TRAILERS (2016, Rouzbeh Rashidi, Ireland, 180min, A+30)

TRAILERS (2016, Rouzbeh Rashidi, Ireland, 180min, A+30)

1.It’s too difficult for me to interpret this film, and I think Wiwat “Filmsick” Lertwiwatwongsa have interpreted it very good already. But it is also too difficult for me to describe my experience or my feelings for this film, because, like many other great experimental films, this film gives me a unique and indescribable experience.

2.My most favorite scenes in the film are the scenes in which there are some optical illusions, or the scenes in which I can’t specify who or what is inside the screen, or who or what is standing in front of the screen. These scenes include the scenes in which there is a person standing or walking inside the screen, and there’s another person standing or walking in front of the screen, and also the scenes which show a person and a fan. The position of the fan makes me wonder if it is inside or outside the screen.

I’m not sure about the meanings of these scenes, but I like this kind of optical illusions very much.

3.Maybe the film tries to present the act of watching a film. In this regard, I think this film may be compared to PENGUIN (2007, Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit, 40min), which is in fact very different from TRAILERS. PENGUIN is about a man and a woman who wander in a park at night, trying to find a way to see some penguins in the park. PENGUIN is a funny film, and some viewers think the film actually makes jokes about us, film viewers, because we are persons who travel to see something in the dark, no matter whether that thing is actually worth the effort or not. Are we wasting our time to try to see films? Are films really worth our efforts?

TRAILERS takes a very different approach from PENGUIN to present “the act of watching a film”. But in the end TRAILERS unintentionally makes me ask myself the same questions as I asked myself after seeing PENGUIN. Are we wasting our time seeing so many films, because many films are actually the same—the combination of light, darkness, colors, sound, characters, characters doing some activities, natural or man-made things, digital signals, audio and video signals, sadomasochistic pain, lust, sexual pleasures, identification with characters, some thoughts or wisdom, etc.

Normally I think that films are “something sacred”, and I think that “the act of watching a film” can be compared to “going to church” or “meditation to contact some divine beings” or “reading some religious books in order to gain enlightenment”. But PENGUIN and TRAILERS seem to reduce films and “the act of watching a film” to their real status. Films are just something shown in the dark. Films are just the combination of light, darkness, colors, sound, and analog or digital signals. The act of watching a film is like going to a zoo, or some kinds of daily activities which we have repeated for thousands of times, sometimes in order to have some sexual pleasures from the films, sometimes in order to have some thoughts or gain some wisdom from the films.

Though films are not sacred, and they may be something meaningless like in PENGUIN and TRAILERS, I am not bored yet with seeing films. Seeing films has become my daily activity. It’s like taking a bath. I have to take a bath everyday. Seeing films is like taking a bath with light and color, instead of with water. Like what the characters in TRAILERS do, I still take great pleasure in jumping into the pool of light and colors every day. Meaningless or meaningful, I don’t care. Maybe my life is meaningless already, so if the act of watching a film is a meaningless act which I have repeated for thousands of times, this activity really corresponds to my life.