Monday, May 21, 2007

SONTHAYA SUBYEN ON ALAIN ROBBE-GRILLET

FAVORITE FILM ARTICLE IN THAI:

ALAIN ROBBE-GRILLET’S JIGSAWS OF LABYRINTHS PART 1: FRAGMENTS OF DEATH (AND THE MAIDEN)
http://www.onopen.com/2007/02/1815

This article is written by Sonthaya Subyen. The paragraph below is what I translated from this article. I apologize in advance if I translate anything wrongly.

“If you are fascinated by films in the “acute unease of consciousness” subgenre such as ADAPTATION, BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, RECONSTRUCTION (2003, Christoffer Boe), RUN LOLA RUN, “I’M A CYBORG, BUT THAT’S OK”, STAY (2005, Marc Forster), FOLLOWING and MEMENTO by Christopher Nolan, maybe it’s good to know that Alain Robbe-Grillet can be called the father of this subgenre, but these films would be more similar to Robbe-Grillet’s films if they are less chronological and put less emphasis on telling stories. They would be more Robbe-Grillet-like if their structures become re-loop, which is similar to many short stories by Jorge Luis Borges or to the novel IF ON A WINTER’S NIGHT A TRAVELLER by Italo Calvino”

For more information in Thai about IF ON A WINTER’S NIGHT A TRAVELER, you can read from LAUGHABLE LOVES’ blog:
http://laughable-loves.blogspot.com/2006/10/i-calvinos-if-on-winters-night.html

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


Recently Celinejulie has commented in:

--Elusive Lucidity’s blog
http://elusivelucidity.blogspot.com/2007/05/bread-hunger.html

As for film about food, I think one of the most impressive is a short Brazilian film called ISLE OF FLOWERS (1989, Jorge Furtado, A+). Claudio Carvalho wrote a very good synopsis of this film in imdb.com as this:

“ The ironic, heartbreaking and acid "saga" of a spoiled tomato: from the plantation of a "Nisei" (Brazilian with Japanese origins); to a supermarket; to a consumer's kitchen to become sauce of a pork meat; to the garbage can since it is spoiled for the consumption; to a garbage truck to be dumped in a garbage dump in "Ilha das Flores"; to the selection of nutriment for pigs by the employees of a pigs breeder; to become food for poor Brazilian people.”

ISLE OF FLOWERS can be viewed in French with no English subtitles in Google video in this link:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5681159585444975111


I highly recommend this film. The style of this fast-paced, informative, funny and heartbreaking film somehow reminds me of Alexander Kluge.

This is what Laura U. Marks wrote about ISLE OF FLOWERS:

"ISLAND OF FLOWERS is a surrealistic documentary about the extremely poor people who live around and eke their livelihood from a garbage dump outside Rio de Janeiro. In five minutes, the film demonstrates with wicked economy the inexorable logic of making equations between money, commodities and lives. It is a savage critique of the process of capitalist abstraction, recreating in reverse the accordion-like movement whereby human suffering is transmuted into value."

The quote above is from the film’s website.

As for film about eating, one of my most favorite is IN MY SKIN (2002, Marina de Van, A+), in which a woman is having problems at her workplace, and is literally eating herself. I don’t know what this film means, but one Thai critic thinks it might be a metaphor for consumerism. However, in indiewire.com, Marina de Van denied that IN MY SKIN is a social critique:

“In the middle of a boring meeting, cutting herself reminds her that reality exists beyond the corporate world. de Van disavows any intention of social critique in her emphasis on the business milieu. Instead, she thinks "it was important to anchor my character in the real world."”


--bioscope webboard
http://www.bioscopemagazine.com/smf/index.php?topic=263.0

คิดว่าที่งานนี้มันถ่ายชัด เพราะนิทรรศการนี้มันจัดแสดงในห้องที่สว่างมากๆจ้ะ เพดานของห้องที่จัดแสดงนิทรรศการนี้ มันเปิดให้แสงอาทิตย์ส่องตรงลงมาจากข้างบนได้บางส่วน ห้องก็เลยสว่างมากๆ

แต่น่าเสียดายมากที่ดิฉันไม่ได้ไปงานจัดแสดงหนังสั้นที่ VER GALLERY เมื่อวันพฤหัสบดีที่ผ่านมา เพราะไม่ค่อยอยากไปไหนมาไหนในวันธรรมดา เมื่อวันเสาร์ที่ผ่านมา ดิฉันกับเลขานุการิณีของคุณ FILMSICK ได้ไปที่ VER GALLERY กัน เพราะนึกว่าจะมีหนังสั้นให้ดูกันต่อไปเรื่อยๆ ปรากฏว่าชวด เพราะเขาบอกวาหนังสั้นเหล่านั้นถูกส่งกลับไปเชียงใหม่โดยไม่ได้ตั้งใจ ต้องรออีกหลายวันกว่าจะถูกส่งกลับมาใหม่

เมื่อวันพฤหัสบดีที่ผ่านมาน่าจะมีหนังสั้นใหม่ๆให้ดูกันราว 72 เรื่อง แต่หนูพลาดไปแล้วค่ะ ฮือๆๆ

รายละเอียดของงานนี้อ่านได้ที่
http://www.onopen.com/2007/editor-spaces/1722

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

This is a poster of GRADIVA (2006, Alain Robbe-Grillet)



No comments: