"MY GRANDFATHER" AND "SYNDROMES AND A CENTURY" WIN

There’s a review of LA BELLE CAPTIVE (1983, Alain Robbe-Grillet) in Senses of Cinema.
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/08/48/robbe-grillet-belle-captive.html

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

FAVORITE SONG

GOTTERDAMMERUNG – Eine Kleine Nachtmusik
http://www.myspace.com/einekleinemusik

Thanks to PC from Bioscope webboard who recommended this artist.

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


My poll 30 ended with 13 votes. Thanks very much to everyone who participated in it. Here is the result:

I LOVE THESE FILMS WHICH ARE ABOUT THE DIRECTORS’ OWN FAMILIES. WHICH ONE DO YOU LIKE?

1.MY GRANDFATHER (2008, Pichet Smerchua, Thailand)
+SYNDROMES AND A CENTURY (2006, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Thailand)

Each of these films got 6 votes or 46 %.


3.A CENTURY OF LOVE (2008, Chalermrat Gaweewattana, Thailand)

This film got 3 votes or 23 %.


4.TARNATION (2004, Jonathan Caouette, USA)

This film got 2 votes or 15 %.


5.GHOSTS (2005, Anocha Suwichakornpong, Thailand)
+HOME VIDEO (2008, Yanin Pongsuwan, Thailand)
+IMAGES OF THE ABSENCE (1998, German Kral, Argentina)
+ITALIANAMERICAN (1974, Martin Scorsese, USA)
+THE LONG DAY CLOSES (1992, Terence Davies, UK)
+THE LOVE (2007, Supakit Seksuwan, Thailand)
+MY MOTHER AND HER DARKNESS (2008, Wiwat Lertwiwatwongsa, Thailand)
+SLEEPING BEAUTY (2006, Chulyanon Siriphol, Thailand)
+TU AS CRIE: LET ME GO (1997, Anne Claire Poirier, Canada)

Each of these films got 1 vote or 7 %.


14.CHAC (2000, Kim-Chi Tyler, USA)
+HOMEMADE SAKE (2001, Ono Satoshi, Japan)
+NEVER CONGREGATE, NEVER DISREGARD (2007, Arin Rungjang, Thailand)
+POP AND ME (1999, Chris Roe, USA)
+SINK OR SWIM (1990, Su Friedrich, USA)
+UMMA (MOTHER) (2005, Hohyun Joung, South Korea)
+WHEN I COMPOSE A LOVE SONG (เมื่อผมแต่งเพลงรัก) (2008, Tagoon Kempanya, Thailand)

Each of these films got 0 vote.


--I’m very glad that MY GRANDFATHER is one of the winners. This is surely one of my most favorite Thai films of this year. As for Thai films which are longer than 30 minutes, MY GRANDFATHER is now my second most favorite of this year. The number one spot is still SAT WIBAK NAK LOKE (A TOUGH CREATURE WHO BURDENS THE EARTH) (2008, Paisit Panpruegsachat, A+++++). What makes me prefer SAT WIBAK NAK LOKE to MY GRANDFATHER is the different forms or styles between these two films. SAT WIBAK NAK LOKE is very strange to me. I don’t know how to categorize this film and I don’t know which genre it belongs to. It seems to be a hybrid of many things—documentary, fiction, sci-fi, film about film, etc. Its strangeness, its hybrid nature, and its playful nature is what I love very much. As for MY GRANDFATHER, its style is very simple, though its direct emotional impact is much more powerful than SAT WIBAK NAK LOKE. SAT WIBAK NAK LOKE is a film which seems to tremendously affect my brain, while MY GRANDFATHER is a film which seems to tremendously affect my heart.

--Seeing MY GRANDFATHER, in which the director’s grandfather talks about his past, makes me want to have more talks with my mother about her past. I think some people’s memory is worth recording, whether in book or in video. Since I don’t have a video camera, I can’t record my mother’s memory or her talks on video. Maybe I can use this blog to record her talks from time to time. I just talked with my mother last weekend and she told me some trivial things which I didn’t know before, such as the fact that some relatives of mine used to live in a house with no toilets. They just used their farms as their toilets. They were very poor farmers and some of them didn’t even know how to switch on the light when they came to visit us.

--One of the things that I like very much in MY GRANDFATHER is its absence of emotion-guiding music.

--MY GRANDFATHER is one of a few Thai films I saw this year which have Thai or English subtitles because the Thai characters in these films speak in local dialects which are hard to understand for Bangkokians. I hardly saw this kind of Thai films ten years ago, but I think I saw about a dozen Thai films this year which need to have Thai/English subtitles because of this reason. I think this is great, and I think these local people should be represented more and more in Thai films.

--Talking about different languages in Thailand reminds me about what Ninamori wrote in her blog. She wrote about the communication problems in her school in the south of Thailand because the teacher and the students speak different languages.

Ninamori wrote in Thai about this problem here:
http://ninamori.blogspot.com/2008/05/blog-post_20.html


--While SYNDROMES AND A CENTURY won the most votes in this poll about films concerning the director’s family, it should be noted that the censorship board of Thailand commented on SYNDROMES AND A CENTURY as follows:

“The filmmaker disgracefully humiliates his parents before a global audience.”

--The censor of SYNDROMES AND A CENTURY is the event which seems to spawn at least four great short films

1.YE…DHAMMA (2007, Watthana Rujirojsakul)

2.SPORT NEWS (2008, Manussak Dokmai)

3.I WILL RAPE YOU WITH THIS SCISSORS (2008, Napat Treepalawisetkun)

4.DISEASES AND A HUNDRED YEAR PERIOD (2008, Sompot Chidgasornpongse)


--It’s hard for me to describe why I love A CENTURY OF LOVE very much. The film seems to have no story. It just records an old couple moving about in their own house. But somehow the images in this film affect me very strongly, as strongly as films by Marguerite Duras or Bela Tarr.