilies blow
Round an island there below,
The island of Shalott.

Willows whiten, aspens quiver,
Little breezes dusk and shiver
Thro' the wave that runs for ever
By the island in the river
Flowing down to Camelot.

Four grey walls, and four grey towers,
Overlook a space of flowers,
And the silent isle imbowers
The Lady of Shalott.

Only reapers, reaping early,
In among the bearded barley
Hear a song that echoes cheerly
From the river winding clearly
Down to tower'd Camelot;

And by the moon the reaper weary,
Piling sheaves in uplands airy,
Listening, whispers 'tis the fairy
The Lady of Shalott.

There she weaves by night and day
A magic web with colours gay,
She has heard a whisper say,
A curse is on her if she stay
To look down to Camelot.

She knows not what the curse may be,
And so she weaveth steadily,
And little other care hath she,
The Lady of Shalott.

And moving through a mirror clear
That hangs before her all the year,
Shadows of the world appear.
There she sees the highway near
Winding down to Camelot;

And sometimes thro' the mirror blue
The Knights come riding two and two.
She hath no loyal Knight and true,
The Lady Of Shalott.

But in her web she still delights
To weave the mirror's magic sights,
For often thro' the silent nights
A funeral, with plumes and lights
And music, went to Camelot;

Or when the Moon was overhead,
Came two young lovers lately wed.
I am half sick of shadows, said
The Lady Of Shalott.

A bow-shot from her bower-eaves,
He rode between the barley sheaves,
The sun came dazzling thro' the leaves,
And flamed upon the brazen greaves
Of bold Sir Lancelot.

A red-cross knight for ever kneel'd
To a lady in his shield,
That sparkled on the yellow field,
Beside remote Shalott.

His broad clear brow in sunlight glow'd;
On burnish'd hooves his war-horse trode;
From underneath his helmet flow'd
His coal-black curls as on he rode,
As he rode back to Camelot.

From the bank and from the river
he flashed into the crystal mirror,
Tirra Lirra, by the river
Sang Sir Lancelot.

She left the web, she left the loom,
She made three paces taro' the room,
She saw the water-lily bloom,
She saw the helmet and the plume,
She looked down to Camelot.

Out flew the web and floated wide;
The mirror cracked from side to side;
The curse is come upon me, cried
The Lady of Shalott.

In the stormy east-wind straining,
The pale yellow woods were waning,
The broad stream in his banks complaining.
Heavily the low sky raining
Over towered Camelot;

Down she came and found a boat
Beneath a willow left afloat,
And round about the prow she wrote
The Lady of Shalott

And down the river's dim expanse
Like some bold seer in a trance,
Seeing all his own mischance -
With a glassy countenance
Did she look to Camelot.

And at the closing of the day
She loosed the chain and down she lay;
The broad stream bore her far away,
The Lady of Shalott.

Heard a carol, mournful, holy,
Chanted loudly, chanted lowly,
Till her blood was frozen slowly,
And her eyes were darkened wholly,
Turn'd to towered Camelot.

For ere she reach'd upon the tide
The first house by the water-side,
Singing in her song she died,
The Lady of Shalott.

Under tower and balcony,
By garden-wall and gallery,
A gleaming shape she floated by,
Dead-pale between the houses high,
Silent into Camelot.

Out upon the wharfs they came,
Knight and Burgher, Lord and Dame,
And round the prow they read her name,
The Lady of Shalott.

Who is this? And what is here?
And in the lighted palace near
Died the sound of royal cheer;
And they crossed themselves for fear,
All the Knights at Camelot;

But Lancelot mused a little space
He said, She has a lovely face;
God in his mercy lend her grace,
The Lady of Shalott. ”


In the poem/lyrics, there is the sentence “THE MIRROR CRACKED FROM SIDE TO SIDE”. I’m not sure about this, but I guess this sentence may be related to the title of the whodunit film THE MIRROR CRACK’D (1980, Guy Hamilton), which is adapted from Agatha Christie’s novel, and stars Angela Lansbury, Elizabeth Taylor, Kim Novak, Geraldine Chaplin, Rock Hudson, and Tony Curtis. I haven’t seen this film yet, but I think I read the novel many years ago.
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/516B5GPWKSL._SS500_.jpg

I like the tagline of this film very much: “MIRROR, MIRROR ON THE WALL, WHO IS THE MURDERER AMONG THEM ALL?”


--เมื่อกี้ลองเข้าไปฟังเพลง DISCONNECTED ของ Plastikman ที่คุณ PC แนะนำไว้แล้ว ชอบมากๆเลยค่ะ ทั้งเพลงและมิวสิควิดีโอ


FAVORITE SONGS

(In alphabetical order)

1.DISCONNECTED – Plastikman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtJzjc_ff78

2.FAIR WEATHER FRIENDS – Daedelus
This music video is a very lovely animation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRJ2YvRv3N4

3.MICRONOMIC – Lali Puna
I really really love this music video, directed by Luis Briceno.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yrrzf_DYP1Q

4.MODERN LOVE (MARK MOORE REMIX) – Kish Mauve
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhwvarxYXD8

5.NEVER LET ME DOWN AGAIN – Sylvain Chauveau
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZlEX-Qn7JE

6.ZARATHUSTRA – Ed Chamberlain
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TX82irh6YbM

NOW PROMISE NOW THREAT (2005, Paul Chan, A+)

--There are some news on the censorship of SYNDROMES AND A CENTURY. You can read it from Matthew Hunt’s blog and Wise Kwai’s blog:

http://www.matthewhunt.com/blog/2008/03/syndromes-century-appeal-fails.html

http://thaifilmjournal.blogspot.com/2008/03/apichatpong-exhausted-officially.html

--Jesse makes a very interesting observation on SYNDROMES AND A CENTURY. You can read it from his blog:
http://memoriesofthefuture.wordpress.com/

--I still haven’t seen SYNDROMES AND A CENTURY.


FAVORITE READING:

Dan Sallitt on Michel Deville
http://www.panix.com/~sallitt/blog/2008/03/michel-deville-nina-companez-and-cause.html

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

This is my comment in Bioscope Webboard:
http://www.bioscopemagazine.com/smf/index.php?topic=71.870

--The new issue of SENSES OF CINEMA is out now. There are two articles on Nina Menkes in this issue.
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/index.html
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/08/46/nina-menkes-jiang-hu.html
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/08/46/nina-menkes-interview.html


ตอบคุณ filmsick

Dechito เขียนถึง THE MIST ไว้ใน BLOG ของเขาด้วยค่ะ อ่านได้ที่
http://dechito.blogspot.com/2008/03/mist.html

เขาบอกว่าดูหนังเรื่องนี้แล้วทำให้นึกถึง LORD OF THE FLIES ซึ่งดิฉันก็เห็นด้วย

--Coincidentally, I saw three films which seems to deal with religious institutions in February—THE MIST (2007, Frank Darabont, A+), THERE WILL BE BLOOD (2007, Paul Thomas Anderson, A+), and NOW PROMISE NOW THREAT (2005, Paul Chan, A+). These three films don’t show the religious institution in a positive way. NOW PROMISE NOW THREAT is a documentary which shows that while some religious people think abortion is a serious sin, they support the war in Iraq. I don’t understand their logic. These real cruel religious people in NOW PROMISE NOW THREAT reminds me of the fictional religious people in THE MIST.

Moreover, the hypocrisy of religious people in NOW PROMISE NOW THREAT reminds me of a notorious sentence said by a so-called Thai monk before the Bangkok Massacre in October 1976. The so-called monk said that KILLING COMMUNISTS IS NOT A SIN.

--I guess that notorious sentence is the inspiration for the film DIALOGUE 3: KILLING CAPITALISTS IS NOT A SIN (2002, Manussak Dokmai). I haven’t seen this film yet, but I still hope someone will organize a retrospective of Manussak Dokmai soon.

FAKE FIELD VS. IMPERATRIX CORNICULA

THIS IS MY COMMENT IN BIOSCOPE WEBBOARD:
http://www.bioscopemagazine.com/smf/index.php?topic=964.0


ตอบคุณ SANTA

กรี๊ด ดิฉันจำชื่อคุณไพสิฐผิดค่ะ ชื่อเล่นเขาชื่อ “เคี้ยง” ไม่ใช่ “เกี๊ยง” ดิฉันต้องกราบขออภัยอย่างสูงมา ณ ที่นี้ด้วย


ตอบคุณ DPN

ดิฉันเดาว่าถ้าหากปิดเสียง ก็อาจจะมีผู้ชมบางส่วนที่ทนไม่ได้ แต่ก็อาจจะมีผู้ชมบางส่วนที่ยังคงชอบหนังเรื่องนี้มากๆอยู่ และหนังเรื่องนี้ก็อาจจะกลายเป็นคู่แข่งที่น่ากลัวของ BIRTH OF THE SEANEMA (2004, Sasithorn Ariyavicha, A+) ซึ่งเป็นหนังเงียบที่เน้นภาพท้องทะเลกับบรรยากาศโล่งๆ เหมือนกัน 55555


ตอบน้อง merveillesxx

ถ้าหากชอบ “ทุ่งกำมะลอ” (A+) เราขอแนะนำว่าควรดู IMPERATRIX CORNICULA (2007, Jerome Bertrand, A+) ที่อยู่ในดีวีดีหนังชุด L’EROTISME เป็นอย่างยิ่ง เพราะหนังเรื่องนี้ก็มีการใช้ดนตรีประกอบที่ให้ความรู้สึกรุนแรงสุดๆเหมือนกัน

ไม่รู้เหมือนกันว่า “สัตว์วิบากหนักโลก” (A+++++++++++++++) มีชื่อเรื่องภาษาอังกฤษอย่างเป็นทางการแล้วยัง ถ้าหากยังไม่มี เวลาเราเขียนบล็อกภาษาอังกฤษ เราอาจจะแปลชื่อหนังเรื่องนี้เล่นๆว่า A TOUGH CREATURE WHO BURDENS THE EARTH 55555


--ขออนุญาตโปรโมทบทความของคุณกิตติพล สรัคคานนท์ในนิตยสาร “หนัง:ไทย” ด้วยการตัดตอนบทความบางส่วนของเขามาลงในนี้นะคะ หวังว่าทางมูลนิธิหนังไทยคงไม่ว่าอะไร

บทความของคุณกิตติพล สรัคคานนท์ที่เขียนถึงหนังเรื่อง “จอมโหดมนุษย์ซีอิ๊ว” ของคุณไพสิฐ พันธุ์พฤกษชาติ อยู่ในนิตยสาร “หนัง:ไทย” เล่มที่ 11 (July –September 2001) ค่ะ สั่งซื้อนิตยสารเล่มนี้ได้ที่
http://www.thaifilm.com/supportDetail.asp?id=22

