HER VENETIAN NAME IN DESERTED CALCUTTA (1976, Marguerite Duras, A+)

 

HER VENETIAN NAME IN DESERTED CALCUTTA (1976, Marguerite Duras, A+)

 

Not as captivating as INDIA SONG (1975, Marguerite Duras, A+30), but much more depressing. While in INDIA SONG the voices can invoke images from the past to appear before our eyes in most scenes, in HER VENETIAN NAME IN DESERTED CALCUTTA the voices lose that power. The voices here can only inspire us to recall the images in INDIA SONG, or inspire us to imagine some images by ourselves. Our eyes can only see  the truth or the true state of the places now. The images we see remind us of the fact that the story we hear is about something happening many decades ago, and what we see is assumed to be the places where these things happened.  These places used to be so beautiful, so splendorous, when Anne-Marie Stretter was still alive, when love and passion were still in the air. Now these places are in ruins, the people are dead, the love and passion from the past may be gone, or may still be floating in the air, like spirits.

 

When I saw HER VENETIAN NAME IN DESERTED CALCUTTA, I was overwhelmed by the feeling that everything is temporary. Our life, our love, our passion, our dance, our cry, our suffering may look extremely significant to us now. But in a few decades after this, all of this will evaporate, turn into ruins, or become ashes.

 

Technically HER VENETIAN NAME IN DESERTED CALCUTTA reminds me of the film MANUS CHANYONG’S ONE NIGHT AT TALAENGGAENG ROAD (2008, Paisit Panpruegsachart, 38min), which shows the places in Ayuthaya in the present time, while the voiceover tells us about a political struggle in Ayuthaya in the past. Both films arouse us to imagine some images in the past by ourselves. But while MANUS CHANYONG’S ONE NIGHT AT TALAENGGAENG ROAD makes us think about the political aspect of the film, HER VENETIAN NAME IN DESERTED CALCUTTA overwhelms me with sadness. It reminds me that I will die, everyone I love will die, every place I visit or stay will turn into ruins. But the sun will still shine, and the sea will still rush to shore after we have been dead for so many years.

 

INDIA SONG made me want to stop dancing or going to nightclubs many years ago. The tiredness of the characters in INDIA SONG when they dance and switch their partners from one to another somehow made me feel tired of doing the same thing. HER VENETIAN NAME IN DESERTED CALCUTTA makes me want to stop holding on to many things. Now when I see the place I live in, I not only see its present state, but also its ruins in the future.