.ANTS IN THE LEGS (2016, Danielle
Zorbas, Australia, 41min, A+30)
(This is the English translation of
what I wrote in Thai on Saturday, with some added comments)
You can watch the film from the link
below. When I saw this film, I couldn’t help crying out “Oh my god!” every
minute. The film overwhelms me completely. It certainly will be in the list of my
top ten most favorite films I saw in 2017. I can’t decide which scene in this
film is the weirdest scene. One of my most favorite scenes is the scene in
which the characters are practising in a yoga lesson while playing something
like a ouija board at the same time (around minute 7-8 in the film). The moment
that I like the most in this film occurs in minute 15. It is the moment when
the film cuts suddenly from a scene which looks funny but cheap like a scene in
Poj Arnont’s films (the scene which portrays a mad woman harassing some people
in public or something like that) to a romantic scene which portrays a man and
a woman wearing sunglasses and dancing in a club. The atmosphere or feeling of
this romantic scene reminds me of Wong Kar-wai’s or Claire Denis’ films. How
could any filmmaker in this world dare to connect a scene which feels like Poj
Arnont’s films to a scene which feels like Wong Kar-wai’s films?!?!?! The
juxtaposition of these two scenes is the kind of thing I have never seen
before. So the moment in minute 15, when these two scenes collide with each
other, is one of my most favorite “editing” moments of all the films I have
ever seen in my entire life.
Two of my most favorite scenes in
this film are the scene in which the two women keep bumping onto each other in
a gallery, and the scene in which the woman tries some sunglasses.
This film reminds me of two of my
most favorite films of all time. One is I-BE AREA (2007, Ryan Trecartin),
because both ANTS IN THE LEGS and I-BE AREA are extremely funny and energetic,
and portray the filmmakers in various styles. The other film is VIDEO 50 (1978,
Robert Wilson), because both VIDEO 50 and ANTS IN THE LEGS put scenes which seem
to be unrelated to each other with each other, and sometimes this kind of weird
juxtaposition results in one of the most hilarious moments I have ever
experienced in my life.
Moreover, ANTS IN THE LEGS reminds
me of some “bad films which are full of unintentionally funny moments”, such as
GUARDIANS (2017, Sarik Andreasyan) and BOXING IN LOVE (2016, Rearngsak Meesiri
+ Kriangsak Pintusornsri). The difference is that for ANTS IN THE LEGS, the fun
is intentional, not unintentional like in those bad films.
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