อันนี้เป็นข้อความบางส่วนจากบทความของคุณกิตติพล ซึ่งมีความยาวทั้งหมด 13 หน้า

“ความสอดพ้องของจิตและสสารกับความขัดแย้งของจิตและสสาร (ทั้งสองลักษณะมิได้ให้ผลเป็นเชิงบวกหรือลบ, ดีหรือด้อย, แต่เป็นตัวกำหนดบุคลิกภาพของหนังมากกว่า) ดูเหมือนจะเป็นลักษณะหนึ่งที่แบ่งแยกความคล้ายคลึงหลายๆประการในประเด็นเรื่อง “ความจริง” ของ “จอมโหดมนุษย์ซีอิ๊ว” และ “ดอกฟ้าในมือมาร” ภาพยนตร์อีกเรื่องที่อยู่ในฐานะใกล้เคียงกัน ให้แยกออกจากกันได้

อภิชาติพงศ์มีการท่าทีที่เรียบเฉยกับ “ความจริง” มากกว่า ในแง่ที่ไม่น้อมนำไปสู่สภาวะอื่นที่ปลดเปลื้องให้เกิดเพทนาการภายในขึ้นมา แม้อารมณ์ขันใน “ดอกฟ้าในมือมาร” จะมีอยู่มากมาย (บางทัศนะของผู้เขียนมองเป็นกลไกตอบรับมากกว่าจะเกิดขึ้นจาก “ความน่าขบขัน” อันเป็นความรู้สึกโดยแท้ที่นำให้ไปสู่ หรือให้เป็น “สิ่งขบขัน”) แต่ก็มิอาจขจัดความนิ่งเรียบที่อภิชาติพงศ์มีต่อความเป็นจริงอื่นๆไม่....”

“ขณะที่ไพสิฐมีความอ่อนน้อมและใกล้ชิดต่อความเป็นจริงมากกว่า มีเจตสิก (sentiment) และความหลงใหลในภาวะที่สิ้นหวังมากกว่า จึงดูจะเป็นการประนีประนอมกันเพื่อความสอดพ้องระหว่างจิตและสสาร แม้ว่าเขาไม่พยายามนำเสนอเรื่องที่อยู่เหนือข้อเท็จจริง แต่ก็มิได้หมายความถึงเขายอมรับเอาเหตุและผลของทุกสรรพสิ่งเป็นที่ตั้งสูงสุด ทั้งนี้ความเป็นจริงที่เขาสัมผัสนั้นมีเหตุหรือไม่มี มาอยู่ก่อนหน้าแล้ว เขาไม่จำเป็นต้องเข้าไปยืนยันความมีอยู่หรือไม่มีอยู่ของเหตุเหล่านั้นอีก (ขณะที่กระบวนการภาพยนตร์ส่วนหนึ่งสนองคุณเหตุเหล่านี้ ด้วยการยอมรับ การปูพื้นฐานความเป็นมาของบุคคล รัก, ชอบ และเกลียดอะไรเป็นโครงสร้าง ซึ่งถูกพัฒนาขึ้นเป็นความจำต้องเป็นรูปแบบหนึ่งไป ที่ไม่แน่ว่าจะใช่ทางออกที่ถูกต้องนัก)”

PAISIT PUNPRUKSACHAT'S RETROSPECTIVE TODAY

Four films by Paisit Punpruksachat (Kiang) will be shown at Bioscope Magazine office today at 19.00 hrs. I don’t know if the films have English subtitles or not.

You can read the details of the program in Thai at Merveillesxx’ blog:
http://www.bloggang.com/viewdiary.php?id=merveillesxx&month=03-2008&date=10&group=1&gblog=123

I have seen only three short films by Paisit: TELECHANTE (1992, A+), ESCAPE FROM POPRAYA 2526 (2007, A+) and BROTHERS (2007, Jiraporn Jaipang + Paisit Punpruksachat, A+). These three films are experimental.

Some trivia on Paisit:

1.In A Trick of Light’s blog, there is a photo of Paisit and Apichatpong Weerasethakul in 1997. Paisit is on the left side of the photo. Apichatpong is on the right side. The information on the blog says that they were just resting during the filming of MYSTERIOUS OBJECT AT NOON (2000). At that moment, the two people looked ahead. They could not imagine how the future of the Thai film industry will be. However, they didn’t know that they were creating a history for the Thai film industry.
http://atrickofthelight.wordpress.com/2008/03/02/

2.Paisit wrote a Thai article in the book FILMVIRUS 1.

3. In the magazine THAI FILM QUATERLY, Volume 11, Kittiphol Sarakkhanon wrote an article about the feature film THE CRUELTY AND THE SOY-SAUCE MAN (2000, Paisit Panpruksachat, 97 min). This film is available as DVD. You can buy it from some stalls in Jatujak or from the following website:
http://www.thaishortfilm.com/shop_product1_2.html


Apichatpong wrote about Paisit in the brochure of THE BANGKOK EXPERIMENTAL FILM FESTIVAL 3 (2001). Here is what he wrote:

“Paisit Phanprucksachat (Kiang)

One can look at Kiang’s life as a representation of a state of Thai independent video. In his desperation to tell stories, he equipped himself with sound recorders, home made microphones, and a still camera. In my opinion, he was, consciously or not, made to become the first modern experimental filmmaker in Thailand. His progression from stills, sounds, and finally to video mirrors the struggling path of other independent filmmakers.

