"THE LAST HEAT OF HIS FLESH WAS HIS LAST GIFT TO HER"

My poll 21 ended with six votes, including one vote from me for INDIA SONG and LUDWIG’S COOK. Thanks very much to everyone who participated in it. Here is the result:

THESE FILMS/PLAYS USE SPOKEN WORDS TO MAKE THE AUDIENCE VISUALIZE SOME IMAGES. WHICH ONE DO YOU LIKE?

1.EMERALD (2007, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Thailand)
It got 2 votes or 33 %.


2.DIRTY PICTURES (2007, John Smith, UK)
+EKLEIPSIS (1998, Tran T. Kim-Trang, USA)
+INDIA SONG (1975, Marguerite Duras, France)
+LUDWIG’S COOK (1973, Hans-Juergen Syberberg, West Germany)
+MUSIC BOX (1989, Costa-Gavras, USA)
+NOT A MATTER OF IF BUT WHEN (2007, Julia Meltzer + David Thorne, USA)
+A SHORT FILM ABOUT THE INDIO NACIONAL (2006, Raya Martin, Philippines)
+UNTITLED VIDEO ON LYNN STEWART AND HER CONVICTION, THE LAW AND POETRY (2006, Paul Chan, USA)

Each of them got 1 vote, or 16 %.


10.BLACKBIRD (2007, Sasithorn Panichnok, Thai play)
+DREAM WATCH FOR ANYONE WHO IS BELIEVED TO VIOLATE GOOD MORALITY (2007, Manussak Dokamai, Thailand)
+LOVE AND DIANE (2002, Jennifer Dworkin, USA)
+MAGIC WATER (2001, Panu Aree, Thailand)
+MELO (1986, Alain Resnais, France)
+MY DINNER WITH ANDRE (1981, Louis Malle, USA)
+ROOM OF HORROR NO.2 (2007, Wattanachai Treedecha, Thai play)
+TEN TINY LOVE STORIES (2001, Rodrigo Garcia, USA)
+THIS CONSTRUCT CAN SERVE NO PURPOSE ANYMORE (2008, Sathit Sattarasart, Thailand)
+A TOUGH CREATURE WHO BURDENS THE EARTH (2008, Paisit Panpruegsachat, Thailand)
+VAGINA MONOLOGUES (2007, Panpassa Thoobthien, Thai play)

Each of them got 0 vote.


--Talking about films in this topic, I think some films by Apichatpong has this kind of thing. LIKE THE RELENTLESS FURY OF THE POUNDING WAVES (1996), and SYNDROMES AND A CENTURY (2006) use some spoken words to make the audience visualize some images, while MALEE AND THE BOY (1999) uses some written texts to make the audience visualize some images.


--UNTITLED VIDEO ON LYNN STEWART AND HER CONVICTION, THE LAW AND POETRY (2006, Paul Chan, USA) uses some interesting poems in the film, such as:

1.ON ANOTHER’S SORROW by William Blake

Can I see another's woe,
And not be in sorrow too?
Can I see another's grief,
And not seek for kind relief?

Can I see a falling tear,
And not feel my sorrow's share?
Can a father see his child
Weep, nor be with sorrow fill'd?
Can a mother sit and hear
An infant groan an infant fear?
No, no! never can it be!
Never, never can it be!

And can he who smiles on all
Hear the wren with sorrows small,
Hear the small bird's grief & care,
Hear the woes that infants bear,

And not sit beside the nest,
Pouring pity in their breast;
And not sit the cradle near,
Weeping tear on infant's tear;

And not sit both night & day,
Wiping all our tears away?
O, no! never can it be!
Never, never can it be!

He doth give his joy to all;
He becomes an infant small;
He becomes a man of woe;
He doth feel the sorrow too.

Think not thou canst sigh a sigh
And thy maker is not by;
Think not thou canst weep a tear
And thy maker is not near.

O! he gives to us his joy
That our grief he may destroy;
Till our grief is fled & gone
He doth sit by us and moan.


2.QUARANTINE by Eavan Boland

I like this poem very much. It makes me cry.

“In the worst hour of the worst season
of the worst year of a whole people
a man set out from the workhouse with his wife.
He was walking-they were both walking-north.

She was sick with famine fever and could not keep up.
He lifted her and put her on his back.
He walked like that west and north.
Until at nightfall under freezing stars they arrived.

In the morning they were both found dead.
Of cold. Of hunger. Of the toxins of a whole history.
But her feet were held against his breastbone.
The last heat of his flesh was his last gift to her.

Let no love poem ever come to this threshold.
There is no place here for the inexact
praise of the easy graces and sensuality of the body.
There is only time for this merciless inventory:

Their death together in the winter of 1847.
Also what they suffered. How they lived.
And what there is between a man and a woman.
And in which darkness it can best be proved.”


3.THE ABSENCE OF A NOBLE PRESENCE by John Ashbery

I don’t think I understand this poem.

“If it was treason it was so well handled that it
Became unimaginable. No, it was ambrosia
In the alley under the stars and not this undiagnosable
Turning, a shadow in the plant of all things

That makes us aware of certain moments,
That the end is not far off since it will occur
In the present and this is the present.
No it was something not very subtle then and yet again

You've got to remember we don't see that much.
We see a portion of eaves dripping in the pastel book
And are aware that everything doesn't count equally -
There is a dreaminess and infection in the sum

And since this too is of our everydays
It matters only to the one you are next to
This time, giving you a ride to the station.
It foretells itself, not the hiccup you both notice.”



--These are images from THIS CONSTRUCT CAN SERVE NO PURPOSE ANYMORE (2008, Sathit Sattarasart, Thailand), starring Duangjai Hiransri.