Familiarized with him through working together on MYSTERIOUS OBJECT AT NOON (2000) in early 1998, I had a chance to see his photographs. They are mostly somber, black and white depiction of ruins and details of buildings, evoking the mood not unlike Derek Jarman’s or science fiction’s narrative. And by hearing his idea for several films, I incorporate these images with the stories in my mind. I found that Kiang’s filmic world is filled with dark and apocalyptic humor. He combines Thai popular cultures (i.e. pop songs, celebrities) with his own chosen environs (his cramp flat, junk yard, Chao Praya river). These fantasies are creepily modern yet filled with nostalgia. They are like homemade dishes cooked by a remote control.

When Kiang made videos, however, he chose to present them in a documentary style. One of his early works was a six-hour video recording his chat with his roommate Klass (who was also my crew, working as a sound recorder). The camera was fixed on a tripod and was never moved. It documented the two in their room arguing about the existence of gods and their religious teachings, in the most unpretentious way one can think of. It feels like they were always discussing the matter and the camera happened to capture the event that night. They talked until they were drawn out and until their speeches were slurred. The morning radio was heard, and we saw them slept, engulfed by the slowly shifting light of dawn. I thought this work was a documentary. But when I knew him better, I was not quite sure that he would not lead the unsuspicious Klass to his direction, to fulfill his planned structures and contents.”


Paisit Punpruksachat’s partial filmography:

1.ATTIPAWANIYOM SUKSAN (HAPPY EXISTENTIALISM) (6 min)

2.BROTHERS (2007, co-directed with Jiraporn Jaipang, 10 min)

3.THE CRUELTY AND THE SOY-SAUCE MAN (2000)

4.ESCAPE FROM POPRAYA 2526 (2007)

5.KLASS AND KIANG TALKING (six-hour-long)

6.MADANG BO SAI (1999)

7.SAT WIBAK NAK LOK (78 min)

8.TELECHANTE (1992)

9.TUNG GAMMALORE (FAKE FIELD) (18 min)

EXTREMELY ECSTATIC EXPERIENCE

Merveillesxx just saw SOMBRE (1998, Philippe Grandrieux) and likes it very much. He asked me to recommend other films which may be comparable to SOMBRE, preferably films which are available as DVDs in Bangkok.

This is my comment in Merveillesxx’ blog:
http://www.bloggang.com/viewdiary.php?id=merveillesxx&month=03-2008&date=10&group=1&gblog=123

น้องเมอร์คะ พี่จะเข้าไปตอบคำถามที่น้องถามไว้ในเว็บบอร์ดไบโอสโคป แต่เว็บบอร์ดมันล่มน่ะค่ะ พี่เลยเอาคำตอบมาแปะในนี้แทนนะคะ

Well, I think SOMBRE is actually incomparable. I find it very difficult to think of any other films which may be comparable to SOMBRE. So I think I should just give you some trivia:

--There are at least two bloggers who like Grandrieux or SOMBRE very much. So if you continually read these two blogs, you may get to know some other films which are as great as SOMBRE.

1.Mubarak Ali’s blog:
http://supposedaura.blogspot.com/
http://supposedaura.blogspot.com/2007/03/straight-is-line-from-heart-to-star.html
http://supposedaura.blogspot.com/2007/02/dance-girl-dance.html
http://supposedaura.blogspot.com/2006/02/la-vie-nouvelle-philippe-grandrieux.html

2.Mike Dekalb’s blog:
http://esotika.blogspot.com/

3.Mike Dekalb’s website:
http://esotikafilm.com/


--In Unspoken Cinema’s blog, Philippe Grandrieux’s LA VIE NOUVELLE is categorized as being in the sub-group of films called STYLIZED CONTEMPLATION.

You can find the name of Grandrieux and other interesting directors in this chronology list of films:
http://unspokencinema.blogspot.com/2006/10/chronology.html

Or in this directory:
http://unspokencinema.blogspot.com/2008/02/ccc-auteurs-directory.html

Or in this updated genealogy chart:
http://unspokencinema.blogspot.com/2007/11/updated-genealogy-chart.html


--Well, if you are gonna buy some DVDs, I think I may recommend you some films. I think these films have nothing in common with SOMBRE, except that these films give me an experience as extremely ecstatic as SOMBRE.

1.BEAU TRAVAIL (1999, Claire Denis)

2.THE BLOOD OF A POET (1930, Jean Cocteau)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021331/

3.COLOR OF POMEGRANATES (1968, Sergei Paradjanov)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063555/

4.COME AND SEE (1985, Elem Klimov)

5.THE GARDEN (1990, Derek Jarman)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099634/

6.INAUGURATION OF THE PLEASURE DOME (1954, Kenneth Anger)
This film is in the DVD called THE FILMS OF KENNETH ANGER VOL.1.

7.INSTITUTE BENJAMENTA (1995, The Quay Brothers)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113429/

8.MAHLER (1974, Ken Russell)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071797/


The following films also gave me an experience as extremely ecstatic as SOMBRE, though these films may not be available as DVDs in Bangkok now.

1.AUGUST IN THE WATER (1995, Sogo Ishii, Japan)

2.THE BOY FROM MARS (2003, Philippe Parreno, France, short film)

3.THE DEATH OF MARIA MALIBRAN (1972, Werner Schroeter, West Germany)

4.EDEN AND AFTER (1970, Alain Robbe-Grillet, France)

5.KALYI – AGE OF DARKNESS (1993, Fred Kelemen, Germany)

6.THE LONG DAY CLOSES (1992, Terence Davies, UK)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104753/

7.PAMELA, POUR TOUJOURS (2003, Alain Bourges, France, short film)

8.THE SLEEP OF REASON (1984, Ula Stockl, West Germany)

9.TAKE THE 5:10 TO DREAMLAND (1976, Bruce Conner, USA, short film)

10.VACANCY (1998, Matthias Mueller, Germany, short film)

ADORNO: ART HAS NO MISSION

This is my comment in Girish Shambu’s blog:
http://www.girishshambu.com/blog/2008/03/nicole-brenez-on-experimental-cinema.html

I really like this sentence by Brenez: “I prefer Adorno’s totally despairing belief [laughs] that art has no mission.”

I have no knowledge about Adorno, but I found some information about him in Wikipedia, which I think is interesting:

“Adorno perceived kitsch in terms of what he called the “culture industry,” where the art is controlled and formulated by the needs of the market and given to a passive population which accepts it—what is marketed is art that is non-challenging and formally incoherent, but which serves its purpose of giving the audience leisure and something to watch. It helps serve the oppression of the population by capitalism by distracting them from their alienation. Contrarily, art for Adorno is supposed to be subjective, challenging, and oriented against the oppressiveness of the power structure. He claimed that kitsch is parody of catharsis, and a parody of aesthetic experience.”

ULRIKE OTTINGER'S NEW FILM IN ARTFORUM'S LIST

This is my comment in A Trick of Light’s blog:
http://atrickofthelight.wordpress.com/

PRATER is in Chrissie Iles’ favorite film list of 2007 in the magazine ARTFORUM, December 2007. Here is what Iles said about PRATER in the magazine:

“The story of the PRATER, the oldest amusement park in the world, known as the “desire machine,” told in a dreamlike sequence of surreal illusions, through the eyes of, among others, Josef von Sternberg.”


--This is Chrissie Iles’ favorite film list of 2007 in ARTFORUM:

1.PERSEPOLIS (Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud)

2.PRATER (Ulrike Ottinger)

3.TIGERTAIL (Dan Friedman)

4.CONTROL (Anton Corbijn)

5.ALEXANDRA (Alexander Sokurov)

6.FROWNLAND (Ronald Bronstein)

7.OBSERVANDO EL CIELO (Jeanne Liotta)

8.QUARTET (Nicky Hamlyn)

9.MOVIOLA WITH “3 MINUTES OF PAINTING ON 6 MINUTES OF FILM” (Karin Schneider and Amy Granat)

10.THE MAN FROM LONDON (Bela Tarr)

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

These are images of PRATER from Ottinger’s website:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3264/2329221596_00c6ba039e_o.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3071/2329221600_ff091730ea_o.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2326/2329221604_8d1265276e_o.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2147/2329221608_00ff4de6ee_o.jpg


Two English books on Ulrike Ottinger:

1.ULRIKE OTTINGER: IMAGE ARCHIVE
http://www.amazon.com/Ulrike-Ottinger-Archive-Catherine-David/dp/3938821159/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1205334615&sr=8-7

Information from amazon.com
“Ulrike Ottinger's films and photographs investigate remote corners of the world, such as Mongolia and Ukraine, using both fictional and documentary means. Her associatively connected voyages meander through the peripheries of cities, countries and societies, and against that backdrop capture human splendor and misery, reality and illusion, surface and depth. Her aesthetic tends to the theatrical--literary and historical figures including Dorian Gray and Joan of Arc have been known to make appearances--and to the elaborately decorated, thanks in part to her travels and her passion for collecting. She has archives full of objects and images of all kinds, accumulated on her globetrotting jaunts, and often draws from this stock to mediate issues of gender and character, power and sexuality from many different angles”

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3017/2329221610_4a86961686_o.jpg


2.ULRIKE OTTINGER: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ART CINEMA, written by Laurence A. Rickels
http://www.amazon.com/Ulrike-Ottinger-Autobiography-Art-Cinema/dp/0816653313/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1205334615&sr=8-9

This book will be available on July 4, 2008.

Information from amazon.com

“Since 1974, German filmmaker Ulrike Ottinger has created a substantial body of films that explore a world of difference defined by the tension and transfer between settled and nomadic ways of life. In many of her films, including Exile Shanghai, an experimental documentary about the Jews of Shanghai, and Joan of Arc of Mongolia, in which passengers on the Trans-Siberian Express are abducted by Mongolian bandits, she also probes the encounter with the other, whether exotic or simply unpredictable.

In Ulrike Ottinger Laurence A. Rickels offers a series of sensitive and original analyses of Ottinger’s films, as well as her more recent photographic artworks, situated within a dazzling thought experiment centered on the history of art cinema through the turn of the twenty-first century. In addition to commemorating the death of a once-vital art form, this book also affirms Ottinger’s defiantly optimistic turn toward the documentary film as a means of mediating present clashes between tradition and modernity, between the local and the global.

Widely regarded as a singular and provocative talent, Ottinger’s conspicuous absence from critical discourse is, for Rickels, symptomatic of the art cinema’s demise. Incorporating interviews he conducted with Ottinger and illustrated with stunning examples from her photographic oeuvre, this book takes up the challenges posed by Ottinger’s filmography to interrogate, ultimately, the very practice-and possibility-of art cinema today.

Laurence A. Rickels is professor of German and comparative literature at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the author of several books, including The Case of California, The Vampire Lectures, and the three-volume Nazi Psychoanalysis (all published by Minnesota). He is a recognized art writer whose reflections on contemporary visual art appear regularly in numerous exhibition catalogues as well as in Artforum, artUS, and Flash Art.”

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2059/2329221614_b18c7a76fe_o.jpg

FOURTEENTH POLL: THE COLONIAL ERA

FOURTEENTH POLL: THE COLONIAL ERA

My fourteenth poll is inspired by A SHORT FILM ABOUT THE INDIO NACIONAL (2005, Raya Martin, A+), which I saw last month. It’s a very strange film which I hardly understand, though I am totally fascinated by it. It seems to show the lives of some Filipinos during the colonial era. The film doesn’t waste time to tell anything you can read from a history book, so that’s partly the reason why I, who have no knowledge about history, let alone Philippines’ history, don’t understand it, but I still like the film’s approach to history very much.

A SHORT FILM ABOUT THE INDIO NACIONAL has so many memorable scenes, one of which is the scene in which some children kill a priest by drowning him. I don’t know if this scene represents the anger towards religious institution or the Spanish rule, but it is a very powerful scene, nevertheless.

After seeing A SHORT FILM ABOUT THE INDIO NACIONAL which deals with the colonial era, I realize that I have seen very few films which deal with this period in history. I try to make a list of films in this category which I have seen. Here is the result:

THESE FILMS MAY HAVE SOMETHING CONCERNING THE COLONIAL ERA. WHICH FILM DO YOU LIKE?

1.THE BEWITCHING BRAID (1996, Yuanyuan Cai, Macau)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117953/

2.CLEAN SLATE (1981, Bertrand Tavernier, France)

3.COBRA VERDE (1987, Werner Herzog, Ghana/West Germany)
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51279X9GW4L._SS500_.jpg

4.DROPS OF LIGHT (2002, Fernando Vendrell, Portugal/Mozambique)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0191161/

5.THE FANTASTIC PLANET (1973, Rene Laloux, Czechoslovakia/France)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070544/
This films deals with the colonial era on another planet. Hahaha.

6.GANDHI (1982, Richard Attenborough, UK/India)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083987/

7.THE LAST COMMUNIST (2006, Amir Muhammad, Malaysia)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0497034/
Some parts of this film are about the time when Malaysia was under the British rule, but other parts are about the time when Malaysia became independent.

8.THE LOVER (1992, Jean-Jacques Annaud, France/Vietnam)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101316/

9.THE MISSION (1986, Roland Joffe, UK)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091530/

10.THE MURMURING COAST (2004, Margarida Cardoso, Portugal)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0406669/

11.NED KELLY (2003, Gregor Jordan, Australia)

12.NEVER SHALL WE BE ENSLAVED (1997, Kyi Soe Tun, Myanmar)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyi_Soe_Tun

13.NOWHERE IN AFRICA (2001, Caroline Link, Germany)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0161860/

14.QUEENIE (1987, Larry Peerce, USA, 233 min)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093808/
This is a miniseries which may have no artistic value, but my friends and I think it is very entertaining when we saw it as teenagers.

15.RIZAL IN DAPITAN (1997, Tikoy Aguiluz, Philippines)

16.A SHORT FILM ABOUT THE INDIO NACIONAL (2005, Raya Martin, Philippines)
Oggs Cruz wrote a review on this film in the link below:
http://oggsmoggs.blogspot.com/2006/07/maicling-pelicula-nag-ysag-indio.html

17.THE SIAM RENAISSANCE (2004, Surapong Pinijkhar, Thailand)
Thailand faced a colonial threat in this film.

18.UTU (1983, Geoff Murphy, New Zealand)

19.VICTOR SCHOELSCHER, L’ABOLITION (1998, Paul Vecchiali, France)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0199126/

20.WHITE MISCHIEF (1987, Michael Radford, UK)

You can cast multiple votes.

Since I have no knowledge about history or politics, I apologize in advance if I misunderstand anything about the colonial era.


--Apart from stories about the colonial era, there are so many other interesting things in A SHORT FILM ABOUT THE INDIO NACIONAL. One of them is the way the three main male characters seem to represent the state of the nation. Coincidentally, several weeks after I saw this film, I saw HANDLE ME WITH CARE (2008, Kongdej Jaturanrasamee, Thailand, A+). Some critics point out that the story about the protagonist’s trip is full of symbols about the state of Thailand during the past several years. In a way, the protagonist of HANDLE ME WITH CARE seems to be the symbol of the state of Thailand or some people in Thailand.

The paragraph above has nothing to do with my own thinking. All the information above is what I conclude after reading some film reviews. I cannot analyze or decode any films by myself like that. Anyway, I think it is interesting that some films have characters which may be the symbols of some nations. Apart from A SHORT FILM ABOUT THE INDIO NACIONAL and HANDLE ME WITH CARE, I can only think of two other films which have characters like that: THE MARRIAGE OF MARIA BRAUN (1979, Rainer Werner Fassbinder), the protagonist of which seems to represent the state of Germany after the war; and CLOSELY WATCHED TRAINS (1966, Jiri Menzel). I have read some reviews which say that the protagonist of this film may represent the state of Czechoslovakia during the German Occupation.

Can you think of any other films which may have characters like that?

I-BE FANDO, PINK FLAMINGOS AND MAGDALENA JUNG

MY THIRTEENTH POLL: DELIGHTFULLY DEMENTED FILMS ended with 9 votes, including one voter from me for HEAL HITLER! and I-BE AREA. Thank you very much for everyone who participated in it. Here is the result:

THESE FILMS ARE VERY CRAZY. WHICH ONE DO YOU LIKE?

1.FANDO AND LIS (1968, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Mexico)
+I-BE AREA (2007, Ryan Trecartin, USA)
+PINK FLAMINGOS (1972, John Waters, USA)
+WHAT HAPPENED TO MAGDALENA JUNG? (1983, Christoph Schlingensief, West Germany)

Each of them gets 2 votes, or 22 %.


5.DAISIES (1966, Very Chytilova, Czechoslovakia)
+HEAL HITLER! (1986, Herbert Achternbusch, West Germany)
+INAUGURATION OF THE PLEASURE DOME (1954, Kenneth Anger, USA)
+LOOK OF LOVE (2006, Yoshiharu Ueoka, Japan)
+MADAME X: AN ABSOLUTE RULER (1978, Ulrike Ottinger, West Germany)
+PEPI, LUCI, BOM (1980, Pedro Almodovar, Spain)

Each of them gets 1 vote, or 11 %


11.BUNZAI CHAIYO EPISODE II THE ADVENTURE OF IRON PUSSY (1999, Michael Shaowanasai, Thailand)
+THE DEATH OF MARIA MALIBRAN (1972, Werner Schroeter, West Germany)
+THE FAMILY THAT EATS SOIL (2004, Khavn de la Cruz, Philippines)
+FLAMING CREATURES (1962, Jack Smith, USA)
+HOUSE (1977, Nobuhiko Obayashi, Japan)
+PSYCHIC TEQUILA TAROT (1998, Isabell Spengler, Germany)
+THE RASPBERRY REICH (2004, Bruce La Bruce, Canada)
+SEVEN DAYS, SEVEN NIGHTS (2003, Joel Cano, Cuba)
+SWEET MOVIE (1974, Dusan Makavejev, Yugoslavia)
+A VIRUS KNOWS NO MORALS (1985, Rosa von Praunheim, West Germany)

Each of them gets 0 vote, or 0 %.


If you are interested in the writing of Werner Schroeter and Rosa von Praunheim, you can read their writing online from the book KINO-SINE: PHILIPPINE-GERMAN CINEMA RELATION. The book can be downloaded from:
http://www.goethe.de/ins/ph/pro/ksi/kinosine.pdf

I knew about this book from Noel Vera's blog:
http://criticafterdark.blogspot.com/2008/02/noli-me-tangere-touch-me-not-gerardo-de.html

I'VE NEVER HEARD OF CAROLINE ROBOH, SHIMAKO SATO, LOUISE BOURQUE, AND SUZANA AMARAL

This is my comment in Twilight Virus' blog:
http://twilightvirus.blogspot.com/2008/03/88-favorite-films-by-female-film.html


Hahahahaha. I think “John Putch”, who directed VALERIE FLAKE, is a male director. But VALERIE FLAKE is one of my most favorite films about woman, and also one of my most favorite films of all time.

You can read John Putch’s biography here:
http://www.putchfilms.com/biography/bio.html

In your list I have seen these films:

(In no particular order)

Group A+
1. Agatha et les lectures illimitées (Marguerite Duras) France, 1981

2. The All-Around Reduced Personality (Die Allseitig reduzierte Persönlichkeit – Redupers) Germany, 1978

3. The Apple (Sib) (Samira Makhmalbaf) Iran, 1998

4. At Land (Maya Deren) USA, 1944

5. The Birth of Seanema (Sasithorn Ariyavicha) Thailand, 2004

6. Daguerréotypes (Agnès Varda) France, 1976

7. Female Perversions (Susan Streitfeld) Germany / USA, 1996

8. Final Score (Soraya Nakasuwan) Thailand, 1997

9. Freak Orlando (Ulrike Ottinger) Germany, 1981

10. The Gleaners & I (Glaneurs et la glaneuse) (Agnès Varda) France, 2000

11. The Heartbreak Kid (Elaine May) USA, 1972

12. Hotel (Jessica Hausner) Austria, 2004

13. Hungerjahre - in einem reichen Land (The Hunger Years: In a Land of Plenty) (Jutta Brückner) Germany, 1980

14. In My Skin (Dans Ma Peau) (Marina de Van) France, 2002

15. Mikey and Nicky (Elaine May) USA, 1976

16. Monster (Patty Jenkins) USA / Germany, 2003

17. My Life without Me (Isabel Coixet) Spain / Canada, 2003

18. Nathalie Granger (Marguerite Duras) France, 1972

19. Nuit et Jour (Night and Day) (Chantal Akerman) France / Belgium / Switzerland,1991

20. Peppermint - Frieden (Peppermint Freedom) (Marianne Rosenbaum) Germany, 1983

21. Petits arrangements avec les morts (Pascale Ferran) France, 1994

22. L’ Annulaire (The Ring Finger) (Diane Bertrand) France, 2005

23. Der Schlaf der Vernunft (The Sleep of Reason) (Ula Stöckl) Germany, 1984

24. Sleepwalk (Sara Driver) USA, 1986

25. Das Dritte Fenster (The Third Window) (Hanna Nordholt and Fritz Steingrobe) Germany, 1997 (short film)

(26. Valerie Flake (John Putch) USA, 1999)

27. Wanda (Barbara Loden) USA, 1970


Group A
28. Blue Steel (Kathryn Bigelow) USA, 1990

29. Gas, Food Lodging (Allison Anders) USA, 1992

30. Golden Eighties (Window Shopping) (Chantal Akerman) France /Belgium, 1986

31. Männer... (Doris Dörrie) Germany, 1985

32. Orlando (Sally Potter) UK / Russia / France, 1992

33. Sink or Swim (Su Friedrich) USA, 1990

34. Moe no suzaku (Naomi Kawase) Japan, 1997

35. 3 Men and A Cradle (3 hommes et un couffin) (Coline Serreau)France, 1985


Group A-
36. The Last Days of Chez Nous (Gillian Armstrong) Australia, 1992

37. My Father is Coming - Ein Bayer in New York (Monika Treut)Germany, 1991

38. Office Killer (Cindy Sherman) USA, 1997

39. 2 Days in Paris (Julie Delpy) France / Germany, 2007

40. Women on Top (Fina Torres) USA, 2000


Group B+
41. The Night Porter (Il Portiere di notte) (Liliana Cavani), Italy,1974



These are the films in your list which I haven't seen:

1.Clémentine Tango (Caroline Roboh) France, 1983

2. My 20th Century (Az Én XX. századom) (Ildikó Enyedi) Hungary / Germany, 1989

3. A Tale of Vampire (Shimako Sato) UK, 1992

4. Short Encounters (Kira Muratova) USSR, 1967

5. You Are Not I (Sara Driver) USA, 1981 (short film)

6. El-Havi (The Street) (Dima El-Horr) Lebanon, 1997 (short film)

7. Smooth Talk (Joyce Chopra) USA, 1985

8. Strangers in Good Company (Cynthia Scott) Canada, 1990

9. Marianne and Juliane / The German Sisters (Die Bleierne Zeit)(Magarethe Von Trotta) Germany, 1981

10. Three Sisters / Love and Fear (Paura e Amore / Fürchten und Lieben) (Magarethe Von Trotta) France / Italy / Germany, 1988

11. Sisters, or the Balance of Happiness (Schwestern oder Die Balance des Glücks) (Magarethe Von Trotta) Germany, 1979

12. Boxing Helena (Jennifer Chambers Lynch) USA, 1993

13. Summer Snow (Nu ren si shi) (Ann Hui) Hong Kong, 1995

14. Bedevil (Tracy Moffatt) Australia, 1993

15. Swept Away... by an Unusual Destiny in the Blue Sea of August (Travolti da un insolito destino nell'azzurro mare d'agosto) (Lina Wertmüller) Italy, 1974

16. Working Girls (Lizzie Borden) USA, 1986

17. Thank You and Goodnight (Jan Oxenberg) USA, 1991

18. L’ Adolescente (Jeanne Moreau) France, 1979

19. Toute une nuit (All Night Long) (Chantal Akerman) France / Belgium, 1982

20. A New Leaf (Elaine May) USA, 1971

21. Zur Sache, Schätzchen (May Spils) Germany, 1968

22. The Hitch-Hiker (Ida Lupino) USA, 1953

23. Heaven (Diane Keaton) USA, 1987

24. Peau d'homme coeur de bête (Skin of Man, Heart of Beast) (Hélène Angel) France, 1999

25. Broken Mirrors (Gebroken spiegels) (Marleen Gorris) Netherlands, 1984

26. Peppermint Soda (Diabolo menthe) (Diane Kurys) France, 1977

27. La Ciénaga, (Lucrecia Martel) Argentina, 2001

28. Neun Leben hat die Katze (The Cat Has Nine Lives) (Ula Stöckl) Germany, 1968

29. Sweetie (Jane Campion) Australia, 1989

30. Brève traversée (Brief Crossing) (Catherine Breillat) France, 2001

31. Mina Tannenbaum (Martine Dugowson) France, 1994

32. Shadow Magic (Xi yang jing) (Ann Hu) China / Germany /Taiwan, 2000

33. The People in the House (Louise Bourque) Canada, 1994

34. Hra o jablko (The Apple Game) (Vera Chytilova) Czechslovakia, 1976

35. Innocence (Lucile Hadzihalilovic) France, 2004

36. Passionless Moments (Jane Campion) Australia, 1983 (short film)

37. Hour of the Star (A Hora da Estrela) (Suzana Amaral) Brazil, 1985

38. Chocolat (Claire Denis) France, 1988

39. Le livre de Marie (Anne-Marie Miéville) France, 1984

40. Hitlers Hitparade (Susanne Benze + Oliver Axe) Germany, 2003

41. Néa (Nelly Kaplan) France, 1976

42. Miss Mary (María Luisa Bemberg) Argentina / USA, 1986

43. a segment in Lumiere and Company (Helma Sanders-Brahms) France /Germany, 1995

44. The Girl (Eltávozott nap) (Márta Mészáros) Hungary, 1968

45. The Girls (Flickorna) (Mai Zetterling) Sweden, 1968

46. Sugar Cane Alley (Rue cases nègres) (Euzhan Palcy) France / Martinique,1983

47. Olivier, Olivier (Agnieszka Holland) France, 1992